Caitlin!

My dog was adopted from the ASPCA and she has a broken tail that hangs :(. I've never taken a stray in.. I don't think the Mike's would dig it, ha.

Props to you for giving that kitty some love!

On a second note: nice colorful lunch.
My lunch so far = 2nd cup o' joe 🙂

-Mel

We once found a deer with a broken leg and kept it at our house until it healed. Then we gave it to a rescue group. What a cute little kitty!

We, my neighbors and I, have adopted a stray cat, and now all the neighbors in our complex are petty friendly with him. He was so sad and sickly looking when he first showed up in the middle of winter, you could tell he used to be someones house cat :[ Now, he's a big healthy boy, we call him BOB and he's such a charmer! 😉

The pasta looks great!

I wish I could do 7 hours of sleep, I wish I could feel okay on 6 or so … But I just can't cope! Last night, I got 8 solid hours for the first time in a few days, and it's amazing the difference it has made this morning! I think even if it's one or two days week, it'll make a big difference!

I think my coworker has around 10 strays living in her place!

Scone wasn't a stray, but we did adopt him from a shelter. His old owner passed away.

(PS: I'm working from home like you today and totally loving having Scone around to keep me company – similar to your lovable dogs!)

I have a cat. His name is Cyrus, but Mark is allergic so he lives at Mark's mom and dad's house.

There is a family of kitties and a mom that lives under porches in my neighborhood and I am trying to make them my adopted friends. But I heard that if you do that and they live outside and bite someone or something like that then you are responsible. They are so cute though. 😀

I've never taken in a stray but I always want to and try and convince the Mister (it doesn't work ;( )

Lunch looks delish!

I'm a total sucker for animals too 🙂 I get it from my mom! When we all lived together, every time I would see a stray cat that would let me pet it, I would always bring it home, but my mom didn't mind! I adopted my Trixie out of the paper from a family that had to move…Funny how fate happens 🙂

The kitty I have now my boyfriend found in some bushes and she is the sweetest cat ever. She was only 8 weeks old when we got her and had a flea collar but was roaming so we took her in so she didn't get hurt. My mom resuced a 6 week old kitten from the rain so we call her stormy. I think adoption is the best way to go! I think you should just feed the stray and pet him without bringing her into the apartment!

My aunt and I loved the stray cats around our house in Orlando. We couldn't take in any other pets though (she has five cats and a dog–and a big house)!

My cat adopted us when we went to the Humane Society though. He kept inching his way over and my mom was adamant that we get him. (I'd fallen in love with his brother, whom we did not adopt). Adopting Nicholas was the best decision–he's seen me through thick and thin, and has been there for me to cry to, hug during happy times, bitch about people to…everything. He's been a member of the family for 11 years. He also loves vegetables (especially ARTICHOKES!) and isn't a big fan of any meat except for tuna. (I wonder how he would like Japan, with the fresh fish, etc)…

Anyway, glad to hear that you gave the kitty some food. I hope that he keeps you good company until his family finds him!

We adopted both our cats from shelters… and Sonny was found along side a highway with his sister as an infant and rescued by the shelter.

anon – thank you! i hope i can get some sleep too 🙁

I found my dog at work (well, actually the maintenance guys did), and I've had her almost 3 years now…she's a collie named Maggie and the sweetest thing.

My kittens came from a friend of my mil's…the lady found a stray that was pregnant so we adopted two of her kitties – Phoebe and Birdie. Growing up we rescued so many strays, I really think they make the best pets!

Wishing you luck in the sleep department! I know how crappy it can make you feel not to get enough, but it's hard when you have life/lives to worry about too.

I don't mean this to be mean, and I know you only did it once – but nobody should feed somebody else's pet. First of all, cats are tramps, and if they're getting nice food at a neighbours, they might start ignoring their own family for the feeder. Second of all, it might have special dietary needs. For example, most people don't know that cats are lactose intolerant and feed them cows milk. My neighbours were giving my cat milk, and then she'd come back to my bathroom where her litter tray is, and have explosive diarrhea all over my bathroom!!

Both of these things happened to me, and I had to make my cat an indoor kitty, much as it breaks my heart 🙁

Cats should be on the skinny side, by the way, so you don't need to worry about the little cutie 🙂

the kitty is liking that rub down! so cute.

great pasta lunch! i love beans in pasta.

our cat now is one that Nick got from a shelter when she just a tiny kitten.

Your lunch looks good! I have a can of red kidney beans to be used up.I like tossing the pasta salad in some garlic dijon vinaigrette, yum!

I took in a stray dog when I was 5 and named him Spot (even though he had no spots, haha) he got ran over shortly after that though and I was so heartbroken. We also adopted a cat when I was about the same age, who I named Kitty. I was awfully creative with my pet names huh?

I've never taken in a stray, we rescued our chocolate lab when she was abandoned (3 days in her crate!) and the person who found her couldn't keep her.

When we were little my sister and I rescued a box of puppies that someone threw away in the dumpster. My mother didn't know anything for about a month (We were that sneaky and it was it was July/August). When she found out she let us keep two and the rest just until we found homes for them. She gave us a deadline just in case we got any bright ideas. We appropriately named one Rescue and the other Survivor (He got bit while we were hiding him and lived to tell the tale). We also had a cat that followed us home (with just the slightest bit of help). My mother also let us keep that, but by the time the third one just happened to follow us home she said no. When were kids my sister and I were a two woman animal rescue team.

