Update: A winner has been chosen and emailed. Thanks for everyone’s entries — SO FUN to read about our pets. Astro says, “Woof!” He approves. Stay tuned for July’s contest. Hmmmm. What shall I ask this month? Original post: Robin was last month’s winner of a “Love The House You’re In” custom collage made by our collage artist laureate Mel Kolstad. That’s Robin’s house… and her dog, woof!… all interpreted by Mel — she cut out each little brick by hand! Now, it’s time to find a winner for June. If you would like to enter to win a custom collage featuring your house and photos, read on….
To enter, complete these two steps:
- A bunch of our collage winners choose to include their pet. Hmmmm… So this month, step #1 to enter is to leave a comment on this post telling us about your pet. If you don’t have a pet right now… then, tell us about a hobby that gets your nurturing TLC.
- And, subscribe to my newsletter. Yes, this helps me build my newsletter list… I send ‘em out just once a week, usually.
Please read all the rules here before entering. I’ll pick a reader next Friday morning.
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Meanwhile — thanks again to Mel for a fabulous collage! You can find Mel’s collage works on flickr and her blog, Much Ado About Stuff. Thanks, Mel, you know I love your work, and I’m so excited to have this addition to the blog in 2010.
Win a “Love the House You’re In” custom collage of you and your house 
Win a “Love the House You’re In” collage of your house 
Win a “Love the House You’re In” collage of your house 
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My pet…well, I have two dogs, an elderly Chow Chow that’s been with me for 7 years now, and a much younger and livelier Yellow Lab. I saved the Chow from a shelter when I was in college, after having the sweetest and most loving Chow growing up. He’s a good dog, but he definitely has some of the Chow traits…very cat like. He is not mean however. People think that Chows are mean, but they’re really just independent and don’t want to be messed with at times, he’s also very stubborn. My Chow’s name is Chewy.
My Yellow Lab…wow, he was still very much a puppy when I got him from the local animal shelter. I was contacted by a local lady who volunteers at the shelter asking if I knew anybody that would rescue him. He was not in a no kill shelter, and his day had come. I couldn’t bear the thought of a fun loving Lab being put down, so I called my dad and had him pick the dog up since I was at work. I figured if nothing else, I would find him a new home myself. Now, 2 1/2 years later, I can’t imagine my house without him! He has calmed down quite a bit, but still has some of those “Marley” tendencies. His name is Rosco (no “e” on the end) after Rosco P. Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard.
Our lovely vintage 1940s Craftsman house is now chirping with two recently rescued parakeets aptly named Lucy and Ricky – after the Ricardos, of course. We thrifted the cage from the local Goodwill along with some beautiful mustard yellow Pyrex casserole dishes and a pink and blue and red flowered 50s tablecloth to cover the cage at night!
Lucy and Ricky share our home with Gracie, a 10 year old Schnauzer, named after my grandmother, Dorothy Grace. Gracie providentially wandered into my life the evening of my grandmother’s funeral. She also helped to bring some joy into the life of my daughter and myself and make a recently broken home a family of three. It’s amazing how much pets add to a family, allowing you to focus on something outside of yourself – that loves so unconditionally.
Since then, the daughter is grown – but I’ve added a wonderful husband and he brought with him a funny and lovable Italian Greyhound and our vintage home – and family – is filled with the sounds of barking, chirping, laughing, and love.
We tried to buy and save an old house in West Maui. There are very few and none for sale when we needed to buy. We bought a little house in a quiet neighborhood in downtown Lahaina. One full moon night we found a plain little cat in our van in the driveway. With it being a full moon we named her Celestial.
She stayed with us as an outdoor cat and very slowly she became very loving and friendly.
When we started building our 1940′s style cottage in the back yard Celeste became very interested and started watching the progress from the roof of the house.
The cottage is now finnished and the interior fills two pages of recycled items.
1940′s sink, Big Chill fridge, a dining table from the Queen Mary and 1940′s
Hawaiian art.
As I look out onto the street it feels like 1950. There are families with strollers and people walking their dogs. We feel lucky we happened to pick this neighborhood and lucky that Celeste picked our house.
Aloha and keep that retro fanclub growing.
SO many stories to tell about our pups – where to start?! I have been involved with rescues nearly my entire life. My mother fostered countless dogs when I was young and she and I also volunteered to run the only shelter in small-town Wyoming. If it wasn’t for the shelter, any animal that was picked up would have only 2 days before being euthanized. My mother saved countless dogs and cats from a over-populated system.
When I was 19, one of the closest people to me, my grandmother, passed away. My family then adopted a Bernese Mountain Dog/Border Collie mix puppy for me to keep me company through that very rough patch. Jäger has now been my rock for 7 years. He’s a funny dog – he was raised with 5 ferrets, with whom he bonded and emulated. He’s an interesting mix of personaliy – ferret & human. Very little ‘dog’. He’s all fluff and attitude, and the light of my life!
