Don Juan DeMarco Alyssa Fairy Gack a.k.a. Donnie

First let me say I am sorry it has been a few days since I have done this. I managed to split my index finger open with an Axe, so typing, touching has been a little bit touchy so to speak....

This would be the story of Don Juan De Marco Alyssa Fairy Gack a.k.a. Donnie for short. again this was started because my husband still had not learned that if you feed them they will not leave. At this point we were living in Montreal. This 18 lbs black & white cat came on our back porch and once again my husband fed the cat. Within a day he was living in our house. My children at the time were 3 & 4. Once the cat started living in our house the kids insisted in naming him but like any 3 & 4 year old they each had their own agenda and criteria when it came to giving him his name. Note to self and others, never let the 3 & 4 year old name your cat...

Donnie was a huge cat, very loving, meowed a lot and hate all other cats. He enjoyed being the only cat in the house and he acted very much like a king. He decided pretty quickly that I was on his staff, so very quickly I became his favorite human. When I was not home he would cry for hours while I was gone.

Donnie was loved by everyone that came in contact, but not as much as the neighborhood girl that had lived across the street from me in elementary and High school. She took the cat when we went to Florida for a month's vacation. Donnie never had it so good. She took him for walks because where she lived he was not able to just be let out. She would buy a roasted chicken and give half of it to him. He was in cat heaven as far as he was concerned.


When we got back from Florida Donnie lived with use for about a year more, but like all things in this world things had to change. We had to move and Donnie did move with us, but I also went to work on third shift and the cat couldn't handle the change. So again I asked if the neighborhood girl would be interested in taking him, but this time permanently. She jumped at the chance. Donnie was about 7 yrs old when he came to live with us. He lived with her for another 10 years before he finally passed, but I can honestly say that I know for a cat that lived about 17 years, that I had done right by him and had found him a great home.

So after Donnie left us we were pet free for 5 yrs, and the next pet to come in our life was Peanut and then Daisey. So until the next post...

Peanut

OK I know I said I would cover Donnie next, but I don't want people thinking that all I have ever had was adventures with is cats, because remember I said I have dogs, birds and fish as well. So instead I figured I would introduce Peanut our male dog that we use to have.

Peanut came to live with us in Nov 1999. He was 4 months old. Now we had decided as a family that we would get a dog, and we wanted something puppy like and my husband wanted Female. At this point yes as it was established I use to have a problem sexing animals, however in my defense this time it was not entirely my fault.

So I started calling the various animal shelters in search of a female puppy. I tried the one in our county but they only had one and by the time I got there the puppy was gone. Then I called the shelter one county over from us. They told me they had a part black lab FEMALE 4 month old puppy named Peanut. I was so excited. When I was a child we had a black lab dog named Tyler. I loved that dog and when he got hit by a car I was so sad. So to hear that the shelter had a female black lab I knew I had to see this dog. I asked what time they closed and was told 4:30, so I went straight there after leaving work so I could go see this puppy.

I got there and they took me in and this puppy looked at me with it's eyes from the other side of the cage and cocked it's head. Little did I know that it was a he and I would being sucked in just like the characters in the movie Marley and Me. Even at first glance I knew this was the dog for us as a family. We did paperwork for the dog(which said female on it) and then I put the dog in my car and drove home. As soon as I got out of the car my husband and the kids came rushing outside to see the new puppy because I had called them to tell them that I had found us a puppy. First thing my husband says when the dog gets out of the car is, "I thought you were getting a Female dog? I told you I wanted a female dog." It never occurred to me to look at the anatomy of the dog or that what I was told or what was on the paperwork was wrong until this very point. Sure enough I finally looked at the back end of the dog to realized He was definitely male. Remember though when I saw the dog I never at anytime had seen the back end before leaving the shelter. So my husband said we could try it and see how things went. Lesson learned here is always check all sides of an animal before taking it home.

Peanut was a challenge in the beginning for a variety of reasons. He was neurotic, scared, lovable, and even annoying at times. He had a huge love of anything leather. He would lick, bite, drool, rub and destroy a pair of leather pants or even a wallet if you weren't paying attention. He was very afraid of Lightening, and parking garages. In his prime he weighed over 100 lbs and unfortunately when he got scared he thought he was a little dog and would try and sit in your lap.

He also had a very impish side to him. We saw this first when one week after bringing him home it was Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving he stuck his head in the fridge and pulled out the turkey leg and ran through the house with it before anyone could grab him. I only ever saw him get aggressive with another dog once in the 10 years he was with us, and for whatever reason he just didn't like the black German shepherd that would come to our house whenever it got loose.

When we first moved into our house we had him on a run and he managed to break the line more then half a dozen times, and when he did some how Daisey would break her line to and the two of them would take off. The last time they go loose before we put in invisible fencing to keep them safe he went to the house where the guy had two horses and he rolled for over an hour in the horse manure when my husband caught up with him. Can I say a dog smelling like horse manure gets to stay outside for a long time until the smell is gone.

We lost him 3 years ago just before Christmas. His invisible fence had broken and he took off and got hit right in front of our house by a car because it was night time. Spaghetti and meatballs have not had the same meaning since, because those were his favorite and he would bark until he got a meatball.

I think this is enough for now about him, and I will cover more about him in the future when I talk about some of the other animals in the house.