Where did your pets come from?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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So, where did you get your pets? You can list childhood pets if you want to.

Deputy, a Great Pyrenees mix, came from a Free To Good Home flyer at a feed store. The person who had him had adopted him as a puppy from a high kill shelter the day he was to be put down. She ran a rescue and ended up with one too many dogs.

Zane, a pit mix, came from a local humane society that is a hellhole. He was one of a litter of pups abandoned on a bad side of town. Some sadistic a-hole tied fireworks around their necks and lit them. Only two survived. We adopted him at 9 weeks and discovered several years later that someone had shot him (bullet was found on x-ray when he had an unexplained illness).

Kieber, a little Dachshund/Chihuahua/Min Pin, came from a no kill shelter in another town. I had been volunteering with them for awhile and one day a woman and her daughter came in with a small puppy. Turns out he’d been found running down a busy highway and they stopped to pick him up.

Mysti, a Husky/Bordier Collie/Akita, came from the same shelter as Kieber. She had been wandering around a rancher’s land for awhile and had successfully nursed a litter of pups while feral.

Ardishire, a grey tabby w/white markings, was a kitten a stray cat had under the house.

Binky, long haired grey tabby, was the result of another stray cat.

Raiden, long haired grey tabby, same as the above two. We are a dumping ground for cats out here.

Snickers, tri colored Pygmy mix, was the result of an unplanned pregnancy between a woman’s favorite Nubian doe and a random Pygmy buck. The woman had sold the doe to me and called me that night to tell me the man who helped her with the goats thought she might be pregnant.

Eddy, tan goat, was the (planned) baby from a breeding between a Nigerian doe and a Pygmy buck.

Steve, a red roan Nubian, came from a scumbag of a breeder. Turns out they knew he was sick and were waiting for him to die. He survived and the person attempted to pawn multiple animals off on me.

The chickens came from either Ideal Poultry (a hatchery), a local feed store or private re-homes.

One parakeet came from Petsmart, the other, Petco.

The mice came from Petsmart.
Past pets:
Dogs from animal shelters, private re-homes and a pet store.
Cats from private re-homes and from Oops litters when I was a kid.
Mice, rats, hamsters, rabbits, gerbils, ferrets from Petsmart.
Birds of all types from Petsmart, private re-homes and pet stores.
Horses from breeders, private re-homes and a rescue.
A pot bellied pig from a feed store.

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Well, once there was a Mommy Cat and a Daddy Cat who loved each other very much…

:smiley:

Tonka was a ‘long timer’ at a shelter, so The Missus chose him.

Creamsicle was skinny and starved for attention when she wandered into the back yard, so she chose us.

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Rescues and foundlings

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Two were from the Big Box o’ kittens at the local pet stores (although I did a lot of window shopping for the second one).

Cat 3 was a stray that a friend took in.

Cat 4 was getting terrorized by other pets in her first home, so I adopted her – an arrangement that we’re both pretty happy about. Although it does mean that I’m a one kitty household, which is sad, because it’s fun to see cats interact.

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One way or another, all the pets we have now have been some sort of rescue. Except for the hamster & gerbil purchased from Petco and one finch that was purchased from a breeder to replace another finch that we suspect was literally scared to death by the kittens.

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My childhood Sheltie, Prince, came from a breeder. She was very conscientious and would drop by unannounced to check on how he was doing.

One cat, Eureka, was dumped on our back porch (get it, Eureka?) and Buttons came from a shelter.

All the dogs in our married life came from shelters or people who couldn’t keep them. Our German shepherd, Duke, was supposed to be trained as a K9 but couldn’t make it.

Our cat, Rary (short for Temporary) showed up in our driveway one day, then sauntered into the house and made himself at home. We were going to take him to a shelter, but that night he curled up on Ivylad’s lap and purred for three hours straight. That sealed the deal.

7

Millie the dog and Flash the cat came from the DC shelter. We also picked up a street cat in Indonesia that we brought back to the US, but Gus is no more.

My wife brought two cats to the marriage, both of whom have since died, Kochka was a street cat from Slovakia and Pita was a six toed cat that my wife’s aunt, a prominent genetics researcher, gave my wife. The aunt has a habit of picking up animals with weird genetic traits, like six toes or whatever.

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All were saved from shelters where they would have been killed or were abandoned.

THEIR LOSS.

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Reverse chronology

Dog - he was a Craig’s list freebie. I am his fourth and last owner.
Cat+Cat - brothers from a breeder of Russian Blues
Cat - pregnant and hanging out at my (then) work location
Dog - from a breeder of Labs and my first dog
Cat - from a breeder of Russian Blues
Cat - from a breeder of Birmans
Cat - from a breeder of Siamese
Cat+Cat - brother and sister. Their owners had to relocate to England
Cat - She [del]I fell in love with her, grabbed her and tucked her inside my sweatshirt[/del] followed me home from school.
Cat - from a breeder of Siamese

Before the cat poo begins to rain on me regarding the predominance of pets from breeders; I like the way Russian Blues and Siamese look and behave. Also the Lab’s brother was already a member of my best friends family when I got him.

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Of my current bunch:

Gordon Setters Kharma & Nick both came from breeders.

Papillon Bunny was rescued from a puppy mill.

Papillon Cyrus was adopted from a private rescue.

English Setter Sugar cam to me as a foster dog. She never left.

Papillon mix Macee was adopted from my local pound.

Cat Ruby was adopted at PetSmart from a local rescue, PAWS.

