My Pet Story--In Memory of Thomas...........by-----BJ

In Memory of THOMAS:
1992 - 4/11/2009

This is probably the hardest pet story for me to tell, because it’s about my best friend “Thomas-Tommy” who passed over in April of 2009.
Since the 2nd. Anniversary of his passing was April 11th., I felt it was time and that I owed it to him, before I could tell any stories of the three critters I have now.
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I had managed to get this great job as asst. manager of a high end gift shop at our mall in 1991. I love collectibles, figurines, artist dolls, Bradford exchange items & other unique statues & gifts that this shop offered. I was in gift heaven.
I had just moved to the town that I live in because of this job and I loved being in the mall. During lunch breaks or after work, I often shopped the other stores. I was ready for a kitten/cat and I checked the pet store that was there, at the time. This pet store was associated with a couple of vet offices in the area & sold cats that had been taken to the shelters or abandoned kittens, after medical checks, spay or neutering.
I walked in, only to be greeted by a sweet affectionate black 9 month old female cat, who had just been spayed. I fell in love with her & that was it. I had to give her a few days for recovery before I could take her home and I called her “Kiki”. She was just a wonderful loving cat and I never regretted the day I chose her.
When I took Kiki home, I told them that I was looking for a male kitten/cat with long silvery grey fur, because I had a couple of them before. One week later, I received a call in my store that they had gotten one in that was 14 weeks old and I went immediately to see him, when I got a break.
When I walked into the pet store, they told me that the kitten was in the back, getting a beauty treatment. I walked back & saw this gorgeous grey kitten in a cage with his fur blowing as if in the wind. He had just had a bath & they were gently drying him on the low speed of a hair dryer that was hooked up outside his cage, in front of him. It was so cute. Naturally I took him and made arrangements to pick him up & take him home after work.

I was elated, because here I was, in a new apartment, with a new job I loved, and two great cats, which were part of a few of my favorite breed types. How fortunate I felt.

Well, Kiki ended up being just the perfect cat and she took to Tommy ( which was named after the cat in Tom & Jerry). She was more mellow and Thomas was a rascal.
His nose was into everything and he wanted to watch everything that was going on.
So, I ended up putting Tommy on my shoulder to watch while I was cooking or doing dishes etc. because he was snoopy & loved heights. He loved that I carried him around the house like that constantly. He had to be up on the bathroom sink, if I was getting ready to go to work or anywhere else. He especially loved the smell of “clean” things & wanted to be held and cuddle around my neck after every shower.

I let them go out on my patio balcony, which was 1 & ½ stories up. There was another floor above us. We lived with the front of our apartment next to a glassed in hallway, so there was, sort of, a center, doorway, roof peak, to one side of our patio, at the entrance.
Thomas scared the heck out of me at first when he learned to jump from the patio to that pointed roof and then jumped from there to the roof, which was flat and it was crazy of him to do it. He brought home 2 or 3 birds one year and we had a bit of a battle with me trying to get the (still alive) birds from his mouth to let them go & fly away. I think he thought I didn't appreciate his efforts.
One evening, just after dark, he came in with a dark figure of a bird ( I thought) and it got free from him in our kitchen, after I chased him in there with it hanging from his mouth. Very quickly, I realized that it wasn’t a bird, but a black bat & panic set in with me screeching of course and I was trying to figure out what to do, to capture this bat & get it out of my house. I was petrified. YEEK!!
Eventually I caught the bat & trapped him between the side of my broom and in the dust pan. I flew to the patio door & threw it up in the air to fly away, with Tommy right there beside me, all of the while, not understanding why I didn’t appreciate his great gift.
Over the period of five years, Tommy made friends with the neighbors & their cats by going to the roof & getting down on their patios. Everyone loved Thomas.
Another favorite time for us, is when I would rock Tommy & Kiki in my rocker like babies. Kiki was merely OK with it once in a while, but Thomas “Loved it” and would cuddle & fall to sleep often. He was my sweet baby boy then. I rocked him for years and sometimes danced with him on my shoulder around the room. He loved that too. My daughter said she had never seen a cat so spoiled, because she'll never forget me cleaning his fuzzy little long haired butt, one time, when he had a messy accident. No wonder he thought I was his mother, she said. LOL!

