catnipoflife

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Do you have a favorite pet?

on March 28, 2012

At different points in life, you have probably had one or more pets of different breeds, colors, sizes, and ages. Of all the pets that have been a blessing along life’s journey, there is more than likely one which stands out above all the rest. THE one may be cutesy-wootsie, bullmaster, Miss Priss, goofball, scruff mutt or any of hundreds of possible descriptors. But, the fact remains he\she was (is) YOUR pet, your friend, your companion.

My husband (Jim) and I have been fortunate to have had many pets from gerbils to dogs to cats each with their own unique personalities and of course, tales of laughter and woe. The gerbils by far left their mark many times over, especially when middle daughter felt sad for the male and female to be in separate cages. “But, Mommy, I only let them play together a few minutes!”

Then,  there was Dock, the short-haired tabby that was rescued from old seadogs along the dock of the bay. ‘Fishbait’, I don’t think so! As a tiny kitten he fit in the palm of one hand and was brought home in hubby’s shirt pocket. One of his best Kodak moments was the time he shared his supper time with the mouse. Yep, there they were eating out of the same bowl glancing over at each other between bites. Naturally, it was a missed Kodak moment because the camera is never close by when you need it.

The raccoons were never really pets but did enjoy visiting the back porch and absolutely loved the dry cat food. The thing is the cat food was kept in a Rubbermaid storage bench. Here they were these two hungry rascals just at dusk – one would lift open the bench seat and hold it while the other got his fill. Then, they would trade places gorging on the tasty morsels as though they had not eaten in a week. You would think once they realized they were not alone away they would run. Nope, not these two! They looked up as though they knew it was time to go and one behind the other slowly meandered off the porch, down the steps disappearing into the twilight.

There are dozens of stories with Chief (the labrador) and Prince (the dalmatian) being the only dogs that graced our premises. Dogs are just great for kids, especially our son. These two, however, were nothing but just kids themselves. Prince was always the instigator with Chief nipping at his heels. The telephone call to the animal control was the clincher. Seems a call was received from a boat owner that could not get on his boat because of the dogs. The funny part is the phone call. “Sir, what seems to be the problem?” asked the dispatcher. The owner replied, “I need to get on my boat. There are two dogs – one is onboard guarding the boat while the other jumps in and swims!” It was about this same time we called in trying to locate our dogs who were missing.

Needless to say, today we have two cats, Foxie and Boots. Both were rescued under different circumstances. Foxie is a dilute calico and Boots is a grey long hair. You hardly see one without the other, especially during play time. They think the field mouse in the back yard is their play thing. They don’t hurt it, just scamper around chasing it through the yard until it gets tired. Then, they mosey off and let it go its own way.

As I said in the beginning, there is always that one pet that pulls at your heartstrings and has you wrapped around its paws. For us, it is Our Foxie. . .


25 responses to “Do you have a favorite pet?

  1. Claire Cappetta says:

    hmmm…. Harry cat who loved cuddling, Gemima the boxer, who loved sitting on the sofa next to me like a human and loved watching horror movies and thrillers…strange but funny dog and Freya, my black bad cat who has decided I’m the best ever when I feed her fat laziness 😉

  2. catnipoflife says:

    Claire, that is just too funny! Thank you for sharing:) Hopefully more will join in with wild and wooly stories of their own. . .

  3. Chris says:

    Our beloved Cercie left us after 19 wonderful PURRRfect years she died with her head buried in my chest. I miss her so

  4. We’ve always adopted all our animals from the local Animal Humane Society and they often have stories of their own to tell before we even adopt them. Our Great Dane MAC was found next to his dead sister on a highway and was adopted once but returned to the AHS as being “too unmanageable.” He turned out to be one of the sweetest (and one of my all-time favorites) of all our dogs. We lost him a few months ago at the age of 12. Vega, our white German shepherd, was so badly abused that he was considered potentially “unadoptable.” He’s going on 12 now and is probably the smartest and most loyal of all our dogs. Our cat Sheba was the most neurotic of all our cats, but she lived to be 24 in spite of all her neuroses. I love the idea of sharing some of our favorite pet stories! Great blog!

    • catnipoflife says:

      Sandra, thank you for sharing some of your stories! It is truly magical how our pets come to be our own! It seems the more care they need the more rewarding they become! It is unbelievable you had a cat to live to be 24!!!!

