Fluffybutts Family

 

Luna Lovegood

Bagheera

Patricia and Akira

Merlin

Pixie and Shantewa

Shantewa

Raina, Bagheera, and Mia

Morgana

Hello and welcome 🙂  My name is Shantewa.  If you can’t pronounce that, don’t worry, I have many nicknames – Shant, Shan, Shante, Shante-tewa, Shaniqua, Shant’wa, Teshawna, and more.  Take your pick!  I am the co-leader and one of the not-so-fluffybutts of our Fluffybutt Family.

My very best and closest friend and sister, co-leader, and another not-so-fluffybutt – Patricia.  She is 25 years old and an integral part of my pack and of myself and just what makes me, me.

The first fluffybutt – Raina.  Raina is a 5-year-old domestic shorthair grey and white tabby cat, currently by far the pet we’ve had the longest as well as a third generation mouser through her grandmother, Zeela, who was the mother of Fluff, who was the mate of Noah, who was Raina’s mother.  She is an indoor/outdoor cat and loves her job as a mouser and occasional squirrel and bird hunter.  Raina is the Queen of our pack.  She demands her space be respected by the other pets in the household, but loves the attention of her two-legged family members, especially when it’s time for food!

The second fluffybutt – Bagheera.  Bagheera is a 4-year-old domestic shorthair black cat, brother to Raina through the same mother, though from a different litter.  Bagheera adores people.  It doesn’t matter who it is, family member or stranger, man or woman, adult or child, he wants their attention.  He is also an indoor/outdoor cat and hates to be confined to a single room or, heaven-forbid, a kennel on the way to the vet.  He enjoys playing with our rambunctious year-old puppy and stalking squirrels.

The third fluffybutt – Merlin.  Merlin is a 2-year-old domestic shorthair blue spotted tabby cat (look it up).  We adopted Merlin from a local woman whose outdoor cat ended up with a litter of little fluffballs.  He’s cuddly and purry when wanting food or attention, but only on his own terms.  He greatly dislikes being forced to interact, though he will tolerate it.  He spent much of his younger months trying to dash outside, but due to an incident earlier in the year and the death of another, much beloved cat, we intended him to be an indoor-only cat.  He loves being up high and will take any opportunity to jump atop the cat tree or bookcase or fridge or, really, any high surface he can possibly jump onto.  He’s also our little cat burglar.  He’ll steal anything he can fit into his mouth such as pens, pencils, erasers, USBs, chapstick, and other little objects that he’ll then drop wherever he may be when he loses interest in them.  Many a thing has been lost that way!

The fourth not-so-fluffybutt – Pixie.  Pixie is a 5-year-old chocolate-colored chihuahua/dachshund mix.  She is my first, official pet.  Though I’d never envisioned myself owning a small dog, I knew that’s all I would be able to handle responsibly in my current circumstances.  So I searched and immediately fell in love with her when I saw her at the local animal shelter.  She was the exact color of my babygirl, Coco, whom we lost many years before.  Pixie had the most adorable ears, one that stuck out and the other that flopped down.  Her kennel-mate was jumping and yapping insistently beside her, but all she did was calmly look at us with her paws on the gate and wag her tail.  She was going to be my dog.  And so she became, and a more perfect companion I couldn’t find anywhere.  Though friendly to everyone, she has a slightly nervous disposition that causes her to growl when being loomed over or upon initial approach, but she warms up quickly once she knows the person or animal.  The one thing I might wish we could change and that we’re working at changing is her Small Dog Syndrome.  Any dog bigger than her makes her extremely nervous.  Despite her quirks and the work that still needs done, she fits my personality and inner self to a T.  I wouldn’t give her up for the world.

The fifth fluffybutt – Morgana.  Morgana is a 2-year-old black and white bi-color domestic medium hair cat.  Remember Merlin’s door dashing?  We adopted Morgana from the local animal shelter as incentive for him to stay inside.  And, for the most part, it’s worked.  He no longer tries to dash out the door, though he will sit by it and stare outside, and if we leave the door open long enough, he will dart out.  So we’re careful not to leave the door open too long.  Back to Morgana.  She’s our crazy cat.  She loves to play and has no shortage of energy!  She’s also our talker.  She meows, mews, purrs, yowls, chirrups, and chirps and will talk back if you “talk” to her.  She loves being petted, but dislikes being cuddled.  As soon as anyone (usually the younger kids in the house) tries to pull her into a hug, she struggles to get away.  She’s another little burglar, for which we have Merlin to thank.  She’s also one that hates being in a kennel or trapped in a small room and will yowl and cry until someone lets her out.

The sixth and final not-so-fluffybutt – Luna Lovegood.  Luna is a 2-year-old black and white Border Collie/Boxer/Whippet mix.  Our search for Luna started when we determined my sister, Patricia, needed a companion animal to help her with her depression, anxiety while driving, and nightly paranoia.  However, we needed to get the dog when it was a puppy as it needed to be big enough that Patricia would feel it could protect her if need be, so it could bond with her early on, and so Pixie would accept the dog even with her Small Dog Syndrome.  We started searching.  I watched the shelter Facebook pages.  Finally, a puppy became available in an animal shelter about an hour and a half away from where we live.  It was a little older than we thought would be good, 3 months to be exact, but it was female and we sorely wanted to adopt from a shelter if at all possible.  We cleared a weekend, okayed it with our mom, and started on our trip to get a puppy.  To be sure they would get along, we brought Pixie with us;  however, immediately upon introduction Pixie made her displeasure and dislike of the excitable pup known.  So we continued on to other cities, keeping our eyes on the Facebook pages of the local shelters for possible adoptable puppies.  No luck.  Every shelter either had no puppies, or they were all spoken for.  As a last resort, we turned to craigslist.  Most of the time, it’s not advisable to look for a pet on craigslist for obvious reasons.  Having taken a more than 3-hour trip and checking all the available shelters along the way, we were desperate to find a puppy for my sister.  Finally, a brand new post appeared on craigslist.  Mixed puppies for sale for $50.  We’d been praying for just such a thing to happen.  We contacted the woman who posted the ad and soon found our way to her house.  The house was nice.  The dogs were well cared for, as were the puppies.  The owner of the puppies allowed us all the time we needed to mingle with them and to allow Pixie to mingle with them so we could choose one appropriate for our personalities and lifestyle.  One puppy caught my eye.  It was a female, just what we were searching for, and spent most of her time sleeping while we were there.  She was, we came to find out, one of the quietest and least energetic of the bunch.  A few calls and a long, agonizing wait later, we received permission to bring her home.  She’s now a beautiful adolescent dog who adores people, dogs, and cats, who is almost obsessive over fetch, who occasionally chooses not to listen but mostly does listen, and is sometimes much too smart for her own good.  In short, she’s been just the companion my sister needs.

That, my friends, is our Fluffybutt Family!  I hope you enjoyed their introductions.  Please join our Fluffybutt Family and be witness to our adventures, missteps, crazy times, happy and sad times, and the set-up of our online pet store, Fluffybutts Pet Boutique, on our wonderful journey together 🙂  We follow back!