While I was growing up we had all kinds of animals from cats, dogs, birds, snakes, horses, ducks, chickens, hamsters, guinea pigs, chickens, rabbits, hermit crabs, mice, rats, and even Iguana's. I love all kinds of animals, but by far my favorites are cats and dogs.
I've had so many dogs and cats and so many litters of kittens and puppies that I can't even remember them all, but I do remember that Golden Retriever puppies have to be one of the cutest breed of puppies. They are absolutely adorable.
Below are the bios for our wonderful pets that have filled our lives with love.
Dolly
Dolly is such a sweety. She is a 2 1/2 Shitzu/Poodle mix. She is about 13 lbs and is the most loving and sweet dog. We rescued her from a placed called Planet Pets who rescues dogs and cats from local shelters, fixes them up, and then puts them up for adoption. When they got Dolly she had a severe broken right leg. They thought they wee going to have to amputate it, but did two surgeries and she was able to be adopted, by us! They had put two pins in her knee and recently had to have one taken out because it moved and was causing her pain. The other one, probably won't have to because it seems to be in-bedded in the bone. Poor thing. She is doing really good with the leg, but sometimes she limps if she gets overstimulated or it's really cold. Other than that she is a great dog. She knows how to sit, down, rollover, leave it, do circles and I am working on shake. Not sure why she is not doing that yet, but we are working on it. She follows me around loves to kiss. She is the first dog that every freely kissed me with prompting. She is also the first dog that will fetch and actually bring the toy or stick or whaever back to me. She doesn't want to give it back all the time, but that's another issue we are working on, lol. She is a really happy and well adjusted dog. The shelter doesn't know where she came from etc, but I think she was in a good home and must have gotten out. She wasn't a stray for very long. Our vet thinks she was probably dropped off at the shelter because the owners couldn't afford to fix her poor leg. Maybe so, either way, we are thrilled to have her! We took her on our first road trip in October to Durango, CO. We rode the Durango-Silverton Railroad while we were there and put her in Doggie Day Care for the day. She had a blast playing with a little Jack Russel Terrier. She is very active and energetic but that night she was wiped. Reminded us of Mocha when we took her to Dog Beach in San Diego. :) We are very happy we were able to save her and give her a good home, but that trip made us realize that she needed a friend. The search began and we found her a friend with the addition of Belle.
Belle
Belle is a 1 1/2 year old blank and white Shitzu. She is a little smaller then Dolly, about 10 lbs, but they are evenly matched. They love to play all the time. We also rescued her from a local rescue here in the Denver area. We took Dolly with us to see how they would get along, and it was instant friendship. They acted like they were friends that hadn't seen each other in a long tine. They are so fumy to watch. Since she is mostly black on top and Dolly is mostly white, they look like a chocolate chip rolling around. They just crack my up. Her fosters parents said she didn't bark or lick much, but she licks me all the time now. She was a little shy at first, but now is fine. She probably wasn't sure if she was going to be shuffled around again or not. She loves carrots and loves going for rides and walks. She also loves playing out in the backyard, which makes it real fun when we have a huge storm like we did a few wees ago. :) Anyway, she has replaced Ethel as my shadow. She follows me around all the time and sleeps under my desk when I am working. I can't wait to take her and Dolly to the lake next summer and see if they like to swim. According to my mom, the Shitzu's love the water. I Didn't know this, but I am looking forward to finding out. :) Her favorite trick is to stand on her hind legs and go in circles. She will do this for a long time if I have a treat in my hand. She is such a sweetie and so glad she is a part of our family.
Cleopatra (Cleo)
Our female cats name is Cleopatra, but we call her Cleo. My friends cat had kitten and I saw her when she was only a few hours old. She was so little and pink, and I love in love with her immediately. . We took her home when she was about eight weeks. She was so scared, that she hid all day and only came out at night. Now she is about almost sixteen years old. She is less timid, but will come to us for attention when she is good and ready. Typical cat! She usually wants attention when one of us is on the computer, or doing homework. This is when she loves to sit on your lap and be petted. She’ll sit there for hours. She is a very sweet cat, but wants nothing to do with our two new puppies. She was the first one and doesn't like the fact that she's not the only pet. Oh well, she will get over it, maybe. She reacted the same way when we got Tony. She would come near me for almost two weeks. She has moved with us into five different houses, and two states. It is still hard to believe that she is sixteen and has outlived four other animals. Eben though she is grouchy and hisses at other animals, we love her and are very happy that she is part of our family.
Ethel
Ethel was our special dog. She was rescued from a home where her owner had died about a week or so before they found her. I can't even imagine the fear she went through during that week. They found her a foster home and then we adopted her. She definitely had separation anxiety, which is not surprising with what she went through. We could never crate her or cage her because it really made her crazy. I was always afraid she would have a heart attack. She was a good dog and really loved me. She became my shadow, especially after Lucy died. She was a 25 lb Terrier/Schnauzer mix who had a little tuck of hair on her head that stood up. She loved to go everywhere we went. She loved car rides and going for walks. We adopted her to be a playmate for Lucy but she was a little too big and aggressive with Lucy. She wasn't that small, but she did have a Napoleon complex. She would try to be assertive with any dog bigger than her, even a San Bernard. She was a wonderful dog otherwise and was happy as long as we took her with us wherever we went. We were never able to cure her fear of being alone.
