My Pets

Paula reading the Night Owl's blog

2/17/08

My Pets

by East Bay J

In honor of Paula's 16th birthday on April 8th, I would like to talk about our PETS!

As most of you probably know, I have a kitty cat princess named Paula. I adopted her as an 8 week old kitten from the Hayward SPCA.

My ex-husband and I had gone there, "just to look". We ended up staying about 3 hours, we held every animal we could. We did not intend to get another pet, as at home we had an older dog named Rosie, a beagle shepherd mix I had adopted years before, also Hanni the Rottweiler, a young girl who was given to me by a neighbor. Also Blacki the kitty, long haired black tabby, and JC, a sickly guy who was a ginger colored tabby.

Well, long story short, we came home without an animal, but turned around and went back to adopt Paula. She had stood out to us because she had little dark tufts of hair on the ends of her ears, kind of like a lynx.

Today we have Paula, and also Poe, an African Grey parrot. We adopted him from a parrot rescue group in Fresno. He came from an abusive home, is terrified of brooms and does not like the color red. He came with some baggage, and says some bad words!

We lost our beloved little Shih Tzu, Lilly, this past November, after a short illness. She was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in early September, and fought hard for 2 1/2 months. We miss her terribly.

Paula is currently going thru treatment for kidney failure (she first became ill 4 days after Lilly died). She in on week 3 of a 4 week course of antibiotics (liquid, which is bubblegum flavor). She hates it. We also give her fluid under her skin every other night. She hates this too.

We have been told that this treatment may be what she needs for the rest of her life.

Over the years, I have been "mom" to a horse, several goats, geese, ducks, chickens, dogs and cats. I have been an animal lover my whole life, even worked for a vet clinic and emergency vet clinic before and during nursing school.

I would love to hear about your pets! Past, present, future. Any funny stories? Please share them!