Pets Are An Absolute Joy

Pets are an absolute joy to have, I think we can all agree on that regardless of what type of animal we have. Over the years 00Steve (my husband) and I have had a zoo!

Some animals we had only a short time and others we had longer. So, in our zoo we’ve had:

• Ollie the green amazon parrot – he was 00Steve’s and he only rehomed him because he was hoping to join the Paras and Ollie hated me! Ollie went to a home where they only had birds and he is very well loved. 00Steve didn’t join the Paras though as we conceived Ra-Ra!
• Tabs was our cat; she was the only pet that needed more attention than I could give her as both of us worked 12-hour shifts. She now lives in Florida and I’m told she loves chasing lizards which she wasn’t allowed to do when she was with us…
• Now, you may think well that’s not hard in the UK is it? Well you would be wrong, because at the time we had leopard geckos, Rocket and Chomper! Those guys were with us till they passed away.
• We had Butterz and Mercutio who were corn snakes and pretty-damn awesome. 00Steve rehomed them with his brothers because we couldn’t have them in Ra-Ra’s nursery (apparently).
• The hamsters were Monty and Shadow.
• There was Seymour, our chameleon, who was pre-loved and ended up being sad without company, so happily resided in our lovely local pet shop.
• Floppsy and Moppsy who were of course rabbits!
• Saffron and Sarsaparilla were my fire-bellied toads who were poisonous so had to be re-homed when Ra-Ra came along.
• Fatty is our turtle who came to us as a tiny baby and we have had her grumpy-butt self for nine years now. Her tank is next to my chair and she glares at me often! Every holiday we go on or beach we visit, we bring a rock back for her tank (disinfected of course).
• Jenson was my baby and this is the one that broke us as a family. He was our brown and white Newfoundland dog, and he spent hours laid next to me whilst I was on the floor in agony before my surgery.

We made the difficult decision to re-home Jensen to one of our friends’ parents and we get updates ALL the time. We weren’t sure if my ileostomy surgery would work, or even how long I would have to wait for it. It wasn’t fair on him just getting one long walk at gone midnight every night. Or me attempting to cling on to the pram for stability walking him with crippling pains. He was the best pal ever my Jensiepops, he used to sit under my legs between my chair and the footstool and even as he grew, he would try to fit there, but as you can see he wasn’t a little doggie!

He was very much my dog… he would walk better for me, he knew he would always get to snaffle some Sunday lunch, and when I got home from work, he would be barking at the door ready for me. He was also the best spoon to cuddle EVER!

For the amount of time I am in manageable pain and sat on my own now, I really miss having a dog. Obviously, no dog would ever replace my floppy-eared nutter, but he really helped (he is adored in his new home, but if we could have him back we would in a heartbeat).

00Steve and I feel that health-wise we are now in a position to look for another pet, and they bring so much joy and distraction to everyday life. Since we won’t be having more children and Ra-Ra is at school and Button is starting nursery it would be nice to have the company of a doggie, to get hugs from when the pain niggles and to keep me company.