Furbabies!

I love animals. My house is getting quite full actually. We have a dog and three cats. I ALWAYS feel like we have room for "one" more. My husband feels otherwise. LOL

Our first cat, Tanner, was a Hurricane Katrina rescue. My husband flies Search and Rescue for the Coast Guard and we were stationed in New Orleans at the time. He often jokes that Tanner was his last "save". A friend of ours called one day and asked Jason to come over. He said he found something in his boat and needed Jason to look at it. A few minutes later Jason called me and said that I need to come over, too. When I got there, Jason greeted me at the door with this tiny, furry thing in his hands. It didn't have it's eyes open yet. I asked if it was a squirrel. He said, "I think it's a cat." I squealed!! "Can I keep it!!??" Sighing he replied, "That's why you're here."

Our Vet said he was probably only a few days old when we found him. He took baths in the sink. I washed him with baby shampoo once a week. He slept in the crook of my neck and I fed him with an eyelet dropper. He was the sweetest little thing I'd ever seen. We watched him learn to walk and meow. It was amazing!

Our dog came next. I called a local rescue group and told the lady we were looking for a mid-sized dog for our family. She asked some basic questions about us, our experience, who lived in our household, other pets, did we all want to adopt a dog... and then she said, "I think I have the perfect dog for you!" A few days later her minivan pulled into our driveway and we all watched as she went to the back. The door went up and she unlatched the kennel. The next thing we knew, this red dog was pulling her up across our front yard, through the bushes and flower beds! He bounded up the front steps and met us at the front door. "Here he is!" she panted. I thought, "What on EARTH has she brought us???"

We took him out back and she let him off the leash. She told us that "Lonnie Bear" had been dumped with his sister, but she had already been adopted. I watched as he immediately pooped in our yard. He was about 10 months old, already 45lbs, a beautiful Golden Retriever and Chow Mix, with possibly some German Shepherd in there somewhere.

He ran around the yard with our boys and they played. All of the sudden he knocked down our four-year-old and he started to cry. We ran to our son as he yelled, "I hate this dog!" He got back up and eventually started to run with the dog again though. Soon I was getting "the look" from both boys. "Can we keep him?" they asked. I really couldn't answer. We went ahead and signed the papers and paid the money, with the agreement that it was a trial period. Two days later I was SO in love with him there was NO sending him back. It didn't really matter because the "adoption" lady never called again anyway and ended up going to jail for hoarding and had all her other animals removed! His name HAD to change though. We went through a bunch of choices. One morning I called him Duke and he came running to me. He loved it, and we loved him!

Next came Maggie. Oh Maggie. Sweet, crazy, psychotic, insane Maggie! Again I went looking for a new companion. I wanted a sweet, fluffy kitty, specifically a white or grey one with blue eyes. I had my mind made up and I would take nothing else! My Mom and I went to an adoption day for a local shelter. Instead of my ideal kitty, I found this tiny little dark grey thing with stripes. She reminded me of Tanner when he was little, only because of how tiny she was. They told me that someone had left her behind the pet store with a can of food when she was about 4 weeks old. She was 5 weeks now. That's was it. Love. I signed the papers, paid the money and took her home.

Somewhere along the line she turned into a nutcase! She developed Pica, a disorder where she craves non-food items. People have Pica, too. Maggie's items of choice are toilet paper, headphone cords, carpet, plastic, the metal antenna of the radio, and sometimes paper. She is moody and temperamental, more so than a  typical cat (or female) LOL and she jets through the house like a crazed wild animal! She's a gem alright, but we love her, quirks and all.

Our most recent addition is Angel. I went home to Florida last month and a kitten turned up at my parent's house while I was there. A Siamese mix... the cream colored, blue-eyed kitty I had wanted before! Was it FATE? I told myself it must be!

Each day when I went to my parent's house, this kitten would arrive! My Dad said other cats had been there before, but never this one. She started sleeping under my Mom's SUV. One day, as we sat in the porch swing, she jumped up there with us and rocked. The next day as we pulled into the driveway she was already in the swing waiting. She would run up to us and purr, and sometimes cry. She was hungry! So I bought food and a dish.

The kids and I more seriously discussed taking her home. My Mom is allergic to cats so her answer was, "TAKE HER!!" I snapped a quick picture on my cell phone and texted it to my husband. His reply was bland and didn't seem to suggest we adopt her. So I set out to surprise him.

We bought a carrier and some flea stuff. Then we picked up a brush, a few toys for the road and a nice soft blanket for her kennel. The day we showed up to get her she ran to us, and jumped up in my SUV, just like she knew she was going with us! I couldn't have been happier! We took turns brushing her and trying to get her cleaned up.

Pretty soon we hit the road. We put Angel in the kennel and she sat quietly for all of 3 seconds. Then this screeching started! She was clawing the kennel and trying to get out. My fourteen-year-old and I talked about what to do. If we let her out, will it get better? Maybe she'll stop? Maybe she hates the car moving? Maybe she'll go flying around the car like Maggie does at the house? What if she claws and scratches us?

So we left her in the cage, and we let her screech, praying she's stop... but she didn't... and she screeched... for 45 minutes. My son and I kept looking at each other. We couldn't take it anymore. So we decided to let her out. We opened the cage door and  the screeching miraculously stopped! She cautiously peered out, and then took a step. We held our breath, waiting for her to go wild and take our eyeballs with her. Instead, she walked over to my youngest son who was sitting in the back seat next to her. He gave her a kiss and she laid down in his lap. WHAT? That was it? Wow.

About twenty minutes went by and she started to get a bit more curious. She sniffed around the car a little, came up to the front seat to say hello to me and my oldest son, and checked out the windshield. She watched the cars go by and seemed to be doing fine. As she made her way to the back seat again we all relaxed. "Let her wander" I told the kids. We had put a litter pan on the backseat floorboard so I wasn't too worried about her going to the bathroom in the car. All of the sudden I heard the rush of wind and the highway going by!! Angel had stepped on the window button in the back seat and rolled the window down! She was standing in the window, frozen and I started screaming! All I could imagine was her getting sucked out of the window going 70 miles an hour on the highway! We got the window back up and put the locks ON.

After that, the rest of the trip was rather uneventful, thank God. She rode nicely and we got home safely. Jason was surprised to see yet another cat, but he knows how I am. He said, "No more, this is the LAST one." He's said that before.



---After we got home, my Dad called to tell me that a Mama and baby kitty had showed up on their doorstep the day after we left. He then asked if we were coming back any time soon. ;o)