Another Sad Pet Farewell

In 2005, I was living near Albany NY and actively volunteering at the local animal shelter. One day, toward the end of the summer, a litter of black and white kittens came in. They were all cute and friendly except for one who was gray and white. Another volunteer, a cat specialist, said to me that the gray and white kitten was unfriendly, unhealthy and would likely never get a home. She suggested that I adopt him, and I did:

I brought him home and named him Bramble. He was playful and happy, if not affectionate:

 I also fostered many dogs and cats. Bramble never much took to people, but he loved all other animals, and I have lots of pictures of him with various foster dogs. This was Bramble and Wally, who I eventually adopted also. Wally died in 2013, just before I retired:

 Bramble may not have been affectionate, but he sure was cute. I began submitting photos of him to the website, Kitten War! He did well, winning many of their cuteness contests:

Bramble never met a dog or cat he didn't like. Here he is in the middle bed of a cat tree in our old home, along with Snoozey (bottom) and Draco (top), both of whom moved with us up to the farm but have since passed away:

 Jump ahead to 2018 and Bramble was showing signs of aging. He had mellowed, and he began to enjoy human contact:

 But mostly, Bramble continued to like the dogs and cats he lived with:

 Unlike the old days, I never had to go looking for Bramble. He could nearly always be found in the kitchen corner or in his own personal bed atop a bureau in the living room:

 As time went on, Bramble forsook his personal dog bed and began sleeping on the chair by my computer. After awhile, he stopped sleeping there and spent all his time in the kitchen corner:

 Bramble continued slowing down. His spine began to protrude and his belly began to swell:

 He didn't seem uncomfortable, but I knew he was approaching the end of his life, so I let him be but kept a close watch on him. I began giving him canned cat food, a treat he loved:

 This was the last photo of Bramble I took. When it came time to bring him to the vet, I was told that his heart and kidneys were failing. So the vet quietly put him to sleep. I buried him outside, beneath where the hay bales had sat all winter. The ground was thawed and easy to dig there. The trouble with loving animals is that their lives are so much shorter than ours. Nevertheless, what would existence be without them?

Pets, Safe And Warm At Home

The dogs spend almost all their time indoors, and the cats are inside 100% of the time. There isn't much to do in the house except lounge around. In this case, the lounging was being done by Fergus, Daphne, Clover and Bugsy:

 Seamus likes to position himself on the yoga mat next to my computer:

 Bramble has his own personal bed atop a bureau:

 Clover drags the new doggie bed onto the big floor pillow, apparently for extra softness. In this case, however, she lost control of it when Bugsy moved in. Fergus looks a bit unhappy too:

 Jack follows me around the house wherever I go, preferring to be right next to and behind my feet. Of course that means I can't see him and am in danger of accidentally kicking him. I've learned to be more careful, but he hasn't:

 I keep a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs which stops the dogs but which the cats easily jump over. If I go upstairs without the dogs, I often find them waiting anxiously at the baby gate for my return:

 Daisy also likes to hover around my feet, and I have to walk carefully:

 But most of the time, many of the dogs and a few cats can be found in the kitchen corner beds. In this case, it was Daphne, Seamus, Clover and Fergus:

 Bugsy and Bramble:

 Georgette still spends her days in her bed on the kitchen table. She's quite old and, I think, is beginning to show it:

 "Let us in, we think we smelled food in there:"

 I had a small box of freshly folded laundry to carry upstairs and both Bugsy and Seamus found it fascinating:

Dogs And Cats Of Summer

Most of the time, the dogs and cats of summer are indistinguishable from the dogs and cats of winter - snoozing on their beds in the kitchen corner:

The cats stay inside, but the dogs get more outdoor time in the summer, much of which they spend lounging on their ramp:

Jack and Seamus, buddies:

I took this picture at dawn, just as I was coming in from doing the morning chores (there aren't many chores to do on summer mornings):

