tripletrouble-thefarm-blog

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Eleanor (Ellie)

The chunky monkey baby.

Ah, yes. Eleanor. Whew, our latest “oopsy”.  

Eleanor Rainey was visiting our local pet store with a couple of other dogs.  Jon and Sarah walked in and they both immediately groaned because it was indeed adoption day.  Sarah thought they would be able to navigate the temptation, as we just got Lola, but she was wrong. Somehow Jon had escaped his duty and ended up on the floor with Eleanor in his lap.  Sarah walked over and had that pit in her stomach, Eleanor was just staring up at Jon.  

They were able to walk away purely on the “you’re insane” message in their heads. They did not get farther than buckling their seat belts, “do you really want her?  You think we could handle it?” and Jon was back inside asking questions.  Two weeks later, in the middle of business trips, Jon brought home our newest addition.

Eleanor made her appearance very apparent in our household.  She was a drama queen.  Full-on chuck energy all the way through, people looked at her paws and said she would be huge.  They were told she was 9 months old when they adopted her… the length of time it took her to be potty trained (we are still in “holding our breath” mode) and the amount of destruction she created definitely told us we had adopted a very young puppy. 

She will be your toughest critic on any dog anything we get.  If it can withstand Ellie Shep, you’re golden.  

Even though she is still the loudest and craziest at every party, and loves very aggressively (body and tongue), she is a sweetheart at her core.  She also thankfully did not grow to be the size of the predictions.  Sitting at a chunk puppy, she is the perfect fit to the mid-size pups in our life.

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Lola

(the princess)

In the chill of November, Sarah, Jon, and her parents went to a local rescue agency to “look around”.  The first pen held a smaller version of this face.  Very timid, but sweet, we continued to walk away.  Sarah’s mom, who is an undisclosed animal whisperer, sees Lola come to the front and look down the aisle at us walking away.  Sarah’s mom saw no more dogs.

This little lab was the first one in the meeting room. Jon knew right away that we would take her home, anxious Sarah did not know until Lola jumped next to her and gave her a big kiss. 

Lola loved her older brother instantly and grew to learn the ropes quickly.  A ball of energy with lots of zoomies, she also values a good nap, a soft blanket, and a solid bone. 

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Calvin

Cal Cal 

Our dog-cat reincarnated.

Calvin was the fur-baby who was the hardest to get.  Riding on the coattails of Kovu’s passing and a new puppy, Sarah shut down every new cat.  It’s hard to feel like you are replacing a member of your family.  Fortunately, we had some help from an angel Kovu.

Sarah was shopping at a pet store and happened by their cats for adoption.  She stopped when she saw a lone kitten with a sign that said: “siblings were just adopted”. As you will come to find out, Sarah and Jon have a really hard time with things that feel left behind.  At that moment Sarah called Jon at work and just started reading off Calvin’s bio.  She burst into tears, but without missing a beat Jon told her to get an application!�� Not only was she able to get an application, but she also got to meet him right then!  Calvin was the caregiver’s favorite and had an awesome personality.  He loved being held and talked to right away. It was a perfect match for the huge hole in our hearts.

There are many times where Jon and Sarah see things about Kovu in Calvin. He knows his name and wants to be around us constantly.  Cal Cal grew up with Gibbs as a puppy and held his own as the center of attention even after the girls came.  He is social, snuggly, brave, and curious.

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Leroy Jethro Gibbs

Yes. He is epic enough to have a full name.

...and picking just one picture is a really difficult task.

We drove to a shelter in the middle of a storm to be the first one to see this litter of puppies. We saw Gibbs first, and as soon as he was set down he wiggle-peed into our hearts. 

We are pretty sure when we walked out the doors with this teeny tiny life in our hands we felt the same sort of panic new parents feel.  “what do we do now?!”  Well, we spoiled the ever-living heck outta this dog.  Almost too much so, but we will get into that later. He was a holy terror and Sarah pretty much wanted to give him to her parents the summer we got Gibbs.  But with A LOT of help, a $5,000 fence, and so many miles of walking, Gibbs is known as the best boy ever.  Then again we are biased because he was the only boy dog Sarah’s family ever trained.

We are pretty sure he was meant to be a spoiled prince, and would’ve been very content living in peace, but... his parent’s hearts were too big. What? A sibling to play with would really tire him out!

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Kiara Bentley and Kovu

Kiara Bentley came to us from the streets of Akron as a kitten.  A friend of Sarah’s found her, but could not keep her... enter cat #3.  Kiara is our “street cat”.  If you have cats, you know the difference.  Simba and Nala were fostered to love cuddling, belly rubs, being carried like a baby, etc. Nope, Kiara has ‘tude.  Jon says she is Sarah’s cat because she always calls out for Sarah and seeks her out in the bathroom. She loves the highest perch of the cat tower, especially on the 3-season porch.

In the background, you will see the first baby we lost.  Kovu was our first “oopsy” kitten, we went in for cat food, and came out with this beautiful flame-pointed Siamese cat. Kovu had beautiful blue eyes and was nearly all white, except for a few orange highlights.  He had the most nicknames in the house and was affectionally known as our dog-cat.  He had horrible disgusting poofs but gave kisses and cuddles for days.  If you sat down, he was there, probably asking to clean the tip of your nose.  A few months after we got puppy Gibbs (see later post) we discovered him laying in our mudroom. Our best guess, it had something to do with his heart murmur, probably threw a clot and died instantly.  Kovu loved more than any other cat we had and there is still a hole in our farm family today. 

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The OCs

The “Orginal Cats”, of course.

Simba and Nala are the children who got all of our mistakes, but all of our attention for the first year.  I am pretty sure they hate us for the others who came quickly after them, but we say they are amazing chatons. 

Simba and Nala are 9-year-old siblings, even though they are so different in appearance.  Nala is our loveable purrr queen, she is a beautiful combination of browns, tans, and a wee bit of orange.  She loves talking and lounging in the sunshine. Simba is our petite orange “racing stripes” king. He has the cutest “duh” face and loves back rides... whether or not you want to give them.

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Introductions

Mom and Dad: Sarah & Jon. We both grew up with animals in our homes; Jon had cats and Sarah had dogs (and a barn cat).  We met in 2009, were engaged in 2010, and married 2011. A couple weeks before our move-in to our first apartment Sarah was shopping for a gift and saw baby Simba and Nala. The rest is history, we never looked back, we just kept adopting and soon became known as the farm!

Sarah is a middle school teacher and Jon works in sales for an insurance company.  We would like to say we are down-to-earth pet parents.  They are our children, so we are constantly trying new things.  We joked about starting a blog to help people avoid our #fails in the pet world, so we hope to be if nothing else, a good laugh in your day.