The furbaby journey

As I mentioned, we had at our peak, 4 dogs, 2 cats and 2 fish tanks. I want to point out that I also grew up with these 2 lovely ladies, who have since passed.

Thankfully, they lived full and happy lives. I wish I had better pictures, but they were around long before I had any sort of fancy camera. Kacey, the yellow lab, was 15 when she died, from something going on with her throat. It continued to close and they did the surgery once, but it wouldn't stay fixed. Zena, the chocolate lab, is actually one of Kacey's puppies. She died at 13 from cancer in the stomach that continued to spread. They lived happy lives, and my stepdad was a happier man because of them. They were my childhood pets, and we had been through a lot together. I'm sure you'll hear more about them down the road, but for now, I want to tell you all about our crazy zoo now that I'm all grown up and can get into these messes on my own.

Mickey is my oldest animal. She has been around for about 10 years now, give or take a year. I wish I could remember all my animal's birthdays, but to be honest, I don't know the exact days, and roughly the years, until I look at their paperwork. She moved in with us in our new house and was not a fan.

Next came the twins, as I like to call them. They're brother and sister, Alaskan Malamutes. I have to say it was all the hubs' idea to get the furriest animals he could find. I wish he opted to do all the vacuuming thanks to all the fur he decided to bring into our lives, but that just doesn't happen.

I mean how do you resist?

 

After about six months, I had heard about some puppies that needed good homes near our house. I asked someone who knew the people who had them (people suck when they just let dogs make dogs, fyi). One look and I was hooked. That's how Sadie came to be a part of our family. It took a while for the twins to warm up to our little maniac, but she does just fine now. She is probably the smallest lab/pit mutt I have ever met, topping out at about 40 pounds.

She was so tiny. Hilarious.

 

As you can imagine, Mickey was rather pissed at this point. All the dogs in the house and she pretty much stayed in the basement to keep away from the cold noses up the butt. I decided she needed a friend. Along came Bella.

She's loud and obnoxious, but we love her. She mandates that I play hide and go seek with her at least once a day, and insists on everyone knowing that she's in the room.

 

At this point, we were pretty much losing our marbles, but we couldn't resist when we found out our breeders of the twins were having another litter. "Let's just go take a look and play with the puppies."

Yeah....that didn't happen. Kaz happened.

I won't bore you with the fish. As you can imagine...big tanks of water filled with fishy things. Some day they might make an appearance, but not today.

 

So that's the whole zoo. Sending you virtual cookies for reading the whole thing. I promise all the posts won't be this long. It's shedding season, so I'm off to brush the dog again, and then cry as the fur flies in the fantastic breezes coming through our windows tonight.