Fur babies

Tomorrow I am taking Angel to see a veterinary opthamologist. She has a lump in her eye which may result in the eye being removed but we're getting a specialist's opinion first. I realized, though, that I've never posted photos of the "fur babies" who live in my house. I thought I'd fix that tonight since I didn't have any mini time today.

Angel is a red heeler, aka an Australian Cattle Dog. She is our oldest pet now. She's nine this month. She's physically much older than her chronological age. She's got arthritis in her hip and she's losing both vision and hearing.

We lost our first family pet, Cassie, an orange tiger striped cat, about a year and a half ago due to mouth cancer.

The black lab mix is Zyla. She is full of energy and can run the full family farm and never use it all up, lol. She's a shelter rescue and has some really strange fear issues. She's afraid of being brushed, of cameras, and don't even think about the vet.

The cat in the front is Abby. She has long fur which is usually full of mini burs because she loves to be outside. She's a wonderful hunter and we no longer have a mouse problem in our country home. :-) I could do without the "gifts" she leaves on the front porch for me though. She also is the "mother" of all of our pets. She's often bathing Zoe or the dogs.

The tortoiseshell at the back is Zoe. She and Abby both came from the shelter at the same time. Abby settled in very well. Zoe spent forever hiding and she's still jumpy a year later. She will snuggle on her terms but only a few of us can pick her up. She's been outside a few times. The first few times she was scared of the door when we opened it to let her back in so she spent a couple of nights outside until we coaxed her back in. Now she knows to come back but prefers to stay inside.

I miss having a lap cuddling cat. Cassie loved to snuggle into your lap. She didn't do that until she was much older though, so maybe there's still hope for future snuggling. :-)

I didn't grow up with having pets in the house and I wasn't sure when we first got Cassie but she was a wonderful "first" pet. We got Angel as a puppy from a nearby farm. She's a pure bred and she was the cutest little thing. I'm still not quite sure how we ended up with the other three - I think some weak moments at the shelter, lol. At least life is not boring around here!