Jack, in his newly mowed back yard:

When the Rugosa Roses began blooming, I couldn't resist taking even more pictures of the dogs in their back yard run:

And Georgette is still Queen of the Kitchen Table. Sadly, she has become so antisocial that she has several times pooped or peed in her bed. I encourage her to get out and use the cat food, water and litter box in the next room. I've also watched and am convinced that the other cats aren't really bothering her. She's just getting old and crotchety. I can relate:

I caught Rocky and Daisy on adjacent beds, touching noses. It was a cute scene:

And Bugsy, the kid with the big personality, watched me from a kitchen chair:

I put a fake surveillance camera on the barn to discourage any more dumping of cats there. Alas, it only seemed to cause the perpetrators to drop off a kitten at the house instead of the barn. I found it one morning and it was friendly, clean and free of fleas - so I brought it indoors:

The dogs were tolerant of the little fellow, but the big cats mostly wished he'd just go away:

I arranged to drop him off at the Potsdam Shelter, where he'd get antibiotic for his runny eye and he'd get neutered. Most importantly, he'll get a new home where he'll be loved and cared for. I already have more cats than I can handle sometimes. Goodbye, little kitty. I trust you'll find the perfect home and live a happy life:

The Kitchen Sleepers

I find it heart warming to see my dogs and cats getting along well, and the place they get along the best is the collection of doggie beds in the corner of the farm house kitchen. This collection was four dogs - Clover, Daphne, Fergus and Seamus:

 Fergus, Daphne, Seamus and Daphne:

 All five dogs plus Rocky, the cat:

 Four dogs plus Rocky:

 Three cats on one floor pillow - Rocky, Daisy and Bugsy. The two missing cats, Georgette and Bramble, have their own personal beds atop furniture, so that's where they were at the time:

 Clover, Fergus, Jack and Daphne:

 Rocky, snoozing alone on the big floor pillow:

 The three feline buddies again, this time with the afternoon sun streaming through the window and warming them:

 Fergus, Clover, Daphne and Rocky:

 All five dogs plus two cats (Bugsy and Rocky):

 This was a difficult photo to take, but there were four dogs and four cats gathered there, so I wanted to include it. The bed in the top left held Fergus, Clover and Bugsy (hidden behind Seamus' head). The bed in the top right held Daphne and Bramble (peeking out from behind). Then, top to bottom, are Seamus, Rocky and Daisy. Georgette is missing because she was in her bed on the kitchen table. Jack is missing because he was right at my feet:

Dogs And Cats And Guinea Pigs, Oh My!

Despite our snow and cold nights in the early part of May, the grass greened up and the dogs got to spend some warm afternoons in their back yard as the month progressed:

But the kitchen corner was and is still the most popular spot for snoozing:

Fergus and Jack love to bark, watching everything that moves from their back yard:

Georgette is getting old now, and seldom leaves her bed atop the kitchen table:

Seamus and Daphne like this corner of the back yard because they can see any activity at the neighbors' house and bark at them:

The dogs love their time outdoors, but they also love returning to their soft beds and catching a nap with whatever cats want to join them - in this case, Bugsy:

And as if sleeping all day in the kitchen isn't enough, the dogs also get to sleep in the bedroom:

Enjoying springtime:

I should perhaps have saved this picture of Rocky for Halloween. His eyes came out spooky looking:

And back to the floor pillows and dog beds, this time with both Rocky and Bugsy:

Ruby and Megan, the resident guinea pigs, are the reason the cats can't come into the bedroom. Their cage came with a great hiding spot, but I added the pipe fitting as a place to hide or just to play in. They do seem to like it. I can tell by how much poop I clean out of it each morning:

Daisy is difficult to photograph. Like Rocky, her eyes glow strangely in direct, frontal photos - and she also tends to roll over on her back when she sees me. In this case, I just snapped her picture anyway. This is, after all, how she normally looks: