Life Without Cats & Dogs? I Can't Imagine!

I love all animals great and small. I especially love cats and dogs. So do my kids. Along with Yooper. After all he is a veterinarian. Would you expect anything different?

Our kids appreciate having animals in their lives. They have learned to care for them. To provide not only food, water, shelter but also to give them lot's of love. Animals give so much affection to us it is only natural and easy to show love in return.

Our pets are lucky. They are adored. They are cuddled. They are happy and content. I love what they do for me. They make me smile. Laugh. Ease my mood. Some days it is nice to sit down on the couch and curl up with a furry friend.

And that makes my world go round a bit more easily.

Mini Me turned 10 years old in January. No more single digits for her. She tells me she does not want to get older and any bigger. I tell that is good. "Don't wish to be older like your mom. You will be soon enough. Life passes by far too quickly." And then I make her change the channel with "Hannah Montana" to "Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe" which makes her roll her eyes at me.

Mini Me had a fun birthday party inviting her girly friends to bowl, eat pizza and cake. And in lieu of gifts she asked them to bring donations for one of our area's animal shelters. And donations were brought indeed! Cat food, dog food, kitty litter, dog treats, cleaning supplies! It made my daughter so happy and proud. She was so excited to take all of these "gifts" and give them to those animals in need.

A few weeks after her birthday we loaded up our truck with all of the donations from her birthday party and made a special trip to this humane society.

When we entered the shelter bringing in one bag after another of pet foods and boxes of other goodies, the ladies that volunteer their time to the shelter were all smiles. They were so very grateful!

What a wonderful feeling it gave all of us! To give. To give to these animals who have come to live in this shelter. They did not pick this to be their home. They did not choose to stay here. These cats and dogs who have no say in the matter of why they are in this shelter. And that is why we wanted to help.

We were greeted first by some happy dogs and a litter of adorable puppies. I love this animal shelter because the volunteers who operate it 365 days a year have such big hearts and take great pride in how the animals are cared for.

What cuteness! So hard to resist scooping up this one and taking him home!

For my kids, they especially love the cat room. Me too. The cat rooms in this shelter allow visitors to truly socialize with all of the cats. And it seems all of the cats get along just fine. Before I knew it all of the cage doors were open and each kitty cat was out and about playing with my kids.

Who doesn't love holding a furry body of a cat?

So sweet and such wondering eyes. Oh how I could bring them all home. And then Yooper would tell me to to go take a flying leap.

Kittah kisses! I think this one particularly liked Yooper Jr's curls!

"Oh little girl wearing such a bright, purple coat, please scratch a little to the left please."

"Ahh that is better."

I will say that just about every cat we visited with was so friendly. So loving. And so wanting our attention. What I have noticed each time I have been to this shelter is how social the cats are to humans. That is mostly due to the shelter volunteers spending time with these cats and being cat lovers themselves; it is hard not to pass up some good quality time with such wonderful felines.

So many cats. So many different personalities. All of them craving attention.

This little guy cracked me up. He reminds me of a panda! What a face. And those ears!

There are two nicely sized cat rooms. They each have places for the cats to explore. Shelves to climb up on to. High places to perch upon. To me it seems so awesome for a cat to hang out!

Up on her perch surveying the action below!

There is a window in each room with bird feeders just outside to keep a few cats busy watching, hunting, waiting, chitter chattering away.

This is how it looks in the room for my kids. They are in literal cat heaven! Not to mention the smiles and laughter that erupts from them as the cats play around them. Or in this picture, on them!

Napping under a blanket. Content for now and probably dreaming of a forever home with a couple kids to be loved by.

Perched on a shelf watching the birds outside wishing they could get their little paws on a bird or two.

We had such a wonderful visit that day enjoying the time spent with the dogs and cats who welcomed us. We left with big hearts. I loved hearing my kids carry on about this cat or that one remembering their names as they conversed about each one.

My kids learned more about animal shelters that day. What their purpose is in a community. Why animals live there, if only for a short time, some perhaps longer.

While we didn't take home any of the cats or dogs vacating the shelter, we did bring home some great memories. And some everlasting values of giving to those who are in need. Especially to the animals whose greatest words speak through their soulful eyes.

March 15th is Adopt the Internet Day for Petfinder.com, the biggest source to finding a pet to adopt all over the United States. You can help to spread the word about finding a forever friend through pet adoption here.