Aw, very sweet thread!

We just lost our beloved Sophie last week after 14 years, and my husband and I are still reeling. George is doing his best to be the sole cat of the house, but it's not easy for him; he thought he wanted all the attention while being second banana to Sophie for the last eight years but now that he has it, he is not liking it!

I suspect we will be getting a second cat relatively soon -- and after the first of the year, my husband will be getting the pug puppy he has been coveting for a long, long time.

But oh boy, we do miss our sweet old girl. She is the dark one with the calico spots; George is the handsome striped one with the white paws.

Oh, Kristen, I'm so sorry for your loss. Sophie was such a beautiful kitty--what gorgeous colors!

Kristen I'm so sorry for your loss. A new furbaby does help to fill the gap left, though Sophie will never be forgotten x

I am loving all the beautiful furbaby photos!!! They are such a special part of our lives.

This is my sweet Ryder. She came into my life on Valentine's Day after my beloved little Justy died in January. She is a hot mess, but I love this child.

I love this thread! For everyone who has lost a pet, my heart goes out to you. They're not just animals, they become part of your family. Here's a picture of my little princess, Sage. (She is very pretty and she knows it.)

I changed my avatar when I saw this topic. I currently live with 3 dogs; we lost two last year. Shane was the first dog I owned as an adult. He was 15 1/2 when he passed. Delphi, whom we got a couple of weeks later, was 16 when she passed. It was awful. My heart goes out to Kristin and anyone else who has lost a friend recently.

My avatar is Zepar who is now nearly 6yo. I also have his two aunties, Brenna and Boo who are 12 1/2.

I'm so sorry, Kristen.

It is a dream of mine someday to get all of my brood into one photo. I do realize that some dreams never come true.

I've posted lots of pictures of my babies over the past two years so I won't bore you with more of the same. But I love them and it makes me happy that there are many more loved pets in this world. Love the photos!

My son's iguana, Charlie. He's not exactly cuddly, but he's VERY tame and sweet. I know ladies, he IS scary-looking.

Hubby and I had a beautiful German shepherd, Sheiba, for 12 years. She died in 1984 and I still miss her so. When I retire, I'm getting a German Shepherd pup! Much cuter than an iguana, for sure.

Here are our animals- the cats are actually brother from the same litter, and our dog helped raise them (their mom abandoned them at around 3 weeks old)

Aw. I love how you all love your animals. No pets here..too many allergies...

I love this entire thread. Keep the pictures coming!

And Kristen, I'm so sorry about Sophie. She was in some fairly recent pics on your blog, right? She was just beautiful.

Aww, loving all pet pics. We have a little menagerie going on at our house, cat, dog, fish, lizard, aquatic frogs. . .but here are our fur babies. Sonic, our 14 yo Persian and her little brother, Harley, our 12 yo Pug - doing what they do best - taking up all the room on the sofa

I apologize for not having the time to respond to each of you, but thanks for sharing your priceless pets and their stories with us. They have all left a memorable image in my mind.

Kristen, so sorry to hear about Sophie. May she rest in peace.

I love seeing the photos of everyone's favorite fuzzy! I paint watercolor pet portraits and I see a painting in each of the photos...yours, Angie with your two lovies is picture perfect!

My avatar is "Laddie" our sheltie. We lost him 3 years ago, and I still cry thinking about how much I miss him. The picture is when he was just a wee pup, but he grew very large and looked more like a collie.

I just added a picture (wow that was easy) of a painting I did from his photo.

Carole, I was just about to PM you to ask who the adorable sheltie in your avatar is. What a sweetheart. I'm so sorry that you lost him.

I grew up with a beautiful sable sheltie named Abbey that we lost suddenly. I miss her terribly. I showed her in 4-H obedience training for a few years and we had a great working bond. That dog would do just about anything to please you.

Our current sheltie is a black/white named Shadow. She's getting to be very much an older dog, and it's hard to see her health go downhill, but she's still wonderful.

(Sorry, none of the photos are on my PC, so I'm making do with links instead.)

This is such a lovely and therapeutic thread.

Carole, beautiful watercolor! Laddie's eyes are fantastic, I feel his sweet soul in them. You are very talented.

Kari-Those photos are amazing!!! Abbey, such a beauty, look at all the love you shared! And the pictures of Shadow are absolutely priceless! I especially love the one in the field of flowers with the sun going up or down behind him, and the one with him doing the crossword puzzle! Those eyes, what a sweetie. You take amazing photos, are you a professional?

Thanks, Claudia...I get a pang in my heart when I see your photo of Domino..what a magnificent friend to have had. I have never had a horse, but feel I must have in a previous life or something because I am so drawn to them.

