Sad News...

Rachel, I'm glad you are thinking of adoption. The need for good homes for cats and dogs is almost overwhelming as I'm sure you know. I know your new family member(s) will bring you great happiness. Two kitty’s are even more fun to watch grow up because of their unique play habits. Mike

Are we going to get to see pictures..? What are you going to name it..? How about "Wheatback"..? or "Mr./Mrs. Lincoln".?

catman

Hey Rachel, if you name the first one ODie, then you can name the second one Garfield (which will still be named after a coin when the Presidential series comes out).

I'm sorry to hear of your loss Rachel, I did want to write something earlier by I wasn't sure how to begin, because it'd come out all wrong.

My problem is with pets I don't get that sentimentally attached to them as most people do. I think that's mostly because I've been in a house that's had animals of all shapes and sizes and I guess I learned to cope with the comings and goings over the years.

We've had everything from rabbits (my mother used to breed them for the pet shops), we used to breed pedigree cats. We also had dogs, kept chickens, quail, geese, snakes, the parrot (oh the parrot!), tropical fish, goldfish and I'm sure there was something else... oh stick insects, oh and cockerteils.

Unfortunately as you can image many have died over the years and many had to be put down for one thing and another. My parents were the animal mad ones, I to be honest have never really liked having pets (except for the cats which were my idea), dogs I'm actually not happy with, I don't like them in the slightest, never have.

I think out of all those I was most upset on two occasions.

Firstly and most surprisingly the death of the cockerteil, that one hit me the hardest. Amusing as it may seem compared to all the other animals we had! But this cockerteil was actually at my grandmother's for the last half of it's life (we'd sold it to them). But it had been there as long as I could remember, it was about a year or two older than me. It was about 13/14 when it died, and it was only because its new cage mate cockerteil bought to keep it company, actually ended up attacking it, they found it dead the next morning with bllod everywhere. That really upset me quite a bit. The other cockerteil sat there large as life the next morning... I had it in for that bird after that, oh I hated that thing! I cheered the day when that one escaped and flew off.

The other occasion was when I had to have one of my cats put down (not the first cat i'd had to have put to sleep), but she had been my first cat (well her and her brother were my first two cats as we got them at the same time). We got them in 1992.

Unfortunately just before Christmas 2002 we found out she had got liver or kidney cancer, I forget which now. We kept her about a week or two after having found out, just over Christmas so that she could share Christmas with us. I remember by the end she'd gone stick thin and when my father took her down on 30th December to the vets for the last time, I was not happy.

Don't think I shed many tears over most of the others though. In fact I feel kinda bad about the last one we lost below.

The brother of the cat above had been one of my favourites for many years. But before Christmas (again) he had developed a terrible cold and very bad runny nose and was clearly not well. We took him to the vets at the beginning of the year to find out that he'd actually got a tumour up the left nostril which had totally destroyed it. The sensible thing to have done (and what I would have done) would have been to have the cat put down there and then to alleviate any pain and or suffering on his part. My mother and I agreed on this, my father gets too emotionally attached to the detriment of the animal's well being (it wasn't even his cat!).

So the poor cat lingered on until last thursday when my father finally said enough was enough and took the cat down to the vets to be put to sleep. I came home to the news, not to find myself upset but to find myself relived that the cat was no longer in pain and was now at peace. I think what also helped me was that I hadn't spent as much time with the cat in his final years because my allergy to animal fur had worsened.

I don't think i'll get any more animals.

Although if I was forced to get another it'd probably be a goldfish or something. I occasionally toy with the idea of a pet spider because I really like spiders, but my mother doesn't!

Rachel,

May I suggest a numismatic name?

Hey, that's not fair! I've only done that about one or twenty-five times! ....just for the record here's the "Real" line up.....Jasmine, Jake, Timmy, Bob, Aimee, Emily and Tommy. That's the cat family. The dogs are Daisy, Sara and Giovonni. My daughter "kitnapped" Tommy, Jasmine, Emily and Giovonni(he thinks he's a cat anyway) when she moved out. We have the other six "kids"....all the other ones are e-dopted, either for cuteness or homliness! Mike

Good news! I am now the proud "Mommy" of a eight-week-old gray tabby kitten named Hayley. One of the techs at the vet's office lives on a street called Hale Avenue and found her in her yard, hence the name. I was considering changing her name to "Morgan" or "Stella" or something like that but Hayley suits her well. She's standing on the keyboard as I'm typing this so if something doesn't come out right that's why. Guess she's trying to say "hi". I'm gonna borrow Dad's digital camera tomorrow and try to get some pictures of her to post!

Rachel [:p]