Where Bloggers Live 06.2026: My Fine Furry Friends

 

Sweet friends…thanks for joining me for this month’s Where Bloggers Live 06.2026:  My Fine Furry Friends.  In this month’s edition the gals and I are sharing our furry family members with you.  Seems only fair that you finally know the pets behind the blog.  I mean, you’ve met my master bedroom and bath, peeked at my junque, and had a look in my trunk.  You already know nothing’s off-limits with this series!!

Pets, present and past, have been more like members of the family rather than animals that just happened to live with me.  Here's a little rundown of all of those sweet fur babies who have so enriched my life.

Where Bloggers Live 06.2026

As a child, I didn’t really have pets.  Unless you count the 2 ‘male’ mice my father rescued and brought home from his research lab who promptly proceeded to have a litter of 10 ‘pups’.  Which strongly suggested they weren’t both males after all.

When we moved to our ‘forever’ home in Memphis when I was 10-years-old, my parents decided to get a Beagle in hopes that my sister would overcome her extreme fear of dogs.  Poor Buckshot had a true dog’s life.  Valerie never became comfortable with him, so Bucky was sentenced to life in a small pen in the backyard.  I wish I could have a do-over for that sweet pup.  He deserved so much better.

After Buckshot, I didn’t have pets until I was an adult, married with a home of my own.

Furry Family Past and Present

I adopted my first very own pet in Panama.  A tiny baby kitten that had been abandoned by its mother in the interior of Panama.  I had never seen or held a cat before in my life.  After Celeste, it was a constant stream of canines and felines peppered with the occasional rabbit, turtle and fish.

Celeste – kitty; Chim-chim – kitty; Polo – Siberian husky; Princess – Siberian husky; Taffy Ann – kitty; Mickey – kitty; 10 strays baby kitties I found homes for in Panama; litters of pups between Polo and Princess totaling 17 dogs who lived with me until we found them homes; 2 tropical love birds whose names have escaped me; Midnight – kitty; Shiagra – kitty; Halloween – stray kitty; Licorice – kitty; Cinnamon – kitty; Quik (as in Nestle’s Quik) – kitty; Coco – kitty; Doughnut – kitty; Pepsi – bunny; Dr. Pepper – bunny; DJ Brownie Mix – bunny; S’more – bunny; Cinn-a-bun – bunny; Bootsie – stray kitty; Cici – poodle-husky-sheep dog mix; Cheyenne – wolf-husky/Pyrenees mix; Piggy – corgi-chow-chow mix; Silly Cat – kitty.  Mixed in, here and there, were tropical fish, including those who lived in an aquarium in my library and a couple of turtles.

The Pups

[source]

Although I have had more kitties than pups, I consider myself a dog person.  These days I am making a little extra money doing drop-in visits and dog walks through Rover.com.  It is a wonderful way to be around pups (and kitties) without having the 24-hour responsibility of another pet.

Panamanian Pups

Polo and Princess were AKC registered Siberian huskies we purchased in Panama – an unlikely climate for the breed.  We had our own kennel name for the puppies they had together, Tennapan…because I was from Tennessee and my (now ex-) husband was Panamanian.  They were beautiful dogs, and I was devastated when they died.  For almost 7 years, I lived in Panama away from all family and friends while my daughters’ father was stationed there with the Army.  Polo and Princess were my family, my best friends. And my babies when I thought I couldn’t have my own babies.

El Paso Pups

In 1994, the girls and I adopted what was advertised as a husky mix for $35.00, here in El Paso.  Cici was a fluffy bundle of fur who, from the start, looked more like a sheep dog than a husky.  Cheyenne was a freebie.  Our next-door neighbor had a litter of wolf-husky/Pyrenees? pups and we took one to keep Cici company while we were gone to work and school each day.

Where Cici was absolutely crazy, Cheyenne was loyal and loving to the core.  I had the tiniest galley kitchen in our little house.  So small that you couldn’t open the refrigerator door and walk through the kitchen at the same time.  You couldn’t load the dishwasher, then stop to check something in the oven simultaneously.  None of the doors to the appliances could be down at the same time.  But I cooked every single dinner with Cici and Cheyenne underfoot.  As underfoot as they could be in that shotgun kitchen.

Cici and Cheyenne together at my old house

Piggy entered the picture shortly before PC and I were married.  We were at a pet store where they were having an animal adoption.  Paul wandered by Piggy’s cage and was instantly enchanted by this stocky red-haired pup who wouldn’t meet his gaze.  Although Piggy’s official name was Rusty, we called him Rusty the Pig-Dog or Piggy, for short, because he oinked, grunted, and rolled around like a pig.

Rusty the Pig Dog

All 3 of those pups have crossed the Rainbow Bridge now.  I miss having a dog and hope someday to have at least one more.

Present Pets

My current pets are Purrsnickitty, a female, 13-year-old calico kitty and Purrcival, a 3-year-old male kitty that looks a lot like a Norwegian Forest cat.  My grandpets include Brennyn’s cats, my grandkitties, Baelish and Sansa and Lauren’s pups, Pumpkin and Gummies.

At the time of my retirement, I had to have neck surgery.  Shortly before I retired we adopted a little female kitty we named Purrsimmony.  And a few months later we adopted another female kitty, Purrsnickitty. My kitties became my lifesavers.  I bought a pet stroller and would load up both little kitties for short walks around the block until I regained my strength.  After being in public education for 25 years, I was sitting home alone with an empty nest day after day.  Sim and Snick became my surrogate daughters, students and friends.

Purrsimmony on her gotcha day

Purrsimmony

Purrsnickitty on her gotcha day

Purrsnickitty

Sweet Simmie died 3 years ago this past spring with cancer.  She was such a sweet, gentle girl.

Right before Purrsimmony's death, I discovered a tiny kitty in my neighbor's backyard on a 104* summer day.  The kitty was so hot, panting and practically screaming for help.  I rang the neighbor's doorbell but no one was home so I climbed over their gate with bowls of food and water for the kitty.  Then decided I couldn't leave that little angel in the heat so decided to take him home until I could talk with the neighbors.  

Purrcival on his foundya day

Turned out the kitty did not belong to the neighbors so when PC got home and saw him, we made the decision to keep him.  We named him Purrcival and he has been our baby boy ever since.  

They both love to lie in this basket.  

These days, it is just Purrsnickitty or Snick and Purrcival or Purrcy around here.  They are both very loving.  Absolutely hate us, though, when we got out of town and leave them.  We call Snicky and Purrcy our babies, our children and get much pleasure from of them everyday.

Here they are tonight.

My babies.

Your Turn 

The Where Bloggers Live series is kind of like HGTV’s “Celebrities at Home,” but…with bloggers!  These posts have been some of my most popular.  And they are fun to write!!    The creator of this series, Bettye from Fashion Schlub has put together a list of fun themes for Where Bloggers Live even into 2027!!  Love her organization.

What was your first pet?  Are you more a pup or kitty person?  Any rare or exotic animals in your menagerie?  Hope you will join me in visiting the blogs of my Where Bloggers Live buddies to meet their furry family.

Daenel at Living Outside the Stacks

Bettye at Fashion Schlub

Jodie at Jodie’s Touch of Style

Em at Dust and Doghair

Yours truly

Sally at Within a World of My Own

Thank you, dear ones, for popping in today.  What’s on the docket for your weekend?  It is going to be toasty here so I expect we will be cooling off in the pool.  PC has a baseball game and I would like to get back to church on Sunday. Whatever plans you have, I hope they include something fun.

Hugs and kisses,