HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEIDI

MY PARTNER IN EVERYTHING HAS GIVEN ME THE JOY 
OF CELEBRATING MORE THAN 30 BIRTHDAYS WITH HER

I have been all over with world with Heidi.

Spain, England, Italy, Mexico, Costa Rica, Canada and far beyond Internationally.

New Orleans, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Moab, Sedona, San Antonio to name just a few Domestic.

Monument Valley Tribal Park and the Big Island of Hawaii count among the all-time favorites for diversity and nature.

Our latest adventure has been closer to home -- within the 33145 Zip Code of Little Havana/Shenandoah.

We have adopted nearly one dozen rescue cats.

Honeybear the Siamese is the star of Heidi's social media accounts. Our sweetheart sleeps on the bed.

Honeybear's Tortie baby prefers to sleep under the stars, but is always close to the door and ready to play with mom when HB goes outside.

Our front of the house colony eats about 10 bowls of food per day.

That colony is headed by Squirt, a tiny, just a couple pounds full grown, ginger cat.

Her mate is Big Boy, a huge Maine Coon with a big, bushy tail.

Adults in the colony include Squirt's brother Jasper and cousin Charlie.

In the past year, Squirt gave birth to four kittens.

Irving is a grey dappled tiger cat.

Dusty is a lighter orange version of mom and dad, with dad's bushy tail.

Another healthy kitten looks like an exact blend of mom and dad, with the slight overall build of Squirt and the huge Maine Coon tail of papa.

The fourth kitten looks more like squirt.

There also is a darker orange friend of the colony.

We have so many, we haven't even been able to keep up with names of all of them.

The last weekend of August, we teamed with Miami-Dade Animal Services to humanely catch four of the cats, including Squirt, to get them spay/neutered.

Squirt is the sweet baby in the two photos with this post.

She loves Aunt Heidi and wishes her a Happy Birthday.

THE MOST CRASS MARKETING EVER

INSENSITIVE PET CARE CLINIC OPENED PAINFUL WOUND

The picture here is of our beloved Puchy.

We shared custody of her with a Little Havana neighbor living hand to mouth.

When she took sick, we ran up well more than $1,000 in vet bills trying to save this little mixed breed bundle of joy.

Sadly, at about age 10, our angel dog crossed the rainbow bridge.

The veterinarian outfit we took her to, one with several outlets in Greater Miami, did a terrible job of caring for her.

She wasn't a beloved family member to them, she was a profit center.  

Even when we knew she had to be euthanized, the clinic's sales people were marketing to us -- guilting us into buying a clay pressing of her dying paw and a deluxe post cremation kit.

That day in 2009, I decided I wouldn't do business with that group of charlatans if they were the last veterinary clinic left standing in South Florida.

So imagine my shock when from out of nowhere yesterday, I received a "Happy Birthday Puchy" text from this piece of crap outfit.

Of course, the well wishes were a thinly-veiled come-on, wrapped around a link that went to their online pet appointment scheduling application.

Even if Puchy were alive, she'd be nearly 20 years old.  I don't think the average dog lives that long, so it's crass and careless to send out birthday wishes to an old pet anyway.

But this craphole of pretend pet care went beyond.

When it was pouring dollars into a new marketing campaign, it couldn't even have the decency to check its own records.

Five minutes of matching my cell number to the pet I brought in would confirm that this outfit put our beloved Puchy down in less than a week after it commenced  care of our furry family member.

I try not to be vulgar in my blog posts, but Knowles Animal Clinics -- 

I send you to hell.

I love my Puchy.

She brought joy to our lives for a good half dozen years.

We're truly not sure how old she is, because our indigent friend took her in off the street when she was full grown.

I guess when we registered her for care, we had to give a birth date so we made one up.

Somebody took that data, damn near a decade old, and turned it into the most shameful, greedy sales pitch text I've ever heard of.

If you are in Greater Miami, I urge you to go to Miami-Dade Animal Services.   They have a brand new facility and some of the most caring people -- from vets to entry level staff -- on the planet.

Boycott Knowles.  They are all about profit margin, not pet care.

I truly hope this goes viral.

Is there anything more underhanded than playing on a pet owner's emotions to try to ring the cash register a few more times?

Thanks for nothing Knowles, you opened a wound of grief I thought was long healed.

Thanks to your obsession with the almighty dollar and nothing else, I am shedding tears for my long-departed Angel Dog...when I could be spending my time caring for our 6 rescue animals.