I guess being 62 years old, I have a whole list of pets over those years.

Started with the cat I had starting at the age of 5 (Buffy)....he was a character who loved to sit under the dining room table & then run across the front room floor & jump my legs when I was practicing the piano....just to see me climb on top of the piano bench & sit there under it watching me as I screamed to my mom to get him away so I could get down......Loved that cat.....he was special...& a character just as all my pets have been.

Then there was Flower my pet rat who had been an animal behavior experiment at the university....my best friend was in biology & they had left the rats in the lab over summer & she saved them...so we time shared her for awhile until she her home became my house....she loved to take the nuts from the bowl that my Dad always kept full & she would bring them one by one across the book case, across the chairs & the end table, across my mother's sewing machine & into her cage that sat on the desk....until the bowl was empty.....then we would put all the nuts back in the bowl & she would do it all over again.

Got married & got another rat we named Gus.....he was supposed to be my buddy while my H was going to Italy on a business trip but I ended up going on the trip also....so my parents baby sat Gus while we were gone....he loved to run around our apartment

Then we got Sammy & Abby.....2 part Siamese cats & part tabby. Sammy looked like a red siamese & Abby looked like a long haired siamese. They were my babies.......they lived to be 16 & 18 years old.....just at the time I got my very first Eskie dog Excell

Celly Bear.....oh my what an amazing character he was.....loved him...laughed with him....got frustrated with him & loosing him was the worst traumatic loss of a pet I have had. He got me through so many bad times with my depression....we enjoyed showing, we enjoyed playing at agility & he had his own style of doing only the obstacles that he liked to do no matter how I urged him on to the next one......Ah, Celly Bear...my special boy & my very first dog.

Got my first horse just at the same time as my first dog.....Mister....another character.....he hated water & would do anything to avoid it....including jumping over the entrance to the dressage arena & making a spacticular jumping entrance rather than entering at a trot...just to make sure his feet didn't get wet in the water that my trainer had accidentally flooded while watering the grass around the arena. He lived to be 32.....& was blind in both eyes by that time. I had left him in good care of the ranch owner as she was the one who had found him for me in the first place....sadly it wasn't old age that got to him....he ended up injured & had to be put down...I didn't find out until the next week as my gracious stbxh never bothered to text me or inform me who knows maybe he thought that the ranch owner would let me know & absolve him of the need.....finding out from a FB post wasn't the way to find out that your first & special horse died that past weekend.

Destiny Dreamer my special American Eskimo dog mommy....who was Excell's mate & gave us so many wonderful puppies that we kept & sold. She was actually my Birthday present to myself the year after I got Excell.....found her at a dog show & she was just 8 weeks old. I have so many wonderful memories with her & the times we spent together.

Then there was Celia.......oh my, she was a toy american eskimo with fur that wouldn't stop......she looked like one of those dust mops that has the fur going out in all directions. She was another amazing eskie. When she was just about 6 months old, my car broke down on the way out to the ranch & I had her with me & we had to walk across the desert for several miles to get to the ranch....she had never been trained & wasn't on a leash....but she stayed right by me the whole way......never needed to be obedience trained as she would never leave my side. She got her Canine Good Citizen certificate & we spend many times going together to the nursing home where they all wanted her to be in bed with them...she was a real sweet heart.....but after loosing her own puppies, somehow took a dislike to Destiny....& the 2 of them would constantly fight.....Destiny jumped up on my tall bed one time & Celia jumped off to escape...& broke both bones in her front leg....they had to do surgery & put a pin in the leg which she managed to bend even though we kept her quiet & in a place where she couldn't hurt herself while she healed.....the pin ended up breaking off when they went to take it out & she lived with the pin in her leg for the rest of her life.

I lost both Destiny & Celia within several months of each other 2 years ago.......what an empty hole that left in my family.....I still miss them & their sweet but grumbling at each other personalities after they got too old to fight.

Chinook was also my teddy bear american eskimo.....he was my pick of the first litter that Destiny & Excell had......He loved to sleep on my lap....but he also ended up blind & had to be kept away from the other eskies because he would fight with them since he couldn't see he felt so vulnerable......so I kept him in a puppy pen close to my bedroom where he could be with me most of the time.

Even though we ended up splitting out children between us.....I still miss those who have died that my stbxh ended up keeping.

One was Nisgha (Chinook's littermate).....he was my H's pick of the litter while Chinook was mine.............then we lost Kahn this last fall. We got him from a breeder in Canada......awesome boy also......I showed him in brace with another eskie we had for awhile & ended up winning the blue ribbon for the brace at the national American Eskimo dog show in San Diego Calif that summer.....what a thrill that was....& my eskie babies were as excited as we all were.

I have also lost several foals.....one at 2 weeks old & one just after birth.....the one that lived to be 2 weeks old, I named Wynd Dancer.......which is where the name of my farm sort of came from WyndSong Farm.....in honor of her. Sadly, my mare (Disco) stepped on her just after she was born. The ranch owner was the one doing all the care trying to keep the infection from getting bad......but after 2 weeks of constant treatment, they finally had to put her down when the leg bone separated from the hoof.....it was a long hard fight that was given to save her......I was really sick with migraines at the time & wasn't functioning well so I didn't get that involved with her care.

What wonderful memories they all have in my life & what an important part in my life they all have had