I've taken old photographs to place on here for this project because you just can't get better pictures of any of these pets right now.
I've considered doing a History Of Pets post...or 2 or 20, considering as many pets I've had in my lifetime, but for now I guess I'll do a little teaser of the most current ones:
Chester:
Everyone knows the mutt. This is mine and Cary's first baby. We adopted him when he had been married for 6 months as 'birth control'. He has been an excellent dog all the way, and the day Brylee was due to come into our world (December 16, 2009), he started having seizures. He is now on medications twice a day, and we still get the stomach-dropping surprises every once in a while. Such an incredible part of this crazy McFadden world!
This is my cat. My baby. The one who picked me in 2001. She had several names before sticking with Athena, first as Hera, since she was dumped at a vet's office where the clinic cat was named Zeus. But since I found that it was more appropriate to name her after Zeus' daughter given that Zeus was 25 years old, she was named Athena. Then adopted by a family which changed her name to Phoebe. But after being severely injured, they couldn't afford to pay for her surgery and was returned to the vet clinic where I worked, where we convinced the Doc to do surgery on her. Re-dubbed Athena, I took her home the evening before Christmas Eve 2001. She had to stay with my parents after getting married because Cary's and my apartment was too small (500 sq ft) to have a cat litter box. The smell would have taken over the entire house! These days Brylee goes around calling for "Meena"...
This was the cat I 'wanted'. We visited my family in Paris, TX one November 1st when I was in college. My cousin kept trying to get me to take her home, since she would be going to the animal shelter otherwise. That evening, mom and I 'convinced' dad to let us keep her, and one week later, mom and I made the same trip back to Paris, TX and picked her up, brought her home, and she has been a nut case in our family since. Pure energy used to run through this cat. But now that she is 14 years old, she has her occasional outbursts of energy, but mostly just likes to beg to go outside to lay in the sun. Oh, and though she was supposed to be 'my cat', she clearly chose my mom.
Vader:
Vader came into our lives when I was a senior in high school. For some odd reason, I had been wanting another black cat for several years because they are so beautiful. (The 'other' black cat was a cat named Toby we had when I was very young. More on that eventually...) This kitten was found at the rock climbing gym dad and I worked at by my dad and a friend who saved him from dogs one night. No one else could take him, so dad called mom and I one evening to tell us to 'think of a name for a black kitten'. Names were going through our heads like Black Velvet, Midnight, and even Snowball. Dad walked through the door, holding the tiny kitten and introduced to us, Darth Vader. This cat, however, has anything but the evil nature from his name sake. He is the only cat that Brylee can go up to and pet, and even pull on without getting fiesty, hissing, or swiping at. What an incredible cat. And he's diabetic...yep, another special needs pet...
And just to help us remember when, this is Spike Jones II. Spike was our really old iguana that died September 7, 2011, about 16 years old. He was our second iguana, 9th in the way of reptiles...if I counted correctly...We got him when I was a junior in high school, and from the beginning, he was not a lizard that liked women. So poor dad had the task of taking the majority of care of him. His name came from the famous comedian from the 1940's. Never heard of him? Oh you are missing something! Check his stuff out here. Though he wasn't much in the way of being a snuggler, he did like to escape his cage every once in a while, scaring the beegeebies out of me. One of the times, I looked for him EVERYWHERE. Every corner, nook and cranny in the house. I was gathering my thoughts on the kitchen table (I didn't want to sit on a chair or couch in case he was there), when I looked to the back door and saw him hanging on the vertical blinds! That created quite a laugh amongst our little family when I told them this.
Until next time, don't forget to spay and neuter your pets! (And RESCUE!!!)
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