The Paige/Deal Zoo

Bella
Josie
Haley
Izzie

Spike

Garbage

Lucy

Thurman, RIP


Sidney


I started this blog today as a sort of therapeutic tool, with the recent blow we were dealt, which I'll get more into later.

At this point, we're 27-soon to be 28- and 29, and have 3 cats and 4 dogs of our own, a long term foster that we will likely adopt when I get a job again, and a short term foster we've had for 5 days now.

Our cats are Sidney, 7 (holy crap I can't believe I've had her for almost 7 years now), Lucy, 4, Garbage, 1. We lost our male, Thurman, a year ago, almost exactly. We still miss his jerky little butt. It's funny to see a lot of the same personality characteristics in Garby, and love to play with the dogs (specifically the same dog- Josie) that he had. We sometimes joke that she is Thurman, reincarnated.

Our dogs are Spike, 3, Izzie, 3, Haley, 2.5, and Josie, 2. Our long term foster (who again, as soon as I am gainfully employed once again, we plan on adopting, as she has become part of the family, and fits right in with our dogs) is Bella, 4/5. (she actually has her own blog: http://bellabluebear.blogspot.com/). Our current short term foster is Brian, 9 months. Brian was shot 5 days ago, by a cop. It's believed that he was a stray, and jumped up on a woman as she was out walking, knocking her down. Not sure where the cop came from, but for whatever reason, he thought the dog needed to be shot ::shakes head:: Ryan named him Brian, after the dog on Family Guy, as he's all white with a black nose. He's a super good boy, and passed his temperament test yesterday. He'll be neutered in a couple of weeks, and I'm taking him to an adoption event next weekend, and I think he'll be adopted pretty quickly.

I'm not a fan of wishing life away, by any means, but I'm not a patient person either. I really wish we were already to the point now of Ryan being ready to graduate, and us being able to sell the house and move to the country (likely Morgan or Shelby county) and get some acreage so that we could get the pittie foster/rescue plan underway. I'm SO thankful that through the time off from work I've been able to help get involved with Indy Pit crew, fostering and doing dog/cat transports. Working with these groups and helping animals has really helped ME get through the past 6 months of being unemployed. I've met some awesome people- Ryan and I are thrilled to have new couple friends who are just as animal crazy as we are! We've always wanted to get a place with more land, since we started acquiring our pack, and now I can actually "see" the need and how we could help a lot more, even with just temporary fostering situations, if we had more land and resources to house the dogs, again- even if just temporarily. Casa Deal has become pretty full lately!

I am so thankful to have a husband who is as passionate about helping animals as I am, and as sensitive about them as well. I don't know what I would do if I was one of those people that say "my husband would shoot me if I brought home another animal." On the opposite end, Ryan is partly at fault for why we do have so many! But in all seriousness, we feel that this is our calling in life, and what we are supposed to be doing, and want nothing more than to be able to make a difference in animals' lives. These 4 legged little terds are our children, and the loves of our lives.