Pets

From a very young age, I always had a love for animals. It didn’t matter what kind of animal it was. I always treated them kindly. That never changed!

My first real pet was Bébé. She was the cat I found in the barn in New Brunswick. She lived a long life, and I had many other pets as the years passed. Animals gave me unconditional love, which I needed very much growing up. Let me write something special about some of them.

Snowball was one of Bébé’s babies. He had very large paws. He had seven toes instead of the usual 5. I believe they call this breed of cats Polydactyl. He was a mix of Angora and Persian breed, which made for a beautiful cat.

Snowball                                                                     Nicki and Bébé

Nicki was a special dog. I got him because my friend's father was going to drown the babies of their dog. He was only 3 weeks old when I got him, and I spent many nights up with him. I had to bottle-feed him. He was extremely attached and protective of me. My mother couldn't even come into my room to wake me up in the morning because Nicki was my guard. He was my baby, and I treated him that way. We would go for ice cream, and he would get his kiddie cone!

When I moved out independently, I decided to get a cat. Someone gave me a beautiful, pure breed Siamese. She was just a kitten and was very intelligent. While I was at work, Minette was in heat and jumped off my 2nd story balcony. I got home, and she was waiting at the apartment building's back door. A little while later, I realized she was pregnant. After that, I would not allow her outside when I wasn't home. I remember getting a call at work to ask me if I had left my baby home alone. A Siamese cat's cry sounds a lot like a baby's cry. Eventually, I had to have her neutered. I kept a male kitten from her first litter and named him Satin. He owned up to his name. He was wild and crazy! He was also very intelligent. I taught him how to fetch. It all started while I was doing the laundry. I would fold the socks, and he would take off with them in his mouth. I decided to make them into a ball and throw it; sure enough, he would fetch it.

Once, my niece was staying with me for the weekend, and she brought her knitting. Before bed, she placed the yarn on the coffee table. In the morning, we walked into a maze of yarn. The cats had wrapped the yarn around every possible leg of furniture.

I always felt bad that our kids could not have pets due to allergies, so I got a fish aquarium. I thought it would be interesting to get guppies because they have live births and not eggs. The kids were interested, but that wore off pretty quickly.

My daughter wanted a hamster, so we decided to try it out. She had a bit of an allergy to Hammie, and she couldn’t do the cage cleaning because she would have an asthma attack. After Hammie passed, we got Fidget the hamster from our neighbour. Then my youngest son also wanted one, so he got Martha.

Hamsters can be fun, but they also can be unpredictable. They don’t see very well, so if they smell anything on your hands, they will think it’s food and bite you.

We had no hamsters for a while, and then he wanted rats. I was not thrilled about having a pet rat. He got Domino and Fernie. Rats are really smart! They are also friendly and make great pets. I couldn’t believe that I could get so attached to a rat. The only issue is that they have such a short lifespan. When she died, Fernie was just over 2 years old, and Domino was probably 2 ½ years old. I believe Domino had a stroke. Suddenly, she could no longer hold her pellet food with her paws. I had to grind and mush her pellets and then hand-feed her. I did that for nearly 6 months. I could tell when she was ready to pass. I held her and comforted her until about a half hour before she passed away peacefully. I cried like a baby when I went to check on her. She was very loved!

My son wanted a snake, but I could not handle feeding them mice or live fish. We compromised, and he got a lizard. Harv was a skunk gecko. They call it that because of the white stripe down their back. We had many adventures with Harv. Once, he snuck out of his tank, and we couldn’t find him. We looked for hours and finally found him the following day. He had sticky paws and was hiding under a poster on the wall in his room.

Another time, my son brought him outside so he could walk on the grass. All of a sudden, Harv decided he was going to take off at full speed under the tree house and storage area. My son freaked out and started throwing everything out of the storage unit. He reminded me of the Incredible Hulk! There was a TV show called The Incredible Hulk. When the man would get upset, he would turn green and start to get bigger. His shirt would rip off his body because he would become very muscular and strong. After everything was out of the storage area, He saw Harv hiding between two wooden boards. We were very lucky to have found him, and so was he. He would not have survived in the wild. My son loved Harv!

