Tell us about your other critters

Aside from you dog(s) what other critters share your home/heart?



Here is my little girl, Acorn, or more commonly called, The Kitten. She really does rule the house, but is not amused by Hudson. I washed Hudson's crate mat yesterday and now she seems to think the large crate is hers.


Here she is helping me with my job. I was working from home because of some bad weather


Here she is trying to steal my soul



Holding the box down for my SS a few years ago.



If we had better temperature control in the house, I'd love to do like fish or something, but the house is pretty good at keeping us aware of the weather outside.

Well, we have the ferrets, who are just nice enough to allow me to live in their house.

In alphabetical order, to prevent me from missing anybody

Ella, the delinquent. Her favourite activity is biting toes.

Ella Bath (2 of 5) by JessLough, on Flickr

Harley, the Perfect. Her favourite activity is telling you all you did wrong.

Harley Bath (3 of 3) by JessLough, on Flickr

Nacho, the "temporary". Favourite activity is getting head scritches.

Nacho Bath (6 of 7) by JessLough, on Flickr

Renegade, the jerk. Favourite activity is chewing Harley's head.

Renegade Bath (1 of 4) by JessLough, on Flickr

Well, up until recently, I had ferrets as well. Now, they've all passed on and with Mike potentially going into the Navy, I'm looking at another six or so years before I can welcome any more into my life.

So, the current critters I have is actually at a very, very low number compared to the past. Which is a necessity right now, but it still sucks.

This is Willie, my foster kitty. He's such a good boy and is an awesome cat. He deserves a wonderful home, but people aren't lining up to adopt a one eyed, seven year old, toothless, FIV+ cat. Which really sucks, because his personality is AMAZING. Super sweet, chill, calm, purring machine. He met Gracie today and it took him about five seconds to go from, "WTF?" to "I want to use you has a rubbing post." lol


Cid is my Winter White dwarf hamster. I rescued him about a year and a half (?) ago from my friend, after he peed on her daughter and she wanted him GONE.


Choco and Bees are my two sister rats (their pictures are in that order). I rescued them last summer from a friend's sister. They were being kept in a 20 gallon tank with only a bedding and water bottle. They are now living in the bottom half of a fortified Ferret Nation and are much happier.



And, although he is currently living with my mom and will likely always live with my mom, he is still my kitty. <3 This is Apollo, my almost 3 year old baby. He was orphaned and half dead when he was a day old and brought into the vet clinic I work at. I've had him since he was two days old. He's "special" and not all there, but he definitely isn't lacking in personality (even if it is a somewhat cranky personality LOL). I love him to pieces. Alas, due to his personality, he NEEDS to be in a home that has indoor/outdoor access and can provide a ton of mental stimulation. A 1 bedroom apartment with me gone 12+ hours a day is not it, so he stays with mom.

Here's a hint as to my other pet:






Here's SneakySnake:

And, my mom's cats, just because. These kitties were all our neighbor's barn cats that decided they liked a heated house, fresh water, and regular feedings in their own bowls better than being intact, fighting for food, hunting for water, and fighting for a place to sleep:

Penelope, the resident old lady. She's the matriarch of all of the kitties. (Now spayed, don't worry.)


Mitzi, my dad's favorite. She's our ultimate hunter kitty and has caught quite a few rats (and bunnies ).


My sister's baby, Mikey. He's allowed inside (although, technically, so are the girls - they just choose not to come in save for a quick pet) and is spoiled half to death by my sister. She dotes on him, and he dotes on her. He pines when she's away.


And Lilly, Mikey's sister. She's a little brat, but very sweet.

OMG. Mikey turned out STUNNING.

Aw one eyed kitty is adorable.
And Apollo is so handsome!

I have Peanut. My 5 year old grey tabby that I got from a pet store in a mall (yea yea I know) when he was 3 months old. He lives with my mom because grandma isn't fond of cats and Mickey hates cats. He doesn't try to kill them but he is pretty mean to them.
Anyways, I love him. He is an awesome kitty. He is loving, playful, a smartass, a meanie, and loves cuddling. And when you are sick, he is the first thing to be at your side and wont leave until you are all better.
I wish I could upload a picture of him but tapatalk is being stupid.

June Bug rules the roost. I've had her almost as long as I've had Finnegan.


Porom's my eldest ferret. She's also the teeniest, and a princess.


Barrett's my youngest and largest. He's a snuggly beast.


Freya's my newest and my troublemaker. Also: cute.


And who can forget Yuffie. World domination is her goal.

I want June Bug and Yuffie.

I miss my ferrets.

And yes, Mikey is GORGEOUS. His ruff goes down a lot in the summer, but his winter coat is thick and glorious. He has the personality to match, too. Complete and total chill baby.

