Goin' to the dogs. And cats.

This was taken when I was sick last month, but being sick this month reminded me of it and it's amusing enough I figured I'd share it. Normally my husband would not take a picture of me when I look like this on pain of death, but given the circumstances I can't say I blame him.

This was a wonderful, if bittersweet moment for me. My furry babies came to comfort me, en mass, when I was ill. But it was a few short weeks after my precious puppy Karma passed away, and I was sad she wasn't in the picture too. But the reality is that her exuberance scared the cats too much, and with her in our lives this moment never would have happened.

When I tell people I have four cats they always ask 'what kind' - the assumption being if I have that many, I must be into a particular breed. My response is always the same: the kind that needed a home.

For the animals lovers who might actually care... (from L to R)

Sienna - ~10 year old torti (mutt cat). She was tied up in a bag with a litter of newborn kittens and dumped behind a vet's office. We adopted her because nobody wanted the momma cat.

Kramer - 10 year old possible Maine Coon mix (mutt cat). Somebody dumped a pregnant cat in the woods back home; somebody I know found her when they were camping. They opened their camper door and the poor scared little momma cat gratefully brought her litter in to safety. He was one of the kittens.

Trinity - 8 year old mutt cat. She was found on the side of the road at 8 weeks old, having been run over by a car. A good Samaritan picked her up and took her to a local no-kill shelter; she had two broken legs and a broken pelvis. They saved her life and one of her legs, but the other shriveled up and had to be amputated. I found her at the shelter when I went looking for another lap cat after my diabetic cat passed away in 1997. She reached through the cage and wrapped her paws around my fingers and that was it - it didn't matter that she was severely underweight and half shaved from the surgeries and missing a leg. She's not all there physically and mentally - we think the accident affected her brain too - but she's my baby and I wouldn't change her one bit.

Bogart - 7 year old Oriental Short Hair mix. He was born to a feral barn cat (who happened to be a pure bred OSH); he was accidentally abandoned at 2 weeks old when the mommma cat got spooked and moved the litter. The woman who owned the barn also ran the St. Bernard rescue; she had 11 saints to take care of, there was no way she could bottle feed a kitten every 2 hours. I happened to be at work (back in my vet tech days) when she brought him in; I was the only tech that summer who hadn't yet adopted a kitten (occupational hazard) and my husband had been saying he'd never experienced a kitten. He's got a personality and a half, and he thinks he's a dog because he was raised by one. (The picture below was taken about 5 minutes after I brought him home.)

Sable - 8 year old Golden/Chow mix. One of an Oops litter that resulted when my friend, whom I begged to spay her dog, discovered that a female in heat will back right up to a chain link fence to get some. She's a sweet, wonderful dog and we feel lucky every day to have her. When we got Bogart she decided to raise him. To this day, when we feed her Bogart comes and eats from her dish, and they sleep together at night.