Show me your rescued and/or pampered pets!

[HavACrumpet452]

You people are lucky to get a dog for $25 at a pound with little questions asked, although it isn't lucky for the dogs that they are so overpopulated in certain areas. In northeast WI, up until this bad economy crash which is having a small but noticable impact on the number of available dogs, dogs are incredibly hard to get from shelters. All of our shelters are no-kill for population reasons simply because the dogs runs are rarely filled. If you want a dog you're paying at least $100 if not $300+ from a shelter after you jump through the hoops. Small breeds are especially tough to get. I actually had to buy my dog Autumn from a puppy mill because even though my family has dog experience and never gave up a pet they didn't want to adopt to us because my mom was pregnant with twins and they thought we'd have our hands full. Now its been 12 years and my dog is the love of my life and spoiled rotten. I hope having had my dog through thick and thin for her entire lifetime will be enough to get a shelter to adopt to me next time I'm looking.

I also share a rescue dog with my mom. Her last owner, my aunt, called me when I was living with my mom to see if I could take her so of course it was my mom's decision too. She still lives at my mom's house since I moved to an apartment and she's got too much anxiety to move again and she'd destroy the place if she freaked out in a storm or something. So we share buying dog food and I usually take her to the dog park. She's definately my dog as she comes to me and trusts me the most. She was an abused dog who lived on a chain in a backyard for about 6 years and then was surrendered to a shelter. My aunt wanted her because she likes to show off to people that she rescued an animal and isn't she such a saint for doing that. The shelter told her the dog would only live less than a year because of her abuse history (what a thing to tell an adopter!). So when she lived 2 more years my aunt got tired of her anxiety issues and was going to owner request euthanasia if I didn't take her. Now its been like 4 years and the dog is still alive. The vet is always surprised because she's a big belgian shepherd and about 12 years old and still kicking. She had to have a toe amputated due to a suspected mast cell tumor and she should by all right be dead of cancer. She does have a lot of small tumors and lumps on her body now and she trips a lot on her front legs so I think she's on her way out sometime soon but her quality of life is still pretty good. She has a tendency to stay up against walls and such when she's walking which aids in her tripping over everything as well.

[scarlettkitty81]

Almost all of my pets have been rescues. I am a firm beleiver in pet adoption. I currently have 2 mice and a kitty all of which were adopted. My kitty Scarlett was actually rescued and taken care of along with her brother and sister by a client who made them all well, got them fixed and vaccinated before rehoming them at a vet clinic I used to work at. I have also adopted all of my mice and my two chihuahuas from local humane societies or through adoption programs at local pet stores. Below are pictures of my kitty Scarlett (almost 5 years) my mice Ophelia (white) Odelia (black) and my two late Chis Gracie and Bullet both of whom lived to be 13 years old. I lost Bullet last October and Gracie this past March. I miss them both terribly. I was lucky to adopt them both for 50$ back in my hometown Fergus Falls MN. They were brother and sister and I had them for 11 years. The pics date back a few years cuz I dont have anything super current. My black mouse Odelia is already over 2 years of age and is showing signs of slowing down. I am having a hard time seeing her this way and know she won't be with me much longer Ophelia is already over 1 year of age.

Thanks to everyone on the arena for showing pics of their fur babies! I love the warmth and smiles they bring to my face!

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[Tulips]

You people are lucky to get a dog for $25 at a pound with little questions asked...

I wish, maybe then puppy mills wouldn't be supplying pet stores in Australia and more people would be adopting rescues. Our RSPCAs are full of cattle dogs, other working dog breeds, Bull Arabs, and Staffies. You will not find a dog under $100, most are over $300, especially if it's a small or desirable breed. It's aweful to see so many working dogs in the shelters. Some people buy them as a cute puppy but when they grow up realise that this is a serious worker that has more energy than they were prepared for in the long run.

I know someone who got snubbed by an RSPCA worker because she told them she had bought a pure-bred instead of a rescue. They didn't even let her explain that she had spent months seeking out a breed most suited to her living situation, then a breeder that was 100% perfect with vet checks and clean breeding for health and behaviour. Because as much as she wanted to rescue she couldn't afford to risk getting a dog and not knowing the history or what to expect, not to mention the landlord wanted to know the background history before he approved it.

I admire those who rescue but can't currently do so myself (Moose was hard enough lol). If I'm to save an animal from a shelter it has to be coming into perfect living conditions, aka. own a house and in a financially steady situation, so that I'm ready to give it all that it deserves. 

@ImmortalPanda: I just saw the pic of Tama in the Breyer box, rofl!  What is up with cats and boxes?

[TickledPink]

Hah i'm not sure TL, but anytime i bring home a new box, it's HIS. no matter how small.

