Three Things Thursday: Pets

Jerry and I were talking about the pets this afternoon and I thought it would be fun to do a "Three Things Thursday" post about them. Here are three things that I love about each pet (in the order that we adopted them):

Phoebe

1. Phoebe can sense emotions and no matter where she is or what she's doing, if she hears someone crying, she goes to them and climbs as close to their face as possible. 

2. Phoebe is super subtle yet passive-aggressive when she wants to be petted. She will walk up to you and stare for a minute; if you ignore her staring, she takes one paw and places it on your arm. Then she just holds it there until you feel bad for her and you pet her. It's the saddest--and sweetest--gesture!

3. Even for her size, Phoebe is a spitfire and and she sounds like a bobcat when she gets mad. She weighs less than five pounds (for reference, Duck is 13 pounds!) but she even scares me in certain situations. I have to cut her nails just a few in each sitting, otherwise she gets more and more annoyed and starts growling. Once she growls, I leave her alone because as loving as she is, she doesn't hold back for anyone!

Estelle

1. Estelle thinks that she's being coy whenever you look at her or walk over to her--she may turn in a circle, sit down calmly, and look at you lovingly--but when you reach for her, she makes this little annoyed-sounding "mew mew mew" and runs away. Usually, she'll run under my bed. It's like she thinks she's hurting my feelings by running away from me; even when I'm not going after her! Basically, she adores attention but she doesn't want you to *know* that she adores attention.

2. Estelle is as dramatic as they come. She loves to play the victim. Sometimes, she'll walk in front of Joey then dramatically fall over and meow like he's hurting her. I've seen her do the same thing to Duck. Duck gets really excited when it's time for their "special food" (just canned food--all the pets love it) and he runs around to gather all the pets. When he races up to Estelle, she does her dramatic fall and cry, like Duck just pushed her down a flight of stairs or something, haha. 

3. Estelle is super determined when she wants to sit or lie somewhere--she has some serious ninja skills when it comes to balance. Aside from her balance, she just doesn't give up when she wants to sit on your lap, for example--no matter how you contort your body or get up and down over and over, she insists on securing whatever spot it is that she wants.

Joey

1. Joey is simply a damn good dog! We got so lucky when we chose him from the shelter. He was there for three months before we adopted him and I'm super grateful that we are the ones who became his "forever" family. He's not at all aggressive (sometimes Duck will even go stick his head in Joey's food bowl to see what Joey is eating, and Joey is totally chill about it). He stays with us when he's off leash; even when there is another animal or person, he listens and stays where we tell him. 

2. Joey is kind of like a cat, even though he's a lab-chow mix (looking nothing like a cat). I joke that he thinks he's a cat because he's around four cats all the time and he does pick up their mannerisms. One thing that I really love is how respectful he is of the cats; when I give all the pets their "special food" once a day, Joey finishes his immediately and waits for the cats to finish. He knows that he gets to lick the plates clean when they are done, so he patiently sits down and waits for me to give him the go ahead. Once in a while, I will totally forget that he's waiting, and 20 minutes later I'll notice him still sitting and watching the plates! He doesn't clean up the plates until I tell him it's okay. What kind of dog has that kind of restraint? ;)

3. Joey likes to show off his toys. Whenever someone comes over, he trots over to his toy box and digs around in there for whatever it is he's looking for, then brings it to the person, like, "Look what I have!" Jerry, the kids, and I will NEVER forget a time when we were all going somewhere in the car and we backed out of the driveway, then slowly drove past the house. We saw Joey standing in front of the living room window watching us, with a ball in his mouth, tail wagging back and forth like crazy as he watched us drive past. It was so heartbreaking!

Chick

1. Chick is SUPER chill. He reminds me a lot of Chandler in that way. Even though Phoebe hates other cats, she is most likely to put up with Chick. He's incredibly laid back and doesn't get scared of anything like the other cats do. He likes to be held like a baby and to have his belly rubbed. If Joey is like a cat, well, Chick reminds me of a very calm dog.

2. Chick sounds human when he's looking for Duck. He calls out, "HELLO?! HELLO?!" and you can hear him through the whole house. Jerry imitates it really well and it never fails to make me laugh. 

3. Chick is the fearless one. It's funny--Chick and Duck were from the same litter and we adopted them at the same time. However, Chick is fearless and Duck is scared of everything. I love that Chick is the first to try new things--when I put up the cat shelves in my room, for instance, Duck clearly wanted to check them out. He was scared, though, until he watched Chick do it first. If Chick was a person, he would be a fun stoner who likes to try new things... because YOLO.

Duck

1. I saved Duck for last because, if it isn't obvious, he's my very favorite. I love all of our pets, but I have never felt as close to a pet as I do with Duck. We have a special bond. Something that makes me feel really good is that Duck looks to me for comfort. He has terrible anxiety (we are spirit animals, Duck and me) and when he's scared, I can see the panic on his face. When I call out to him, I can visibly see his body relax and he comes over to me so I can hold or pet him. He trusts me completely. (The downside is that he gets super jealous when I pay attention to anything or anyone other than him.)

2. Duck is a total chatterbox. This could be something that could fit into a "like" or "dislike" column, depending on my mood. Most of the time, I love that Duck "talks" to me all day long. He follows me around and there are certain noises he makes for different things he wants. He makes a short, quick chirp when he just wants my attention--when he wants me to know he's there. He has a series of long and short meows, but his most common is "Ma?" like my kids used to ask, "Mama?"

3. Duck has the biggest personality of any cat I've ever known. He's as smart as a whip and 'curious' doesn't even begin to describe what goes on in his mind. You can SEE his mind working when something piques his interest, and he's great at figuring out solutions when he wants something. When cat-proofing stuff, I have to think beyond what the average cat would do; Duck is on a whole different playing field!

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Okay, this post took me MUCH longer to write than I intended! Actually, it was looking through photos that took forever--I have hundreds of the pets and I had such a hard time picking them. This was a fun post to write, though; I love our pets <3