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These links to the left will take you to a few articles written by your webmaster. My wife and I have had animals around us since we were born, and are probably the truest animal lovers one could meet, in my not so humble opinion.
We have some great successes and some failures too, so those will be presented here, hopefully in a way that you will appreciate the stories and contents.
I wrote my hardest ones first, the Mistakes and Any Dog Bites, just to get them out of the way because I think the overall stories make good points about how easy it is to unthinkingly harm an animal. I’m not proud of it in any way and even though no one blames me for either event, I still cannot forgive myself. I probably never will.
If you would like to submit your own story for publication here, feel free to submit it via the Contact Us link provided on every page. Be sure to use your real E-mail address, as I will have to confirm each one before I can post it. If I cannot reach you I cannot post your input.
So, some of the stories/articles are sad but when they are all written, there won’t be that many sad ones. At the moment we have three dogs and six cats, all rescues of one sort or another. Some of our past pets stand out the most, and there will be stories about them especially.
Let’s see, right now, there is:
Let’s see, then there are the cats:
- Phoebe: comes from the SPCA Shelter. She was found in a grease vat outside one of the local restaurants and rescued. She’s a recovered feral, actually. Love Jane, gets along with all the other animals; well, except she doesn’t like me. You don’t see much of her when Jane’s not around. Good mouser, likes the cellar.
- Buzzer: This is a “normal” cat! A regular old, run of the mill tabby and healthy as a horse. He came to us as a few week old kitten, to be fostered and see if we could get him to eat. No one at the Shelter could get him to take any food.
He’s eating well now, plump but not fat, and rules the roost among the cats. He’s a large tom, too but not a giant like some. He was supposed to go back to the SPCA when he got healthy, but our foster child at the time asked if he could keep him. We said yes, dummie softies that we are. The foster child’s now gone, but Major Buzzer as he was called, is still here. He does what he want, how he wants, when he wants, however he wants. Very independent; most of the time. Still likes a lap occasionally, but only for a few minutes and on his terms.
- Snow F. Lake: Snow was found freezing to death in a water puddle one cold fall day. When they got her to the SPCA shelter, she had a temperature of 95 degrees and was near death. After an hour and a warm IV she began to show signs of life though, we we took her home to foster her back to health. She’s a whit flame-tip, very pretty, and not turning all orange as most of them do. She didn’t go back, either; we adopted her, too.
- Shorty: We adopted Shorty about 6 months ago I guess it is, as of this writing, as a tiny kitten, just a few weeks old and very recently weaned. She was a barn cat and her story was that she was found frozen in the bales of hey. We don’t think so though: We’re pretty much convinced she has birth defects, not losses from frostbite.
She has 4 different length legs! The right front one is normal, all claws and pads peasant.
The left front is missing her foot at the ankle. She has what seems to be a pad though, at the end of the stump, which does get sore on her now and then.
One back foot is missing from the ankle down. It’s a little shorter than the front foot, but has two pads or something that resembles pads on the stump.
The other back foot is missing from about the knee down, if cats have knees. It has what looks like a small pad on it, too, but it’s not usable since t he pad doesn’t fully touch the floor when she steps on it.
She has a little trouble getting around; can’t jump very far of course, and love to play laying on her side.
We're watching closely for musculoskelatal problems due to the way she has to walk. It’s sort of a sideways lumber at this point, and takes a lot out of her.
She’s getting nearly old enough now we’re considering seeing what we can do about a prothesis or two for her, but those are very expensive items so we need something that can hopefully grow with her. I’ve considered having one back leg surgery to have it shortened to be the same length at least of the shortest one, so she could walk more normally, but my wife wont’ hear of that. I’m not real crazy about that either, so if you have any suggestions or assistance you can provide, I’d love to hear it. Use the Contact link at the bottom of the page to reach me.
- Sweetie: is a relatively new arrival here and may not be with us too long; we’re not sure yet. She was abandoned by her mother and had a severe upper respiratory problem when she came to us. Her eyes were stuck closed and when they did open the right one has the third lid permanently covering the eyeball, completely closed. We had to go to a human doctor specialist to get the viral eye medicine she’s on now (at $100 for a tiny bottle of it!). This is her last chance, I guess, at medicine that might help, and it doesn’t look good.
We’re not sure what’s next for her. She goes back to the vet again next weekend Saturday and we’ll try to make a decision there. She can see OK with her one good eye now, so we’re hoping something can be done to or for the other one to let her live a mostly normal life with us. Her quality of life seems fine; she purrs appropriately, likes to play, enjoys the other cats, and has chosen Shorty as her “best friend” in the group. It’ll be sad if we have to let her go; if she can have a life with any quality to it, we want her to. Meanwhile though, she’s having a happy, comforting and well fed life.
- Psi: Oops! Looks like I can’t count! That’s number 6. Psi came to us from my son. They had two cats and their own son turned out to be seriously allergic to cats, so we took them in . The other cat is deceased now, and Psi carries on for him. I guess you’d have to say Psi is our “other” normal cat. It’s not often we have normal pets around - lately we go for the underdogs, so to speak. whether feline or canine varieties.
I’m just glad to know that animals have little knowledge of death; for them if it has to be, it’s no more than a nice, comforting sleep; I’ve seen enough go that way to feel sure of it.
Of all the pets we’ve had, only two have come close to what we thought were natural deaths. It’s all been worth it though. Every rescue is a success if we’re able to give comfort, security and food to any animal.
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