About Me, My Family and My Experience with Animals

I am married to my wonderful husband, Jon (picture of us to follow), who I met while playing softball during law school, and we have three spoiled rotten kitties, named Muffin, Lily and Little Man.

Muffin is a gorgeous long-haired ginger-colored girl who has hyper-trophic cardiomyopathy and has taught me how to give pills to cats by allowing me to give her between 3 and 6 pills every day for the past 3.5 years. Lily is my sweet little baby, who is now the largest of the crew. She is charcoal-colored with one little white spot on her chest. She has a problem with eating strings and anything else left lying around and she has the cutest little squeak I've ever heard. Little Man is our little grey tabby guy that showed up at our house in Falls Church in the snow. We put a collar on him that said "Am I Your Kitty?" and when no one claimed him, we let him join our family. (I, actually, had steel resolve not to bring in anyone new, but Jon said "but he's always staring at me pitifully through the door!" Our neighbors said that they tried to adopt him, but he was determined to join our family instead. You'll see pictures of our babies all over the blog and can click on the Label "My Kitties" (or just click here) to see all posts related to them.

I am an extreme animal lover and became vegetarian about 9 years ago because of my love for animals. I grew up with dogs and cats (my first soulmate was a sweet mutt named Wendy, who I renamed Booger Bear - eventually I'll post a picture!) Stinky, our first kitty and my second soulmate (sorry Jon!), sadly passed away in October of 2009 after a long battle with recurrent ear infections and a relatively short battle with fluid on her lungs, kidney disease and diabetes. Stinky (a.k.a. The Queen Bee) had instituted a No Dog Rule in our household, but the other 3 kitties seem to adapt a little better whenever our nephew, Jakie, comes over to stay. So I'm now entertaining the idea of getting a doggy. But my schedule is so crazy with pet-sitting that I probably will mull this over a little while longer and in the meantime, will just get my doggy fix from my clients' babies!

As a child, my family also had hamsters and hermit crabs, and I have previously cared for an iguana, a cockatiel, a guinea pig, guinea fowl and a dove. I'm fascinated by all animals (even reptiles!) and am willing and eager to learn how to care for any animal needing care.

I was born and grew up in the great metropolis of South Boston, VA and graduated from Halifax County High School in 1996. I'm a graduate of the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia (2000) with concentrations in Accounting and Finance, and the University of Virginia School of Law (2003). My husband and I both worked at large law firms in DC for about 3.5-4 years after law school before we moved back here to Charlottesville.

(Note: I backdated this post so that it wouldn't appear at the top above all of the pet pictures! That's why it is dated before Stinky's death.)