What I learned from my Pets

[Eddie Munson]

So I wanted to start a thread about inspirational pet stories. I kind of got the idea from the book: "Chicken soup for the Soul: What I learned from the cat". Basically, I just want to know about your pets and how they've influenced your life.

I made some userbars for the thread for you guys to use in your sigs. c: the little animals were all icons free for use on dA. I did not make the animal sprites, I do not take credit for them.

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So; I'll go first.

Rules:
1) The obvious no SPAM
2) You may post pictures, as long as they are appropriate.
3) follow the site rules
4) Please try not to use Chat speak. (lol, lmao, omg and such are allowed)
5) Remember to respect one another, because pets have different value and meaning to different people.

When I was 13 my cat Lucky ran away from home, or so we thought. I had never realized how much a cat can influence your life. He was my best friend for years, and he was always there for me. It started to really sink in that he wasn't coming back after a couple of weeks. I would sit and stare out the window, and watch for him.

Unfortunately, Lucky was poisoned, and he died in our Garage.

About three weeks after that my mom took me to the shelter because I was moping a lot. She took me straight to the kittens and told me to pick one. I was devastated that she wanted me to forget about my cat so easily. I didn't want another kitten, and I felt like I was betraying my best friend by being there. I turned and walked away down the hall toward the back cages. I started to pet the more grown up cats that actually wanted my attention.

Mom protested that she wanted a kitten... but my eyes fell on her.



She was the only kitty not begging for my attention. When I picked her up, she just felt right... and when she looked at me, it was like she was saying:

"I know how you feel right now, Everything will be okay."

So I took her home and she instantly took over my room and my house. She became my best friend, and she always sleeps at the foot of my bed. She helped me move on and stop grieving, and since then she has been amazing emotional support. I learned a lot from my cat, and I'm still learning from her.

[laulaminen]

Aw, your cat is beautiful ^-^ I love your story!

Anyways, I have two stories :3

Harlequin



Harlequin, is my beautiful Black Lab cross. She was given to me by my older sister, who had allergies and just simply coudln't keep her anymore. She was pained yet happy to see her run straight for me, slobbering all over my face...Harley loved my family from the beginning; well, she didn't get used to living here for awhile though... She is energetic, affectionate, and protective; she will sleep at the foot of my bed every night, and will give a warning growl to anyone who gets near me while I sleep, even if it's my mother who just wants to check on me.

However, since this story must get to the lesson part sometime, I shall now bring that up. My mother, who loves how quiet and beautiful and well trained Harley is, is highly allergic to my dog. Although we have more than eight dogs, it seems it's only this angel who gives her a severe rash and swelled up throat...I was horribly sad when she said, "i'm afraid we can't keep her..." those word's scared me, not only for the fact that I was going to lose one of my best friends, but because in the beginning she was tooken in by us, she was rather depressed and missed my sister. It took more than a few month's until she finally relaxed around me, and now that I have such a sweet bond with her, if we give her up to somebody she doesn't even know (we've met before at my sister's house by the way) she will go into another great depression... Although one of the main reasons she is being sold is because of my mother's allergies, it's also because 'I never spend any time with her, and don't understand the need's of such big dogs.' Both of these are very untrue. I spend about three hours on the computer, and the rest of the day with my dogs. Plus, I have six other big dogs that are perfectly cared for...So, I don't understand this at all. -sigh-

Anyways, the lesson I learnt from this experiance is... You don't know what you have until it's gone. Harley will most likely be given to a new family in less than a week from now.

Bubbles

Bubbles is my -temporary- cat who I saved from the streets. I have seen her many time's at the public park, but have never really interacted with her until last week. Okay, here's the story: Me and my friend bike-rided over to this park area called 'the sand pit' where we wanted to hang out. There was this large, flattened stone that cliffed over a pit of sand where many people enjoy jumping off of. Just as I was about to jump off, I heard a cat mewing from behind us. My friend looked before me, but as soon as she did the first thing she said was "Hey, look!" This caught my attention, and I looked back to see a beautiful grey Tuxedo cat, walking around nervously. I approached it slowly, making sure I didn't scare the poor thing. I then noted it was female, and that it was most defiantly a stray. She was skinny and weak and scared at first, so I decided to take her home...Maybe not the right choice to some, but I just couldn't let her stay out there alone. I zipped her up in my jacket, and carried her home where I had to make sure my pets were distracted so they didn't frighten the poor cat. I gave her to my friend while I rounded up my pets downstairs, then let her come in back in where we raced to my room.

