I had never considered myself a "cat" person...until I got one. Now, I don't think I'd ever be without at least one ever again. While I love my dogs, they can be quite noisy...usually when you really want them to be quiet. Cats, on the other hand, are the quiet and the calm and are quite soothing to be around. Oh, there are times when things can get crazy with cats, but on the whole they are great for calming the nerves.
FINN DOB 3-20-13
I thought I was done with dogs after Willow and Idol passed away. Not that I don't like dogs, but we had cats and I started thinking about after I pass away, I certainly didn't want my family to have to worry about finding homes for my pets. But, I saw this little guy and he was available, and I wanted someone to take hikes with...so I decided I needed just one more dog!
Finn is the best!! He's so well behaved, he makes me laugh and keeps me on my toes! I love this little guy to death. I hate when I have to leave him even for only a few hours. He loves to chase the cats...not aggressively, only to play. I think he thinks Sedona is another dog because she's as big as he is. He'll crouch down and start barking at her wanting her to chase him.
MISTY 8-20-2011 (estimated)
My husband and I are out hiking again...this time in Miami Whitewater Forest. This pretty little lady was sitting by the side of the road just looking for a sucker to come and pick her up. My husband was the sucker this time. Misty came right up to him and he put her in our car!!! What was he thinking?!! It was very hot out and she was pretty skinny. There are no houses nearby so we were pretty sure she was dumped there. It wasn't until we were almost home that I figured she was probably pregnant. A visit to the vet that same day confirmed it. Oh boy! What were we in for? I knew nothing about birthing babies!!! She ended up having 3 kittens that same night. I guess she was lucky we came by that day. She is still very small and thin, but in good health! Though I've given her an estimated date of her birth, I based this on how small she was when we found her. Since she is still so small, I really have no idea how old she really is. This is a picture of her when we first saw her.
MACEY 6-30-2012
Macey is one of Misty's kittens. One of the other kittens didn't survive and my married daughter took the male black and white kitten. Several people were interested in taking Macey, but they all backed out, so we kept her. She's a sweetie and a bit shy. Frances and Macey have become good buddies. Macey also shares head bumps with me.
SOME OF OUR PAST FUR KIDS WHO WILL ALWAYS HOLD A SPECIAL PLACE IN OUR HEARTS:
SEDONA DOB 5-17-2008 - DOD 10-26-2016
FRANCES DOB 6-21-2011 (estimated) - DOD 03-28-2020
Frances was found in nearby Winton Woods County Park while my husband and I hiked. This little black fur ball was only a few months old when we found her hiding in some bushes in the park. We tried for several days to catch her. We brought her food and water, and eventually we were able to trap her and bring her home. I don't understand why people discard cats because of the color of their fur, but that's the only thing we could figure as to why Frances was in the woods. Her fur is especially soft and silky, such a pretty girl. She is a little sweetheart and best friends with our other cat, Macey. She will always follow me into the bathroom...such a silly little girl. I named her after St Francis of Assisi because he loved animals.
SEDONA DOB 5-17-2008 - DOD 10-26-2016
Having
so many pets, I spend a lot of time at Petsmart buying pet supplies and
looking at the animals they have there. Sedona was one of the cats
there available for adoption through a rescue. While in her cage she
gave me that look that said, "please adopt me!" I went home and
couldn't get her out of my mind. I told my husband about her and a few
days later he brought her home for my birthday. I named her Sedona for
my love of Sedona, Arizona.
Sedona was very sweet but I called her my "Skitty Kitty". She wasvery nervous and
always hid when other people were in the house. I knew her little
hideouts and she always popped out for a visit with me. Usually in the
evening, she'd be out and about visiting with me. She'd even hop up
next to me and if I weren't paying any attention to her, she'd pat my
face with her paw to let me know she wanted to be petted. Sedona also
liked sitting on the windowsill or by the back door watching the birds.
