Our Other Furry Friends

This is Maggie-I got Maggie in August of 1999 when she was only 3 months old. I wanted a dog that could grow up with our older daughter Josie who I was pregnant with at the time. She has been an awesome dog not only with both of our girls, but with any other animals she has been around. Her breed may get a bad rap, but in my opinion they are one of the best family dogs, and she is a cherished member of our family!

This is Miss Kitty-I got Miss Kitty in November of 2001-when she was 6 weeks old. You can't tell from the picture, but Miss Kitty has no tail. I decided when Josie was almost 2 years old I wanted a lap pet, and Maggie was just a little too big to fit the bill-LOL. I started looking for kittens much to my fiancee's disagreement, and found an ad in the local paper for tailless kittens. When I went to see them the mother was a normal black cat with a tail, but they said they knew who the dad was because there was a tailless cat running around the area. After doing some research into the Manx breed after getting Miss Kitty I found she could've been classified as a "Rumpy" as she has NO tail. Almost everyone who sees her for the first time thinks something happened to her-LOL, but I saw the whole litter-they were all that way! I chose her because she was the most independant of the whole litter, and she settled in very well to our home. I had my concerns about bringing her home because Maggie had never really been around any other small animals before Miss Kitty, but they instantly became playmates. Maggie actually gets upset and tells on Miss Kitty if she happens to slip out the door when she thinks she needs to adventure outside for a bit. I think Miss Kitty thinks she is a dog actually-since she grew up with Maggie she has more dog mannerisms than what cats typically do, and she doesn't mind dogs, but HATES other cats!

This is Cry Baby-She was born in the fall of 2003 at the farm we used to live at. She was born in my former rabbit building, and was raised around the rabbits. She in turn decided the rabbit building was where she should give birth to all her kittens as well. When I moved from the farm I took all my barn cats with me, but by the time I moved to my new home in fall of 2007 I only had two left. Cry Baby is probably the best mouser I've ever had, and is awesome around my rabbits. I won't forget one time she was in the rabbit building with a litter of kittens, and we had a new litter of Netherland dwarfs out there-somehow a couple of the babies fell out of the cage, and I walked in and found them alive and well. Cry Baby will catch any mouse she can, but won't harm the rabbits-even babies when they are right in front of her. And that passed down through her babies because I never had any issues with any of my barn cats hurting my rabbits-they were almost all raised in the building with them, and while they kept the building free of mice they wouldn't touch my rabbits! Baby Boy her brother also moved with us, and defended our porch against any other stray animals that would come along. Unfortunately Baby Boy disappeared in January 2008. I still watch our local shelter, and hold out a glimmer of hope that he will turn up someday soon, but with every day the hope fades.

*Special note*-My dog, and both of my cats are proudly fed Iams/Eukanuba pet foods!