About Us

Greetings,

My wife and I have created this website/blog as we thought there would be others who would be interested in reading some of the stories we have involving our pets. We have also tried numerous products during our many years of pet ownership. So there will be reviews from time to time on some of the products we currently use or have used over the years.

A Big Move

We currently live in Ottawa, Ontario and have been living here since 2000. Previous to moving to Ottawa, we lived in Northern Ontario where I worked in the mining industry and Louise stayed at home with our four children. While we were living in Northern Ontario, we only had one cat in our home, the other cats would come after we moved to Ottawa. The one cat we had while living up north, moved with us to Ottawa in 2000. 

That Swiffer Floor Cleaner Isn't Good

Once we were living in Ottawa, Louise came upon the new WetJet product which is used to clean floors. The sheets come in a container and are pre-moistened with cleaner and attach to a special head with a long handle for cleaning floors. She was using these cleaning cloths regularly to keep the floors clean and we didn't realize that our cat Blacky was getting ill from licking his paws after walking on the wet floors just cleaned with the WetJet cloths. Finally, the day came when the cat got very ill and passed away. There was very little notice that there was something wrong and we believe that the cat died from some type of liver poisoning. 

Loss of a Friend

After we lost the cat Blacky, Louise found someone who was giving away their cats and she took the two of them in. She renamed the one that looked to be a Norwegian Forest cat Sweetness from its current name of BoBo and the large white male that came with the smaller male was named Picachu. After a year or so, we had to give Picachu away as the two cats were always fighting and the larger Picachu was often the loser in those fights. Picachu was also shedding fur like I've never seen before with a cat. It wasn't because the cat was ill or had any medical issues, but he was just the type of cat that had a lot of fur and was always shedding as well as that fur which was lost during those fights.

Ottawa Humane Society

So now we were back down to one cat and Louise wanted to get another cat. We went to the Ottawa Humane Society and there we found a kitten that was grabbing at me from the time she first saw me. Louise didn't want a female cat, but there was something about this cat that I thought would make her a good fit for our home. So, we were now back up to two cats and we named the female diluted Calico Waffle. It took some time for Sweetness to accept the new female kitten, but all was well after a few weeks. The two cats became friends and unlike with Picachu, Sweetness didn't pick fights with the new kitten and seemed to get along with her. 

Our First Bengal Cat

A couple years later, Louise started reading on the new breed of cat that was being talked about online that was supposed to be similar to a dog in nature. That breed of cat is the Bengal, and is bred from the Asian Leopard cat with a domestic Tabby cat. Most cat breeders don't consider the Bengal as a purebred cat, but rather as a hybrid. The American Cat Fanciers Association now considers the Bengal as a breed. We had to drive from Ottawa to a breeder that was near Quebec City, and we did this drive in January in a snowstorm. It wasn't easy driving back at night with a howling kitten in a crate with the blowing snow. We named this kitten Ozzy as this cat was a bit on the crazy side. The other two cats weren't too sure of the new male kitten, but Waffle being a female took to Ozzy and was very much like a mother to the new kitten and taught him what was acceptable and what wasn't. 

And Then There Was Four

So we were a three cat household for some time, until October of 2017. Louise was looking through some ads and found someone who was selling kittens which were part Snow Leopard Bengals. So we went to look at the kittens which were about a month old at the time. The mother was a purebred Bengal, so the kittens had the markings of the breed. I was most interested in the kitten that had the best markings and really didn't care if was male or female. I picked a female out of the litter that had the most pronounced markings and we gave our deposit and said we would be back in a month to pick up the kitten. The person selling the kittens called us a couple weeks later and said we had to pick up the kitten the following Monday, making the kitten under seven weeks old. We reluctantly picked up the kitten thinking it was too soon to separate her from her mother. We had also picked out a kitten for one of our neighbours, and she also had to go get her kitten. 

Fleas and More Fleas

We immediately brought the kitten to our veterinarian in Gatineau, QC for an examination before we brought her home to the other three cats. We weren't sure that bringing the kitten home was a wise choice given the condition that the home these kittens were currently living in. Although the kitten was in good health, she was infested with fleas and had to be treated. As we were bringing her into a home which had three other cats already, we had to buy flea treatments for those cats as well to ensure that no fleas would be transferred between the cats. It wasn't fun applying flea treatment to four cats, but we managed to get through it and we now had four cats in our home.

Sunny Days

We named the new kitten Mocha and she was not received well by the other three cats. It would be a couple of weeks before the other cats would even get near her. It seemed as though the other cats were threatened by her small size and would stay away from her. A week after we brought Mocha home, I was contacted by a dog breeder I had been having an email exchange with concerning possibly getting a Beagle puppy. She had a male puppy that was four months old and she thought would be a good fit for us. So a week after the kitten came into our home, we now had a four month old Beagle puppy that was learning to be house-trained, but still had a ways to go before he would be completely finished and the accidents would be no more. 

All Alone

Needless to say, since the other three cats weren't bonding with the new kitten, she was attracted to the new puppy, who was also being shunned by the three adult cats. The Beagle puppy is named Sunny and he is what is known as a lemon drop purebred Beagle. He gets the lemon drop designation because he is not the traditional three colored Beagle. Sunny is just two colors, tan with white markings. He has the almost perfect white “M” marking on his forehead and he has four white socks on his feet and the white tip on his tail. He is the type of dog breeders want and he is in a breeding program because of his markings and his general good demeanor. Sunny and Mocha are now best friends in the house and they get along well. The other three cats have accepted both the new kitten and the dog, which are now full grown adults. 

Sunny to the Rescue

When the cats do decide to get into disagreements, the dog will run down and break things up when we ask him to do so. Needless to say, with four cats and a dog, our house is usually busy. The cats are sometimes jealous that the dog gets to go outside to do his business as the cats are not allowed outside and are strictly inside cats. We do sometimes allow them out on the balcony, but such is only done when there is someone who is able to supervise them. Mocha and Waffle are both jumpers and we have had to retrieve Waffle more than once from the neighbour's balcony when she decided to get on the rails and make her way over there. 

Summing Up

So that's our story up until now. We have several other stories that we will be posting on the website along with pictures and video. It is often busy in our home and the pets have very much taken over our home. Since we have no more children at home, the pets are now what keeps us going. It can get hectic at times, but we can say that there are very few dull moments in our house.

Cheers,

G-Man