Our Menagerie

I first saw Lily sometime in November of last year (2006).   There she was one morning, running around our front yard!  Now as I said, it was November and we do live in the country so it wasn’t unusual that peope had chickens.   But we certainly did not have any.  So I called around to those I knew had chickens to see if she was one of theirs.   No one owned up to ownership of the chicken and she continued to stay nearby….sometimes in the yard….sometimes in our neighbor’s yard, and frequently up (about 20 feet) in our trees.  We have lots of trees and one day I looked out my bedroom window (on the second floor) and saw the chicken sitting in a tree looking back at me!  Well, thankfully we had a very mild November and December.  But by the middle of January it was getting cold and there was not much left to forage for…so I did what any soft-hearted person would do….I started feeding the chicken.   Then the snows came and we had about 18-20″ of snow and the poor chicken was looking a little ragged!  Well, a week later the temperature fell like a rock with night lows of 0 or less.  When they forecasted 20 below my son (Erich) and I decided it was time to catch the poor half-frozen chicken.  Erich (being resourceful) duct-taped a fishing net to 12 foot pool pole.  We then went out and chased the chicken (soon to be named Lily) through the forest.  It must have been an interesting sight, us floundering in the snow with a fifteen foot pole (the two taped together) and a chicken flying through the trees and brush!   However, we did catch the chicken ! poor half frozen beast!   Now that we had her….where to keep her?  Well with 6 cats we couldn’t keep her in the house…the shed was a mess…no room there.  AHA!  we will put her in the dog kennel and keep her in the garage!….Of course, this meant no cars in the garage.  Luckily for me Joe went along and Lily was installed in the dog kennel (with fresh straw that Joe had to buy on his way home, and the chicken feed that he also had to buy).  That is is the story of how we came to be the parents/owners of Lily.

     We found Toby at the North Shore animal league on Long Island and she quickly became a unique part of our family.  How to describe her?  Well, she thinks that she is a cat…one of the very few ‘trans-specied’ animals.  She prefers cat food to dog food (YCCH!) and she absolutely adores catnip! In fact she has been known to bowl over any of our cats if they are between her and the catnip; so in order to keep peace in the herd we have give Toby her own bunch of catnip…and then she hoovers up any that is left behind by the cats…or she tries to push them out of the way.

    Toby is a severely mixed breed.  We had been looking for a black lab puppy that would grow to be about 65 pounds.  Well, at least she’s close to the weight estimate.  She appears to be a Lab/Terrier/13″ Beagle/Pitbull mix!  She’s a funny looking dog!  She’s black, more than slightly plump (about 52 pounds and she should weigh 35) about 20″ tall, with a sausage shaped body and smallllll! dog legs (that’s the vet’s guess about the 13″ beagle) and a labrador/terrier nose on a pitbull face.  Yup, that’s one cute dog.  She’s been described as a sausage on toothpicks!   Then there’s that cat thing……She was brought up by 5 old cranky cats (foster moms) and she has raised three kittens of her own….maybe more…let me think…first she raised Titus and his brother Maximus, then Timmy and Baliboo, followed by Athena and now the foster kid Bella.   OK, I was a little off it’s now 6 kittens.  Of the 5 that had raised her - Sneezy (Desiree), Shashi (Vanessa), Gerbie (Gertrude), Jenny and Brutiss; only Jenny and Brutiss are still with us.  Sneezy,Gerbie and Shashi all passed away within 9 months of each other….but they were all rescued kitties and lived long happy lives.

   Because of Toby’s short legs, she had a congenital problem with both back knee joints…(damn that Beagle) she had to have one knee completely re-built at the age of 2.  They put her in the dog side of the hospital (bad mistake!!).  She was terrified.  At first the vet was concerned that this was some strange reaction to one of the drugs she had been given.  I expained to him that if he moved her to the Cat side of the hospital and gave her (Toby) cat food to eat (soft or dry…Toby’s not too picky as you can tell by her weight) she would be much happier.  And she was.  Toby just has no idea why dogs seem to like her.  They scare her to death and that sniffing thing they do! well, she either runs for home or sits down!  None of that sniffing for her!  Rude beggers that they are!  Toby’s fear of dogs is so bad that when one of my son’s friend brought over a chihuahua puppy (however you spell that) Toby was so scared she almost peed!  Well I’ll continue more later…..Mom   

They’re mom, Ninja, is a big floozy. This is how we came to possess our little demons! Krista (my daughter)’s boyfriend had a litter of kittens at his house with two that no one else would take–so Timmy and Bali make 5! Both are tiger kitties; Bali is fat and irritable, Timmy whines and has never let out a meow that didn’t make us all want to choke him to death. Timmy also smells. Bad. His whine can last upwards of 40 seconds depending on how badly he wants to eat or be let outside/inside. So, we came to own this brother-sister duo (big mistake) and now we have an endless supply of frustration and hairballs. These two were added to our already owned cats: Titus Whitus, Jennifer Gump, Brutiss and the more recently added Athena. As you can see, all of our pets accumulate an amazing amount of nicknames. They go somewhat as follows:

• Timmy:
  • Bastardo, Tim Tim Al-Abim, Timothy Leary, Timber, Timberly, etc.
• Bali:
  • Blue, Blueberry, Blueberry Ballerina, Baliboo.
• Athena:
  • Tater Tot, Tito.
• Brutiss:
  • Roseanne Arnold, Roseanne Barr, Roseanne, fatty, Brutey
• Jenny Gump:
  • Jenny, Jenlynn, Jen-Jen.

Of course the other pets have nicknames as well, but that’s for another blog. Most of these names have been thought up by me (Krista). What can I say, it’s a gift.

Currently, we play foster parents to a 7th cat, owned by Erich (the son) and Ilda (the girlfriend). We babysit during the day for little Junebug (sometimes known as Bella). She’s a 4 week-old that looks to be a cross between tabby and siamese. She isn’t really fat so she doesn’t quite fit in yet, but she often smells and whines and as they say, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad. She scares the wits out of Timmy and that’s enough for me.

Alright, the battery on the laptop is running out so that’s where we’ll leave you for tonight.

Goodnight, and happy blogging.

-Linda (with the expertise of Krista)

This site is dedicated to my little sister and all of her wonderful furry, feathery, scaley friends.

Please visit this site as she relates the adventures of her family’s critters.

…mark (Rabideau)