I Love My Furbabies!

I can fully admit that I am one of those obnoxious parents that constantly brags about their kids at every opportunity, always has 5,000 pictures of their kids to show to anyone who will tolerate it and thinks that their kids are the best, most beautiful thing that has ever happened to this planet. Except, my kids have fur. Yes, I have pets but they're more than pets to me, they really are like my children, and the best part is that they can't talk back! So, I'm about to go all braggy mama on you and show you a gazillion pictures of my babies. 

 This is Roxy, she will be 2 years old this August. 

 This is Remi, he will be 1 year old this July. 

Roxy is an odd cat, she's not one of those stereotypical cats who will only let you pet her on her terms and when you want to cuddle she runs away. She's the exact opposite, she's always up for cuddles and comes to you when you whistle. 

 Despite the innocent look on Remi's face he sure is a troublemaker, but I can never stay mad at him because, well, look at that face! 

It's hard to tell what "breed" cats are but I have a theory that Roxy is a mix between a maine coon and a British Longhair.  

Remi was born with host-specific lice and lost most of his fur because of it. We took him to the vet and they gave him a shot and gave us some shampoo to get rid of the lice. After that I ordered this really great lotion stuff that has all sorts of essential oils in it and rubbed it on him at least twice a day every day. Before I knew it all of his fur had grown back in all nice and thick and soft and now he's a handsome young boy! 

Remi is super energetic and doesn't realize how big he is so he's always jumping all over me and almost knocking me over. He used to be hard to cuddle because he would get irritated or claustrophobic maybe and start biting (not hard) at you. After a lot of work and a lot of bonding time he now gives hugs and loves to cuddle.  

Remi is a pure bred husky but when he was a puppy he looked like a baby bear.  

Remi loves car rides like most dogs but absolutely insists on being in the front seat. 

Remi's favourite activity would probably have to be "eating" Roxy. He likes to rough house with her and stick her entire head in his mouth. He never really hurts her though and if he gets too rough she lets him know. Sometimes I catch them napping together.   

He has recently finally understood what the words "walk" and "treat" mean. This face means you have this attention.  

 When I first went to pick Roxy up we had to put her in a kennel for the car ride home. It was about a 45 minute drive and she was obviously scared because she was being taken away from her mom by some stranger. We put the radio on in hopes of calming her down and it worked. There was a good song on the radio and she stopped meowing and crying and started listening. The song then changed to something not so great and she started yowling. At least we know she has good taste in music! 

 You would think that if you were to put a small plate of turkey, mashed potatoes and corn in front of a cat that they'd go after the turkey first, maybe try the mashed potatoes and leave the corn but that wasn't the case last Thanksgiving. She went straight for the corn, ate almost all of it, tried some mashed potatoes and hardly touched the turkey at all. She's silly! 

Roxy is pretty shy when it comes to new people, if she hears the door open and it's a stranger she runs and hides but once she gets to know you on, you won't be able to get rid of her. She'll sit on your lap for hours if you let her. 

 One thing that Remi's pretty good with is bed time. Right around 9 or 10 pm he settles down and gets ready to go to sleep. That makes a very happy mama! That is, until he wakes up early the next morning and it's mama's day off and she wants to sleep in but Rem says "nooo! I want to go outside!" 

Roxy's a very happy kitty. She doesn't get in bad moods very often and she's always there to cheer me up. She just knows. She'll come over and lick the tears off of my face and put her forehead against my face and just lay there with me.  

Roxy feels the need to sleep on me. Every. Night. 

When Remi was a puppy we didn't have the chance to kennel train him because our neighbours complained about him whining (we live in a duplex), so it made it really hard to keep the house clean when we were gone. Luckily, those neighbours moved out and a friend of mine moved in who didn't mind the whining until he got used to it. Now he's so good that all I have to do is walk over to the kennel and open the door and he goes in. Treats always help too of course!

If it were winter all the time and Remi got to spend every day outside he would be as happy as a clam.It took awhile for Remi to get used to the snow but once all of his fur came back in he learned to love it. The first time I introduced Remi to snow I couldn't help but laugh. I opened the door to let him out and he stopped, sat down and looked at me like "you expect me to go do my business in this? Are you nuts?!" 

So, yeah, those are my furbabies along with some fun facts about them. I know you probably don't care all that much but they both mean the world to me and I don't know what I'd do without them. I love them both with all my heart. 

Also, if you were to ask me if I'm a cat person or a dog person I really wouldn't have an answer for you. I like having both because then you have both a dog that you can take places, keeps you active and loves to play as well as a cat that loves to cuddle, is more independent and does the most hilarious things. They both keep me going and keep me smiling every day! I wish I could say that at least one of them is a rescue but they weren't. I do hugely support rescue animals though and if I had the room I'd take in a whole bunch of them! 