Regrettably she only made it to about 10 years old. She was fine one day and then on Gene's birthday in May she had a seizure when we returned home from dinner. Happy birthday Gene. We had her on two types of seizure medicines for about a week then one day she wasn't even able to get up and use the restroom. She couldn't even eat. All she could do was sit there and pant. The day she died she never even slept. It was too difficult for here. Just like Lucy, it broke my heart to see her in pain. Anyway, we found out later that her lungs had filled up with fluid and that was why she wasn't able to breath. We took her to the vet who said there wasn't really much more they could do. They put her on oxygen but that would only help so long and they were surprised that she was still alive. They didn't even give her a 10% chance of making it through the night. We could take her to a animal hospital and they could put her in an cage with oxygen but that would only prolong the inevitable. I was never going to put her in a cage and leave her sick and alone. She would have been terrified. We made the most difficult decision that we have ever had to make and put her out of her misery on 6/3/2009. This was our fourth animal and it never gets easier. This one was actually one of the worse because we had to make that horrible decision. I still feel like we were selfish and killed her because it was easier than fighting for her. I know it was better then letting her suffer, but I still feel horrible. The only consolation is that she is happy and no longer afraid. Her passing left another hole within both of us. She will be missed and I miss my shadow.
Anthony (Tony)
Our male cats name was Anthony, but we called him Tony. I know, I know, Anthony and Cleopatra. We couldn’t resist. Tony was a gift from a co-worker who had three cats that had litters within a few days. We saved him from being taken to the pound. We received him when he was about five weeks old and he was extremely little. He was the complete opposite of Cleo. She did not like him at all, and never really did. He always wanted to play, but she didn't want to which caused some friction. He begged for food constantly and would even grab food off our plate, which earned him a free shower!!! lol He is very affectionate most of the time. Almost to the point of being annoying. He liked Mocha and rubbed on her. He even let her clean out his ears. Yuck! They were buddies. We loved him, and were happy that he was part of our family for almost 10 years. .
Sadly, Tony passed away on February 26, 2008 after a short span of neurotic issues. Not exactly sure what happened but he started doing circles and didn't have much energy. He was always so energetic so this did surprise and worry me a lot. Before were able to figure out what happened I had to run to CA for a family emergency. The poor thing got better and held on until I got home, but a few hours later, he was gone. I couldn't believe it happened so fast right after returning home. He was a lover but also a tomcat, thus he had a hard life. He always wanted to be out out night running around, causing trouble and getting into fights. He also had some kind of skin condition that the vet couldn't seem to figure out, but did get better once we moved to Colorado. We miss him, but are happy to know he is no longer in pain. Hopefully he and Mocha are running around together in doggie heaven!
Lucy
I LOVE LUCY!!! I know it's the name of the tv show, and I love the show, but I didn't name her that because of it. She actually came with the name Lucy. She was given to us by a friend who knew we had lost Mocha recently and were felling an emptiness in the house. Lucy's owner was moving and couldn't take her with her, so our friend thought of us, and we took her. She was a little afraid and didn't want to come out of her carrier at first. Eventually food did the trick. Once she warmed up to us, she was gold. She was the cutest, darling thing. She was a little toy poodle that only weighed about 5 lbs. She loved to go go go and we took her everywhere. She was a purse dog and we always joked about taking her to Europe in a purse. Unfortunately that never happened, however, we did get her a friend, Ethel. She was a little too big and aggressive to wrestle with, but they were company for each other. She loved me too, but she really loved Eugene. She would follow him around all over the place. Which is crazy because I was the one that doted on her. She was so precious to me. I never changed my love for her. I wanted and did take her everywhere with us. If she could go with us, she did. She was a great travel dog. Slept on my lap and never caused any trouble in the car. She always loved adventures.
It is with a heavy heart I have to say that my little Lucy passed away on 9/28/07. She was about 13 years old at the time. She had been having problems breathing and we found out that she had a a heart murmur. They did a bunch of tests and said that she had Pneumonia. They sent us to another vet but she never made it to the appointment. She passed away on our couch while I was in the kitchen trying to find something that she would eat. I was and am still devastated by her passing. Just like Mocha, I can't beleive how fast she was gone. She was fine one day and a few days later she was gone. The one thing her death did was make me realize how much Ethel really loved me. She became my shadow after Lucy died. I really loved Lucy and she will ALWAYS be loved and missed.
Mocha
This is little Mocha. We rescued her from a woman who had recently received her from a family that had basically abandoned her. She was about 7–8 years old and was the most loving and sweet dog. She was a little clingy sometimes because she had been shuffled around from 3 to 4 homes before we got her. I think she was afraid we would abandon her as well. We couldn’t ask for a better dog. She loved to go on walks and road trips. She went all over the southwest with us. We took her with us to the Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands Beach, NM. All over the place. She didn't care where we went as long as she was with us, she was happy. She would sleep on my lap on a road trip and would wake up and be all excited when we pulled off the road. She was eager to see what there was to see. She would do almost anything for a doggie treat. One summer we took her to Dog Beach in San Diego and she had a blast. We wore her out, she didnt move for the rest of the afternoon and night. We loved her and are very pleased that we had the opportunity to give her a warm and loving home. She made our house a home.
Unfortunately our little doggie passed away on September 25, 2003 after a short battle with kidney failure. I can't beleive she was gone so quickly. We only had her three and a half years. Not long enough, by any means. She was a big part of our family and we miss her terribly. I still think I hear her nails clicking on the floor. I did set up a memorial site for her at Memory of Pets and an eternal flame at Memory of Pets Eternal Flame I don’t think we will ever have a better dog. She loved to go no matter where, as long as she was with us she was happy. I think I will miss her meeting me at the door the most. Please read the memorial so you will know how much she meant to us. Even though she is gone, she will forever be in our hearts and memories.