Sadie Jane

I know I've been a little lax with this blog, working and such has gotten in the way of my volunteering efforts, which will be drastically cut down when I start working full time again in a week. I wanted to post about yet another non-shelter pet...my doggie Sadie. My family had to make the tough call yesterday morning and euthanize her. She's been having seizures for the past few months, and yesterday she couldn't walk anymore. I hate going through this, but I know the decision was for the best and she's in whatever better place you believe in. My mom told her that Grandpa would feed her ring bologna, and I have to believe that.

Sadie was a pure-bred Shetland Sheepdog. She was the runt of the litter, so she was small for her breed. She had ADHD and would bark at the air and snap at invisible flies all day long. She loved living near the trains so she could bark her head off at them. And, she hated going for walks and would try to pull us home after half a block.

Rest in peace Sadie, we miss and love you!

Meeny

This is Meeny. She's a 10 month old kitten that is sweet as can be, and full of cowardly moxie. She regularly fights with Keller, the kitty who is 90% blind, but she is quite sweet to everyone else. To be fair, Keller fights with her, too, and Keller is most likely pretending for about 30% of her blindness... Anyway, Meeny is definitely a sweetheart, and she has not yet been adopted because people think that her name is indicative of her personality (though these people clearly cannot spell, so maybe we don't want her to go home with them). Meeny is so named because when she arrived she was one of a litter of four...betcha can't guess the others' names. Give up? Eenie, MEENY, Miney and Moe. Eenie, Miney and Moe were adopted, leaving sweet little, unfortunately setless Meeny to herself.

One little piggy...

Yesterday and today I got to spend more time with the animals. I spent much of yesterday catching up with Sonny and walking a few other dogs. I also got to know Phyllis, the woman who runs the cat room. But, my favorite part of the day was when I spent time with the new litter of kittens we have up in the office. There are four kittens, one black and three gray and white. They're a few months old, and they're all polydactyl, which means that they each have more toes than they should on at least one paw. According to the website, they are named Hemingway, Shelley, Dice, and Jane Austen. They are such loveable little scamps. They crawled all around the front desk and my shoulders, biting my hair and giving me plenty of kisses. If you look closely, you can see the toes!

The reason for the name

I am currently in Annapolis for a week with Betka, so I'm not actively volunteering at MLAR right now. But, I wanted to update a few times with some info, and switch things up a bit. Because I'm slightly obsessed with my own animals, I shall devote this entry to their stories.

First up, Aurora. I got Aurora the summer before my junior year of college. Trisha, Chad and I went to That Fish Place with no intent on actually adopting, and ended up being unable to return Aurora to her cage. We took her home that day. Aurora soon became the cat that made all cat haters like cats...she has won over Chad, my friends Dan and Janeen, and my roommate Kim. She was born a feral, fostered by a Humane Society volunteer, given the name Beautiful Princess (I can only assume the volunteer had a little girl), and still harbors slight proclivities toward hallucinations.


After adopting Aurora, we took her to an incredibly awful vet, where Trisha met Annabelle (at that time named Xtra). Annabelle cocked her head awkwardly to the side, and we learned that she had a bad ear infection. Trisha, having her own ear eccentricities, developed an immediate bond with Bella, and she and Rora instantly became best friends. See?:




Maybe not all the time...

Finally, Orion. Chad and I adopted her from an amazing Philadelphia-based nonprofit rescue called City Kitties. When City Kitties got them, Orion and her sister Percy were so small you could see all the bones in their bodies. She was almost smaller than my hand. She was so small that she wasn't properly developed, and Lori and Lou named her Gomez (because she appeared to be a male). Orion was abused as a kitten, and shows symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and occasionally needs prozac to calm her down, especially when new people are over to visit. She's been doing much better. In fact, she has recently started cuddling with Kim and actually likes Tara!


Since adopting, my life has been infinitely fulfilled. I can't stress enough the need to adopt from shelters and rescues. There are so many amazing pets just looking for people to love and a warm body to snuggle up. My kitties keep me wonderfully entertained all day and night. They both have amazing personalities, and even earned nicknames, Rora's list including A-ro, Sra Sra, and the ever famous Scary Eyes McGee, while Rion has been entitled Little, Riberry, Oreo Cookie, and Kim's personal favorite, Onion. I love my cats so much that I turned down two amazing jobs because the included apartments did not allow pets. And I am completely happy about that decision, and would not take it back for all the money in the world.

So, this blog, for all the nothing it is worth, is dedicated to Aurora and Orion. I hope that, in time, everyone can feel that love and warmth the I feel from my kitties. I also hope that soon every cat has a human of its own to torment lovingly.

Rocky

This is Rocky, the first doggie I got to meet at the shelter. He is almost completely blind, so when you walk him, you have to be his seeing-eye person. He looks like a little fox, he's so adorable. He's a real sweetheart. When he is able to see something, he barks at it, as if it's the greatest thing in the world.

Sonny

This is my first "featured animal". This is Sonny. He's a Jack Russell/ Rat Terrier mix. He used to have a home, but when his 'parents' divorced, they gave him up. He's a sweetheart. When I walked him, he heeled the whole time, and just wanted me to pet him. When I sat down in puppy play group, he jumped right onto my lap, and one of the staff members told me later that she thinks he bonded with me! If no one adopts him, I will definitely be taking him home.

You must have a theme or a color scheme...I have both?

I decided to hop on the blogging bandwagon. However, taking a leaf from Charlie's tree, mine shall be themed. I recently began volunteering at Main Line Animal Rescue. Therefore, instead of blogging about my life/my disillusionment with the current state of the world/interesting happenings in my environment, I will feature stories and anecdotes (and sometimes pictures) of phenomenal animals that should get adopted.