I love animals so of course I'll post a bunch of photos too.

Mossimo turned 11 this month. A guy my Dad worked with would breed himalayans (I'm not ok with that). Long story short, there was one kitty left that nobody wanted. He was "too big". Dad brought free 6 month old Mossy home and left him have the run of the house. Mom gets home and Dad's laughing and claiming the cat's been there for weeks. ;) We ended up keeping him. He took a liking to me so he came with me when I finally moved out.

Sylvester (aka Shorty because I didn't like the name Sylvester and I called him Short Cake when he was wee little) and Gizmo are both strays from around DH's Mom and Dad's. Different litters but same Mom. We brought both home as kittens. Sylvester is I think about 4 and Gizmo is 2.
I probably posted these before.
Mossimo
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Moss & Giz
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Sylvester my helper
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watching the Phillies
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baby Gizmo
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Ready? I've got 4 dogs & 7 cats!

Dogs:
Howard 14 yr old schnauzer. He was a family pet. We'd had a German Shephard that we had to give up when we relocated and were renting (broke our hearts but he'd gotten adopted soon after) and we finally moved into our home we got Howard as a 6 wk old baby from a breeder. A week after we got him, the woman we got him from drowned!

Zelda 5 yr old yellow lab. She was a gift to me from DH after we moved into the house we live in now. We were relatively empty nested and we were wanting another dog. So he got her from a breeder at 6 wks old.

Max 4 yr old yellow lab. He came from a rescue organization, and is my 90 lb baby boy. He joined our house as a companion for Zelda when she got too big to play with Howard any more. He was 2 when we got him.

Aurora 10 month old American Eskimo/Border Collie. Another rescue...DS's girlfriend found him from someone CL. We ended up with her some how.

Cats:
Enid 11 yr old tuxedo. DH got her for me after my beloved Tuxie/ragdoll Poof was killed. She was 6 wks old and facing a life as a street cat if we hadn't taken her in.

Bob 10 yr old tuxedo. He was a stray that we adopted from some people giving away kittens. He was just too cute to pass up, also a baby kitten when we got him.

Burrito 7 year old tuxedo. He was our DD & her (ex)BF's cat and he needed a new home after she moved into an apartment that wouldn't take pets. He was about 3 when he came to live with us...and crazy as all get out. He is a freak. Seriously, they had to tie him up when he was small so he wouldn't climb the walls and chew up electric cords.

Catalope (unknown estimated 10 yrs) Brown Tabby. She turned up at DD's business one day and never left. We tried to find her owners, she'd obviously been someones pet, (had been spayed), but no luck. We suspect she was accidently left behind when they moved. When it got to be winter and he found her huddled in packing foam to keep warm he brought her home. She's never stepped foot outside since.

Kitty Pop 3 yr old silver tabby. DS's girlfriend found him for me after my beloved tabby Chipotle had been run over. I didn't want him, I was too heartbroken, but he was an awefully cute kitten and now he's DH's baby.

Norman Deville 2 yr old tuxedo. Rescued from a cat rescue organization as a baby. I couldn't resist him, and Pop needed a pal. He only loves me, no one else. He'll hide if people come over.

Butros (Puff Butter) 2 1/2 yr old Himalayan. Rescued a year & 1/2 ago from a cat rescue organization. Also couldn't resist him. He has now fulfilled my cat requirements. I am actually able to walk into the cat rescue booth at the Saturday Market and play with and coo and not have an overwhelming urge to get another baby.

We acquired Kenzie and Ash when a woman I knew was going to stand outside Walmart with them and offer them to anyone who wanted them (they were about 8 week old kittens at the time). I was catless at the time, as my 17 and 18 year old kitties had both died about a year earlier. Wasn't thinking about new kitties at the time, but I was afraid they were going to end up in a bad situation, so I just took them home. Ash turned out to be one of the most special cats I have ever had. We were incredibly bonded, but very sadly he died last July.... Kenzie is just a love, even more so since Ash died and she has kind of 'stepped up' a bit.

Cleo, our talkative, long-haired black kitty, was found by our neighbors and they were happy to make a home for her, but for some reason she wanted to live here, and kept hanging out at our house until they agreed we could have her.

We found Babycat during Tropical Storm Alison, as a wet, howling, injured 10 week old kitten. We nursed him back to health, looked for his home, and in the end added him to the tribe. He's a bit of a goofball but we love him for it!

