A huge part of the reason that we built a tiny house on wheels instead of buying an RV was the fact that we have so many pets. At the beginning of our tiny house journey we had SEVEN cats and a dog. Sadly, Mama Kitty passed away in December 2023 but that still leaves us with seven total pets. We realize that for any size home -it’s a lot. But going from an 1800 square foot house to a 250 square foot tiny house with so many animals was definitely an interesting experience. We absolutely love our animals, though, and could not imagine leaving them behind. So we did what any pet lover would do – we built our house with their comfort and needs in mind.
Because we love them so much and because they are such a big part of our lives, we thought it might be nice to make a post dedicated completely to our four legged family members! We have picked up some new followers in the last year or so and we thought it might be nice to reintroduce ourselves…starting with the animals. We hope that you enjoy meeting these special souls and getting to know their stories.
Our oldest cat is Pandora Belle. She was adopted in December of 2009 from the Union County Humane Society through PetSmart in Columbus, Ohio. We had just lost a cat to a freak accident and made the mistake/happy accident of going into the pet store while we were out to lunch one day. That’s when we saw this tiny little white maniac. She was named “Bell” and was in a cage with another cat named “Jingle” and was looking for a home for the upcoming holiday season. We fell in love immediately. We filled out the application and paid the fee and went home to begin the 24-hour wait period. It was hell! It felt like years but finally, the next day, we were able to go pick up our girl from PetSmart. We already had a cat named Antigone and I was really into Greek Mythology at the time so we named her Pandora. True to her name, she quickly started getting into mischief so when she needed a middle name so we could properly scold her, we just kept the Bell part that the shelter had given her. Dora is now a sassy senior who demands love – on her terms. She is quick to smack and bite if you aren’t doing what she wants and never fails to remind us when it’s time to eat or have treats. She was recently diagnosed with thyroid issues (at the age of 14) but we have finally gotten her dosage properly calibrated and she is back on track.
Lilyth is the next oldest but we aren’t really sure how old she is. We adopted her in October of 2011 and at that time, the vet estimated that she was under 10-12 months based on her teeth. It turns out, though, that some of her teeth never came in so we aren’t sure that original estimate was correct. Lil was a stray at the apartment complex that we were living in at the time. She would come to our apartment and play with our cats through the screens of the window. We would occasionally put out food for her but kept hoping that she would be taken back in by whoever owned her when it started getting colder. One day, I ran into one of the maintenance men outside and he told me that someone had moved away and left her behind. He said I should take her in. I told him that I already was at the limit for cats allowed by the complex. He told me that he wouldn’t tell anyone if I didn’t. We ended up taking her in shortly after. She is very timid but has gotten more comfortable in last year, especially since Mama Kitty passed away. She loves attention from us and will even occasionally approach guests. We also got a little surprise once we took her in – she’s a polydactyl or “mitten-toed” cat! She has three extra toes on her right front paw and two extra on her left front.
Harley is our only dog and was adopted in 2017 after years of me begging and negotiating for a pup. John finally relented and one April morning we went to Franklin County Dog Shelter in Columbus, Ohio to take a look. Harley was estimated to be around 3 or 4 years old but only weighed 39 pounds which is a terrifyingly low weight for a pit bull. She had clearly recently given birth but was surrendered without any puppies. The shelter believes that she was used for breeding and showed signs of having several litters back to back. When we decided to meet her and were waiting for them to bring her in the room to us, I remember telling John to be careful with her – we didn’t know what she had been through and we didn’t want to scare her or do anything that might make her feel threatened and bite us. She came flying into the room and into John’s face and they were nose to nose kissing each other before I knew what was happening. The 24 hour waiting period felt just as long as it had with Dora but we finally got the call that we could get her the next day. Her original name had been Stella but she didn’t seem to recognize it or respond to it so we named her Harley Quinn because that’s my favorite comic character. She had a lot of trouble at first with separation anxiety and she was completely overwhelmed when we took her outside. We don’t think she went outdoors much i(f at all) in her old life. After lots of walks and time in the yard and car trips and training, she finally settled down a little. We had to keep her crated when we weren’t home for the first year because she would eat and destroy everything she could. After she got to know us, the house, and the cats she got better. Eventually she would get her own emotional support cat and he would change everything for her. Now, she has helped raised kittens three separate times and enjoys our travels. She loves hiking and running through the woods. But her favorite past time is snuggling up on the couch or in bed with John and I and that’s good. Because we love it, too.
