A year before she died I noted that whenever she over exerted herself she would black out for a few seconds then was back up seemingly no worse for the experience. I took her to a vet that specialized in cardiac ailments and he told us that she was suffering from congestive heart failure. The symptoms worsened no matter what medicine we would try and eventually she passed away. It broke my heart, and though my husband, like most men, does not show his emotions I know he grieved also.

At first I wasn't sure I would be able to bring another dog into the family because I felt as if I would somehow be trying to replace Nanook, but since I have always had pets, the house soon seemed very empty. My husband and I wanted to visit some of the animal shelters here but this became very hard for me. I would cry and could not choose just one when I wanted to take them all home. I told him to go by himself and choose one since previous experience had shown us that we cannot save them all and I did not feel that we could take care of more than one dog adequately. He brought home Mika.

Mika was a member of a litter someone found in the woods. They were huddled around their mother who had been dead for some days. When we brought her home she had lice and GI distress. We had to put her on white rice and low fat cottage cheese until her digestive track straightened out.

Mika is a very smart dog, yes I know everyone says that about their pets I had my husband bring her home on a Friday so we could work with her all weekend long before having to leave her home alone when we would have to return to work on Monday. I would take her outside every 15 minutes while she was awake and so she would know that this was the place to relieve herself and not in the house. I made sure whenever she finished eating that she went straight out. She caught on quickly and only messed up once the first week while we were at work. The next step was obedience classes. Obedience classes are most important in teaching humans how to make their furbabies understand what we want from them. I was most concerned about being able to control her in public since I wanted to include her in all activities. We all learned quickly.

Mika lives to canoe. She enjoys camping and hiking but I think her favorite is canoe trips She is the first one up every morning and will open the tent door at first light. You can hear her splashing in the water long before anyone is up. This means I get up before anyone else also to watch for alligators. Dogs are their favorite snack.

Mika will stand at the front which reminds me of those figureheads at the bow of old ships, and when with a group she wants to be the lead canoe. She learned very quickly what "duck" means after getting knocked on the back of the head by low hanging tree limbs while looking back behind us. She has been a Godsend and gives us great joy and comfort as so many pets do. I wish everyone had the opportunity to experience what pets can give.

Polaris originally lived with a family of many small children. It became quite clear to his original owners that did not make for a good mix. When we first took him in he was very skittish. Frightened of any quick movement. He has been with us for approximately 6 months now and has warmed up quite well.

We had to ferret proof the house since I do not use cages for any of our furbabies. I first tried using child proof locks on my cabinets but found it allowed just enough room for him to slip through so for now we have to bar the cabinets closed. I have had to put pine cones in all my house plants so he won't dig in them and have had to block underneath the stove so he wont climb under. I have also had to stuff the opening to the woofer for our stereo with a skein of yarn so he won’t climb inside. I thought I had all the bases covered until one day I came home and noted the refrigerator door was open. I thought that perhaps we had not closed it well and didn't give it a second thought until the next morning when I was in the kitchen and he came in took his two front paws and pried the door open and went for the box of raisins I keep in there for his treat. Now I have to set a stool in front of the frig before leaving for work everyday.

Polaris slept in the drawer of my bedside table. I placed several old flannel nightgowns, which he loved to wrap up in and snooze for about 18 hours a day. Seems this is quite normal for ferrets but when he is awake he is hell on wheels. He would climb into bed with us at night and wake Mika up or one of us to play. But once he started nibbling on toes I would have to put him back into his drawer and he would usually just fall back to sleep without getting back up. He also loved my husband's housecoat and would lie in wait to ambush him when he walks by. Jumping about a foot off the floor with claws out, he grabbed on to the housecoat and goes for a ride.

Addendum 10/00: Polaris passed away after developing an adrenal tumor that was inoperable due to its location. These tumors are fairly common in ferrets and if located on the right side can be removed rather successfully but if on the left side they are usually wrapped around the vena cava and can not be removed totally. I did not have the heart to put him through another surgery after the first one showed no real benefit. He was 8 years old and even toward the end when he lost all his hair and began loosing strength in his back legs you could still see the sparkle of life so brilliant in his eyes. He would not let anything slow him down. He passed away with me stroking him and telling him it was ok for him to go. I will miss his courage, playfulness and love of life very much.

I recently embarked on a new adventure in the world of fiber. Once I learned how to spin the next logical step was to raise my own fiber animals....well it was a good excuse to bring home some new furbabies :-) Here are our new girls, not quite a year old when this picture was taken 1/14/00, Belle, Chloe and Harmony. A friend who raises and breeds Angora goats rescued them from another breeder who wanted to put them down. She offered them to me knowing I was looking for fiber animals and her goats picked on them so. I was happy to be able to give them a new home.
Click this link to learn more about my Fiber Adventures

I am an ovo-lacto vegetarian and will only eat unfertilized eggs from free range chickens. Since these are very hard to obtain at the local grocers, and when you can find them the price is outrageous, we decided to raise a few laying hens of our own. We purchased 2 buffs and a black australorp. I was a little hesitant to get chickens. I remembered as a young teen feeding my friends chickens she would make a game of throwing feed at my bare feet to get them to run and peck at me. I wondered how well I would be able to bond to these animals and yet the day I picked them up at our local feed store (a day old) I fell in love with them. Each has their own personality and are quite playful, they love to ride on the backs of my goats.

I will have to add pictures of them and the coop we ended up building along with some adventures we have experienced with them soon.

This is a picture of felix who we rescued after loosing his home during hurricane Felix. He is one of the many squirrels I have raised and released on our land. Some were orphaned when mothers were shot for chewing Christmas lights, some are were found by pets or children and we are called often to "come and get" these orphans.

Many of the squirrels I have raised over the years remain quite friendly. Precious who has been on her own for several years now still bangs on the front door to let us know she wants some pecans.

Through the years we have also enjoyed the company of quite a few house rabbits. They make wonderful pets, but as with any animal you bring into your home, they have special needs and considerations. I cannot stress how important it is to learn all you can before bringing a potential companion home. For instance rabbits can be trained to use the litter box just like cats. Though I have had a few that will not use it all the time. Rabbits, because their front teeth grow continuously, tend to chew on everything including walls, and seem to have a great attraction to electrical cords. Left unsupervised can be electrocuted or cause fires.

It is to our great shame, that we tend to bring pets home before we are truly aware of the responsibility and their needs, then "throw them away" when they become more work than we want to give. One example of this resulted in our acquiring a house rabbit a few years back. My husband had stopped at a Wal-Mart in our area and noted a rabbit under one of the parked cars. This was about a few weeks after Easter. There had been a pet store in the same strip mall that had just closed down. We came to the conclusion that he was bought from the store for Easter, then once they realized they could not put the time into caring for him they tried to return him. When they found the store was no longer there they just left him in the parking lot with a carrot.

Harry, like so many rabbits, was purchased at the state fair for my sister's little boy. As most children do, he soon lost interest and though he was well taken care of, my sister thought he would have a better life with us rather than spending it in a hutch outside.

Your Path

© 1996-2004