Little Bitty was found a couple of years ago, scavenging for food nearby. She is still very, very shy but seems ever grateful to have food and a warm bed...

Great topic! I too will be interested to hear how others came to share their lives with their furbabies! All of ours came to us by way of IN (that stands for "Irresponsible Neighbor"), who at one time had a habit of bringing home kittens and then deciding they were too much effort, and booting them outside to fend for themselves. They'd then show up on our doorstep, hungry and also starved for affection, and DH and I simply could not turn them away. We've also trapped kittens that were the product of another one of IN's outdoor cats (unspayed, naturally) who became pregnant, and rehomed them. Sadly, mama kitty was struck and killed by a car before we could catch her. (We kept two of the babies for ourselves, and they are still semi-feral, in that they won't let us pet or hold them - but they are otherwise very social in the household.) We never anticipated taking in somebody else's "unwanteds", but I kinda think that providence had an upper hand here. The babies that we've taken in have added immeasurable joy to our lives, and I have to believe that as much as they are capable of feeling love for us, they do.

Dubs chose us. He lived with a neighbor and came to visit all the time. After Max got Ernie, an english bulldog pup, Dubs fell in love with him and refused to go home. The neighbors had no choice but respect Dub's desire to live with us and frankly, neither did we.

Dubs and Ernie:

Dubs brought Baby Ernie a bone below.

Rosebud was an inheritance. Older than dirt, she was a loyal caregiver to my Uncle and Mom. After she lost both of them, she came here to live with me. She ran my house with an iron fist. She lived to be 17 years old.

That first photo of Dubs and Ernie is beautiful!

We are obviously not meant to live without animals. We started with a cat. We weren't really supposed to have one in our apt., but we did anyway. She was a crazy cat named Pokey. We went away one weekend and came home to find the cat sitting on the sofa near the TV remote, with the TV on. We had no idea when she managed to turn the TV on; for all we knew it had been on all weekend.

We had to have Pokey put to sleep because she had feline leukemia. She was only 7. We took her to the animal hospital to be put down. The hospital is attached to a shelter. Went to the shelter "to look" and came home with two new cats named Ben and Jerry.

We had B&J for several years during which time DH had lots of issues with asthma type symptoms. Finally was told he had to have surgery to remove polyps in his sinuses, and at the same time they did allergy testing and found out he was severely allergic to cats. The dr. said he couldn't have the surgery and go home to live with the cats again. So we "adopted out" the cats to our friends who live a block away. Ben is still alive (7 years later) but Jerry died a couple of years ago. I think Ben is about 13 or 14.

I think B&J moved out the day before DH had surgery. The day after his surgery, we got Phoebe, our English bulldog. DH spent his two-week recovery at home training the new puppy. She was the easiest, best dog we ever had. (We had had two other dogs who didn't work out for various reasons.)

Somehow we stumbled upon a web site from another bulldog breeder a couple years later, and ended up with a second bulldog. The kids named her Coconut, because she was all white (except for a brown spot by her tail). But as she got older, she got spottier, so now her name is Cocoa (like cocoa spilled on her?) but we spell it Coco because it's easier. We thought Phoebe was a great dog, but Coco is even better.

Phoebe is now 7, which in bulldog years is getting old. She has showed signs of slowing down over the past year. Still healthy but just moves more slowly, snores more loudly, and um, well, farts a whole lot more.

Oh, every one's babies are too cute!

I got my first pet as an adult 14 years ago. I didn't know any better and went to a breeder. My Sofie was six weeks old and one of five sisters. She was the only one of the five who walked right over to us. That was it. She made her choice! When she was three, she was diagnosed with FELV and was only given a very, very short time to live. Apparently, she was born with it. To make a very long story short, she is 14 years old and as her doctor said at her annual exam, she's a miracle. I don't know how to post pics, but she looks just like the Fancy Feast cat (silver shaded persian).

Oliver entered our lives three months after Sofie. I thought Sofie might like a little brother so I ended up, again at a breeder, getting the only boy out of a litter of six. He is a Tonkinese, a burmese and siamese combo. He's a real character. Oliver didn't get the FELV, thankfully, he just has a heart condition but neither one of my kids think or act as if they are 14. They both act like they're two!

I went from being a person who never stayed home to someone who became a cat lady and couldn't be happier! I never thought I could love anything the way I love these two fur babies.