Then, the following summer, my youngest daughter, who lived with me at the time, said she stopped by the pet store & I HAD to look at this new kitten that they just got in. She said she fell in love & knew that I would too, if I saw him. At first I was saying no & we didn’t need another cat etc., but she convinced me, because they had let her bring him with her to show me at work. Oh great! I saw “Max” for the first time. Max was a darling little long fur tuxedo kitten and she was right, I fell in love instantly & took him home. Kiki was Ok with him, but he was a feisty kitten & went after Thomas constantly to play. They ended up becoming good buddies & brothers. All of us lived a charmed life for 5 years, then I decided to move. We moved to the top part of a pretty 2 story house, near downtown & the kittles had more room & a big sun porch to play on.
However, that only lasted a year, because in that year I became totally disabled & had to give up my job. There were several adjustments we had to make & one of them was losing part of our happy family. Where I was moving to, didn’t allow pets. I was sick & frantic & it was too late to change anything. Eventually, I tried to find them good homes, but I only found someone to take Tommy. Poor Kiki & Max ended up in a shelter. It was so hard to take, and after a week, the lady that took Tommy called me up & said she couldn’t keep him, so I went to get him. In one way, I was so glad and in another, I didn’t know what to do then. But, I found out I could keep Tommy by getting a letter from my doctor recommending animal companionship. I did just that, because I had been so depressed over losing them & was determined to keep Tommy somehow. It was an omen to me that we were meant to stay together. Thomas and I were ready to spend the rest of our lives together. He was approximately 6 years old then.

He was always so healthy and active. We got extremely close and learned each other’s habit and developed our own language between us. He knew what I was saying and I knew what he was saying. He had certain meows that meant different things and he learned what I wanted when I said certain things, like “Lets go to bed or Let’s go outside” etc. We learned to carry on our own personal conversations about almost anything. Some cats are highly intelligent.
He became my best friend & confidant. We would go for walks together, because I never let him outside without me. He met & was kind to other cats and became friends with a couple in the neighborhood. He had such a gentle, kind & loving spirit. Everyone knew & loved him here too. I sometimes called him Boo or Bubba.
Thomas went through his share of dealing with cats & kittens, who taunted him over the years, that spent time with us. He let kittens play & jump on him & bite his butt & all of the things kittens do, but he had amazing patience & tolerance.

Over the next 10 years we were content with each other and I had never left him alone for any period of time, until My dad got very ill 3 & ½ years ago. My parents lived in another state, so I ended up having to leave Tommy for a couple of weeks. The first time ever apart for more than a night.
I got a neighbor girl who just loved him to look after him while I was gone. In less than 2 months, I made 3 trips to my parents & on the last one, Dad passed away. I was deeply distraught and I missed & worried about Thomas too. After Dad was buried and I went home, Thomas was so excited to see me, he had missed me so much. The first time I came back after the first 2 week stay, he ran around like a crazy kitten for 2 or 3 days, he was so happy. He made things a little easier for me, but he knew I was terribly sad. He only had a lot of patience & love to offer me.

Almost two years after that, Tommy got ill for the first time in his life and although he was throwing up from time to time, I didn’t take it seriously for a couple of months. I know now, that I should have been more concerned. He was drinking tons of water and cried out when he went to the bathroom. I made an appt. then to get him to the vet, though I had this dread inside that it was coming to an end. He was 17 years old in April of 2009 and the vet built him up with IV’s & meds, but said it may just hold him a little longer. It was only for a few weeks.
About 5 or 6 weeks later, he started to have bloody urine and I rushed him to the vet again one morning. I had taken a lot of pictures of him the day before & night before he passed on. I had a feeling that it would be my last night with Thomas & I stayed up all night petting him & talking to him. He always slept right by me on the other side of my pillows and I rubbed his wonderful soft fur & told him how much I loved him, over & over. He just looked at me with those eyes filled with love, as he tried to rest. When I got him to the vet that day, he confirmed my worst fears and told me that it was time to let Tommy go, because he was dieing. It broke my heart, but I did it for Tommy, to end his suffering and stood there with him, holdimg his paw and talking to him softly as I watched that special light fade from his loving green eyes. I came home and broke down and couldn’t stop bawling for 2 weeks. I FELT LIKE SOMEONE HAD SLUGGED ME IN THE GUT. I lost my best friend and companion of 17 years and didn’t know how I’d be able to go on. Losing Dad and Thomas was losing the 2 strongest & constant males in my life. I could hardly bare it. I'm sure a lot of you know that feeling, unfortunately.
I put Tommy’s dishes & quilt away that day, because I couldn't take seeing them right there in front of me.
My wonderful daughter, Renee, had him cremated for me & I got him back in a nice cedar box two weeks later. I had put it in a cabinet out of sight for a while. It took me months before I could look in the box and I put his toy mouse in there with him & there it stays, NOW in the curio cabinet. It took a year for me to recover some & another year before I could talk about him for this story.
So this is for you, my sweet and precious boy, whom I still love dearly and will always miss.
I’m only half now, of who I was with you here. There’ll never be another like you, My Dearest & Best Friend.

SEE TOMMY'S PAGE AT
http://www.catster.com/cats/214398
This story was submitted by BJ of EXPRESSIONS on Artfire
BJ is a member of our Crafting for Animals Guild and Columnist for or Blog.

A Volunteer Means the World to a Homeless Pup

Here is a story I received from Tammy of Cutsie Poochie who began her journey in knitting and crochet and then to sewing animal ware because of her half bald chihuahua.

This is Tammy of Cutsie Poochie. I started Cutstie Poochie when I got my chihuahua Batboy because he was half-bald and it was mid-winter. So I started crocheting and knitting little things, which led to more little things, then to sewing, and well, it just became a passion.

I began volunteering with my kids at our local animal shelter about six weeks after we got our chihuahua. It was the most awesome, heart-wrenching, and rewarding thing we had ever done. Every Saturday, we would put on our old clothes and go down to the shelter armed with biscuits, bags of food, and big smiles, and walked the dogs. We would play with the cats in their little room and pet and love them. Some got to be very special to us and it was a huge reward when they were adopted.

About a month ago our shelter stopped allowing volunteers to come in because a person was bitten. This person was also a volunteer and had signed a release agreement, but had somehow been able to take the county to court. So our life hit a huge snag. The day we found out, we walked the cages and visited with our friends behind bars. The ones that knew that we had been there every Saturday barked and jumped and panted, knowing they were about to get out! We petted them and talked to them through the cage doors and then had to move on. They just stood there and watched us go, not understanding why they weren't being let out. Some barked louder, some howled. It was probably the worst thing that had happened the entire time we had been working with them.

I didn't write this to dissuade anyone from volunteering! I wrote this to let everyone know that it is a job worth doing. You may not think that the animals recognize it or know it, but they do. Volunteers makes such a difference in their lives. They know that they are still valued, still loved, and still needed. It keeps them from getting depressed and helps them be happy so they can be adopted. People don't adopt sad dogs and cats.

So, do all that you can, no matter the cost. We are trying to find another organization to work with and will be ecstatic when we do. In the meantime, we're working our fingers to the bone and doing all we can in other areas of pet rescue.

Buy from someone that is donating to animal charities. A little goes a long way!

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Tammy of Cutsie Poochie donates a portion of all proceeds from her sales go to their local animal shelter and pet rescue organizations. Tammy's gang features some of the pets available for adoption and invites you to take a new friend into your home. You can follow their adventures by going to our Cutsie Poochie blog site. You can visit the Effingham County Animal Control Shelter at 307 Hwy 119 South in Springfield, GA or call them at 912-754-2109. The map above gives directions. Keep your cursor on the picture for a description of each pet. Scroll down for some videos and check out our channel on YouTube for great videos of the adventures we have.

Visit CutsiePoochie's ArtFire Shop

Dance with the Bunnies Rabbit Rescue

Here is a very inspirational story of how one of our members, wovendreams.artfire.com, began saving rabbits.

Story by Bonnie of wovendreams.artfire.com
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On my 13th birthday, my grandpa gave me a rabbit. He was a little “blue” gray and white dutch. No one in my family had ever had a rabbit. We all had to learn the basics from the start. My Dad built Lollipop, his first hutch. It was a grand home that we kept next to the side of the house. Being a military household, Lollipop moved with us from California to Kansas and then to North Carolina.

Lollipop often stayed in the house with us and had free reign until he started eating the cords. Mom still tells the story of how he chewed the telephone cord while she was still on the phone to her mother long distance.

He was a brave little boy. In the 1960’s we would never have thought of neutering a rabbit. Most people in the USA had never even thought of having a rabbit for a pet. They were considered to be similar to a guinea pig and were therefore kept in aquariums.

When I went off to college, the job of taking care of Lollipop went to my parents. We hadn’t thought about who would take care of the bunny at that time. That was fine with my parents because they loved him as much as I did. He was family.

It was much later that I brought a bunny in into my house again. I heard that there was a bunny at the Humane Society and nobody knew how to take care of him. I went to visit him and he was petrified in a cage in the cat building. I had to take him home. My children were thrilled. They were in middle and high school and wanted an additional pet to our dog.

That started numerous bunnies being rescued through my home. Whenever a bunny showed up at the Humane Society, I was called. After I adopted 3 rabbits for my family, I started looking for homes as the rabbits would come in. I advertised them through the veterinarian’s offices and the Humane Society. That was eleven years ago. Since then, I have rescued over 100 rabbits. I have files on every one of them. I now have each rabbit on PetFinder, BunSpace and the animal shelter’s web site. I network with many rabbit organizations and other rescues. This all helps find these bunnies find a family.

Through the years, my knowledge of bunnies has grown. I know personally each of the bunnies that I have worked with. I plead with each of you to adopt from a shelter instead of purchasing from a pet store or breeder. Your bunny rescue will already know their temperament and have them spayed/neutered. And, it is so rewarding to give an abandoned bunny a home.

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Bonnie of Woven Dreams runs Dance with the Bunnies Rabbit Rescue, is a foster home for Friends of the Pitt County Animal Shelter, aka Friends, that solely rescues rabbits. These rabbits consist of shelter turn ins, animal control and turn in by owners, in that order. The rabbits are spayed/neutered upon placement. The foster home and rescue runs only on donations. Bonnies is also part of the Rabbit Rehoming Alliance.

Marley the monster mastiff mix

The story below touched me as I think I would have done the same thing - put my full heart into Marley and done what I could to keep him. The-puppy-dog-place.com, where this article was taken from, is wonderful so please take a moment to check it out.

With permission, the article "Marley the Monster Mastiff Mix," originally posted at the-puppy-dog-place.com is reproduced below.

by Jenna (Waltham, Ma, U.S.A)

I spent weeks combing petfinder and other similar websites hoping to find a dog that would be good with dogs and children (so I could take the dog to work where there are three children and five small dogs) and hopefully wouldn't eat any of the ten cats in my home.

Weeks went by, I found lots of dogs, but none of them were exactly what I wanted. Problem is that a lot of stray dogs have no history, so it's hard for an overworked shelter to promise that any given dog isn't afraid of children or certain types of people.

I was hoping to find a Mastiff, however no one seemed to have any pure breds. I kept typing "Mastiff" into the field and getting this one particular dog... He was listed as
mastiff/lab... he was estimated to be about 8mos... cute as a button, but there was no info on him... but everyday during my search he turned up.

I finally called and asked about him. Every shelter worker in the place was in love with him. I don't know what happened but I just knew that he was the one. I made them promise not to give him away or put him down, and two days later I drove two
hours from Boston to Conneticut to get a dog that no one knew anything about.

The first day was hard. His leg was severely deformed and I was afraid of what it was going to cost to fix it or treat it, but he got around fine so I tried not to let it bother me. The biggest issue however, was that Marley didn't want to share his new "mommy" with the kitties... so he would attack them when I held them.

I didn't think things would work out. I was pretty sure I would have to bring him back. But when I really thought about it I realized I had three choices: Bring him back to Conn, where they would put him down since he had technically bit me, even though it was accidental, give him to a rescue group who would hopefully work with him and rehome him in a place with no cats, or I could put my heart and soul into this and try to help this dog who, in the 8mos he had spent on this earth had seen nothing but abuse and abandonment.

Within three days Marley knew sit,down, stay,leave it,go in your crate, and maybe a few others. We started walking off leash and interacting with only a few select cats. We got his leg x-rayed and discovered that before his growth plate had closed someone had taken a metal pole to his leg, breaking the growth plate and several other bones, and most likely to his skull, as one eye is slightly deformed also.

I shudder to think what this poor dog went through before the pound found him wandering the streets severely underweight and depressed.

I have had Marley for less than five months now. He almost never has to wear a leash, he follows me everywhere, keeps an eye on the kids I sit for and "babysits" my ferrets while I clean their cage. Marley is probably the biggest marshmallow I have ever met, but one night someone tried to get in my apartment, and the poor dog was so scared, but he barked for all he was worth to wake me up and make sure we were safe.

He protects the children when the Comcast guy comes (I think he just hates Comcast really =}) And his new thing is protecting my rescue kittens. I took in four, four-week old kittens, inevitably they got sick and I lost three. I managed to rescue one of the last two missing ones during all of this, but I couldn't put the new cat with the last failing cat because one was vetted and sick, the other had no medical.

Well they spent an entire night crying to each other, one lonely since he had just been taken from his mom, the other because all three of his siblings had just died. Marley, my enormous 80 pound, mastiff/pitt/lab mix spent the night running back and fourth between them giving them kisses and laying by the cage with them trying to keep them happy. Probably the most amazing thing I ever saw. I know that people think a dog is just a pet, but I would be lost with out my dog. Marley is my best friend, and everyone who meets him falls madly in love with him. He lays with me when I cry, helps me take care of my sick kittens who miss their mom, keeps my boyfriend's 5 year old daughter company (she says Marley is her best friend ever)

He rocks out to Tom Petty and Patsy Cline with me and makes me laugh all the time. I know I sound biased, but marley is the most amazing dog I have ever known. He has really proven that a rescued dog will love you eternally because before me all he ever knew was severe abuse and loneliness, now he's loved, and there is nothing in the world a dog wants more than love.

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This inspirational story column is hosted by sewstitchedup. If you have a wonderful rescue story you would like featured, please send it to her.