Since I was a child I have been around pets. I believe they were created by God for us and that is to bless us with enjoyment and companionship.

I have seen people who do not have pets and I feel a sense of something missing there. I also believe that animals refect the people they live with and it is a sign of where people are at.

We traveled a lot due to the fact that my father was a military man, so unlike some we did not give up our pets, but took them with us making sure we found a place that we could have our pets with us.

Presently in my life I have five cats, two dogs, two goats and I care for two Polish Arabian horses that belong to a friend of mine that due to her disability cannot care for them herself.

All of my adult life I have had dogs and cats. It was not until I left Los Angeles County in a town called Sunland that I was able to have farm animals. I have enjoyed my life here greatly being out in nature and being able to see for miles out my window of just open land.

When I came to this area I already had two dogs. Moshe an Australian Shepherd was trained as my hearing service dog down in Sunland. She is four years old and since being up here has changed a lot and is more calm than when she was down there. During the process of moving up here I came across another Australian Shepherd at the pet store in this town and I named him Zadok. Both are blue merles, but you will find that blue merles Aussies can look different from dog to do. He is more or less just a pet, but he has had some hearing service dog training.

I would have been content to have just the two dogs, but when I got here I was told to get a cat for mice. So the month I got here I went down to the shelter and there were some kittens. They had been dumped because they were a mix from a Siamese female and whatever that got to her.

So I have always wanted a gray cat and there she was seven weeks old and needing a home. That was the beginning of my cat family and I named her Chaska.

Will continue to next post due to time restraints with Netscape.

Liane, the Zoo Mama

When I got my last Income Tax Refund from Uncle Sam I decided that Chaska needed a playmate and that would be perfect with two dogs and two cats and myself. So again at the pet store I saw what I thought was a Siamese (grew up with them), but she turned out to be a Himi/Siamese that looked like a Siamese. So I got her and I named her after my mother Leah. My mom would have been pleased.

Next came my two goats. My friend who I live on her property are sheep/goat breeders. The sheep are for the wool and meat and the goats are for milk and meat. NOT ME. Well it came to pass that two different moms at different times rejected their babies and because both Carolyn and Jake both work they could not take care of the babies so they gave them to me to raise.

Jacob was only a few hours old and Jesse was only little more than a few hours when I got her as well. Jacob is 50/50 Nubian/Boer goat. Jesse is 80/20 Boer/Nubian which is a combination of meat and dairy goats. He sure lucked out with me because all males both the sheep and goats are sold at auction for meat by my friends.

After a year things were quite settled with the pen built for the goats that now live outside my two cats and dogs. Well I made the mistake of going with my friend to the other shelter as she had to bail out her dog from the pound after being picked up and made the mistake of going to the cat section of the shelter.

And there was this beautiful Tortie/Maine Coon cat just looking for a home. A tortie can be any breed of cat and it comes from an orange father. Her name was Boo Boo, which I decided to leave it at that and home she went with me. She was already the same age as my other two cats.

A month and a half later my friend/landlady came over with a neighbour and asked if I want to help three abandoned feral kittens that were a day old. Boy I did not know what I was getting myself into. That was an experience and a half.

Continue!

Liane, the Zoo Mama

Compared to the goats the kittens were far more difficult to care for with far more attention needed and effort. I got three of them. One died the next morning and so I had the two to raise. In the first week you have to feed these little buggers every two hours so that is 24/7 two hour feedings and I am single. The next week is every two hours during the day and every four hours at night. The next week is every two hours during the day and two feedings at night.

Then comes a little more of a break with every four hours during the day and once at night. You can imagine what state of mind I must have been in by that time. I named the orange one Tobias and the male Samuel. Then came the changing from the bottle feeding to the food and that can be a dangerous time to say the least, but they made it.

I gave Tobias to my friend who rescues animals and guided me with what to do as well as the Internet. The Internet was my lifeline to keeping them alive. So now I have Samuel who is whatever he is cat from feral cats.

My last cat I got after Samuel this past January came from the same shelter and we had gone up there to see if they had a good herding dog and low and behold another Tortie/Maine Coon, but smaller than Boo Boo. I promised Carolyn she would be the last anything, no matter what, even baby goats that I would raise would go back to them. Her name is Sienna and she was only nine months old and only three months older than Samuel, so they have been great playmates to each other being so young and the older ones tolerating the antics.

They keep me busy and I enjoy them greatly. They give meaning to my life and reasons to keep getting up each day. When you have five cats walking all over you one tends to get up.

Liane, the Zoo Mama