Oh, I love posts about pets! I'll go by seniority:

Allie, our female black and white cat, is 19. My daughter, who was 9 at the time, called an ad in the newspaper because I had told her we could get another cat. When we brought her home as a kitten, she was so tiny and just sat on the sofa with her paws curled up underneath her, and wouldn't eat or drink. We took her to the vet the next day and he said she was infested with internal parasites and didn't expect her to live through the night. I had to forcefeed her baby food on a popsicle stick by scraping it down her throat. She had a couple of seizures, and walks kind of at an angle, but she's still going strong. She even went into hiding for a full year when we got our puppy 15 months ago because she was so stressed. At one point, she was hiding behind a box in the furthest corner of the basement, on a shelf. I brought her upstairs, keeping the basement door so she couldn't return to her dark hideaway. She then went under our bed (and didn't come out often, even to use the litter box, which I put on the side of the bed, a fact we found out AFTER I relocated her to the bonus room, so she could have sunshine.) She had done the same thing when she was a couple of years old when we got our previous dog. The dogs started going upstairs whenever someone left the door open, and she started venturing down the stairs at mealtimes, so I started making her come downstairs to eat. Now, she walks around the dogs, rubs up against them, and follows the sunshine through the house all day. You'd never know she had had a problem. I'm happy she's now happy, but I was afraid if I forced her on the dogs, she would die from stress. (Sorry this is so long. She deserves to have her story told.)

Our second cat is Max, who's 10. We got him from Forgotten Four Paws after my dear, beloved Louie, died from feline diabetes. He was my favorite cat ever and wherever I was, there he was sitting by my side. He would also play fetch for hours. I will always miss him. Max also fetches, but he tires after a couple of throws. He's my bedtime buddy, while Allie lies on the floor, in front of the nightstand, with the heat blowing on her.

Our two dogs are Bella and Cody, both Australian Shepherds. We bought Bella from a breeder because I wanted a puppy to help me transition from work to retirement. She is now 17 months old and my greatest joy. We adopted Cody from Craigslist after we'd had Bella for about 4 months or so, because she needed a friend. His family was giving him up because he was spending 12 hours a day alone, and they wanted better for him. He is the most compliant dog I've ever owned. Once he knows what you want, he just does it. But, when we first got him, he would go lay down on the side of the house by himself for hours. I guess he was so used to being alone. He will actually choose affection to food or going outside. Now, he's Bella's best friend, and usually both of them are right next to me. (Unless they're on their nightly patrols to ward off deer).
Dee

Some of the babies:
Kitty Pop, Max & Howard

Catalope is the cat at the top. Chipotle, on the bottom, was my infantbabycat. I lost him far too soon.

Enid kissing my DD

Bob when he was a baby. Norman Deville looks exactly like Bob only fatter.

DS's girlfriend and Kitty Pop, shortly after he came to live with us.

Max (with the black tongue) and Zelda.

Butros (Puff Butter)

Aurora Jane

I love a good pet thread.

This is Buddy. He is a rescue I got after my last dog died eight years ago. I am his third and final owner. When I got him his name was Indra. A friend of mine told me that Indra is an Indian name meaning God of Thunder and Rain. Buddy is extremely terrified of storms so I have no idea how he got that name. Buddy's goal in life would be to herd something every minute of every day. He got kicked out of doggy day care because of this instinct. I came to pick him up one day and he was having a time out in the penalty box. They said he could keep coming but he would have to be separated from the other dogs. He would hate that! The whole idea was to have him run around and play with others.

After I had Buddy for a few months I knew he needed a friend. (My previous dogs had never liked other dogs much so I was always a one dog family.) So I got Cassidy. He was living outdoors in Wisconsin with another dog. He was named after Butch Cassidy and the other dog was Sundance because of their ability to evade capture. He was such a mess when I got him. He would hide in his kennel too afraid to come out. (After 7 1/2 years he is still afraid of most people.) He had panic attacks when I would try to walk him. It took months before he would walk around the block without trying to drag me home to his kennel. It was so sad that he didn't enjoy walks. We went to over 30 obedience classes to get him socialized. I was a love - hate situation. He loved the other dogs at the classes but hated being around so many people but we kept going. He got so much better. It was fun to watch his confidence grow. He went from hiding behind me when the instructors or other dog owners approached us to finally prancing around the ring (He has the Lassie trot down to a tee.) I was so happy for him. Can't be fun to be so afraid of the world.

