What I learned from my Pets

[jellyballoo]

HANNAH

Oh my gosh that is an amazing story, you are so lucky

[.:Jimmy|non|weesly:.]

Me and my family had a cat called Duke, he was a lovely cat with such a personality, he was an orange cat with dark orange stripes, he was the family cat, he has a stepbrother called skunk. we got skunk and duke at the same time and they have been brothers ever since, their birthday is in the same month too. anyway he was only 5 when he began not eating, my mum thought he had something wrong with his teeth so she took him to the vet... the vet said that there was nothing wrong with his teeth but there was something in his stomach. the vet took tests and we had to wait 1 day before the blood samples came back. the vet took X-rays and said he had a tumor in his stomach. he had cancer..... we paid money for an operation but he died when they were operating, he was too weak we buried him with his favourite toy to sleep with and a cross and some cat biscuits then we got Bella for my birthday she was so tiny! she loves skunk and follows him everywhere, i still remember duke and miss him so much!!!!!!!!!! Bella and Skunk have helped me through the time of greiving and loss and i respect them and love them as much as i loved Duke

[Kyles]

Since the moment I was born, I've owned cats. Every second of my life. And one cat of mine has taught me so much..
His name is Domino, but we call him Domi (Dom-ee). He's a red tabby, and just turned 5 years old on May 7th.

My mom and I volunteered to foster kittens that were taken in by the local animal shelter. Domino was one of 4 kittens, he had a twin named Painter, and then there were two silver tabbies we named Mickey and Minnie.They had found the kittens in a box, abandoned, their mother dead from lack of food, the kittens near death from lack of milk. When we brought them home, they were totally feril, and afraid of human contact...
Domi was the first out of the cage, exploring my mother's room. He was boisterous and sweet, and his personality was just adorable. My dad, who doesn't particularly like cats, was actually the first to suggest that we keep the sweet baby and the others would be returned to be adopted by other familes.
So, even though it hurt to give away the other babies, we got them to the shelter, Domino got his shots, and then we took him back home to become a member of our family, and best friends with our 4 other cats.
Every time he hears me listening to piano music, he comes and lays with me, too. And one day, I was sitting in my room eating cantaloupe, and Domi popped in and started begging for some food like he always does. I finally caved, thinking he'd waste the piece. But one little taste, and that was all it took. Now, he's right at my feet WHENEVER I eat cantaloupe. He loves to sit in the windowsill and watch the birds when he's not outside


He's my best friend, and I love him with all my heart.
This one's for you, Domino <3

[Eddie Munson]

That was absolutely touching. Domi is a beautiful cat!

[Kyles]

That was absolutely touching. Domi is a beautiful cat!

Thank you I left out: When I call his name, he raises/wags his tail to let me know he hears. And when I get home from school/outings, he arches his back so high with excitement that his front feet come off the ground.

[Eddie Munson]

That was absolutely touching. Domi is a beautiful cat!

Thank you I left out: When I call his name, he raises/wags his tail to let me know he hears. And when I get home from school/outings, he arches his back so high with excitement that his front feet come off the ground.

That's adorable!

[Kyles]

Hehe. Your stories are wonderful to read too. Cats are wonderful animals

[MoonfallTheFox]

My bird, Shadow, taught me that love never dies. He was my best friend, in a time I needed him most. Here's his story~ This is a post I made elsewhere over 3 years ago. It is a short version of his story, last year I wrote a version of it that was 8 pages long.

A year ago, i lost my best and only friend.
I was a loner in school, everyone laughed at me, and I never once had a guy like me. I was depressed, lonely, and wanted to die.

One day I was walking into my yard to go in the house through the back door, and a little bird hopped acrost my path. He held his wing up and sideways, and was in a lot of pain.
I spent that entire afternoon trying to capture him, but he was smart and fast, and evaded me, the dog, the neigbor's bibi gun, and foxes. How long he had been that way I had no way of knowing.