Most lizards don’t live longer than 10 years in captivity, but Harv lived 22 years.

In 2009, my daughter moved into her apartment and decided she wanted a dog. She went to the SPCA and fell in love with a small 10 lb white poodle. She had just been brought in from a puppy mill raid. She was kept in a cage with urine from the other dogs dripping down on her. There were areas where she didn’t have any fur because of it. They said she was probably 5, but we realized she was older as time passed. Her teeth and breath were terrible. She had the dental done, and that helped a lot. When we went to pick her up at the SPCA, she was so confused. My daughter put her on the grass to pee, and she didn’t know what to do. I don’t think she had ever walked on grass.

Maddy was an amazing dog! She came out of her shell fairly quickly. All her fur grew back, and she went to get groomed once a month. After a while, my daughter realized that she was allergic to Maddy. She had to take her Ventolin daily.

She took a trip to Africa during the summer, and Maddy stayed with us. When she got back and Maddy returned to the apartment, she started having separation anxiety. She would bark a lot when left alone. I would go over to take her out when my daughter was working. She was always so happy seeing me. Sometimes, I would bring her back home with me.

My daughter used to volunteer at the SPCA, cleaning cages and walking the dogs. One time, she wanted me to go with her. She had seen a little white poodle who looked like Maddy. I went with her, and we instantly connected when I met the dog she spoke of. I took all the other dogs out of the cages, sat on the floor and played ball with them. The little white poodle did not leave my side. It didn’t take me long to fall in love with him. I ended up bringing him home that day! When I arrived home, David was mowing the lawn, and I tried to pretend it was Maddy, but that didn’t work. Then I told him we could try him out for the weekend. I wanted to make sure David’s allergies were going to be okay. The following day, we named him Riley for the Irish life of Riley! We also considered the name Eeyore because he was a very slow walker. The final adoption date was June 21st, 2011, which was our wedding anniversary.

I didn’t leave the house for days because I wanted to make sure Riley was okay. On June 23rd, I decided to go shopping, and I received a call from home to tell me that Riley had run off. I rushed home and also was looking for him on the way home. When I got home, everyone in the neighbourhood was looking for him. He was nowhere to be found. We made posters and hung them everywhere. We also knocked on doors, and we had hundreds of people looking for Riley before we knew it. We would get telephone calls saying he was seen, and we would rush to that area, and still no Riley. I was worried about him because it was raining a lot and it was also the

St. Jean Baptist holiday, and they were having fireworks that night. On the other hand, I hoped that because more people were out, there were more chances of finding him.

On day 4, around 6 a.m., we received a call that he was spotted in the middle of a busy boulevard. My daughter and I were already out looking, and we headed to that area, but no Riley. We searched the area for another 3 hours and decided it was time to take a break. On her way back, my daughter spotted a white dog from a distance. She pulled into the apartment parking and saw him run and hide under the building. She got out of the car and ran towards him. She pulled him out, and I was not far behind her. It was like you gave us a million dollars! We gave him lots of hugs and brought him home. I took him to the veterinarian the next day, and he checked out like nothing had happened. Poor Maddy is the one who got sick from all the stress. We were extremely careful with doors from that point on. Some dogs are runners, and you never know when they will take off. I think Riley took off because he was confused and looking for me. He was new to the area and didn’t know his way back home.

Riley enjoyed it when Maddy visited, and since she was having separation anxiety, she would spend more time with us. It wasn’t more than a month after we got Riley that Maddy became permanent with us. They were best friends!

Maddy had several health issues, but we managed to control them. She had congestive heart failure and a large heart murmur. She was on a lot of medication but was great with taking it all. I would give her a bronchial dilator in a child's mask, and she would sit and breathe the medication. She even knew on the count of 10 that it was done. This continued for years, and she was still our little bouncy Tiger. Then, Maddy became sick in August of 2016. She had several seizures, and after several treatments of fluids, she seemed to be back to normal.