Such sweet pictures!

This is the fewest amount of pets that we've ever had. This is my dear sweet Della Street. I got her from our local SPCA 2 yrs. after having put my Lab down. I thought she might bring new life to our other sr. Mastiff who had prostrate cancer even though we'd gotten him neutered as a pup.

She's my girlfriend and just the best thing in the world!

I will never forget leaving work early the day that I was able to bring her home from the SPCA. She curled up on the seat of my Jeep and just seemed sooooooooo relieved to be out of the miserable hallway that her previous owners forced her to live in.

I knew that she'd be perfect for us the 1st night home when DS1 (18mos at the time as was Della) had a fit about something and threw a musical flute at her. He got a time out on the bottom step and when I turned around Della was sitting on the step beside him waiting for his time out to be over. They've been inseparable ever since.

Everyday for the past 5yrs I feel blessed that she's ours.

We are down to 1 cat now (we used to have 7 but they were all very old and started passing away w/in the past 3yrs). She's 19yrs old but I don't have any digital pics to show you right now.

Very sweet girl.

I love my pets!

Oh - I could go on forever! I grew up with my family always having ONE Brittany from the age of 5.

Ex-hubby and I got married in 1986, and he loved my father's dog so much that he decided he wanted one. I got him one, and it was like eating potato chips...we got 2 more - litter mates. That was Rudder (named for that little stubby tail, Willie and Maggie. I lost Ruddie at 14, Willie at 12, and ex had Maggie who also died at 12.

I brought current Sam (turns 10 on 4/15) into the mix as a pup, when I still had aging had Rud and Willie. At 8 weeks, I rolled a tennis ball for him in the yard, and he brought it back to me, again and again. I remember calling my parents to say that little Sammy was 'gifted'! Little did I know it would develop into an obsession, but he's so sweet that we manage to live with it.

Joey is from the same breeder where I got Sam. He just turned 7 in January. He was the runt of the litter, but he's food obsessed and has Cushing's disease, and just wants to eat and drink all the time. He's on a med to keep it under control. He's a mama's boy, and wants to be with me all the time. He doesn't like to ride in the car, and the other two do, but he's fine left home alone. BUT, when I work in the yard and he can see me but can't be with me?
Cries, and howls until I come back in and then he's fine.
Here's Joey, with his shelter girl sister Jenny.

Jenny was in a shelter about 50 miles away when a friend involved in Brittany rescue told me about her. She had been found lost. beside a road, by a man who had 2 Brittanys. He actually picked her up and put her in his truck to take her home, thinking that one of his had escaped. He got home, was greeted by HIS two!

He called shelters, police, game wardens, etc and put posters up, but no one claimed her. He finally took her to the shelter, where she became a favorite and they named her Princess Buttercup. A family adopted her and had her checked by their vet, who found a red spot on her flank and said it MIGHT be mast cell cancer, They had just lost their dog, and felt they couldn't go through that again, and brought her back to the shelter.

The shelter contacted rescue organizations, and the one my friend belonged to wanted to pay for her surgery and then have a foster home for her to recover in. That is where I came in, falling in love with her via photos before I even saw her. I agreed to foster her and picked her up at the shelter. The day I went there, her flank had been shaved, but there was NO sign of any spot at all. I brought her home, where she became INSTANT buds with Sam and Joey, and then had her checked that day by MY vet, who examined her so thoroughly that she even checked between each little toe. She pronounced her perfect, and she became my little girl the same day.

I wondered what would happen if she slept on the bed with the boys that first night , and decided to make a soft bed for her on the bedroom floor. She looked up at the boys and I on the bed, and immediately jumped up, cuddled tight against me, and she has slept that way every night since. She makes sure that every day, she comes to me and puts her front feet in my lap, and rests her head against me just to snuggle. I know that she is thanking me for giving her a happy home with her 2 brothers. She was estimated to be 2 when I adopted her, so we will celebrate her 8th birthday this July, on the anniversary of the day that she joined the family. I couldn't love them more, and what joy and laughter they bring to my life.