I'm not the worlds best sleeper either. Havent been since college. I find that white noise works wonders. You can either use a white noise machine (like at Brookstone) or simply use a fan (directed away from you). Works for me most of the time. Good luck!

almost all the pets my family has are strays! 🙂

we have 3 dogs and 7 cats.

one of our dogs is one my dad found eating sawdust after the hurricanes a few years ago, so he brought him home.

4 of the cats (mine) my dad found last year in the middle of the road when they were about 6-8 weeks old. we live out in geneva and people have taken a liking to dropping off their unwanted puppies and kittens. even fully grown animals. it's horrible. since they're our little adventurer's we named them Lewis, Clark, TJ (thomas jefferson), and Sacagawea. 😉

then the other 3 cats are also technically rescues.

our boy, hyde, followed me around on halloween 7 or 8 years ago. i asked the neighborhood who he belonged to and they said he was a stray, so i took him home.

ginny was from a lady that worked in the mall with me a few years ago. her cat had kittens and she was going to bring them all to the pound so i took one of them.

and my moms cat cameo was at a pet store but they were trying to get rid of her because it was the day before halloween and she's a black cat. apparently that store had a problem with people buying black cats around halloween to kill 🙁 so we took her home.

my parents also found a mama rotweiler about a year ago that had 5 puppies. we ended up giving all the puppies to Pet Rescue by Judy (the people who sit outside petsmart all the time) and after that we found the owner to the rotweiler (who was not a very good person.)

Both my kitties are from the SPCA.

Lewis had a broken hip when we adopted him… and Samuel, well he's just a charity case. Allergic to everything. The thought of them being there forever broke my heart!

When I was young, like 8 or 9, there was a cat walking down my road. (I lived in the country) I picked it up and put it in my jacket and told my Mom that I "found" it in the barn. Turns out it was a stray… Whiskers lived with us for the next 19 years! 🙂

i can't resist an animal in need! just last week i found myself up in the middle of the night bottle feeding a stray sickly 2 week old kitten! it gets me into trouble sometimes 🙂

yes! that is how my family got four of our cats. we just couldn't say no…so we fed, spayed/neautered and kept them.

anon – thank you 🙂 i wanted to say that, too…

joelle- i cant tell if you mean type of bike or brand, so i will answer both. 🙂 if you will be riding on the road or concrete trails, a road bike is the best kind of you can. you can go faster on it and use it for races. if you will be racing off road (i.e. dirt trails), consider getting a mountain bike or a hybrid. bikes can be pricey (mine was $350 used) so look in craigslist for a used one. you can also go to the bike stores to just try some out and see what size you need. all brands are pretty decent as long as you dont buy a $100 hybrid from target. i would worry more about the type and the price than the brand, but i have a giant and the husband has a fuji.

That is how we got all 3 of our cats! The only animal we actually chose to get was our new puppy.

Our eldest cat (Cleo) snuck into our basement at our old apartment and had 6 kittens. We took care of the whole batch for 8 weeks and then adopted them all out except for Cleo and one baby. We love that they chose us to live with. Our other cat was going to be put in a barn if he didn't get a home and he was just a tiny little thing so the Hubs and I couldn't let that happen.

If that weren't enough, we adopted a puppy a few weekends ago. He was from a shelter, so we also rescued him, but in a different way than our cats.

I love those furry little creatures!

the night obama won i found the cutest little terrier walking around. we found his owner, but i would've kept him if we hadn't….

Awww….I want that kitty!!!

There is a a cat that hung outside of our house for the longest time and I would just talk to it. (My husband said our neighbors probably think I am crazy, LOL). Now it actually hangs our right in front of our house! I give it water and food, she's just too cute!!

keep going with the sleep challenge, you will see a change soon, just keep up with it, just like with all the other challenges you take on

what is your second job that you work at?

Oh, thanks for the Season 52 recommendation, it was amazing

Our current furbabies are litter mates that we adopted from a rescue program. When the rescue people found them, they had crawled up to the top of a hydro pole and the rescue lady waited two days for them to come down. We think one of them might have gotten too close to the wires while he was up there because he has a few whiskers that always grow in kinked. Before these guys, my family's cat was a stray. We took him in when he was approx 3 years old during a particularly snowy/cold winter. He was fixed & declawed so he obviously was a house cat at some point. Spockers lived to the ripe old age of 18, an outdoor cat his entire life (though he was really more of a porch/lawn cat for the last 6 years) before he passed away peacefully at home last January. My husband always says that Spock chose us instead of us choosing him…one more reason that his passing was extra hard on us. He was the most loving, kind hearted cat I have ever met – I'll never get a cat from anywhere but the SPCA or a rescue shelter because of him!

I have a cat, Draco (yep, like Malfoy) that we found on a dirt road as a baby, we almost ran him over. He was all alone and really skinny, and the vet said he was only about two months old. So, 8 years later he's the best cat I've ever owned… and the fattest but we're working on slimming him down (he's not happy about it).

I also had a husky-sheltie mix that was abused that we rescued, I LOVED that dog.