Thursday Thirteen #5

Oi veh. It's that time already?

Here we go.

Thirteen Pets I've been lucky enough to own and why I love them (If I had the time to rummage through old pics and if I were skilled enough, I'd put a pic of each of them w/my post) This list is NOT in preferential order (except for #1). 1. Muffy -- my childhood kitty cat who was with me from about 3 to 18. She'll always be my favorite because she was there through my entire childhood. She was my friend, my playmate, my pillow. She could also be a little shit, but even more reason to love her. ;) 2. Sam (aka Lady Samantha of Soda Creek) -- our yellow lab. What a loyal friend. She had hip dysplasia and could never have puppies, and also had a hard time running around, but that never stopped her from playing with us kids. She was a high pedigree dog (hence the longer name which we always thought was kinda cheeky and fun since we lived near Soda Creek). Loyal and so friendly. Labs are great. 3. Sierra -- one of our current kittie cats. She's a beautiful, though slightly overweight, tortoise shell. She was from the pound and was so timid and scared when we got her, we figured she'd been abused. She hid under the bed constantly. Only in the past few years has she completely come out of her shell (no pun intended) and now is SOOOOOOO friendly and loving. She has little coo meows and purrs constantly. 4. Maya -- our other current kittie cat. She's a petite black cat who is full of spunk and likes to walk on the line of what we accept and what she knows is wrong (ie. walking on the tables). She loves to play and I run around the house with her mouse on a string with her right on my tail. She isn't a huge fan of being touched or held except when we're somewhere with a tile floor. Strange. 5. Tony -- my Red Eared Slider turtle. He was a vicious little punk and bit my fingers more than once when I was a teenager. I was usually asking for it, though, so I can't blame him. I loved dropping a bag full of live goldfish into his tank and watching him catch them and tear them in half. The downside was having to clean his tank -- what a chore! Nothing worse than moldy fish parts floating around. Ugh. The sad end of my time with him was that I took him outside to run around in the grass as I often did in the summer -- he loved tromping through it looking for bugs to eat. I found a black widow and became obsessed with watching it. I turned around to find Tony but couldn't -- he had run away. I searched the area for the rest of the day but no sign -- he'd completely disappeared. Sad but true. Even sadder that I can say that my turtle ran away from me. Slow and steady wins the race. 6. BJ -- technically not my pet, but was my sister's and I ended up taking care of her for a while. BJ (short for Benny, Jr.) was another petite long-haired tortie. She was a tough cookie -- she'd been attacked by dogs and lived, she'd fallen asleep in an open dryer only to run through a dry cycle and lived, she'd been diagnosed with a fatal kidney disease only to have it miraculously disappear. She died a very old age a few years back and it was heartbreaking. She was old, blind, and going gray. She was like 20 years old. By the end, her meow was pretty obnoxious and harsh, but she was always a great buddy. 7. Niyak -- My early childhood dog. I don't remember him much except for the pictures with him and me playing. Beautiful dog. A german shepherd mixed with something else -- a lab, perhaps? He was unfortunately put to sleep because he'd been busted for biting some neighbors. He never bit me, though. 8. Albie -- our albino catfish (only about 1 inch long). He was so cool to look at. One day he mysteriously disappeared from the tank. We couldn't find him anywhere and figured he leapt out. Suicidal for some reason. It wasn't until months later in the process of a routine cleaning when I noticed his body jammed into a hole on the inside of a plastic log that had been in the bottom of the tank. He had swum into the hole and apparently couldn't swim backward to get out. Very tragic. 9. Snickers -- Our kitty for 6 months. We adopted her because someone we knew had a friend that had to get rid of her. We readily adopted her as she was so stinking friendly and loving. Very overweight but full of nothing but loud meows and loads of constant love. A few months after getting her, she was diagnosed with diabetes. She stopped eating and drinking. A short time after that, my wife and I had one of the most difficult nights imaginable as she layed on the floor emitting pitiful attempts at meows. We put her in bed between us and knew that the next morning, we had to put her to sleep. It was heartbreaking. We put her favorite toy in a small pile of prayer stones on the top of a mountain we hiked. Immediately afterward, a butterfly flew up to us and circled us, then it circled the prayer stones, then circled us again and flew away. We felt as if her spirit was thanking us. It was pretty spiritual. 10. Oreo -- Guess why we named this cat with that name. She was a great cat -- actually, she seems similar to Maya. She was a great cat that had to deal with being the third wheel between my Muffy and my sister's BJ. Both of the other cats would pick on her. She also had some major sick spells in which she'd pee all over the house (including a bout of bloody urine on top of the refridgerator -- talk about nasty!!!). When my sister and I were gone, my mom decided to take her to her friend's farm where she thought Oreo would have a better life (without asking us, of course). Halfway there, my mom thought it would work to stop and let her go to the bathroom in a nearby cornfield. She ran off and we never saw her again. My sis and I still have a hard time (jokingly) of letting my mom forget about that one. Oi veh. 11. OJ -- a huge, fat version of Maya. More my dad's than mine, but OJ was always around when we were at Dad's place. A very cool cat who, sadly, died when his other cat, Odie, jumped on a shelf in the garage and knocked the ladder over. It landed on OJ and killed her instantly. 12. Tess -- My dad's Siamese. A VERY old cat that my dad adopted from someone who couldn't keep her anymore. Very scared at first but definitely came out of her shell. Her meow was horribly painful to hear (it sounded like sandpaper mixed with the whooping cough) and she drooled on you when you pet her, but she was awesome. 13. And this one goes out to all the mice, salamanders, frogs, cats, dogs, insects, fish, and other animals I've raised. I'm sorry if I was incompetent when I had you. I wished you no harm and know you all lived lives as full as you could, given the circumstances. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. elle 2. Mental Excrements (Denise) 3. Paisley Propaganda 4. Kodijack 5. Ann 6. Chickadee

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