My husband and I then adopted Regen (short for Regenbogen, ‘rainbow’ in German) a super-spirited American Pit Bull to keep Jäger company.
She lead us to become involved heavily in the plight of the Pit Bull. I have nearly always had a pit bull around me. Our family’s 1st was Buster – when I was a baby, we curled up with each other and were fast friends.
We now have another pit bull – an American Staffordshire Terrier, Smokey who is the youngest 12 year old I’ve ever known! Though he looks mean and gruff, he’s the sweetest, kindest dog I’ve ever met. He adores small kids and is so delicate, but he can also wrestle around with my husband for hours.
Here’s a photo of them being goofs – http://bit.ly/9mcDbP
I am already a long time member of your wonderful newsletter!
What a fun idea! We have a fish named Cletus and he lives alone in his aquarium now because he kept eating his friends! But we still love him.
Our family though has two dogs, they are Violet and Wiley (as in coyote) he got his name because he was a stray that adopted us, just started hanging around our house, he was so wild when he came to us we couldn’t even touch him! He had been abused and one of his ears has a healed tear in it. In the 6 years he has been with us, he has gone from living on our front porch to sleeping in my son’s bed! He is the cuddliest dog and is so greatful and well mannered, he never required potty training or anything! We feel blessed that he chose us! He is a German Shepherd Mix according to our vet and we are thankful for him every day.
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Our other dog is Violet, she is a Lakeland terrier that we adopted from the dog pound, she came to live with us on Christmas Eve 8 years ago and is the best gift “Santa” every brought!
Being a long haired dog, she is about as opposite looking to Wiley as you can get, but they are best friends and make our family very happy and show unconditional love to us every single day! We are lucky to have them
I have three beagles. Our newest arrival is Rex. We adopted Rex from from Hound Rescue of Central Texas this past January. We almost didn’t adopt him since he refused to bark (a beagle that doesn’t bark? That’s unheard of). We need loud dogs since we live in a city neighborhood with an alley — we need to know who and when someone with mischievous intentions might be lurking there. Well, Rex hasn’t disappointed us. Within a week of bringing Rex home, we heard a low whistle in the alley around 5 AM. Rex heard it too — and silently, away he went down the stairs and out the doggie door. Next thing you know a prehistoric-sounding bay louder than a jet engine wafted across the neighborhood. We ran out the back door just in time to see some young boys running in the opposite direction down the alley.
I guess they did not expect to hear a Tyrannosaurus Rex while attempting to break into the neighbors car . . .
Isabelle, our cavalier king charles spaniel is so fabulous, in addition to blogging on our site, she even has her own facebook page where she can say whatever she wants, update her friends and share things that interest her. She apparently has a lot to say.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Isabelle/94285868899
My pets? Two cats, male Simba–14 and female Lola 9. Both came from shelters, Simba at age 1 and Lola at 3 months. Lola works hard at keeping Simba active–when he’s a sole cat, he gets fat and convinced that he’s people. He still thinks he’s people, but now he doesn’t just lie around waiting for other people to entertain him.
We also have a red-eared slider (turtle), which our daughter got as a quarter-sized infant in New York’s Chinatown 8 years ago. She has grown immensely and weighs well over a pound.
Our pet is a Shitzu dog we were so fortunate to adopt from the Columbia Second Chance animal rescue soon after our son was diagnosed with a long term debilitating terminal disease. Dudley is our sons companion – gentle and watchful. An important part of our family!!
We have 2 dogs- Daisy and Dixon. Both are mutts, we believe they are both Jack Russell Terrier/ Shihtzu mixes. Daisy is 10 and my delicate flower! Dixon is 4 and a bit of a klutz. Both sleep in our bed and are our first babies!
Oh my little pets, we have lil fluff, who is a long-haired grey kitty and Calipie who is about the funniest cat ever, they both have their own Mid Century Chair that we bought for ourselves but we just kinda gave up they always seem to be in them! Hope you have a wonderful fourth of july!
I have two cockatiels, a pearl and a white-face, both adopted through a bird rescue. Not that I would ever advocate purchasing a pet simply to coordinate with your decor, but I think that cockatiels blend in tastefully with the mid-century modern aesthetic. The pearl and white-face varieties of cockatiel both appeared in the 1960′s so maybe that’s no accident.
First of all, I love your newsletter! I have 7 pets–three inside kitties, one outside kitty (she “came” with our house) and three inside doggies. All in a cozy, 864 sq. foot A-frame home. Good thing they all get along! The dogs love to lay in front of the patio doors and watch the ducks and birds that land on the lake and the kitties love to sit on the stairs and watch the same scene. We just moved to a lake community after living for 12 years in a city neighborhood, and they seem to love the change of life. They get to see wildlife and chase insects that they’ve never seen before! I look forward everyday to getting home to see my lovely little family.