"She's pregnant!" This defiantly wasn't good, considering that she looked like a normal cat size. My friend felt around the cat's stomach, having experiance with this stuff (She owns five female cats, none spayed, most gotten pregnant) so I let her tell me how many kittens there were. There was seven little heads she could feel, so I felt for myself. She was right, I felt seven tiny heads in the cats body. "What should we name her?" I thought about this hard, yet I couldn't come up with something. Later that night I went on my friends chat site and told them about the stray cat I found. I told them I needed names. One of my best friends yelled "BUBBLES!" Being the nickname I call her all the time. I agreed to this, loving the sound of it. Bubbles.

Anyways, for the next week until today, Bubbles had been getting stronger; stronger than her first weak and scrawny self. She enjoys playing with my mothers cat, Vixen, and Vixens toys as well. She has taught me that just because your weak doesn't mean your not strong. I am hoping my parents let me keep her, she has made a dent in my life ever since the beginning of this week, and I want to spend more days with her and -hopefully- her seven healthy kittens.

[Eddie Munson]

I'm so sorry you have to give up Harley. It sounds like you love her very, very much. You should try some different solutions before giving her away.

I had a cat named George who I loved very much. She was dropped off at our house as a kitten and I got very attached to her very, very quickly. She was my baby, and around December she got pregnant and started to spray on the furniture. She had her kittens in March, and I was there when she gave birth to them. There were four beautiful baby kitties, Boots, Ned, Steve, and PJ. My mother gave the kittens away when I was on vacation in may... all of them 'cept Boots. For about two months we had three cats. George, Penelope, and Boots.

Boots and George were very attached to each other. They were family, so that makes sense. They would sleep together, play together, eat together, and torment Penelope together. About two weeks ago my mom took George to a farm because she was spraying on the furniture. It was heartbreaking to see Boots wander around the house looking for her mom. I can tell that she still misses her mom, because she often sulks in the box where she was born. Sometimes at night when I pet her she makes the most pathetic, sad mewling noises I have ever heard.

She misses her mom and it breaks my heart. I have never seen an animal so sad before, and I never want to see her that sad again. She's slowly getting over it.

This isn't really the point of my story. Penelope HATES other cats with a burning passion. She always has. But This morning I woke up and I saw Penelope cleaning Boots's ears. Boots was lightly playing with her tail. I guess I learned that even though two people (cats) don't like each other, they still need each other when things get hard.

[Bogart]

Alright so a few months ago my family adopted a Dogue De Bordeaux (French Mastiff) from a breeder up in Gympie. We let my father name him and we ended up with Bogart. He soon became one of the family however I was a little skeptical about this. For you see I was still recovering from the death of our last dog. A beautiful bullmastiff by the name of Rani who died of a tumor while we were away on holiday the year before. I was the most depressed by her death because I got her the very first day I started school. We were so close and a couple of trouble makers when she was a puppy.

Anyway back to bogart. As he grew I tried my hardest to bond with him but I just couldn't, I really couldn't. But I did find it funny when I noticed his fear of washing baskets. He was petrified of them. He ran a mile when he saw me bring one out to either hang up clothes or bring them in. So one afternoon when I came home from school I had to hang out a load of clothes. Bogart was down on the grass enjoying his afternoon nap or something of the sort but other than him I was home alone. As I exited the back door he came bounding up the steps and stood there in front of me. By now he had noticed the washing basket but he was acting very odd. His fur was bristling and his tail was straight in the air. He also was growling. Now I was scared. He never acted like this and I was afraid he was going to attack me. I dropped the washing basket and stepped back. He didn't move but continued to watch the basket. This was the same basket I've been using for years so it wasn't the basket that was setting him off. At first I thought it was my father's new underwear that was sitting on top of the pile but when I looked closely at the basket I got the shock of my life. Poking between the soggy clothes was a snake head. Tongue flicking out and hissing. I sadly started shrieking and ran inside. Pathetic I know but when you have a fear of snakes you're not exactly going to walk over to it and pat it on the head. I shouldn't of been surprised by the snake though. We had bush all out the back our house and we all knew snakes were going to be a problem. But I hadn't encountered one until that day.

