Animals in the house
For many who know me, we have a zoo at my house. (thanks in part to my sister). Anyhow we have enough animals that I can put up a webpage about them. After a set of pictures of each animal I'll have a little biography for them. I have actually taken some pictures down, since our animal turnover can be quite high for the low end models :p
Tasmanian Devil (Taz)
This is my pride and Joy. This is my dog Taz. He was born on April fool's day in 1997. The people that gave him to us had a hard time getting people to believe their dog had puppies on April fools day. He's quite the wimp. When I'm with him I have to protect him, not the other way around. He is particularly scared of loud noises. He never bothered chasing balls much, mostly because I accidently hit him with the balls I wanted him to chase. I kicked a soccer ball and he ran under it,as if if thought he was going to catch it somehow, it then landed on his head. He will chase frisbees, and then proceed to eat them. He enjoys riding in the car with his head out the window, what dog doesn't right? He tries to get shotgun and is grumpy when he gets relagated to the backseat. It's quite the experience going through a fastfood drive-thru with him... one time at Harveys he lunged over me and actually had his upper body in the restaurant trying to get the food he smelled. At night he used to sleep in my bed when I lived at home. He now sleeps in my sisters bed. He prefers to sleep with his head on the pillows, but will move to the bottom of the bed after a while. I had a picture of him in my bed for my German class... one of my classmates was quick to ask: "Is that a dog using one of your pillows?". Taz is a very sociable dog. If something is going on he has to be at the center hanging out with everybody. He really likes people and kids. He looks pissed off in the bottom left pic. Why? I don't know but there is a cat in the background that might be to blame.
Kelly
This my other pride and Joy. Her name is Kelly and she is my sisters dog. She is Taz's brother, and is quite the opposite to Taz. She's not fat as you might think from the pictures. She just has a lot of fur. When she gets clipped the change is amazing to say the least. She is a chow hound. I think she has food ESP. When I have her out in the backyard she will go in the house if she knows there is food on the move. She doesn't care to chase balls either, much like her brother she will chase fribees only to eat them. She is not very sociable. She heads in the opposite direction of the party. She will then snuggle up with somebody in another room, most of the time this is mom. She is a sook through and through. Kelly likes to ride in the car as well, although she got carsick once as a puppy. She likes to sleep with mom, except when the cats do. If the cats are on mom's bed kelly will either sleep on the floor beside the bed or sleep on the floor beside my bed. Since I moved out she still likes to sleep in my former bedroom. She sleeps behind the couch that replaced my bed.
Kitty
Kitty is a family cat and is now referred to as the older gentleman. Kitty was a stray cat that seemed to live in our yard. He was the first pet that we got after the death of our first dog Tammy. Kitty had gotten pretty skinny and his ribs were starting to show so we took him in. Although it was us that took him in, he had really adopted us. We found in the summer of 1992 and have had him ever since. we are unsure of his age since he is a stray, but he is getting older. He now has arthritis and has stopped jumping on to high surfaces like he once did. He stopped hunting a few years ago, the dead mice and birds suddenly stopped. As you probably tell by the pics he is a bit of a porker now. He adjusted to moms spoiling him quite nicely. He's hands down the most unique cat ever. he loves to be held and cuddled. He is a cat that would be great for kids. In the entire time we have had him he had never hissed, growled, spat,made a threating gesture or clawed anybody in the family. He never even puts up an attept to escape from your arms when you are holding him. he's also very accepting of other animals. He welcomed the dogs with open arms when they came. He put up a bit more a fuss when we took cats in, but his fuss was very minimal compared to what the other cats did. He has the loudest purr of any cat I know. His purr can keep you awake at night. No joke. When he starts purring he goes full out for at least 10 minutes. As for the name... well mom called him Kitty because being a cat that was all he would respond to. Mom was afraid that if we called him somwthing else he would run away.
Batman Na na na na Batman!
