the love of a pet

Some of you know that I have a husband and kids, but you may not know about the other half of my family, the furry half. When I first got married, I was fine never having dogs and cats. It never occurred to me either way. My husband grew up around Boxers though. He's always had a fondness for them. When Kati, my oldest daughter, was born we found our first doggie. I admit we didn't have the best luck at first, not until we found Luke. He was the best dog ever, so well behaved, great with Kati and very loyal. After Alisha was born, Luke treated her like she was his own baby. If she cried while I changed her diaper, Luke gave me this look like, 'okay, but hurry, you're pissing me off'. Truly, he was so protective of her. Whenever she wanted to take a nap, she'd search for Luke, pounce on him and soon the two of them would be fast asleep together.

When we moved to the new house, and more property for the kids and Luke to run, we lost Luke to a car accident. It crushed us for awhile. He will always be remembered with fondness.

Later came Buddy. He wasn't quite the good doggie Luke was, lol. He was very hyper, didn't housebreak easily and played way too rough with the girls. Or so I thought. Once when Buddy nipped at Alisha, she frowned at him and punched him. Yep, punched him right in the jaw. Luckily, Alisha was too little to do any harm. Buddy just licked her and ran off the other direction. Alisha and Buddy both got a time out for that one. Buddy did learn, but it took us a loooooong while to train him. (I'm still working on Alisha, lol)



Then we thought, 'gee, maybe we should breed him!'. Along came Betsy. Betsy was the exact opposite of Buddy. She was so smart it was eerie. She'd give me this look and I swear I could read her mind. It was borderline creepy. Betsy became my companion. She slept on her little bed next to my desk while I wrote. She tattled on Buddy if he decided to run off and took extra special care of the girls. We did breed her. Buddy and Betsy ended up having three litters of puppies. We sold them all to Boxer lovers like us, but we kept one. One that sort of slipped inside our hearts when we weren't looking. We called her Cinnamon. You see why, right?

Cinnamon has been with us for 8 years now. She and Alisha are best buds. They sleep together, eat together, and most of the time she even goes to the park with us when we go hiking. She really loves to hike, or should I say, she loves dragging our sorry butts up the hill. LOL

Cinnamon's mommy, Betsy, died recently. It wasn't easy on any of us to lose her. The girls are old enough now to really understand the concept of death and it was really difficult for them to accept. I figure Betsy and Luke are together now, romping around in the big park in sky.

Now, onto the other half of our furry family. The cats. At first, my husband did NOT want any cats. Then Kati turned 7. She'd been asking for a kitty for something like three years. I finally broke rank and talked to my husband's mother, sneaky aren't I? lol Anyway, my mother-in-law was all over that one. She started calling shelters and vets. She found out about a tiny kitten who'd come in to the vet on the engine of a car. Yes, you read that right. She shouldn't even have lived, yet she did somehow. She had a mangled tail and her eye was messed up. We fell in love instantly.

Sassy came home with us that day and it was the best move we've ever made. Kati and Sassy are inseparable. Absolutely inseparable. I've never seen such a close bond. Well, the bond Alisha shares with Cinnamon is about the same I think. Anyway, Sassy, rules. She's the queen and dogs damned well know it. She does as she pleases and they bow to her every wish.


Then along came Mittens. Mittens was a drifter. Like a little flake of snow she drifted right up to our house as Alisha and her cousin Justin were taking down the Christmas tree. She peeked in the front door, meowed and our hearts melted. A little begging and pleading and Dad relented. Mittens can stay. Yay! I'd swear that Mittens knows that it was because of Alisha that she now has a warm cozy home and all the love she could handle because she stays glued to Alisha's side.

You'd think enough is enough, wouldn't you. Well, now it's my turn. Summertime and we're doing our daily 2 miles up the road, when what do we hear? A kitty. A very small kitty too. She came right up to us and started purring. I picked her up and fell in love. Kati named her Max, after Maximum Ride, the character in the Patterson books. When my husband saw her he shook his head. No! Absolutely not! We aren't having another animal in this house! Weeeellll, Max is, as you would expect, a part of our crazy family. And she's the craziest, let me tell ya. Don’t let the sweet face fool you. She's so bad, I swear every single time I see her I hear that song 'Bad To The Bone' in my head. LOL

Now, we're done. For sure. No more pets. None. Theeeeen Sugar came along. Sickly, starving, sneezing, barely had a meow left when she found us. A vet visit, some antibiotics and Sugar is beginning to look less like road kill and more like a cat. She's got a little ways to go, but she is doing very well. I expect in a few weeks she'll even be able to meow!

So, that's the other half of my family. Yes, we crazy. Would we have it any other way? Definitely not.

Do you have pets? Cats, Dogs, a pet snake, an iguana? C'mon, spill!