Her
health issues started in August 2016 with vomiting and pudding like
bowel movements. She was diagnosed with pancreatitis. We treated her
with antibiotics and all seemed better. However, we noticed she had
started losing a lot of weight. We figured she had just stopped
eating. We took her to the vet again, and her tests came back with
pancreatitis again. We knew she would not recover, so we let her go so
she would no longer be in pain. She was only 8 years old, so it was
quite a sad thing to let her go.
IDOL DOB 12-20-2000 - DOD 9-23-2014
Idol was our son's dog, but our son moved to Florida, so Idol was in our care. Idol was a handful and though a sweet dog when he wanted to be, he should have been an "only" dog (or animal) in the house. He needed to be watched carefully and we could not make any unexpected quick moves around him. He picked quite a few fights with most of the other animals in the house at one time or another. Idol began to have difficulty getting up and down off of the floor and going down steps. He fell quite often and we had to help him a lot with that. Towards the end he bit me and it was then we realized his quality of life was not very good. My bites healed although I ended up with a bad skin infection and had to make several trips to my doctor. Because we could not get him into the car to go to the vet, our very kind vet came to the house to euthanize Idol. Our son came up from Florida and spent a few last days with Idol. Though Idol was a handful, and our life became a lot easier, we still miss him.
MAGNUM DOB 3-19-1999 - DOD 11-23-13
One of our daughter's wanted a dog for her birthday, but we already had a number of dogs at that time, so we agreed to a cat. We adopted Magnum from a local shelter and was our first cat in the house.
Our daughter moved out shortly after getting Magnum and she wasn't able to take Magnum with her, so Magnum stayed behind with us. (We seem to get a lot of our pets this way). Our other daughter took Magnum for a short time to live with her and her kids, but that didn't work out either because Magnum scratched one of the kids. The child was about 3 at the time, so I'm pretty sure Magnum just wanted to be left alone and our granddaughter had other plans for Magnum.
After many years of being the king around our house, Magnum began to have problems with his back legs. That didn't seem to bother him too much in the beginning. After some time however, things progressively got worse. Then one day we found him hiding behind the toilet in our very small bathroom. We knew it was time to let Magnum go and relieve him of his misery. Magnum was a very sweet boy and I still miss his head bumps which he doled out generously.
WILLOW DOB 10-19-2002 - DOD 10-30-2012
Willow was a Miniature Wirehaired Dachshund. We bought her from a dog breeder in Indiana. She bred show dogs, but because Willow had an overbite she was not show quality, but was definitely pet quality.
Willow had a lot of health issues in her life, she had seizures and was on medication for them (funny, I am on the same medication); back surgery; bladder surgery, a bout of Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis (HGE) which is a life threatening condition, and finally Cushing's Disease. The Cushing's Disease is what really took its toll on her.
Many people would not have wanted to put up with all of her issues. However, despite all of her issues she was a devoted little girl who followed me everywhere I went and never showed a mean streak and was friendly to everyone. Her tail never stopped wagging. She loved to chase squirrels and chipmunks and it was so much fun watching her chase them. I will miss her forever!
BANDIT DOB 1-7-1996 - DOD 3-29-2012
Bandit was one of the sweetest dogs we've ever had. He was just a mutt but never had any health issues. They say mutts are usually healthier, and I believe it. Old age finally got to him, he was 16. In his last year he was quite shaky and fell down often. He got to the point where he walked through the house in a circle down the hall, through several rooms and back around again. He was there...but not really. One day, I saw him walk into a corner and he couldn't figure out how to get back out. All he had to do was back up. We eventually had to carry him up and down the steps to take him outside. We realized Bandit's quality of life was just not there any more. He didn't seem to be in any pain, but we knew it was time to say goodbye. We took him to the vet for his final visit and we said our goodbyes.
PRIXIE DOB 11-4-2004 - DOD 12-21-2010
Prixie was another one of our daughter's cats who ended up with us. When our daughter finally moved somewhere that allowed cats, Magnum was already settled with us, so our daughter got another cat and named him Prixie.
