Feline queen rules the household
Who could forget Kelly D’Andrea’s Maine Coon cat, Stormie, who behaved more like a dog, growling at people in the driveway from atop her scratching tower inside as they approached the house?
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Stormie’s commanding stare graced the front page on the day she featured in The News’ Pet-icular kind of love section in May.
This pampered puss, who weighed in at a whopping nine kilograms, is the dominant queen in a house filled with four humans, three other cats and a couple of bearded dragons.
Cats retreat, while larger-than-life Zanzi flies in
Standard groodle Zanzi blew into the McField household like a hurricane, unintentionally scaring the long-standing resident cats into the great outdoors.
The family thought the felines’ self-banishment might be temporary while they got used to their new roomie’s presence, but almost two years later (and after another canine friend Roxi moved in), it would appear they have made the great outdoors their permanent residence.
The McFields had never considered themselves ‘dog people’ before adopting Zanzi, but they quickly fell in love with their dog and their roles as dog parents, inspiring the second puppy addition less than two years later.
Zanzi and Roxi are also like chalk and cheese, yet are still the best of friends.
The pampered poodle with a wardrobe to envy
Evie is a walking, barking, living doll, whose owner Ellie Damianopoulos likes dressing up in outfits that match her own.
The fluffy little princess, who featured in Pet-icular kind of love in June, was not fond of mornings at the time.
Maybe it was because it was winter, but Miss Damianopoulos said her pampered pooch preferred to sleep the earlier hours away in her Peter Alexander pyjamas, which not only match her pyjamas, but her mum Leanne Bodycoat’s PJs as well.
Despite Evie’s diva demands, Miss Damianopoulos said she really just wanted to be everybody’s friend and that she won the hearts of all who met her.
Quirky dog keeps trainer mum on her toes
Being a dog trainer’s dog doesn’t necessarily make you the best-behaved little pooch.
Jasper’s owner Averil Coe reported in June, however, that he was a “good boy” most of the time, but did throw some interesting behavioural curve balls at her if ever his well-oiled routine was disrupted.
Jasper has some cute and funny little traits, such as wrapping himself in his blanket no matter the season, that led to his nickname ‘Blankie Boi’.
“He is such a quirky little dog,” Ms Coe said.
“I’ve had a lot of dogs over the years and I’ve loved them all, but Jasper would be the quirkiest by a country mile.”
Covered in spots like Bottomley Potts
Lexi the spotted Dalmatian with her two stunning and starkly different-coloured eyes snatched readers’ attention when she appeared on our Pet-icular kind of love page in July.
Even though she is much bigger than her kennel mate, Jimmy the Daschund, who featured on the same page a week later, she is the submissive one of the pair.
The dotty and dashing dogs belong to brother and sister due Joel and Hannah Bilney, respectively, who got them within a few weeks of each other.
They are a month apart in age and both turned one earlier this year.
Determined distance-running dog defies expectations
Arguably the fittest dog we saw grace the pages of The News this year was surprisingly born with a major heart murmur.
Energetic border collie-mini poodle Louie didn’t let it stop him though, once running 40km by owner Stuart Shaw’s side, and regularly running 5km with him each morning.
Besides running for the love of it, Louie also likes running in pursuit of magpies and cats for the fun of it.
This little champion with a fetish for burying socks and a preference for sleeping on bark rather than in a bed turned three in October.
Molly steers this family’s ship
Molly the Moodle was another one of those adorable and lucky pooches we were fortunate to meet during our never-ending quest to find willing participants who’ll star in a Pet-icular kind of love.
A moodle is a purposely mixed breed of Maltese terrier and poodle.
Molly was chosen to spare mum Amy Webster’s hyper-sensitive allergies any grief, given the moodle breed is a known hypo-allergenic one.
After years of Lachlan, Felix and Isaac Steer (along with Amy) pleading with their Dad to get a dog, Rob Steer finally gave in. But he didn’t let them know he had.
We learned the family’s heartwarming story of how Amy and Rob organised Molly’s purchase and pick-up without their kids knowing and the kids’ ensuing sweet reactions when their dreams came true.
All the fluffy ladies, put your pom-pom heads up
A Pet-icular kind of love isn’t only reigned by cats and dogs; we love all your pets.
Some might not think chickens fall into the category of pets, but Seymour’s chook-whispering Phoebe Kelly would disagree with you there.
Yes, she lives on a farm. Yes, she earns pocket money by selling their eggs.
But more than anything, she loves to play with her pet chickens, which include several different breeds and whom she’s given each an affectionate name.
There’s Beyoncé and Pearl, Sunny Sunshine and Goldie, Snow White and Cinderella, Nana (after her Na! Na! Na! dolls), and one given her family’s surname as a first, Kelly.
That’s a lot of chooks, but not enough for the pint-sized chook lover, who has her sights set on a hundred of them.
Now that would be a lot of names to remember.
Dragon magic helps mother overcome fear of roaches
Kelly D’Andrea went from crying about having to handle cockroaches to feed her lizards, to breeding an entire colony of the creepy crawlies at her home.
If that’s not proof, she would do almost anything for the ones she loves, I don’t know what is.
Dex and Puff are bearded dragons.
Known to be territorial, the pair are kept in separate enclosures, their activity carefully monitored by the family’s four cats.
Everyone in the house is particularly excited come roach-feeding time.
Mrs D’Andrea because she can feed her boys the tasty treats as regularly as she wants without having to pay for them now she breeds them herself.
The dragons because eating bugs is their favourite thing to do.
And, the cats, because it makes for an exciting flurry of eye-catching activity beyond the glass.
A duckling as a pet won’t let you down
Is there anything cuter than a fluffy yellow duckling?
Little Aylesbury duckling Billie won the hearts of our readers as a newborn in September.
Twelve-year-old Jaz McDonald and her mum Katrina Bell had incubated duck eggs at their home in Shepparton.
Billie was the lucky duck who emerged from one of the seven eggs that hatched.
Jaz remembers the excitement of watching Billie’s egg jiggle and then finding the tiny chirping chick peering out at her in the morning on day 26 of incubation.
“He was very wobbly on his feet and would fall over, but within eight hours he was standing strong and became very active and was pecking at the incubator when we went to look and chirping loudly,” Jaz said.
Billie was going to live on the family’s farm by the pond once he, or she (it was too early to determine), was full-grown.
Senior journalist