This is my confession blog. I am without a doubt a crazy pet mom. My fur kids are my little world, without a doubt, and I am not ashamed to admit they are more spoiled then most human children. I figured it was time to come out of the shadows and face this head on and introduce you all to the little fuzzy people that melt my heart.
All of my babies are rescues. I'm not against people who use breeders and want a specific breed. I've always been raised around animals and my family even bred and raised several breeds of dogs. However, I felt an overwhelming need to help a pet that was in need of a better life. For those that have rescued, it seems the table is usually turned and you feel like you're the one that got rescued. What I adore most about my "kids" is how much each one has bonded with me in seperate but equally adorable ways. Their personalities are completely different and unique as well as their stories. So, without further corny embellishment let me introduce you to the circus that is my house.
Name: Owen
Nicknames: Big O Boy
Rescued: July 2006
This cat is huge! I have to explain that Owen and his sister were a BOGO Free at the shelter. We had gone in knowing we wanted a little female kitten and that was it. However, how can you pass up a BOGO right?! There he was, in his cage, getting the crap kicked out of him by a fellow kitten. He was the smallest of the bunch. I hated his name, Corndog (the shelter thought it was cute to name him and his entire litter after carnival foods which included funnel cake and cotton candy). He became our Owen. The first few nights we were scared to sleep with him because he was so little. Now my mammoth "Lebron James" of cats is larger than both of our dogs and sounds like an elephant running down the staircase. He's 100% a mama's boy and is the biggest creeper during bath times. He enjoys to sitting on the edge of the tub. 
Name: Nina
Nicknames: Nina Bina and Teacup
Rescued: October 2006
She's an absolute princess and I love it. She's ridiculously smart and knows more commands than both of my dogs. (This probably says more about me than her.) Nina was incredibly tiny when we saw her in the same shelter as her brother. The state of the shelter was appauling. She was being kept in a trailer with a 100 or so more cats. It was hot, humid, no air conditioning and many of the cats had upper resperatory disease. I was angry the way these animals were being cared for. At the time, she was so small she could fit in the palm of my hand, though she was 8 weeks old. Later we learned she is part munchkin so the size was suitable. She looked so fragile and it was all I could do to not smuggle her out of there. Because of her size she was still too tiny to be fixed so we would have to come back for her. The next day we picked up her big brother Owen. We visited her again before leaving and I realized several other cats that were housed near her in the trailor had perished over night and had been removed. I had a horrible feeling but until she was fixed they wouldn't allow us to take her. What followed was several months of phone calls in attempts to bring her home. She became sick with upper respiratory (shocking right) then contracted ring worm. I kept being told "come pick another kitten out". I didn't want another kitten I wanted Nina. I also came to learn that all surgeries were being performed in that trailor. That disease ridden unventilated trailor. My poor little kitten had been poked, prodded, dipped and finally a surgery for four months. I think the shelter volunteers became irritated with my constant phone calls. It was now a matter of principal that I got that little one out of there. When we got the okay to come pick her up we drove two hours to the shelter. She wasn't the same kitten we'd seen four months prior. She was scared. I didn't blame her. In her eyes every time a human handled her it was to get a treatment or a shot. She cried the entire way and because she had just been recently fixed we couldn't start the process of introducing her to our Owen yet. It was a huge victory when she allowed us to pet her and it took some time but she eventually came around. However, her incision was infected, "done wrong" (per the vet I took her too immediately after getting her home), she still had ring worm and the upper respiratory. I didn't call the shelter. I was never taking her back to those people again.
Fast forward a six months later, I ended up recieving a phone call from a company investigating the shelter and its practices. I can happily report its under new management and has since improved leaps and bounds from the days of the disease ridden trailor.
