“We decided it was time to buy our dream home. We wanted something laid back, where we could have animals.

“I grew up around animals in Louisiana, where my dad was. There were chickens, ducks, hogs. He raised them to butcher them. I’d come home from school, and I’d start crying because the chickens would be hanging on the clothesline ready to be butchered. I didn’t like that. As I got older, I understood. But at the time, I didn’t like that at all.

“Here, we just started with our own animals, some little chickens and ducks. We thought, we could have our own eggs, and our granddaughter could enjoy the whole experience. Then we saw online about these two pigs, Acorn and Trixie. They’re Vietnamese potbellies, brother and sister. They were given up to Houston SPCA. They had been abused. I wasn’t really looking for pigs. But I showed Cecil, and he said, ‘Let’s go get them.’ We had to fill out a form. Had to send them pictures of where they would stay. We built a little house for them.

“Later on, the lady at the SPCA contacted me and said, ‘Hey, I have some rescue ducks. Would y’all want them?’ I’m like, ‘Sure.’ So we just added them to the 10 ducks we’d been raising since they were like seven days old.

“We’ve also been raising these little chickens called silkies. They have fluffly feathers that go all the way down to their feet. Then there’s Clyde the turkey, who we got when he was like 11 days old. So with the animals we already had and the rescues, it’s one big happy family out here. When we move the pigs back to the pasture, we’d like to get some little baby goats, too.

“When our grandbaby comes out here, she’ll feed carrots to the pigs. Then she’ll put on her boots, go out there and start hollering, ‘Clyde, Clyde.’ You can pick him up and pet him. He’s like a big baby.

“We’d like to get more rescues. We just want to take care of them and enjoy them. They’re all like our pets. Some are spoiled worse than our dogs. Especially Clyde. When you go out there, he just wants you to hold him and love him. He’s a trip.”

— Tammy (and Cecil) Merrill

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Jayda had been shot several times with a pellet gun and was being held at Rosenberg Animal Shelter when she was featured on a pets blog, From Under the Bridge.

“She reminded me of my childhood dog, Butter, and I wanted to adopt her. True Blue Rescue sprung her from the shelter. I went to Petsmart in Houston to meet her and fell in love.

“I had to convince my husband to get another dog. He agreed I could have her for my birthday.

“We took Bella, our pit bull, for a meet and greet, and brought her home that day. That very night, Jayda was stung on the eye by a bee or wasp and we took her to the ER twice. I was so worried about her. Her eyes are what drew me to her.

“This was in November 2009. She recovered and has been with us ever since. She’s a very good dog and kind of a loner. She loves being petted, but it has to be her idea.”

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“Because I’ve gotten a little bit older and it’s a little harder for me to get around, I don’t take in as many animals these days. We did just recently have someone offload a mother dog with seven puppies. We found a home for the puppies. We could not find a home for the mother dog, so I took her home with me. I plan to get her spayed and, hopefully, find her a permanent home.

“We do have a few other animals here at the store. We have a cat that showed up after Hurricane Harvey. We have chinchillas. We have a resident rabbit that all the kids like to come see. We had a parrot but it was sad, so we sent it to be with other parrots. Right now, I think that’s our animal base here.

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