So today I feel drawn to write about one of my greatest passions which is my animals and to be fair, animals in general.
I began my appreciation journey of animals way back as a child living in Rome. We had a tabby cat called Eulalio whom I talked to about my problems and my hopes. I was an only child growing up in a dysfunctional one parent home - even though I do acknowledge my other "parent" stepping in in my grandmother Lucia. My mother was highly preoccupied with her career, providing for us, and consequentially I became not only a rather lonely child but quite off the rails too in certain areas because of many things that happened to me which are well depicted in my autobiography Seventy Thousand Camels - A Motivational Survivor's Memoir.
Eulalio was my go to for true companionship, and throughout my life there have been a steady line of cats who followed him up until the day my eldest daughter brought a Pomeranian cross Japanese Spitz to our new home in Springton South Australia where she lived for approximately three months. Once she moved taking Gogo with her, I experienced an enormous void I couldn't fill with just my long term cat Mango. Gogo had so much personality; she was very outgoing and even a little naughty but - completely and utterly lovable. Enter my youngest daughter Kristen who is the quintessential people pleaser and hearing my lament about missing Gogo sent me a photo of a beautiful little Pomeranian in Salisbury adding she'd even loan me the $750 cost. As urban legend has it, Conan chose us and not the other way around. Although we had his picture upon arrival we were met by a whole crate filled with adorable fluff balls but it was Conan (whose name was chosen by Adam long before we’d even known we'd buy a dog) who came up to us first and, it was love at first sight. We were dog owners with me for the very first time!
I instantaneously became a "dog person" and have been since that wonderful day in 2014. I still own a rescue cat called Caesar who we adopted in 2016, a year or so before our beautiful Mango passed away aged 14 but I am now definitively a bonafide dog person and the relationship I have with dogs include every one else's dogs too. I used to be a people watcher once upon a time but these days whenever I am out, I notice only people's dogs.
Seven years ago when my daughter Kristen decided to spend two working years in the UK, I inherited her one and a half year old Yorkshire Terrier Frodo. When Kristen returned to Australia there was no talk about getting Frodo back because after two long years the writing was well and truly on the wall regarding who’s dog Frodo had now become.
Baby Conan
Baby Frodo
Conan, Gogo, and Frodo circa 2019
With our babies whilst on holiday in Bruny Island, Tasmania
Conan is now 11 years old, and Frodo 8. They are the best of brothers and Frodo in particular, cannot be separated from Conan more than a few minutes before fussing all over his older brother upon reunification.
Little Frodo came into the world with a congenital hip issue that rendered his right back leg lame at just one years old. Kristen wasn’t going to consider the alternative involving eventual amputation and decided on a very expensive procedure where a titanium prosthesis was used instead (see picture below). Frodo is the Bionic Dog and had to be driven to Melbourne because there were no veterinary surgeons in Adelaide who could perform this size surgery. The procedure cost over $10.000 and worth every cent because Frodo is the dearest little dog any owner could ask for.
All in all as much as I basically worship my dogs and adore my cat, I’ve had many other animals come into my life who have exalted my visceral love for and appreciation of God’s greatest creations, our general Fauna (see pictures below of just a very few of the many animals I’ve owned or merely met and fell in love with). I currently also have a cheeky little Cockatiel we’ve named Birdie Boo who was rescued not once but twice!
I had a terrible client’s mother who wanted a bird for her son (my beautiful client of three years) so I advertised on Facebook and was given Birdie Boo who was rescued from a “meth house” by the current owner but who admitted not having the time required for a bird like this who needs some one on one attention. I thought to myself, what perfect fit for R (my client). When everything unravelled due to R’s awful mother and I left R’s service without notice, she told her son’s new carer I had imposed Birdie Boo onto her and that she never wanted a bird and consequently she was going to release Birdie into ‘the wild’. Now any serious bird lover knows releasing a domesticated bird “into the wild” spells certain death for it and so the new carer took Birdie Boo into her own custody. Discovering what happened I called R’s new client support providers’ service and demanded they return me Birdie Boo as it was not the new carer’s responsibility to keep him although I truly appreciated her saving Birdie from that witch’s nasty revenge plan. Birdie Boo is currently around seven to eight years old and his favourite things are his bell which he wears as a hat, his biscuit and weekend toast, his bird seed hanging stick and us singing “Pop Goes the Weasel” which he imitates.
I gravitate naturally towards all animals and find they gravitate naturally towards me also. Because of my love for animals I decided to become a Pescatarian around five years ago. I have to swallow others’ jabs about ‘fish having feelings too’ and explain that at age sixty if I don’t eat something other than carbs and veg, I’m not going to fare well but that I am a mindful eater of seafood and give thanks to the creature sacrificed for my well-being. For example, I refuse to eat lobster because of the way it is destroyed by cooks, or squid and octopus because of their proven intelligence. To be clear I do not eat land animals of any type.
I also do not kill animals or insects unnecessarily. Life is precious in all. I absolutely despise how roadkill is seen as rubbish and left by the side of the road like it doesn’t count as a once living thing. We would never tolerate such measures with a human cadaver.
