Anybody who’s been to my home knows that I live in a zoo. I gladly share my home with three cats and two dog, who all compete for Moms attention and the coveted spot on Moms lap.
Our two dogs, Squiggles and Chiquita are ‘Come from Aways’ ( Non-Newfoundlander living in NL).- They took that big ole jet airliner all the way from Alberta to us and their fur-ever home. They are Shih-poos, a designer breed that is purposely achieved by breeding shih-tzu and poodle together, for the non shedding and hypo allergenic qualities.
Three of my cats are rescues. One was found roaming the streets of the Goulds by Humane services St John’s, but the last two kitties have a story that’s bigger than the rest…
Flash back to 2013, at the time hubby Geoff wasn’t working. His IT contract had not been extended, as part of the mass lay off of the provincial government that April, and we were trying to decide if we were staying home on the Rock, or if we were moving on to greener and sunnier pastures.
1. If we decided to stay home, we would find a buddy for our one cat, as our two dogs seemed like they were bestest friends and great company for each other.
2. If we stayed home, we would give this silly venture of Bobbi Pike Art a real go, we would pour our hearts and souls into it and see if we could make it really work.
A Florida company was romancing Hubby Geoff and trying to convince us to make the move and become full time Americans. Yea’s were starting to stack up in the corner for us moving away, but as much as the US offer was good, our hearts were at home here in the land of the snow and the ice of Canada.
Just when we thought we were going to HAVE to make the move, because there were no opportunities here in NL, along came THE one.
The decision was made, we were staying home; Bobbi Pike Art was going to be our focus and we would get a buddy for our Goulds cat, Pixie.
That very weekend was Canada Day weekend, Geoff hadn’t started back to work yet, so we enjoyed the extended holiday together. We happily discussed business plans for BPA and dreamed and planned out the direction we wanted our new venture to take. On Friday evening, we were sharing another incredible supper (Dinner for you mainlanders) together, with the NTV evening news playing in the background, as usual.
In my peripheral vision, I saw ‘the’ story as it flashed across the screen and I knew I was a goner. (Click here to see what I saw on NTV that night!!!) My face just dropped and Poor ole Geoff just looked at me like I had seen a ghost (his back was to the TV).
“What’s wrong Bobbi?!?’ I could see his mind was jumping to all kinds of horrible conclusions, as to what I had seen on the tv screen.
Don’t look!!” I warned him, but it was already too late! He had seen them , how could we resist.
As he turned, I was already on the phone calling St. John’s Humane Services. They already knew us because we had adopted Pixie, our Goulds cat from there and they knew she was a very happy cat. Rumour was, she had hit the kitty jackpot.
We learned on the phone that the kittens were doing well, and there were already about 12 applications in for one or other of the kittens. Our hearts were broken, we were too late
‘So, it’s no good for us to out in an application for them ?’ I asked, it couldn’t hurt, right??
The lady on the other end of the phone hesitated before answering. “You’d take them both?!?”
We quickly found out that we were the only people who had told them we would take both kittens and everybody felt they had been through too much already. They wanted to keep them together. We put in our application and spent the rest of the weekend hoping….
By the time Monday rolled around, we had ourselves convinced that it wasn’t going to happen..we were just too late. The phone rings and its THE call. The voice on the other end congratulates us, Robin and Hoodie are ours!!!
We slowly and carefully introduced our new babies to the rest of our furry household. Our oldest Pup, instantly took on the role of den mother and placed the kittens under her protection. The other dog was just interested in stealing the kittens food.
Pixie, our Goulds cat, needed time and a cooling off period, where she only got to smell the babies thru a closed door and slowly integrated her to them amidst scattered hisses and dirty looks.
Its almost two full years since Robin and Hoodie, now Kibo and Shira have come to live with us. The boy cat, Kibo, is HUGE and is without a doubt the biggest sook I have ever encountered in my life. He often loses track of time when playing and then screams for his Momma/me, when he realizes he’s in the room by himself. Our girlie, Shira, is a big cat herself, but her personality is chalk to Kibo’s cheese. She’s calm and confident and a strong lady cat.
One second the dogs are chasing the cats and then five minutes later the cats are chasing the dogs. Blink one more time and they’re al snuggled down in a furry mass of Black, grey, beige and love! They’ve settled in and become a part of our home and I can’t imagine our lives without them in it!
That’s it for this time, if you have any questions, or comments, I’d love to hear them. If you’re really enjoying the BPA blogging adventures and don’t want to miss out, click follow me and add your name/email to our growing list of blog subscribers.
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Are you a cat or dog person? Do you live with furry babies? Do you have any pet stories that you can share?
