As with people all animals are born, live their life and then one day pass on. It is said they wait at a beautiful place called Rainbow Bridge to meet up with you once again!
The bond you develop with that pet you love so much is impossible to break. Losing a pet feels like you’ve lost a little piece of your heart along with them. As time passes, it may not be so hurtful to remember and eventually you’ll even enjoy reminiscing about how happy that little critter made you!
I’ve spent my entire life surrounded by animals and naturally a few have passed away in my lifetime. This is a dedication to them.
Combing Alfie With My Doll Brush
Alfie
Before I was born my Mom and Dad rescued a beautiful Afghan Hound who’s name was Alfie. Alfie passed away when I was 4 but I still remember him. I remember climbing all over him, I remember curling up in his big doghouse outside with him and I remember brushing his fur with my Barbie combs! As a little tyke, I’m sure I was rough on him but Alfie was always so gentle with me and my little sister. In the summer, Alfie would get shaved because his hair was always so long and it would look like he was wearing bell bottoms! The day my Mom had to put Alfie down was very sudden and hard on all of us. He was a beautiful, good natured dog and I still love hearing stories about all of the mischief he got into before I was born. There were so many great stories but my favourite has to be this one: Alfie was always jumping my Mom and Dad’s fence because my Aunt lived next door and he wanted treats. One day my Mom came home and he was bleeding and limping because he’d caught his foot on the fence. She took him to the vets, who stitched him up, gave him some meds and told her to put a sock on his foot to keep him from licking the area. My Mom had to carry Alfie (who was no small dog) up and down the stairs because he couldn’t use his paw properly. He would sit and whine at the stairs until she came to carry him up or down. A few weeks later my Mom caught Alfie going up the stairs with no trouble at all! Alfie didn’t know my Mom was watching. Then later on that day, he sat whining at the stairs, pretending he couldn’t get up them without her help! Who knows how long his paw had actually been healed for but had been pretending! Those dogs – always trying to outsmart us!
Kitten Sassy
Sassy Celina Duchess
The cat who was such a diva one name just wasn’t enough. Sassy was my first cat. She was a Seal Point, Siamese-Persian-Tabby mix. There could have been something else in there, who knows?! But overall she was an adorable kitten! My Mom was waiting outside the pet store to open because we needed fish food with a woman who had a diaper bag full of kittens! Her cat had gotten out of the house, come home pregnant and she didn’t know what to do with the now 8 week old kittens. Whoever wanted one she would willingly give away for free, she just wanted them to find good homes. My Mom totally caved. We came home for lunch from school and there was this kitten! Sassy lived up to her name, she was fiesty and pure cat evilness. She used to corner my sister and I on the stairs growling and hissing and we’d be screaming for our Mom to come rescue us. She was maybe 4 months old then and we were 9 and 6. She used to hang off our nightgowns because they swished back and forth and she thought it was a fun game. She would growl like a dog at friends who came over and sit on top of the microwave surveying everything that went on. Despite being a psycho kitty, we still loved her dearly. My sister and I used to love playing with our dollhouses and so did Sassy! We found her many times hiding in one of them. She also loved to rip our Barbie’s heads off and carry them around by their hair. She looked like Santa cat! In the middle of the night she would cry from downstairs so we would call her until she landed on someone’s bed, purring. If you slept in too late she would lick your eyelids open, then run downstairs to the kitchen and cry for her breakfast. Sassy came everywhere with us. She would come up to the trailer and we’d put her on a long rope so she could safely roam around. She came to the cottage in the winter when we’d spend Christmas there. We even brought her and her litter box to friends and family events so she wouldn’t get left out! As she got older, she calmed down. She spent more time being a suck, then trying to kill us and loved to spend her days on the deck in the summer. We’d put a chair in a shady spot and she would jump and sit there sniffing the air or curling up for a cat nap. She never left the deck, I think by that point she was too old and ‘fluffy’ to try and make an escape.
Enjoying an afternoon on the deck.
You’re probably wondering how we could love such a crazy cat like her? She spent a large part of her life hating us, scaring us and fighting with us but it just added to her personality. She was family to us and with family you take the good and the bad! Plus she made one hell of a guard dog!
No matter what age, Sassy remained spunky – if she was really angry at you for doing something she didn’t want to do she’d pee on you. Occasionally she would hiss or bite or growl but after 15 years we were used to her saucy attitude. Even up until the end, she couldn’t resist a box. Most of my photos of her are of her sitting inside a box. We laid Sassy to rest at the cottage. She spent many years in the country with us and we spend so much time there, it’s comforting to know she’s still with us.
Checking out her new home.
Lucy
Lucy joined the Zoo in January of 2010 when I stumbled upon her while shopping and instantly fell in love with her cute mannerisms and look. She was extremely skittish at first but quickly warmed up to me and my husband. She was always a late sleeper and many nights we wouldn’t see her at all. Occasionally I would wake up in the middle of the night and hear her running miles on her wheel. She never got used to her hamster ball – whenever we put her in it, she preferred to take a nap or groom herself instead of exploring. Lucy was a little pokey, never trying to escape the homemade cage we built her and never curious to check out the surroundings beyond her home. She contentedly cuddled in the crook of our arms, our lap or just in the palm of our hand while we pet and kissed her. She was also an amazing model for many of my animal photography feats as I would put her where I wanted and she would wait patiently for me to take the shot. At just over 2 years of age, the time came when Lucy was ready to peacefully go to the Rainbow Bridge. She is joining our first hammy Calvin. We will miss her dearly but are very grateful that she passed on so calmly. We gave her the best hammy life we could on this Earth and now wish her nothing but everlasting peace and happiness wherever her soul has taken her. <3
Calvin in his Exercise Ball
Calvin
Calvin was my first hamster and a gift from my husband. Was he ever a little sweetheart! Calvin was nervous of me at first but he never bit me and warmed up quickly. I spent so much money building him tubes and play areas and spoiling that little hammy rotten. Before long, Calvin would hear me enter a room or hear my voice calling his name and he’d be waiting at his cage door for me to bring him out. He loved to sit in the crook of my arm or in my pajama shirt pocket. When we’d have parties, Calvin would be rolling around the floor in his ball. Calvin was a little escape artist. One night I went in to my closet to grab a sweater and found him sitting on the floor looking miffed, like he had no idea what he was doing in there or why. To this day I still can’t figure out how he got there, I couldn’t find anything loose or open on his cage! Another time we were leaving on vacation for a few days and he wasn’t in his cage! We were moving stuff around everywhere, frantically looking for him and found a stash of food in the back corner under our spare bed. We found Calvin in a pillow which he had ripped open and was sleeping in!
Hanging out in my pajama pocket
As Calvin got older, he was waiting at the door for me less and less because he was sleeping more. When he passed away my husband said if they had a Hamster Cribs his house would be the featured pad! I’ll never forget that little cutie, I had to take a day off work when he passed away I was so distraught. Who knew you could love such a tiny thing so much?!
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