Hi Jen our family has always grown up with lots of pets. In Kenya we had at one time fourteen dachshunds, two budgies, lots of goats, rabbits and of course all the ducks, geese, turkeys, pheasants, guinea fowls and quails. Our children had “their own pets”. Between the five children, our own three and two adopted girls we could justify that. One day a Kuwaiti Ambassador a friend of ours and client at our store in Nairobi came home with his Parrot. His contract had ended and he wanted us to look after it. This parrot gave us so much joy as it mimicked everything we said and brought a lot of joy in our household! Today, we are baby sitters for our kids pets. My daughter got 3 rescue dogs - one from Alaska a beautiful black dog called Mars, another mixed breed from Iran renamed Juno and a Saluki from Qatar called Poppy which my older son immediately fell in love with and took her to Collingwood. Whenever they want to go on vacations, we take care of them as we are today as she has travelled to Kenya. It gives me discipline to exercise them regularly and the best part is the welcome I get when I come home tired from work! The only thing I do not like about pets in Canada is their “furs” which they shed everywhere and adds to a lot of cleaning up. In Kenya we had a lot of extra help and dogs mostly stayed outside. Pets have been an important and integral part of our lives. Zen
Wow, what a beautiful story Zen. I don't think I have anything that could compete with that! My first pet was a guinea pig named Hamish. I named him after the principal of our school. Not sure why I did that. When I took him to school for show and tell in grade 4, he promptly pooped on the teacher's desk! Later he escaped from his enclosure at home and I presume got eaten by something. I never saw him again. My next pet was a chocolate brown lab called Tabby. But I only really owned half of her, because I shared her with my father who liked to use her for hunting. He said I owed the back half, but I argued that the line went the other way down the middle! Tabby was a wonderful companion for me when I was growing up and even gave us nine black lab puppies! Dad
We now have 3 pets. Tucker is the old boy, a 13 year old Shih Tzu who is a close companion. Olivia likes cats so we have to have one of those. His name is Benjamin. Olivia knows what type of cat he is but I don't. A month ago? I brought our new puppy to see you. His name is Theodore (Theo) and he is a Havenese. We wanted another small dog but in spite of loving Tucker so much, we did not want another one to directly compare. Theo is keeping us on our toes as he is busy growing and exploring his boundaries. Some days I wonder what were we thinking!!
Fortunately, none of our pets shed a lot but we have to spend money on grooming the dogs.
I love hearing love abounds in the relationships of people and animal world! Adding my animal stories, I grew up with golden labs, Quago, Bella, Henrietta, and dacshunds Missy, Fifi, Lucy, Daxie, and Angie…. Then I rescued Tasha, a border Terrier with Norwegian Elkhound who came to my work with me all the time… I think my clients came to see her more than me! And then I tried something new and rescued two Scottish Fold cats, Mr McIntosh was four, and Bridgette was two. They came together way back in 2006. Mr passed away 3 years ago, Bridgette is known as 👑 🐝… Queen Bee. Very shy she was when Mr Mc ruled the roost. She is now very much in charge, and her fav thing to do is teach me new games. At 18 years old she had her first airplane ride! What on earth might she have been thinking? An indoor cat familiar with a 10 minute drive to the vet for her regular checkups, was now way up high in the sky?!?! I do love pets. And yes, these two cats very bountiful in the hair shedding! Give a pat to Indy for me! Love cousin Tess
I love Zen’s story of all the pets in their family when in Kenya. 15 dachshunds! I love dachshunds!! They have wonderful personalities! Having grown up with a succession of dachshunds and having had four of my own, I would LOVE to have 15 running like a herd all over the place. Currently, I don’t have a dachshund but I do have two pets. I have a lovely 7 year old dog that is a lab/rotweiller cross. She is a rescue and was first my daughter’s dog but because mine when she was about i months old. Her name is keeley and she is a delight even if she is ten times the size of a dachshund. I take her for long walks and she likes to sit with me. I also have a cat that adopted ME when she was about 8 years old. I named her a very uninteresting name but it seemed to suit her: Cat. Cat’s former owners identified themselves to me one day when they saw Cat sitting on my balcony and they told me how old she is and a little about her.. I had never had a cat before Cat so I had alot to learn! I quickly learned that cats are very different from dogs! When a dog moves it’s tail back and forth it means it is happy and wants you to do more of whatever you are doing. When a cat moves it’s tail back and forth it means “STOP NOW! If you don’t stop what you are doing right now you will be very very sorry!” I learned this lesson the hard way... My cat and dog get along mostly because the dog recognizes that the cat, who is now 20 years old, was here first and is the boss of everything.
