Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet. ~Colette
The lovely and gracious Sayre is our Fun Monday hostess today and she has asked us to share a photo(s) of our furbabies. Or scalebabies. Or finbabies. Or whatever form our pet takes and tell the story of how it/they came to be a part of our family.
Allow me to introduce you to our 3 year-old kitty, Kiki. We adopted Kiki from the neighbor's cat who had a litter of kittens on Mother's Day, 2006. She is mostly an outdoor cat, but my oldest daughter coaxes her inside at night so that she can sleep on her bed. Kiki is a long-hair cat and she does not like to groom herself. We have to constantly brush her because she gets burrs and knots in her hair from being outside all the time. She does not mind being brushed at all. One time we had to have her completely shaved because of all the mats in her hair. We had her professionally groomed with the "Lion's Cut". I posted photos of "Kiki's New Hair Cut" back in February here. The mats were causing so much pain and after we had her shaved she was much happier.
Our second furry family member is our 2 year old yellow English Labrador Retriever named, Cooper (pictured below). We purchased Cooper from an AKC breeder after our old yellow lab of 12 years died from Cancer. We loved our old lab, Buddy so much. We rescued Buddy back in 1994 from a violent owner who beat him. Buddy was the most loyal, good-natured, and affectionate dog and it was he who made us fall in love with the labrador breed.
From the start, Cooper was very high-spirited and we knew it would be a long training period with him. He is now 2 1/2 years old and weighs about 100 pounds. I would say he is just now calming down a bit where he does not jump on everyone and does not tear into everything.
Cooper is a quick learner and is easily trained. We have trained him to ring a special bell which hangs on the door when he needs to go outside. He is crate trained too. His crate is his safe haven. He is not made to stay in his crate and we do not close the crate door, but he chooses to sleep and rest there most of the time.
Poor Cooper. Right now, he is battling hot spots. His hot spots are caused by allergies. Hot spots are reddish circular lesions that appear underneath the fur and they can be painful and itchy. Somtimes the lesions grow if you don't treat them right away. We have to shave the fur around his hot spots and put a vet-prescribed solution on them so that they dry up and heal. He is not a happy camper right now. So, with that, I will end my FM post so I can go give my poor boy some relief and a special treat.
Be sure to click on over to Sayre Smiles to see all the other FM participant's furry, scaly and slimy family members! Thanks for stepping up to the plate to host Fun Monday, Sayre. I continue to enjoy reading each and everyone's Fun Monday posts and hope this tradition will continue to add more and more players every week. Come one, come all, play Fun Monday this Fall!!! Do we have a host for next Monday?
13 comments:
I loved meeting your furbabies. I had a Yellow Lab named, Georgie, and he was so smart he trained me to fetch! I loved him more than I thought I would ever love a pet and 13 years later I still grieve for him.
Look at you with the fancy banner! Great job ;0) And your pets are so cute. Can't wait to see them in person one day!
Lovely pictures, I'm oohing and ahhing over all the pets I'm seeing this week. Labradors make wonderful companions, how anyone can abuse such gentle creatures is beyond me. Kiki has such a sweet face. Long haired animals take a lot of care, someone I used to work with used to breed long hair Persian's and it took all her spare time keeping them groomed.
I've decided to host next week!
Oh, I know a Cooper the yellow lab. We chat every day on our walks. This must be hot spot time. Willie's sister had them bad when I had dinner with them yesterday. Sounds like the kitty has the best of both worlds--outside or inside as it pleases her--what a beautiful color she is.
Now everyone is just getting too smart with their new fall blog headers. Do you ever see the magazine Artful Blogging from Somerset Studios? If you're interested in your blog having a more artistic feel, this mag is an excellent inspiration. I've been reading it for the past few months. Love the inset photos in your blog header.
Big dogs seem to take longer to mature than smaller dogs. One and a half to three years seems to be the norm. Once they hit maturity, they're SO much easier to deal with!!!
Your cat is SO beautiful! I have a couple of long haired cats too, but they are pretty good about grooming themselves. I've only had to trim them a couple of times since I've had them.
Thanks for playing!!!
I have to agree...Kiki is a pretty kitty and Cooper is wild & crazy, but getting better. You did a great job with your new header. Happy FM
I have the same troubles with my longhaired cat Kim she always gets terrible knots in her fur and we can't brush her she runs away ! so once she was shaved and now I go all 3 months to a "hairdresser" who is able to brush all knots out and she even likes it !!
Labradors are such kind dogs ! Two of my friends own one. They are so friendly !
Beautiful pets and poor Cooper! One of our dogs gets rashes, not sure if its hot spots but its caused from allergies to flea bites. She will literally rip out her fur when she gets them. I use paw paw ointment on them. Its very soothing and she does not like the taste so leaves it alone.
Your furbabies are really cute!
my parents had a part lab once and now they have 2 black labradors from the same litter. They also have crates and they learned to go downstairs when my mom says 'it's time for bed' or if we ask 'do you want to go to bed' and open the door, they will go down to the basement where it is cool and they can rest away from the hustle and bustle!
Beautiful dog !
Cats...AH-h-h-h-h-CHOO !
Great collage on your header !
Have a great week.
Great furbabies - hope Cooper feels better soon.
Hello my friend! I'm late making the rounds, sorry about that. Your Kiki is gorgeous!! Love those fluffy grey/silver tabbies ;-)
And Cooper is such a handsome dude. I would love to have a dog at some point. Like most parents of humans, I like to contemplate what I would name a dog. Cooper is one of the names that I've thought of most ;-)
You are right, African Greys live a LONG time. It is quite possible that ours could outlive us. We have a friend who also owns a parrot, and whoever goes first will leave their bird to the other. However, that friend is significantly older than us so J and I need to firgure out a backup plan.
Thanks also for sharing my joy and emotion over "my" Super Bowl! I love NFL football, but I grew up with Kilkenny hurling. Every time my team takes the field, I'm emotionally invested in the game. So to see my team make history was just overwhelming. I'm still misty-eyed ;-)
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