Tag Archives: pets

This here is the Perfectly Flawed weekly round-up, so if you missed me on Pinterest & Facebook, this is where I’ll be sharing some of that LOVE on Fridays. Enjoy!

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Dinner, Produce Bags & Baby Steps!

Woo Hoo, got my cooking grove back this week! Love Pinterest, so many great recipes being shared. I’ve made Gingery Soba Noodle Soup, Shrimp in coconut sauce over rice, Roasted rep pepper & goat cheese alfredo and last night we made homemade chick pea veggie burgers with a side of Brussel sprout & Swiss chard salad!

Finally purchased our reusable produce and bulk items bags. I bought five of these from Flip & Tumble, I also got 6 of these from Kootsac on Etsy. I can’t wait to get these, another stride towards being plastic free!

I’ve been gathering information on making our own cleaning products. I already use alternative non-toxic products, but they come in plastic so…. Next Tuesday on Natural Living Tips I’m switching from Coconut Oil to Home-made cleaning products and I’ll be discussing them throughout April. It is time for Spring Cleaning after all!

Though I did manage to make home-made toothpaste this week, Gavin’s not thrilled, lol. He’ll get used to it.

Just a reminder to anyone trying to go green or make strides in that direction. The best way is baby steps. I’ve not arrived here quickly or without challenge and I’m still far from where I want to be. Here’s an article, from Almost the Truth,  I read this week about Baby steps and why it’s so important to celebrate every one of them. Please read it.

What Baby steps are you taking?
Peace!

Harry says "chill"!

Murdock and Amelia - The lovebirds:-)

Matilda

Warning…. This is a rant, a rage and will be negative in tone at times as well as endearing!

It may just be the phases of grief, I’m in denial, deeply upset, emotional and have an incredible amount of anger built up over the probable loss of our kitty Matilda. This is where some reading this will stop and say “Oh good grief about a cat again?”  YES it is. See, I’m one of those that has deep feelings towards my pets, and though I’ve always known that not all people share these feelings, living out here in the country I’m surrounded by more people now who see animals as a means to an end, a way of life, as working animals, not as creatures that can give and receive real love. It’s not hard for me to understand how they come to feel this way but I wish some understanding was allowed for the way I feel about them too. Matilda has been gone for six nights now, living out here with the coyotes (of which I haven’t seen or heard yet, but I’m told are here), the bald eagles (which DO on a regular basis swoop in and take whole chickens from our farm neighbors yard), and other predators, the likeliness of her coming home is slim. This compounded with just having put down our Amelia, of 13 years, only five weeks ago, and then our Murdock (16, our first kitten together before we were married and mama’s boy) lost his battle with cancer yesterday, I’m at my limit, to say the least!  This has been an incredibly difficult week for the family. Matilda is three, she was the kids first kitten.   Addy picked her out at Pet Pal Animal Shelter. Then her name was Heather,  she would let Addy carry her around endlessly and would lick Addy’s hands and face.  Her hair like a bunnies, so soft and this dark black chin strap marking that reminded me of the penguin. She was our kitty with Catittude, was really good at giving the”F-you” or “WTF do you want?” glare and then at night she’d curl up in whichever lap was available and fall into a deep sleep, totally content, peaceful.  But she was a free spirit and craved the outdoors, she started missing a meal hear and there to prolong her time outside. We were gifted with a squirrel, a bird and a lizard in just the short time we’ve been living here.  Always so proud of herself.  We fought over what to do with the cats when we moved, knowing the possible consequences of allowing them to go outside, knowing about the dangers that linger just pass the fence line and some within.  We decided it wasn’t right to keep them locked up if they so badly wanted to be free,  that  we’d have to be ok with our choice.  But I can’t scream loudly enough that even though we made that decision it absolutely DOES NOT make this any easier, in fact, with a personality like mine, I just go through the guilt of not doing my job of protecting her. Oh yes I do. I will at times blame myself for this, so I don’t need anyone judging me for letting her explore, though they will, have, and in lack of knowing what to say have judged out loud.  I know they meant no harm, but seriously, I’ll beat myself up enough.  I  stare out the windows see her in the shadows, I hope to see her just walk up suddenly, see her head staring at me to let her in, like she did.  God how I miss her face!! I’m not sleeping, I cry all the time, I’m literally sick about it! The sadness of missing her is hanging over the family like a thick fog.  If she’s not home by Sunday we’ve decided to have a small family service for her by the fire pit just to bring some closure, to begin the healing process.  We can think positive and say maybe another family took her in, I’d like the kids to think so anyway.  I know, like our neighbor said so bluntly “Oh, you’ll never see that cat again”.  Only I’ll keep hoping we will.

I just want those that don’t share mine and so many others deep love and emotion for our beloved pets to know that there are those who do have these feelings and to us losses like this are tremendous, can be debilitating, are not funny or easily dismissed. We take it like a loss of a family member because that’s what they are to us, I know, silly?  Not to people like me. Please, please try to respect our grief as we respect what animals are to you.

I’m just terribly missing my kitties!

We’ve been here now exactly 19 days and it’s already been quite the adventure. We’re starting to make new friends, finding our farmers and markets, yep we have both close by. In fact, we recently learned that we can walk, yep, walk to The Dam Ranch (only .6mi from our house). They have fresh eggs, chickens, goats milk and cheese. We also visited the Miakka Farmers’s Market this past Saturday. It’s located at the Crowley Museum and Nature Center.

It’s so wonderfully peaceful out here, a little creepy too. We love to camp, primitively, so we’re not strangers to the dark, the crickets, critters moving in the trees, bugs, etc. But it’s something about having so much space, and it’s sooooo dark. I love it though, and I’m sure we’ll get used to this. We’re on a two-lane country road and our neighbors are only about 2ish acres away from us on two sides, a bit further to the rear of the house. It’s like we have our own nature park really. So many beautiful old Florida oak trees with hanging moss. The moss glows in the late afternoon as the sun shines through it, beautiful!

Then there’s the spiders. We have many banana spider friends, AKA Golden Orb Weavers. Yes, they do weave a golden orb, it shines in the light a glorious yellow hue. We had a Wolf Spider stop by the other evening. We, well PFMan, gently removed him from the house against his wishes. I’m usually the bug remover, but I’m trying to break PFMan in a bit. We had our friends over the other day and the kids found a Jumping Spider that had placed his web in a poor location, the walkway from the house to the walled garden. Just glad it didn’t jump on me while removing his web. I like spiders, but I don’t want them on me.

The Verizon man found a Gopher Tortoise in the yard behind the studio. Watching Lilith, our Corgi/Beagle mix, was loads of laughs as she saw the tortoise for the first time. She had no idea what she was looking at and really wanted to investigate. Poor little tortoise probably just wanted her to shut up. PFMan witnessed a family of opossums in the yard a couple of nights ago. Did I mention we pass soooo many moos and naaaas to and from our home. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of seeing those cows grazing. Love seeing the mamas with the babies. I haven’t gotten my camera out yet to capture them or the horses yet, but you can bet I will soon! For now I’ve just taken tons around the house.

Our dog Bear is not the Country dog, having already sprained her ankle, gotten into a Spur field (covered!) and has gotten her neck stuck in the gate leading to the pasture. That was fun, NOT! Everyone is still alive!! We’ll continue our adventure, we still have many boxes to empty and have been selling and buying furniture as needed. So it’s coming along.

Peace & enjoy the images:-)!

