Horses, Dogs and Cats in my life

Here I'll present my family's animals =) Since they are such a huge part of my life, I thought they deserve a place on my blog too =)

Unik "Nike"
7 June 1989 - 8 May 2023

Our faithful, and highly beloved fjord gelding who has been with us for 15 years now. I can't even explain what this horse has meant to me during the years. He has been my support through everything! Unfortunately everything can't be perfect and we've been through a lot with Nike, as we call him. He was injured when we had had him for 3 days and it was not pretty. Fortunately, with a month or so of healing, the injury didn't leave any trace more than a scar. He injured his leg out in the pasture a few years ago but recovered from that too, and that's just a few of the less lucky things we've experienced together. He's a very special horse with a will of his own, my typical, stubborn fjord =) He was the one who kept me in the horse riding hobby when I fell off another horse and got scared. Nike has always been so sweet (even though he can be quite stubborn ;) ) and I was never afraid when I was with him. When I felt confident enough I went back to a riding school to get more confidence but when my riding teacher quit, so did I. I didn't trust the new riding teacher and to me that is the key to make me more confident. I didn't want to give up on riding so instead I got more serious in my riding on Unik. We trained, hard, with the goal set on dressage competitions. We competed in several competitions during a few years and we did good, always improving, and sometimes, we even won =) Today it's mostly my mother who rides him but he still holds a very special place in my heart.

Poppes 1993

Is actually not my horse. He belongs to my trainer but I take care of him as if he was my own, doing all the riding and stable chores =) I first came in contact with Poppes in 2002 and since I first laid eyes on him, he's been my all-time dreamhorse. I've always been a sucker for chestnut horses with 4 white socks and a blaze =P Not only does he have the look, he's got some skills too, being a dressage horse and competing with great results. He has a huge personality and will to please which makes people fall for him. My trainer and Poppes was supposed to start competing at Intermediaire level before he got injured. It's sad that he wont have the chance to compete at that level again (even though the injury is healed my trainer didn't want to risk him being injured again and he's getting older so his career is over) since he loves to show off =) About 4½ years ago (2009) my trainer asked me if I would want to start ride him again after his yearlong rest after the injury. I didn't know what to say. I had dreamed about riding him for so long. Of course I had to take the chance! Since then I've been absolutely hooked. And I've learned so much on him and he has shown me that we can do things I never ever thought I'd be doing, such as passage and flying changes for instance. He's very dear to me and I can't be anymore grateful to my trainer for giving me the opportunity to meet and take care of my dream horse =)

Slash "Liten" 
2010 - 28 July 2023
Is actually named Slash by his former owners but we call him Liten. Although he is not that small he is the smallest of the dogs we've owned (except for Pluto who we had when I was very, very young so unfortunately I don't have much memory of him). Anyway, Liten is our cute little Labrador/springer spaniel cross and we got him from a family who didn't have enough time for him with their growing family. He is so sweet and looks so innocent but he is a master thief when it comes to shoes or socks or pretty much anything he is not actually allowed to have =P He's very active and playful and always craves attention =)

Svante 2013

Sorry for the blurry picture, he wont be still for many seconds =P Svante is the latest addition to our family. We adopted him in the end of August 2013 from our stable. He was the last one out of three in his litter and he was rather small to be twelve weeks old and seemed so alone so we couldn't do anything but take him home with us. We actually thought him to be a female in the beginning so first he was called Smulan, but as soon as we realised that she was a he we renamed him Svante. He's grown a lot since we got him and he and Liten get along great! They're so sweet when they're playing or just sleeping close to each other. He's a lively little cat and he's not afraid of much. It'll be a pleasure to get to know him better =)

Sigrid May 2018

Sigrid and her brother Sven are the latest addition to our family. The moved in with us in December 2018. Sigrid is the smaller of the two siblings and the braver one so far. She is very sweet and really likes to play, cuddle and test the limits of where she is allowed to be.

