So, it's kind of sad that I've had this journal up and running for quite a few months now (January, I believe, when I first got the dang account so I could have cute icons for my posts to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
theevilpuppy's journal). And yet, I haven't posted about the absolute loves of my life - my animal companions.
So ... here is that very post. Enjoy!
Meet:
Queen Gracie Lou Latifa Freebush
Gracie began her life on the mean streets of Winnipeg, c. 2001. A wonderful shelter volunteer from Rescue Siamese and Stray Cat had seen her on the street, and wanted to bring her in for a spay-and-release (done when the cat is feral, and will not adapt to a home. This way the cat will not keep producing litters, but can remain in "the wild"). In the winter of 2003, Gracie lost most of her ears to frostbite, and the shelter volunteer performed a live-trapping, so Gracie could be spayed. After the surgery, while recovering, the shelter volunteer realized that the skittish cat was just that - skittish, but not wild. So she came into the shelter's program shortly after, and stayed there until August, 2005 - when I adopted her.
I had chosen some female names for my future cats, and Gracie didn't really factor into them. But being a HUGE Sandra Bullock fan, and adoring Miss Congeniality, when I saw Gracie - the name Gracie Lou Freebush just jumped into my brain. In the weeks before I actually took Gracie home, I entertained other names, but none of them quite shook me like Gracie Lou. Gracie is a true queen (her rescue name being Queen Latifa), and loves to be spoiled. She's extremely easy-going in nature, and is quite content to go with the flow. She loves laps (and will occupy any that enter her home), cleaning her feline sister Finn, and eating.
Princess Finnegan McInnys
(shoulda warned you that I'm the type of person who dresses up her animals. But I swear Finn LOVES it)
Finn's definitely the princess of my crew. She's got beautiful big blue eyes (and had I adopted her a year later, her name would most DEFINITELY have been Temperance - in honour of Emily Deschanel and her beautiful eyes), and loves to be pampered, and be told how gorgeous she is. Her backstory's not quite as dramatic as Gracie's, as she lived in a home with 3 other cats. Apparently she was unspayed, and did not get along with the other cats in the house. As such, her guardians decided to "get rid" of her, despite the fact that they were told her attitude could be hormonal, and could resolve with her being spayed. (Their loss, I say!).
Finn came to live with me 1 week after Gracie. I had chosen Gracie upon first meeting her in late July, but couldn't bring her home until August, when I moved into my own place. When I went to pick up Gracie, she refused to get into the carrier (having been moved around quite a bit in her 2 years at the shelter). A beautiful blue-eyed cat decided to make her presence known, and jumped into my carrier instead. This cat was MC, whom the volunteer told me was a "stubborn male". All week long, I could not get MC and his beautiful eyes out of my head, and had already starting calling him Finnegan in my mind.
When I went back to the shelter a week later, to update them on Gracie, I took one look at MC and decided he had to come home with me. Upon completing the adoption papers, we learned that MC was *not* a stubborn male, he was a stubborn FEMALE. Since I had already grown attached to the name Finnegan, I decided to stick with it.
Wiley Oscar
Wiley is my only animal companion who is *not* a real rescue. I consider him a rescue, because I believe I rescued him from death - but technically, he was bought from a pet store. I was teaching preschool in the summer of 2004, and our class had taken a field trip to a local Petcetera. When I saw this little 6 week old bunny, whose cage was covered in loose feces, and who was being fed minimal pellets, lettuce, cucumbers, and carrots - I wanted to cry. I had lost my previous rabbit, Hunny, to cancer in 2001, and still wasn't sure I could deal with having another rabbit just yet. But I couldn't get this little bun out of my mind, and so the next day - I went back to inquire about it.
I was told the bunny was 6 weeks old, and a female. (In case you aren't aware, rabbits are very hard to sex as their ... ahem ... reproductive organs are on the inside of their body). So I took little Willa home, and started her on a proper pellet diet (no veggies!). As a result of the poor nutrition, the bunny had loose stools, and had troubles digesting anything. She required daily bum-baths. Two months later, testicles decended and ... yeah. Willa became Wiley.
Lilly Hannah
Lilly rounds out my animal bunch. She was adopted at the Winnipeg Humane Society in September of 2005. Lilly's story was that she was found wandering outside downtown Winnipeg in the middle of August. When I adopted her, her feet, belly and bum were black from sitting on newspapers, and she required a complete back-end shave due to severe matting. Whoever had been "taking care of her" (I use this term loosely) had obviously done a shoddy job, before deciding to let her loose into the world.
I don't know her entire backstory, but I have had an animal empath work with her (due to her behaviour issues) and from what the empath has gathered from Lilly, she was dumped because her people grew tired of her.
Lilly's name comes from two sources: the spelling comes from Lilly Moscowitz from the Princess Diaries novels, and the name itself comes from Lily Lebowski from Crossing Jordan.
I am an avid believer in rescue organizations, and URGE anybody considering adding an animal to their lives to visit these organizations BEFORE buying. Animals should *not* be bought from breeders while those in shelters continue to die. My cats were rescued from a no-kill organization (otherwise, Gracie would have been euthanized early in her stint - a thought that makes me shudder), but organizations such as Humane Societies are still awesome places to rescue animals.
At the risk of sounding like a crazy animal-nut, I honestly cannot imagine my life without these wonderful animals. They truly *are* my life, and I would be lost without them.
