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Past Time BearsI'm interested in checking out a theory of mine and thought I might get a good response from all of you. My thinking is that all, or at least MOST, of us that make up the teddy bear community also love animals. I have talked to many collectors and they all seem to be, in general, "animal" people. One of my customers even operates an animal rescue shelter. Do you guys have pets and/or just really connect with animals? I know I do, and have all of my life. When I was a toddler, I ran away with a stray dog . . . an adventure that led to my being allowed to have my first pet. And I have never been without one or more "companion animals" since then. At the present time, I have 5 cats. Anybody else?
Kiprie BearsHello Sue Ann!
When I was a toddler, I ran away with a stray dog . . . an adventure that led to my being allowed to have my first pet.
What a cute story! and how brave you were!
My first pet was big dog
I named him=Boy Boy= when I was 2. He was
mix of Doberman and shepherd dog .
I remember I always sleep with boy-boy and his saliva will goes to all over me in a morning! Yack! :rolleyes:
When my family move , we gave boy-boy to my uncle ..but I never forget about him and still miss him very much!( he is in heaven now..)
I don't think I cry that much in my entire life .
After boy-boy.I had 13cats(at most) at home when I was teen agers and I also had fish, Bird, turtle...... Now, I can't have any pet at my apartment and I also work at office in date time so I'm keeping flowers and plant only at home.....
I visit Zoo in my neighborh often.
I specially love Tremarctos ornatus（Glass-eye bare) and polar bear!
Bear Hugs/Marie
Past Time BearsThat's great, Marie . . . I love your story!! My first pet was a collie mix that I named Lassie (wasn't that original!). Lassie was my very best friend and heard every tearful hurt and every secret I had growing up. She always listened and comforted me. She lived 15 years and will always be special because of how much she knew!! Kind of like teddies!!
What a terrific topic, Sue Ann. And Marie, I can just HEAR your beautiful, lilting accent when I read your wonderful stories. Your English is fantastic. Here is everthing I know in French, pour vous: poivre vert. I used to live in Zurich, you see, where Migros sold grocery products labelled in all three Swiss languages (French, German, and Italian.) My entire French vocabulary is mostly food items. Food, and that famous line from that famous song that should probably go unmentioned here...
So on to the question at hand.
Animal lover here! Pick me, pick me!
We have three cats, three dogs (ginormous to tiny sizes), a ball python, and an eyelash gecko named Malcolm. Malcolm is very cool. I like him a lot. He eats baby food with a giant tongue that he can use to lick his eyeballs. Seriously. I could watch him for hours. He's ridiculous with that eye licking thing.
Anybody else...???
Fool's Gold Bears:lol::lol::lol:
Malcolm is amazing!!! Maybe one day you will create his portrait in soft sculpture.
Ok, I'll be brave and admit that I'm not totally ga-ga over animals living in the house. I'm sensitive to odors, and I'm not that fastidious about housekeeping, so that means the animals live outside, except for the goldfish, oh, and my grown son's Gopher snake, which I'm sure is a temporary resident just til his kids (at a different address) find out about it and insist that it must live at their house.
Outside we have a smelly but friendly black and white mutt named Oreo Cookie and a yellow Tabby cat named Sunshine, A goat named Jose and various and assorted chickens (yum.. fresh eggs!) I do very much enjoy zoos and nature books about animals.
Delartful BearsOooh this one is totally up my ally!!!!! I loved reading all your posts about animals... great stories, especially Sue Ann. I ran away when I was three with my sister, but that's another story! :rolleyes:
Let me see, at the moment we have 4 indoor cats, 3 cockatiels, a dog, and my sister has a very annoying (but cute) Ringneck Parrot. Outside we have bunnies. Lots. We've been keeping rabbits since I was about 9 or 10 - showing and breeding them, a long time. So, yeah, you could say I'm an animal person. You would think that growing up having heaps of animals around the house would mean you would be satisified with what you have? Not so.. I want more, always want more LOL
Acid Attic BearsIf it's to check your theory, I can say I do love animals too... As Marie, I live in a appartement, so it's not easy to have pets around me, but my beloved black Labrador, Reglisse, lives with my parents and when I go to their house on week-end, I always work(for studies or stitching) sitting on the floor so that she can put her head on my legs as she finds them terribly confortable (It's extremely difficult to explain to her to move when I need to... she always makes as if she doesn't understand :D).
