Well, I've posted pics of my guys before, but won't turn down an opportunity to share them again.
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Here's my household:
This is Fritz. He's almost 14 (apparently I had his age wrong by a year for the longest time...d'oh), and in this pic he's soaking up the heat from an electric baseboard heater below the table. He's not normally allowed up there, but hey, it was Christmas...
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And I swear he lives up to the adage of the cat with 9 lives too...he's had a few brushes with the grim kitty over the years. My son and I came to Fritzie's rescue when he came crawling up on our back balcony late one night. He'd been owned by people who lived in the basement of the triplex, but they used to let him out on a regular basis, and we lived on a busy road. Fritz had become attached to my son and I when we kittysat him during his first summer while his owners went away. But after they came back apparently he cried so much (wanting to come back up to our place) that they began putting him outside. So late one night he arrived on our back porch, obviously in so much pain that he couldn't walk properly. So Fritz's owners were going to drop him off at the HC as a stray, but I persuaded them to let me take him. They relented, and a rush trip to the vet revealed a major internal tear, and his intestines were no longer 'in place'. Two operations later (after the first one failed), and he was once again a happy healthy troublemaker.
This is Monty, my pleco. He shares his watery crib with a lone tetra and (at last count) 13 cory catfish. They keep breeding, the sneaky little rotters! Even though I totally suck at fishkeeping, Monty has been with me since he was just a wee young thing. He's got to be at least 9 years old now. I thought he'd stopped growing, but recently measured him and discovered he's now 10" long...an inch and a half bigger than he was a couple of years ago. Monty's a pretty cool fish.
Here's my dog, Kaya (aka "The Dog"). (She's expressing her feelings about paparazzi photo ops, I'm sure.) Kaya is now 12 years old and is still a going concern. She was a rescue from the Humane Society, a stray that had been found starving and running through traffic out at the airport highway. When I crossed paths with her, she was being considered for euthanasia as 'unadoptable', since she'd been adopted out twice and returned both times. Her problem(s)? Huge separation anxiety issues, food aggression and agression with other dogs. So she came home with me, and after the following casualties: one bed, one vinyl flooring, one kitchen chair, one sofa, bedding too numerous to count, etc., she settled down with a little help in crate training. I also managed to teach her not to bite people who come bearing food, not to grab and steal anything that resembles food, and most importantly, it's not nice to eat the other furred members of the family. Now she just growls and curses under her breath when one of the others starts 'getting in her space' or just generally bothers her. She still has to be supervised with her adopted furred family, and she will always have issues with other dogs (though she has actually made friends with a few over the years), but she's the smartest and goofiest dog I've ever seen, and she's my best friend.
This, as many of you know, is Anna. Another adoptee from the Humane Society, Anna is one of the sweetest, gentlest bunnies I've ever known. I call her a background bunny simply because the stronger personalities of the other animals tend to trump her, but Anna can definitely hold her own in the group. She may be quietly sitting in the background, but she's never overlooked. Anna brings a peace and calmness to the house. She's the one I can talk to when I'm feeling down and I know she listens. She's very patient and centered, and in the mornings when I open the door to the bunnies' room she's the first one who runs over to greet me. Mind you, Anna can have her moments of badness (see Yofi's bunny blog and you'll see what crime she was charged with last year), but overall Anna is sweetness in agouti fur.
And of course, then there's the last - but certainly not least - member of the family. This guy, as many of you also know, is a rabbit. Or seems to pretend he's a rabbit. But honestly, he is so unique that the only thing I can say is, he's not a rabbit at all; he's a YOFI.
Full of spit and vinegar, attitude plus, ME..ME..ME!, and at times enough energy to make the Energizer Bunny look tired and worn out, Yofi (aka 'The Boy) is the crown prince of comedy. He was not a rescue as most of my other pets were, having been selected and purchased from a breeder, but in truth, Yofi was the one doing the rescuing. He came to me a few months after I'd lost my beloved Raph, a sweet gentle soul of a rabbit with a myriad of health issues. Yofi did what I wasn't sure could be done. He lifted my spirits, lightened my heart and made me realize that while we do endure pain in losing a heart animal, life does go on, and for every furry spirit who comes into our lives, they have their own special place already reserved in our hearts. Home has never been quite so alive since The Boy flew over the threshold, ears sailing and nose sniffing out trouble with a capital T. Anyone who lives in my neighborhood would know that he is the resident
![Stick Out Tongue :p :p](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
ullhair:, for at any given time they can walk past my house and hear that now familiar refrain coming from the interior: "YOFI!!!! NOT AGAIN!!!"
*I just realized that this thread was about pets other than bunnies (my apologies guys :baghead). Just skip by the lagobuns' profiles if ya wish....
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