I've posted parts of my story in other threads but I figured it was time I formally introduced myself and Pooner Rogaine.
My husband and I use to have an english bulldog and found ourselves not being good dog parents. All we ever did was tell her to stop this, stop that, etc. so we decided that she needed a better life. With heavy hearts we gave her to my husbands ex-girlfriend who new the dog since she was a puppy. We were sad at first but when we checked on her and saw how much happier she was we knew we did the right thing. After this we decided we should not have a pet since we didn't want to go through this scenario again, after all pets deserve forever homes.
Last fall (2009) we found ourselves longing for the company of a pet. We tried starting with beta fish and after a few mishaps finally were successful in keeping one. We found ourselves starting to talk to the fish and one day we realized we were both getting close to petting the fish
So after much discussion and thought we decided we were ready to be pet owners again. It had been 5 years since we had a pet. We both decided that this would be a commitment to last the life of the pet we chose. We decided a cat would be the best pet for us.
My husband started researching different breeds of cats and we watched tons of Cats 101 on animal planet. We decided we probably wanted an exotic short hair so we started looking for rescue cats. My husband visited the animal shelters and we both visited a couple of sweet cats we found at the shelters. However none of them were the one, they just didn't look at us and say I'm yours, take me home. So then my husband came across the Sphynx breed. He and I always thought they were unique and beautiful and as we learned more about the personality we thought this could be the cat for us.
We called a breeder to see if she had any cats she wanted to retire. We still really wanted to rescue a cat. She stated she had a older female that had special needs that she wanted to find a forever home for. Somebody had returned her to the breeder after not being able to keep her and she had suffered a bad ear infection which caused some damage and she now walked with a head tilt and did circles occasionally. We went to visit the cat and found her to be sooo sweet and cute. We couldn't decide for sure if she was the one. So we planned to leave and think about it. Before leaving we saw the last kitten the breeder had from the current litter. He was so cute a pink little odd eye with tons of personality. He meowed and told you what he thought and followed the breeder around. He just had to be were she was, it was so cute.
My husband fell in love with him immediately. Of course we weren't planning on spending that kind of money on a cat, especially that day. We kindly thanked the breeder for her time and off we went. We only made it half way home and we were turning around to go get him, we just had to have him! He was the one!!
In June 2010 I took him to the vet for his one year check up and got devastating news, he had a grade 6 heart murmur and the vet insisted he see a cardiologist. The cardiologist confirmed our sweet little boy has HCM
The cardiologist is optimistic that Pooner may live to be 8 years old if we are lucky, and I truly hope we get at least that many years. He gets his heart medicine twice a day and the intensity of the murmur has decreased and the regurgitation has seized. However, we know only time will tell. The cardiologist will be doing a follow up this spring and hopefully his heart wall hasn't enlarged any more
So for now my husband and I are just enjoying every day and every second we get with the sweetest, best natured, most loving, cutest and spunkiest cat to ever live. He is bringing us so much joy and fulfilling our lives.
My husband and I use to have an english bulldog and found ourselves not being good dog parents. All we ever did was tell her to stop this, stop that, etc. so we decided that she needed a better life. With heavy hearts we gave her to my husbands ex-girlfriend who new the dog since she was a puppy. We were sad at first but when we checked on her and saw how much happier she was we knew we did the right thing. After this we decided we should not have a pet since we didn't want to go through this scenario again, after all pets deserve forever homes.
Last fall (2009) we found ourselves longing for the company of a pet. We tried starting with beta fish and after a few mishaps finally were successful in keeping one. We found ourselves starting to talk to the fish and one day we realized we were both getting close to petting the fish
So after much discussion and thought we decided we were ready to be pet owners again. It had been 5 years since we had a pet. We both decided that this would be a commitment to last the life of the pet we chose. We decided a cat would be the best pet for us.
My husband started researching different breeds of cats and we watched tons of Cats 101 on animal planet. We decided we probably wanted an exotic short hair so we started looking for rescue cats. My husband visited the animal shelters and we both visited a couple of sweet cats we found at the shelters. However none of them were the one, they just didn't look at us and say I'm yours, take me home. So then my husband came across the Sphynx breed. He and I always thought they were unique and beautiful and as we learned more about the personality we thought this could be the cat for us.
We called a breeder to see if she had any cats she wanted to retire. We still really wanted to rescue a cat. She stated she had a older female that had special needs that she wanted to find a forever home for. Somebody had returned her to the breeder after not being able to keep her and she had suffered a bad ear infection which caused some damage and she now walked with a head tilt and did circles occasionally. We went to visit the cat and found her to be sooo sweet and cute. We couldn't decide for sure if she was the one. So we planned to leave and think about it. Before leaving we saw the last kitten the breeder had from the current litter. He was so cute a pink little odd eye with tons of personality. He meowed and told you what he thought and followed the breeder around. He just had to be were she was, it was so cute.
My husband fell in love with him immediately. Of course we weren't planning on spending that kind of money on a cat, especially that day. We kindly thanked the breeder for her time and off we went. We only made it half way home and we were turning around to go get him, we just had to have him! He was the one!!
In June 2010 I took him to the vet for his one year check up and got devastating news, he had a grade 6 heart murmur and the vet insisted he see a cardiologist. The cardiologist confirmed our sweet little boy has HCM
The cardiologist is optimistic that Pooner may live to be 8 years old if we are lucky, and I truly hope we get at least that many years. He gets his heart medicine twice a day and the intensity of the murmur has decreased and the regurgitation has seized. However, we know only time will tell. The cardiologist will be doing a follow up this spring and hopefully his heart wall hasn't enlarged any more
So for now my husband and I are just enjoying every day and every second we get with the sweetest, best natured, most loving, cutest and spunkiest cat to ever live. He is bringing us so much joy and fulfilling our lives.