Ok first let me get the usual suspects aside.  My husband, my friends, my family… goes without saying.

There’s something I have tried to live without that didn’t go very well, I was miserable.

When I first left home when I was 21, back in 1996, I lasted approximately three weeks without any pets. It was horrible!  I wasn’t allowed to bring the horrid little dog that I had to the flat I was living in so I left her with my parents.  I had no pets, just a dick boyfriend, I needed someone sweet to love.

That’s when Spencer came into the picture, and my life would never be the same again… He is, to date, the longest pet relationship I’ve ever had.

It’s been 14 years and the only time I was without pets since then was when I first got here to the Netherlands and was waiting for the cats to arrive.

Anyway, as I was saying, I could never imagine living a life without pets.  They bring so much joy into my life, even if they do get on my nerves from time to time.  I love animals and will always want them in my home.

These are the pets that are still living with us right now:

Bailey, our Yorkshire Terrier, will be eight years old this year.  You will never find a more loving and faithful dog than he is. I wish I could go back to when he was a pup and do it all again.  I never want him to leave me.

Pixel, our Wirehaired Dachshund / Chihuahua mix, will be three years old this year and she still looks like a puppy!  She’s lethal and knows how to play us humans like a fiddle.

The Turtles…

Frick,  basking as a hatchling.

Lego, our newest addition just after we got him home.

Chip and Sydney, back before they had to be separated.

Sherman, our Greek Tortoise who loves to eat.

Some of the pets that were with us in the past…

Salem was rehomed almost two years ago.  I miss him .  Sometimes I wonder if I made the right decision in rehoming him, but when I see the change in Spencer I know I did.  They fought a lot and Spencer is a lot less anxious without him here.  Salem was happy to accept new owners but Spencer demands to be here with us.  I know Salem’s new owners are giving him a wonderful life too, I just miss him sometimes…

Harley was our Africa Pygmy Hedgehog.  Quite an interesting pet but I wouldn’t have one again. They are nocturnal and don’t really bother with you. They require a fair bit of space in their cage and can be quite dirty.  Still though, he was an awesome little pet while we had him and he was very very cute and photogenic!

Cleo and Molly… yeah, we had rats.  Another pet that we enjoyed while we had them but wouldn’t have again. We couldn’t really let them out of their cage because the cats would go bananas.  Also keeping up with the cage cleaning got to be a bit much.  Most of all though, their short life span is what I don’t like.  I don’t like that about mostly all small and fuzzies, to be honest. I hate losing pets and that comes around way too quickly with these guys.

Turtles, some failed to thrive as hatchlings… which is very common unfortunately.  Others died for unknown reasons. Always a risk when keeping turtles.

Radar, cause of death unknown. I was very sad when he died as I’d had him the longest.

Cupid, failed to thrive as a hatchling.

Stelo, cause of death unexplained. He died within a week of Radar.  Was a bad week for me.

Phoenix, same species as Cupid and also failed to thrive as a hatchling. I swore to never get this type of turtle again.

Whew, yeah so I think that’s it.  This post has made me a little sad to be honest, thinking of the pets I’ve lost along the way.  I guess that’s all a part of choosing to have the pets that I do though.  When you keep turtles there is always a chance they won’t make it as their care is so specific, and sometimes there are just things wrong with them that you aren’t aware of.  With pets like hedgehogs and rats, their life expectancy is only 2-4 years, which doesn’t give you long to enjoy them.

Cats and dogs are where it’s at, they give you a bit better, time wise… I don’t even want to think of what I’ll do when the time ever comes I have to say goodbye to one of the dogs, or Spencer.  Seriously, I’ll be a weep machine.

On that note, here’s something that made me giggle with my pets yesterday.  Bailey howling his arse off at a siren going through the neighbourhood.  Pixel still hasn’t ever howled, she just barks. As long as she makes sure she’s heard.  Crazy little shits, they are…

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Over the years, he’s come so close to death so many times I can’t even explain it.

He’s obnoxious.  He’s bossy.  He whines and he gets his hair everywhere.

He makes me itchy.

He hisses and scratches most people who aren’t me.

He refuses to be anywhere but in this house with us.

He chews plastic bags and plants and then pukes them back up around the house.

He’s insane.

Still, when I see him curled up sleeping somewhere, or he climbs up on the back of my chair for a cuddle, I can’t help but love him.

I often fantasize what life will be like without a cat in the house, and then I feel guilty because I don’t ever want to lose him.  No matter how much he makes me want to throw him off the balcony sometimes, I’ll be devastated if anything ever happens to him.  He sure has made life interesting over the last 15 years.

