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Animal crackers: More stories from CCU petlovers

As promised, here are more pet stories and pictures from the Coastal Carolina University community, as told in the pet lovers' own words. Send us your stories and photos to mprufer@coastal.edu, and we'll keep running them.

Jennifer L. Altieri, program coordinator, Spadoni College of Education

My seven-year-old son and I had a 16-year young pug we had to put to sleep the summer of 2016. I knew the day was quickly approaching and thought a puppy would make it easier on my son.

I picked the breed, and he picked the name. Neville Longbottom (who was almost named Albus Dumbledore) was purchased from Adore Frenchies in Chapel Hill, N.C. Neville looked so sweet and innocent the day we got him.

He’s now turned one year old, and he’s gradually settling down. Emphasis is on gradually. His loves include finding my shoes when the closet door is left open, salivating copious amounts of liquid when focused on anything, belching loud and clear after inhaling a bowl of food, and terrorizing my son. He is learning to put up with us, just as we are adjusting to life with a Frenchie.

Mona Prufer, media relations coordinator, Univeristy Communication

Rusty and Willow are our furry family. Rusty is a Chow-Golden-Shepherd mix, and Willow is our three-legged Maine Coon cat. Rusty was a rescue from the Horry County Shelter. We had just lost Moose, our mostly German Shepherd of 10 years (also a shelter dog), so we had gone through a grieving period of several months. My husband Kyle and I were both secretly looking on petfinder.com, and one day he sent me this picture of a very forlorn-looking doggie they had named Rufus.

We went to meet him, and the shelter folks had to drag him out of the cage, he was so scared. We loved him right away and took him home. He peed on everything in the house just that one time (and not since), then he went out and dug about a million holes in the backyard. He was home. Rusty is the sweetest, most even-tempered dog we have ever had, he is now about five years old and loves his squeaky purple pig and hedgehog toys. He also loves to eat, and in early summer he eats beetles crossing the street on his early morning walk.

Willow found us. He camped out in a willow tree we had in the front yard of a previous house, crying piteously as he had a hurt paw. We already had a dog and a cat and a good balance, so we didn’t really want another cat. So, we said let’s take him to the vet and get his leg fixed, then find him a good home! Well, the vet called and said the leg had to come off. It was an old injury, and she said it would forever bother him. So, $850 later, we had an angry, three-legged cat that looked like a plucked chicken (from the shaving for surgery) because you cannot give away a three-legged cat. And, of course, he is a wonderful, sweet boy whom we couldn’t love more than we do.


 

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