T H E W I N N E R S !

And now, without further ado, are the winners. 

The correct number of pets I've had is 30.

Grand Prize Winner: JACKIE who guessed 30!. 

Her prize is 1 skein of Wollmeise, the elusive yarn that is so difficult to aquire. This is the Gewitterhimmel colorway.

The winner of the random drawing is STARSPRY!

The prize is this Lisa Souza hand dyed yarn in the Shade Garden colorway.

The FIVE winners for guessing the correct names are:

knit witch for guessing Tiger

Jennifer for guessing Queenie

Dawn for guessing Sam

Kristen for guessing Spot

Doug for guessing Dusty

The prizes are a selection of these Opal & Regia yarns:

Thank you all for participating and I hope all of the winners enjoy their prize. Please private email me your name and address and your prizes will be mailed right out.
For the winners of the names contest:: When you send me your address, let me know your choice of the color of Opal/Regia and these will be given out as I receive your emails.

OK - now for all the pets in my life that I've played with and loved, in no particular order:

Prince, aka Dusty: Beautiful buckskin gelding who used to love throwing me off. His favorite treat was Hostess Twinkies.

Sweetpea: Skunk: Yes, she was de-scented but always had that aroma about her. Not too friendly – liked biting.

Heathcliff: Black guinea pig

Elizabeth: Wife of Healthcliff - black with orange ring around her middle.

Charlotte: Daughter of Heathcliff & Elizabeth - black & orange (what a surprise!)

Greenie: Green garden snake I had as a child. I used to take him for rides on my swing, twisting him around one of the ropes.

Brownie: Greenie's tank mate. He rode on the other rope, and yes, he was brown.

Cup Cake: White and brown wire-haired terrier, with ADD

Big Skasy: A very large sucker fish that was not too pretty looking but he was my favorite fish in our tank. We had him for years.

Simon: Calico cat - at the time we didn't know that calico's were girls. When we found out that he was a she we just kept her name.

Cecil: Kind of a wildish cat I had as a kid. He may have been part bobcat as his tail was in a kinked up shape.

Snowball, aka Kitty-Kitty: A ranch cat we adopted. She thought her name was Kitty-Kitty because the caretaker at the ranch would call out, "Here, Kitty Kitty" when he fed the dozens of cats that lived there, and they all thought their name was Kitty-Kitty. Our Snowball was big, fluffy and white with a small amount of black.

Queenie: A beautiful gray cat (pregnant at the time & we didn't know) that was dumped at the Little League field where my son used to play. So we took her home.

Missy: Daugher of Queenie, a gray tabby

Freckles: Son of Queenie, also a gray tabby

Michael: Sweet, sweet, BIG brown cat that wandered to our house in a skin & bones condition with hardly any fur. He became a big, beautiful, fluffy healthy member of our clan.

Spot: Our first family cat. Beautiful black shiney fur. He loved when my daughter took him for rides in the basket on her bike.

Tiger: A totally wild cat that hid and stole our other cat's food. I used to sit outside and wait for him, with his own bowl of food and gradually he got used to me. Finally he even let me pat him. And he purred.  Beautiful medium gray with white.

Little Cat: Black tuxedo cat, probably was bi-polar.

Barney: Part Siamese with gorgeous slightly crossed eyes.

Ben: Cherry Head Parrot, not all that friendly. Used to do pretend biting but we never knew when he really would.

Sam: Beagle I had as a kid. The only outdoor dog we had because he couldn't be housebroken. My Dad built a 2 bedroom doghouse for him.

Joe: Brother of Sam, and shared the same doghouse.

Useless: NO, I did NOT name him. This was the best, sweetest dog anyone could ever have. His former owner was a mean, awful man. My Dad found out how badly this dog was being mistreated and offered to take him and the owner obliged. This dog was my best friend when I was a kid. He was kind of an orange color with floppy ears, and he went everywhere with me including to the library where he sat at the reading table on a chair, with his own book.

Sam: White German Shepherd, who was my wolf the year I dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood for Halloween.

Loretta: Reddish-brown dog, first dog I had as an adult. She was a great pet and very protective when my kids were babies.

Patsy: An Australian Shepherd mix (blue merle color) adopted from the feed store. She was barely alive and our vet told me not to waste my time on her. She had to be hand fed because she was in such bad shape. She turned out to be a wonderful pet and super great watchdog.

Yote: Siberian Husky with blue eyes prettier than Liz Taylor's. He was the only pet I ever purchased from a pet store. Very good natured and thought he was a lap dog, a little tricky being that we weighed 75 lbs.

Sunny: My present day beautiful orange boy. He loves everyone.

Beauty Baby: My present day beautiful tortie girl and Sunny's sister. She's much more reserved than Sunny, meaning it may take years for her to warm up to you.