Erin Brown's Page
Profile
- Proud pet parent of:
- Mowgli (cat)
Miranda (dog)
Victoria (actually she's Miranda's dog!)
Millie (actually my grandkitty!)
- How we met:
- MOWGLI was an orphaned feral kitten who was rescued by a hunter's dog. The dog refused to leave the woods without the litter of hamster-sized kittens mewing by their dead mama. So the hunter brought them into his friend's restaurant where we were eating and asked if anyone would take the kittens. They all went home with someone, but I doubt many lived. Their eyes weren't even open. We bottle-fed Mowgli for nearly two months. Now he's almost six years old, and so sweet!
MIRANDA was found at about age 13 months by a rescue worker; she was running down a New Orleans street during Hurricane Katrina. She's a "rooing" husky mix and both smart and smart-mouthed! I have not been able to find her poor family in Lousiana, but it's always been obvious by her health, affection, confidence, excellent grasp of commands, and polite dog behavior that she was beloved by them.
VICTORIA is a little bitty smelly beagly hound mix with asthma and a strange heart rhythm and a keen love of melodrama. A local farmer gave her to us because we felt Miranda needed a baby of her own (she kept stealing stuffed animals from the toybox, bathing them, and snuggling them). Victoria is my shadow unless Miranda tells her to do something else, and then she snaps to it! They adore each other.
MILLIE lives with me only until her mama graduates from college next year. Back in 2003, my parents took our daughter to a no-kill shelter and paid for her to adopt a gorgeous gray kitten. I'll be so sad when Millie moves in with her mama, because I'll really miss her. She's probably the brains of our little family!
- Pet likes:
- ~Mowgli likes everyone and everything. He's the happiest cat I've ever known.
~Miranda likes Victoria! Hee! My husband is her all-time favorite human, though. She also loves a brand of dog biscuits called "Shorty's Treats," which we order from a small business in Arizona.
~Victoria likes me, quite honestly. She cries when I'm not home, sometimes to the point of hoarseness. She also likes to hunt for voles or moles - I never know which are which - and then eat the poor little fellas. Oh, and she likes to roll around in all manner of disgustingness outside. She well and truly smells horrid, but I grew up with hounds and was prepared for this when I first brought her home! Weird thing is that even though she wants to be dirty, she insists everyone else be otherwise. She is our expert bath-giver to the other animals; they have the cleanest ears in the world, for example.
~Millie likes being a snoop. She's always butting into everyone's business or spying from behind a curtain. She also likes to sneak drinks from human glasses of water, which I find so gross! But I can't help laughing while I'm dumping the water and getting a new glass, because she does it so lickety-split and then runs like crazy because she knows she did wrong!
- Pet dislikes:
- ~Mowgli dislikes being startled. That's about all I can think of. He really is incredibly happy and easy to please.
~Miranda dislikes Millie, but she likes other cats, which is interesting. She also dislikes lots of different foods, so that's why we order biscuits for her from Arizona when we live in Illinois. (Poor Victoria gets the regular Milk Bones instead most of the time!)
~Victoria dislikes any change in routine. She has a great internal clock and stays on schedule. If someone messes up her schedule, she has an asthma attack - no kidding.
~Millie dislikes Miranda. She'll be glad to move out of here and move in with my daughter!
- Pet’s favorite spot:
- ~Mowgli: in the middle of three rose bushes outside.
~Miranda: a once-adorable chaise lounge that she took over a couple years ago.
~Victoria: our bed, under the covers.
~Millie: our daughter's bedroom.
- Pet’s favorite toy:
- ~Mowgli: any of our flowers in our garden.
~Miranda: anything she takes away from Victoria.
~Victoria: a tie between her teddy bear and her squeaky rubber chicken.
~Millie: the ceiling-fan chain that hangs down where she can reach it from the back of our computer chair.
- Pet’s silliest habit:
- ~Mowgli goes over to our 84-year-old neihbor's back yard and basically knocks on her sliding-glass door until she comes out and hangs around with him on her patio.
~Miranda yells at me when she's been left behind, like when we go to the grocery store or somewhere. "Rooing" huskies sound like humans speaking a foreign language, and boy does she try to chew me out when I return.
~Victoria keeps her eye on Miranda when Miranda has a treat or a toy, and the second Miranda looks away, Victoria zooms over and snatches it, then runs like crazy to hide it.
~Millie sleeps on our heads if she can possibly get away with it. She sneaks into our bed or our daughter's bed or the bed where a houseguest is sleeping and stretches herself out on top of someone's head. She even does it to Victoria.
- Pet’s sweetest moments:
- Oh, wow, they're so sweet I don't know what to say.
~Um, well, Mowgli brings lots of pleasure to us and to the neighbors just by being so darn loving. The elderly widow next door says he's one of her dearest friends. The family on our other side actually moved their parrot's perch right by the window so Mowgli can come over and watch him, plus they planted catnip in their yard even though they don't even have a cat, just because they want him to come over and have fun. It used to be that he wouldn't go anywhere besides our yard, but the neighbors loved him so much that they seduced him, and now all three yards are his home.