[Koudoawaia]

My cat Nightfury is definitely a rescue. Two years ago in July, my husband's grandpa called us asking if we wanted to take care of a kitten for a week because where she currently was, there was a German Shepherd trying to kill her everyday. =/ We were told that if we wanted to keep her after a week, we could. His grandpa showed up with the little black and white kitten wrapped in a towel and she was very affectionate with us from the first day and we made the decision to keep her before the week was up. This is a picture from when she was a kitten a little over a month after we got her:

http://koudoawaia.deviantart.com/#/d2vq02h

and this is her now, two years later:

http://koudoawaiavortex.deviantart.com/gallery/?q=Nightfury#/d4y2rjs

She is such an amazing addition to her home. The day we got her, I'd been 10 months without a pet since I had two guinea pigs die and it was eating away at me. Nightfury has helped fill that void so much and I feel like we've formed a really special bond. She is such a loving affectionate kitty. Everyday she rubs against and nuzzles us including the hop rubs. I love how she jumps up on the couch or bed with me so often. Just last night I was sleeping on the couch waiting for my husband to get home and when I woke up, Nightfury was curled up at my side. Today she took it upon herself to groom my arm for quite awhile. She also has a fiery side to her as well as being so sweet and I love that mixture in a pet. She has what I call a 'panther mode' in which she'll kick and bite at me in a playing rough sort of way. I love playing rough with my pets so it's all just a part of our relationship. She has brought so many smiles to myself and my husband's faces. She truly is a light in our lives. She's my baby girl and I want her to live til she's 30. I'm so glad we were able to save her from that mean German Shepherd.

[hyenacub]

I love reading all these stories.  C:  moose is adorable.  And that evil eye you're getting...LOL

[foalpatrol]

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This is my boy, Gus, also known simply as G.  We got him from the SPCA as a 7 year old.  He's about 12 now.  He has the most pathetic tiny little meow that doesn't match his big self.  He likes to bring me dead things.  If I don't get at least one per week, I am very disappointed.

[fingerpaints]

This is a picture of Tiffany when we first adopted her at the grand age of 13, she's around 17ish now and spoilt rotten. Poor girl had never been held or loved, and would eat quiet literally anything. Her paw pads were like sandpaper from god knows what, and she had a split tooth which we got removed immediately. She was skin & bones

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And a few current pics of her, fat & happy

This was from last christmas, giving Floyd a kiss under the tree :3
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Relaxing
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And a close up of her beutiful face, she has the most stunning eyes, so full of love
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And last one of Miss Tiffany on a rare occasion allowing my little man Jack to cuddle up with her
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Here are some of my other spoilt brats, they have been with us since kittens, and are now about 14 years old, Jack the Tabby & Darla - Boo the callico (her and Tiffany do look alike, but are not related, Jack is Darla's brother from the same litter)

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Yes, Jack does have two different coloured eyes.
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And last two, Darla on Floyd's back at chrissie, and Jack allsnuggled up with him

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[ShugarGlider]

I just adopted Whuffles, a guinea pig, from our pretty terrible animal shelter. (Pics coming soon). She joins Hooper and Lola, my two animal shelter rabbits. I've had Hooper for 2 years and Lola since last November.
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My bunnies are quite pampered. They live inside, in a 3-story condo my husband built. They have free roam of the house while we're at home usually.

Then there's my cat, Miria, who sort of adopted us. She was abandoned by someone and decided that she lived with us. We've had her for 3 years.
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And my sugar gliders, Touga and Shiori. Touga was my first pet ever and came from a pet store. His buddy, Shiori, I adopted from a lady locally who couldn't take care of her anymore.
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I <3 all my pets and they will probably all come from animal shelters/rescues.

[True]

All of my fury pets have been adopted or inherited, my friends and sister have a habit of leaving pets with me..

I'm kinda done adopting dogs for awhile though, I just recently lost my Pomeranian phatboi and I dunno it's sort of crushed me :/ it's been like 4 months and I still expect to hear him bark when someone comes home
Anyway he was a dog my sister had but had to get rid of when she moved or something, I dunno I thought he was adorable xD he's the only Pomeranian Iv ever known that hasn't been bitey, he loved to cuddle and fetch and he was just amazingly well behaved around other dogs, I mean pretty much everything people tend to fear about poms behavior he just shot right out of the air. He was such a good boy.