But in fact, my love (or respect for some, not really lovable a priori) makes me seem a little mad to my family, as I always rescue spiders or ants for example those big human beings want to kill, putting them (the animal, not the human beings 
) outside. One day, I've pass half an hour giving honey to a bumblebee that was too tired to fly and was waiting for death inside my house (poor thing). I don't know if it will remember me forever, but it was really what it needed (I was so proud of myself :lol::rolleyes:).
Oh, and I'm vegeterian because of a horrible story : when I was something like 10, I found an egg beside the ducks' garden of my grandfather and I wanted to rescue the poor potential duck that was maybe inside, giving it all the warmness I could for days. On easter day, my grandfather came to see me and asked to see the box where was the egg. He told me the duck was born. He had put a small duck puppie he had bought in my box, but I beleived it was really the one from my egg. I was very happy. He put the duck (again) in the ducks' garden, but for me, he was my dear pet (I named him "Bouboule"... nothing more ridiculous, but I was young ). But one day, long after, my parents and I went to his house for a meal, and he told me that the duck we were eating was Bouboule... What an horror 
(I must say that my grandfather didn't mean to hurt me, he just isn't a very good psychologist :/). I first refused to eat any duck and after, I refused to ever eat an other animal... I think I may be forced to eat meat when I will be pregnant however:/.
DoodlebearsLovely animal stories so far, I will be back to read the postings that follow this one.
I love animals and have three adorable Cavalier King Charles spaniels, who have been a great inspiration to the expressions for my bears. My dogs are called Chunky, he is my boy dog and the most lovable little guy. Chunky is now blind owing to cataracts. He was called Chunky because he was a big puppy, the biggest in the litter. Then we have my beautiful Holly. Holly is a shy little girl and spends most of her time under the beanie bag that I bought for her to lay on. Then last of my dogs is Lucy, my baby, or should I say Chunky and Holly's baby. Lucy is a lively funny little dog and loves nothing better than to chase my husband round for a piece of chicken or to sit on my shoulder. I've never managed to get it through to her that she is indeed not a parrot. I actually delivered Lucy when Holly was having a problem. Lucy was a big puppy weighing nearly twice the average weight for the breed. We also have two Budgies called Sparky and Ozzie. Sparky is gray in colour and Ozzie is a Lutino so he is yellow and he has Red eyes, which I find somewhat freaky. Last but not least we have Nelson. Nelson is a regular garden pond fish. he was one of many until a Heron decided to feast from my pond. I named Nelson when I discovered he was the only survivor of the meal. I intend getting him some mates soon and fitting a mesh over the pond so dinner is not so free to the pesky Heron. 
Below are three pictures of my beautiful doggie babies. The first is Chunky the second Holly and the last is Lucy.
Jane
http://www.doodlebears.co.uk
Kiprie BearsI named Lassie (wasn't that original!).
Yes, I know the Lassie dog story..
I think I need to go to video shop
tonight and rent the movie(Lassie!)
I'm playing for your Lassie and my
boy-boy, I hope they are friend at
there. 
an eyelash gecko named Malcolm
I had to look up dictionary for
Malcolm(gecko) hee hee
My friend has gecko too, I'm not sure
what kind of gecko but I love to watching them only if they are not
too close to me. Oops I'm a chicken!
I'm sensitive to..
Yes,Yes,Yes animal has an order.(may be not for Malcome!) My friend has a
allergy for animal hair. When she ask
me to make a Mohair bear for her,
I put the bear in to the clear plastic box because I thoughtmohair may makes her sniff too but she took away the box and gave him big hug.....so far she said she is not having allergy for Mohair bear. 