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It occurred to me today that this month is the 14th anniversary of mine and Spencer’s life together.  He has been with me from Prince Edward Island, to Toronto and finally over here to the Netherlands.

I found him in 1996, I was 21 and had just moved out of home for the first time.  I was in a small pet shop in Charlottetown, PEI and I knew he was the one for me the minute I saw him clinging to the door of the cage calling out to me.  Little did I know how much more whining he had left in him. I’m still waiting for him to run out!

He always has been quite nosy and in your face.

He will also get into absolutely everything if given half a chance.

Trying to keep him out  is absolutely pointless.

It’s probably my own fault because I do spoil him a bit.

I can’t help it… How could you resist these eyes?

… or not giggle when these whiskers tickle your nose?

When it comes to me, Spencer has seniority in this house.  After 14 years together, he is the longest relationship I’ve had with anyone I currently live with. Even my husband!   He really is my main man, and he knows it.  He rules the roost and not even Xander will cross him, he knows better!

He also knows that if he gives me this look I will back off and quit taking so many photos.  He’ll always amuse me for a while but his patience does have limits.   I thought Bailey was bad for giving me the stink eye!  Clearly Spencer has been showing him how it’s done.

We’ve come a long way together and it hasn’t always been easy.  He drives me absolutely bananas, but I love him. To be honest, I don’t think I have a choice… if I didn’t, he’d kick my ass.

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It appears that I am not the only one looking forward to spring!  The sun has finally started showing itself in the Netherlands again and Spencer took full advantage by finding this warm sweet spot on a shelf in our living room.

Everything seems to be starting to come to life again.  I see flowers starting to poke up through the grass, the sun is coming out again and making us all feel alive and I know it’s just a matter of time before the buds are on the trees.

I read today that we are supposed to be getting snow over the weekend, but I am in complete denial.  Winter is on it’s way out, and spring is coming.  That’s just how it is. I’ve decided.

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People often ask me how our pets get along together, and there is no real way to answer that as it all depends on each of their moods.  Spencer generally avoids the dogs, and the dogs love to chase him every chance they get.  Bailey, at 6 years old still is very playful, but at times Pixel, our 1 year old pup, can really get on his nerves.

My foot stool has become the morning basking area for our furbabies and usually only the most determined gets to stay there.   Spencer doesn’t go on there often as he has the added advantage of being able to jump into the windowsill and let the two dogs fight it out amongst themselves.   It would appear that in this occasion, they had all called a truce so that they could share.   This is not something you see often in this house, and I knew it would be short lived, so I had Xander take a photo from across the room.  I didn’t dare get up to grab the camera as I knew one of them would leap down to follow me.

I guess they get along pretty well, when they all want something badly enough!

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It was just a few days ago I was telling Xander how happy I was that I could actually have things around without cats knocking them down or breaking them.   Spencer has been so good since he’s been here without Salem and I’ve noticed he’s a lot more careful about walking around things for some reason.

I looked over last night to find him laying smack in the middle of my Christmas village, and when I yelled at him to get off I startled him and he jumped off, sending everything askew in the process.

Last night I looked over to find him perched snugly between the mini tree and the village.   He hadn’t moved anything but managed to find a big enough spot to lay in without disturbing anything.   I knew better than to yell at him this time, instead grabbing my camera and snapping a few photos before making him a little bed on the windowsill.

He looked like a giant monster in with my little mini village, well… he is a giant monster, really.   A giant monster who has a terrible habit of squeezing himself in where he doesn’t belong.

Ah well, what can ya do?!

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The time has come to tackle our bedroom and get it up to date with the rest of our house.   It has been a long time coming!  We’ve been living in this flat for about 8 years and we’ve not done a single thing to it since we moved in.   When we bought the flat (we rented for about the first 5 years), we had to put things in order of priority and the bedroom came 2nd to last, just before the spare bedroom.

This weekend we cleared out the bedroom to clean it and get it ready to paint.  That meant finding a place for the bed and everything else.

So we are camping out in our living room!  It’s so cozy!

Each night we crawl into bed and watch some TV and I know we are both wishing we could just keep our house like this forever.  A bed in the middle of the living room that we can lounge on whenever we want.   We chatted about it and laughed as we came up with ideas about how we could turn this room into our living/bedroom and make our bedroom one big hobby room.   Visions of this unbelievable craft room danced in my head…  aaah someday!

The kids are enjoying it as well.  Even more than Xander and I, I think!

All day they jump and play and lounge around on the bed.  Each taking their separate corners when nap time rolls around.   They live like kings!! … oh err, and one little princess.

Am I the only one who finds it a little funny that the cat is the biggest one of them all?  Fat bastard.