Eventually our daughter moved again and you guessed it, Prixie was left with us. Prixie was Mr Personality! He would jump up on the counters, bookcases, mantel - any place he wanted to be. He was somewhat of a "talker" which I enjoyed because I always meowed back. I know, I'm crazy that way.
Prixie left us quite suddenly one morning. He always jumped in the bathtub while my husband shaved in the mornings and one morning he jumped into the tub fine. However, at one point my husband looked down at him and his back legs were lifeless. We can only surmise that he threw a blood clot. It was very early that morning around 4:00 am. My husband woke me up and I called our daughter.
Prixie was getting worse as time wore on so together our daughter and I took Prixie to the vet where we said goodbye and helped him to his final sleep. I still miss that little mischievous guy. He had a short life, but made a big impact on our lives.
PRETZEL DOB 12-7-1993 - DOD 6-1-2007
Pretzel was a standard smooth dachshund. We bought Pretzel from a local breeder. I named him Pretzel because he reminded me of a pretzel rod. Little did I know there was a children's book about a dachshund named Pretzel.
Pretzel was loved by the whole family. He was in the midst of the family when all five kids were still home and growing up. He liked to sleep with our oldest son. I think he was the only one who allowed Pretzel to snuggle under the covers with him. Pretzel was notorious for having bad breath.
In his later years he had the odd habit of chasing his tail. He'd try to bite it and in the process would bark as he turned and turned in circles. We tried all kinds of diversions to try and get Pretzel to stop but nothing worked. Eventually his old age slowed him down and he stopped chasing his tail.
In the spring of 2007 Pretzel's little body just started wasting away. In a matter of a few short days there wasn't much left of Pretzel. Our oldest son was married by that time and was attending a funeral when we decided that Pretzel needed to be relieved of his agony. We waited a short time until our son was able to leave the funeral so he could go with us to the vet. One of our daughters also went with Pretzel in order to say our last goodbyes. Pretzel may be gone, but will never be forgotten. He was 13 when he died.
STITCHES DOB 4-5-2000 - DOD 11-3-2006
Stitches was another rescue cat. I adopted him because after Magnum left for a brief time I realized I missed having a cat around, so I adopted Stitches. Of course, Magnum then came back and I had TWO cats!! I named him Stitches because I like to crochet and I thought "stitches" would be a good name and it might make people think twice about messing with a cat named Stitches!
Stitches was a big boy and all the kids remarked that he was fat, but he was just big. He also had health issues - one of them being cardiomyopathy. Stitches was a loving, cuddly cat. Unfortunately, he didn't have nine lives and the one life he had was too short.
SARGENT (SARGIE) DOB 3-9-2000 - DOD 6-10-2004
Same daughter, different animal. Sargie was a dog that lived with us because our daughter entered the military. The military didn't work out for her, but when she came out she didn't have room for Sargie where she lived.
Sargie was a German Shepherd mix. He was huge but gentle. It was unfortunate that he was so big because he had a serious health issue. He suffered from uncontrolled seizures. He was on medication but nothing seemed to work.
He would fall down steps and lose control of his bladder etc. Being such a big dog, losing control of his bladder was a big issue. My husband and I both worked full time and we worried that Sargie's seizures would be so bad while we were gone and we didn't like leaving him alone. When we were home he was a lot to handle for one person. We finally decided this was not a good life for Sargie or for us. We had to have him euthanized. I still have deep regrets about that.
HERE ARE A FEW MORE DOGS IN OUR LIVES THAT I'D LIKE TO MENTION:
Spunky (affectionately called "Pootsie Friend") - West Highland White Terrier
Dudley - a Siberian Husky mix
Smokie - (he was shaped liked a sausage) - Miniature Smooth Dachshund
Duffy - (he was shaped like a duffle bag) - Miniature Smooth Dachshund
We've also had a number of parakeets, canaries, finches and dwarf hamsters.
What kind of fur kids are in my future? Who knows! I'd love to own a horse, but doubt that I ever will. The money is just not there for the upkeep. Of course, I'd take any horse, but my favorite would be a buckskin. I just think they are so pretty, but then all horses are pretty to me!