Well, we only have three cats aside from the two dogs... however, my dad is going to get me to help him find a senior cat to adopt once he finds a house to buy. So, then it'll be up to four but until then...

There's Kumah. He's seven now, and weighs a whopping twenty pounds. He's the biggest love bug in the world and enjoys eating people's hair and wrapping his arms around their necks for a bear hug. He's basically a live teddy bear. We got him as a kitten from my friend's parents' mechanics/feed shop after my mom went in to get her tires changed and was basically manipulated by Kumah to take him home. His mom had abandoned him and his sisters who all died shortly after we brought him home. His motor boat purr is what convinced my mom into lying to my dad about a "kitten in the driveway that looked hungry" and he told her "if he was still there tomorrow, we could take him in".



Cielo is my cat and she's about four and a half years old. We got her and her brother from the barn I ride at after both our outside/inside cats went missing. (Kumah was the first cat to be strictly indoors) She loves to play fetch and is part dog, she's also the only cat who shows no hesitation towards giving Cali a good smack if she gets too annoying. She also enjoys following me everywhere and always sits in the bathroom closet when I take showers.



Caesar is Cielo's littermate, and he's also Kumah's "boyfriend" as we call him. They spend half their time cuddling while Cielo is off on her own.



And although she's not with me anymore, I just want to post a couple pictures of Indie. I got her this past September on the 7th, after my instructor told me not to get a Thoroughbred. Better yet, she was off the track and raced for seven years. She was used as a broodmare for a couple years and was ten years old when I brought her to the barn. I think although she was sweethearted and incredibly calm (the farrier complimented her personality so many times and others at the barn did as well), she was still a racehorse at heart.

She was a speed demon when I first got her and if you even kissed once to get a canter, she'd bolt down the side of the arena. It took awhile before we could canter in a group lesson and I didn't have to worry about running anyone over. She was one smart horse though, she caught onto lungeing like a champ and always used her new knowledge to her advantage. After I taught her how to back up with zero resistance, she'd start backing up randomly before she switched to side stepping. I wanted to compete in lower level dressage with her as she had such nice movement, and had gotten a 9/10 for impulsion on her Canadian Sport Horse Association scoring back with her previous owner.

A week before she died, she had done something to her leg in the pasture and her leg was honestly the size of a stove pipe if not bigger. I had hurried to the barn when my instructor texted my mom to find her in the pasture with her leg relaxed. While I led her to the hose to coldhose it, her nostrils were flared and she struggled to walk. I started crying before we even got to the gate. But, within a week, we were having our first lesson since the injury. You could tell she was happy because she was going more forward than usual. That was Tuesday, the day before everything changed.

On Wednesday, the night of my private lesson, I was shopping. Ten minutes away from the barn, my mom told me how a parent called to tell my instructor that a horse was laying out in the field with what appeared to be blood around the face. It was Indie and she spent the whole afternoon on an IV with a catheter. Her nose wouldn't stop bleeding and my mom neglected to tell me until the last minute.

So, I spent the next two and a half hours worry and when I got to the barn... I spent about an hour and a half holding her leadrope, wiping her nose and syringing water into her mouth. I had blood all over my coat from her sneezing trying to get rid of the blood clot.

My instructor had gone inside to get a quick supper before her legs started shaking. Just as Indie reared up, I screamed and luckily, my instructor ran in just in time to help Indie get to the ground more calmly which I couldn't have done. I stood there petting her shoulder in the midst of her legs kicking out until they stopped. I just kind of stood there watching before leaning back down to pet her. The vet had been called around ten minutes before but didn't get there fast enough. Her eyes rolled into her head and I just knew, I looked up at my instructor and she just hugged me. A woman from the barn and her daughter had come after seeing my mom's facebook status, but I don't think all of the hugs in world would've comforted me. After a good fifteen or more minutes of sitting beside Indie and rubbing her shoulder, and whispering how she could crib on everything she wanted in Heaven... I knew I had to leave. Everything except her shoulder was cold, I even had my mom take a picture of my hand on her shoulder but I haven't looked at it. Indie was buried the next day in an opening up in the field.

She taught me a lot, and we had formed a strong bond despite only having two and a half months together. I only hope my instructor was right when she said they were probably the best months of her life, because I know they were the best of mine. I had waited eight years to own a horse and it was worth it. Indie was perfect.

On the left was Indie at her previous owner's and on the right (excuse my horrible position!) was after a month together. She was showing lots of improvement.



You can see her cribbing collar in the background. I always cleaned her face with baby wipes including the outsides of her nostrils, and sometimes if I went a little bit too far, the smell would cause her to "smile"...



I have loads more pictures but here is a final one. This was her "Jamaican" look, I braided her whole mane (only took about two and a half hours ). She usually only had her forelock in a french braid but I figured with all the rain, I might as well braid the whole thing... plus I had lots of extra time that day. I was usually at the barn five to six days a week with her.