Bear Hugs/Marie
Delartful BearsOooh Marion, what a horrible story about your Grandfather, like you said I'm sure he didn't mean to offend you. Still would have been terribly upsetting.... At least you have a story you can tell your children LOL
Acid Attic BearsDanni, I love your new avatar !
I'm not sure I can tell such a story about canibalism to children, but who knows ;).
Shelli, I'm sorry not to have chosen (eer... "to chose, chose, chosen" ?) a pseudo : "Marie" and "Marion" are very near... (I wish Japan and France were near, too... I so would like to go and visit this country !).
"Poivre vert" is just perfect ;). In fact, I must say that my first words in english were "cookies", "shortbreads", "brownies", "muffins" and "afternoon darjeeling tea" or so :D... One great french word is "éclair au chocolat":) (nooo, I'm not greedy at all...:P).
Veeery big hugs !:)
PottersHouse BearsWell this is a subject I could talk about endlessly. I too have been an animal lover (fanatic) all my life. I learned early in life that the animals accepted me as is. They didn't look at the outside appearance but at the heart. Therefore, most of my companions were four legged. Today I live on 6 acres in Ohio with my husband, daughter and a small zoo. Most of the animals that we have are rescues. The list includes 3 large dogs, a yorkie (she was about 4 yrs. when I took her and she had never lived outside of a small cage), cats galore (living in the country, cats just show up for a meal), chickens, ducks, rabbits (one, Marcie, only has 3 legs) and horses. My most dramatic rescue was of a draft horse, Captain. I used to drive by this pasture several times weekly and would see this pitiful horse standing in the corner. One day I met the owner and asked about the horse. He told me to just take him. I did. Captain was probably 2 weeks from death. He was extremely thin. He had a deep cut on the hind leg that was full of maggots. His shoulder had an infected wound. This wound was so bad that he had a huge hump on his shoulder that was nothing but infection. It took about 6 months for this to heal with me treating it 3 times daily. Today Captain is a ton of baby. I'm including before and after pictures of Captain (this does not look like the same horse, but it is). Needless to say, animals are a huge part of my life.
Posts: 3,177Millie - You will surely go to heaven for your kindness to this lovely horse. I hate cruelty or neglect of animals - it drives me crazy to see animals ill treated.
I've got 3 ancient cats who are all a bit dotty now. One of them has had 2 strokes, is practically blind and is as deaf as a post! But Boy, does he know how to get around! I found him stuck on the top of a 6 foot fence the other day, he could get up but could'nt see to jump down. Bless!
I did have 7 cats - 2 goats - a rabbit - 2 snakes - a guinea pig - a ferret (ate the guinea pig sadly) and a goldfish.
We also used to hand rear lambs - gosh that was really lovely, but we gave it up when we could no longer bear to give them back to the farmer for - gulp - slaughter. We became veggies shortly after.
Penny
Posts: 8,574Great topic Sue Ann
We have a very small house-and share it with one doberman, Duncan,
one blue and gold Macaw- Kirah
two Burmese cats; Kwatzu
the boy, and Sukisan, after my college roomate who was one of the sweetest gals I have ever known in my life.
We also have a ROOMBA- that gets used in the kitchen and bathroom and bedroom every day, while I vacuume the livingroom every day.
I would like to be able to say that I vacuume the sewing room too, however there is literlly no floor space in there cuz of the boxes. ( My honey says by the end of June we will have the storage in there that I need )
We also have the Orek air purifier- an absolute necessity in case the dog....well you know.....and I use Febreeze rather liberally on the carpet and furniture. The dog isn't allowed on the furniture-I have SOME standards.
I didn't use to be persnikity about house work, but I am now. Its the only way to keep from drowning in this house. So a little every day keeps me from having to a massive amount once a week.
Currently in this living room there are 20 stuffed bears, 5 gollykidikins, and a camel
Why a camel? I don't know-I just wanted to see if I could make one-so I drew a pattern. He sits on top of the piano with the gollys and I think they take turns riding him during the night
Outside there is a bunny that I am doing battle with-cuz he wants into the garden so badly he can taste it....and of course there are tons of deer-I love watching the deer-
They want into the garden too-they see all the roses and they really really love roses...but fortunetly the fence is toooooo high for them.