The following month, we were camping, and she was out of sorts. When it was time to go to bed, she didn't want to sleep on the bed with me, which was very unusual. In the morning, she had wet her bed and was very lethargic, so we packed up and headed back home. It wasn't long after we arrived home that she started having seizures. I took her to the vet, knowing it was probably her time. My daughter met me at the vet. They gave Maddy meds for the seizures, but as soon as it wore off, she would have another one, and then they were getting worse each time. We were then told that it was probably best to say goodbye. She looked at me with these big eyes as if saying, "It's time."

Out beautiful Maddy left this earth and moved on to the spirit world on September 12th, 2016. We humans missed her, but I could tell that Riley missed her, too. At this point, we were caring for my sons dog Bébé, so Riley had her to keep him company.

Bébé was a funny little dog. She was a 5lb longhair Chiwawa with a big personality. She was very vocal and did not like being disturbed. Eventually, she lost all her sight, hearing, and sense of smell. When we moved to the country in June 2017, she had her own setup in a large closet in the office. She loved to spend time outside on the grass. When nighttime came around, I would put up a gate so she would not wander around and get hurt. Bébé died on November 20th, 2017, from old age. After she died, Riley would go to the closet and look for her.

It wasn't long after that that Charlie became our next rescue. My daughter adopted Charlie from our neighbours. He had been dropped off at a groomer's place when he was just over a year old. The original owners said they couldn't keep him, so our neighbours took him home. They already had a Great Dane, and they seemed to get along in the beginning. After about 6 months, the Great Dane became aggressive towards Charlie. I don't know if his excitable personality got on her nerves or something in her brain went wrong, but she attacked him on several occasions. The vet said it was good that Charlie was overweight because the wounds were deep, and his fat had saved his life. At that point, the owners realized that one dog had to go, and they decided to try to find a home for Charlie. I already had Maddy, Riley, and Bébé, so I couldn't take him, but when my daughter heard what happened, she offered to take him. She had just moved into their new home, and Charlie seemed very happy with them. Charlie was not very good with other dogs. I'm unsure if it was because of his previous history, but Riley was the only dog he was okay with. He had a terrible habit of showing his dominance by humping. Riley would just surrender, but Maddy let him know right from the beginning that she was the boss. She would just have to look at him, and he knew not to mess with her.

When my daughter became pregnant and was on maternity leave, she spent much time at home with Charlie. He became very attached to her and started to develop some separation anxiety. He was training to go into his crate but would no longer go in without an issue. Eventually, he became aggressive towards everyone. They hired a dog trainer to try to help with his issues. It would work for a short time, and then he would revert to his old ways. She was very concerned that he would be aggressive towards the baby and wanted to get him under control before the baby arrived.

The baby was born in October 2017, and Charlie was still acting up and had bit several times. Finally, she was just too nervous with him around, and the only option was to get him another family. He would have to go to someone with the time and determination to work with him. He was now nearly 2 years old. I decided I would take him!

It was a rough road. He was very stubborn but didn't know who he was dealing with. I was bitten several times, but I was determined to break him, and I did. He had to be shown that I was not afraid and I was the leader. He was still stressed and nervous. I tried giving him CBD oil and anti-depressants, but nothing seemed to help. It took him a while to finally trust me, but eventually he did. He no longer has separation anxiety but still is insecure in himself. He doesn't do well with other dogs and goes crazy when someone comes to the door, but leashing him before they come in helps. I think Charlie will always need a strong leader! He is a very smart and loyal dog.

As much as he is a lot of work, I truly enjoy him!

Charlie and Riley got along well. Riley was now older and was just going with the flow. He started to have issues with his hearing. When Charlie would be barking, Riley didn’t react until he saw Charlie running from one patio door to another. Eventually, he also was having issues with his vision. At one point, he had a growth near his rectum, and the vet said he couldn’t remove it because there were too many blood vessels in that area. The growth got larger, and I believe it was cancer, and it probably spread in his body. We could tell that he was getting old and tired and that his time was coming. We did everything we could to make him comfortable right until the end. Our amazing Riley passed on June 8^th, 2021.