Their was a gray swift (a lizard if you ask me), she was named "Gracie".  Poor beloved "Gracie" had help by "Tiger" in getting out of her habitat and ran amuck in the homestead until "TJ" one of the other cats retrieved her from the basement and brought her chilled body to Momma'.  Unfortunately Momma' could work many miracles but I was unable to bring up her body heat to survival!.

Oh there was also an emerald swift, don't recall her name no more but I do remember quite well how we figured she was a "her".  One day shortly after her purchase I (Momma) was very sick and fortunately was home from work.  I was napping in Nate's room as that's were my body crashed and when I awakened I saw these odd round things on top the heated cave in the emerald swift's habitat.  The round things appeared far too colorful to be swift poop so I called the pet shop and to my shock they said they were babies!  Oh lawdy sake's!  Babies!  I was instructed to quickly place them in the palm of my hand and stimulate them with warm water.  Lo and behold there they were (reminded me of those sponge capsule thingies) tiny little lizards.  Unfortunately they did not survive as I learned later from the pet shop the little darling's sac had dried from the heated cave and they were actually still born!

During the lizard stage the mice arrived!  Hub wanted nothing to do with any of them so there was no hood winking him by using the "Man of the House" technique!  So I (Momma') had to pretend to be brave which was not an easy task to do!  Did you know that mice will multiply quite rapidly?  Oh lawdy did those little varmits produce many future generations.  The bright side of the situation, we some how created a unique mouse with fur that looked crimped (a slight lil perm like wave); there coloring was unusual as well so I managed to work a deal with the pet shop:  The pet shop took the mice off my hands and in exchange I would get free crickets to feed the lizards!  Who would've thought people were into unique mice!

I can't forget either the two spotted gecko's.  The one scared the bejeezies out of me during the night when I awoke to hear the word "gecko" being said!  No, I had no clue they got their name because they SPOKE their name!  In any event I kinda' liked those critters.  They were very laid backed and easy for me to catch when their habitat needed a good cleaning.  Unfortunately once I was doing a cleaning and noticed something odd in their hollow log, sure enough we had a male and female in there and there were eggs!  The sad part is the babies required special heating that the log did not supply and neither did their mother.  At least that's what the pet store told me when I took them the log!

I had a nice break from pets and then one day my son brought home a tiger striped cat he wanted to name "Magic" and as I was telling him Nooooo take him back my son was already out the door.  Needless to say "Magic" is still with us and has grown into quite a humungus fur ball.

Magic was quite playful and seemed somewhat lonely so I got it in my mind he should have an adopted brother.  One night we are shopping at Pet Smart and there he was....a lady was shopping for pet food and new owners and suckered me!  I tucked "Peedee" in my coat and brought him home. 

Well I suppose you could've called me Keeper of the Cats, at least the stray's in the neighborhood.  There were a few I fed and provided fresh water for.  Then one summer, hub said there's babies outside.  Oh I shuttered to think of more cats but after two of the three were killed the next day, I decided to see if I could manage to befriend the last one of the litter and bring him indoors; that wasn't the hard part as he left me pick him right up and bring him in.  However, once indoors he hid behind the stove and when hub arrived from work what it was some task retrieving him out of there.  Well "BW" (due to his black and white markings) is still with us and I am pleased to say he has warmed up for pettings but don't you dare try to pick him up!  No way this shy guy was going anywhere!

The next three that appeared, I tamed and took to the Human Society praying they would find them good homes and in calling them over the next few days learning that all three did indeed find homes.  My son still hasn't forgiving me as he wanted to keep them!  He had opened the window and in came this kitten hissing at him.

The next summer brought yet another litter, this one had seven and I vowed they weren't coming indoors.  However, one day I went to check on them and found four dead in the yard.  Hub and I were devasted and had no idea what had gotten them.  I managed to find one and brought him in; he became known as "Nippers" not because of his orange stripes but because when bottle fed he nip so at the nipples we had to keep replacing them.  Hub had found his other two brothers under the outporch and brought their two tiny bodies in hissing up a hoot.  "Bear" was named due to him being totally black and looking just like a bear cub; his brother was named "Gizmo" and it suited him quite well.  I must say it was an adventure with these three as we not only had to bottle fed them formula but learned we had to stimulate them to go potty!  All three of them are still among our family...which now total 6!

I was thrilled when my brother who lives down the street decided to take "Bear", but the next day I received a phone call that "Bear" was ill and they had no idea what was wrong.  Hub and I walked down the hill to visit, when they brought "Bear" to me he was so limp and lifeless I thought he was dying; I told them to drop him by the house and I would tend to him.  I was heart sick to think of him so ill.  He wasn't ill at all though, turns out he was quite an intelligent lil stinker and played sick to come home!  Shortly after his arrival the next day he became full of spunk running amuck around the house!  Now "Gizmo" lives with my brother and when they leave him outdoors he comes up the hill to visit us!  So our family is at 5 now, Hub and I feared "Bear" and "Nippers" were to attached to their pretend Momma' and Poppa' to go anywhere!

You guessed it summer rolled around again with a bright new meowing litter appearing.  This time just three and I don't remember anymore if it was Hub or me that brought them in.  Two were tortoise and one runt orange striped.  They became named "Scotchee", "Garf" and "Lil Bit".  Now around this time we learned about Castaway Critters and thankfully through their program we were able to affordably have our family fixed!  We were so glad as our family stood now at 8! 

We made plans to work on the outdoor cats and Castaway Critters had humane cages to catch them in.  We just had to catch them, keep them in the house at night then in the morning take them to the clinic, pick them up later in the day and keep them indoors until they healed enough to be released.  Now that was something else!  We survived...the cats survived!  Unfortunately shortly after releasing them within a few weeks two of them never showed up again, we suspected the cat hating neighbor exposed of the darlings!

Don't ask us how but the following summer yet another meowing litter arrived, Hub and I didn't know whether to scream or what!  I tamed the little darlings and one night to my surprise they were in our house.  Hub still claims he just opened the window and the kittens came in.  Thus we added "Tuudee", "Pumpkins" and "Tizzie" to our family which is now at 11 and to this day remains there!

The one little princess we named "Precious" is still outdoors, fixed and content she receives regular portioned feedings and fresh water.  She sleeps in a make shift bed on a knitted afghan.  When we see others as we have, we and she shoo's them away!