PHOTO GALLERY: Queers with Pets

Rachael and Mikoto / 31, 7 / Highland Park, IL

“Mikoto is my kittycat sidekick/kiddo. Her name comes from an anime character who turns into a cat when she gets hungry. She acts very doglike; she fetches, we play tag, and she sits by the front door waiting for me to come home.  She’s a lap-cat and sleeps next to my head every night.  She has gotten me through some very rough times and a few times has been the only thing that kept me here on Earth.

My girlfriend (at the time) and I brought her home from a nearby shelter on June 23rd 2010 when she was 9 weeks old. Every year on her Gotcha Day I tell her the story of how she came to live with me. I was walking down the hallway in the shelter looking at kitties, when all of a sudden I got stuck. When I turned around, I discovered a teeny tiny kitten had stretched her leg out and hooked me with her paw. That teeny tiny kitten came home with me that very day; after all, she picked me, and I’m very happy she did!”

Caroline, Laura, Saluda / 27, 26, 5 / Brooklyn, NY

“This little gremlin is a rescue pup. She used to live (and probably reign over many small mountain creatures) in the wilds of Tennessee, but is now an extremely pampered and cuddly lap dog. Her fur has grown in quite luxuriously since Caroline first adopted her nearly 4 years ago, and now she has very glamorous highlights and lowlights, and a very fancy party tail. She is named Saluda after a river in South Carolina (where Caroline is from), and she doesn’t have an Instagram YET but there are some more pics of her under the #saludapup hashtag. The weirdest thing about her is that she’d addicted to licking unscented lotion off of Laura’s hands/legs/face. Why?? How can it possibly taste good? It makes no sense, but it’s very cute.”

Torre, Shoga, Freesia / Portland, OR

“I’ve had Shoga since he was a wee babe and we have a very love hate relationship. He is very social, intense, strong and cuddly. He is obsessed with eating paper and actually ate my homework one time. He is pissed that I adopted a dog. I just adopted Freesia a month ago thinking I was adopting a 4 yr old dog. So puppy surprise has been… testing my patience. But, she is so cuddly, velvety soft, extremely clumsy and the fastest pup at the dog park. She is a recent immigrant from Cabo Mexico and is hating the Portland rain. Good thing she is so cute in a raincoat.”

Emily, Eva, Baba Ghanoush, Cashew / CO

“Baba Ghanoush goes by Noushy and she’s 7 lbs of pure sugar and spunk. Cashew is our sweet, neurotic boy that hovers around 14 lbs and loves treats. Noushy chose Cashew at a local dog rescue as her new playmate. Noushy came to us on Christmas Eve from Larimer Humane Society. These two roam the yard chasing deer, cats and even humans.”

Marissa, Sarah, Oliver / 30, 33, 4 months / Bozeman, MT

“Getting a photo with a puppy is hard! He’s a little shy but loves kisses. Sarah does not appreciate puppy kisses, which is entirely reasonable. Oliver is @puppersmcghee on Instagram.”

Jenny, Kristin, Sam / 35, 36, 7 months / Los Angeles, CA

“We adopted Sam from the Stray Cat Alliance in Los Angeles – she came with her name, but if you want the real truth… we only call her “Min” in our house.  You see she is just SO TINY that I had to abandon her given name immediately to shout MINI MINI MINI at her tiny face whenever the urge took me. Mini was shortened to Min, and here we are.

She is 7 months old and the kind of kitten that will eat literally anything. She seems to also have some trouble getting things into her (TINY TINY) cat mouth without the help of her paws, so she is constantly leaping up at us in the kitchen to grab our human food items and then stuff them swiftly in her mouth before we can catch her. She does way too many weird things to possibly pick one that outshines the rest, but a few examples are: she stores her toys in her water dish (then pulls them out and drags water everywhere), she sometimes “takes a rest” inside of her litter box, and she also stands in front of any mirror she can find and paws at it for long stretches of time. She refuses to sleep on anything resembling a cat bed but loves to sleep sitting up on hard surfaces. Oh, and we had to install railing guards in our house because she doesn’t understand mortality and will happily launch herself down the 9′ drop to the stairs below…

SHE IS A GREAT TIME, and yes of course she has an Instagram. It is @oncemorewithsam”

