Hello to everyone on here who remembers me, and newer members who don't! It's been awhile since I've been on here. I think I posted a message last May when we lost our cat Angel. I still miss her so very, very much. I am waiting for Spring, when hopefully some Purple Flag tulips I planted on her grave site in the form of a heart will sprout and bloom...... I planted LOTS of tulip bulbs, daffodils, and I think amaryllis bulbs in the Fall, all in honor of her. I am looking forward to Spring to see them all come up and bloom.....

Today I posted a message in the Dog Memorials about our little dog named Sandi, who would have been 16 years old in March. We had to have her euthanized last Saturday, January 23rd, because she was in acute kidney failure. It has been very difficult dealing with her loss. We had just taken her in to the Vet. 10 days earlier for a checkup and to get her license for 2010, and the Vet. and everyone else who saw her were all commenting on how nobody would ever guess her correct age just by looking at her. If you check out her memorial that I posted on here, it will give you a link to a memorial I made for her on Critter.com. That's a pretty neat site for that kind of thing.

Back to cats, we still have Shadow, Little Orphan Annie, Dottie, Spook, and S.A.M. And we still have our dog Oreo. He's almost 13 and has congestive heart failure, but is on medicine and is still happy and loving and living. Shadow and Little Orphan Annie will both be five years old this year! Shadow weights a whopping 21 & 1/2 pounds! He loves to sit on our chests with his face right up in ours and give us head bumpies. He's a lover boy through and through.

Several of you may remember the very rough start Little Orphan Annie had, and the fact that she is still with us, healthy and curious and playful and happy is still something I attribute to all of the prayers and advice and guidance I received from many of you here on this site during those first few weeks and months that we had her. It was a struggle as many of you most likely remember, but it was well worth it. She likes playing in water. She will put just about anything into her water bowl and splash it around.

Dottie is 4 going on 5 this year, and is a very loving black and white cat. She has to be with me almost constantly when I am home, and she is the most loving cat anyone could ever hope to have. She steals socks and carries them into the kitchen and/or the living room all the time. Sometimes she and Annie form a conspiracy, in that Dottie brings a sock out into the kitchen, and Annie picks it up and puts it in their water bowl.

Spook is 2 going on 3, and an ornery little fart if there ever was one! He weighs 9 pounds, and is the smallest of all of our cats now. He still thinks shoe strings are "chew" strings, and he still sucks on my earlobes at night, therefore my son calls him a "mother sucker". He had to have his right eye removed when he was about 4-5 weeks old, but he has no idea that he is "handicapped" in any way. Some of you may remember my posts about him when we first got him.

S.A.M. is our "baby", at just about 15 months old now. She and Spook went to the Vet's together last week, and she weighed in at 10.5 pounds. She has long black and white hair, and is a very quiet cat. She loves to swipe things off of counters, chairs, the couch, tables, desk, etc.---anthing she can find to swipe off of anything becomes an instant toy for her! I could go on and on and on with stories about all of our beloved pets, but I'm going to quit for now. I hope all of you are doing well, and that your fur babies are living the lives they deserve, and that those poor babies who don't survive will at least know a little love and happiness before they have to leave and go to the Rainbow Bridge!

Take care, and give all of your fur babies an extra hug and a treat or two just because of how special they are!