Allow me to introduce our family.
It seems like we have always had a houseful of pets. We started out with my three cats, two Siamese who were litter mates, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, born in 1988 and a grey tabby, Etta Place, who was a year younger than the boys. In 1998 we added a sweet little doggy we named Chuck to our household. The cats lived to be 18 to 20 years of age and in 2007 they started to leave us one by one. The last cat passed away in May of 2008 and we were left with Chuck, our wonderful little dog. He left us too in September of 2009. The house was just too empty without our little guys and it wasn't a week after Chuck's passing that my husband went to the pound to get Pete, a Black Lab/Shepherd mix puppy.
Not being content with only one pet in the house and since we both like cats the next day we went to ARF to pick up another grey tabby named Mary Ann. We had our eye on a big orange male too, but he didn't want to get in the carrier to come home with us. After looking about to see if there might be another cat for us and not being able to make up my mind, we decided to just bring home Mary, but when I went to pick up the carrier we discovered we had a volunteer. A beautiful black and white cat named Casey had gotten in to curl up for a nap. That is how we got the first two little girls.
As soon as my sister heard that we had brought these guys home she called me really upset because I didn't take her Boolah. She had contacted me the year before because they couldn't keep Boo in the house. Her allergies had kicked up and poor Boo was relegated to the garage / outside. After that he had gotten run over and my sister had paid a lot of money to get him taken care of instead of just putting him to sleep. They all really loved the little guy, but my sister has to breath. It never occurred to me that she still had Boo, but I guess she was a little picky about who got to take him home. So, I'm sure you know how this ends, we went over to get Boo and bring him home. He is a welcome addition to the family. He is fearless and loves to play. I do believe he thinks he is a dog. The vet told us he appears to be a Flamepoint Siamese mix.
In December of 2009 we heard that the Animal Shelter was going to close the first of the year. Reports were that any animal left at the facility would be destroyed. My husband went over to see who was left. He was actually hoping to get another puppy, but all they had left were some older cats. He rescued Lilly, a small calico, and brought her home. She was very sick with an upper respiratory infection. We kept her isolated for two weeks while she recuperated. She was soon well and is another welcome addition to the tribe.
When Pete was six months old we decided he needed a friend that he could really play with. He and Boo had been good buddies, but Boo wasn't getting any bigger while Pete was. It was quite apparent as well that Pete needed a playmate so he could run off all that excess energy. My husband found another Lab mix puppy and we went to take a look at her. We fell in love instantly and brought home little Pawla. Unfortunately we only had her three days. It turned out that she had parvovirus and became ill the second day we had her. She spent four days at our vet's before succumbing to her illness.
We were torn after that. It was such a heartbreaking experience losing our little Pawla. The wound hadn't quite healed from losing Chuck at that point and we certainly didn't want to bring home another little puppy while there was any risk that they might get infected with the virus. After thinking it over we decided to try a young dog. Not a puppy, but one who would still be young enough to have a lot of puppy left in them. So we went back to where we got Pawla from and picked up another Lab mix dog who was almost a year old. That lasted a couple of hours and I have no pictures. She attacked Pete and we took her right back.
We then decided to try again. There were still a lot of young dogs who needed a good home. This time we picked out a dog who had been fostered. We knew she got along with others. That is how we ended up with Jessie, a Catahoula/Boxer mix. She and Pete do get along quite well for the most part. They have their moments, but I have talked to a lot of people with two or more dogs and they all say that they have had a fight or two. I guess it is normal for them to snap at each other once in a while. As long as I don't have to take one of them to the vet for stitches afterward it isn't too bad and they have seemed to work out who is dominant at this point. It's Jessie. She isn't going to take any lip.