She may not live thirty minutes away anymore but she's forever going to have a place in my heart and every future horse I own will be compared to her.

Jinx. My major PITA.


Finnick. Troublemaker but his personality makes up for it usually.


Poncho. He's a pretty big troublemaker too.


Reptar. Squishasaurus, too simple-minded to cause trouble.

Julius (Orange Julius), the even-keeled patriarch. He will be 16 in a few months. We got him and another cat (who has since passed away) from the local humane society.


Raggs. She's exceptionally sweet but not so bright. I adopted her when she was about 6 months old from a client whose son turned out to be life-threateningly allergic to her. She is 14.


Gertie. We fostered her pregnant mother at the clinic and all of the kittens and the mother ended up with employees or clients. She is the quintessential "hands off unless I say so" cat although she is actually extremely sweet on her own terms. She is 12.


Solo. Someone walked into the clinic with a tiny, eyes-not-even-open kitten he had found in his yard. I took him home, bottle raised him "just until" we could find a home for him... which of course turned out to be OUR home. He will be 10 in a couple of months.


Magic, the Senegal parrot. We've been together since my college days, she is almost 24 years old and I got her when she was a wee baby.

In my home we have:

Sir David "The Cutes" Bowie (AKA: Bowie, Bubba, Chubba, Chubbalubs, Chubbylove, DogCat, FatCat, Fatty, KiKi, Kit Bull), (almost) 4 year old neutered male brown and black FatCat. He's my baby and I love him to bits. His hobbies include, playing fetch with bottle caps, knocking things off of high places when he's angry, smacking the dog when he runs by, cuddling at the most inconvenient times, begging for whatever you are eating, cuddling with the dog when no one is looking, jumping on top of the gerbil tank, and more! He also nursed two 6 week old kittens as if they were his own.

When we first got him:


Comforting me when I got all four wisdom teeth yanked out of my skull:


Letting the babycats, Sophie and Ziggy, nurse on him:


Grooming babycat, Ziggy:


Fetching a bottle cap:


Fetching a ball, because he's actually a dog:


About to smack the spit out of Saxon as a puppy:


Stealing a button off the table:


Cuddling when I'm trying to do homework:


Cuddling with his princess:



More pets to come!

Princess Ziggy Stardust (AKA: KiKi, Princess, SmallCat, Smally, TinyCat, Ziggy), (almost) 3 year old spayed female grey and cream TinyCat. She's my princess and I love her to bits. Her hobbies include, playing fetch with receipts, climbing to the top of very tall things, running from the dog, cuddling at the most inconvenient times, meowing at you for wet food whenever you go in the kitchen, drinking from your glass, cuddling with the dog when no one is looking, opening cabinets, walking around the room meowing at the ceiling, and more!

TinyCat at 6 weeks:


Sleeping with Bowie and her sistercat Sophie (who now lives with the OH's brother):


A love fest with Bowie:


Ziggy going for my iced tea:


Meowing at me for wet food:


On top of the door, because that's normal:


Sneak cuddling the dog:


She opened the cabinet to get to her treats:


Shoulder cat:


Begging as a team:


One more post after this!

Finally, we have the Gerbils! Neljä and Viisi (Finnish for Four and Five). AKA: GerBulls, The Girls, The Spot Nutmeg Sisters, Nelli and V. Intact female spot nutmeg (the name of their color) gerbils. Their hobbies include chewing, squeaking, exploring the bathroom and cuddling. They are my only pets from an ethical breeder, the others are rescues.

My favorite picture of the girls, taken the day I got them:


The girls in my lap:


Neljä in my hand:


Viisi in my hand:


Gerbutts!

I don't have one yet, but I plan to get a crested gecko in a few short weeks opcorn:

The rest of our critter family consits of Shaker, our Mini Rex rabbit (pictured taken May, 2012). Hard to believe he'll be 10 at the beginning of May.



We also have two fish- a neon and another tetra that I forget the name of. They're staying in the school library until we get back in our house.

ETA- oh yeah, and our "spare bunny" that appears every year around the time that Shaker is shedding.

I have two cats, Sneak & Brody. Sneak is a DMH, rescued from a place where him & his siblings were being used as targets for these guys and their BB guns

Brody is a Ragdoll from a breeder in NC. LOVE Ragdolls, they are the best cats!

This is Sneak:





And Brody:





Depending on the lighting, his eyes are all different shades of blue, it's pretty neat.

I keep them in "lion cuts" most of the year, you can kind of tell in the first picture of Brody. But it's winter now so they're allowed to be fluffy, for now anyway.

Omg Brody's eyes *swoon* Gorgeous cat <3