Animal Love...(not the freaky kind some sickos engage in)

I have always believed that you can tell alot about a persons character by whether or not they like animals. I think animals are wonderful. I had my first experience with a pet (if you do not consider the gold fish who kept committing suicide by jumping from their bowl onto my bedroom floor..(yeah try explaining that to a four year old) and a failed rabbit attempt..soon after she arrived and started chewing up the carpet and telephone wires she was sent to a "farm") when I was ten and for Christmas our parents got us a minature sheltie as a huge surprise gift. Never in a million years did I ever think my Mom would allow a dog in her house. But in the house he came an adorable ball of soft fluffy fur full of energy and love. We named him Co-co and he was our baby for ten years. He saw us through the ups and downs of childhood and into our teenage days. The day he had to be euthanized was one of the saddest days of my life. I still remember standing around the veteraniary table with my Mom and Dad and through my tears seeing tears in their eyes. Since my Mother opened the door to Co-co and in my heart that special spot that only the love of a pet can fill many more adorable bundles of feather, fur and paws have come in and out of my life. I have also had Epithany (my blue and white budgie who did crazy things like lay eggs even though she was a single lady, sit on my shoulder and give my cheek "kisses" and mimic some sounds she heard), Skat (the rodent who I was not the biggest fan off but he justified his existance some what), Carly (oooooh the princess..there are not words to describe all that this beautiful graceful Golden Retriever was..she was a suck like an in your face whine until you pet me kind of suck, she was a flirt preferring men to women..like sit between you and any male companion on the couch kind of flirt so that he could only pay her attention..she was just so loveable), Dawson (the male Golden Retriever companion of Carly and an embodiment of dopey but so full of love), Casper (or as we called him the wolf...he was a white sheppard he was as rare as he was beautiful and fiercly protective of those he loved)....

At my Dad's there still exists Beau (a ginger colored male tabby who has more nights out on the town than yours truly and with a firey personality) and Kali (also known as Kali O'Malley and my Dad's feline princess...like he buys her favorite meat when he goes to the deli as much as he may deny it, it is the truth). Last but not least there is Paris (another stunning Golden Retriever who they are fostering for a breeder...Paris story is really a journey about a dog who is learning to be a dog after way to much time spent confind to a cage...she has to provide the breeder with one more litter and than she will be "fixed" and allowed the life she should have been since day one that of a pampered house pet)

The three that currently hold that place that only a pet can fill in my heart right now are of the feline variety; Safari, Storm and Snug. Only Snug is mine the other two are my nephews who are currently residing with me temporarily. I grew up with Safari he came into my life a couple of years before Co-co had to be euthanized in fact when we first got him he terrorized Co-co smacking him in the nose and swatting at his feet from under the bed. They eventually grew to love one another and Safari picked up some traits from Co-co (he will "knock" on a door when he wants in a closed off room, he will sit if you show him a treat my Mom used to call him a "catdog"). Storm or as he is often called Stormy or Worm came a few years after Safari and by that time Co-co was already in an eternal slumber. Storm is the only cat I know who eats for the pleasure of eating and not just as a survival instinct (and he is a he and not a SHE..) this puts him on a pudgy but very happy and friendly side of life. He is also capable of holding conversations and announces himself when he walks into a room or responds when you call his name. Snug is my rescue project a former coworker found him at the tender age of five to six months shivering in a rainstorm trying his darndest to get into a friend of their's apartment window. I will always remember the morning I got that call; originally I agreed to take him until they found his forever home. The first time I laid my eyes on him and he jumped (not even lying there) into my arms, snuggled into me and looked up at me with those sad little eyes I knew he had found his forever home with me. I named him the following morning after he spent all evening cuddled into me and trying to nestle himself in even closer to me.

Today I live with the three brats (ahhh cats) in a one bedroom apartment and despite all my joking about ending up an old cat lady; there is worse company to be in than that of my three furry comrades. Sure they can be annoying when they wake me up to feed them in the morning or when they use my bed as a wrestling mat in the early morning and yes I do not like them very much when I am cleaning their litter (aka digging for sh*t in a miniature sandbox)...I am beginning to really not like them where was I going with this?....oh right...yeah despite all their crap I love the little furry beasts...

As you can see as long as I am breathing there will be a place in my heart for those with feathers, fur, paws, beaks and scales (I also have a fish aquariam)...