The Furred & Feathered In Our Family

[WillieWhippet]

Hi we are new to the forum ...

See our intro here

This is the rest of the furred and feathered family we have ...

In order from oldest to youngest we have ...

Abby (DSH) she is currently 9 years old, adopted from our local shelter, she is very stand offish to anyone other than family. She adores the kids though as you can see in this pic of her and my youngest James (13yrs).

Molly (DSH) is currently 5, and she too was adopted from our local shetler as a kitten. She belongs to James, and sleeps on his bed every night without fail. She was desexed at 6 weeks of age, yet when we bought Gracie home, Gracie was so young she tried to suckle from Molly so often that Molly ended up orducing milk and feeding her!

and with Gracie ...

Smudge would be 5 as well. Unfortunatley when we moved 18 months ago, she took off in fright the first night home and got out the front door. She never used to be a nervous cat but was terrified with the move it seems. As it was 11pm at night she took off into the darkness and we were unable to see where she went and she wouldnt answer our calls. We put up flyers and contacted the microship place with our new details. We found out though that when we had her desexed, she should have been chipped at the same time (we were charged for it) but they must have forgotten, therefore she wasnt actually chipped and now 18 months later she is still missing. She was normally a very friendly cat to anyone including strangers so we hope that she rocked up to someones house and they took her in. My son who is 14 still gets upset at her not being around, but we hold on to the hope she is with another family and not the "other" possibilty.

Oh, we found her in a pet shop, she had a scratched eye that was all infected. They claim she was being treated, but you should have seen their faces when I dialled the RSPCA while in their store. What eventuated was that they gave her to me, and said I could have her looked at by my vet, and that if her eye came good then I would go back and pay for her (of course THAT never happened!) My vet did look at her and she had to go under and have her top eyelid sewn open so that the meds could treat the infected scratch. It took a few weeks but it did come good and then her eyelid was allowed to work as normal.

And Smudge with my oldest Son who is now 15 and who was her owner and now misses her terribly.

Gracie is 3 years old and she was bought into my work (PETstock Animal Supplies) by a lady who lived on property and her husband didnt like cats. He found a wild mother and litter under their house and caught the babies which he then drowned. She later saw the mother cat removing a kitten he obviously missed to a new spot, and so she went and caught it before her husband could find it. She bought it to my work as she didnt drive and couldnt get to the local shelter on public transport. She fit into the palm of my hand she was so tiny, her eyes were open but full of gunk, and she sneezed like crazy and was full of cat flu. I took her directly to my vet and asked them to put her to sleep quielty as I really felt she wouldnt survive. The girl behind the counter told me to give her 3 days and after shots etc if she still wasnt well they would do as I asked. Neddless to say she not only thrived ... she is our little "princess" and lets everyone know it. She came home and Molly mothered her, and she tried to suckle off her. Molly eventually started to produce milk 1 week later and she fed Gracie for nearly 3 months. They still love one another although Gracie does give Molly a hard time sometimes. I am sure I see on Molly's face sometimes the expression ... "gawd lucky I love her" hehe

This is Gracie as a baby with Toby our JRT x, they were the same age at the time.

 

[WillieWhippet]

Speaking of Toby ... he is my little darling, a real mummys boy! He will do absolutley anything for me. He was found one morning on the door of our store (we often get this :bangwall: ) with his two brothers. The other two were black and white, and tri and were adopted out the same day we found them. Toby, being brindle wasnt even looked at, god knows why! I couldnt stand the thought of him being in the crate all night at work by himself so I took him home with the intentions of bringing him back the next day .... well .... as you can see THAT didnt happen! hehe He fell in love with Gracie, and Molly, Gracie and Toby would all share a tiny little basket together. Now he is older, he looks like he might be JRT x italian grey, as he has the long legs and shape of a IG.

My Baby ...

This beautiful girl is Isabella, or Bella as we usually call her. A few months after we got Toby a family came to our store with a basket full of puppies and left them with us as they were about to move and the new landlord wouldnt allow the puppies just their female (she got out and came home 3 weeks later pregnant) They tried to tell us they were maltese x bulldog?!?!?! She is in fact a Cairns terrier cross and the quietest most submissive dog I have ever owned. She was the only girl in the litter of 7 and right from the time we set them up in the puppy pen the boys gave her a real hard time. One would pull on her ears while another would pull her tail, and she would just sit down and whimper. She was sooo tiny and adorable, I picked her up and put her in my jacket, zipped it up and she stated there all day. When we were closing the shop for the night I put her back and right away the boys started on her again ... so needless to say she came home. My partner Ian has said a few months back ... no more animals ... and so I went home and put her in the bathroom, He came home a few hours later, and she was quiet as a mouse. When the kids went to bed I told him I had a present for him. He looked at me and said so long as it doesnt have fur, feathers, fins, or a tail .... I lied ... no, non of those I told him, and pointed him in the direction of our bathroom. When he opened the door Bella trotted out really shyly and sat right on his foot and looked up at him. He is as big a softy as me! He said ... she can stay if I can name her! NP! And so Bella and Toby are now in love (both desexed of course) and spend all day every day in doogy heaven playing and romping around out back yard. Until this day she will not tolerate any other dogs, she fear bites them, and although I have been to school with her and seen a trainer we have been unable to break her of this fear.