Anyhow, the painting has begun and I will be around with photos soon… but for now I’m going to crawl into bed and fall asleep in front of our new TV.

Goedenavond!

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I was speaking with the lady who kept Salem yesterday and he is doing wonderfully on his own as well.   Who would have guessed it?   Here I was for over 10 years trying to keep the cats together thinking they were besties, when really they kind of hated each other I think.  I’m glad Salem is doing so well and from what she was telling me they are lavishing attention on him, which I’m sure he loves!

Anyhow, I took some photos of Spencer the other day and my friend Melissa left comments on Facebook of what she thought Spencer might be thinking in them.   It was pretty funny so I’m going to show you the pics and the commentary.   She may very well be right!

YOU STILL LOVE ME MORE THAN THE DOG, RIGHT?

YOU BETTER LOVE ME MORE THAN THE DOG.

OK… SHAKE ON IT… YOU LOVE ME MORE THAN THE DOG.

I think she has Spencer nailed, because in his mind he IS the center of the universe and should be loved above and beyond all others.

I don’t mind though.  Since having him back he is quiet and happy and leaves all my crap alone.   I think this is what other people talk about when they talk about how much they love having a cat… A CAT, not two, which is where I went wrong I think.

One thing we’ll never question again is if he loves us.  He’s proven that I think!

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Spencer is, surprisingly, more quiet than we have ever seen him.  Since he has returned home he is like an entirely different cat.   I don’t know if he’s just on his best behavior because he’s scared shitless we are going to send him away again, or if he is just a happier cat without Salem here.

Regardless, he’s much easier to have around as he spends most of his time just like this.  Curled up on our bed asleep, with the odd meow around feeding time.

I can’t help but sort of love him even more than I did before.  I mean he did raise total hell at the shelter, and again when we tried to rehome him with a family, but he wanted to be here and that was it.  Anyone or anything that got in his way was just collateral damage.

He loves us and can’t stand to be away from us.   How can we not love him for that?  Crazy bastard.

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Some things aren’t worth mentioning, so I won’t get into them.   I do have an update on the cat situation though.

Lets recap… a week ago Friday the cats went to the shelter.  24 hours later the shelter calls telling us to come get them because Spencer has gone bezerk.  Friday night a lady calls that found the cats on Marktplaats (a site where I had advertised them) asking if I’ve found a home for them.   They come and meet the cats, staying at our place till 1am.   On Saturday evening we take the cats to them to help them settle in.

On Monday I get an email while at work.  Spencer was starting to act out, getting up on shelves and swiping at her when she tried to get him down.   I phoned her to tell her that he was probably just scared and that it would be best if she gave him some space and let him come to her.  I hadn’t heard anything else for a few days so I assumed they had started getting along.

Then I got this on Wednesday:

Hi Tammy,

Can you please come tonight any time and get Spencer, if you insist Salem too.  This morning everything went very wrong when no warnings around to see Spencer attacked again (after the nicest of morning greetings). This time I ended up at the doctor – he decided not to stitch my hand but I got antibiotics and a Tetnus shot… and I think I lost my sun glasses there too. No longer impressed sorry, he’s all yours again.

Linda

Okaaay, so maybe they weren’t getting along so well after all.  Dammit!

Xander and I discussed our options at length and after deciding and re-deciding what feels like a million times, we ended up going and picking up Spencer.  Just Spencer.   The reason being that he is getting older and set in his ways and just refuses to live with anyone but us (seriously, in our house we can swing him by the ears and he’d never flash a nail, never.).  We also agreed that it would be easier to maintain a house with one cat rather than two.

It absolutely broke my heart leaving Salem behind.   When we were there he was rubbing all up against me and in my mind was saying ‘Take me home!’.   Needless to say I spent all evening in tears when we got back home, wondering if we had made the right decision… AGAIN.

Now that a few days have passed I’m sure we did.  Salem is getting along great in his new home and Spencer is home with us and quieter than I’ve ever seen him.   Maybe he’s scared to death we are going to ship him off again!

I’m not even religious and yet I pray to god that this entire ordeal is over.   It may seem like a silly thing to some but deciding to re-home your pets is a big decision and within the last week we’ve had to make that decision numerous times.  Now I think we can finally relax and adapt to the new situation.

At the moment the family feels a little incomplete without Salem but I’m reminding myself that he is in a good home where he is the ‘only child’, which means he’s getting a lot more attention than he’d probably get here with us.   All I can do is take their word for it that he is happy.

Ok well that’s about all this pounding headache will let me write.  Back later with more (hopefully non-cat related) news.

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