Penny, my sister used to raise food animals- she would name them! TBONE or LambChop- It was easy to not eat meat for me....
At least my mom never named the chikens-I wouldnt have been able to eat eggs
See ya
WonkyDonkyDilu
LuxembearsI LOVE all your stories!!!
Okay here goes. I LOVE LOVE LOVE animals. When we would goto someones house when I was small..and even older...I seemed to always connect to the family pet. Animals know when you like them.
Here is my list...that I can remeber off the top of my head:
As I was growing up I have had:
-Cats
-Dogs
-A seahorse (pregnant)
-various turltes , terrapins and land
-numerous reptiles including, skinks, anoles, a true chamelion, and several green and mexican igauanas
- frogs, toads
-numerous tropical fish
-water crabs
-hermits crabs
-newts
-hamsters-gerbils and guinea pigs
-two white mice
-cockatiel
-parakeets
-rabbit
Then when I got married:
-Nebian Goat named "Nellie"
-two pygmy goats "Laura" and "Djali"
-Two Llamas "Girlfriend" and "Dolly Llama"
-Two house cats
-malti-poo dog (smaller than our cats)
-ever changing numbers of barn cats
-over 170 registered Holstien cattle
I wanted a ferret but my husband said he would sleep in the barn if I got one ...he hates rodents and weasles in any shape or form!
When I was 14 we went to the ocean and I hunted for live crabs and starfish instead of boys.
Instead of playing with Barbie Dolls I spent all my child hood years in a swamp next to our house scooping up tad poles, crayfish and brine shrimp. It was some kind of heaven for me.
I dove into a river to grab a HUGE snapping turtle...got my pretty pink and white outfit full of mud. I only wanted to have a closer look at him.
I brought home a baby bird, who had fallen from his nest. Dug up worms and fed him. Later I released him.
This year I drove a injured bird to a Wild Life Sanctuary in Green Bay,and tried to nurse some orphaned mice back to health (unsuccessfully)
In highschool I had summer jobs at a dog baording kennel and a pet shop.
As an artist, all my life animals have always been my favorite subject to paint and draw.
YEAH...I'd say I am an animal person!!!
Posts: 8,574How did you know that the seahorse was pregnant?
Dilu
PottersHouse BearsPenny,
I hope you are right about me going to heaven. I probably will be an animal caretaker there. But that's ok with me, it wouldn't be heaven without animals. I also am totally outraged by animal abuse and neglect. That is why I have a zoo. I can't just walk by a creature in need. This has rubbed off on my children. My son stopped one evening on his way home and picked up a cat that had been run over and then paid $80 to have her put down because she was so bad. He said that he couldn't just drive on by her and do nothing. We are all a bunch of softies here.
Posts: 3,177:Hi Millie
My brother-in-law is a total animal maniac.
As a kid he would bring home all kinds of sick animals - he once bought home a squirrel which he tamed and trained to do all sorts of naughty things - it was unable to return to the wild you understand, he would'nt have just kept it otherwise.
When he grew up he knew exactly what he wanted to do and he is now a primatologist (study of monkeys to you and me) and has travelled all over the world studying these animals and has set up a wildlife sanctuary on Gibralter - they have Macaques all over the island there - i'm not sure if macaques are monkeys or apes. ooooops! He has set up a primate breeding programme too to help save endangered species.
Anyway he just loves animals and will save anything, even the animals that are'nt particularly cuddly! Spiders YUK!
Penny ;)
P.S. of course you'll go to heaven Millie and you'll be able to talk to the animals there - that's what my Mum used to tell me anyway
Posts: 12Well, the whole reason I want to create animals is because I love them so much!:D
I presently have three dogs ( a flat-coated retriever, a Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever, and a resuced mutt), two cats, a llama, and lots of goats. I raise Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats, and presently have 3 bucks, 8 does, and 11 babies. I also have a mama Angora goat and her two kids. You can't really appreciate your mohair until you've sheared your own Angora with a pair of Fiskars scissors! Oh, and we have a llama too.