Ohhhhh, I love hearing happy stories about much-loved pets, and seeing all your furkids sweet faces here has been great! Thanks so much, PaintChips, for starting this thread!
I've always had dogs and after DH & I were married we continued it. I don't ever remember not having a dog!
Over the years we've gotten most from animal rescue groups or when our furkids found us.
When DD was small, a friend told me that with a name like Emily Elizabeth, our daughter HAD to have her own big red dog. BTW, I'd never red a "Clifford" book until this friend gifted DD with the set! But, a patient of DH's happened to have a show quality-but-too-tall red dobie puppy that we ended up adopting. We named her Emily's Clifford Mikaela, and called her Mikaela. She was the sweetest most gentle loving dog and they were inseparable. The pair even ended up on tv here in New Mexico. Here's a picture of them (with Emily's face blurred for privacy):
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Mikaela died of heart problems when Emily was almost ten. She was devastated and when she finally felt up to having a new dog, she asked for one small enough to sit on her lap . . . without squishing her ;^D. Dobies are lap dogs in giant bodies and love nothing more than crawling up onto any lap that will have them! So, we ended up with our sweet little Tibetan Spaniel, Chloe. Tibbies, from our experience and all I've read, are the sweetest, softest, non-yippy small dog breed available. We adore Chloe, but there's no doubt who her best friend is!
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Chloe actually sits on a stool in our kitchen next to Emily while she does her homework!
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But, we do love our dobies. We rescued Turk, another red dobie, who was a real sweetie, but he died a year ago. It was very lonely without him and so we called the local doberman rescue group who introduced us to Ronin (who's name had been Keen Eye). It was love at first sight for us all. Kelly's story of her dog getting kicked out of doggie daycare for herding all the other dogs made me chuckle, because Ronin got kicked out for being too playful with them at his doggie daycare! Here's our sweet boy, who's now 4 years old and finally realizes that THIS is his forever home and family. I think he loves us all equally, and although he's great with strangers that we introduce him to, he thinks he has to protect me all day and night long! He's my "velcro dog" who follows me around all day, every day and keeps me safe from all the dangerous dust bunnies.
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Like all of you, we love our furkids and feel that we're blessed to have them in our lives.
Lynn

Crazy story here! When my now 21 yr old DD was 15 she was going through a rough patch in her teen age years. (In my eyes 13 - 19 is one long rough patch)Anyway, she decided to save her birthday and babysitting money. When she had enough she put all of her earnings on a Simon Mall Gift/Charge card. She was too young for a drivers license. After lots of research on the internet, she ordered a border collie, from Tennessee. The puppy was shipped to Maine, we live in Massachusetts. She hired a limo, picked up the puppy, came home and hid it in a crawlspace under our garage! She had already purchased all the items he would need and made a vet appointment. I was so angry, but I just couldn't make her send it back. Our Toby is now a member of the family.

OMG, Judie, what an amazing story! Although more than a bit surprising, you have to hand it to her in the way she'd made all those arrangements ahead of time. That she even hired a limo to go pick up Toby blows me away . . . but I'll remember her great story forever! TFS!
Lynn

After our 13 year old cocker died 6 years ago, we were perfectly happy being petless..

We didn't want another pet!

Our daughter and her family got Murphie (Murphie Brown) as a pup. They didn't have the time to give her the attention that she needs...she moved in with us about a year ago, she's here to stay.

