CHALLENGED COMPANIONS is for those pets and animals with "special needs." Whether crippled, blind, or with a health problem of another nature, we hope to spotlight these creatures who, while they present a challenge at times, show us so much courage and determination.

Peke Avenue's own Smokey was the inspiration for this section and we are proud to know two other challenged pets. As this site grows, we have added some wonderful stories about "special" animals and we invite you to meet each of them! We promise you will be uplifted!

If you are blessed with the companionship of an animal with "Special Needs," send us an EMAIL and tell us about your pet or animal friend. We will add your link so others can visit and meet your pal.

Sent to us by Maria Hyde

We have two dogs. Mistic is an 11 year old Lab that had her front right leg amputated on Wednesday 9/8/04 because of a huge tumor. She is the most loveable and wonderful dog anyone could ask to have. The tumor and cancer were getting bad but did not spread to any other organs. Our choice was to have her put down or have her leg amputated. We did not want to lose her so we had the leg amputated. She is doing well but still needs some time to heal. She is the love of our lives.

We also have Bella who is 1 1/2 years old and is a mixed Coon hound. We found her at a rescue in March of '03. Bella was beaten at 5 weeks old with having her head split open. She is now blind because her retinas are detached from the beating. We adopted her and now she has a wonderful home. She is the sweetest and cutest puppy. When we brought Bella home our lab Mistic, took Bella under her wing and watches out for her. She will not let anyone ever hurt Bella again. The two of them love each other so much and really look out for one another.

Some people laugh at our two handicapped animals, but we love them so much. To us they are perfect.

We also have a cat that will be three years old, but she is perfectly healthy. Her name is Zoey.

Our animals bring us so much happiness, I could not imagine life without them.