Name: Liam
Nicknames: Leelee, midge, wildman
Rescued: May 2009
My little Liam has been quite an adventure. This 5lb dog wonder is smaller than an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper and full of personality. He was 5 months when we traveled to pick him up. It was quite literally in the middle of nowhere. In fact, i was waiting for banjos to play as we turned down the driveway. I say all of my babies are rescues but Liam's story was very different. I had talked to a lady online and on the phone about him. Recieved photos of him and his parents. I grew up with yorkies and I wanted one as an adult. I missed having a dog. I'd been on the contact lists at area shelters for a yorkie but the small dogs that come into to shelters, thankfully, are the first to go after puppies. When this lady contacted me saying she has a puppy that was 5 months old that a lady had paid a deposit on but never came to pick him up and wasn't returning phone calls. I was elated because he was just what I wanted. (Yes, I fancied the idea of the "purse dog". No judging!) In any case, turning down the driveway I immediately thought, "what did I get myself into". Their were kennels and dogs everywhere. Sheds with lines of four of 5 different kennels hooked onto the ends with makeshift doggy doors cutting into the wood. In these kennels there would be 5 to 10 dogs. Varying ages. I'd count atleast 50 to 70 dogs (that we could see) in the yard. A large and very mean Brazilian Mastiff was chained inside a child's outdoor playpen. Once, up to the house the woman i'd spoke to came out. She greeted us and went back in the house to let "little bear" (I hated his name too) out of the house so I could meet him. A fenced in backyard next to the split level home had a deck with a makeshift ramp running from the deck to the ground. All of the sudden 20 yorkies and chihuahuas of all ages and sizes came running down the ramp. After watching "little bear" jump around the open yard with no apparent physical problems I knew he was coming home with me. Even if he'd not been what I was expecting I was not leaving him here. We entered the house from the Garage. We walked up some stairs where a mother cat was laying with her litter of kittens. The woman scooped one up off the edge of the stair, just as it was about to fall, and placed it back with the mother on the top step. Walking into her house was a maze of crap. It was a scene from the TLC's hoarders show. A small aisle lead us into the kitchen, where again, I was floored. A large parrot sat purched above the island where food was being served. Cages of ferrits and other small animals lined the walls. Then came the dog parade. Let's not forget the pack of tiny dogs currently outside. No, this was an entire new group. A poodle here, a shitzu there. They just kept coming out of EVERYWHERE. She had promised, in our previous, conversations, that she would make sure "Little Bear" had his final shots. There, in the kitchen she grabbed a surigin and attempt to give him a shot in his pack. She jabbed in several times before my mother pulled him away stating we would just take him to our vet.
It was a glorified puppy mill. I'd heard of them, seen coverage on the news but to see it first hand was shocking. After all that drama, we were on our way home with our little man. He was safe and on his way to a much better life. 
Name: Bella
Nicknames: Buggy, Bug, Bell
Rescued: July 2014
We adopted our gorgeous Bella on July 3rd. She was part of the rescue wagon campaign and brought from a shelter down south. Because Bella's adoption had been part of the rescue wagon there wasn't a lot of information about her history. What little we did know was that she was very sweet and affectionate, house trained, and good with children. However, she was afraid of men. We also quickly noticed that motorcycle engines going by the house would frighten and alarm her. She was transported from a shelter down south due to overcrowding. She bonded very very quickly with me. It was apparent she had some abandonment issues. Not that I blame her. I imagine it was confusing for her to be shuffled around during her short life thus far.
In any case, she has blended wonderfully with her older brothers Liam, Owen and older sister Nina. She alsoe seemed to slowly to have overcome some of her issues with men. She is a huge fan of toys and fetch. Loves the endless supply of bones available and appreciates nightly walks with her short stature brother.
Then, Bella had a little accident. As she was being let out of her kennel to go outside she slipped and fell on her left side. We have wood floors and being as happy and excited as Bella is now a days she misjudged her footing. Instantly, something was wrong. Her cry was terrible. She would not walk and when attempting to it was obvious she favored her left side. We quickly took her to the vet. After a few X-rays, we were happily told no fractures were found and her hips were in place. However, they found a disc disease. Listening to the vet describe her injury made me more and more conscious of the life our little girl had before she was adopted.
The disc disease was likely brought on by a serious trauma to her back end. They found she had two calcified discs from a previous injury. This made her more prone to have additional disc problems. Otherwise this disease will appear in dogs that are twice her age. An extreme trauma would need to have happened to our little girl. I can only guess, based on her demeanor and behavior since adopting her, that a man mistreated this dog. She was beat or kicked or worse. I am sickened and angry at the thought of anyone deliberately hurting an animal as sweet and innocent as my Bella.
Bella was on steroids to help treat the inflammation in her spine and was put on strict bed rest. She was spoiled and babied for two weeks. She had partial paralysis in her left leg but thankfully has seemed to heal since her little spill. I'm thankful for wonderful vet care. Dogs like Bella in overcrowded shelters would be forgotten or euthanized. Bella deserved a better life than she previously had and without the help of good shelters and kennels, she wouldn't have gotten one. When we adopted Bella I had been going through some pretty difficult times. Bella has been my smile on days when I had very little to be happy about. She has also reminded me even with the bad in this world you can still have a great impact to do something wonderful. Bella's life will be wonderful, though she can't play to the full crazy extent she'd like, I can't imagine where she'd be in life if her and I hadn't found one another.
I urge anyone that sees an animal being abused or neglected to contact local authorities. The love of an animal is unconditional and beautiful and not to be tainted by malicious behavior.
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