Megan, Laneia, Emily, Penny / AZ

“Megan and Emily were a package deal when I came into the picture, and they’re truly soulmates. Megan had been wanting to adopt a second a dog for a while and finally convinced me after agreeing that she would train it and it could be a cute tiny dog that I could pick out. We found Penny at pet store and I thought she was the cutest thing that ever existed. Megan thought she looked weird and crazy (also true). We adopted her thinking she’d be “my” dog, but that didn’t happen. Both animals are obsessed with Megan. She is their Harry Styles. This is why I’m in the market for a cat. (Not pictured are the five feral cats we feed and pine for: Samwise, Friday, Struggle Cat, Ducky, and Boy Cat.)

Some weird things these dogs do: Penny can tell when our heart rates go up (like during a tense movie) and will whine and shake until we all calm down. Emily apparently (?) has a fear of wood flooring and can’t walk the length of living room floor that would take her to the back door. She would just hesitate forever and then sorta fawn-fall/run until she made it to the kitchen tile. We finally put down a rug and now she’s (mostly) fine!”

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87 Comments

  2. I want to pet all of them. Even the house plant.

    Also, I really, really wanted to participate in this one, but unfortunately my cat doesn’t live with me and I couldn’t make it over to my mom’s in time for the deadline. I even had the photo all planned out!

  3. Wow, after looking through all of these I have that kind of post-TV-binge feeling, like I am slightly stunned and unsure what to do with my feelings or my body.

    Also, did I miss Sue Perkins the sourdough?!

  4. 1. Weare, NH is one town over from where I grew up! Wow!!
    2. Everyone’s pets are so charming, omg
    3. I did not know there were this many queers in Ohio?
    4. Marty and Olive are delighted to have been featured <3 <3 <3

  5. Having a real moment over here with all the cute.

    I’m also shocked that the entirety of my crazy dog lady verbal diarrhea made the cut.

  9. I met some wonderful pups hiking Triple Falls in DuPont National Park this summer. One of my favorite parts of hiking is all the dogs I meet. I used to have a Springer that hiked all over Pisgah National Forest and The Smokey’s with me. As well as playing on the beach in Isle of Palms. It’s been a couple of years since my last Springer passed away. I have had all kinds of dogs, but we foster Springers. Hopefully, my sister and I will be able to adopt a couple of dogs soon. We already named them Biscuit and Grits.

  12. Lovely! So heartwarming to see the photos and read how all these lovely animals found their human companions.

  13. ok do you all have professional photos taken with your pets or what?

    …wait, can I have professional photos taken with my pet?

    • Right? I tried to use my good camera but that was a no-go with Mr. Grumpy Pants, so I ended up having to use my crappy phone camera instead. I am impressed with everyone else’s well-behaved fur friends.

    • Everytime I take a pic of reptar I am RISKING MY VERY LIFE because he hates phones. I think the screen doesn’t refresh fast enough for bird eyes to make sense of them? I’m p sure phones are murdery strobe lights for him

    • Maybe a little food before and after the shoot could make it more professional? Food to distract then food as reward when your pet does a good job.

    • Yes you can have professional photos taken with your pets (says the woman who has signed her dogs up to be calendar models).

    • I’ve done that before but Boris was very scared in the studio and tucked his ears all the way back. I sent one of those I turns to my dad and he answered me “your poor dog has no ears”

  15. So much cuteness! I thought I was going to die there for a minute.

    Glad to report that the result was this instead:

  17. Also wow wasnt aware we were meant to write essays on our animals?? I worked so hard* to condense mine

    *”hard”, “for five minutes”, potato, potahto,

  18. I wish I knew about this! I would love for you guys to meet my pet cock, Pirri, 10! I love that guy. ?????

  21. So many good animals and so many good animal names and so many good faces and pictures and ahhh! So much good I so desperately needed today. <3

  23. Thank the gods for this post today. I was already crying last night out of overwhelmed-the-world-is-the-worst-dumpster-fire-ever types of emotions. Then I woke up to the tragic news about vegas. This is a nice reminder that not all is bad.

    Thanks.

    ps. It looks like my pic with my dog is lumped into the folks pictures above me.

  25. All of your pets are adorable and I’m jealous that I am a poor grad student with a lease that forbids dogs and cats.

    Also I reeeeeally hope the next gallery is a Halloween costume gallery.

