My favorite is of my first dog... I can remember when we got him. It was before we moved to the country. He was a puppy abandoned in our alley. My parents knew my little brother and I had fallen in love from the minute we saw him, but they weren't too crazy about us keeping him. We kept our hopes high anyway. I can still remember throwing bologna down the stairs for him to eat. He was the cutest puppy! A few days later, my Dad came home from work and said a co-worker had dogs and was willing to take him. My Dad tried hard to make us believe that the puppy would be better off where there were other dogs for him to play with, but we were convinced otherwise. And just like that he was gone. We cried and moped around the house missing that dog terribly. Not long after that, my Dad came home from work and told us that the co-worker said his other dogs were not getting along with the puppy and he would need to get rid of it. I can remember like it was yesterday, seeing my Dad come through the back door with the puppy in tow. We named him Stosh and kept him from that day on. It wasn't until some years after Stosh died that we found out that there was never any co-worker that took him. You see, my Dad had taken him to the shelter to be put up for adoption and told us the co-worker story so we would feel better. Lucky for us, my Dad realized once the puppy was gone that he really kind of liked him, and he felt guilty... so he went back a few days later to find him still there. He "officially" adopted him and made him part of our family. That is really what animals are for most people who own them... part of the family. Anyone who has ever owned them can tell you they are like people, each having their own personality. When we moved to the country, I fell in love with horses. They were everywhere out there. My best friend's Dad owned racehorses and we spent many weekends at the track. My parents eventually bought a horse for me. They bought us chickens and ducks also. I of course picked out my favorites, marked them with bands, named them and loved them. Even our chickens and ducks had a place in our hearts. My Dad made an incubator for the duck eggs. The mom wouldn't sit on them so we tried being a surrogate to one of the eggs. I checked on that egg every chance I got! Just about the time we were all giving up on it, I peeked in and saw fuzz sticking out of a crack in the egg! I was crazy with excitement! Of course it wasn't all sweet stories. As with any farm animal, there comes a time when they serve another purpose if you know what I mean. Our ducks finally sat on a set of eggs in which 14 babies came from it. We eventually took them and the parents to duck heaven... which was a local lake, and let them loose. They loved it. The chickens of course ended up as dinner I am sure... although I never asked, but somehow we had a freezer full of chickens and I just kind of accepted it. The sweet cow next door named "Big Red" one day just disappeared, and eventually as I got older, I got more interested in friends, and less interested in our "farm" so the horse was sold too. We were down to good old Stosh again, and a young Golden Retriever named Rusty. Now all I have left to remember those days with is the few pictures I was able to get. In this first layout I did titled, "Part Of The Stavola Farm," I used a stencil to make the fence, and used those fun 3-D stickers from Stickopotamus. It was quick and fun.
Once I moved out on my own, I owned cats, dogs, and even a rabbit! I guess you could say I have never known what it is like to not have an animal. And to be honest, I don't ever see us not having something. When I got married, I had a cat and a dog, and my husband had two dogs - which love to chase cats. My dog had health problems, and his were getting older... so we decided to add some youth into the mix and got ourselves a beagle puppy. She was our first "baby" together! In the layout titled, "Do We Buy A Puppy,"
I wanted to show how we thought over the decision. It was a big one after all because another puppy would put us at 4 dogs! Plus, we wanted a baby also, so we had to give it some thought. As you can see in this next layout titled, "Don't Let His Face Fool You" 
we chose to get a puppy first! In Jamie's layout titled, "First Pet," you see her and her husband's first pet together... Digger the hamster! 
It just goes to show you that every animal has a place in someone's heart!
Unfortunately, we have had to put down or lost to death 3 of our 4 dogs in the last 3 years. That is hard! It is truly like losing a family member. Luckily, we had taken many pictures of them over the years and they will hold a special place in our albums! We are now down to one dog, one cat and some fish. We toy with the idea of another puppy, but with a fairly new baby, it is hard so we'll wait awhile. But I am sure we will add to the "family" eventually... in one way or another!
I hope you enjoyed the layouts done here by my fellow team members and me. Here are some more we created to inspire you to do pet pages of your own! Enjoy!
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