~For Miranda, it would have to be when we gave her her new puppy. She's a big dog, and Victoria fit in my hand back then. Miranda picked her up and carried her in her mouth everywhere she went. Not by the scruff - actually IN her mouth. Victoria never cried in the night as a puppy, because Miranda snuggled her all night long. She refused to eat until Victoria had eaten her fill and fallen asleep.
~Last summer Victoria watched me plant several grapevines, just little sticks basically. The next day, I watched her re-discover them, dig them up, and run with them to the back door with her tail wagging like crazy. It was like, "I found it for you! I found your stick for you! Here it is for you! I brought it to you because I love you so much and maybe you forgot where you buried your stick!" What could I do but thank her for her kindness?
~I'm one of those people with my emotions right out there, so I'm quick to laugh or cry or complain. When I'm sad, Millie climbs on me and touches my face with her little pussy-willow paw. I never knew cats cared about things like that, because I grew up in a "dog family."
- I crack up when my pet:
- ~Mowgli: ...plops down right in the middle of whatever gardening I'm doing, as if it's his job to assist me by lying down in my way.
~Miranda: ...reprimands Victoria or tattles on her (that whole "rooing" thing is remarkable, seriously).
~Victoria: ...tries to howl like a proper hound even though she's so little that it's ridiculously high-pitched.
~Millie: ...skulks around spying and eavesdropping.
- My pet is unique because:
- Well, as I said, Miranda is my dog and Victoria is her dog. That's certainly unique. Plus other than Victoria, these poor things had a rough time of it and are survivors. Then again, that's not really unique - dogs and cats tend to be resilient, and unfortunately, tend to have a hard time of it in this world. So maybe my babies aren't unique except that they're our family and are safe, happy, and much-loved. So sad for other animals that this might make ours unique.
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I juyst made it at the farm sanctuary on CA
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Hugs,
Debbie
http://aspcacommunity.ning.com/group/helpinganimals/forum/topic/show?id=658300%3ATopic%3A412611&page=1&commentId=658300%3AComment%3A418624&x=1#658300Comment418624
Love your animals and their names!!
Back in about 94, my kids took in a stray kitten whom they named "Milo" because he looked like the cat in Milo and Otis.
A couple years later, my daughter and I fell in love with an Aussie mix and adopted her; we agreed she needed an old-fashioned name, so we called her "Mabel."
A year or so later, we brought in a feral kitten who would perch on his hind legs and try to beat up Milo and Mabel, and my son said, "He's like a little Muhammad Ali!" so we called him "Muhammad."
Then we took in a feral kitten who had been saved in the woods by a dog, which reminded us of The Jungle Book, so we named him "Mowgli."
When my daugher adopted her pound kitty, she wanted to continue the tradition of naming the animals "M" names, so she chose "Millie."
When I adopted a Hurricane Katrina rescue, she was already being called "Miranda," but having been an English teacher who loves Shakespeare, I wanted to name her after the heroine in The Tempest, but I couldn't remember that heroine's name... uh-huh... her name was Miranda. Too weird!
Well, my best friend from all the way back to high school has a daughter named Miranda; I phoned this daughter, and she was thrilled for me to have a dog with her name, so all was good. Then my best friend's other daughter asked that next time I adopted a dog, I would name that one after HER - "Victoria." So there it is. Our little hound is Victoria.
Our next baby we adopt and name will be called "Walker," because my best friend's little boy wants us to name one after him as well! Unfortunately for him, it's looking like we're about to take in a lab who is kind of old and already named, so Walker will just have to wait for his namesake!
I have a soft spot for Aussies and beagles. Heh - the quietest dog and the loudest dog. OK, I'm exaggerating, but not by much!
The thing for me is that as much as I love my animal babies, I cannot stop grieving for my Aussie mix who died in 2005. She was very very quiet, and now I'm laughing remembering how she would say, "Brf," when she was mad. Then she'd quickly look at me to make sure it was OK that she'd been so grumpy.
Now imagine my shock at adopting a rooing husky two months after sweet quiet little Mabel died! Insanity! And honestly, the best thing for me; I needed to be yanked out of my "Mabel mourning." I sure still grieve for her, but I let go of thinking I would never risk loving another dog.
Well, I think that came out more cheerful than I feel about not having Mabel. I hate that I might have suggested she was replaced.
Oh, yes! They talk up a storm! Actual conversations take place here quite often ... people think I"m nuts! I just say, "The fact that you don't understand their language does not make me crazy." I know what they're saying. LOL! Sam is actually a Mal mix and Mals do it even more. He's always got something to say. They're great company!
Yes, I was serious. You took the time to fill out all the questions, and you did a good job. Rooing Huskies? To be honest, I've never heard the term before. Do you mean the way they "talk" to you?
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