The Pets We Love

When we were city dwellers, we thought it would be nice to have a cat. Well, truth be told, I didn't think I wanted a cat but went along with my man's wishes. I made one request... purebred... Persian. I'm so naive - little did I know that their long gorgeous fur gets into and onto everything! No matter, Sasha was such a sweet thing. I loved her so much that the fur issue just faded to black. No wait... you know what I mean. Never, ever wear black to my house.

We felt a bit guilty for leaving her home alone while we both worked full-time jobs so we got her a companion. Half Persian and half domestic, pure white and the cutest thing. We named him Corky but he had attitude and that kind of pet just ends up owning a nickname. His was to be Beans, meaning he was full of them.

It was two years ago that Sasha was diagnosed with bowel cancer. I had another 2 months after the bad news to treasure my sweet gift and the decision to have her put down before she suffered too badly was the hardest thing I ever had to do. And, exactly one year later, my Bean was diagnosed with diabetes but he didn't respond well to the insulin and he passed away in his sleep at the kitty hospital. I was supposed to bring him home the next day. Poor little guy must have felt that I abandoned him. He was my little shadow, following me everywhere.

They both lived 12 years and had very good lives. I miss them terribly.

Now, what's country living without a dog? Seems natural, don't it? So, naturally we just had to get us a dog. Yup, country folk have dogs. Enter gentle Mike.

We opted to search for our doggie friend at the SPCA and I had not a clue what we were looking for, but my man was sure that he'd know the dog for us when we found him. "Come here," he says, "check out this dog. He's the one." I am ashamed to admit I was a dog snob, looking for the pretty/handsome purebred. He was a mix of Australian Cattle Dog and whatever else is anybody's guess. He turned his back on my man but when I walked over he greeted me with warm, gentle brown eyes. This dog? Why this one? "Because," he said, "I see in him something that I once related to. He's been abandoned and appears to have given up but there's a tenderness about him and we need to give him a good home and a reason for living." Good enough for me. He's such a good dog and we introduced him to our two cats without a problem. Well, Beans would give him a bit of grief but tolerated Mike pretty well. Life with our pets was good. After the loss of my Sasha, we decided on another dog. Why not? We're country folk and it's natural. After researching the breed Australian Cattle Dog, we began our search for a purebred ACD and rescued a special needs dog from Ontario. We had NO idea what we were getting ourselves into! What a bundle of energy. I'm going to save his story for my next entry as I could be here for a very long time telling about life with a blind dog named Colby.