Some Rescued Pets, And Why They Are Still Here

Snow Bear & Pugsly Playing
©2010 PK Hawk

I certainly have pets. My pets are all rescued animals I took in, originally with the intention of adopting them to new homes.  These, were either so special that they really had a connection with me or, as in the case of Peanut he was just not adoptable, as he had been too abused, and was not trusting of people in general.


I have an eleven year-old Chihuahua named Peanut, who was in the local animal shelter. Peanut only weighs five pounds. The story was, that the family who had him also had three small children who were too rough on him. They said he was turned him in hoping he would get a new home where he would be better cared for, and not be hurt. That was in February of 2001. Peanut was only ten months old at the time, and had not been neutered yet, either. 

"Peanut"

My second pet is also a rescued dog, that I took in the summer of 2001. Snow Bear was only eight weeks old, when I received a phone call from girl about fourteen years-old. She had gotten the puppy from some man who was giving away puppies in front of a grocery store in a neighboring city. Unfortunately, when the girl's father saw that she had brought home a puppy, he told her that since they already had five dogs, which was the legal limit, she had to get rid of the puppy the following day, or he would take it to the pound, if it was there when he got home from work. 

Snow Bear is now ten years-old, and is one of the most wonderful dogs I have ever had. She is a mixed Australian Shepherd, and is a very faithful companion, and has a real herding drive, that really helped me in my rescue of some one hundred baby potbellied pigs. About thirty of them had gotten out of their pens, and when Snow Bear saw that I wanted to put them back in their pens, she rounded them all up, and had them in their correct pens within about ten minutes. The pigs weighed about sixty to eighty pounds each, as they had grown quit a bit over the year they were with me. 

Sequoia Dawn (Front)
Sierra Rosa (Back)
Mother and daughter
©2009 PK Hawk

My third pet is another little dog named Sequoia Dawn. She is half Chihuahua, and half Basenji. She is seven years old. She is brindle in color, and weighs about fourteen pounds. Sequoia came to stay in 2007, when her previous owner moved out of the country, and was unable to take Sequoia with her. She also had her two year old puppy, Sierra Rose, who has since been donated as a dog to be trained as a Certified Service/Companion dog for a bed-ridden diabetic,  who also has sleep apnea. Only two or three weeks after Sierra went to live with this lady, she saved her life, waking her, when she had stopped breathing during the night, in her sleep.  Sequoia was so upset when she first came to me, with Sierra, that she was rather stand-offish, and constantly looked for a way out of my yard.  After two years, she has finally decided that she is actually part of the pack, and is doing well.

"Buddy Cat"
at about six months of age
©2010 PK Hawk

I have one cat, whose name is "Buddy." Buddy was one of a litter of stray kittens born under someone's home. When the mother cat disappeared, the owner of the home managed to rescue the litter, and finish raising them. She had them all spayed or neutered, and was looking for homes for them. Someone told her about me, and she contacted me to see if I might take one of the kittens, to place in an adoptive home.  I told her that I would take him, and either find him a permanent home, or keep him myself.  I ended up keeping him, and it has turned out to be a good decision.  It took Buddy about two weeks before he would even come from under the bathroom sink, for anything other than to eat and use the littler box, not only because he was in a strange place, but he was not used to being around dogs, and I had four at the time.  He is a wonderful cat, and thinks he is another one of the dogs now.  Buddy is an orange domestic short-hair, and as his name implies, he is a real "Buddy Cat." Buddy and Snow Bear are also good friends, often loving and rubbing against each other as best buddy animals will do. 

California Banded King Snake
©2010 PK Hawk

I also have two Banded California King Snakes. They don't really have names, but I got them the day they hatched on August 9th and 10th of 2007. They are now about three feet long, and though I really would like to release them, I don't know if they would know how to survive, as they have only eaten mice which have been purchased frozen, and warmed to approximate normal body temperature. I will soon be giving the snakes to someone who has other reptiles, and is knowledgeable about snakes, and knows how to properly care for them. 

A few of my pond fish
©2010 PK Hawk

Until I recently sold my home and moved, I also had about thirty pond fish, which I bought at Walmart, as inch-long baby fish. They are now five to nine inches long.  I had them in a large pool of about eight hundred gallons. They are about three to four years old, and are now in a large in ground with about twenty-five thousand gallons of water. The man who has them has a professional taking care of the fish and the pool, so their should have long and healthy lives ahead.