Our Poe Boy was the next addition to the family after Harley. We saw our neighbors outside one day sitting around the opening of a storm drain in their yard. I walked out to see what was happening and they told me there was a kitten inside. It was capable of coming out but when they would try to catch it, it just ran back in. It had been there a few days and didn’t show any interest in leaving and they were worried about it. I went on about my day but it was bothering me knowing that a little kitten was out there and may die if someone didn’t do something. I went out with some food and placed it a short distance from the pipe. The kitten would dart out for the food then see me and go back in. After a few hours, I tried a different tactic. I pulled up YouTube videos of mother cats with kittens and cranked the volume. I tossed my phone into the tall grass a good distance away. When the kitten came out to investigate, he was desperately wanting his mom and was willing to go further out of the pipe to find where the noise was coming from. I was finally able to grab it. I discovered that it was a little black boy kitten and, aside from being a little dirty and skinny he didn’t have any obvious health issues. I took him home to get him some food and care and then try to find a home for him. I showed him to Harley because she was very curious about this little squirming, mewing fluff ball. She immediately fell in love. She started bathing him and snuggling him, playing with him and even letting him try to nurse from her. We ended up bottle feeding him for a few weeks and getting him checked out at the vet. We had intended to find a home for him and we did – with us. He wanted a mommy and Harley wanted a baby and fate brought us all together. They still snuggle each other 7 years later (and Poe still tries to suckle). He has grown into a very handsome gentleman.
That brings us to Herald or “Heraldine”, as we would eventually find out. Herald was a stray that was born to one of the neighborhood cats (also likely the same mother that abandoned Poe in the drain pipe). She first showed up around Halloween of 2019 and would often come to eat on our porch with her mom. That’s when we thought she was a boy and we started calling her Harold. Harold was too wild to touch or get close to so we just went along feeding the cats and assuming we had a little boy. We always intended to trap the cats, get them spayed/neutered, then release them back to the neighborhood but it isn’t the best idea to do surgery on strays/feral cats in the winter and then COVID shut down the spring clinics. Then, on April 21st of 2020, “Harold” blessed us with a litter of kittens in one of the shelters on our back porch. We changed her name to “Herald” and gave all of the kittens “angelic” names – Raphael, Uriel, Lucifer, and Evangeline. Herald and kittens were all very small, weak and sickly and, despite our best efforts, we did lose Raphael after a few weeks. The other three babies quickly started gaining weight and, under our care and the care of nurse Harley, were soon bigger than their poor mother. We found homes for the kittens but ended up keeping our little Miss Heraldine. It took her a little while to come around to us (she would originally abandon her babies to my mercy and run and hide every time I entered the room) but now she is the sweetest, most affectionate little love bug.
Our final addition in the fall of 2020 was a two-fer. That same feral cat that gave us Poe and Herald was FINALLY about to be caught and spayed. We trapped her and took her to the clinic. When we picked her up, we were told to release her as soon as the anesthesia wore off because she was nursing kittens somewhere. We took her back home and turned her loose wondering if she would ever trust us enough to come back. But she did come back for food a few days later. And a few weeks after that, she brought 4 adorable kittens with her and would let them run around the yard while she would eat and nap on the porch. We eventually caught those kittens to get them spayed/neutered and maybe even socialized and adopted. We ended up finding homes for two early on (a tuxedo cat and a ginger) and were left with a tortoise shell (almost identical to the mother) and a black kitten – both girls. The same lady who adopted the first two reached out about getting the tortie too, but we had fallen in love with her. We named her Boots, Junior after her mother. She was the sweetest, cutest, most playful little thing we had ever seen.
The black kitten, however, remained completely wild. As feral and untamed as the day we laid eyes on her. No amount of bribery or slow gentle movements or coaxing would make her like us…or even really tolerate us. We had kept her in the house for too long to release her outdoors and besides, Boots was very attached to her sister. We ended up keeping her and naming her Pallas. If you are curious about her name just Google images of “Pallas Cats”. Our girl has the same murderous glare that her wild namesakes often display.
They have all adjusted very well to tiny house life. They spend their days lounging on special shelves and perches that we have made for them or sleeping on our bed or on the couch. We even carpeted part of a wall for them to climb! It seems crazy but they are less underfoot in the tiny house than they were in our old place.
On travel days, the cats ride in the house. We used to catch each of them and put them in carriers and put them in the cars with us but they absolutely hated it, they screamed the whole trip, and it took them days to recover. Not to mention, the act of catching them would often leave me dripping blood (mine) and urine (theirs) and absolutely exhausted. Now, they just stay in the house – usually hunkered down under the couch or in our bed- and by the time we park the house and get inside, they are out walking around and checking out the new surroundings.
And Harley and Poe are still as ridiculous as ever. They have spent the last 7 years snuggling and growing up together. Harley has cooled on him a little bit but he is still 100% obsessed with her. I can’t blame her – Poe still tries to nurse from her every single morning and as he is now 7 years old, it’s getting a little weird. But that’s fine. We are all a little bit strange and that’s what makes us work as a family.
