Pets

I love to travel, and I wish I had begun my adventures to far away places when I was much younger.  The hardest thing, though, then and now, is having to leave my girls.  I have 3 cats and 2 dogs right now.  The cats are not such a big problem since they don’t seem to need you around as much as dogs do.  Although one time when I had been gone for a length of time, my cat Claire kept coming up on the bed and touching me with her paw (while I was trying to sleep) just to make sure I was really there!

I am not really a cat person.  We didn’t have any cats when I was growing up because our boxer, Ginger, would go out of her way to get at a cat.  After Ginger died, we started bringing cats home from the barn.  Once I moved to California, I had a cat, T. C., for about 17 years.  He and I were on our third dog when he went.  When T. C. died, I swore I had changed my last litter box.  So why do I have not 1 but 3 cats now?

  

2009 was a hard year.  In January 2009, I lost my boxer Sarah, 12 years old, within a week of her showing signs of illness.  My other boxer, Kalypso, was only 7 years old, and I thought we had a lot more time together.  That summer she developed lymphoma.  We tried a chemotherapy and gained 2 more months but ultimately had to say goodbye.  This was December 2009, just as I was being diagnosed with Stage 0 breast cancer.

                                                            Kalypso and Sarah

I faced the beginning of 2010 with no pets and headed into radiation treatment.  I knew that radiation therapy usually makes you very tired, and I reasoned that I would not have the energy for a dog, so I decided to rescue two kittens.  I was looking for a Siamese or part Siamese and a gray tabby.  One rescue agency had two siblings who were just want I wanted.  The fostering person also had another black and white spotted kitten being kept with the two I took.  I had to wait for the kittens to be big enough to be spayed before I could take them home.  By that time, all 3 had bonded, and who am I to break up a family?  Claire, as she was already named, came home with us, too.  Just Claire became Claire de Lune.  The part Siamese is Isis, and the gray tabby is The Cat Bastet.  Isis and Bastet are Egyptian goddesses, and I had just been to Eygypt, hence their names.  The Cat Bastet is a character in a series of mystery novels by Elizabeth Peters.

The summer of 2010, I discovered, which I already knew, that I was not really a cat person, and Marley came to live with us.  I started looking at newspapers ads and noticed that one dog, a 2-1/2 year old boxer, was being offered for quite a long time.  I sent an email to the owner and asked if she still had the dog.  She did.  I went over, and Marley left with me that very day.  The family did not have time for her.  They had another male boxer that was the husband’s dog.  I think he was deployed in Iraq, the wife had a new baby, and two boxers.  It was more than she could handle.  In addition, they had bred the two dogs, so Marley had already had a litter of puppies by the time she was 1 ½.

Marley also came with fear issues.  My sister and I decided that she must have been abused.  She also has a scar on the back of her neck, which suggests that she was chained up.

Marley is the sweetest, and most needy, dog.  I watched The Dog Whisperer and read Cesar Millan’s books in order to try to work with Marley.  Finally, summer 2011, I brought home Bella, a 4 month old boxer puppy, to try to help Marley come out of her shell.  They have been a good match.

Now, I have 3 cats and 2 dogs, and what’s a mother to do?  Thankfully, my next door neighbor and I have been trading taking care of each other’s girls (she has 3 dalmatians and one cat) for years.  The only problem is when we travel together.  When that happened, I had nephews who were old enough to stay at my house to take care of the girls.  Now those nephews have flown the coop, and we have not traveled together as much any more.  The cats, this trip, are in her capable hands.

Several trips ago, I was introduced to Our House Dog Camp’s dog whisperer Diana.  She and her husband John have taken on Marley and Bella on several occasions, and I am happy to report that one of Marley’s fears, men, doesn’t apply to John.  Marley trusts John, and this trip, I am glad that he is willing to start Bella’s and Marley’s stay at Our House Dog Camp without Diana for a few days.  Thanks John!

So my girls will be lovingly and safely looked after.  My trip is 2 days away!