A week later I saw him again, and, managed to corner him against the house. I threw a towel over him and put him Carefully into a box. He managed again to escape. I again spent two hours catching him again. I put him in a small canary cage that was in our garage for some reason, even though I never had birds. I covered the cage and the panicked, shrieking bird inside and carried it to my bedroom, where I stuck it on my desk and sat there singing to him.
He calmed down somewhat.
For the next days I went to school, came home, Cleaned out his wing, which had bones jutting out of it, and sang to him while doing homework.
I tamed him to the point where I could handle him, and he soon figured out how to open his cage, which was too small anyway, and run around the room. He always came back though.

His wing healed very, very slowly. even when it was mended, he carried it high on his back, and could not fly.

I taught him to wear a harness, which I saved my money and bought for him, and the little starling became my constant companion. I went to school, I came home, I harnessed up Shadow. I went to the dollar store, I went to my friend's houses for dinner, always with him on my shoulder.

he learned to whistle, to imitate the phone, a rooster, a quail, and a cat. i could swear he laughed when I ran into the room thinking a cat had got into there. Or to answer the 'phone'.


Everyone I met knew me for my bird, and all of my brother's friends called me bird woman.

My mother invested in a huge iron cage, which we put on our porch.
But one day, the inevitable happened.
I walked out to feed him and say goodbye to him on the morning of a trip to yellowstone park, and found him lying on the bottom of his cage, not moving.

I picked him up, and he sighed and rubbed on my hand. His head was on almost backwords. It was clear he had taken a fall and had only a short time left to live. In the time I held him, which lasted maybe 20 minutes, he changed me. He loved me, and I knew it. As strange as it is that a little 13 year old girl could understand him like I did, in only 5 months, We had something amazing.

As his time ticked closer, I surfed the internet as fast as I could to try and figure out a way to save him. I found nothing, but I held him warm in my arms.

His time came, much faster than it should have. He screamed and covulsed in my hands, He thrashed and shrieked in agony, he wrapped his claws around my fingers, and then he let out his last breath and left me.
I cried then like none other, as I am crying now, a year later.

But life had to go on, we had a trip planned. So I put him into a box and sat it in our garage, and climbed into the car.
That entire trip was Hell. I spent the whole thing vomiting up my food and crying.

And for a year it was like that, multiple suicide attempts...and so my dad got me Romeo. And he brought me back, the little beast that he is. I still miss shadow, I always will, he was a gift from the heavens. He was just like me, hated for who he was, a Starling. People tried to kill him. People shunned me. But we always had eachother. And I will Always, Always miss that silly little beast of a bird.
I have never forgotten Shadow, the pain of his loss has never faded at all. He will always be my best friend. I preserved his body, and he watches me from my desk- I don't think he's ever truly left me.

My next story is of an animal who is still present in my life. His name is Romeo, and he is a rat. A year after Shadow died, my father took pity on me, and without my mother's knowledge, took me to get a rat. He was 5 weeks old, bouncy and playful, and full of joy. His enthusiasm when I was near him was incredible, and he brightened even the darkest days. He gave me a reason to keep living, to keep trying, and he is what helped me to clean my life up after I destroyed it. He has been with me for two years now, he is very old, and very sweet. His love for me has never faded, and he still brings impossible joy to my life and holds me together. His time is getting closer as he ages, though, and with the passing of my other male, Snitch, the time came to get another rat to keep my life together when Romeo moves on. I ended up with a pair of brothers, 5 weeks old, crazy and incredibly loving. Louis reminds me so much of Romeo when he was young.. he is already a crutch for me, he licks tears off of my face with his little rat tounge and he and his brother both make it thier reason in life to make me smile everyday. Even my boyfriend, who is going through troubles right now, has fallen in love with them and how goofy and loving they are.

