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Our Empty Nest Pets

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My  Pet "Children"

 When You aren't Feeling Well
The Day I "Burped" the Cat! The Maltese Crime Stopper!
Our Puppies  
   

My "Pet Children"

by Pamela Jenewein

 

Thanks for letting me share in my wealth.  My fur-babies have been a true blessing during the past 3 years. This first part is about my puppies, but I have some cats and finches too. They?re pictures and stories will follow. :)

"Finneghan & "Echo",  brother and sister, are 3 year old American Toy Fox Terriers. Their birthday coincides with my quit smoking date; they were born September 21st, 2007 whereas I quit smoking September 20th, 2007. How this dynamic duo came into our lives?my previous pet-child, a Scottish terrier named Ben passed away from old age in 2006; also reason for my moniker - Scottieluvr. During that time I was a PCOS survivor just entering premenopausal aggravated by adrenal shutdown and inherited hypothyroidism. Then our youngest daughter was starting high school, thus cutting a zillion apron strings along the way too. Was not a great time for me, emotionally or physically. 

With Ben?s death a year old, hubby and I thought it time to get another puppy.  I wanted a dog that would hang out with me, and was small enough to lie in my lap as I worked/played on my computer. Hubby just wanted to make me happy; after months of hormonal anger, crying and sadness. This was his ?fix-it? moment for sure. Also, we both agreed that we would train them to be travelers too ? no more kennels and pet-sitters. Any way?we intended only one puppy, but when visiting the breeder we all fell in love with the fully black-face sister of the male we?d chosen. So walked away with two puppies instead of one.

Since Finn and Echo?s arrival my empty nest symptoms have not been as severe.  However during those periodic ?meltdowns?, because of something negative one the furless-children has done, they are a great comfort. Even our 16 year old daughter notices how I am not ?hovering? around her after coming home from school. They enjoy watching  NCIS with me, hanging out when I do crafts, or when exercising and even enjoy gardening during the summer. Their loyalty and companionship remind me how important I am ? at least to them. They also remind me that I am still a loveable person and someone enjoyable to be around. My husband calls them, ?Pam?s Shadows? or ?Pam?s Entourage?. Like with two-legged children I have company in the bathroom, bedroom and kitchen; when doing laundry or outside watering plants.  They are excited to see me even when getting out of the shower.

Not much of dog lover, my husband attached himself to Echo. When he goes to bed she follows?when he sits at the computer she wants in his lap. When she became severely ill from Liver disease he actually cried; fearing her death. Finn and Echo pleasingly fill my care-taker needs while converting a dedicated cat-lover, my husband. We love them so much that we actually designed a web site in their honor, including using their faces for Facebook avatars every chance I get.

Click any of the pictures to enlarge

My Cats

This is Snickers, a 17 year old long-haired tabby. She came to us via a co-worker in 2004.  She was ten years old then and they were going to take her to the pound; because she kept attacking the furless-babies whose cries upset her. At first she attached herself to our daughter Samantha, but as Snickers got older she attached to me. Given her advanced years, she snores like a bulldozer on cement, grouchy as the Grinch, but as fun loving as a kitten every morning at 3am. We are all bracing for her passing, as it will be unexpected and felt deeply.

Meet Leonardo Di Vinci - or Leo to friends and family. He came to us as a kitten over 9 years ago. He?s the farm mouser, mole extractor, opossum pursuer, raccoon hunter and ground hog chaser. He climbs pine trees in a single leap, scatters birds with the elegance of a predatory lion, and lounges around like a lizard on a hot rock. Mostly an outdoor cat, he comes inside when the weather turns nasty, but prefers the doghouse on the front porch for sleeping.

And last but not least......

Fumi and Lumi the finches ? that is ?dark? and ?light? in French. They perform death-defying summersaults, can out sing any American Idol hopeful, eat their weight in seed, and bath in the smallest of water bowls. They enjoy warm rains simulated by the shower, amaranth seed sticks, cuddle bones, and watching Finn jump in front of their cage. (He wants them to fly about, so literally jumps to get them moving.) Fumi and Lumi are joint sponsors in the annual ?Seed Throwing Contest? here in southwestern Michigan? trying to out do the other in throwing bird seed the farthest from the cage. I think Fumi is in the lead?it?s not certain though.

 

 

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The Day I "Burped" the Cat!

By Jeanine Herrin

Ok, first off, this took place when our one and only grandson was only a few months old so I was still pretty much in the early "Nana" days. J

And, a little background on "Hoppy" (the cat). He's a Manx and a large one too, that likes to jump on the back of my desk chair when I'm sitting at the computer

then proceed to crawl over my shoulder, down unto my lap then turn around, stretch out and put his head on my shoulders. Somewhat like holding an infant, get the picture now? LoL

He also has a little "Hip Dysplasia" from having no tail at all and very long back legs, when he runs he looks a bit like a rabbit, hence came the name "Hoppy". He gets around quite well though

and can jump like a rabbit! His mother, which we still have, is also a Manx but has a little stubby tail, she's another story all together!

