Living Pretty With Your Pets: The Bold Abode
I know I told you last Friday that I was taking a little spring break and it feels so good but I’m certainly not interrupting my Pet Series Friday. I just enjoy it too much myself.
Today I want to share Gwen’s sweet story. She blogs over at The Bold Abode.You might have come across her awesome staircase makeover on Pinterest because I sure have. It’s so cool!
She is sweet, talented, bold 😉 and a pet owner after my own heart.
Hi there, fellow Cuckoo4Design fanatics! My name is Gwen, and I write this little blog called The Bold Abode. And, oh, my goodness! It’s such an amazing pleasure to be here at Julia’s today! I’m pinching myself. Have you seen her hallway? What am I saying? Of course you have! Isn’t it a breed of it’s very own??? Speaking of breeds, I’m so happy to be here for this week’s Living Pretty with Your Pets! I have 2 funny stories to share with you today. First, meet Cookie.
She’s my soul mate…if cat’s can either have or be soul mates, that is. About 6 years ago, when we little in the sleepy little town of Donalsonville, Ga, I was in the kitchen of our Victorian rental house {probably} avoiding the pile of dirty dishes in the sink. I heard this very distinct and LOUD mewing sound coming from outside. I walked over to the back door and opened it. I couldn’t see any little creature on the back porch, under the lovely plastic picnic table or in the expansive back yard. But the mewing was dreadfully loud! I peered over to the very back corner of our lot to where stood a lonely and newly budded dogwood tree. Oh, the sound! The sound was coming from waaaaay over there. So, I took off to see what was what! When I got closer, I could see this teeny, tiny beautiful Siamese-looking kitten. Her sparkling blue eyes pierced through me with their desperate cries for help. I had no idea what would result of this meeting, but I gently pulled her tiny claws from the branch and set her lovingly on the ground. I figured she’d bolt out of there like a cheetah chasing a turkey dinner, but she just stood there in the spring grass mewing, looking up at me with those sparkling blue eyes. By this time, both of my boys had joined the adventure. We decided to let her be, and walked over to the neighborhood park. This tiny little kitten followed us allll the way over and allll the way back, climbing the gigantic porch stairs up to our back door and mewing all the while. She never left that back porch, but instead, climbed up into my heart and saved me during a very dark and lonely time. I don’t know where she came from, and no one in the neighborhood claimed her. But she claimed us, and we’ve been ever so blessed because of it.
She pretty much has the run of the place over here… and she’s pretty much always by my side. Here she is helping me paint my porch swing.
But she’s not the only furry friend I have. Enter Hot Shot. Hot Shot’s been with us for over 9 years now, but he’s spritely as a pup.
Yes, he’s that tall. We have to keep every morsel of food carefully guarded, because if you turn your head just the slightest, you’ll lose your lunch, and not in the original sense. Hot Shot will snag it faster than Jiminy Cricket in brand new track shoes! And Hot Shot…he likes to eat some very interesting stuff. Dirt, for one.
And couches. He loves couches. We’re actually on couch number three. The last couch we had died a painful death. We had a sweet girl, Elizabeth, babysitting for us one fall night. She was putting the boys to bed, and when she came down these wallpapered stairs, Hot Shot had the middle cushion up between his paws with most of the top part of the fabric chewed off! Poor Elizabeth. It wasn’t his first couch and probably won’t be his last. But that’s not the real story I want to tell you. The real story involves something even more disastrous. One bright spring day, I was gathering up my bank deposit… you know where this is going, right? I had been tutoring, and the parents had paid me both in checks and in cash. I got busy on the computer, and before I knew it, Morgan, my husband, walked in through the door from work. He greeted me in my office and looked at the floor quizzically. “What’s this?” he said. “What’s what?” I replied. “What are all these little green bits of paper?” he persisted. Oh. My. Word. My heart sunk thirty-five feet in my chest. I ran around the office looking for, yes… you guessed it. My deposit envelope. It was no where. NO. WHERE. Then the realization fully dawned on me. It must be in the bowels of a big, black hairy dog that I used to love. I collapsed in the corner of the hallway with buckets of tears rolling down my face… because, not only did that deposit contain the checks, it held 4 big,bright, crisp new Benjamins in it. FOUR of them. FOUR OF THEM that were now digesting in my dog’s stomach. So, we did what any traumatized dog owner would do, and we called our vet. No, wait. Morgan went to see the Pharmacist! Yes! Our pharmacist… a personal friend, who THEN called vet. Our vet very calmly recommended that we give Hot Shot a dose of Hydrogen Peroxide which would make him, ummm…. undo what he had done. And, it did. Boy, did it! And I dug through the muck to find, not only the actual envelope with the checks still inside, but every tiny chewed up piece of that 400 dollars. Icky. I washed it, taped it together and raced to the bank. Fortunately, the teller, after much going round with her downtown supervisors, finally took the bills and damaged them out giving us 4 brand new, brand new Benjamins. Sigh. Poor HotShot was blissfully ignorant of the commotion he had caused and was quickly back to his old self looking for things to chew on.
Honestly, we’ve been through some trials with this puppy, but we’ve never given up on him. He’s our dog.
Though I have to admit, I’ve occasionally thought about that proverbial “farm” when he chews on the bedspread or the table legs or the doorway. But I seem to forgive him every time. I know he’s just trying to express something going on inside, and if he could talk to me, he’d just tell me what was up!
With a face like that, how could I not love him? Thank you, Julia for allowing me to share our crazy adventures with Cookie and HotShot. They fill our lives with so much joy, and we are blessed everyday.
You know Gwen, you stole my heart with your story! I’m all about forgiving them their strange ways. We had a dog who chewed and destroyed as well growing up. His reasons were that he had several strokes, but we all loved him so dearly and I think it taught me a lot about life and forgiveness.
His sofa eating habits also made me think of the show “My Strange Addiction” which we watched last night and a lady couldn’t stop eating sofa foam. Ha, maybe your HotShot needs to be on the show too, just kidding. I love his happy face, he looks like he doesn’t have a care in the world.
And I totally agree that a cat can be your soul mate. Love Cookie’s hypnotizing eyes.
So hop on over and pay Gwen a visit by clicking HERE.
To read more animal posts you can click HERE.
Have a great weekend my friends and I’ll be back to myself on Monday.
Tschüß
(Youleeya)
Thank you so much for having me, Julia! It was crazy-fun getting to share my fur-babies!
I’m so glad to hear that cat’s can be soul-mates. I”m not nuts! Yay!
And I totallly agree that dogs can teach us so much. HotShot is exactly what we needed, even with all the chewing distasters. I wouldn’t trade him or his antics for anything… not even a clean set of Big Bills!!!
Adorable pets and even more adorable stories! Thanks for sharing, Gwen!
Great stories! I’m very familiar with giving dogs hydrogen peroxide when they’ve gotten into something they shouldn’t, but I’m lucky enough that I’ve never had to dig through the results….yet 🙂
That’s hilarious. I can’t even imagine losing $400 to my dog’s stomach!!
Wow, two great stories! Such a sweet furry family 🙂
Quite an adventure with that bank deposit!
Hope you’re having a wonderful Spring Break, Julia!