How many pets do you have?
What are the breeds, species, etc?
What are their names, ages and nicknames?
Do your friends and family think you are crazy?
I have 15 total.
5 Dogs
4 Parrots
3 Pet Rats
2 Cats
1 Snake
Dogs:
Gauge, Pitbull, 13 years old, aka Rotten Dog (bad gas) & Pupper Dog
Athena, English Mastiff, 9 years old, aka Big Dumb Puppy & Puppy Dumb
Hans, German Shepherd Dog, 5 years old, aka Sissy Boy
Medusa, Neapolitan Mastiff, 20 months old, aka Ugly Puppy & Medusa NO!!!!! (the latter said in a loud tone)
Titus, Neapolitan Mastiff, 8 months old, aka Tighty Whitey, Tightus Whitus & Puppy Wuppy
Parrots:
Shishka, Bluefront Amazon, 9 years old, aka Big Dumb Bird & Ugly Bird
Filbert, Ecclectus, 5 years old, aka Big Dork (falls of his perches often)
Misha, Greenwing Macaw, 3 years old, aka Bad Bird
Kyra, Scarlet Macaw, 2 years old, aka Kyra STOP!!!!
Rats:
Various ages, males are descendents of Oliver, a well educated Bradley University lab rat that was smuggled out at the end of the school year to prevent euthanasia.
Cats:
Calledonia, Pound Kitty, 6 years old, aka Cally Kitty, Donia Kitty & Torture Kitty
Maybell, Unwanted Kitty, 4 years old, aka Maybeline
Snake:
Daisy, Ball Python, 6 years old, no nickname, it’s a boy named Daisy.
Everyone knows we are crazy but we give a home to unwanted animals. The 3 older dogs have special needs. Most of the animals have required special attention in one form or another. Oldest cat was a sick pound kitty and no one wanted to wait for her to get better. She turned out to be a great cat. The pitbull was abandoned on the streets, came down with Parvo and was almost dead when he was brought to me about 12 years ago. The English & Shepherd where last of their litters & timid runts that no one wanted. Kyra & Filbert went unhandled for a long time and required special attention to make them friendly to humans again.
I have a hard time not taking more animals into our home. I have given up on a dining room table and now the birds own the dining room for their giant cages. Part of the living room is taken up by two large playstands for the Macaws and Daisys den, jungle and water habitat. The cats, rats and two dogs own the den. Gauge owns the bedroom, Titus owns the kitchen and Athena owns the recliner in the living room.
All animals live together harmoniously. The cats do not go after the birds or rats, the dogs do not go after the cats. Only the rats and snake are kept in their habitats. I do have to play musical dogs for potty time so the younger dogs don’t accidently hurt the elders. All animals live indoors and are never allowed to just roam the neighborhood.
The food, toy and vet bills are huge. Most people gasp when told we pay the vet about 10 grand a year. Foods are between 5 to 10 grand a year and toys are probably about a grand. Parrots require a lot of destructable toys. Giant breeds go through even the toughest toys quickly. It takes about 6 different sizes of collars for a giant breed puppy to go through while growing.
