Animal Companion Stories

[CJEP]

What a wonderful topic!! I always had cats growing up. There are many stories there, but I will tell you the story of our first cat (or at least the one we had when I was born) and my cat, Simba.

At some point someone from our church found a mother cat and a litter of kittens. My mother talked my father into getting one for our family, but when she did the mother cat was the only one left so that is who we got. She was named Princess. The stories I remember being told are that she and I were sitting on the living room floor in the middle of the room. My mother was talking to someone a few yards away. Apparently I was trying to pet her (I was crawling then) and was actually pulling her hair as most small children do to cats. My mother saw her put her paws to my face and couldn't get to me in time to stop what she thought would be the cat scratching me, but Princess be the gentle cat she was didn't put her claws out, but pushed me away so I wouldn't hurt her. My mother thinks she realized I was too young to know any better. This is the cat we had until the summer I turned 8. That summer my family took a trip traveling across the country with our pop-up camper. We left Princess at my aunt's house. From what I've been told, my aunt's cats did not take too well to having another cat in their territory and were mean to Princess. She eventually ran away (we were gone for the whole summer). They looked for her but did not find her right away, but my uncle drove by a house one night and thought he saw her in the window. We think she found another family that summer to love and was well cared for. We never got her back since it was still the beginning of the summer, my aunt and uncle believed it was best not to get her and have her tortured by the other cats again. After that we got our first male kitten who died within a few weeks of us having him and then the kitten I really grew up with named Thumper. My parents gave Thumper to friends when they moved into a high rise condo after I was in college since Thumper was an outdoor cat and would not adjust to being indoor very well, but Thumper was really my cat by that time. She lived to be 17 years old.

Once I got my first teaching job back in 1994, I was living alone and wanted a cat. I went to the animal shelter and was told to look at the three kittens in a certain cage because they were old enough to be left alone for the day. Well the three kittens were busy playing with one another (they were all brothers) and were rolling around and jumping on each other. I put my finger to the cage and one of them came over to me while the other two continued to play. That is how Simba chose me. I brought him home and he has been the best cat ever. He sleeps with me every night. Woke me when the smoke detector in the apartment across the hall was going off. He use to love car trips. I would pick up my keys and he would just look at me. If I opened his car carrier he would jump right in. That stopped after I unfortunately locked him in the car with every set of keys on the hottest day of the year. Luckily he survived, but now he is afraid of the car. He also adopted to wherever I moved. We are now on our fifth place and he always seems right at home once he checks the place out. He actually came to live with my husband before I did. In June of 2006, it made more sense for him to be at the house we would live in after the wedding since Steve was always here and I would be here as well as my own apartment. So Steve brought Simba here one morning and he was at home right away with Steve. I came that night and stayed the weekend, so Simba knew it was our home. He seemed to like it right away and liked Steve right away. Of course it helped that Steve loves to play with him every night. Oh, and Simba got his name because he has double paws (6 toes on each front paw) and as a kitten his paws looked huge and I said he had lion's paws--thus Simba became his name. I have many pictures of him as a kitten, but don't have any in my computer. I'll have to go look for them.

[jeninky]

My babies are still puppies.. I was to help my brother find homes for his puppies that he had and

didn't need, so I was to take pictures of them and put them on Freecycle..

There is one that sat and looked at me.... I keep thinking about him and even had him given away, but when she came to pick him up she took another one instead...

Sooooooooo when I got home from work and found this out, I said well he is staying with me...

His name is Cody..

Maggie is Cody's sister and she is a handful..

she is in her own world but is the most loving baby ever...

They look nothing alike but they are brother and sister LOL

They are Austrailian Shepard, Beagle, Lab, Bassett Hound mix

They are my pride and joy and they take up all my time and I love it..

They have really helped me more than I have helped them..

Here are some pictures:

http://www.picturetrail.com/jeninky

[alycemina]

Rebecca, my cat (all black with gold eyes) came into my home when my mother died this past June. I couldnt bear to have her go to a shelter, even a "no kill". So, my little bird had died of old age (20 years) is April, so a cat was okay. I didnt really want the cat, but now I love her and she is a real pal. I am fattening her up and she's turning into a real character, including bouts of monster!

[Gayle]

When DH and I were dating, we visited his place to clean out a storage shed. His company had moved him to a new location and he was having to sell his old home. He had tried to rent it with the option to buy but the plan didn't work out. When they left, they abandoned a cat and 2 kittens. We did manage to catch the mother and one of the kittens and took them to a shelter but the last one was very elusive. She just didn't want to be caught.

One day we were in the storage shed when she came in and sat down. I started talking to her and slowly put my hand down near her. Her response was to crawl up my arm and sit on my shoulder. As I petted her, she purred loudly in my ear. We brought her home with us and tried to find a name for her that fit. She is as black as coal and I tried several names but none seemed right for her. One evening as we were sitting on the front porch, I was petting her and as I reached the end of her tail, I gave it a gentle tug. She flopped down and flipped from the left side to the right. I tried it again with the same reaction. She had earned her name, Flip-Flop.

She no longer sits on my shoulder which I really miss. She has deemed herself too good for such but she does still like to be petted on occasion.

