I am massive animal lover and have been for many, many years. Prior to training as a Nurse I worked with animals and studied for various animal care qualifications. I spent many years working in the pet industry mainly in pet stores and I loved it.........I don't think my parents did as I ended up re-homing many a waif and stray. At one point we had 10 rabbits, 8 guinea pigs, fish, chinchillas, degus, cockatiels, hamsters and dogs! Quite a houseful, they were pretty relieved when I eventually moved out, the animals were re-homed (boohoo :-() and my parents had their house back!
I did however gain a cat and a lizard and more fish when I moved into my own place! I then moved again into our own house and acquired another cat! When I moved I sadly had to leave my 2 beautiful doggies with my Mum and Dad as I couldn't bear to part them so I turned into crazy cat lady instead!
Let me introduce you to my kitty cats:
Below is Winston our 7 (I think!) year old tabby, he's quite a temperamental cat, everything tends to be on his terms and bless him it's taken him a while to adapt to having Alfie around the house. That being said he does like the odd cuddle and fuss here and there.
Next up we have Louie, our 2 year old black and white cat who has an amazing moustache! He is such a character and very affectionate and he pretty much just sleeps, eats and catches butterflies!
I love cats, I love how independent they are and that they are affectionate but can pretty much look after themselves. I can never decide though whether I'm now a 'cat person' or a 'dog person'. I always had myself down as a dog person but I'm thinking I might have been converted?!
Sadly earlier this year we had our beloved family dog Harvey put to sleep, it was a heart wrenching decision to make but he was a very poorly old boy, I'd hate to have to make the decision again any time soon. It's amazing the impact and animal can have on your life. Below are a couple of the last pictures of my last time with Harvey (sorry for the awful quality these were from my phone), it was so hard to say goodbye to a dog that had seen me through some really tough times when I was younger, literally broke my heart.
My Mum & Dad still have another dog called Sacha but I don't have any pictures on my laptop at the moment, he's a Papillon which a small toy dog, he's very old bless him but he's still a yappy little thing!
One thing that I'm really particular about with my animals is they get vet checked regularly, flea treated, wormed and vaccinated. It's also really important to ensure that dogs and cats are both neutered (especially cats as it can prevent them roaming) and also micro-chipped. I also like to make sure that my cats get fed a high quality food and a wet pouch a day to prevent the development of struvite crystals which can build up in a cats urinary tract, this is a condition where the urine becomes more concentrated and it's predominately caused by lack of moisture in the cats diet.
For more information on looking after pets, dealing with losing a pet and lots of other valuable advice visit this website: Pet Health Information , it's a great website and full of excellent advice.
Are you a cat person or a dog person? How much do you love your pets?
* Please note that this is a sponsored post but the thoughts and opinions are that of my own.