Our Furry Friends

Well, I thought I'd better post this now, because I don't know how much longer we'll have these guys. Now, I don't believe in luck at all, but for lack of a better term, we haven't had much luck with pets. We've gone through 4 dogs and 3 cats already, and our oldest kid is only 4! Just to clarify, when I say "gone through," I don't mean that any of them have died... just in case any of you are animal rights activists. ;) So two summers ago we tried our first dog, Polly. I picked her out from the animal shelter and felt so proud that I had saved an dog from an untimely death. Polly was a lab/beagle mix and STRONG. She knocked Addie over (who was very little at the time) and the girls were just terrified of her. She was originally a stray, and clearly not used to being confined to the indoors. She tried to dig through the carpet, chewed up tons of toys, and just wanted to be outside. So, we gave her to a family that lived on a farm so that she could have plenty of room to roam. Then came Chica, our little chihuahua. I was never very fond of chihuahuas to begin with, but some friends of ours gave her to us, and for the most part, she was a really good dog. The only problem we had with her is that she had a nervous bladder, and any time anyone reached down to pet her, she leaked. That didn't go over well with me since our house was on the market and I didn't have the time to steam clean our carpet on a daily basis. So we found a nice lady to take her in, and that was the end of pets for a while, because shortly after that I found out I was pregnant with Olivia. Then back in May, on the last day of school, Miller's principal got on the intercom and made an announcement that there was a family trying to find a home for a schnauzer. Miller called me and asked if I was interested and we found out more about him, then later visited the family. Tucker was a beautiful pure white schnauzer. Gorgeous. The family who was trying to rehome him said that he needed to be in a home that didn't have little boys because he wasn't getting along with their son. Okay, no little boys at our house, so we took him. I have to say Tucker was my favorite of all the dogs so far. He was extremely smart and obedient, hypoallergenic and didn't shed, and followed me around the house at my heels like a little shadow. The only problem was that he didn't like kids. We realized his owners were wrong- he didn't just not like little boys. He didn't like little girls, either. He snapped at Addie several times, and after he snapped at Olivia, I decided he needed to go. He is much happier (I'm sure) in a home with an elderly lady that absolutely fell in love with him and is spoiling him rotten. So now we have Moose. Moose isn't the brightest dog... or the prettiest, but he's very well-behaved. He never barks, doesn't run away when we open the front door, he doesn't jump on the furniture or the kids, doesn't lick, and doesn't shed. He is a Lhasa Apso, so he requires a lot of grooming, but other than that he's pretty low maintenance. I got really mad at him last week because he peed in the house, and I announced that I was giving him away, but I'm pretty sure Moose is here to stay. Everyone is pretty attached to him, even Miller, who was completely against the idea of getting another dog. Since he doesn't have accidents in the house regularly, I'm letting that one go..... but I've got my eye on you, Moose!

Now for the cats. Eliana has been asking for a kitten since she was 3 years old. Well, we finally told her that she could have one for her 5th birthday, which is coming up in a couple of weeks. When we realized we would be getting rid of Tucker (and didn't think we'd be getting any more dogs) I started looking for kittens of Craigslist. Even though it wasn't Eliana's birthday yet, I found a lady giving away some gorgeous blue-eyed kittens, and decided to get it right away. I brought the kitten home, and Eliana decided to name her Felicity. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that schnauzers have an extremely strong prey drive, and Tucker tried and tried to get that cat. For fear that my kids would witness their little kitty getting mauled, I promptly found Felicity a new home. Then we got Moose and knew he was such a laid back dog that we could have a cat, so we got another kitten. The girls named this all-white kitty, Lily. Lily was MEAN. she climbed up our pant legs, scratched, bit, and when we tried to approach her she arched her back, hissed, and even made a weird popping noise that I've never heard a cat make before in my life. Even Moose was afraid of her. Seriously. So we got rid of her, and now we have sweet little Aurora (named after Sleeping Beauty, of course). Unfortunately, we didn't keep either of the other two cats long enough for me to realize that at least 2 of my children are allergic to cats. Wonderful. For now, Aurora is an outdoor kitty, because Eliana is very attached to her and doesn't want us to give her away. I just feel sorry for her and think she should belong to a family that can actually let her indoors, or at least pet her. So here our some pictures of our beloved pets, Aurora and Moose.