Sven May 2018

So far Sven is the more shy one of the two siblings and although he likes to be cuddled and played with, he often hides in his safe places when we move around the apartment. This will hopefully be better soon, as at the time of writing they have only lived with us for 3 days.


My Angels In Heaven
May you rest in peace <3

Sixten "Sigge" 1994-5? - 2012

Was actually named Sixten by his first owner but he was always called Sigge. His first owner was about to put him down because he peed inside the house (and the only reason he did so was because he was marking his territory since the owner brought home new cats). My mother (and me too) think that it's wrong to put down a healthy animal, so we wanted to save him but couldn't bring him home since we had Sotis and we didn't know how they would react to each other. So my grandparents took care of him. But in 2004 my grandfather died and my grandmother decided to move into town and she didn't want to bring Sigge with her since he had never lived in a city before. By then we didn't have a cat so he came to live with us. He was a very special cat, completely convinced that he was the king of the world and that every human being existed only to serve him. Damn the one who accidently sat on HIS spot on the couch. Lived a very long and relaxed life before a neighbour found him dead in his garden. By the looks of it he died a painless death on his way to our garden.

He probably sits on a light blue silk pillow with some human servant serving him cheese doodles (they were his favourites) in heaven right now =)

Hjalmar "Hjalle" 2004 - 2011

Hjalmar, who also went by the nickname "Lusen" was a 4 year old Rottweiler/English Mastiff/Labrador cross when he came to us in 2008. We got him from an animal shelter. We were actually there to see two dogs, Hjalmar and another one named Rex. When we talked to the shelter's staff on the phone we were actually more interested in Rex and we also met him first. But we just didn't click. But when Hjalmar came in he literally jumped up in our laps and almost tipped me off the chest I was sitting on. He was so friendly and sweet so it was probably the easiest decision we ever made to take him. He hadn't had a great life. I'm not sure what made him end up in the shelter in the first place but he was adopted by a nice family who unfortunately couldn't keep him when the man in the family suddenly died. So he had to be brought back to the shelter. He stayed at the shelter for over a year before we took him. I think that it was the reason he always wanted attention and he was so playful and easy-going. He was a very special dog with a big heart. They told us he was aggressive to cats but he never hurt one and he loved our cat. Unfortunately we had to take the hard decision to let him go when we took him to the vet because he was coughing and discovered that his lungs were full of cancer tumours.

Vit ? - 2008

Vit was actually not our cat. He kind of found us rather than the other way around. As we had Sigge (the grey cat in the background) who lived outside in his own little cat house, we also fed him outside (at least in summer), and one day we saw a timid black and white cat who shared the food with Sigge (that was a BIG thing since Sigge had NEVER allowed ANY other animal near his food). The cat ran of as soon as we opened the door. As summer passed he understood that we weren't dangerous and we could pet him and carry him around. He was very skinny when he came to us but it was easily remided with some food. He stayed with us and shared the cat house with Sigge. In 2008 we found Vit at the side of the road, he had been hit by a car.

Trötter "Totte" 2002 - 2007

Was actually named Trötter by his first owner. He was a St: Bernard/Bernese Mountain Dog/New Foundland cross who came to us, 8 months old in 2003. In the beginning it wasn't easy, his former owner hadn't taught him any manners. And believe me, a mannerless dog in that size is a handful! He weighed more than I did so thank God we were able to teach him some manners. Still he was such a nice dog and thought he was as big as my aunts papillon dogs... Very sweet and playful. Unfortunately a tumor developed in his tibia and he was in very much pain so we took the hard decision to let him go.


Sotis 1999 - 2003

Sotis was our first cat. We got him as a 3 month old kitten and we had so many great moments together. He loved to sit in the window and look at the birds, when he wasn't out chasing them =P He actually brought live birds into the house and let them go there... It wasn't easy to get them out when they flew around in panic. Sotis sadly had to be put down after, what we suspect, being hit by a car.

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