So sorry for Kristen's loss, and anyone who has lost the best friend anyone can have. Nothing quite compares to the love of our furry friends.

Oh, thank you all so much for the kind words. Sophie was a big part of our lives, and yes Beth I had recently posted some shots of her on the blog. I am comforted reading about all of your beloved pets too; even when they leave us we still remember and love them.

Kristen, I read about Sophie on your blog....So sad for you:( Sorry.

She was a beauty

Kirsten, I sorry about your loss of beautiful Sophie. Because of this thread I've been working to upload a picture of my Maggie as an avatar. One came up but not the one I wanted. Maggie just turned a year old and is into everything. She's a bit younger in the photo taken late winter.
Edit: I can't believe I just managed to upload dog pictures, although they are random. It's still progress, isn't it?

Kristen, I'm so sorry about your kittie. RIP, Sophie.

I think I've shared this before. I never expected to be a cat person until this guy showed up on our doorstep 6+ yrs ago.

Here's my feline

I have to add mine - these are my cats Chloe (ultra-feminine, OCD about licking herself, prissy, only likes men, hates children, she will kill you in your sleep if you're not careful) & Mojo (at 18 lbs, we like to say he's big boned & tall, he's a reincarnated dog since he seems to have no cat instincts whatsoever). For your reference, Mojo is the black cat...

Kristen, so sorry to hear about your loss. It was always nice to see a little glimpse of Sophie on your blog ( when that ham, George, would agree to share the spotlight). My thoughts are with you.

Joy, I'm impressed! Great photos of your lovely Maggie. Next step is uploading photos of the very fab you!

Shana, you are a riot! Hope you keep Cloe under lock and key at night!

So many pretty babies! Shana, I think your Mojo is an American Bombay. I've never seen one IRL but they are fairly similar to British Bombays (which I have). The BB's eyes are more seafoam green, while the ABs eyes are almost orange. The bodies are fairly similar, but the BB's have a slightly rounder head and a slightly more blunt snout.
My Bombay Kimberly thinks she's a human baby. I've been fascinated with reading up about her breed ever since we found out what she was. We adopted her and had no idea she was anything fancy.
My tabby Abigayle is part evil, but I love her to pieces as she was my first furbaby after I got married.
My Molly girl came to us starving and pregnant and had four bebes. Three look JUST like her and one is...Siamese! Molly is black and white. One of the kittens I still have is black and white but has the cross eyes and vocal chords of his siamese brother.
Lily and Jasper are the two "kittens" I still have (they are 2+ years old now, though).

Photo 1: Kimberly, Molly, and Lily snoozin'
Photo 2: Lily commandeered my basket
Photo 3: Abi as a wee babe
Photo 4: Jasper after a bath
Photo 5: the girls
Photo 6: Molly and Lily

Shana, my Sage is just the same as your Chloe. Super feminine, prissy, vain, disdainful, and loves men. Does Chloe have any Maine Coon in her? Looks like she has that shaggy coat.

Oh Carole, thanks - you made me blush, really! I'm not a professional by any means. I don't even have a true DSLR camera - kind of an in-betweenie, mid-size camera that does point-and-shoot pictures just fine, but has some manual settings to play with. I'm just experimenting and learning how to do different things on my own time, but I'd love to take some photography classes some day to really learn what I'm doing.

Kristen, I know I said this on your blog already, but I'm so sorry for the loss of your Sophie. I hope that George will have some fun, new buddies to play with soon.

Kristen, I'm so sorry to hear about Sophie.

Sarah, thanks for the info on Mojo. I adopted him from the animal shelter as a kitten so I never knew anything about his breed etc. I just assumed he was a mutt! I had a black cat as a girl and he was just the sweetest, most affectionate cat ever so when I decided to adopt a new cat (11 years ago now), I was dead set on getting a black cat. However, it proved to be difficult because it was shortly before Halloween and the animal shelter limited the adoption of black cats beforehand. I still remember that as I walked past his cage, he reached out & grabbed me (and ripped out a thread & ruined the sweater I was wearing). And though I walked past him to look at all the other kittens, I had to come back for him - I figured he chose me

Quail, yes, I'm pretty sure Chloe has some maine coon in her. She's definitely a mutt. We've had her for 13 years this fall - she's lived in 4 states and traveled across the country with us!

Kristen, I'm so sorry about Sophie. Many hugs to you, hubby, and George.

So many beautiful babies! Even the iguana Seeing people love their animals makes me very happy.

Shana, very interesting to hear that it was hard for you to get a black cat, although around Halloween that totally makes sense. I know that at other times of the year black cats are often least adopted because of the old superstitions. For my next adoption I'm going to make a special effort to look at the beautiful black kitties (hey, I have gorgeous black hair too! ;)).