If you've spent more than 10 minutes with me you've probably heard me mention my animals at least a few times. If you don't know me, my pets are the peanut butter to my jelly. The love I have for them is boundless. How do I know? Well, they've tested it. Here are some stories of my crazy, hairy life.
Meet the creatures.
Minnie
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Odie
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Ichabod aka Icky
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WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
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Christmas 2011 My fiancé David walked into the bathroom with a little puppy with bow around her neck and from that moment my heart belonged to a pup named Minnie. Looking at her now, at 110 pounds she doesn't look like it but she was the runt of her litter. We didn't have a name for her at first so we just called her 'Black & white girl pup' for a while. There wasn't and isn't a thing that doesn't scare her. She's had a completely sheltered life and to say she's spoiled would be an understatement so why she shakes in fear of everything is beyond me. As big as she is, Minnie looks as if she'd be a fierce and courageous dog but she's just a big baby. She has a big bark so people are often scared of her, if only they could see her when I roll a suitcase across the floor.
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AN UNEXPECTED ADDITION
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One ordinary day I was scrolling through Facebook and I came across a picture. It was a picture of a derpy boxer type dog with his tongue hanging out, standing in a very alert stance, I'd assume the person taking the photo was holding a treat or toy. I stopped scrolling. His name was Boxer, he was great with other dogs but had some temperament issues when it came to food. He needed to be fostered or adopted out before THE NEXT DAY before his "expiration date."
I held my phone up in front of David's face to show him and he pointed out he was the one to share the post! We talked about how much we wish we had the room and the money to get another dog. We were living in a tiny room at his mother's house and it was cramped already as it was. I messaged Seven Star Pet Rescue anyway and asked if there was anything we could do to help. After we realized he'd had only hours before it was too late we went ahead and changed his euthanasia appointment to a neutering appointment. They delivered him to our door the next day, still drugged up and of course nervous and confused. It was at least a year from then before he gained full confidence and became the happy, crazy boy he truly is. Needless to say, he never left and we learned how rewarding and interesting it can be to become "foster failures." 
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The cats
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Boris joined the zoo when my little brother Logan was staying with us at our new home. I don't remember if Logan was 6 or 7 but he wanted a cat and it was hard to say no to his adorable face so off to the Humane Society we went. We told him he could pick any cat so we looked in every kennel and met privately with three cats. He picked one and the people at the shelter warned us, "he's a talkative one." We laughed. They weren't joking. He wakes us up every night with his little conversations.
We thought we had a full house then. My sister's friend was talking about these cats that kept breaking into her house by knocking in her air conditioner. These people were taking these cats, driving them far away and leaving them on the side of the road to get rid of them. Somehow one of the cats kept ending up back at their home, breaking in through the windows once again. When I heard of this I told them I'd take him off their hands and that was that. We named him Ichabod. 
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THAT TIME MINNIE TRIED TO COMMIT SUICIDE
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Saint Patrick's Day is my sister's birthday. We were out to dinner when we get a call from David's family saying "Minnie jumped through a window! Hurry Home!" We rush home, not knowing very much information, we are left wondering what's going on. I pictured her running loose and I prepared myself for the adventure of chasing her through the neighborhood. When we reached the house and walked inside we find Minnie never made it out the window. She apparently broke through two windows, the first was a paneled picture window and the second was a storm window. When she fell through them she apparently came back through and in doing so she cut her wrists open on the jagged pieces sticking up from the pane. We walked in to what looked like a scene from CSI. I of course loose my sanity and can't stop crying. I thought for sure she would die of blood loss. Apparently every local vet had been called and non had been reached. On a holiday Sunday evening no one was picking up and my girl was quickly loosing blood. We went through the phonebook until finally someone called back. We left immediately to get her to sewn up. The emergency vet clinic was 45 minutes away, and since she had already been bleeding for an hour, this was problematic. It was just the cherry on top that Minnie didn't want to let me hold pressure on her wounds, she was more interested in getting a good view out the car window. When we finally get there, she of course was terrified but they got her inside and started prepping her. Then they gave us the bill. It was a whopping $600 to sew her up and they weren't going to do anything without payment. I'm pretty sure we wrote a check that had no funds to back it up.
After that ordeal, you'd think getting Minnie home would be a relief but the next month would be a challenge for us all. Carrying a 100 pound dog outside to go potty is quite the task for a girl who weighs about the same. I could manage the physical labor of helping her do her business but the hardest part was watching her struggle. I learned just how strong a dog can really be. As much as it hurt, I realized quickly that Minnie was resilient. I had to remind myself not to baby her, realizing my pity made her doubt herself. If I kept a positive attitude, so did she. |
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