Until recently I hadn't realised how important it was for me to have some sort of animal around my home. We had to euthenase our dog a couple of weeks ago and suddenly the house was animal free.

For as long as I could remember I have had some sort of pet - cat, fish, bird, guinea pig, chooks, dog and often more than one at a time. Since losing our dog I noticed I began to search out other peoples pets, visiting friends with dogs, even offering to walk them... the dogs of course not the friends.

I became very aware of any animal I saw. Birds that come visit our front verandah which is full of pot plants, I even noticed the tiniest lizards and bugs, they all became amazing.

Well on Saturday at the local shop we saw a notice for free kittens. We called the number immediately and now have two tiny kittens in our home. My last lot of cats all lasted over 15 years - great for moggies and they bought me so much comfort and joy.

Our daughter loves them, my husband too - its been years since we've seen such tiny things with so much personality. They are both quite different - the tomcat is very adventurous and not much for being held and petted while his sister loves to be stroked and held.

Losing my dog taught me something about myself and has made me more conscious of the joy animals bring us.   

You can see our new kittens on my home page