After our afghan irish setter cross died 24 years ago,we gave up on dogs for awhile.My DH would suggest one every now and again but I didnt ever ever want another dog, so he stopped bringing it up. Fast forward to a day I was walking my DD in K and son to school. Passed by a friends house and she had her old golden and another dog as well. She was trying to find a home for it, it was saved from an neglectful person and they had hoped to keep her but they didnt have a fenced yard. I petted the wet 15month old just bathed dog and said sit and the dog- Goldie sat. didnt know what kind of dog it was.
I told her I would take her, and picked her up on my way home.I called my DH and told him and he didnt believe that I was alright in the head. I convinced him that I was indeed ok and there really was a dog here.
He feel in love too and we later changed her name to Cody so she could start fresh. We called my friend to ask what kind of dog she was! LOL
It took poor Cody months to ask to go outside. she never went inside, but I watched her and worked so she would finally ask.( she had her own room and was taken out by the maid and hooked up all day.)It took 6 months for her to not sit in one spot all day to learn that it was ok for her to walk around anywhere she wanted. It was hard to bring her in at night- she wanted to stay- she had never been outside after dark before.
Cody was not a frisby , adventuring kind of dog,but she was the dog of our hearts and we gave her a great home and she came to be a part of our pack. we knew nothing about training dogs and it was horrible to be pulled down the street by her. She lived to be 11 and that was a sad sad day.
6 months later we all started talking about how we missed having a dog. and that our hearts were ready. so I secretly started a search for a golden retriever puppy. We had never had a puppy but have rescued many dogs and felt we werent ready for dealing with someone elses problems, and our kids have never had a puppy.
In April I found a purebred litter at a farm waaaaaay waaaay out and my DH and I went to pick one out. Not a kennel I could't pay over $1400 for a golden so I was lucky to find this farm. There we were looking at a boy when the dad ran up and as he was the biggest Golden we had ever seen, we looked at each other and thought uh uh. So we just had to have the girl with the most red in her ears(Cody was a reddish golden)
MY teen son melted when he saw the pup and my teen DD burst out into tears! We named her Bailey's Chance of Osborne, as Cody died too young of an aggressive cancer and had no chance of survival.
We started training and learned how to make her a well trained socialised dog( we learned a lot) My DH started agitating for another dog and I thought he was nuts.
One year later:
After her club field hockey practice one Saturday in April,My DD and I stopped off at a garden center and a woman walked by with a fuzz ball on a lead. We immediately got on the floor with the puppy and asked how old. she said 10 weeks and he is for sale and they had one more at home.($200) I wish you had seen my DDs face when I asked for her phone number!!
Later that day, we packed up Bailey and went to see about a puppy. The one that she had with her in the store followed Bailey everywhere but the other was too busy digging holes. We took a look at the parents- both regular size so we brought him home. And named him Cooper.And he grew into the biggest golden a slim 104lbs! LOL
And of course Pics are not in order. Cooper on graduation day from advanced training, Bailey and Cooper sleeping soon after we brought him home. And Cooper on the second day at home,before he was named.

Please indulge me.... I forgot to post pics! Judiegal, what a great story!!!

This is Ash, who broke my heart when he died last July. The story of this picture: We had just given this hammock to my husband for Father's Day, and I had to email him Monday morning when he was at work to tell him SOMEBODY was enjoying the hammock very much!

This is Kenzie, trying to get peanut butter off her nose as part of dd's science experiment

I was going to add Little Bitty, Cleo and BabyCat, but my photos are taking forever to upload right now...

This thread is so much fun!

I grew up with animals-cats, dogs, hamsters, gerbils, mice (pets, not wild-lol). DH did not. My DS and I had to leave our rescued Golden with my parents when we moved from PA to VA since we were renting. When DH and I were married and in a house again, we began lobbying for a dog. DH had every excuse-too dirty, too expensive, too much time, etc.

Almost three years ago, I decided I was getting one and DS and I kept searching the local shelters online and calling each other (out of college,he had moved out by then) when we saw one we liked. Finally, I drove to a no-kill shelter (Friends of Homeless Animals) to see one. Two weeks later, dragged DH to see the lab mix. On our way to the office, one of the volunteers had a year-old dog out for a walk. DH said, "He's kind of cute. Why don't we walk him?" Long story short, we fell head over heels. As we signed papers, the woman mentioned that this was the first weekend they were letting him be adopted without his mom. MOM???? Her name was Annabelle. On the drive home, DH said his first priest was named Father Annabelle. Huh? Who is this person? Was he saying we should get both? Long story short, we have two amazing pups and DH comes home from work EVERY day at lunch just to check on them. He is completely enamoured of them. They are inseparable and I can't imagine how we ever got along without them. We renamed the son. He is such a goof that we decided on Clouseau as in Inspector Clouseau. Tons of personality and Annabelle is the sweetest thing you could ever imagine. She's the black one.

Great pet stories! I have never ever, been without a dog. My entire life, there has been generally two, often three digs. With a cat or two tossed in the mix. Until my DH developed polyps in his sinuses. Like Sueb's DH, mine tested hyper allergic to cats as well. Our kind neighbor took 'Sophie', our only (tuxedo) cat. We paid Sophie's vet bills until the end and never felt a twinge of guilt because our neighbor is a real cat person. (Her cats even exchange Valentine cards, each carefully placed on her fireplace.)

I love animals of all kinds. I miss my farm and think about how easy it would be to have larger animals here. I live on 2 1/2 acres with out buildings and cross fencing. I miss my burros. I miss having goats and chickens. It would be so easy to get them back here. This place has had them before.

It was Saturday. The prior Thursday I had gone to a friends house to play Bunco. She had just adopted a Rat Terrier from a family who got the dog and decided they didn't want a dog. I fell in love with her dog and could not stop talking about what a perfect breed it would be for our family.