 

Well back to the story, he did this one morning while I was sitting at the pc reading something and I started petting him, then without realizing it was patting him on the back and rocking the chair back

and forth, that was when he 'burped' and I realized just what I was doing! I had just subconsciously gone into "Nana" mode. I think he was as startled as I was afterwards. After a fit of laughter (which I

don't think he appreciated) I put him down and got back to work.

 

 

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By "Zookeeper"

Two of my dogs have quite a story behind them. My husband was working on a pipeline job site away from home last year when a mama dog wandered onto the site and had a litter of nine puppies. Then she disappeared. So, there were nine one day old abandoned puppies and my husband felt he had to do something. He was in a very remote part of Alabama and there were no rescue groups and he couldn't get in touch with a vet. I did some research online and came up with a homemade puppy formula recipe. He went out and bought everything he needed and bottles and so began the puppy drama.

Neither of us had ever bottled raised puppies before so, unfortunately, we lost four of the little guys in the first few days. But the remaining five did great and kept growing and getting stronger. At six weeks, he gave four of them away and kept one to be his travel companion. Whenever he is on a job site, Annie goes with him and stays by his side.

About four weeks after he had given the others away, we found out through the grapevine that one of the guys (jerk) we gave a pup to had changed his mind and dropped the dog off at Rabies Control - a no adopt shelter. We were beyond mad!! All of the puppies were given away with explicit instructions to call us if anything changed and they couldn't keep them or didn't want them anymore.

I immediately got on the phone and started networking with friends and local pet businesses to find someone to help me get that puppy out of Rabies Control. Just in the nick of time, a terrific animal rescue group came through and successfully helped me get him out of there. It was a miracle. We named him Lucky and our plan was to find him another home, a better home this time. But the plot thickens...

I had Lucky at our house for about two days when I noticed he wasn't eating and he was throwing up a lot. I took him to the vet only to find out he had parvo (probably from that nasty, awful shelter). The vet gave him a 25% chance of survival with treatment (VERY expensive treatment). He recommended putting him down, but I said no way. We had saved this puppy twice already, let's try for three times. And here he is today Smiley Obviously, after all that craziness, we couldn't give him away.

At that point, we thought we had been through it all. Then Annie came down with parvo. Since we'd already been down this road, making the decision to treat her was a no brainer. She came through with flying colors and now everybody has been happy and healthy since last fall. We had them both fixed over the winter with no major complications (thank God).

Anyway, that's my story Smiley Annie and Lucky aren't even a year old yet and it's already been quite a journey with these two.

 

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When You Aren't Feeling Well

By Pawsrus

Member of Our Empty Nest Pets Forum

Animals are amazing. They are in perfect synch with what is going on, and if you are under the weather they seem to know that too! Thought I'd share a short story about such a time.

I was just getting over a horrible stomach virus. You know, the kind when you can't move for two days and run a high fever. Well, finally the fever broke, and I just couldn't stand being away from seeing my horse for one more day. Still really weak and wobbly on my feet, thought I would venture out into the field, and about halfway out, I was looking for a place to sit down, and felt it probably wasn't such a good idea to do this. With no where to sit, I steadied myself by a pine tree.

My horse sees me, starts whinning, and comes over to me very fast.Oh goodness I thought, he is so excited, he wants to say hi, and when 900lb+ wants to say hi, you are going to say hi! Smiley I braced myself thinking I would be knocked off my feet, but just as my horse got within a foot of me, he stopped, looked at me, and craned his neck so he could hear my stomach. Then just as gentle as he could, he took his cheek and rubbed it every so gently exactly where I was hurting! Now that is love, and talk about TLC!

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The Maltese Crime Stopper!

by Pawrus (this is a cute one)

Member of Our Empty Nest Pets Forum

Hi Everyone, and thank you for your warm welcome! Smiley Love your website, and the pictures and stories are fabulous! Since many here seem to have a smaller and white colored dog, thought I would share a story about my Mother-In-Law's Maltese.

She lives in a condo community towards the end of the development which can tend to get quiet after about 10:00 p.m. Her Maltese is always on duty watching over their community. One of the things he can see is a dumpster a few yards away. He takes this dumpster seriously as his own.

One night, he was sitting on the back of the couch looking over his area and barking. Nothing unusual - just two cars sitting outside by "his" dumpster talking. Next night, the same thing, he was barking his head off. After all, who do these people think they are parked next to "his" dumpster? On the third night, the same thing happened, but this time my Mother-In-Law called the police. Sure enough, these people were selling drugs, and this little Maltese broke up the ring! Good things really do come in small packages!

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