Bear, before spurs:-)

We had our first ‘living in the wild’ experience today. Our dog Bear got into some sand spurs. Actually, it was more then some, it was A LOT! It was the first storm since we moved in last Friday and the kids and I were outside with the pups while it was still drizzling. I had my camera in hand, they were running around the property on their new walkie talkies (they arrived earlier today in the mail). I was taking tons of pictures of our friends the banana and orchard spiders and of course our kitties, who were wandering the yard for the first time. Suddenly the dogs were gone, we couldn’t locate them for about 15 minutes, it had started to storm and thunder again. Then out of the wild, the fern and weed covered wild area between the house and front gate, Lilith comes running, then Bear shortly behind her. Only Bear was COVERED with sand spurs. There must have been 100+ easy. She’s a chow mix, longer hair (luckily she had been groomed not too long ago, so it was shorter than normal). Anyway, with the help of scissors, tweezers and a metal prong pet brush, oh and about 30 minutes, I managed to get them all off. UGH! Then we took a shower together:-).

Day done, Peace!

April 1998 - May 3rd, 2011

He was the needy one. He came to us in a bundle of four brothers. I was volunteering at a large cat Sanctuary in Orlando at the time, 1998, and our Compound Cat had a litter of kittens. We couldn’t find them for a couple of weeks, thought them to be dead, mama went in to be spayed, we found the babies. Michael and I took them in, dirty, matted, one had a badly injured eye, (he would later be named Yoda). Laslo, (from Real Genuis in case you were curious), was the needy one. He tried to suckle on his brothers, did this well into his 2nd year. We lived in a loft apartment while we were bottle feeding the kittens. Laslo had bad balance and twice fell from the loft to the coffee table below. OMG, freaked me out! He was fine. A little over a year later, we loaded them (and our 3 other kitties) up in the car and moved them all out to Las Vegas. We road tripped with our seven kitties in 5 days and as many hotels and then road tripped back a year and a half later.

Laslo was the needy one. The pawer, “hey, I’m down here”, he’d say, “I need you”. When you called any other cat, it’s Laslo who came running, belly swinging side to side. “I need you”! He’d curl up with lovebirds Murdock and Amelia, the three Musketeers I called them, now there are two, they can have alone time.

Thirteen this past April, not too old, not young. He was thinning, recently stopped eating. Liver, kidney, mouth injury?? It all happened so quickly, just in the last couple of weeks. Nope, none of the above. A mass on the x-ray surrounded by fluid, lots of trouble breathing, no prognosis is good.

You don’t go to the vet thinking you’ll have to make that kind of decision right then, no time to think, complete confusion, he’s suffering, trouble breathing, could die overnight of respiratory distress, put him down peacefully, kids are with me, PFMan on his way.

Goodbye Laslo. I write this to remember you, to never forget, you were the needy one. We love you!

Peace now.

It all began when I was in Middle School, my love of taking pictures.  Once in High School, I was taking photography classes, working in the darkroom, taking pictures for the school newspaper and yearbook.  My dad had the big SLR camera with all the different lenses and I used it more then he did, lol.  It’s just been something I’ve loved to do for as long as I can remember.

I didn’t begin to see it as a career until much later.  In fact it was only four years ago that I knew I wanted to make it more then a serious hobby.  Tanya Sharkey Photography was born on March 1st of 2008.

We opened a studio location on May 1st of 2009 in St. Petersburg, FL where we specialize in modern pet and children portraiture.  Yes, these are two challenging subjects, but I’m a high energy, whirlwind of a personality so it’s fitting.  I’ve also spent most of my working career either working with or volunteering with animals.  I was a Biology major and worked as an assistant to a veterinarian for several years as well as volunteered at a large cat sanctuary in Orlando where we would educate the public about the needs of these wild animals, etc.  So, it’s really a natural fit that my specialty is pet photography.  I love every minute of it!!

Photographs of my family, friends, pets, our travels and experiences together, have always been very important to me. I love to have them on display all over our home for us and others to enjoy always. I have over 12 scrapbooks as well. Preserving these memories for my clients is just as important and it feels so amazing when my clients light up at viewing the images. It’s a feel good all around!

I continue to photograph things for hobby as much as possible to keep my spirits fresh.  I love to photograph flowers. I also take pictures of kitties whenever I’m on vacation. I can’t help it, I’m a cat lady:-).

