This week's question got me right in my emotional center:

Have you ever had the rotten experience of having to put a pet down?

More than once. The last and perhaps the hardest one ever was about 18 months ago. I had to put my cat, Byron, to sleep after him being pretty much my best friend for 12 years. It's been so hard not having him around. After that many years, you develop habits and just get used to seeing him. It took me a good six months to not say goodnight to him at night.

I still miss him terribly and swear that my next cat will be a black one to honor him. That won't be for a while though. We currently have four cats and that's my limit. I love them all and have no desire to get another one. Now, it's time to give them all some scritches and maybe even a treat or two.






If you like what you've read here, please share it with others using these buttons:

It's Wednesday and I'm moving slower than molasses in wintertime. My back is still bothering me so I'm taking it very easy today and working from the couch. I have a few projects that I can do from there. I'm still organizing decorations and I bought a big corkboard for the kitchen wall. It's going to be the kids' Wow! board where we hang up special things like A's and artwork. I'm going to "split" it in half and cover each half with a different paper so that each boy has a unique side for us to hang stuff on. I think I'll also get the packing tape out and repair the plastic tote that's going to hold my overflow decorations. Next year, it will be replaced with a bin that matches the others.

Now, onto today's Sunday Shutterbug challenge. This is week 2 of A and they chose animal for the theme. When I read that, I knew just what picture I wanted to post. I took this over the weekend. It's Byron and Hemingway (formerly Romeo, formerly Isabella) cuddled up on the couch. I just love when I find the pair of them like this.


So, what picture did you take this week? What memory did you create and document?

I want to start out by thanking all of you who sent your condolences about Sylver. He really was one of my babies and a well loved member of our family. Yesterday was a really hard day for me.

After a lot of tears and hugs and talking, we decided to honor his memory by adopting another shelter cat. Today, we drove 45 minutes to a fantastic non-profit, no kill shelter. We took along some newspaper and some canned cat food to donate in Syl's name.

It took us nearly 2 hours of looking and petting and talking, but we found our new love. His name is Byron. We've dubbed him LB, short for Lord Byron. I have to say though, stately this cat is not. He's a master sneak attacker and he loves to roll around on the floor and climb up on shoulders.

This is the picture from the website. I'll post some more once I manage to get some. He was too busy playing to pause for pictures while we were at the shelter.

For those of you out there who wished there was something they could do to help ease my pain, I would like to ask you to do something to honor Sylver and the life he led. It may have been short, but it was happy and full of love.

I would ask that you take the time to locate your closest no-kill animal shelter/rescue group. Once you find it, please do one (or heck, all) of the following : a) adopt a pet. there are so many animals out there that need loving homes. b) offer your love and home for foster care. yes, there are animals out there who need a place to stay until slots open up in the shelters. c.) make a donation. It could be your time, your money or some of the things that the shelter needs.

If there isn't a no-kill animal shelter in your area, let me point you to the one we visited today. The people there were so nice, the areas were all clean and the animals were obviously very well taken care of. If you're looking to adopt a cat, they're even waiving the adoption fees from now until August 1st. You can find more information here about the available animals, the things they need and where you can find them.

One last thing...and I may sound like Bob Barker here, but please be a responsible pet owner and have your babies spayed or neutered. There are so many out there already that need loving homes, please don't add to the problem by allowing your animals to have unwanted babies.