[Kyles]

[quote="MoonfallTheFox"]My bird, Shadow, taught me that love never dies. He was my best friend, in a time I needed him most. Here's his story~ This is a post I made elsewhere over 3 years ago. It is a short version of his story, last year I wrote a version of it that was 8 pages long.
quote]

That was absolutely touching and beautiful. I'm sorry to hear about Shadow, he sounds like a beautiful, sweet bird. And i'm sure he'll always be with you I had two rats, Stuart and CB. They were the best little things, so sweet and playful. They died a few years ago, and I miss them every day. When Stuart passed, it was because of a sickness. He couldn't move, and my mom held him in a rag and tried to get him to drink. After a few hours, though, his time finally came, and the reaped took him by the paw and led him away from me. My mom handed Stuart over to me and I held him in my arms and scream cried for hours and hours. I'll never forget my baby boy <3

[Infinityfish]

Wow...Tibetador, that is such a heart-warming story. I loved reading it, it was amazing that you found your lil' pal again. And MoonfallTheFox, that's such an adorable story. I'm sure there'll always be a place in your heart where Shadow will stay. I, have a story of my own. It may not be as touching as all those other amazing stories, but hey, a storie's a story.

One night as I was playing a game on my parent's computer, my dad had got home from work along with my older sister. My sister had gone with him to the Vet clinic he worked at because she was doing part time work to earn some pocket money. She's very good with animals. Anyway, I heard someone dashing up the stairs. My sister opened the door in excitement, and told me that there was a wee kitten downstairs. So, I quickly hopped off the computer chair and ran down the stairs.

When I opened the door that led into our kitchen, I heard a loud piercing kitten meow. I walked over to see my sister holding this tiny one week old kitten, along with my other 3 sisters all standing around the chair watching. I came over excitdedly, and held the kitten in my arms. He was so small, he could fit into the palm of your hands. He was a tabby cat, a beautiful black and white.

This is him when he was three weeks old.


Anyway, we were only supposed to be looking after him over the Easter holidays, since nobody had the time to care for him. Before he came to us from the Vet clinic, some people took him into the clinic along with his brother and his mother. They said they found them in a box outside of a Petshop. Sadly his mother was put down. Him and his brother had open wounds -- except his brother's were way more severe. He had flystrike. I won't explain the details. It was too late, they couldn't save him. So, he had to be put down. That would have been the same fate for him, if it wasn't for my sister volunteering to get rid of the fly eggs before they hatched.

So, we decided to keep him because we had devoloped a great liking to him. We all came to a decision to call him Max. My dad was hesitant at first to keep him, but soon fell for the wee darl. As he got older, he learnt to walk and eat instead of being fed milk. He created an amazing bond with our dog Tintin, as he did not know the harm dogs could to to cats and kittens such like himself. They slept with each other all the time. He was always such a good-tempered cat. He only ever got into the rubbish bin once. The only time he went on the bench was to sleep. He became a beautiful, flabby fat cuddly cat. When we teased him, he'd run to my mum and jump on her lap. He looked at us with a contented face as our mum growled at us for teasing him, because he knew he was safe. He wasn't even a year old before he went missing. Since I always had him sleeping in my room every night, I was expecting him to come in the house before I went to bed. He didn't, though. I got really worried, and everyone thought he'd be fine.

In the morning I got up and asked my mum if she'd seen him yet. She said no, and that's when panic struck me. We put up lost signs of him, and even went around door to door with his picture hoping someone had seem him. A week had passed. We had just gone and seen the movie Avatar in the cinemas, and were just on our way back home when we received a text from our sister that was waiting at home. She said that our Neighbor had found Max. At the end of the text, it said: ''But he's gone '' we were all very worried when we were driving back. When we got home, we found out he actually died. We all cried for the rest of the day, for he was an amazing cat and had a grand personality. On that very day, my parents went over to our next door neighbor's to see our Max. He was probably hit by a car, but was so bloated that you wouldn't even be able to tell.

What I learnt from this is that you can make best friends in life. And even when they're gone, you know they were never really gone, because they will always be with you in your heart. After this devistation, we adopted two brothers at eight weeks old. Jack and Daxter. They may be naughty cats, but we still love them.

Note: Edited so you guys are able to see the picture of him when he was a wee kit ~ And plus, he was actually one week old when we got him.