That Saturday afternoon we went to lunch and then to the pet store to get our "FREE Fish of the month" for the aquarium. I saw a pen of a bunch of puppies -- some of them Rat Terriers. What are the odds? Luke immediately caught my eye. He was in a corner and I could tell he just wanted everyone to get the heck away from him and give him some space. So I picked him up. And that was it. I never put him down. We went in for a FREE fish and left with a puppy and necessary accouterments that kinda cost a chunk o'change.

We did everything (almost) you're not suppose to do. Only thing we did right was I knew for sure he was the right kind of dog for us - size, energy, etc.

We bought him on impulse. We bought from a pet store. We didn't have one thing prepared - we bought everything on the spot. The store let us take him home even though it was a few days too early because they too noticed he wanted the hell oughta there.

All's well that ends well tho. He's well socialized, loves the dog park, loves his home and his boys, loves me, follows me everywhere, sleeps with us, goes with me where ever he can and he is without a doubt my very best friend in the whole world. I call him my velvet puppy because he is so soft and silky and snuggly -- those ears were just MADE for hugs and kisses. This is Luke.

My first pet when I moved out on my own was a "patched tabby" (think a calico cat with the colored patches striped) I got from a "free kitten" ad. Her name was Claudia, after the child vampire in "Interview with a Vampire" who was never going to grow up, since she was always tiny. I unfortunately moved cross-country to go to culinary school and could not find an apartment I could afford that allowed pets, my parents refused to keep her for me until I could send for her in a year or so, so she became the "resident cat" at a B&B.

Cat #2 was a solid gray from a shelter I named Midori (since she had bright green eyes like the liqueur). We actually didn't get along very well so neither of us suffered much when I rehomed her to a friend who Midori thought was catnip, tuna juice, and a patch of sunshine all at once. :-)

DH's and my first pet together was a tortie cat named Random. She was the sole survivor of a "dumper" litter - the shelter allowed us to take her because I was homebound and could get up every 2-3 hours to feed and clean her. We had gone to the shelter to look at a buff-colored kitten we had seen in the newspaper but this tiny (and I mean tiny, she was maybe 4 weeks old and fit in the palm of your hand) tortie began climbing DH like a tree, nestling under his chin and glaring at me like "well, when are we blowing this popsicle stand, anyway?" She was part of our family for 12 years until she crossed the Bridge from an incredibly aggressive lymphoma (literally a couple of weeks from fine to gone).

Currently we have a pain in the butt :-) of a dog that occasionally we wonder why we drove from coastal NH to Binghamton, NH in a blizzard to rescue him from a pound. :-) Yay for Petfinder. We had been looking for a young (but not puppy) Keeshond for about a year and when I saw his picture on Petfinder I knew "this is my dog". The first year or so was a nightmare (he had been horribly neglected and abused) and we really wondered what we'd gotten ourselves into, but he turned out to be a sweet little beastie who drives us both crazy on a regular basis. He's getting into "senior citizen" range and works the "little old man" aspect when he thinks it'll get him something, but if you rattle the cookie box you'd think he's two years old.

I am loving reading these stories and seeing the pics.

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." Anatole France

bump

How very, very true. Might I add:

Until one has loved BY an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened. kitchenkelly

Kato we adopted through a shelter in 2004. He was a pup at the time, all fuzz and tipped-over ears. He is Akita-Lab-Border Collie-Shepherd-etc. and loves his pillow and his frisbee equally. The next year we moved to a house that had no dog neighbors, so we thought he would like a companion. We adopted Tango through another shelter (DH picked her out on the internet and we met her the next weekend). She is a Cattle Dog-Spitz-etc. She was a bit aloof at first, but is now Papa's girl. She will follow DH anywhere and is the sweetest dog ever. She is also vigilant and doesn't forget her herding genes. When my mom brings her two Beagles over to visit, Tango keeps them together and within her sight at all times. The two dogs are thick as thieves -- I hate to imagine how it will be when we lose the first one of them,

Count Basie came into our lives when a young relative went into rehab an the cat had nowhere to go. He has been here about 1.5 years now and rules the roost. He was skinny when he got here, but he is now one chubby tabby cat.

Tango:

Kato and Count Basie:

Just came across the goofiest photo of Baby Ernie and had to share. He looks demented.

Frog Legs are Great!