This is her the day I bought her home ...

And today ...

 

[WillieWhippet]

Meet Doobie, and his feathered friend Bud ... yes thats right they are named after dope LOL

Doobies mother passed away in a friends aviary from unknown causes when she was but a little featherless fiend.

So I took her and hand reared her. She was named Dobbie as she was like she was constantly high or on drugs lol

They are the funniest birds and soooo playful. A year or so later another friend found another rainbow lori on his land and it couldnt seem to fly. He bought it around to me, and while it wasnt tame, it wasnt a wild bird. We believe that in the storm the previous night someone aviary must have blown over and he escaped. He had feathers missing from across his chest where we think he flew into a wire fence. After a number of months he came good and was able to fly again. We posted flyers but no one came to claim him so he has been put into an aviary with Doobie and named Bud. I originally had them in a huge inside aviary however they make too much mess and love water too much. So when we moved we bought them a huge outside aviary which we have filled with all natural branches and the like and a huge birdy bath when they LOVE. They use it rain hail or shine even if it is like 10 degrees!!! MAD I say!!

Doobie as a baby a few weeks after I bought him home ... he has started to get some feathers here.

And in his old cage playing in his water bowl.

And recently in their new aviary ....

 

[WillieWhippet]

And then there are the fishies ... Ian's (hubby) passion.

We have 2 tanks, the 6 foot is a community tank, and then we also have a cichlid tank set up recently.

This is the community tank, showing one of the clown loaches, angels and in the background you can see one of the large male bristlenose. Also contains rummy nose tetras, neon tetras, golden rams, baloon blue rams, siamese flying foxes, blood fin tetras and a pair of kribensis

Bloody thing sleeps like this and scares the hell out of us! lol

Cichlid tank contains maingano, electric yellows, hongi, cobalt blues and not sure what the others are.

Now you see why I work in pet supplies hehe

 

[WillieWhippet]

Then we have the girls ...

There is 2 light sussex girls called Lucille and Desie

Then there is "little red hen" who is a rhode island red

We also have 5 Isa browns who are new and I am yet to take oics of but they will come soon ...

They are called Larry Curly and Mo .... and then 2 of them were saved from being battery hens and have clipped beaks, and they are called Henny & Penny

 

[WillieWhippet]

My other pashion is my pet rats which I also breed and have been now for approx 5 years.

 

[Beerhound]

What lovely pics!! Light Sussex are my favourite breed or chicken!! Don't have chickens though but used to show these:

My dad still has them but now my son goes to the shows with him.

My son has two pet rats! A hooded brown and I am not sure about the other!

Also have two whippets!

 

[Esty]

Just spent a very enjoyable few minutes reading your intro - thanks for putting it all on, I'm very nosey

After ten years with my husband I just persuaded him last year to get two whippets and he says he can't believe he spent so many years without dogs (never had one as a kid either). He totally gets the point of them now, helped along by our two very affectionate and loving whippies. They have also done absolute wonders for our youngest son who we think has Asperger's (waiting to be tested). I used to have two rats but one horrible day my cat mangaged to get them (still not sure how) so I'm not having more til poor old Gus (the cat) leaves us for a better (more ratty) place.

 

[nina]

All i can say is.................WOW!!! You certainly have some very beautiful pets there, they all look a credit to you :wub:

 

[STORM CHASER]

Hi, How much do you charge admission... :lol: :lol:

 

[TURBO]

Love the intro :thumbsup: Sounds like youre place can be hectic but my kind of heaven :wub:

Well done you for taking all these animals in :thumbsup:

 

[WillieWhippet]

Thanks everyone

We dont have many holidays a year, actually just one week, and the mother in law has to move in to look after everyone! lol

But we like it this way and love all our pets dearly

We are at our limit now though, and it is just as well I work in pet supplies to keep them all in the comfort they expect and deserve!