  27. Oh how I needed this gallery today! Rather than try to pick favorites, I’ll simply say that y’all and your pets are just *the cutest*. Thanks, everyone! <3

  28. This is the best thing ever. I have officially followed all of your instagram accounts, because whenever the world is bad I follow another 20 or so animal instas and this was a perfect opportunity. This thread is amazing and I wish I hadn’t forgotten to send in pictures of my amazing cats. You can see them on my instagram if you want; my username there is also ankhmorpork. It’s 90% my cats with a few selfies here and there. I don’t pet sit as much anymore but I tend to take pictures of the dogs and cats I sit for as well.

    P.S. Atlanta people, we should become friends so I can pet your dogs. And because half my queer friends have moved away and you seem like fun people. But also, dogs.

  29. Oh, my goodness. OH, MY GOODNESS! My heart. I can’t handle this right now. Look at all of this cuteness. Precious babies.

  31. So many beautiful humans with amazing animal friends! ?

    I was kind of expecting at least one snake or lizard though…but I’m very glad nobody sent in a photo with a pet tarantula! ?

  32. I love animals and I love you guys and everything is so cute and let’s choose to ignore the rest of the world, just for today

  36. YOUR PETS ARE ALL SO GREAT but now i feel guilty that i only posted my dog and not my cat, because he is also a star. instead of using a litter box, he likes to jump over our back fence, crap in the neighbor’s yard, and then come home, because cats are dicks. we used to be okay with this because we hated our old neighbors but now we have new neighbors, a nice gay couple who love him, so now he goes over there to crap and then they let him in their back door for food and treats. he has a second family and thinks we don’t know because he still comes home wanting dinner. anyway that’s my cat and i need you to know about his antics.
    my sister also has a ball python. she sleeps most of the day and hates men, so, ya know, relatable.

  37. This is the best photo gallery ever!! I just went and followed all the Instagram accounts! I kinda wish this was an ongoing queers with pets instagram. Haha. I also really want a cat now! I also absolutely loved that Kristin Russo and Jenny Owen Youngs had their cat here too and an instagram!! So exciting!! This has made my day. <3

  38. this was soooo lovelyyy!!!

    anna^2 i really want a christmas card from you and yours. that is year-round fridge material.

  39. OMG the adorbs. Part of me regrets not including my parents’ new puppy Ms Frizzle for the amazing cuteness factor, but Mikoto’s my priority. I was getting nervous that we weren’t going to be on the list but turns out we were just near the end.

    I miss my camp buds and now I miss your pets too ❤️

    • First thing I did was Ctrl+F my cat’s name, and then look through the gallery once I knew he made it in ~^_^~

  40. It is 7:25 am on Bainbridge Island in Washington, and I have been up since 5:10 am to take the ferry over here – so forgive my emotions when I say that all of you and your bbs are perfect. Gosh. Thank you for sharing.

  41. I thought my favourite page on the internet was a cache of 215 pictures of Kate McKinnon at the Emmys, but I see I was wrong. I live here now.

  42. This gallery makes me SO happy. Like it is the most heartwarming, relaxing, adorable thing ever. Thank you for putting this together.

  43. Shoutout to the people whose dogs are named Henry and Hazel – those are our dogs’ names too! <3

  45. I’m going back through this a page a day and reading every single word you all wrote about your furbabies, and I just laughed out loud at this: “fun fact: if you name your very independent dog Stella, every trip to the dog park turns into A Streetcar Named Desire.”

  46. Yo bookshelf, I’m really happy for you, Imma let you finish but Pets is the best gallery of all time.

  47. So good! I particularly love Boris the show cat who reminds me so much of my cat Spike. She was a show cat in her own mind.

  49. Wow, I wrote a god damn essay. I am sorry ya’ll lmao. I love everyone’s pets!!

    If you and your doggo live near Sacramento, CA, we need to meet up ASAP!!!

    • Beau and I are on page 13 and also we would love to be friends. He needs practice making friends because he’s not great at it and friends confuse him. Shoot me a message… I’m much easier to contact on Instagram or Facebook, so swap details with me and you can play with my dog?

  50. So many new instagram friends for Puck! I’m very glad we can keep this gallery going on instagram ^_^ And it’s nice to see there’s another mischievous Puck out there :)

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