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My
Pets
I have always
been an animal lover. I've been very fortunate to have lived with
a wide variety of fuzzy (and reptilian) friends. My first pet was
a black kitten that I called Snowball (yes, even at 5 I had a wierd
sence of humor.) Since then I have live with and loved more cats,
dogs, mice, gerbals, snakes, rabbits, hampsters, pigs (no, not potbellies),
and horses than you find in most petting zoos.
My current housemates
include - from oldest to youngest:
(click an image below to see a larger version of the photo)
 Jake
& Elwood (a.k.a. the Confused Brothers)
Jake (on the left) and Elwood are the newest
additions to my household. Both were adopted from an animal
rescue center at about 1 year of age.
These
2 get along far too well for there to be peace in my
house. Their favorite activities include napping and
eating (of course), lounging, chasing each other,
boxing (see below left), and turning trash into toys....yes,
most garbage gets explored for entertainment value....
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 Fang:
Fang was purchase by a friend of mine for
his son. For the first year or so, life was good for Fang,
but soon became endless days left forgotten in his tank. Knowing
that I had raised
a variety of snakes for many years, when
my friend realized that his son had lost interest in
his pet
he asked if I might adopt Fang - which I happily did.
For
several years, Fang lived with another royal python named
Gem. Gem came to live with me only days after his birth.
He was an odd little guy with no natural instincts - unfortunately
this attribute lead to an accident which cost Gem his life.
Fang
now lives alone. He has become too large to for a new
baby
snake to live with, and I have found no other adult pythons
looking for a home - yet.
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Some of the fuzzy friends I've lost:
 Alexander:
(a.k.a. Ali-Al, full name - His Royal Highness
Sir Alexander, he thinks he's great, Fluffy Butt.)
Alexander
came to live with me when he was very young. He always
believed he ruled everything he could see - and that he
was really
being
nice allowing
humans,
dogs,
other cats
and
snakes to live with him.
Alexander,
a very domesticated cat, lacked what most would refer to
as natural cat instincts. If he couldn't see the house,
he couldn't find his way home. He never did figure out
what to do with a mouse.
Ali-Al was,
however, a world class preener and spent much of his
time
showing
off how
pretty he was. Alexander
died on April 21, 1999, at the age of 19.
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 Sadie
Mae:
One day I overheard a friend of mine talking
about how he was going to help another friend to take
the puppy she had adopted to the SPCA
- and, since I can't stand the idea of a puppy going
there, I said "why don't you drop the puppy off
at my place, and I'll keep her until I find her a good
home". ...turns out that home was with me.
I
just couldn't help myself - she was cute and smart, and
so obviously wanted a place to call home and a person to
call her's - within a week I knew she was staying.
Sadie
was my hiking, camping, eating, frisbee, ball, and swimming
buddy. She learned all the standard tricks and then
some. She did them by voice or hand-sign command. Sadie
was also trained to respond to a full set of whistle commands
(very helpful when out hiking or just playing outdoors.)
After
a long fight against cancer,
Sadie died on June 21, 2004, at the age of 14.
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 TJ:
At 5:30am on September 19, 1987 I was
awaken by the sound of Trouble (TJ's mom) giving birth
under my bed. Though we had provided a very nice and
comfortable bed for her to give birth in, Trouble had
decided that it would better to do so on some laundry
she had arranged into a pile under my bed.
TJ
(short for Trouble Jr.) was the first of 3 kittens born
that morning. Her brothers, Sir Edmond Hillary and Goober,
both found happy homes with other humans.
It
was because
she looked so much like her mother, that we
named her TJ - but she did her best to live upto
(and maybe exceeded) her mother's ability to cause
trouble.
TJ died on October 12, 2004 at the age of 17. |
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