We are about to move into our “new” home that was built in 1959 with our two French Bulldogs, Claude and Claire. They are both 7 years old, and while many people assume they are siblings they aren’t. We got Claude from a pet store and Claire came all the way from Russia! I found a breeder online and she shipped her to us…I picked her up at the airport. They are our first, and VERY spoiled babies, and we now have a 3 year old daughter who loves them as much as we do!
We rescue Italian Greyhounds, and have our own small non-profit rescue in Tulsa. So at any given time we have 10 or so dogs in our 1956 bungalow.
One of the reasons we bought this particular house is that it was fabulous for the dogs, particularly the back yard. We have Joey, who is blind and scarred from being mauled as a pup, and his lower jaw is an inch shorter than his top, so he can’t really do much damage. Joey loves to explore and doesn’t do well with stairs, so this house allows him to go outside by himself- no stairs.
We also have Gypsy, who is blind in one eye; Annie who has three legs; Grainne, the little demon dog; and the Duchess Sallie Louise, a tiny chocolate dapple dachshund who thinks she is an Italian Greyhound.
RIght now, we have the following fosters: Hank (AKA Hankalicious), Margaret, (who is probably permanent- she cannot be touched), Maria, scared but making progress; Emmy Lou- wonderful happy girl with no back knees, and baby Maxine, a mix of ??? – 10 weeks old and a happy, friendly baby.
So if you are ever in Tulsa, and thinking about adopting a dog… Come to our mid-mod madhouse and meet the hooligans!
Pip is my 22 pound yellow tabby. He was named after the orphan Pip in Great Expectations as, he too, was a poor orphan. Kelsey is a fluffy 8 pound Siberian Cat. She is feisty ball of fluff and holds her own against the huge male (type A). They are a delight. Since my two lovely kitties moved in, all rodents have moved out. How Devine!
Charlie is our Chocolate Lab. He is very lucky to have seen age 7 this year. Unfortunately, he loves chocolate as much as me. He has figured out how to open cabinets and in his 7 yrs., has eaten a bag of Hershey Kisses with foils, Peppermint Patties with foils, box of brownie mix and can of hot cocoa powder. I’m sure I have forgotten something. All chocolate is now raised on top of the refrigerator and has been safe until he figures out how to move furniture to reach.
I love my dog! He’s a blue heeler named Cash and is so loving and energetic. He’s a good dog especially when he’s not chewing on things he shouldn’t
. Really he’s a good dog. My husband brought him home for me cause he was making the horses really mad at his old home and was in danger of being kicked/trampled by them so although his owner loved him he was sort of a rescue dog I guess. The kids have a lot of fun with him. Earlier today he was sort of yodeling which is new for him, I kind of liked the sound but not sure the neighbors would be excited about it. maybe he’ll learn how to sing if I find the right music for him, he is Cash after all. 
I DO NOT HAVE ANY PETS, BUT DO HAVE PLENTY OF HOBBIES. MY FAVORITE IS TRASH RESOURCEFULLNESS, AND RESCUING ITEMS TO REFURBISH PRIOR TO THE LANDFILL. I AM CURRENTLY REFURBISHING MY KITCHEN IN A DOUBLE-WIDE TRAILER I AM REHABBING W/ FOUND OR DONATED ITEMS OR FREE ITEMS FROM CRAIGSLIST…..I HAVE FOUND MANY ITEMS, AND HAVE FIXED MY FRONT STEPS, HOLES IN A KITCHEN FLOOR, DRYWALL ETC. AND THE LIST GOES ON…….I SEE IT MOSTLY AS A CHALLENGE AS I AM UNEMPLOYED CURRENTLY…….
IT GIVES ME A SENSE OF PURPOSE AND PUTS JOY IN MY HEART AND A SPRING INTO MY STEP….
when my husband-to-be and i first shacked up he brought me a cute tortie kitten boy whom i promptly named Buckley after the incomparable Jeff Buckley.
of course,one kittie boy is never enough so he was soon followed by a sleek little grey called Evel Knieval- or Evel for short. they have both since become quite huge, Buckley in particular prompting folks to ask me ‘is she pregnant?’ to which i, with attempted scathing tone, answer ‘no HE is not’. Buckley is eagerly awaiting the day i dump the rest of the entourage (husband and kiddo included) and become his sole property. i think he dreams of us running away together to the south of France.
last winter we added our final family member soon after my son’s fourth birthday. although we were assured she was a golden retriever/boxer mix, Sosie is clearly an exuberant black lab. she was spayed two weeks ago and through the long and slow recovery process i was as worried as if any family member had been ill- thank the gods she’s back to her bouncy self! her only flaw is that she loves my husband more than she loves me.
sometimes i look around my lovely, fur infested 1920′s era home and think- ‘golly, am i ever tied down here’ and….i wouldn’t have it any other way. the south of France will have to do without me.
Leslie Ryan,
You and Buckley in the south of France! That is hilarious. You’ve given me the “happy thought” for the day!
Annie B.