My Pets Through the Years

This page is an ongoing project. I will be featuring pets I have had the pleasure of sharing my home with. Eventually I'll add friends' special pets I have known.

This is Queen, or Queen of Sheba, with my sister. She was our dog in the 1950's and early 60's. She was glued to my side as many hours per day as possible. Dalmatians have gotten a bad reputation lately, but this gal was the most patient nanny a kid could have had. She slept across the door of my room. As I grew into a toddler, she put up with more indignities than any dog should! Later, Queen escorted me to friend's houses and home again. When she was "put to sleep", I felt someone had killed my best friend. There will never be another dog like my Queen.

~*~ Queen and I, July 1959 ~*~

This is Charlie Brown, who was born in 1970 to a purebred red miniature Dachshund and a "traveling salesman" known only as a black dog. We brought him home on Halloween night, 1970. He was so tiny, with a tail like a little string. I was a young teenager and Charlie always palled around with me, enjoying the attention he got from young people visiting. I taught him to sit up by putting him in a corner and feeding him Fritos. He would sit up and beg for long periods of time, wagging his tail and barking. He had a hard time with his digestion as he got into his twilight years, and Mother would make eggs and toast for the little old gentleman. He died in his sleep at age fourteen, comfortable in the laundry room.

If you have ever loved a Dachsie, go to theDachshund Memorial Garden  

This is Simba, the little lion king when he came home in 1995. He weighed three pounds at nine weeks of age.

Simba loves vegetables. Here he is grazing on some zucchini peelings destined for the compost bin.

When my 17 year old cat, Chuka, won a bag of IAMS in a beauty contest, eight month old Simba was right there to dig into the cat food tin!

And by the way, here is Chuka, keeping tabs on a jam session at our old home in Iowa City. She loved music. Visit Chuka on her tribute page

Oh, golly, this has always been one of my favorite pictures of my dear spotted tabby. His markings are so handsome. Here's another one of the boy:

 These little guys are Smokey Mokes, Cornelius, and Simba. This photo was taken in 1996, when Cornelius was a baby and the bigger cats were one year old. All of these good looking animals were adopted from the PAWS & More Animal Shelter in Washington, Iowa. They are very social, affectionate cats, greeting family and guests at the door, and wanting attention. They are as sociable as my dog Elvie, and as for Elvie, he WILL come to "kitty-kitty". Sadly, Simba went to the Rainbow Bridge in 2008 at the age of 13. We miss him terribly!

Here's Cornelius all grown up at age one and 1/2. Oh, he is sooooo special! He has some trouble with muscle tone and coordination, but what a sweetheart. We used to work on his "physical therapy" every night, making him run and jump on things...he would sit by the trunk where we kept his fish toy and MEEEYOW to play. Eventually Cornelius learned to do almost anything he wanted to do except jump on the kitchen counters. He has his own method of doing stairs. He is a very determined cat and full of love.

Here you can see how well my cats and dog get along. They have their differences, but the house got quieter as Elvie matured.
Simba kisses sweet Smokey.

Smokey in the "Feliner".

Same dog, new haircut, new job : guards the house, looks cute. Lhasa had a long and happy life and once saved the house from being burned down by alerting my mother that a pan of eggs on the stove had burned dry. The pan was melting down. He was a true hero that day. Mom praised him and he was so happy to be told what a smart dog he was!

Links to some of my other pages :

Back to Animal Woman's main page
Elvie's page

Spay and neuter your companion animals. Leave breeding to responsible, knowledgeable breeders. Every year aproximately fifteen million fine dogs and cats are euthanized in America. This is no way to treat our best friends, so when it's time to adopt a new family member, go to a shelter and
SAVE A LIFE! ! !

Thank you for visiting my home page.
MaryAW (Animal Woman to my friends)

We are all in the same boat, both animals and men. You cannot promote kindness to one without benefiting the other. -E.E.Hale

Who says dogs don't have souls? They take a part of ours when they leave. 

© 2009 Animal Woman