THE SNIFF: featuring Liz, Tori, Sam & Bruce
Tell us a little about you!
Hi I'm Liz! I live in St. Paul, Minnesota and enjoy pickleball and improv!
Tell us a little about your sidekicks!
I have 1 dog, Tori, she is an adorable mutt that we think is about 8 and a half years old. She has this big stripe down her back so we think she might be part ridgeback.
My 2 cats are Sam and Bruce, Sam is an orange tabby and Bruce is a gray tabby. They are both 11 years old! That is shocking to me. I call them Korean garbage cats, more on this below...
Tori being very good with our toddler
How were you first introduced to your dog and cats?
The cats were strays in South Korea, where I lived for about a year and a half with an ex. Sam I found at a pet shop - the area of Korea I lived in, there were a lot of stray cats. They were treated more like pests than pets by the locals. The nice lady who owned the pet store found Sam and his brother in the gutter. I couldn't resist his tiny little meows, so we took him home.
I had a friend in Korea who would take in this one stray cat when she became pregnant (this happened a few times. Friend was Korean and again, it's a different culture... spay/release is not really a thing). She offered to let us take one, and we took Bruce because he was the biggest guy in the litter.
My husband and I got Tori from a rescue called Coco's Heart, pretty much as soon as we bought our first house.
Bruce (Left), Sam (Right)
What's a personality quirk you love about your sidekicks?
Tori is very funny. She has a lot of personality. She is a very good communicator, when she has to pee, she will rub her butt very aggressively on the coach, like she's scratching her back kind of? I don't know how to describe this in writing, haha.
Sam is an aggressive cuddler. Sometimes Bruce will start purring just because you looked at him.
Here's Tori when we first got her. She was so cute!
What's something your sidekicks have taught you that you've come to value over time?
Tori is very good at setting boundaries. She likes to be near but she is not a cuddler; she wants her own space. I used to wish she were more snuggly, but I have come to appreciate that she knows what she wants and she communicates that.
Bruce is a good conflict mediator. Sam and Tori do not get along, mostly because of Sam, and Bruce will insert himself in between them sometimes when things are tense and wave around his little tail as if it is a white flag.
Sam has very big feelings, which means that he can be very intense in all regards. He is the most physically affectionate of our animals but also the most combative. Do I value this? I'm not sure actually.
When they were kitties!
What's your favorite way to spend time with Tori, Sam and Bruch?
Tori is a great TV watching companion, the cats are great when I wanna read a book in bed.