(Now, I'd best go and post this before my computer decides to crash and I lose it all...)
theevilpuppy's journal). And yet, I haven't posted about the absolute loves of my life - my animal companions.So ... here is that very post. Enjoy!
Meet:
Queen Gracie Lou Latifa Freebush
Gracie began her life on the mean streets of Winnipeg, c. 2001. A wonderful shelter volunteer from Rescue Siamese and Stray Cat had seen her on the street, and wanted to bring her in for a spay-and-release (done when the cat is feral, and will not adapt to a home. This way the cat will not keep producing litters, but can remain in "the wild"). In the winter of 2003, Gracie lost most of her ears to frostbite, and the shelter volunteer performed a live-trapping, so Gracie could be spayed. After the surgery, while recovering, the shelter volunteer realized that the skittish cat was just that - skittish, but not wild. So she came into the shelter's program shortly after, and stayed there until August, 2005 - when I adopted her.
I had chosen some female names for my future cats, and Gracie didn't really factor into them. But being a HUGE Sandra Bullock fan, and adoring Miss Congeniality, when I saw Gracie - the name Gracie Lou Freebush just jumped into my brain. In the weeks before I actually took Gracie home, I entertained other names, but none of them quite shook me like Gracie Lou. Gracie is a true queen (her rescue name being Queen Latifa), and loves to be spoiled. She's extremely easy-going in nature, and is quite content to go with the flow. She loves laps (and will occupy any that enter her home), cleaning her feline sister Finn, and eating.
Princess Finnegan McInnys
(shoulda warned you that I'm the type of person who dresses up her animals. But I swear Finn LOVES it)
Finn's definitely the princess of my crew. She's got beautiful big blue eyes (and had I adopted her a year later, her name would most DEFINITELY have been Temperance - in honour of Emily Deschanel and her beautiful eyes), and loves to be pampered, and be told how gorgeous she is. Her backstory's not quite as dramatic as Gracie's, as she lived in a home with 3 other cats. Apparently she was unspayed, and did not get along with the other cats in the house. As such, her guardians decided to "get rid" of her, despite the fact that they were told her attitude could be hormonal, and could resolve with her being spayed. (Their loss, I say!).
Finn came to live with me 1 week after Gracie. I had chosen Gracie upon first meeting her in late July, but couldn't bring her home until August, when I moved into my own place. When I went to pick up Gracie, she refused to get into the carrier (having been moved around quite a bit in her 2 years at the shelter). A beautiful blue-eyed cat decided to make her presence known, and jumped into my carrier instead. This cat was MC, whom the volunteer told me was a "stubborn male". All week long, I could not get MC and his beautiful eyes out of my head, and had already starting calling him Finnegan in my mind.
When I went back to the shelter a week later, to update them on Gracie, I took one look at MC and decided he had to come home with me. Upon completing the adoption papers, we learned that MC was *not* a stubborn male, he was a stubborn FEMALE. Since I had already grown attached to the name Finnegan, I decided to stick with it.
Wiley OscarWiley is my only animal companion who is *not* a real rescue. I consider him a rescue, because I believe I rescued him from death - but technically, he was bought from a pet store. I was teaching preschool in the summer of 2004, and our class had taken a field trip to a local Petcetera. When I saw this little 6 week old bunny, whose cage was covered in loose feces, and who was being fed minimal pellets, lettuce, cucumbers, and carrots - I wanted to cry. I had lost my previous rabbit, Hunny, to cancer in 2001, and still wasn't sure I could deal with having another rabbit just yet. But I couldn't get this little bun out of my mind, and so the next day - I went back to inquire about it.
I was told the bunny was 6 weeks old, and a female. (In case you aren't aware, rabbits are very hard to sex as their ... ahem ... reproductive organs are on the inside of their body). So I took little Willa home, and started her on a proper pellet diet (no veggies!). As a result of the poor nutrition, the bunny had loose stools, and had troubles digesting anything. She required daily bum-baths. Two months later, testicles decended and ... yeah. Willa became Wiley.
Lilly HannahLilly rounds out my animal bunch. She was adopted at the Winnipeg Humane Society in September of 2005. Lilly's story was that she was found wandering outside downtown Winnipeg in the middle of August. When I adopted her, her feet, belly and bum were black from sitting on newspapers, and she required a complete back-end shave due to severe matting. Whoever had been "taking care of her" (I use this term loosely) had obviously done a shoddy job, before deciding to let her loose into the world.
I don't know her entire backstory, but I have had an animal empath work with her (due to her behaviour issues) and from what the empath has gathered from Lilly, she was dumped because her people grew tired of her.
Lilly's name comes from two sources: the spelling comes from Lilly Moscowitz from the Princess Diaries novels, and the name itself comes from Lily Lebowski from Crossing Jordan.
I am an avid believer in rescue organizations, and URGE anybody considering adding an animal to their lives to visit these organizations BEFORE buying. Animals should *not* be bought from breeders while those in shelters continue to die. My cats were rescued from a no-kill organization (otherwise, Gracie would have been euthanized early in her stint - a thought that makes me shudder), but organizations such as Humane Societies are still awesome places to rescue animals.
At the risk of sounding like a crazy animal-nut, I honestly cannot imagine my life without these wonderful animals. They truly *are* my life, and I would be lost without them.
(Now, I'd best go and post this before my computer decides to crash and I lose it all...)
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