Patricia Loves Animals

I have always been an animal lover – from horses to hamsters and everything in between. Not being allowed to have pets most of my school years, I started making up for it when I turned 18 by buying a big Palomino horse.

I have had horses for a lot of my adult years, just for pleasure riding. Next I started breeding Balinese cats – they are like Siamese but have longer hair and a better disposition, like small dogs. My breeding ended when I moved to Redding in 1998. I showed St. Bernards for some years in the Bay Area. They are still one of my favorite breeds.

When I bought ten acres back East, I really got carried away – ducks, geese, chickens, hedgehogs, sugar gliders, miniature mice, blue rats, pheasants, geese, Pygmy goats, a horse and rabbits. Until the day I figured out how much food they were eating! Then I reduced most of the groups to half as many, except the rabbits. They multiplied.

I tried showing the goats but it was like trying to make a group of three year old children behave so I decided rabbits were a better choice. I had Netherland Dwarfs, one of the smallest breeds, Holland Lops, the smallest of the lop breeds, Jersey Woolies, similar to Dwarfs but long haired, and American Fuzzy Lops, a bit bigger than the Hollands and with long hair.

First I wanted just one pair in each of the colors but soon I had enough of that and decided to reduce the colors and improve the quality. I think I had about 175 for some years while I did a lot of showing. Then I got down to only the Fuzzies and the Jerseys as it was too difficult to be at 3 or 4 judging tables at the same time. And those two breeds are often judged by the same judge at the same table. I especially liked blue eyed white rabbits and ones marked similar to Siamese cats, which are called pointed whites.

When I decided to return to California, I brought 30 rabbits with me and continued to show, owning about 50. Then I decided not to show and have allowed the bunnies to live out their lives here. I am now down to four. They could possibly live to be about 15, but usually live 8-10 years.

Rabbits make good pets too. They can be trained to use a litter box. And they do have a personality when allowed to be a pet and not confined to a small cage all the time.

My last horse was a Tennessee Walker but now I am trying to decide between a Paso Fino and a riding mule. For my safety in these hills I should get the mule, but the Paso is so pretty!

I currently have seven cats, six are Balinese and three can trace their roots back to ones I had in the mid 1970s; three dogs, a Basset-very bullheaded, an Aussie-very dedicated to me, and a mix of terrier and perhaps chow-who thinks she is in charge and is quite an escape artist. I also have some standard blue Cochin chickens. I had ducks and geese but a bear got them the first year I was at my present home.

And that is the story of my animals. But who knows, I could decide tomorrow to get an animal I have always wanted – a wallaby!