(To clarify, there's four adults in the house, two of which are college students and one of which works in a school, so there's going to be multiple people home almost 24/7 for the next few months. Otherwise I'm not sure this would be practical, haha.)
(So hard to find a good picture where the older dog isn't next to her!)
This is Zoey, my 10 week old puppy. I was told she's an Australian shepherd/husky/German shepherd/Lab mix (both her parents are known), and I have a DNA test set to come back in a week or two to see. She's definitely part husky; she doesn't look the part but she 100% sounds it. (And the husky is totally obvious in the mom.)
She's not the first puppy I've dealt with and so I was really nervous; my 4 year old dog (German shepherd/border collie mix, pictured above) was really good when he was a puppy and it was still so exhausting. I was prepared for months of puppy terror but she's actually really, really good. She's so sweet, has been easy to train so far, and half the time she's actually content to just sit there quietly and play with her toys.
She's too young to let run around unsupervised, but I think she'll be great once she's mentally/emotionally mature; I can't wait to see what she's like as an adult. I can't believe how big she is already. I guess I hadn't noticed how big she was getting, and I woke up this morning and was just like... when did this happen?
And here are the newest/youngest of my new friends; Mort (the gray, male) and Joni (the tortie; her name maaay change), who are siblings. I just brought them home yesterday. They're probably around 4-5 weeks old; I know they're at least 4 weeks because that was when they were first seen. I'm honestly so nervous about how young they are, haha. There's a poor neonatal kitten fosterer I've been texting who's having to constantly reassure me that everything's okay.
I wasn't expecting to bring them home so young, but they were in a high predator area where kittens are often snatched once they're old enough to start walking. The people who arranged for us to pick them up are really involved with the shelter, kitten fostering, and colony management, so I trust I know what they're doing (the supplies I've been using for them actually come from the local shelter).
Picture of the boy kitten to break up the text.
The story behind getting them (and the puppy too, really) is that I've just had the worst luck with animals this year. One of my dogs died last July- but she was 16 or 17, so it's not like it was shocking. Then I had an 11 year old cat die in January; the vet couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, and he declined so drastically that he had to be put down. Then at the beginning of the month- April Fools Day, no less- I had a four year old, healthy cat just drop dead in the most literal sense. He collapsed suddenly, dead on arrival at the emergency vet, they said there was nothing we could've done. Probably cardiac arrest. One of the best cats I'd ever had, too.
It's just been awful to have so many pets die right one after another. But it does mean that there's room to get more, and honestly there's never been anything that makes me happy again faster than getting to meet new ones. The four year old who died was part of a bonded pair with his brother, and I loved having sibling cats around always cuddling and playing. So I knew I wanted to do that again.
I had my mother call her friend who's constantly having to find homes for kittens in her yard (most are spayed/neutered, but a few are very elusive and new ones always show up). By some stroke of luck, she'd just discovered the litter the night before, so there was never really a question who they were going to. It turns out there were only two kittens, so it worked out perfectly with them going as a pair.
I love tortoiseshell and calico cats, but I've never had one before. I knew there was a gray kitten, but I had no idea what the second one looked like until I showed up yesterday. I'm 100% happy to take a cat of any color, but I was super excited to see that there was a tortie. Can't wait to see what she looks like when she grows up.
So yeah, I'm super excited to see all these guys grow up. <3 And to take plenty of cute pictures in the meantime. I still have two final papers to write (no need to leave the house, though!) and no idea how that's going to happen with all these babies around. I'm sure it'll work out.
Kudos to anyone who's read through after how wordy I got, haha.