There are BIG plans for TSP in the coming years, I’m a dreamer you see. Some will pan out and be a huge success and others will sit out. Regardless of what happens, it will be challenging and fun along the way!

Please enjoy some images above from recent sessions.

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Carmello

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a cat lady.  I just love kitties.  I say hello to every one I see and talk to them the way most women talk to babies. We have 8.  I’m not allowed to get any more right now, PFMan is very kind to be ok with the number we have now, but NO MORE, lol!  I thought I should begin introducing you to them one at a time.

This is our newest member of the family, Carmello.  I have a fondness for Orange boys and I had lost my love, Putter, in March of 2009.  A client of mine travels a bit with her husband and helps out stray kitties on her journeys.  She knew I loved and wanted another Orange boy, even though I was at my limit of 7.  Well, needless to say, we now have Carmello.  We adore him and him us.  He has two speeds, seriously playful, attack mode or the LOVE mode.  Especially at night.  He’s a cuddle bug, he slams his head into your head or hand and curls up and licks your arm or face, then falls asleep in a ball all pushed up against your body.  I LOVE it!!

I’ve had so many kitties in my lifetime, come by it honestly growing up with parents who always had kitties too!  They still have 6 of there own.  It always amazes me how incredibly different each and every one are.  So many personalities.  I cant’ wait for you to meet them all.

D.A.R.E. stands for Dachshund Adoption Rescue and Education. They are a non-profit group dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and finding homes for dachshunds in need. I recently photographed a family of three Dachshunds that belong to a volunteer and foster mommy of D.A.R.E. I quickly fell in love with Mimi, Charming and Oscar.

The Three Musketeers, Mimi, Charming and Oscar!

Here’s what Cheryl had to say about her Three Musketeers!

“Oscar is 14. I have had him since he was 8 weeks old. He was meant to be my daughters… but as soon as we set eyes on each other it was love. He has been my best friend ever since. He is always there with unconditional love…come what may. Mimi is 2. She has been with me for a little over a year. The first time I saw Mimi she was being walked by her previous owner. I, of course, went over to make a fuss over her… her owner jokingly asked me if I wanted her… I said yes… and 5 minutes later I walked away with my princess. She is so full of love… and always trying to mother everyone in the house. I call her the Good Will Ambassador because she is always the one to welcome a new foster into the house. She is so amazing. Charming I have had for a little less than a year. He is 3 and I adopted him from DAREtorescue to be a playmate for Mimi who was harassing Oscar (who was not even slightly interested in playing with a pup). I carefully looked through the pictures and bios of available dogs until I finally found the most perfect one….and he is perfect. He is the most loving little man. He fit right into our little family. He has been a playmate for Mimi and someone to snuggle up with Oscar when Mimi has wore him out. He has made me realize that there is always a chance to have a second chance… and that even when you are down… you are not out. Charming was also considered unadoptable by the shelter he was dumped at and D.A.R.E. saved his life and I will forever be thankful that they did. My Charming made me realize that there are so many just like him out there…looking for a little help to find their forever homes….so…I became an extremely proud foster mom. The end. Lol.”

“Right now I have 2 fosters. Frankie who was confiscated from an abusive home and was considered unadoptable… Harley who was dropped off at the vet for a check up and when it came time to pay the bill they decided it was too expensive to care for a dog so the vet was told to put him to sleep. Yesterday my ‘Monday’ was adopted by a family who didn’t care that she was blind and a little overweight still…. they loved her anyway. So now I have an opening… and have already been contacted to see if I was ready for a new foster. It never ends… makes me so sad.”  – Cheryl.

If you’re interested in adopting or fostering a Dachshund please contact D.A.R.E. at info@daretorescue.com.

They are baby making machines. Just one pair of cats and their kittens can produce 420,000 babies in just seven years. So please, unless you want a “clowder” of cats in your home, spay and neuter your furry friends.

Happy Monday to you!