Pets

I was meant to put this post up yesterday but when I got home from work I was just so tired that all I could do was ignore the laptop and go straight to bed! Do you ever get days like that, random days of extreme sleepiness? I have no idea where it came from but I feel better now I've had some sleep!

Anyway the post from yesterday is about Pets, and even though it's a day late now I'm still going to write about it because it's a topic I was looking forward to. I grew up in a pet shop and we've always had a lot of animals around, honestly it doesn't feel right to not have at least one furry face about the place! We have five cats (because I'm a cat person), two dogs (because my husband is a dog person), two corn snakes (my husband's) and a load of tropical and cold water fish (jointly owned by the man and the boy). Our friends call our house 'the zoo', because as well as having plenty of our own, we have a habit of rescuing animals that are in a bad way, nursing them back to health and then passing them on to someone else who will love and care for them the way they deserve. If I talked about ALL my pets this would be the longest post ever so I'm just going to stick to the cats and dogs for now. Warning... it's going to be picture heavy...

This is Rosie. She used to live wild on a farm, having litter after litter of kittens and she'd never had any love or affection from anyone in her entire life (about 6 years). She was full of worms, covered in fleas, and she'd been sunburned so badly that her ears and nose were a mass of scabs (the edges of her ears had completely dropped off!). We took her into our house about a year and a half ago with the intention of finding her a new home elsewhere once we'd cleaned her up and got her spayed, but she was so lovely we had to keep her! Being a wild cat we thought she'd be scratchy and feral but I have never met a more affectionate and grateful cat in my life! She gets on your lap the instant you sit down and cuddles you to death, puts her paws around you like a real human hug, and just sits and LOOKS at you like she can't believe she's actually getting some love. She refuses point blank to go more than 3 feet outside the back door and most of the time won't even leave the house, it's like she's saying 'been there, don't like it much, I'll just stay here on the nice soft sofa, thanks'.

This is Poppy. Poppy is such a lovely cat, she loves cuddles and ambushing the dogs, plus she is a talking cat - you can literally have a conversation with her. You speak, then she will miaow, then you speak some more, then she miaows her answer, and so on. It's so cute! We got her as a kitten, again from a farm where she and lots of others just lived rough and fended for themselves. She was so dirty that we actually thought she was brown, until we washed her (twice!) and black fur gradually emerged from beneath all the dirt. She had also never been treated for fleas or worms and was so covered in fleas that she now has a severe flea allergy :( We keep it under control as much as possible with flea treatments and steroid injections to stop the itching but even with that, all it takes is for one flea to bite her and she's an itchy mess for ages, licking and scratching until she loses half her fur and makes herself sore all over. Despite everything she still manages to be so adorable and loving, and she rules the roost putting the dogs and the other cats in their place. She has 'small dog' syndrome... she's the smallest cat in the place but she acts like she's ten feet tall and she is definitely the boss!

Next up is Merlin. He has been here the longest and is my gorgeous Fur Baby! Merlin was found emaciated and roaming the streets of Southampton, nobody knows why or what happened to him before that but he's been nothing but pampered and spoiled ever since :-) The day I saw him for the first time, he was in a cage in the shelter; all of the other cats in the place were busy hiding and avoiding contact with everybody that visited, but Merlin came right up to the bars, put both his paws through, and did everything in his power to touch me and get me to give him a cuddle <3 that did it for me and he came home with us the very next week. I've always said that he chose me, not the other way round! The vet thinks he is part Maine Coon as he is over 7kg in weight and almost the size of a Jack Russel dog; I have always had a soft spot for really big cats <3 We had to install a dog flap for him as he can't fit through the regular cat sized flaps at all! Even though he is huge he is so placid and gentle, he just lets the other cats steal his food without so much as a grumble. I have had to start feeding him in the bathroom because the others haven't worked out how to open the door and he actually gets to eat in there instead of watching everyone else clean out his bowl :-p

Oh, and he always lays like this:

Elegant, eh? Ps. I'm the only person allowed to tickle that tummy. Everyone else gets bitten, but not me, because he's Mummy's Boy :-p

The last two cats are Phoenix (in the window) and Morpheus (in the foreground). These are the only animals we have that aren't 'second hand' - they've never known any hardship and have been here almost since they were born. Morpheus is a talking cat - he says Meh-woh instead of Miaow and it sounds just like he's saying Hello. He is such a cuddle monster and loves his long snuggles in bed - sometimes he gets carried away and wants a fuss when I'm sleeping, so he'll bat me round the face demanding tickles at 2am -_-. He's the first cat I have met who really, REALLY loves his tummy tickled, I mean rough like you're tickling a dog. He just loves it and won't bite when he's had enough like most cats do! He also wanders around the house shouting at the top of his lungs if he can't find anyone to fuss over him and he feels lonely! Phoenix his sister is the trouble maker and all round scatty cat of the household. If there is a bang or a crash anywhere in the house you know it is her knocking stuff over, hunting invisible mice, getting into mischief etc. She is obsessed with the feel of smooth surfaces under her feet, especially shiny cardboard boxes (like shoe boxes) and mirrors, and spends ages just running her paws over them like she's trying to dig a hole (but without her claws). Every window, patio door, TV and low down mirror in the house has paw prints and streaks on it because of Phoenix!

Who put those paw prints there?? It wasn't me, honest!

We had to put Oscar in a bigger tank just to save him from being catted to death!

I couldn't list all the cats without showing you the dogs, too...

This is Jasper. He was locked in a shed without any bedding or food and covered with creosote because they'd painted the shed with him inside it. His entire nose and ears were covered with blisters and you could see every one of his ribs. Now he's a pain in everybody's butt but very loyal and funny, loves to dig holes in my lawn and sit on my sofa when I'm not looking. He makes everybody laugh and he's clever too. He knows 'sit', 'stay', 'down', 'off', 'in your bed' and 'go wee wees'. Oh and if you say the word Chewy to him he goes bonkers with excitement knowing he's about to get a chewy treat bone :-p

Last but not least is Alfie. He's a miniature Yorkie who came to live with us because his owner had cancer and couldn't take care of him any more. Alfie is a proper handbag dog who likes to be carried around like an accessory as much as possible (he doesn't like walking very far, the lazy so and so!) and I swear he secretly wishes we'd tie ribbons in his hair and paint his nails. Like Poppy he has no idea he's tiny and would happily try and tear a bear apart if he got the chance, although he's deadly afraid of the dishwasher and shakes like a leaf whenever it's running. He's very proud of himself in this picture because he and my son had just won the school dog show :-D

So that's the tribe. As you can imagine it's kind of busy around here but it's worth it! There's always someone to cuddle, someone to laugh at, and someone to keep your feet warm in bed. I love watching them all and seeing their different characters, it can be hard work looking after so many at times but it's rewarding too. I wouldn't change them for the world! (Well, apart from that time Jasper chewed my new lino in the kitchen............)