So there I was screaming inside the house jumping around and panicking like crazy. When I finally took a breath I picked up the phone and called my mother she told me she was about five minutes away. I decided that now I was calm I would try and get Bogart inside as well. It took some convincing and a couple of doggy treats but I eventually got him in. It didn't help the washing basket was smack in front of the door though. But when he was inside I guess we both calmed down a little. He even watched cartoons with me.

When my mother came home she rang a guy whose job was to relocate snakes (I can't remember what the actual name given to these people are) He came in about fifteen minutes. We (My mother, Bogart and me) watched from the safety of the house as the man lifted the snake up out of the washing basket. I had another panic attack. IT WAS MASSIVE! I know pythons are big but to think I was practically carrying that thing, well I nearly fainted. It was big enough that if it bit my hand it wouldv'e broken something. My fear of snakes since that day have only worsened but me and bogart now are quite close. However he's got a new fear. People wearing hats. Honestly I don't know what to do with him but I love him to pieces.

So what did I learn from all this? Well to be honest I'm not sure. Bogart did help me to get over Rani a little however I still miss her deeply. While she helped me to get over nine nearly ten years of school, Bogart saved me from being bitten from the biggest snake I've ever seen in my life. Since that day like I said before, Bogart and I became close. So close that whilst during my last holidays, after I randomly came down with appendicitis at Movie World and had to be take to hospital for three or four days, I thought he forgot me. Bogart seems to forget people if he doesnt seem them for a while. But when I came home I didn't find him outside. Do you want to know where I found him? I found him in my bedroom making these whimperish noises. My parents told me he had gotten inside the house earlier that day but hadn't been able to find him. When they tried to haul him out I put my foot down and so he stayed in my room on the floor. He stopped crying after a while. But I wasn't in any mood to play. I was still hurting from my operation. But I patted him and he happily wagged his tail and gave me these funny but cute looks.

I will post a picture of him sometime tomorrow I am on my iPod currently so I have no pictures available of him for you all. But tomorrow you will get to see him.

[Tibetador]

HANNAH



I guess I have a way of attracting pets that aren't meant for me...originally. My mom was a live-in nurse for this patient before she hurt her back and couldn't work anymore. And the woman owned an Australian shepherd who was allowed to pretty much run all over her property. This dog wasn't fixed, so pretty much every time she went in season, she was going to have a litter of puppies. The woman couldn't get around very well and her husband was...an unsavory individual who didn't care about animals, so since they lived right next to a very busy road, most of the puppies either ended up 'stolen' or roadkill. Hannah came from a litter whose daddy was an Australian Cattle Dog (AKA blue heeler). She was a little red merle with one blue eye and one brown. She was the last of her siblings left...this was the first time my mom saw how that family handled their irresponsibility, and she took Hannah home to save her from the same fate as the others.

Hannah was supposed to be one of mom's special dogs...and goodness knows as cute as she was I did everything in my power to avoid her. We usually had anywhere between 10-16 dogs (my mom was big on rescue at the time) and I was heavily addicted to internet rp, so I wasn't interested in a new dog. But Hannah just loved me. She used to listen for the bus, and would leap over any obstacle in her path to get to me when I got home. She was my shadow everywhere. No matter how many other pets I had, she was the one that loved me the most.