Hi Jen our family has always grown up with lots of pets. In Kenya we had at one time fourteen dachshunds, two budgies, lots of goats, rabbits and of course all the ducks, geese, turkeys, pheasants, guinea fowls and quails. Our children had “their own pets”. Between the five children, our own three and two adopted girls we could justify that. One day a Kuwaiti Ambassador a friend of ours and client at our store in Nairobi came home with his Parrot. His contract had ended and he wanted us to look after it. This parrot gave us so much joy as it mimicked everything we said and brought a lot of joy in our household! Today, we are baby sitters for our kids pets. My daughter got 3 rescue dogs - one from Alaska a beautiful black dog called Mars, another mixed breed from Iran renamed Juno and a Saluki from Qatar called Poppy which my older son immediately fell in love with and took her to Collingwood. Whenever they want to go on vacations, we take care of them as we are today as she has travelled to Kenya. It gives me discipline to exercise them regularly and the best part is the welcome I get when I come home tired from work! The only thing I do not like about pets in Canada is their “furs” which they shed everywhere and adds to a lot of cleaning up. In Kenya we had a lot of extra help and dogs mostly stayed outside. Pets have been an important and integral part of our lives. Zen
ReplyDeleteWow, what a beautiful story Zen. I don't think I have anything that could compete with that! My first pet was a guinea pig named Hamish. I named him after the principal of our school. Not sure why I did that. When I took him to school for show and tell in grade 4, he promptly pooped on the teacher's desk! Later he escaped from his enclosure at home and I presume got eaten by something. I never saw him again. My next pet was a chocolate brown lab called Tabby. But I only really owned half of her, because I shared her with my father who liked to use her for hunting. He said I owed the back half, but I argued that the line went the other way down the middle! Tabby was a wonderful companion for me when I was growing up and even gave us nine black lab puppies! Dad
ReplyDeleteWe love Indy and fondly remember Fluffy.
ReplyDeleteWe now have 3 pets. Tucker is the old boy, a 13 year old Shih Tzu who is a close companion. Olivia likes cats so we have to have one of those. His name is Benjamin. Olivia knows what type of cat he is but I don't.
A month ago? I brought our new puppy to see you. His name is Theodore (Theo) and he is a Havenese. We wanted another small dog but in spite of loving Tucker so much, we did not want another one to directly compare.
Theo is keeping us on our toes as he is busy growing and exploring his boundaries. Some days I wonder what were we thinking!!
Fortunately, none of our pets shed a lot but we have to spend money on grooming the dogs.
Good morning Jen and Indy,
ReplyDeleteI love hearing love abounds in the relationships of people and animal world! Adding my animal stories, I grew up with golden labs, Quago, Bella, Henrietta, and dacshunds Missy, Fifi, Lucy,
Daxie, and Angie…. Then I rescued Tasha, a border Terrier with Norwegian Elkhound who came to my work with me all the time… I think my clients came to see her more than me! And then I tried something new and rescued two Scottish Fold cats, Mr McIntosh was four, and Bridgette was two. They came together way back in 2006. Mr passed away 3 years ago, Bridgette is known as 👑 🐝… Queen Bee. Very shy she was when Mr Mc ruled the roost. She is now very much in charge, and her fav thing to do is teach me new games. At 18 years old she had her first airplane ride! What on earth might she have been thinking? An indoor cat familiar with a 10 minute drive to the vet for her regular checkups, was now way up high in the sky?!?!
I do love pets. And yes, these two cats very bountiful in the hair shedding!
Give a pat to Indy for me!
Love cousin Tess
I love Zen’s story of all the pets in their family when in Kenya. 15 dachshunds! I love dachshunds!! They have wonderful personalities! Having grown up with a succession of dachshunds and having had four of my own, I would LOVE to have 15 running like a herd all over the place. Currently, I don’t have a dachshund but I do have two pets. I have a lovely 7 year old dog that is a lab/rotweiller cross. She is a rescue and was first my daughter’s dog but because mine when she was about i months old. Her name is keeley and she is a delight even if she is ten times the size of a dachshund. I take her for long walks and she likes to sit with me. I also have a cat that adopted ME when she was about 8 years old. I named her a very uninteresting name but it seemed to suit her: Cat. Cat’s former owners identified themselves to me one day when they saw Cat sitting on my balcony and they told me how old she is and a little about her.. I had never had a cat before Cat so I had alot to learn! I quickly learned that cats are very different from dogs! When a dog moves it’s tail back and forth it means it is happy and wants you to do more of whatever you are doing. When a cat moves it’s tail back and forth it means “STOP NOW! If you don’t stop what you are doing right now you will be very very sorry!” I learned this lesson the hard way... My cat and dog get along mostly because the dog recognizes that the cat, who is now 20 years old, was here first and is the boss of everything.
ReplyDeleteThat was from pippa
ReplyDeleteThanks Pippa and everyone for their comments!
ReplyDelete