Welcome to my website page dedicated to our pets – along with special visits fromauthor friends with their pets! Over the years, my family and I have gone to local animal shelters to choose our dearly loved family pets – Trooper (beagle), Cooper (orange tabby), Sadie (Boston terrier/pug/beagle), Sam (lab/golden retr), Toby (beagle) and most recently my “puppy” you see at the top of the page, Faith (American bulldog/pointer). I also foster for my local Humane Society (PAWS) – my family and I have fostered over 100 puppies and special needs dogs (not all at once, LOL!) I also serve on the PAWS Board of Directors. I encourage you to visit and support your local shelter/rescue. There are so many abandoned animals out there hungry for affection and a home. Petfinder.com also provides a great resource for locating the shelter/rescue pet in your area. While I adore mutts, if you have a preference for a specific breed, you can use the breed locater on the Petfinder site. Approximately 25% of animals in shelters are purebred. And if you already have a beloved pet, please do give it an extra snuggle from me!
Now, here are some photos of our precious furry “babies.” Many, many more photos can be found on my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/CatherineMannAuthor
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| Our Biscuit! |
Cathy, Jim, and Biscuit |
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| Our dog Trooper and cat Cooper. |
Trooper welcomes our new puppy Sadie. |
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| Merry Christmas 2007 from the kids & Sadie. |
Merry Christmas from Trooper. |
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| Trooper wasn’t much of a cuddler, so this is as close as he would let Sadie get at nap time. |
Since Trooper wouldn’t cuddle, Sadie moved on to the cat. Who says cats and dogs don’t get along?! |
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| Yes, I’m one of those people who likes to dress up the dog! |
Sadie masters the puppy paddle. |
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| Me and my puppy. |
As I’ve noted before, Trooper wasn’t the cuddly type, except for this one foster puppy. For some reason, he really liked her. (She was persistent!) He let her get close and she would lick his arthritic paws. Trooper passed away in 2009 shortly after this photo was made. We miss him still. RIP, dear friend. |
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| After Trooper passed, Sadie missed him so fiercely she stopped eating. (He was a special dog even when he was ignoring you!) We had planned to wait to adopt another dog because we were just as heartbroken, but the vet advised us to find Sadie a new pal. We lucked into a GREAT dog when we adopted Sam. |
Sam & Sadie napping after a swim. |
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| My daughter went off to college & adopted her dog Blondie. |
My son graduated from college & adopted Buddy. |
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| And, I adopted a new “puppy” 10 yr old Toby. (If you’re counting yes, I have 3 dogs & 1 cat.) |
One of my very special fosters – Noelle delivered her 4 puppies in my home Christmas week 2011. |
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| My 4 kids with my dogs & theirs. |
My 4 kids with my dogs & theirs. |
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| Me with the boys, Sam & Toby |
Me with out cat Cooper (He didn’t want his photo taken!) |
Author Friends’ pets
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| Did you know that Ed and I adopted a pair of miniature schnauzers because of Lori Foster? She supports a local shelter, and I was checking it out online, having sent her a book for a fundraiser she was holding. And I followed a link to a shelter in Massachusetts and we went to “take a look,” and three days later we’re bringing home two elderly miniature Schnauzers whose owner had died. They were quite old, and we only had them for one and two years, but this past fall, we got ourselves two Schnauzer pups. |
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| C.K. Dexter-Haven. Named after the Cary Grant character in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, Dex is one of my two Schnauzer puppies. Several years ago, we adopted Sugar and Spice, two elderly Schnauzers, from a shelter in Marblehead, Massachusetts (thanks to my following a dog-adoption link from fellow author Lori Foster!), and our lives changed in a wonderful way! |
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| Lil’ Joe is Dex’s teeny little sister. She came to us blind in one eye, but feisty! She can take Dex down! Too bad dogs can’t play professional hockey — she’d rock! We got both Dex and Lil’ Joe just about a year after Sugar died. (Spice was older — we only had her a year — but we made sure it was the best year of her life!) Adopting elderly dogs can be incredibly rewarding — we will definitely be doing it again some day — but right now we’re celebrating life with puppies! |
