It's All About the Chubby Paws

Over the years, I've been lucky enough to share my life with wonderful chubby pawed babies.  

I've always loved dogs and cats.  I grew up in Indiana with a beagle named Sammy.  He was an outdoor dog because my parents are from the South and think it's unfair to animals to keep them inside.  No matter how much I try to convince them otherwise, it's wasted breath on my part.  Samuel had big velvety soft, floppy ears. His favorite thing to do was to sit on the back porch with you and give you a bath.  After my parents divorced, he went to live with my dad who he worshiped.  In his twilight years, Sammy went deaf and blind but still gave love to everyone.

When I was 11, a little bundle of orange fur was born - Buttercup (Boo-Boo).  This kitty was the runt of his litter, yet he was the only one of his brothers and sisters to survive.  He was my baby in every sense of the word.  He grew up with me.  Most people I knew considered their pets to be siblings.  Not me. He was my baby, and he helped me through an often awkward adolescence. Every night, he would come scratching at my window, and I would sneak him in.  I had a canopy bed back then, and his favorite thing to do would be to jump on it and go to sleep.  Needless to say, the bent canopy wire was a tell tale sign that he had been there.  "No Mommy, Boo-Boo wasn't in here last night".  Boo-Boo got sick the summer after my freshman year of college. It's hard to believe he's been gone that long.  It still makes my heart hurt.

Annie was the tiniest little tabby I'd ever seen. She looked like she was about 8 weeks old, but she was a full grown cat.  She showed up on my doorstep in college.  Starving and sick and freezing from the cold Indiana January weather, she melted my heart right away.  She was with me for 18 1/2 years until I finally had to let her go.  She taught me many lessons in patience and unconditional love.  I miss her everyday.

Rosie was the funniest, quirkiest and most confident little tuxedo cat I'd ever met.  She and her Mommy, Debbie, came to live with me and Annie in college.  Rosie did not like me for a very long time.  In fact, she pooped on my bed every single day.  I'm not exaggerating!  Then one day out of the blue, she decided that I could be her Mommy too. We lost her at way too young of an age - 11.  Kidney failure is not a pretty thing to witness.

Beauregard Leigh was a red tabby persian that was a big fluffy man.  We had the hardest time trying to name him at first and went through a plethora of names that just didn't fit him.  Then, Beauregard Leigh, Beau-Beau as he was most commonly called, just seemed to be the perfect name for him.  Though we did like to call him Mr. Chubby Paws from time to time, as he had the cutest chubbiest paws ever.  He was beautiful and funny and loving.  He adored Greenies and his Duckie toy but hated getting brushed more than anything.  We had our baby for almost 19 years.  The last year of his life, I took care of him everyday - feeding with a syringe, giving him massages, singing to him. We finally had to say goodbye.  He was just a few months shy of his 19th birthday.  We felt so fortunate to have had such a wonderful baby.  He was a light in our lives.

I used to be a television network executive.  I liked my job.  I got to go to the Emmys, supervise movie sets, work with great writers and producers, yet something was missing.  I had no life.  Living in Los Angeles, everything seems to be about "the business"  - at least it was for me. I searched for a long time for something that would make me happy. In 2009, Debbie came up with an idea for a business we could do together - pet sitting.  We both loved animals so much and wondered if there was a way to combine that love with making a living.  Chubby Paws Pet Sitting & Dog Walking was born.  We named it after our own Mr. Chubby Paws, Beau-Beau.  

Here we are almost 1 1/2 years later.  Even though somedays we are exhausted, we are still thankful.  No matter how much poop you have to scoop, how can you not put a smile on your face when a chocolate lab looks at you with those loving, trusting eyes, and you just know that you are right where you are supposed to be.