Our Story
We have had pets all of our lives, so after we married it seemed natural to get a kitten. That was simple since his mother raised Siamese kittens. We got a little female and named her Wo Taun. She was a beautiful Seal-Point Siamese with shining blue eyes. We immediately fell in love with her. We wanted to breed her and raise a litter of kittens ourselves, so at one year of age we bred her to handsome Cedrick, who belonged to another couple in town. In two months, she delivered a litter of three kittens. There were two males and one female. They were wonderful and fun and we decided to keep the large male. We named him Hosan, sold the other two, had him and his mother fixed, retired from breeding, and settled down to be a two-cat family.
When our first daughter was born, life became busy with work, college, and raising our little girl. My husband graduated from college and started work as a math teacher and Tennis coach. I continued working until our son was born. Three years later another daughter was born to us. Our children grew to love animals. Sadly, our two Siamese cats died and we became pet-less.
My hairdresser had two Dobermans and the female was pregnant. He wanted to sell her and not have the problem of taking care of and getting rid of the puppies. We were excited at the thought of raising a litter of puppies. Sheba, our new Doberman, was a sweetheart. In only a month, she delivered twelve Doberman puppies. That was crazy fun! We built a shed and a dog run for when they were a little older and customized it so that Sheba could go out the doggy door, but the puppies could not. I think we started to take the newspaper, just to have enough papers for the puppy pen!
Then came the day that they could all go out to potty on their own and our work- load became lighter. They got all their puppy shots and they were ready to sell. We chose an elegant, slim line female to keep and named her Ebony. That was our second adventure in breeding. Years passed and our beloved Ebony and Sheba died.
Our youngest daughter constantly begged for a cat. Our son developed an allergy to cats, so we talked her into a puppy with long hair she could brush and take care of. We bought a black and white Lhasa Apso, and she was adorable. The kids named her Precious.
We had so much fun with Precious we decided to breed her and keep one of her puppies. We bred her to a white Lhasa Apso, and two months later she gave birth to five healthy puppies. They were all beautiful. One was black and white and four were tri- color. We chose to keep a tri-colored female. I was running a home daycare by that time, and we were too busy to do anymore breeding. So, we settled down to enjoy the two dogs we had. Years passed and Precious died. That left us with Buffy, our tri-color.
One fall, our son went away to college. When he came home in the spring, he brought a large black and white Tuxedo cat with him. Our son took a semester off, and when he got ready to go back, my husband said, “You can’t take Skunk away. We love him too much.” Here we were, back in the cat business!
Some time later, our neighbor moved away, deserting several young cats. I caught and took three of them to the Humane Society and felt like they at least had a chance. One night, a week later, a small, fluffy gray kitten came up to me, crying and drooling. She was so hungry! I immediately knew it was another one of our neighbor’s cats. She had been coming up and eating with the other cats, then hiding when it got light outside. She was very sweet and I thought I could find her a home. I took her in and had her spayed. I could not find her a home and my granddaughter had fallen in love with her, so we kept her and named her Fluffy. Now we were really in the cat business again!
Our son had always talked about raising a wild animal. That horrified me! One weekend he and some friends went camping. He came home while I was out shopping. When I came home, he met me at the door and said, “Mom, come look what I have.” I thought, “Oh, No! He has brought home a wild animal!” I was so prepared to see some wild thing that when he opened the box and a small white puppy lay there, I was totally disarmed! So Millie joined our family!
Here I was with a daycare, three dogs and two cats and lots of pet care. Early mornings: vacuuming the whole house, pooper scooping the yard, and keeping the dogs out of the daycare rooms. I gave five flea baths each Saturday! We made it work!
There were other cats and dogs along the way. There was Tiny, who needed saving, Megan whose owner really did not like her, and my beloved Bob, who was a Shetland-Sheep Dog. When the last three passed away I swore I wanted no more pets!
However, circumstances change, and we needed to foster my granddaughter's cat, Jewel who had to have surgery and needed a place to get her strength back. We rediscovered the joy of having a cat around, and when Jewel passed a few months later, we adopted Elsa from Friends For Life. She’s a sturdy Lilac tabby. Our grandaughter adopted a beautiful big Ragdoll male, Jack. Together with her, we adopted Fig, a gray tuxedo kitten to keep Jack company. Fig was born with a heart shaped spot on his nose. We were charmed. He was the most precious and funny kitten we have ever had. He was a bright spot in everyone’s day. Fig passed away early in life leaving a heart-shaped hole in our hearts and a sweet memory.