As a way to connect with people from all walks of life these holidays, why don't we share discovering our pets?

I'll go first.My cat, Lucy, is a Tabby. She's an adorable, one and a half year old, ~9lb mother of five, two of which we kept. She's very special, and here's one reason why: How we found her.Actually, she came to us. Last year on 12/2-5 this cute, adorable little cat(she was seven months at this time) came wandering onto our yard. It was evident she had been someone elses pet.. she had a collar on, purple and jeweled, but no tags. It was evident that this cat ran away because she was very skittish and was very wary(though she has changed now) and was probably abused. We had just been able to have a cat in our home and wanted to go find one, but inevitably God graced us with our cat. She's a very special cat whom I would give my Christmas up to save(and almost did) and thank God she is healthy, if healing. If I had come home an hour later I may never have run into her and we never would have started caring for her in our garage. A few days later we brought her inside, and now she is our joy.She doesn't want anything to do with her kittens now that they are 9 months old, but she is still very full of love.I hope your stories are as heartwarming. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Awww thats a very heart warming story!I have a dog named Ripley. We named her after AVP (one of those moives, named after the hero girl at the end) Right now, she's 9 years old.We got her by going online and looking at dog pounds. We found her and we HAD to have her, but she was all the way in virginia (we live in PA). So my dad went all the way over there and got her. He alsmot got the boy, but I talked him into getting the only girl there. So he got her, and on the way back she pooped on the map! He had to buy a new map to find his way back home. Once she got home, she was already part of the family. But at the time I couldn't say Ripley so I have her the nick-name WeeWee! Guess what? It stuck with her all these years! In my family, we know her better as WeeWee not Ripley. Also, do you know the county singer Durks Bently? He has the name dog as Ripley! (WeeWee) http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/features/mutts/blog/bentleydog2new.jpghttp://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/features/mutts/blog/newbentleydog.jpgI'm not lying when I say thats her brother!She is the sweetist, most lady-like dog I have ever had and I will be heart broken when it's her time to go. Lets hope that wont be for a while =(Well thanks for readding my story! I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year too!

One of my Eclectus parrot named Maigjha was found in a snowdrift. The woman who found her took her to a rescue who then called me. She lost a toe, her beak shattered and a compound fracture to her right femur. She was not banded so we had no way of tracing who her owner was, where she was bred, etc. She is the red bird in this picture: http://www.avianweb.com/eclectus.htm She soon gained 26 grams after her leg was fixed and I learned how to speak her language. I may have saved her life but she has truly saved mine times 2. I am a 100% disabled veteran and animals help through depression. I've love her dearly and she is now potty trained. She says: "Hi" to passing trucks and trees. I now volunteer with a menagerie of animals at museums and schools. My blog site is below and you can see Maigjha and Robby in the slideshow in the right corner.http://zoocrewkids.blogspot.com/

That's heartwarming. :)My little boy is named Loki and he's a 2 year old black & white ragdoll cross with the most gorgeous green eyes you'll ever see. I was working at the animal shelter near my house as I had been for the last 5 months. I went outside to clean the cattery after a weekend off and saw a bunch of cats in the outdoor cages. Now I love all the animals but I didn't try to take any home, but when I laid eyes on my boy, I knew he was meant for me. Love at first sight. Unfortunately, he was a feral kitten. I knew he was worth saving, but the shelter doesn't have the resources to rehabilitate feral kittens so for 2 weeks I went into that cage and sat with him, talked to him and gained his trust. The first time he ever allowed me to pick him up, he purred, but then my manager walked outside and told me all the feral cats had to be put down. I didn't know what to do. I was the only one that could touch him and my parents wouldn't allow another cat.I went home and tried frantically to find someone to take him all night but no one could. I expected him to be gone when I went in the next day but when I went out, he was still there! They had "forgotten" about him. If anyone has worked in a shelter before, they know that that just does not happen. I knew it was a sign he was meant to be mine. For the next week (euth was on wednesdays so I had till the next one) I tried to find him a home. Nothing came about but on thanksgiving day my mom said "You've tried your best, I see that. I don't want to see you cry anymore. Let's go get him."He is amazing, and I wouldn't trade my little beast for the world.Merry Christmas from Tara and Loki