Here he is:
I was fiddling with Photoshop but it's the best I have
http://truevampiress.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d3h7gdu

My old timer cats xD we've had them foooorever,
Mazor came from friends down the road, when their cat had kittens my mom went over and picked him out, he would have just been sent to a shelter when he was old enough, we were told he was a girl so his name was mazy xD well we quickly realized he was a well.. HE and altered the name to Mazor. He is very regal and proud even when galloping around with a "cape" aka a random plastic shopping bag around his neck, and no we don't put them on him xD he negotiates his way into them and then struts around the house. Hes 12 years old, still acts like a kitten lol

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Tora came from my best friends bf (of the time) whos parents were splitting up and moving I guess and vaguely mentioned that they were just going to leave this cat in the house or back yard when they left I was like o.o umm no please don't do that, I convinced him to bring her here, despite his many warnings that she was a pain to deal with. She pretty much spent her entire time at his home hiding in their basement from the other cats, which meant she only liked to go pottie on carpet.. She's also afraid of her own shadow and deathly afraid of loud noises, i am sure that she would have died had they just abandoned her. However it's been 9 years since Iv taken her in, she still has some accidents,but she will use the litter box now, just has to be kept very clean, she uses it even more now that we've had all but one rooms carpet pulled up and replaced with laminate lol. Shes still afraid of everything but she doesn't have to hide anymore and she's the most affectionate lady ever.

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[Tribble79]

Well I will be coming back here, not only to see pictures but to post a couple!

[hyenacub]

Tiffany is a gorgeous diluted calico!

And...a calico rabbit?  O_o lol

I lvoe Mazor.  I read about him in that onwe swap where I had you as a partner.  I even sent him a bag. 

[True]

Tiffany is a gorgeous diluted calico!

And...a calico rabbit?  O_o lol

I lvoe Mazor.  I read about him in that onwe swap where I had you as a partner.  I even sent him a bag. 

Rofl cub that is THE bag you sent him in that picture xD I knew this picture was from a swap brag I just couldn't remember exactly which one xD

[fingerpaints]

Tiffany is a gorgeous diluted calico!

Thanks Cub she thinks so too lol - she is such a Diva, and so much personality!

I love the three of them to bits, but I have a special place in my heart for Tiff, I think knowing she went through so much and had never really recieved any love before coming to us, at some stage I have a feeling she was injured, possibly hit by a car and not vetted, she has one front leg that sits a funny way (you can see it really well in the first pic, but most people would assume she was just standing funny) that paw is always turned out at a funny angle however. She is up on one of the beds snoring away as I type lol. I love her so much and after taking her on I would never have anything but rescues from here on in.

[Varkolak]

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this is miss grumpy. she was my 3rd bunny i got. she was advertised for free on a local radio station program called swap time. they said "long eared rabbit, free to whoever wants it." i begged mom and told her it sounded like a holland lop (the breed i always wanted) and she caved and said ok.
i called the woman and she said she'd hold her for me while i ran my errands and picked up more supplies. i went to get her and she said i was lucky because a woman had called right after i did. i was excited when they brought her out. at the time i thought she was a boy, they didn't know what gender she was. they had left her out in the snow in a small rusted cage the size of a small box, and they hadn't cleaned it since she'd been in there. she'd been left in that cage, out doors for over a year. not once had she been let out. she had no food, only little pieces of dog kibble, and her water bottle was frozen and empty. she was so scared. they offered to put her in the trunk and i shreiked and said no! the back seat!
she was loaded up and we were on our way home. upon closer inspection i saw that she had frost bite on her ears and she had patches of fur missing. it made me sick to think that this little precious thing went through that much trauma.
when i got her home, i tried to let her out to get her into her new cage. i had never delt with an animal that had been locked away for so long, before. so i wasn't sure how to procede. i tried drawing her out with food, it didn't work. i tried sticking my hand in the cage but she growled and bit at me. it scared me so bad that i asked mom to take her to a shelter. i called my dad (big mistake.. long story) because he had pet bunnies too. i asked him how to make her more tame and he said once a bunny is mean, it will always be mean. which made me want to give her up even more. (i'm very disgusted with myself for even thinking about giving her up. SHAME ON ME!) my mom convinced me that she just needed some attention and to get used to everything, so i gave miss grumpy some time to herself in my room. mom came in and got her into her new cage just fine, and i let her stay in there for a couple days, getting used to seeing my other bunnies hop around. i let her out for the first time to hop around, probably the first time since she had been bought. (She was a present for a young child. UGH!) and she jumped real high in excitement. after the first week, she let me lay beside her and snuggle her. and now she follows me everywhere i go. she's the reason i get up in the morning, and i tell her every night that she's my little soul mate and it was just meant to be. if it weren't for her, i'd probably be long gone by now. she's done so much for me. i saved her, and she saved me. and i owe her everything.