On the topic of rescues, if you're looking to adopt a pet, adopt a rescue. If you're not looking to adopt but have room in your home, foster a pet. If you don't have room in your home but you could spare a little bit of your time to help out at your local animal shelter, please do so, they always need volunteers. If you don't have time to volunteer but still want to make a contribution, please donate, the cost of taking care of so many animals is not cheap. If you do at least one of these things you are helping save lives and bringing families (or fur-families) together. :) 

Who I Am

I had to do a write up for a project for my schooling and I just thought that I would share it with you guys. There is obviously so much more than me but here's a bit about me so you guys can get to know me better :) 

Who is Amanda?

When people ask me who I am and what sort of things that I'm into I don't usually know what to say because I'm passionate about so many things. I like to say I am a person of many interests and the values that I have are very important to me. I always set goals for myself and sometimes it takes awhile to achieve them but when I do it's the greatest feeling in the world. I pride myself in being the best that I can be; sometimes I get off course or fall off track but as long as I make in it the end and have accomplished something along the way I shine.

Firstly, a couple of my values in my life are family and aesthetics. Family values are very important to me because of a few reasons. About a year ago I had moved away from home on bad terms and was completely cut off from my family, after experiencing that I realized just how important family is. Families are the people who will always be there for you, support you and forgive you. My mother and I have always been fairly close but I feel that over the past year we've grown even closer. Since moving away from home and moving back in, although I don't live with my father we have also grown closer and are able to talk easier with each other. Although the experience of moving away from home was a bad thing I learned a lot from it and because of that mistake I've come so much closer with my family.

As well as family, aesthetics is another value I have. I tend to find beauty in everything, which a lot of people forget about. I like to take the time to stop and smell the roses or watch the sun rise. When I take the time to do these things I feel closer with nature and feel better as a person in general. Whenever I get upset or angry about something taking a walk usually helps me. I find walking and just looking at everything you're surrounded by is relaxing and helps you forget about the petty arguments and complications that come with life. Last summer I went for a 5 hour long walk and on that walk I learned a lot about myself, and life as well. I learned that you shouldn't get upset over every little thing that doesn't seem to go your way because we are surrounded by so much good all the time. We tend to ignore the good and only concentrate on the bad, but if we take that time out of our lives to be thankful for everything and admire the natural beauty we'd find ourselves much happier more frequently.

Secondly, I have set a few long term goals for myself. School has always been a struggle for me so I want to concentrate on my education. I was supposed to graduate last year with all of my friends but I was short 6 credits so I wasn't able to. Seeing all of my peers graduate and leave me behind was a really horrible feeling so I've set a goal to graduate this year to prove to myself that I have the ability to, even though my peers have already graduated. After graduating high school I want to go to college for Early Childhood Education because of my love for kids. Hopefully I will be going to a college in Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, or London.

Speaking of kids, another one of my goals is to visit my nieces more often. They live in Kenora so I don't get to see them as often as I'd like to. My nieces are only 7 weeks apart as my sister and my sister-in-law got pregnant around the same time, and they are both around 2 years old now. When children are younger they grow so fast and if you don't see them they almost forget you, this is something that I really don't want to happen. I love kids in general and I want to be apart of their lives and have them know me as Auntie Amanda. Every now and them I get to Skype with them but it's not the same as seeing them and holding them. Therefore I've decided that I will go up to Kenora to visit them at every chance I have.

Lastly, a few other things about me that someone might want to know is that I love animals and have two pets, and I have interests in music and travel. I love animals and enjoy having pets because they're almost like little furry people, or little furry children. I have a 3 year old Miniature Doberman cross with Chihuahua named Bella and a 5 month old kitten named Roxy. Both Bella and Roxy provide so much laughter and entertainment in my life. They can be a handful when they get into things that they're not supposed to, or when Roxy climbs the curtains but overall they bring joy into both mine and my mother's lives.

Along with being interested in animals I also have a bunch of other interests. A couple of those interests are music and travel. I have been interested in music ever since I can remember. I have been singing since I was in the crib and playing guitar for at least 6 years now. I have written many songs and performed at a few shows. One show that I performed at that really sticks out in my mind was when I performed at the Loud As Rock concert in 2010 with a close friend of mine, David Huffman. I remember getting up on that stage with all of the bright lights was so scary, although I had performed before. I was so nervous at first but once we got off the stage I felt amazing. I think that the fact that you can share your thoughts, feelings, hopes and dreams through a song is just absolutely amazing. Music has been a huge part of my life and always will be. Maybe some day I can combine my interest in music with my other interest in travel. I love to travel because you get to see new places, meet new people and make friends with them, and learn so much. Starting in 2008 I began going on trips with a youth group from Thunder Bay every two years in the summer. In 2008 we went to the Yukon which was such amazing experience that I decided to go on the following trip in 2010 to London, Ontario. It was going on those trips that made me decide that I want to keep traveling and go to different places all around the world.

Therefore, I would describe myself as a very family-oriented person that enjoys the little things in life and has many interests. Every experience I have in my life adds to those interests and the knowledge that I have. Every day I'm growing and learning more about life and about myself.