'Pets Portrait' Explained.

The slide show is of our beloved 'babies' who, sadly, are no longer with us.

The black and white cat is Dotty who came to us, with her brother, Zar (brown and white), aged about eighteen months. They originally lived with a friend of ours who had to re -home some of her cats (she had about six, including Dotty and Zar's mother, named Cat, at one point) after it was discovered her partner was allergic. Sadly Zar was only with us for a short time before he became ill and died.

Phog, grey and white (of course), came to us from a pet shop, costing £2.00, as a kitten as Dotty, used to living with many cats and missing Zar, was lonely. I shall always remember the first time I saw her- a ball of grey and white fluff, she was sitting on Hubby's desk at his work place, drinking from a saucer of milk.

Peg, our only dog, came to live with us next. We hadn't planned on having a dog (Hubby worked full time and I was at college) but Hubby saved her from a watery grave when he came upon a 'man' trying to drown her. We had planned to keep her for the evening and take her to a charity who re- homed abandoned cats and dogs the next morning but having had her overnight, that was it, we were in love.

Last, but by no means last, 'my little man' Puck (brindle in colour) originally named Tara, came to us from my sister who found herself unable to cope with both a toddler and a 'mischievous' kitten. Thinking we had a third queen, I was upset to discover ,what I thought was, a 'lump'. "That's not a lump," said Hubby, "That's a testicle!" Yep, 'she' was in fact a 'he'. Thankfully by this time we had already changed the name - I didn't like the name Tara and Puck, like the mischievous sprite in 'A Midsummers Nights Dream', seemed so much more appropriate.