A-Squared: How To Be a Lover of Animals

Let me preface this by saying, we love animals. More specifically, dogs and cats. If we won the lottery, one of the top things on the list would be to open an animal shelter/home. I feel so awful about the many animals that are brought into this world unloved. You can give the same argument for unwanted babies, but there's something about puppies/dogs and kitties/cats in shelters that tugs at my heartstrings. Not sure why, maybe it has something to do with this book this lady named Pat gave me when I was born, maybe it's because I used to have to moo at the cows when I was little, maybe it's genetic (my mom's family is known for taking in strays and my dad has a big soft animal-loving heart too). Who knows. I just love animals.

I grew up with Midnight (cat) and Sandie (dog), which were both rescues. Midnight passed and in 8th grade we rescued four cats from our church. And when I say we, I mean my dad found a yellow male cat (he had always wanted one) at church and brought him home. Once we found out there were more that had been dumped there, we traveled to the church to gather up the rest. We found four more. One was taken by someone else, so we took the remaining three. Two of these cats went to Dad's shop and we kept Nectar (yellow male) and the runt, which we named Hallie (short for Hallelujah). Note: Hallie is where my zoo starts.

After Sandie (best dog ever) passed, we wound up with Ellie (who was cute but is probably the worst dog ever). Nectar also passed, and I thought it would be a good idea to bring home another yellow male cat from school. This one was named Chester (from Manchester). Big mistake on my part as he is pain in the arse. Also at school, a couple of my friends had adopted a part-Siamese cat named Oscar. He was too much to handle and I couldn't bear him going back to the shelter, so I said I would take him to my Dad's shop. And that's where I dropped him off at. Only to come home and find him at my parent's house. When asked why he was brought home, Dad replied, "He feel asleep in my arms and looked so cute. I couldn't leave him at the shop." Ah! Maybe this is where I get my need to bring animals home?

My last year at school, I brought Hallie to live with me and she became my cat. She lived in Manchester, Castleton, and Downtown Indy with me. She's a good little (I use that term loosely as she's 16 pounds) companion.

Hallie cat

After Al and I started dating and later became engaged, he decided it was time for a dog. I was apprehensive at first (thinking about how Hallie would react), but warmed up to it. That's where Daisie comes into the picture. (I'll give the background on all the pups at a later time; each would be a separate story in itself). We got Dodger because we thought Daisie needed a friend. It took a minute, but they eventually became buds. Most recently we've added Diego, who is so small in comparison that's it's hard to even call him a dog. Wow, three dogs and a cat! I never thought I'd have more than one of each at a time. Just call us the Animal Kingdom!

Lots of love to my animal friends and friends of animals!
--Am