[birdmom]

Pets... at my house we have quite a few of those. Most of them with stories- of course. (won't list them all ;) )

Our oldest pet is our dog Otter Pop. My husband and I had been married only a few weeks when we got in a huge fight and he left. I wasn't sure what was going to happen. About 10 minutes later he pulled up in the car again. Only he had a little puppy in his arms. We lived on a very busy main road and as he was leaving our house not two blocks down there was this little yellow fluff ball (probably 6 weeks old or less) running down the middle of the road. So he scooped her up and brought her home. She has been with us for 9 years now. In the beginning she was well- rather challenging. If we left her at home for any reason we would get back to find the house destroyed. Carpet torn up, holes in walls, clothes and blankets ripped to shreds. So she began to go everywhere with us. She wouldn't tear the car up so we would just take her. In the summer when it was too hot for her to stay in the car, one of us would stay with her. This went on until she was 3 when she was out with my husband helping load the car for a trip out of state. A cat came up and she chased to the edge of our driveway- at the same time someone not paying attention and playing with their radio ran up the edge of our driveway - colliding with our dog. She was trapped under the front of the car and drug for nearly 10 yards. After freeing her from the car we rushed her to the vet where she stayed for over two weeks. After that we brought home a different dog. Very subdued- didn't really do much. To this day she occasionally has trouble getting up because of the issues of being hit.

Well not long after that happened we moved. The house we moved into had a black and white cat that lived outside. Well- we're not cat people, but I had to feed and get to know the resident of the house. I named him King Cat and within 3 weeks he was coming in and out of our house whenever he liked. Sadly not two months later - on our wedding anniversary- he was killed by a car. I remember that day because I was cutting chicken for dinner and puttin some aside for King Cat when I got this overwhelming feeling that something had just happened to him. About two hours later I went looking for him and saw him. About a month later we went to the animal shelter to donate King Cat's carrier and some other cat items (like the brand new bag of food and some treats and toys) when we saw the kittens. We decided instead of getting rid of the items we would save a kitten. Well we had a two year old and she was our tester for the cats and kittens. As they brought each one out she would squeal in delight and try to grab them. Each cats reaction was watched closely. When they got to this gorgeous blue-gray 4 month old kitten- he didn't shy away or ignore her, he actually pushed toward our daughter and her squeals of delight and reached out for her with his paws. So Chakotay aka Kotay Cat came home with us. He is still an awesome cat and has loved each of our three girls. With the younger two he slept in the cribs with them and now that they are all out of cribs he sleeps in their room on different beds each night. He plays with them- running from room to room with them. Standing dress up and being covered with blankets. He's even mom to their stuffed animals. He's 6 years old now and such a part of our house we can't imagine life without him.

Fast forward to a few years ago and we get to the parrots. - Extremely long story there, but suffice it to say we learned that for pets to be loving and full of personality they don't have to have fur. Our two conures are the babies of the house. We have a Nanday Conure, Saphira,- who's life I saved when I hand fed her. (long story) and a Cinnamon Greencheek conure, Sprite, who I handfed also. These two girls along with a two parrotlets, and three budgies make up our feathered friends. Although I have handfed and placed several more and have rescued and placed any that I can help. Our household is a parrot activist one.

This year we have acquired a puppy- a Rhodesian Ridgeback mix, Sadie. We were thinking about a getting a puppy, because where we live now we have a huge backyard, a not too small house, and Otter likes canine companionship. So we decided on a Ridgeback, but we had one requirement it had to come from a shelter. So we called around and visited many many shelters. We looked at some ridgeback mixes about 45 miles from our house, but they were 6 months old and captured off the streets with absolutely no socialization to humans. We decided with small children at home we couldn't safely add them to our household so we continued our search. One day we pulled up to the shelter just in time to see a lady in a truck with some puppies in the back. We asked her what kind they were and she said Border Collie mixed with some reddish brown dog. Well I'm a sucker for puppies so we looked in the truck and there were 8 rhodesian ridgeback puppies. Not a trace of border collie anywhere to be seen. Just red dogs with ridges running down there backs. So we picked Sadie out and brought her home. The only problem is as I raise this big energetic, crazy pup, I sometimes think of her brothers and sisters and hope they found homes that will commit to raising them right.....

[chesterfieldzoo]

There is no way I could list ALL the animals I have and their stories.

DH brought home a puppy for xmas (he wanted a dog so bought my fav breed so he could keep it) - a springer - which led to another cause I didnt want an only puppy, then a few months later - a dalmation and then a black cocker spaniel. We already had 3 cats. One of the springers died at 4 and I replaced him with 2 others. Along the way, birds and turtles and lizards and hamsters appeared. Then I lost 3 dogs, a cat and a cockatiel in 9 months a few years ago. I was so heartbroken that I ended up with 3 new puppies and 2 more parrots. Some days I wake up and look around and wonder just where DID they all come from. So now I have 5 dogs (2 springers, 3 border collies) a cat, 8 parrots, 50 parakeets and cockatiels and canaries, couple dozen hamsters and mice, 80 very large koi and hundreds of smaller tropical fish, 2 stringrays, 7 water turtles, 3 wood turtles, 2 tortoises (bullet is up to 30 pounds now!!!) There is more, but I don't want to bore everyone....

On a sad note, I lost a 24 year old cockatiel earlier this summer - he got tangled in a toy and I lost my 18 year old green cheek conure this week.

[Esther]

Deanna, do you charge for people to visiit your zoo? ;) And here I thought the "zoo" in your name referred to a zoo you lived near....not the zoo you live in! ;)

[chesterfieldzoo]

Haha. Actually I give tours all the time of both the yard and the animals.

[kellee]

Maddie came to live with us in 2004, we had went to the local petsmart to pick up a bag of bird food and they were having an adoption day for the Humane Society in the next county. The boys wanted to see the dogs so Daddy took them over to see them. We ended up adopting Maddie then. Her name was Baby Boo. We did not like that name so we changed it to Madison, after the county she was found in.And we call her Maddie for short.! She is the most wonderful dog, she loves ALL the kids in the neighborhood and is so much fun to watch. You can hear our neighbors out back laughing at her when she gets to playing basketball.

Kellee

(I wish I could figure out how to add more than 1 picture.)