My mom and my step-dad split up after I graduated high school...we were going to move to another state in order for me to go to college, and we had so many dogs...some of them had to go. And Hannah was one of the ones. I was so stupid with animals then...in and out of my life. I had insisted on getting a labrador, even though I had a perfectly good companion dog, and I chose him over her. She went to a local rescue group and I tried to go to college.

Several disasters later...we went from four dogs to one, living out of a motel, my mom and I. We had to come back to my home state, and couldn't keep any of the dogs but my mom's old german shepherd. Years passed...three of them. We had recovered financially, were working, and I had my own apartment. I wanted another dog like Hannah...no other pets had satisfied the longing I had for her. So I finally saved up some money and called up the first ad for puppies I found. Mom and I went together, because she was really excited for me, too. And when we got there, there was one puppy left. It was the most...unusual looking aussie I'd ever seen. It was a red merle, but the colors just looked off. Mom loved it instantly, but I wanted to see the parents.

So we go to the sliding glass, and there's four enormous aussies all shouldering for front place to see the strangers. And this dog...something about her just looked familiar. I said, "Mom...look, you've got to see this. This dog looks JUST like Hannah!" I turned, and the owner looked puzzled, saying, "Well, that IS Hannah...but how did you know?" All I could do was stare at him. I've never been so thunderstruck in my life. Mom, when she recognized her, said "Oh my God that is Hannah.." I remember only vaguely that she started telling our story, but he let her in, and...it was like we'd never been apart. She was a little shocked at first, but I sat down on the couch and she just snuggled up to my legs and all I could do was cry. I'd never had Hannah fixed, and the rescue people never thought she wasn't, so these people that lived over fifty miles away had adopted her and found out too late she wasn't fixed when she had pups...and when they saw how beautiful her pups were, they decided to just let her continue being a momma. They had never been able to figure out the bizarre colors she had until we said she was mixed with ACD, and that cleared up a lot. We were even able to show them her puppy pictures. As it happened, they were trying to get rid of all their dogs but two because of a change to city laws regarding pet ownership, so instead of a puppy, I got to bring my baby home at last.

I know I'd never have another chance like this in my lifetime to try and make right a wrong I've done. Hannah is my daily reminder that you never abandon family, even the furry kind. Because they DO keep loving you after you're gone. They love you...they miss you...and they don't forget. That dog is still as madly in love with me today as she was three years ago when I found her again. In fact she's caused us a lot of grief (and $$$ -_-) with uber separation anxiety. But no matter what she destroys, she still adores me. At the time I was needing an affirmation of faith, and finding her again like that, a bizarre and wonderful miracle, was a huge step in concreting my love of a forgiving and caring God. And if He's willing I hope to have Hannah a few more years yet. I haven't always done right with her, but I don't hesitate to believe that she'll be waiting for me at the Rainbow Bridge one day. She loves me too much not to, and it wouldn't be heaven without her.

[Eddie Munson]

Tibetador that's absolutely amazing! I've never heard of that before! I'm really glad you found her again. Your story nearly made me cry. You're really, really lucky.

[Huskyflower]

These just touched my heart. <3 I don't believe I have a story (yet, at least) so hopefully it's okay to comment. ^^'

[not here sorry!]

These just touched my heart. <3 I don't believe I have a story (yet, at least) so hopefully it's okay to comment. ^^'

The same. XD
The story of Hannah is just amazing. <3

[Eddie Munson]

These just touched my heart. <3 I don't believe I have a story (yet, at least) so hopefully it's okay to comment. ^^'

The same. XD
The story of Hannah is just amazing. <3

You can talk about the pets as well c: If you have a story you can share it, or just talk about the stories.

[The True Werewolf]

My cat Cuddles taught me the importance of love, she showes me everyday how the love between a mother and daughter can grow strong with just the slightest glance or touch. My cat Tiffany taught me the joy of relaxing in life, saddly she died of cancer in the ear. My dog Bullet, he taught me the joy of running, he always made me chase after him and jump in the pile of leaves in Autumn, he died of old age. Bullet #2 taught me the power of devotion, she was always devoted to the family and it never faltered, even after we had to put her down for she was suffering from heart cancer.