To Our Pets!

The last year has been a rather rough one as far as pets go. While I was pregnant for Little S, our outside cat, Simba (not pictured), was attacked by the neighbors dogs. He was old and they killed him. It all happened while I was at work and hubby was at home. He cleaned everything up before I came home, thankfully, for I was quite distraught. Simba had came with the property when we bought our house about 6 years ago. He was a good old cat but we weren't as attached to him as our inside pets. I felt horribly guilty about that after he was gone...

Then, we had Critter. We got Critter about a week after we got married. She was a tiny kitten that we found under hubby's grandma's porch. From that point on, she was a spoiled inside kitty cat. She was our first "baby" and made us feel like a family instead of a couple from the start of our marriage. A couple months ago, Critter started acting strange and refusing to eat. I took her to the vet and had X-rays done. Her chest was completely filled with fluid and one kidney was about 4 times the size of the other one. She was diagnosed with Feline Infectious Peritonitis. I brought her home to say goodbye. A couple days later we had to put her down. She was a good cat and we do miss her!

Critter Cat

This brings me to our Abby! We brought Abby home right after we bought our house. We were actually looking for a Golden Retriever type dog that we were going to name Ruger. :) Somehow, we ended up at the local humane society. There had just been a litter of 14 puppies brought in by a police officer. They had been abandoned along the side of the road with no mommy. These puppies were SOOO tiny! Most were black and brown...all but one! While gawking at the pile of puppies, a little white one with a black ear managed to climb up and over the puppy pile to see us. Hubby immediatly grabbed her up. She was so tiny that he didn't even have to unlatch the gate, she fit thru the crack! He firmly and excitedly said, "We're taking this one home!" I was completely against the idea. We had just barely moved into our house and didn't have anything for a dog...but who can resist a little bundle of puppy? :) We thought she might be a Jack Russell Terrier and brought her home. We guessed her to be about 4 weeks old. We gave her puppy milk for a little while and babied her terribly! Each month, she doubled in size and we quickly found out that she was NOT a Jack Russell!! LOL

Our Abby is now a long, lean grown up dog that weighs in over 60 lbs. She is SUPER spoiled and is still adjusting to having Little S in the house taking her attention. Overall, she's doing well with the transition though. She lives inside with us and often sleeps on the foot of our bed. Now, she is our only pet. If I have my way, she will be our only pet for a long time. She is a wonderful hound and a loving, fulfilling part of our family.

Here's to the pets in our lives that make the family complete!

Abby