You know we are in trouble when my post starts off “We weren’t going to adopt another…”. And once again, it’s Irene who wedged the chisel into the cracks in my steely resolve. There were feral (semi-wild) kittens, you see, at the rescue shelter where she volunteers. And one of them was very scared, and curled up and buried his head in her sweater and purred when she was there. And it was very sad, and very cute, and couldn’t she please bring her home?
I mentioned a couple of posts ago how our cat Susu had fought back from a serious illness. A few days ago, she took a turn for the worse and stopped eating again. Susu didn’t have the strength to fight back this time. We took her to the vet just a few hours ago, and released her from her pain. Irene and I were there with her at the last breath.
Our dog Sadie has been suffering increasingly from debilitating pain in her right front shoulder during the past few months. We’ve had her on several increasingly strong arthritis medications with no obvious beneficial effect.
Cats are creatures that usually have egos that extend significantly beyond their usually diminutive size. But they are also generally equipped with a strong sense of self-preservation that comes from being a predator that often ends up on the wrong side of the food chain (I.E.: on someone else’s dinner plate). We have one cat in our house who possesses more than the usual helping of cattitude…Rommel is his name. (more…)
I was reading one of my news feeds the other day and came across this gem about a woman who beat a dog breeder with a dead chihuahua. Apparently, the dog breeder sold the puppy when it was too young. The purchaser took the puppy to a vet who told her it needed to be returned to its mother, but the puppy died while in transit. The puppy’s purchaser then proceeded to assault the dog breeder using the dead chihuahua as a weapon.
My wife Irene called me on the phone at about 7:00 am on Friday morning. This confused me: I was working from home and thus sleeping in until around 7:30, and Irene doesn’t normally leave for work until about 8:00 am. The morning brain-fog cleared a bit, though, when Irene explained that she was out walking our dog and calling from her cell. She had found a lost dog, and was bringing it home so we could call the SPCA, and could I please get the cats into the house?
Our cats aren’t supposed to be outside, but often a couple, usually Tux and Rommel, sneak out. This morning, however, four had made it out the door. I managed to get three back in, but Bilbo was no where to be found.
Our cat Sasha died Wednesday just after 11:00 pm. It was pretty sudden- she was fine Wednesday morning, a little off around dinner time, and in shock by bedtime. We rushed her to the emergency vet, but they couldn’t save her. It looks like she was sick and respirated some vomit, and this was complicated by her heart and kidney problems.
Sasha
Sasha came into our life as something of a lost soul… (more…)
My wife and I have a lot of animal companions. Seven cats and a dog share our house, and a horse is stabled a few minutes away. Most of the critters are healthy and easy to get along with. But there are exceptions.
Earlier this year we had to have our dog, Sheena, euthanized. It was a tough decision. But I was pretty clear that Sheena was our first and last dog: I loved her, but dogs are a lot of work.
Irene has been working on me ever since. She wanted another dog. But we have a household of seven cats, and that's busy enough. Up until this weekend, logic prevailed: despite several near misses, we remained dog free.
I finally broke down this weekend. Meet Sadie...
Sadie is another SPCA puppy. We figured Sheena gave us 11 years of love, so this seemed like the best choice. Irene had been a volunteer dogwalker for the past couple of weeks. I knew this was risky, but I hoped it might get the "dog bug" out of her. She brought home a few "bugs", but never actually shook her interest in having another dog.
Sadie is five years old, a Rottweiler something cross. She's fairly quiet, seems mellow, and is a lot less timid than Sheena. So far, she is acting more scared of the cats than the other way around. We'll have to see how that works...
