We're suckers for animals here. That means we didn't turn away abandoned or orphaned animals for years. From a three-legged goat to a pair of ducks who weren't safe in their old house, we've taken care of a lot of animals over the years. Sadly. many of them have passed away, but we loved all of them dearly. Allow me to introduce you to some of the ones who are still with us!
This is Stripes. Years ago, my mom looked out the window to see our now dearly-departed lab, Monty, with two little gray fuzzballs. She went outside to find that he had two kittens and he was gently cleaning and grooming them because he was an angel in the shape of a dog. Those kittens were taken in and we named them Trouble and Stripes. Trouble, sadly, passed away earlier this year, but Stripes is still kicking. I raised the two little brats in my room and would sometimes wake up to find them climbing out of their little enclosure. Now Stripes is the laziest cat in the world, and he likes to melt across my lap or chest as I read. He's still my baby as far as I'm concerned, especially because he lets me carry him like one with his little body cradled upside down so I can rub his spotty belly.
Before Trouble and Stripes, there was Calvin. My mother and brother were walking Monty and the now also dearly departed Lady, a golden retriever, in a nearby forest preserve. A storm was approaching, and they were hurrying out as fast as they could because it was a big one. Then they heard a tiny little
mew and they found a teensy, blue-eyed kitten with spiky fur. Of course, they couldn't leave him alone, so they took him home and we named him Calvin. He's a total nutjob, he only likes my father, and sometimes when you pet him he'll lick your arm twice before biting it. We're also pretty sure he isn't 100% Felis catus because he's bigger, slinkier, and has fur patterns strikingly similar to an African wildcat. He even thinks he's a wild man, but he's scared of the outdoors and he loves boxes. We put that box on the table with plans to take it down to recycling a month ago. Then Calvin moved in and we can't bring ourselves to move it now because he's an old man and he needs his resting place, even if he ages backward. I'm not joking. A few months ago we were worried and getting ready to say goodbye because he was all skin and bone and his fur was getting dull. Then my mom got a new brand of canned cat food. Calvin basically inhaled it. He gained weight, his fur got smooth and shiny again, and now he's acting like a spry young thing again. He's our Benjamin Button cat and I love him.
Getting into the dogs, let me introduce Rudi! We got Rudi years ago because my mom needed a rat hunter for the barn. It's been thirteen years. Rudi has caught one rat and now he's the most spoiled animal in the house. He's also mastered the art of emotional manipulation. A few months ago he would keep walking around with one of his front legs held out to the side weirdly, so we of course were really worried and we'd just pick him up and coddle him. We even took him to the vet, but the vet said he couldn't find anything wrong. It kept happening.
Then, one day, he held out the other leg in the same way. He was faking it for attention the whole time. We were almost too impressed to be annoyed because he pulled it off for weeks without messing it up. He's since pulled such acts as pretending he can't get up the mini stairs onto my mom's bed only to jump up them with ease later and acting like he can't jump onto the chair without help only to, again, do it himself when he thinks no one is looking. He's smart enough to come up with his own plans for garnering attention and stupid enough to mess them up. There's never a dull moment with Rudi.
Lastly, there's Daisy. Now, I don't approve of impulse puppy adopting. You need to be prepared when adopting any living creature, and puppies start off so small and manageable only to end up huge and harder to control, which is why there are so many grown dogs in shelters. That being said, Daisy was an impulse buy. Allow me to set the scene: I'm in college. My parents are visiting one Saturday and we go to the nearby mall. My dad needs to get a new sweater because a young woman apparently said to him "I love your sweater. It's so hipster it's not even hipster!" Now he didn't know what that meant (because what on earth does that mean?) but obviously, he needed to get a new one. I wasn't really interested in watching his picky sweater shopping, so I told them I'd be a little pet shop because they let you play with the puppies. I asked to play with a tiny, adorable pomsky, had a grand old time with tug of war and throwing toys for him, and when I finally let the attendants take the puppy back to his friends I came out to find that my father had fallen completely in love with a silky little chocolate lab. Then I fell in love with her. Then my mom fell in love with her, too. So we got a chocolate lab that day. I cuddled her on the entire car ride and cried a bit when they had to go home and take the little girl home with them. I visited home the next weekend of course. Since then she'd been a constant struggle and a constant delight. She ate her obedience certificate and chewed on my mom's needle cushion (thankfully and miraculously she didn't hurt herself), but she's also constantly happy to see us and loves cuddling. So, I still say don't get impulse puppies, but I love this girl. She's just as adorable now as when we got her as a puppy.
Also, I 100% support the adopt don't shop movement, but unfortunately, none of our local centers would approve us for adoption because we don't have a fence around the property. We have rescued a sweet dog who was abandoned, though it wasn't done through a shelter because my mom just found him wandering and crying along the side of a road. Don't worry, he lived the happiest life he could and got pampered every day for the rest of his life after we took him in. Again, we're suckers for animals.
Signing off with love. The world is tough, but you are tougher.
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