Oh how adorable! My, my Nancia, you outdid yourself! She's so happy!
While we're on pets, I'll share a couple happy things and sad things. My friend's husband just returned from Afghanistan about a week ago. She's been preparing for their move to Italy as his next duty station for the next 2 years, and they were planning to take their pets with them. When they married a year ago this week, right before his deployment, they had 4 large dogs between them, all rescues, with two of them being 12+ years old. She went through all kinds of paperwork, health testing, ect and had to have special (expensive) crates built in Atlanta for them and her African gray parrot, who is also a rescue they planned to take with them. So he gets home, and the oldest of his 2 dogs starts having seizures. About the same time, her oldest starts loosing the ability to walk on his hind legs. Yesterday, they had to have both of them put to sleep. Now it's up in the air whether they can take any of the animals until they prove it's not been caused by something potentially contagious. The two they lost were old, and there was speculation they may not have survived the move, so it's better this way for them. I hate to hear that the others might be impounded for testing before they're allowed to take them though.
Her dog was an extra large Great Dane, lovingly called "the old man." When I'd visit, he'd come over and sniff me, then back up and sit down on the couch next to me, almost on my lap. The parrot was abused by his previous owners and is very neurotic. I'm wondering how he's going to take the move. When he gets stressed, he pulls his tail feathers out. He's sneaky though, and so funny. In the 7-1/2 years I've known her, he's never once spoken with me looking at him. He'd wait until I turned away and he'd say "Don't look now!" then turn away before I could look at him. As soon as I left the room, he'd do his imitation of either an ambulance or a firetruck. If you yelled back to him, "Norton, was that you?" he'd say "Norton left. Leave a message. BEEP!.....Crazy bird!" and then he'd laugh.
I know what you ladies mean about the animals owning the house and us being the ones who are owned, lol. I had a red poodle named Ginger who was the protector of not only our house, but the neighbors' as well. She thought she owned 2 houses. My neighbors both worked nights at Keebler, so when I left in the morning, I'd leave her outside (with my ex-husband home). My neighbors would come home shortly after and she'd go lay on the couch with them until they were ready for bed. Then they'd send her home. She'd scratch lightly on the door & when my ex would open it, she'd go lay in her crate in the laundry room so he could leave for work. She'd get into trouble and she'd hide behind the couch. We didn't know until after she was killed that when she was hiding, she was also chewing on the back of the end table! I'd have another poodle in a minute. I think I'd want a teacup this time though. I think I'm getting too old for big animals.
Before Ginger, we had Shadow, a yellow lab who didn't mind cats or other dogs, but hated squirrels. When we grilled steaks & had baked potatoes and salad with it, I'd dump all the leftovers in a bowl for him. That crazy dog would actually save the steak for last and eat his veggies first.
He loved Dusty though. Ginger just thought Dusty was in her way, and my ex-husband too!