I have WAYYY too many animals to go into detail, but I had to answer this question as I just love it!My Fiance and I have 56 horses, 33 are which rescues. Most from slaughter, 4 left abandoned where we live, and 7 rescued from a shelter. The rest we bred, as we have champion horses and breed and sell some of their foals. We also show horses. 2 Donkies, Ginger and Burrito. One rescued from slaughter the other left abandoned with the 4 horses.1 mule George, left abandoned with horses and donkey. 1 mini donkey, Splash, was mauled by a dog and left on the side of the road to die. We drove by and found he was alive took him home and made him 100% again. And he loves our dogs!2 cows Jerry, and Betsy saved from slaughter.6 pigs, 4 rescued from slaughtered, 2 from a shelter.Many Chickens(28), Roosters (7), Ducks (10) that have been given to us. 3 Peacocks, and 7 chicks, that were given to us. 7 cats, all dumped on our farm. 2 Goats Bob, and Sam, 1 llama Sally, and 1 alpaca Max someone couldn't care for.6 Bunnies, people dumped 4 babies in our bunny barn, 2 we bought for 4-H.9 birds, 3 bought, 6 given to us.11 snakes, 5 from a shelter, 3 given to us, 3 bought.4 lizards, given to us because people could no longer care for them.1 mouse, 1 hamster, given. 31 dogs, 24 ours, 7 rescues. We have a Pug (bought), Kangal (bought), Rottie mix (bought), Pit mix (given), Dingo mix (shelter), Border Collie/Aussie (given), 6 APBT (3 rescues. 3 are rescued/rehabilitated fighting dogs, 2 abused, 1shelter), 2 Cane Corsos (abandoned), Bull Mastiff (bought), American Bulldog (Rehabilitated fighter), English Bulldog (shelter), Neo Mastiff (abused & abandoned), 3 wolf mixes (2 given, 1 shelter), Coton De Tulear (bought), Olde English Bulldogge (Abused), Alapaha Blue Blood (rescue), Boxer (given), Bull Terrier (bought), Banter Bulldogge (rescue), 4 American Bullies (2 rescues and 1 rehabilitated fighter, 1 shelter dog) . Those are our loving pets. All get along with each other and us.Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

1. I work for a pet store and each day during the week has a designated habitat to completely scrub down. Thursdays is reptile cleaning day and a girl I was working with at the time removed all their ornaments from the tanks and took them back to where she had the sink waiting full of hot and soapy water. Well she didn't notice that one of our white's tree frogs was hiding in one of the plants and he ended up in the sink. When she walked back he was in the water just hanging out, so he was set up in an isolation cage to see if he would be okay. He spent a couple weeks in there and we realized he wasn't eating, his eyes had turned completely black, he was blind, and his skin had also been burned by the cleaning solution. Because he was blind he had to be handfed. I got very attached to him so I adopted him out in May of 2008. A year later I was taking his picture and realized that the gold in his eyes was coming back and not too long after that he regained his sight, though it still isn't perfect.His name is Humphrey the Dumpy tree frog.2. In December of 2008, I was walking out of the store where I work carrying my crickets for my guys when I ran into my neighbor who was also going in for crickets. She told me that they were for her son's leopard gecko. Well that night she called my house asking if I wanted the gecko because her kids (all 8 of them!) had lost interest and of course I couldn't say no. So I picked the gecko up that same night. They had called it Geico, but when I checked it turned out he was really a she, so I renamed her Lulabelle.3. I got my pacman frog Nighthob this past summer. A boy had bought him a month before and wanted to return him but as it was outside our guarantee we couldn't take him. The dad seemed upset because they didn't know what to do with him, so I offered to take him. This just goes to show how important it is that people do their research before buying a pet. The boy was bored and said that the pacman never did anything...pacman frogs work themselves into the dirt of their tank and sit there. It's just what they do. 4. I inherited my Amazon parrot Bogart from my grandmother. She died of leukemia and lung cancer in 2007. We estimate that he is about my age and I am assuming that he was wild-caught because of the time he was bought and the lack of a legband. Originally my grandmother rescued him from an abusive household. He has an impressive vocabulary and I love him.