My Pets!

Hello,
I've decided to do a post about my pets! We have five cats, two goats, two horses and one dog;
Here is my cat Sheba, she was our first pet. All of our cats are strays, (except for Jinx, but we'll get to that later.) Sheba was wild, and she started coming around about the time that we moved up here in 2000. I had never had a cat, so I was determined to win her over...and, I did! Slowly, day by day, I would come out side to where she was and sit there talking to her so that she would get used to my voice. Then, one day, she was under the picnic table on our deck sleeping, so I slid under there and put my hand on her back, and that was when she became ours! She's been her ever since; and here's the funny part, not to pick on my dad or anything, but he had said that we weren't going to have any more, but then....Smokey came along. I was downstairs in our basement one day, and when I came up stairs, this gray cat was curled up at our door outside. I ran to mom and said, "Mom! Where did that gray cat come from?!" She said that it just showed up. So when dad came up stairs, he asked the same thing and got the same answer. So over the week my brother and I went out and played with the cat, she was very nice and already tame.
Back then my dad used to go bike riding allot, and one day, he was sitting on the porch with mom and me, and Smokey came up there and was rubbing all over dad's legs and meowing. Dad rolled his eyes and said, "Give the cat some food." And that's when Smokey came into our family! (And dad said, "No more cats!")
Buuuuuut...one evening, a couple of years later, we had come home from somewhere and were looking for Smokey, so we went outside and were calling here when this fat, tabby colored cat came running up onto the porch. It was dark so I thought that it was Smokey; so I swept her up and carried her to my room! (Silly me!) Mom came into the room and Smokey was following her...needles to say, I had to put the cute kitty back outside. Later that week, Bear got aadopted into our family. :)
(And..."No more cats!") But, then again....Dad had just come back from Georgia on a business trip, and we were all sitting in the den talking together, (and of course, back in those days, I had a guinea-pig called *Hopper.) Well, Hopper was outside on the front porch in his cage, and I said to mom that I was going to go and get him in for the night, and she said, "No, not right now. Maybe in a few minutes." So, I waited for almost twenty minutes and then asked again and got the same answer. Almost an hour later, I asked for the third time, (by now it was almost dark,) and she said, "No, later."
Now I was getting very suspicious. "Momma, why can't I go outside and get Hopper? It's getting dark and cold!" She looked at me and said, "Because there's a hurt cat out on the porch and I don't want you to go out there." I gasped and looked at dad; he rolled his eyes. "Momma! Is he hurt bad?! What color is he? Is he tame???" Mom quieted me.
Then, at supper, the cat meowed and meowed and meowed. Dad stood and said, "I'm going to take the cat to the vet." So he did, and the cat didn't cause him one bit of trouble.
Well, the cat ended up having surgery for his leg because he had been attacked by some wild animal, he had to have two pins put in his leg because it was broken...and when he was better, Lemon was welcomed into our family!!!
And once again..."No more cats!"
It was my brother's birthday and mom and I were watching my uncle's dog for him while he was out of town. Well, we went to his house to feed the dog, and the dog had broken the cage and was out tearing everything in sight, so we had to take him to the vet so that they could board him there until my uncle got back. At the vet, as soon as you walk in, there is a cage with kittens and/or cats in it. This time, there was a cute, black kitten, and of course, I picked her up and was holding her, she was just laying there, purring her little black head off. I took her to mom at the front desk and we were both petting her and all that, when the girl at the front desk said, "You had better take that kitten home, or she'll be put to sleep within twenty-three hours." Of course, that tripped my trigger! I looked at mom and said, "Ah! Mom! We can't let them put her to sleep! Hey, I just got an idea! Today's Nathan's birthday, right? Well, let's give it to him for his birthday!!!" Well, um, her she is!


Okay, that's the cats' stories. Now lets move on the our other animals. They don't have much of a story to tell, just that our horse Silkie was the first horse that we ever bought; she is a four and a half year old Halflinger mare, is very stubborn and mean when she wants to be! (But we still love her!)
Oh, and she's extremely spoiled! :D Anyway, then there's Red, he's a twenty-six year old Quarter Horse gelding. (Twenty-six years is very old for a horse.) He's got arthritis really bad in one knee, so he doesn't like to be ridden very much. :(
And who could for get our crazy goats, Charlie and Chester. Their mother was a Fainting Goat, which is a goat that if it gets scared, it's legs go stiff and they fall over on their backs! Their father was a Boar Goat, and they're really mean! But, thankfully, they're more Fainting Goat than Boar Goat. (But the don't "faint".) They're both brothers, part of quadruplets. We had them withered when we got them, and trust me, that's allot better than having them not withered, because if they're not withered, when they go through mating season, they get really stinky! Charlie is my goat, and Chester is Nathan's. They're both adorable and we love 'em!
And last but not least, our dog Marshal, he's a Great Pyrenees, and is also the most skittish dog that has ever lived! We don't know why he's so skittish, we think that maybe he had had a different owner who beat him all the time, but we're not sure. (But he is loved dearly at our home!)

Well, that's the story of our animals, and I'm happy to say that they are all living here in North Carolina happily, and they are all loved and cared for.

-Rose

*My guinea-pig Hopper died in between the time that we got Lemon and Jinx, he was cute and loved dearly. I'm sorry that I have no pictures of him, but he was brown and white spotted and would follow me around my room. (Very cute indeed!)
Thanks for reading this post about my animals!!!