Hi and welcome to my little corner of the world! I’m CC and this blog is about my life of taking in and caring for cats and dogs while saving money whenever and wherever possible. Saving money is a necessity when you have (currently) 10 cats and dogs.
Since 2000, I have been taking in cats and dogs that have been dumped, abandoned or just found themselves without a home, near my house. After keeping a few, I used to try to find the new ones that came along a loving new home, but that was always a very difficult task. After they were gone, I always questioned whether I’d made the right decision. Was the animal doing ok? Did the new owner still have him/her? Had I taken that poor animal’s trust and disregarded it because I didn’t really want another animal in the house, or because the number of animals I currently had seemed like the tipping point of having too many to try to take care of?
The stress and guilt of worrying if I’d put those re-homed animals back into a similar or worse situation than what they’d come from was overwhelming. On top of it all, the people never stayed in contact with me, even though I asked them to and told each and every one that if it didn’t work out at any time with the animal that I would take it back, no questions asked. Never getting updates or being flat-out ignored when I’d check in, always made me even more upset about my decision to give them up. I finally decided to just make some sacrifices (working from home, no vacations, no fancy restaurants, no expensive gifts, etc., etc.,) so that I could afford to just keep them all to ensure they had a good, loving, forever home and I had peace of mind. I never dreamed that number would get as high as 11 at one time, but when you average taking in 1-2 animals a year and your animals live into their teens, it doesn’t take long for them to add up.
Luckily, I have a wonderful guy by my side who (mostly) goes along with my plan, despite all the chaos, sleep interruptions, sacrifices and extra cleaning (of everything) that having so many animals entails. The truth is, though, we wouldn’t change a thing (except the money part. And maybe the sleep part). All in all, the satisfaction of knowing these animals will have a good home for the rest of their lives more than makes up for the sacrifices. They bring so much joy, I feel sorry for people that don’t open their hearts or their homes to an animal, especially one in need.
Over the years, I’ve learned some tips and tricks to help take care of everyone, including myself, very affordably and effectively. I’ve literally spent thousands of hours online researching things that arise, that I want to share with you, my reader, to help make your and your pet’s life better. You won’t believe some of the finds I’ve discovered that are so easy and inexpensive! I’ve also made a lot of animal-related purchases over the years and I share the ones that I even recommend to friends and family on my Amazon page located on the ‘Shop’ tab at the top of the page on the right.
Pull up a chair, grab a drink and some tissues (I apologize in advance, but there will be some sad, but necessary stories) and follow along as I take you on the journey of what life is like here, where taking in another cat or dog is a very sad, but also very common reality. I promise you will not only be entertained, but you’ll also learn a few things, so if your significant other or kids want to know why you can’t drive them somewhere, cook dinner, or other not-so-fun activities, you can say….because you need to read something first “for educational purposes.”
Make sure you sign up for my post updates and most importantly…. Enjoy!
