just reminiscing

[tiredmike59]

the clan was over recently, and they did what they usually do.they dug out all the old photo albums, that ends up taking a couple of hours. same questions; " i remember them,what was their names ?", " when was this picture taken ?", " she was pretty,what ever became of her?" after they got thru the section of all my cars and trucks, they got to the pet section. a couple of pictures brought back some memories. it began one early morning when i was at my brother's house. his neighbor's dog recently had pups and he was going to take them to the humane society, so my brother took one and they asked if i wanted one, the price was right, they were free so i grabbed one.I took him home and gave him a tour of the house, then decided to trim the long row of tall hedges in front of my house. I had just started when this little cat came running thru my yard like something was chasing him. he ran into the bushes where i was standing,a minute later, this animal shelter van pulled up and the guy asked if i saw a gray cat. i looked down at that little face by my feet, he was looking up at me with a look " please,dont rat on me " so i told the guy, " yeah, i saw him, he ran down the street,i think he went down the sewer " later on i checked with some of the neighbors and none of them knew about the cat,so i adopted him. the cat and dog became best of friends, i named the cat ruff and the dog reddy, after the cartoon characters.i had an empty room and an old bunkbed for them. ruff slept on the top bunk and reddy slept on the bottom bunk,except in the winter when it got kind of chilly in the house, then ruff slept on the bottom bunk on top of reddy.i never saw them fight with each other. they would do things to each other out of boredom, like reddy had a terrible fear of bugs, so when he was laying on the floor,ruff would catch a cricket and drop it on him and reddy would jump up and start to chase ruff, but ruff would always hide under the sofa or hop up on his bunk, so to get even,the dog would piss in the cat's friskie bowl. they always did their chores, reddy made sure there wasnt any food spilled on the floor and ruff would lick a cereal bowl so clean that i would just put it back in the cabinet when he was finished.they were always together, when i took reddy for a walk, ruff followed behind, when i let reddy out in the backyard, ruff had to go too, he could easily hop the fence, but he never did. they spent a lot of time on the sofa together. once, i had bags of groceries on the table and i went to put my coat away, when i went back into the kitchen, i noticed that ruff had chewed a hole in one of the bags and pulled out a package of sliced ham and pushed it on the floor, reddy had chewed it open and both of them were dividing it between themselves. i should have been mad, but the way they worked as a team to get that ham made me feel kind of proud of them.
one day the cat died in his sleep and while i was burying him in the backyard,i noticed reddy was on the porch staring at me but wouldnt come over, he knew something was wrong. for the next couple of days he would be in his room whimpering and looking up at ruff's bunk, it was pitiful. I would never had thought that 3 weeks later, i would be burying him next to ruff.
he just stopped eating. the vet told me that there was nothing physically wrong with him and that it was not uncommon for an animal to get so depressed that it will lose the will to live. i didnt know that, did you ?
i have had numerous pets since, including a black snake that i kept in an old fish tank in my garage,but he disappeared. i also use to feed this box turtle lettuce, he still shows up every summer behind the bushes, at least i think its the same turtle. i have a dog and cat now,but they are nothing like ruff and reddy, they are boring. they completely ignore each other. the cat spends all day in the window soaking up sun like a solar panel, once i had to lift him out so i could wash the windows, man,i couldnt believe how hot he was, like a potato right out of the microwave. the dog does nothing but eat, she has to have half of what im eating. did you ever see a dog eat grapes and carrots ?
i think its a pig disguised as a dog. people will tell me that they hate dogs,or they hate cats, my reply is always, " you never had one "

[Janice]

That's a real heartwarming story. Animals bring such joy to our lives. I know I can't imagine not sharing my life with an animal or two. Ruff and Reddy sound like they were real characters together, partners in crime sometimes, lol. I'm sorry for your loss.

I also learned that, like people, animals can't be replaced. I lost my 17-year old cat, Foxy, in 2005. It just about tore my heart out. I immediately bought two more cats. While I love them dearly and they do the cutest things together, a tag team if I ever saw one; still, no animal will ever take Foxy's place. My eyes are filling up just typing this.

Thanks for sharing your sweet story. You were all lucky to have found one another.

[ponytail]

That is a great story. It really touched me.

[MrCleveland]

I kinda still miss my dog Sydney who died last December.

Now I know I'm doing this when I say this...

But...

That's one of the reasons why last year sucked for me.

[bandito]

That's a nice story. Although you should watch what you feed your dog, grapes & raisins are bad for them, they can cause renal failure.

[Family Ties Forever!]

I'm sorry you lost your cat and dog. It's nice that you have a cat and dog now. Losing a pet is never easy.

A Pets Prayer

ETA: My sister-in-law had to put down one of her three Doberman dogs. The dog, Sasha, was 8. She had a massive tumor in her stomach that couldn't be treated.

[Mr. Television]

That is a wonderful story. I've been blessed with so many great pets over the years. My dog, Lady Bell remains my favorite pet and I still miss her even though she died 33 years ago. You never forget.