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Over the years, all of my cats have come from shelters. The last one had been in the shelter for many months, because he was 7 years old. Who the hell wants to adopt a 7 yo cat? He’s now 14, and the best cat I ever had.

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Lucinda (cat) found at a security gate in a compound in Qatar.
Jasper the ginger cat found in a dumpster (skip) in Al Khobar Saudi Arabia

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Emma the dog and Sebastian the cat both came from Wayside Waifs, an excellent adoption shelter.

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The late Miss Austen was adopted from the county animal shelter.

The now also late Lucia was adopted from the local SPCA shelter.

Both of my currently living cats, Charlotte and Emily, were both from my vet. When I took Lucia in for a check-up the summer before last, there were kittens for adoption and I said something like “Oh, look at that cute little calico baby!” and brought her home a few days later. A year later, I did almost exactly the same thing again so Charley would have someone near her own age to play with.

15

The Moluccan Cockatoo Mistermage bought before we were married.

Oldest Chihuahua was bought from a friend of his (very much a backyard … err apartment breeder) but I had want a girl Chi for a very long time. She was 5 weeks old a terrorizing her littermates and her parents. My Heart dog* (RIP), a Lab mix, was getting old and I wanted any new dog to learn manners from her. My Heart dog was a stray pup up at the neighbors’. They were feeding the mom and she had 2 litters in 2 years.We adopted the mom and Heart dog, got them both spayed and then the mom ran away.

Just before my Heart dog passed away we adopted a Chi-weenie from the local no-kill. So he had a few months to learn some manners.

A few months after Heart dog passed I talked Mistermage into 1 more Chi. This time an elderly girl from the same no-kill (they had a deal where they worked with a rescue that was bringing up both small dogs and Deathrow dogs from Florida).

Then there are the 4 cats: oldest belongs to my oldest son… he’s about years old and had wandered into the yard emaciated one day. Next is my monster sized Brown Tabby that my youngest son claimed when he (the cat) was a nursling. 3rd up is my crazy Calico that my middle son has pretty much claimed. She is a half sibling to the Brown Tabby. And last is a long haired Tuxedo Grump Cat (he appears to be a Persian or Persian mix) that also belongs to my oldest son.

Grumpy and Crazy hate each other so if one is out in the house proper the other is hanging out in their respective boy’s bedroom. All the rest get along to the point of cats snuggling down with dogs.

They all ignore the parrot unless he is eating because sometimes he’ll flip food down to them.
Oldest son just graduated college and middle son is just getting started. They both work and will probably be moving out next year (you never know, maybe sooner). Then I’ll be down to 1 cat and 3 dogs… and a parrot who, at almost 30, could outlive me.
*Heart dog= that pet all others will be compared to and few will ever come close in regards to all the good attributes a dog can have. She had all of them.

16

Boris and Natasha were from a litter of 4 kittens left in a box outside a Geico office. My former office manager’s daughter worked there. They were only about 3 1/2 weeks old and the colored ones got snapped up but nobody wanted the black pair so she took the black ones home to bottle feed them. They knew I was thinking of getting cats so she brought them in to the office to tempt me.

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My cat Atilla was born in my back yard, to a feral mother. She was actually friendly, so me an a neighbor both made nests for her on our back porches. I adopted Atilla. Two kittens disappeared eventually, and another was also adopted.

My dachshund Nathan came from the local animal shelter.

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Ian (Bean) is my half Black Lab/Half Corgi. His owner’s kids were friends with my daughter, and they happened stopped by our house on the way to have him put to sleep. He wasn’t sick, they were just tired of beating him every day. I convinced them to let me take him and he has loved me from the very first day. That was 10 years ago and he was 8 years old at the time, so he’s my old boy. He’s in good health and very happy now, although it took years before he would let me touch his feet, since they thought it was a fun game to stomp on his feet daily. :mad:

Delilah (Deedee )is my Pekingese. She was born into puppy mill life (I didn’t know it at the time) I got her as a present for my daughter 11 years ago, and she’s been the smartest, sweetest dog. About 5 years ago the people I got her from were arrested for animal abuse, for running a puppy mill under the worst conditions you could imagine. She probably would have had an awful life if we didn’t take her.

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Charley, the Shepherd/Lab mix came from Atlanta Lab Rescue. She has been passed from foster to foster, and unfortunately, had been in an extremely abusive home before that. She was heartowrm positive, and was just a mental basketcase. Scared of EVERYTHING. I mean, really, everything. Birds chirping would send her running across the yard. It’s been 18 months now, and she is really close to being as normal a dog as she probably ever will be. She is mostly not scared of things now. She actually seems to really enjoy playing with…

Mollie is a BorderCollie/Chow mix who I adopted as a puppy almost exactly one year ago. I did so after seeing how Charley reacted to my babysitting a friends dog for a few days. Charley seemed to come out of her shell with another dog in the house, so I found Mollie in a rescue program, She, and her four sisters, had been dropped off in a box at an animal shelter.

They are now fast friends who play with wild dog abandon. Moillie is a joy, and I never thought I would see Charley in full play mode. They are a really great pair of furry friends.

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We got a terribly friendly 5 lb. chihuahua from my (then) wife’s relatives. Years later, he treed a little black kitten that wandered into the yard. Little black kitty adopted him and hung out with him in his pen while I was at work. One day, dog got out of his pen and got hit in the road so I took the cat inside. My daughter got me a replacement chihuahua from a breeder a few months later. He lasted twelve years. I got a white and tan mutt from the local pound to replace the second chihuahua. He looks like a Maltese-Poodle mix. Cat is now 15 and on his third dog- he plays and cuddles with him just like his first two dogs.