Suz Brockmann with Sugar and Spice after a trip to the groomer’s. Adopted from a shelter after their owner died — they were good dogs — they were yar. |
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| These are my two Chihuahuas, Brock (smallest) and Tootsie (darkest.)Brock was a gift from my oldest son after our longtime family dog passed away from old age. Tootsie was a rescue dog, and is still very timid. She sticks close to Brock, and he is super protective of her.I love both of them and consider them my little fur babies. |
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| Joanne Rock with Duchess, the seven-toed cat. See how she’s showing off her monster feet for the camera? We live in the country and our garbage cans support a wide variety of wildlife from racoons to skunks and woodchucks. Our last cat arrived in similar fashion but wandered off again when a neighbor’s garbage proved more enticing. Duchess came to us from a local cat’s litter, and her upscale penchant for cat food has kept her with us for years. |
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| “Holly Jacobs, Ethel Merman Fuhrmann and Ella Fitzgerald Fuhrmann. Ethel was three-ish when we brought her home from the pound. She’d come from an abusive home. She’s still got a few…well, let’s call them quirks! LOL Ella’s Amish. We got her at an Amish farm when she was six months old. Since Ella’s come home, Ethel’s been a little less neurotic. They’re both great writing buddies!” |
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| Brandy was a very small Black and Tan Cocker Spaniel marked like a Doberman. I got Brandy not long after buying my first home in Stone Mountain, GA, then I met Karl in 1983 so Brandy became the center of our family.One fond memory is how Brandy loved to open the Christmas gifts, but never touched a gift until Christmas morning when Karl would pull hers out and put it in the middle of the room. Then Brandy would very carefully hold the wrapped box with one paw and pull the ribbons & paper loose with her teeth. We didn’t teach her this so it was a real fun surprise. Once she did that the first time we let her open all the gifts every year until the room was knee deep in paper (we’d intentionally wrap small items in big boxes).I took her through leash training so she was a joy to have as a pet and traveling with us. During the 100+ hour weeks we worked with our crews on projects leading up to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta we kept Brandy with us pretty much all the time since she was getting up in years and had heart issues. She had a stroke right after Easter in 1996, which was still several months before the July Olympic events and I’ve always believed God chose that time so that we wouldn’t be home much following her death where it was torture not to hear her squeak toys or see her everywhere we turned. Karl and I were responsible to so many of our employees and contractors we had to keep working those hours, but later realized we were glad not to be home much then. We really loved Brandy and could never bring ourselves to replace her, which is why we now have a tank full of crazy saltwater fish. |
  I painted a portrait of Brandy for Karl’s birthday a couple years before Brandy passed away. |
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| Mr. Sly (Short for Sylvester) decided that HE needed to be the centerpiece on the table at Christmas so he nosed out the snowmen and made himself comfy. Christmas kitty anyone?? |
Meet Buddy (yellow) and Sly (black and white) These two were cats that wandered onto our property and found their way into the house through our doggie door. All of a sudden, we were cat owners – or they were people owners. We love them and as you can see, they love each other. |
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| Speaking of Christmas – this is the mantel on the fireplace in my office. Buddy – not to be outdone by Sly – decided to be a part of the decorations, too. Have to admit – he looks pretty up there :o) |
Little Miss Margaret became a member of our family last summer. Margaret is a Brittany Spaniel and she is the sweetest little pup we have ever owned! She and I take walks every morning together and she curls up on the loveseat in my office every day while I’m writing. |
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| Love Inspired Suspense author Stephanie Newton cuddles her toy poodles Honey and Cee Cee. She was all set to bring home one dog, but fell in love with two and the rest is history. Stephanie could even teach the Dog Whisperer a thing or two about training pets because her little doggies are a delight to be around. (Cathy here, writing this from first hand experience with Honey and Cee Cee!) |
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I painted a portrait of Brandy for Karl’s birthday a couple years before Brandy passed away.
