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I just wanted to share
So yesterday we took our daughter's smelly ferret over for her vaccines (I don't really like that thing but my hubby and almost all the kids absolutely adore it. The only two of us that don't appears to be myself and Jessica) and when we walked in there was a large wire kennel in the lobby with three adorable little kittens (all kittens are adorable). These little guys were found in a dumpster, nursed to health and now made available to homes. There were two solid white and one solid black.
Now we already have 3 cats, Charlie 3 1/2yrs, Diamond 2 1/2 yrs and Cinnamon who is about 10 months. Charlie is mostly out doors. We rescued him and he has had such a tough life and it shows. He is Danielle's cat and tolerates the rest of us as he passes by from the door to her room. Diamond goes out during the day and in at night, we brought her home as a kitten and she would rather be left alone and then Cinnamon (strictly inside) who is our newest rescue, Siamese kitty that is very demanding! I often said we needed a kitten to entertain her and we actually tried getting a tabby kitten and her personality clashed with the rest of our animals (Cinnamon loved her).
Cinnamon could still use a playmate but I was uneasy about trying another kitten, UNTIL I saw the eyes of the little male white kitty. He has one blue and one green. Well that just did me in and I brought her home. To my great satisfaction she loves our two doggies, is nervous about Cinnamon but interacting none the less and DOES NOT like the ferret! My mom and husband have threatened to not allow me to leave the house because I always bring something home. Just for fun here is where most of our animals came from (some we didn't keep, just played the role of foster home until they found a permanent home)
Diamond we got in front of Walmart
Charlie from visiting a friend
Scraps while going to pick up Danielle and passing time at the local shelter
Emma in front of Target
Our rats from visiting our son
countless strays on the street
unwanted pets from friends and neighbors (all kinds)
Cinnamon from a shelter while trying to find our missing Charlie!
Smokey from the Humane society clinic
Ferret from Vegas
and our newest moonlight from the vet office
I almost brought an adorable lab home from the grocery store but my hubby came out and pulled me away! I admit I have a huge weak spot for animals and my hubby has jokingly said he will buy us a home with lots of land that has two houses on it spread apart. The animals can have one house and a couple acres while we live in the other. The kids and I have informed him that he will be quite lonely cause we are staying with the animals! LOL Grin
These are our fun family adventures with animals, and I just felt like sharing. My mom says I would have my own regular zoo if we could afford it and I believe she is right!
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Mikki- I have the same weakness, although I do not buy any animals because I cannot afford them, so I will usually turn my head the other way and walk past thinking about my one dog at home. I wish I could have that many animals! You are very lucky!
Mikki-That's good insight. Once Aiden was walking the dachsund wasn't really a problem anymore. He is very attached to my dad (and vice versa). Unfortunately, he was already a year old when they got him since he was a rescue and the house he came from had children--but it was a really bad situation. They're not sure what happened, but he's very scared of children. It has been 2 years now and he does do better around the grandkids (doesn't tremble as much when they're nearby), but when my new baby is crawling or on the floor, the dog will have to be kenneled--especially in light of the information you just gave me. I'll be sharing that information with my dad.
dachshunds are peculiar dogs, we had one little lady for about a year, but our yard was nothing but holes. She kept digging up the moles and doing real damage to our rental property! We loved her personality as our dog, but she was unsteady around other people, especially those crawling on the floor!! We had to kennel her when friends with little ones would visit. Now we have to do that with our scraps, but since he is old we forgive him, and it is really only the loud, fast moving ones we need to worry about, he doesn't seem to notice the quiet toddlers.
Any way, dachshunds love their own people including little ones, but some breeders recommend the little ones be their first, not the dog because they are more anxious with unfamiliar areas. This doesn't mean you can't have another child after buying a dachshund, just have a least one crawling infant when the dachshund is a baby. Just thought I would pipe that in there
Mikki Hogan
Publisher of UniqueParenting.com
Mikki-This is slightly different b/c we're talking about kids, but a neighbor of mine wanted a lot of kids...her hubby didn't. She told him she was going to ask God to change his heart...He did--they now have 5...when I heard this, I told my hubby (who only ever wanted 2 kids) that I was going to pray that God would change HIS heart regarding kids...Then Chase died and after going through that experience, my hubby realized what a gift it is to be given a child and he was ready to have as many as God would give us. We still have our unknown infertility to deal with, but I think God's can handle that as well if He wants to. And you know, I'm even content with the idea of two kids now...So it is funny how God works on us.
Maybe you should just tell your hubby that you're praying God will change his heart about the animals Grin.
We got all of our animals as rescues growing up. We had an eclectic grouping too. Always cats and dogs, a guinea pig, rabbit, finches, parakeets, fish, and hermit crabs. Oh, and my brothers would catch wild turtles and keep them outside in a pen and feed them all summer...then they'd let them go for the winter and find them again in the spring. They even found one of their turtles laying eggs and we had baby box turtles...We also rescued baby squirrels from a tree that had been cut down--a cat discovered the nest so we took them indoors. They were brand new babies--no fur...eyes weren't even open. Then we raised them until they were big enough to let go. Sadly, just a week before we were planning on letting them into the wild, two of them got into something and ate it and died. The third one made it though.
My hubby grew up with NO animals allowed. So I'm stretching him with our 2 cats and one dog-which are animal shelter rescues. LOL. I think rescued animals are the best.
My dad does have one dog that I don't like though. It's a dauchsund (hot dog dog) and when Aiden was a baby, the dog attacked him and bit him right under his eye. Missed the eye itself by centimeters. The doctor told us that he was very lucky. I was not happy that my dad insisted on keeping the dog. I felt like he chose the dog over his grandson. He did keep a muzzle on him around Aiden while he was younger. Now that Aiden is much bigger the dog leaves him alone. I don't know what provoked the attack before. Aiden was just crawling towards me and the dog darted out from a corner, snarled and bit him...So that's the only animal I have ever had problems with.
We have 4 cats, one is a new kitty that had been rescued from a dumpster and then brought to the vet (that is moonlight). He is absolutely beautiful and soooo playful. 1 Ferret, that is Danielle's silly little pet. 5 rats, our older rescues either had to be put down due to severe illness or cancer so we replaced 3 of them for the girls with babies. We have 2 remaining rescue rats that are just over 3 yrs. The male is rapidly aging now, but the female seems to be aging much, much slower. Either way this will be our last year with those two (we won't be replacing them with more Smiley We have two very small dogs, Scraps is a white chihuahua (mixed with something?) weighs 13 lbs and Emma is one we raised on a bottle, the lady we took her from said she was part Russel terrier, part mini Schnauzer, now 1 year later she has a huge underbite and bear shoulders similar to a Schnauzer, but she soooo looks chihuahua!! She is only 9lbs. We have 1 large fish tank (mine and Aaron's hobby) and that is about all!
When we are able to purchase a home with land we plan to build an aviary so Jessica (my 13yr old) can participate in the Macaw rescue. She plans to purchase two babies and raise them. And Aaron wants a chocolate lab, dad said no to the lab but we'll see. It will be a bit before we move, settle and have the money - so maybe by then he will have changed his mind
Mikki Hogan
Publisher of UniqueParenting.com
WOW Mikki, that is a lot of animals. How many do you still have?
We love animals here too but we don't have the money to even play rescue. The best I can offer is to call the local pound and hope they will come and pick them up. I would love to be able to have some pets though. I actually read an article that stated children raised with animals from a very early age have fewer allergies, what is you thoughts on it? Do you kids have animal allergies?