Your Sisters

Dear baby girl,

While you don't have any human sisters, you are entering a family with two wonderful fur-sisters, Pollyanna and Ming. They might not be able to talk, but they have added so much joy to our family and we love them like crazy!

Ming (AKA Ming-a-ling)

Ming was the first addition to our little family. We adopted her in late July 2009 (the year we got engaged) from a small lakehouse in Rhode Island. Her former owner, a Phillipino woman, served as a live-in caretaker for an elderly man in his home. He passed away, so she moved to NYC with her sister and couldn't take her pets with her. We did a lot of exploring before selecting Ming as "our cat" - we saw kittens, cats of all ages/colors, and kitties with a variety of tempraments. Ming was actually pretty skittish when we first met her (she was living in the basement and the neighbor was feeding her and the other pets until they found homes) but we were promised that she was a very sweet lap cat who loved cuddles & attention. Something about her seemed right, so we adopted her.

Shortly after, we learned that what they said was true - she was a lap cat who loved to snuggle and proved to be the sweetest kitty either of us had ever known. We also learned that she was very used to handouts (her former owner must've fed her "people food" all the time) but desperately needed to lose a little weight. Well, it's four years later, and we're still working on it. She's a food addict if I ever saw one!

Pollyanna (AKA Pollywog)

Polly was adopted in spring of 2011 (right before we got married!) from an adoption organization that brings adoptable dogs up north from southern high-kill shelters. What we know about Polly is that she was found pregnant and homeless and after she had her puppies was adopted to an older man who eventually had to go into a nursing home. She was brought back to the shelter where she lived for a couple of years as the "greeter" dog (due to her friendly temperament), getting lots of attention and even more treats from everyone who stopped in. Unfortunately, she never found a forever home so they sent her to Rhode Island. We saw an ad for her on PetFinder.com and arranged to meet her in our home (she was in a foster home, not a shelter, so they had to bring her to us). We loved her as soon as she came into our apartment and rolled over to show us her belly.

Pollyanna doesn't bark ever much, but she sure does howl! She "sings" when we leave or whenever we sing happy birthday to someone. She is overall a wonderful dog who loves attention and snuggling. We're not entirely sure what breed she is, but I bought your daddy a DNA test kit for dogs last Christmas and when the results came back we couldn't help but laugh! According to her DNA, she's a lot "mixed breed" (no kidding!) and the rest is Lhasa Apso & Pekingese. Does she look like that to you?

Lhasa Apso

Pekingese

We didn't think so!

Both of these pets have been such an amazing addition to our little family. Even though Ming's 8 or 9 and Pollyanna is around 7, I hope that you're able to grow up with them and remember them both as your first pets. Trust me - you couldn't ask for any better older sisters!

Daddy & I are total animal lovers, but feel very strongly about adopting (not buying) pets. There are so many dogs of all ages, sizes, breeds, and temperaments who need homes, and many of them are euthanized daily because there isn't enough space for all of them. That breaks our hearts, so we will always, always adopt our dogs. 

It is our hope that, someday, you love animals as much as we do. But I'm not too worried about it - after all, it's in your DNA!

Love,
Mommy