I show my dogs in all kinds of competitions, and have dabbled in showing the goats as well.
We also have a lot of wildlife where I live- bobcats, coyotes, rabbits everywhere! We just had Bewick's wrens nesting outside the back door, we have house finches galore outside the front door, starlings under the eaves...
Being an animal nut has its drawbacks...I really admire the work of those of you who make lovely keepsakes from old furs, and I'm awed at the results, but I could never do it- each time I touch an old coat, it's like I hear all those tortured voices:( And there never is room on the bed for people! And the dogs eat better than we do. And there is always hay on my clothes.
PottersHouse BearsPenny,
I don't have to wait for heaven to talk to the animals. I do that now. People can't accuse me of talking to myself because there is always a four legged creature around for me to hold my conversations with. When I'm feeding the horses I'm also talking to them constantly. Maybe the horses think I'm nutty.
LuxembearsDilu...I knew the seahores was preganant because it had over nine babies...but then they all died:(
Crisw: I LOVE goats!!! I had three and they were just like dogs...they came when they were called....and when I went outside they woud see me and call ''Ma-a-a-a-a". They make wonderful pets! I want more.
Nina: love your horse pics. They are lucky tohave you:)
Posts: 8,574My husband brought home a hamster for Peta Prince, one year for Christmas. I said 'she looks awfully fat-are you sure shes not?'
Oh no no no yeah right!
I made him take the babies back to the store where he got the hamster.....
I'm sorry the seahorse colts died. :(...I bet they would have been really special to see
Dilu
Back Road BearsAnother VOTE for animal lovers here!
I've never been without a pet in my life....
Growing up: a pomeranian, a cocker spaniel, a cairn terrier, angel fish (dad and I raised them) and the occassional frog, turtle or baby bird I'd 'adopt'. Oh yes, and Gypsy the stray cat who adopted me!
Once on my own in apartments I so desperately wanted a dog but had to settle on: cockatiels, lovebirds, lop eared bunnies, netherland dwarf bunnies, a hooded rat (she was soooo sweet and went everywhere with me!) and a kitten I was highly allergic to and finally had to give away.
Then I met my husband. He'd NEVER had a pet in his life! I just can't imagine that! How awful. (Sorry if I offend anyone but you are talking to someone who loves all things furry or feathered!) So, after lots of whining he finally gave in and we got two parakeets. Not the greatest things to have for first pets but we were in an apartment and he's highly allergic to bunnies and both of us to cats. Then we bought a house and a Wheaten Terrier to go with it. Another bad choice for a first dog! Wheatens are so high energy and independent! But Tucker is so cute and such a love that he's won my hubby's heart over anyway! He's 11 months old this week! (Side note: We're in search of another Wheaten - if any one knows of a Wheaten breeder let me know... they are few and far between as it's not a common breed.)
I do NOT like insects, however, of any kind! (Sorry, Marion!) I've been known to: a)fall of my bike because a bee was flying with me; b)fall down the stairs because I saw a spider on the wall; c)wake up in the night from a NIGHTMARE about bugs and be STANDING on the bed screaming (my hubby didn't appreciate that!!).
It's gotta be fuzzy and cuddly or forget it!
Judi, you win the prize for most eclectic assortment of animals!!! :)
Shelli, I think Laure had a good idea - Malcolm in soft sculpture!
Marion, "éclair au chocolat" - YUM!! I don't know any (appropriate) French but I can figure THAT one out! :)
Hugs,
Daphne
Delartful BearsOoh Millie, what you have done for the horse is amazing! She (he?) looks like a different horse now!! Amazing.
Danni
Kiprie BearsHello everyone, I came back again to this topic and notice that
I missed topics of Danni and Marion , Jane on friday..I thought I was last one to writing here on
friday evening(at here) but I think I was typing so slow ...:P Sorry!
Marion, I'm sorry for what happened to you.. Me too, I think your grandfather didn't mean to hurt you.
Thank you for sharing your story.
Millie, Thank you for beautiful horse picture. I really think you are so kind to rescuing animals .
The horse is soooo lovely.
Hugs/Marie
