Furbabies

The Beckman Pack

“We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” —Immanual Kant

For those who know me, they know that I have a HUGE love for animals. Wouldn’t it be my luck that I happened to marry someone, who shares that same love and affection as well. It’s not a bad thing– it just means rather then the “no” that most get from their spouses, parents, etc when they happen upon an animal in need, I have a husband who supports me 100%, which you could imagine is a little dangerous. We have this tendency to pick up strays or castaways, it’s such a huge tendency that our friends often contact us whenever there is an animal in need. Even still, while we’re not able to help all of them, there are a few in which we had the chance to save.

Pipsqueak (a.k.a Weasel)

Pipsqueak was Robby and I’s first pet together and we came about her in a very interesting manner. Years ago I was employed as a dispatcher by the Automobile Club of Southern California and I used to speak with different tow truck stations that operated in San Diego. I happened to receive a phone call from one of these stations while working and she had mentioned that she had seventeen kittens that she needed to rehome. I was immediately interested, having wanted my own kitten for quite some time and after discussing with with Robby and my mother-in-law, who we were residing with at the time, they both agreed we could have one. Pipsqueak was acquired around May about 4 years ago. She’s a spoiled princess, having been our first pet, but we love her nonetheless. She acquired the nickname Weasel, through her mannerisms. At first I was completely opposed, but as she got older the name ended up sticking, and while officially she is Pipsqueak, everyone, family and friends included call her Weasel.

Weezer (a.k.a Weezy)

Weezer was acquired when we realized that Pipsqueak was a little devil and needed another animal to entertain her. She was quite a brat as a kitten and while she toned down after we got her spayed, she still had a lot of behavior problems. I found Weezer via Craigslist after browsing through countless ads because I really wanted an orange tabby. The moment I saw him I fell in love, which is evidence by the fact that we drove nearly two hours to pick him up. When I picked him up the first then he did was let out a big meow that sounded like a wheeze, and I immediately named him Weezer. Weezy, is just a variation of Weezer and his name still holds true today. Weezer is a HUGE momma’s boy and has been ever since he was a kitten. While he occasionally shows love to Daddy, he often comes to mommy for cuddles and when he feels like a snack (he likes to eat my hair, we still haven’t figured out why). He was acquired a few months after my birthday, 3 years ago, so he’s the second eldest of the bunch.

Muskrat (a.k.a Musky)

Muskrat, though she didn’t always have that name (originally it was Ash) actually found us. It was in the middle of summer about 2 years ago when I heard a small meowing outside of the computer room window. I stuck my head outside and saw this tiny little kitten stumbling around meowing and I obviously could not leave her out there. She was just so small and fragile that I ran outside and tried to grab her, but she scurried underneath the bush and I couldn’t grab her. I went back inside and grabbed some kitten food we had and used that to coax her out. Once she came out, I was able to grab her, I brought her inside washed her up, clipped her nails and made sure she ate and had lots of water. After which I called Robby who happened to be at work and told him that we had another kitten and we had to take her to the vet once he got home. After receiving a clean bill of health from the vet we took her home and she become one of our own. The thing about Muskrat though? She’s still a stray at heart so she’s not very social when it comes to people. She’ll let you pet her occasionally, on her terms, but for the most part she only cares to deal with the other cats.

Squishy (a.k.a Squishyums)

We decided to get Squishy as a companion for Muskrat a couple of months after we got her [Muskrat], who was quite younger and quite smaller than Pipsqueak and Weezer. Weezer had the tendency to pick on her and she didn’t really have any other playmates as Pipsqueak wasn’t very interested. Squishy was our problem case as she was the first kitten we’d ever acquired we had so many problems from the get go. She had insistent diarrhea which resulted in her confinement to the spare bathroom for several weeks and an episode that required an emergency trip to the vet. I was quite worried about her but the vet assured us that she would be fine and it was typical for a kitten to have such symptoms (though I didn’t believe her as we’d never had any problems with the others). After a few weeks Squishy started to get better and she was able to fully integrate herself into our hearts as well as the other kittens. She is the biggest cuddlebug among the others, followed closely by Weezer, and often climbs up to curl up on mommy’s lap and sleep.

Benji (a.k.a Benj)

For as long as I can remember I have always wanted a dog. I was raised with them and to be honest, I prefer dogs over cats, though I love them all. We were finally able to get our own dog after purchasing a home and I discovered him on Craigslist. I loved the pictures of him and when we met I just fell in love. Benji is by far one of the sweetest, most even tempered dogs I have ever met. He’s a HUGE cuddlebug, annoyling so and we felt that he was perfect both in size and temperament. Prior to securing him by paying the rehoming fee, I received an e-mail from the girl we adopted him from which devastated me. Her dog (a pit bull and former stray) had attacked Benji who had attempted to eat from his food dish in a shown of dominance. As a result, Benji ended up with a fractured jaw because he was so much smaller and she stated that the vet had decided against surgery as he felt it would cause Benji’s jaw to heal improperly as he was still just a puppy at 6 months old. Instead when we brought him home, we were forced to muzzle him for a month (which broke our hearts) to ensure the jaw set properly. A month later, we took him to the vet and she stated she couldn’t even tell that there were any problems and we were able to remove the muzzle. Now Benji enjoys life lazying in the sun and picking off our shoes one at a time…

Diesel (a.k.a Pig, Bear, Gargoyle)

Compared to all of our furbabies, Diesel’s upbringing was the most traumatic and the most costly. Truth be told when I found her on Craigslist, I didn’t think she was very cute, however Robby fell in love with her. She was 4 weeks old when we got her and her mother had died during child birth. We essentially had to nurse her to health as she was malnourished, suffered from parasites, and worms. After a lot of time spent at the vet and the realization we may have had to rehome her as the vet thought she had an enzyme deficiency problem, which would have cost us $100/wk in meds, we’re happy to say she has recovered quite fully and the nicknames she’s been given are testimony to that. She eats anything and everything you give her, she throws her weight, even though she’s not really large for a Pit Bull, and she likes to terrorize (attempt to play with) the cats, though they show no interest in her what so ever. Even still, she has stolen our hearts and everyone who meets her instantly falls in love– but than again, look at that face; how could you not?

Moki (a.k.a Mommy Hunter)

Moki was adopted out of a need to fill a hole in Robby’s heart. After the lost of our beloved Yoshi, we went on for a time as a family that was incomplete. Robby was ready to find another cat as a means to patch the hole in his heart, but I just couldn’t bare the thought of doing so. After nearly 9 months, he approached me again about the idea and I was a little more open. We looked ever so occasionally on Craigslist for a gray cat we felt would work for us, but we weren’t able to ever find one that just clicked. Then one morning I happened to be searching through Craigslist when I stumbled on an ad which had a picture of a gray kitten. I couldn’t really see her face, but just looking at her body and coloring, I knew she was the one we’d be searching for. Ironically, her location was about 5-10 minutes down the street and I knew it my heart it was fated that we should adopt her. I contacted the owner, Kristen, and asked if she still had the gray kitten, surprisingly enough she said she was the only kitten she had left (see? Fate). Moki was quite shy and skittish to begin with but we noticed that each day she began to open up a little more. She gained the nickname “Mommy Hunter” because when she sleeps with me she likes climb up on my head and stick her nose in my ear and try to eat it. Now she’s got quite a lot of spunk and enjoys tormenting the older, slower cats.