This is my sisters cat. She called him Batman because... well... because... well if you know her then you know it's her type of name. And it really feels stupid trying to call him in at night yelling "here batman, batman, batman". Anyhow, Batman came to us in early 2002 sometime. You've heard of "a man's man" before right? Well Batman is "a cat's cat" through and through. He is the very essence of what it means to be a cat. He only like to be cuddled by my sister and mother, and won't purr to save his life. He is very independent and sleeps either with my sister or by himself. He's a very good hunter much to the disapointment to my mom. He doesn't like the other cats a whole lot, he tolerates them, but he does have respect for Kitty. Most of the time he hisses at the other cats even kitty on occasion. He is also a scrapper, coming back with cuts and scrapes around his face. He loves to outside and is a night owl. Often he will get me up at 5am to let him out if he's been in all night. And if you don't get up he gets very vocal, and then starts being evil, think Garfield. I've had Batman start knocking stuff of my desk. UPDATE!!!!!!: Mom has turned Batman into a sissy that likes to be cuddled by her.
Jack
This orange ball of fluff is Jack. He came our way with his sister Sweetie in the summer of 2003. If Jack were human he’d be a laid-back surfer type. Jack is the largest of the cats and the others know it. But Jack is so laid back that he doesn't flex his muscle. Jack will occasionally cuddle with people, but only when he wants to. He's laid back like Kitty, but doesn't like to interact with humans a whole lot.What's weird about him is that he doesn't seem to eat meat, such as turkey, hamburger, ham, chicken, etc. He only eats cat food. He sleeps wherever he wants, even in the middle of the floor. At night you have to shuffle your feet around the house to avoid stepping on him. I've tripped over him and stepped on his tail trying to get a drink of water or trying to let batman out in the wee hours of the morning.
Sweetie
Just like Jack, Sweetie belongs to my sister. She is Jack's sister. Sweetie is the anti-cuddle. Batman and Jack will you cuddle them for a few seconds, but Sweetie won't even let you pick her up. She will resort to squirming, clawing, and vocally expressing her discontent if you pick her up off the ground. She seems to be the only animal in the house that will willingly bother with my father. She tends to follow him around and sleep on the couch with him, or on the floor at his feet. And much like Jack she doesn't seem to like meat like chicken, hamburger, ham, etc. Anybody who has had cats can relate to this next point. Sweetie is curious, her favorite pastime is exploring new places to venture. It is impossible to leave any empty bag or box around without her getting into it. When she was a housecat we had trouble finding her. We would think she accidentily escaped the house only to find out she had found a new hiding spot.
Mingus
Mingus is the star of the zoo. Everybody wants to see him because he's cute and cuddly looking. Mingus is a chinchilla. These are small very soft furred animals. They are extremely agile, fast, have good reaction time and can easily outmaneuver a human. These things are a bitch to catch if it gets loose on you. They do however provide a lot of laughs for anybody who's watching. It's amusing to watch full-grown humans being outwitted and falling over themselves trying to catch a rodent the size of a squirrel. These things make good pets for adults, but really need a lot of room to have a good time. Definitely an animal that was never meant to be caged. (not that any animal was, but you get the point) They need an entire room to themselves for it to be enough space for them.
Chester
Chester is Mom's guinea pig. He is a calico design guinea pig. When my sister lived in her apartment Chester was a lean mean guinea pig. After my sister came home for the summer and mom got a chance to spoil him he increased his size by a good factor. But that's what mom's are good at, spoiling their kids.
Angel
Angel was my mother’s guinea pig. She was at the pet shop for a long time. Nobody wanted poor angel because she was a bit "different". The pet shop couldn't sell her. So my mom bought the poor guinea pig. Aside from being a little near sighted there didn't seem to be too much different about her. Unfortunately Angel got sick and passed away. God rest her soul.
There are also a number of gerbils, mice, rats, rabbits, fish and even a freshwater lobster that have come and gone or still exist but did not get mentioned.