Holly
I don't agree with giving animals as gifts. However, having said that, Holly was my birthday present to myself, she was 7.5 weeks old when she came to live with me 4 days before my birthday. She came from a rescue run by a friend and all that was known was that Mum was a Labrador Cross. After seeing Holly grow up I think that mum was some kind of Labrador Lurcher cross and Dad was probably a German Shepherd. She has the Labrador love of food and all things wet and muddy, the Running dog love of speed and the German shepherd colouring, herding instinct, intelligence, stamina and pig-headed loyalty and devotion, I don't think it's right to say that she is my dog, I think that I am her human. She is never far from my side and will do whatever she can to get back to me if we are seperated. She always knows when it's a work day or if I am going to one of the few places she can't come with me to and on these days is not velcro'd to my side as I get ready but retreats to my bed to re-arrange the duvet and wait for my return.
We were out walking with a friend and stopped to use the public facilities. I attached Holly to the railings with her lead and went inside. My friend came out first and thought it would be helpful if he un-tied her so we could start walking as soon as I came out. Holly had other ideas and dragged him across the pavement and would have pulled him into the toilets had he not let go of the lead.
I often describe Holly as an all-terrain all-weather dog. In the 11.5 years of her life with me there have only been three occasions when she has declined a walk due to the weather. On one of those times we made it all the way to the top of the drive before she looked at me and turned back to home, well it was hailing sideways at great speed!
Holly believes for a walk to be great it needs to have water for her to paddle or swim in, mud to stomp through and space to run in, here she is looking unimpressed that I wasn't willing to wade through the flood waters on one of our favourite walks and insisted that we doubled back to take an alternative (drier) route
Linus
When I got my first house I adopted a pair of 8 year old cats, shortly before the last house move I lost one of them to an intestinal tumour, so in a fit of total and absolute lack of common-sense I got a kitten to keep the remaining (now 13 years old) cat company. I had never had much to do with kittens before, only puppies. I imagined them to be very similar. I now know they are not.
Linus is a cream-mitted ragdoll cat with no sense of danger, a huge ego and excessive energy. He loves Holly dearly and they can still be found curled up together almost 10 years down the line.
There were several theories about who Linus had been named after, the vet was undecided between Linus Pauling the scientist or Linus Torvalds the man behind Linux software. The neigbour over the road added Pope Linus (second pope c.67 - c.76) to the mix and I threw in Linus Van Pelt from the peanuts cartoons.
Linus demonstrates the art of sleeping (in the dog bed) as only a cat can.
Olaf
After a few months of living with us it became clear that Linus needed a companion closer to his own age and energy levels so I went out with the intention of getting a 6 to 8 year old girl kitty who would still have the energy to play but would be mature enough to keep my old girl cat company. I came back with an 18 month old brain-damaged boy cat. Olaf is a seal bi-colour ragdoll who is very sweet, very loving but somewhat lacking in the brain department. It takes him a long time to learn something new, and if you try to teach him too many things too rapidly he will forget something he learnt earlier. But he has been living here for nearly 9.5 years now and has matured into a very happy and very vocal and chatty boy.
Olaf is the name of one of Snoopy's brothers in the peanuts cartoons.
Olaf demonstrates thinking outside the box
Mono and Fluffy
Mono and Fluffy were the two original cats that I adopted when they were 8. Mono I lost in August 2003 to an intestinal tumour at the age of 13 and Fluffy in July 2008 to a cancerous growth in her throat, just a few months short of her 18th birthday.
Mono started the cat tradition of sleeping in the dog bed
Fluffy preferred a pile of paper
Hannah
Me? I was born in the early to mid 1970's and according to the family I have been animal mad from the start. I spend my working days sorting out computers and users and my lunchtimes planning where to go and what to do on days off.
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