this is waffles, my other little baby
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he was also advertised on swap time. along with 3 other bunnies, all from the same farmer. he said he had too many and he wanted to get rid of 4 of them. i spent all my christmas money. these were my first bunnies. i had so much going on in my life and i was so depressed. i had thought about ending it all. well mom heard them advertised and told me about it and said if i spent my money and took care of them, i could get them. (i had begged her for a bunny for 6 years)
well i got the sweet little things home, and the cage was too small. there were bouncing baby bunnies all over my room! i had to find a home for 2 of them, and i kept 2. a black one and a white one. (there were 2 white and 2 black)
i kept waffles because his ears don't stand straight up. i thought he'd be the closest thing to a holland lop i'd ever get. (i'm glad i was wrong about that last part! or miss grumpy wouldn't be here! lol)
he's so naughty! every time i turn around he's torn something up.
and i kept jack, a pure white bunny with very faint black highlights on his nose. i picked jack because he was adventurous. he was always jumping up on things and i could never get him to stop. no matter how high i stacked boxes to block things, he always found a way to jump on my bed. sadly he left me on january 3rd. he was sick, and i called the vet for an emergency visit. and they told me that it was snowing and it wasn't worth risking their lives over. (they lived out of town and had to drive into town.) well he didn't make it through the night, and i had him cremated. waffles is the only bunny i have left from the original four. i like to think i rescued them from the poor conditions the farmer had them in. he had them living with chickens and they were a complete mess when i got them.
this was my sweet little jack.
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Mimic (green) and Barnacle! (Blue)
Mimic was bought at a petsmart store for my brother. his dad purchased mimic, and took her home. she had no toys, and minimum care. she was sat next to loud music all day, she was grabbed at and my brother's dad was really rough on her. she's terrified of hands now because of this. he said she was getting to be too much of a hassle and he wanted to get rid of her, so i took her in. (my brother's dad lived elsewhere)
i got her just in time too, because 2 weeks later my brother's dad died of a heart attack, and she would have been left alone in the apartment until someone could get a key to get in. she's a great joy to have around.
Barnacle! she was bought from a store here in town. she looked very sick like she was going to drop at any second. so i bought her and took her home. she had diareah like i had never seen before, her entire bottom was covered in green slime. she couldn't climb the side of her cage, she kept falling down, she had no strength, she was puffed up, and she laid there on the cage floor. she wouldn't eat or drink anything. i had to have her though, i couldn't let her die there like that, i wanted to comfort her. i went to the store to get her some things to see if she'd try to eat them. by the time i got back, mimic had escaped from her cage, and flown over to see barnacle. she had been feeding her through the bars of the cage! she treated her as if she were her own baby! eventually barnacle got her strength (thanks to mimic!) and she got better, i put them together and they've been best friends ever since. mimic even taught her how to fly. she'd hold the perch with her feet and flap her wings real fast. then she'd hop down and chirp at barnacle, and barnacle would copy her until she could get it right. it was amazing to see how mimic cared for her.

This little sweetheart is Athena
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she was bought at the same store barnacle was bought from. she was fighting with all the other birds, and the guy kept banging on her cage and yelling at her to stop. he told everyone she was mean and they wouldn't want her. well i was looking for a pure white parakeet at the time. and i eyed her because she was the closest thing i've seen to it and i was impatient. (i'm a bird brain!)
she's white with grey feathers, i wasn't being too picky. what persuaded me to get her, was seeing how he treated her. like barnacle, i couldn't leave her there to suffer through that. i know that he sells out of birds like ice on a hot day, but with him telling everyone she was bad, she wasn't going to get bought any time soon. i told him i wanted her and i'd be back with a cage in 5 minutes since i lived 3 blocks away. he told me not to waste my time, he had a box. he grabbed her with his bare hands, and dumped her in a box like she was a thrown out candy wrapper! i couldn't believe my eyes. he handed her to me and said "She's your problem now! no returns on this one!" i paid him and i angry walked out, and drove her home. i put her in a cage which i had set up prior (i planned on getting a new parakeet lol!) and she hopped right out of the box, and settled in like she lived there for years. she's the tamest one of my parakeets, and she has not once fought with mimic and barnacle since i got her. they didn't like her at first, but they took to her after a couple weeks. she eventually got moved in with them, and they all get along. she's not very social with them and does her own thing, but she'll play with them when she's feeling ambitious, she doesn't like to fly around much, but she's content with taking over the swing while the other 2 are flying freely around the room. she's at least 2 or 3 years old judging by her beak. she's a sweetheart and i can't ever imagine how anyone could think otherwise.

those are my pets and they're with me til the end! i got this tattoo in honor of my bunnies, and as soon as i decide on a design, i'll have one for my birds on my other leg.
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i don't think i'll ever go through life without having a pet. i tell everyone who tries to date me that my pets are my #1 priority and if they can't accept that, then i'm not even going to give them a second thought.