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.

Lucky

I was going to continue on where I left off, but I tend to get side tracked sometimes. So Lucky is sitting next to me and I have to say as cats go he is a very interesting character. He came to us literally when he was less then 24 hrs old with his mother and another sibling that didn't last the night. He was born with a deformity. Most cats have a joint by their paw, Lucy has an extra joint by both of his front paws. This means he has two joints instead of one. This makes his legs look like they bow inward, and when he walks his butt goes way up in the air with his front end being so low to the ground. Kind of like being a wheelbarrow. He Also has a kink in the base of his tail which seems to help aide him when he sits up on his hind legs. This is the position he takes the most when he is begging for food. It is also the position he takes that makes him look like a bunny rabbit.





After all the years we have had him I would say a better name for him would have been Gandalf from Lord of the Rings. Of all the cats we have ever owned he is definitely the wisest of them all. What he lacks in mobility he certainly makes up for it in character. He is the only cat I have ever had that comes and gives kisses to anyone walking by once a day and his boxing abilities when he fights are not only comical, but wonderful to watch, and his favorite thing to do is play fetch for the little blue tab from the carton of milk. He will play fetch for hours and he does it with some one or he can even play by himself. He actually throws the tab with his teeth.

When he is not scooting across the floor he spends a great deal of time sitting up on his hind legs waving one of his front legs to get some one's attention. When he was a very tiny kitten and I first realized there was a problem with his legs and he was not more then a week old I took him to the vet. The vet was absolutely amazed by his deformity and he told me that he figured he would probably learn to overcome his front legs however over time they might start to give him problems as he got older. I can honestly say that as time has gone on there is not sign of them giving him an ounce of problems. Lucky is now 7 yrs old and with no sign of ever slowing down.

Unlike some of the other cats I own now or have owned in the past Lucky does not like sitting in any one's lap. He prefers perching up near your head on the back of a chair or the back of a sofa. His gentle ways and lovingly face rubbing that he does warms any one's heart that sits near him. In the seven years that we have had him he has only sat in my lap twice and I think Rose's once. They always say cats have staff and dog's have friends. Lucky is one of those cats that would never make you feel like you were his staff, even if you are.

OK more about Lucky later.

More Pet's Then The Average Bear.

So let me start by saying I have more pet's then the average person. I tell everyone that I have the food chain at my house. I currently have 13 cats, 1 bird, 2 dogs and 4 fish. We started this adventure 11 yrs, actually if I re-evaluate it started even before that. I would love to say I don't know how it all happened but I would be lying if I did.

Let me first start by saying that my husband isn't able to walk away when it comes to animals. Now this is not what I was first led to believe when he and I first met and started dating. When I first met my husband he told me he liked dogs and had more then one, but he was allergic and didn't like cats. Over time I came to realize his dislike for cats was not dislike but more a mis-understanding of them.

So let's go back in time and discuss the first cat he and I ever had and how that came to be. Since I was a child I had always had cats in my life, and even a dog. My husband though up until this time had really only ever had a dog. A beagle and the later a collie to be exact. So we moved into our very first apartment together and this buff colored large cat started coming to our door. I can remember him asking what we should do as this cat kept coming to our door day after day and meowing at it. Now mind you we lived in a 2nd floor apartment, so the cat had to climb the numerous stairs to get to our door to meow. It was late summer, beginning of fall when this occurred to. I told him that no matter what we did that we couldn't feed the cat as it would never go home if we did. A few days after that conversation my husband couldn't take it so he gave the cat a can of tuna fish. I knew this would seal our fate with the cat and it did. So we took the cat in and I named him Missy, and because I had cats in my younger life made me the expert of course. Did I mention I was in my twenties and knew nothing??

So this was how Missy came to be with us. He was a very hansom cat, but he didn't like very many people. He was the type of cat that would swipe you with his claws out as you walked by just being in his space. He also preferred women over men for some reason and he definitely liked adults over kids as well. For me he was great company, but my husbands lack of cat understanding made his time with us not last long. So he eventually had to go live with my mother-in-law once I found out I was pregnant.

After Missy we were pet free until we moved to Wakefield where again my husband brought a stray cat home but I will explain that adventure in my next post cause I have to run.