  5. Our sweet pet, Button, a peek-a-poo, was the cutest and most lovable dog ever!! She was so small, but she thought she was as big as a German Shepherd. Once, when we let her out in the front yard, there was a huge German Shepherd at the top of our front walk, and she took off after that dog, barking like she never did. The German Shepherd actually ran from Button, and she chased him all the way to the end of the block. At that point, she turned around and walked back home, so proud that she had chased him away from her territory!!! He could have turned around and eaten her with one bite!

  6. acgheen says:

    My family has had a lot of pets over the years, but the one that stand out the most would have to be “Jaws”. He was an inch long when my mother brought him home. As time passed, the other fish in the aquarium died, but our catfish lived on until his 18 inches curled from one end of the 10 gallon aquarium to the other. I remember the day that my mother decided to bring home some friends for the lonely creature – ten bright orange platties. She placed them in the tank with such care only to find upon the following morning that every last one of them was missing! The next day, my Dad took Jaws to a pet store that was better equipped to care for such a gargantuan fish and comforted my Mom with a few more new aquatic friends!

    • catnipoflife says:

      Now that has to be the most unusual story yet! This has given me a new idea for ratings:) Thank you so much for sharing!

    • catnipoflife says:

      I was sharing some of the pet comments to my hushand when he reminded me of the Jack Demsey we had at one time. The kids were little then and we took them to the local pet store and let them pick out some unusual goldfish. OF course, they gave their little goldfishes a unique name. The Jack Demsey would hide among the vegetation in the bottom of the tank. Like your experience, one by one the goldfish disappeared and it was so heart breaking for the kids we had to find Jack and the fish tank a new home.

  7. Micki Peluso says:

    We’ve had constant pets in our family, despite my husband’s threats about “no more pets in this house!” The only one left is Toby, a big fat, lazy tomcat who has become a doctor in his old age of sixteen. Whenever me or any member of the family hurts in a specific area, Toby senses this and insists on laying on that spot and purring. He always lays on my one ankle that’s s sore from fibromyalgia and never gets the wrong leg. Recently, when I hurt my small toe, it was painful to the touch and the last thing I needed was a 25 pound cat laying on it. Toby didn’t care and would dig out that foot and insist on laying on my sore toe. He never gets the wrong foot. He’s also the only cat I’ve ever heard whisper. When he yowls for food in the morning and I am sleeping, he comes up to me and whispers instead.

    • catnipoflife says:

      Thank you, Micki, for sharing your story! This one would need to be titled “Cat Whisperer” without a doubt! Thank you for sharing such a warm story:) Our Foxie is definitely a Daddy’s girl. Whenever he does not feel well, she senses it and stays right by his side no matter where he goes! Yes, even to the bathroom!

  8. Sunni says:

    Sharla,

    Oh my goodness, speaking of raccoons, they used to get in the cat food too when we lived in Ca. I’ve got pics of them. They used to come nightly. We lived in town but there was a river and a drainage aqua duct close by. I haven’t thought about that in a while. We had a couple of outside cats that adopted us, so we had beds for them on our patio. One night an opossum got in there and they didn’t know what to think. Of, course we didn’t either.

  9. […] Do you have a favorite pet? (Click HERE!) […]

  10. Chris says:

    Oh my! my heart just stopped the top picture of the Calico cat looks exactly like my beloved Cercie who after 19 years passed. If you want to see you can go to http://www.chrishannon.com and at the bottom of the page of ANGELS REMEMBERED.
    Blessings

  11. We get all our pets from our local AHS and I think my two favorites were MAC our Great Dane who had been returned to the AHS as “incorrigible” and our white German shepherd Vega who had been so badly abused they weren’t sure he was “adoptable.” Needless to say, both dogs turned out to be extraordinary dogs andloved by all of us!

    • catnipoflife says:

      That is so often the case. . .someone’s cast aways usually are the best! Exactly the case with our Foxie. . .left alone, abandoned, scared and hungry! Their loss was our gain:>)

  12. […] At different points in life, you have probably had one or more pets of different breeds, colors, sizes, and ages. Of all the pets that have been a blessing along life’s journey, there is more…  […]

  13. She is beautiful and has a heart full of love and the same attitudes about life as Miss Minnie Mouse:) Yes, Minnie is the one who has captured our hearts forever…..she has such love and concern for us and then she also is picky and annoyed at times if I leave and she will leave me a little gift to let me know that I was naughty to leave her even for an afternoon:) She and Foxie are both very loved…..thank you for sharing such an awesome video of your beautiful kitty girl:)

    • catnipoflife says:

      Thank you for visiting and especially for letting me know with your wonderful comments! I still have to respond to your award. Please do not think I am ungrateful…Oh, my, will I ever get caught up?

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