and the Amerose Family
My Fine Equine & Friends
and the Amerose Family
Hi, I am Vickie Stevens, my husband and I have 2 grown daughter, Nikoel and Kim and 29 animals currently. no Dogs (they have all passed on of old age), 11 horses & 18 cats. I will try to not make this drawn out and boring but hope to give you a sense of who we are.
This is where my life outside the womb with animals story actually begins. I had
a little dog (black & white rat terrier) named Rex.
Rex was a great babysitter and companion. He kept track of me at all times. He would even usher me back by bitting
my "rear-end" until he had herded me back to where my parents could see me. My Daddy told me while laughing
that I'd come running around back to them crying "Dog Bite Butt -- Dog Bite Butt". When I was between 3 & 4 Rex even gave his life to save mine.
Rattlesnakes were abundant on that ranch and the little guy jumped between me and one of them, alerting the adults
and giving his life, for my life.....
So, for years I have had this ache in my heart for the plight of animals in our society. To go along with the
ache for Rex in my heart. The emotions are very strong. The pull to
rescue every unloved, unwanted, and homeless animal I see. My poor husband had no idea when I told him I loved
animals and horses big time.
The next little dog we had was Tippy, (black & white rat terrier) with a teddy
bear head on her back and side. I was older and really established a strong relationship with this dog.
She was my confidant and of course was a patient listener and never got down till I was done. She lived to be
13. She traveled from Texas to Washington and back to Texas again in
her life time and always went on vacations with us. She was just the best dog. She loved my sisters and I totally.
I was her favorite as I spent most of my attention on her, my other passion is drawing horses and then riding &
training horses when we had one. I'ts amazing the capacity to love and be loyal that these little animals have.
They are members of the family, always. Pictures of her are also with my mom for now.
I have found myself praying to God, please let an animal find me, I'll help it. And at the same time, Dear God
please,
don't present me with another rescue situation, not now.....How many of you out there are like me, and won't go
into the Humane Society or Pet Store cages, knowing you
want to take them ALL, but can't. It hurts me too much to put myself there. And I feel terrible about that.
I have no shortage of animals, all that have either been
dumped on my by strangers in the night, or asked by someone I knew or didn't know, will you take this one????
I, Vickie, was raised with horses off and on through out
my life. It all began before I was born; I was
initiated to the feel of being on the back of a horse and the sound of hoofbeats. I think that is why I am happiest
on horsback. My mom was into barrel racing then. She was raised on my grandparents' ranch and loved horses and
was very good at training them to perform and do tricks. While she was pg with me, I was riding horses. I am sure
that a baby can smell them too as their smell and feel and sound has always attracted me like bears to honey!
On my grandparents ranch, 80 acres in Texas,
is where I spent most of my first 5 years of life (till my grandfather passed away at 62). So naturally that is
where my heart and soul is, at home on a ranch. I still remember Blondie, my grandfathers palomino mare. She used
to take great care with me. (I'ts great how horses know who is a real baby and who isn't). One of my most memorable
times there is "shearing time" for the sheep. Lots of activity.
When I was 6 after my Grandfather had passed away, I got my first shetland pony, black and white pinto, all saddled
up and ready to go.
I got on and immediately was bucked off head first into the grass in our yard.
Crying, I was "forced" to get back on (and rightfully so by my Mom). That pony never was to be seen
again after that day.....
When I was 12, I got my first full size horse. A filly named Bars Flita. She was a 2 year old, well handled, ready to start saddle training, which she took to like "it was nuth'in".. I only had her for 1 year as we moved back to Texas from WA and it was too expensive to ship her. I had wanted to join 4H but since we were moving and selling her that wasn't possible. I spent all my free time out with her, brushing her and lunging her and riding her in the pasture bareback. As I look back now, she was incredibly gentle for a 2 yr old. Some people called her big Red. She was big and very Red. 3/4 Qtr Horse & 1/4 TB.
My next little dog was Nestle (black mini-cocker
spaniel). I actually purchased her without papers as one of her parents was not registered. She was one of 4 pups.
Two blacks and two black & white part-colored. I wanted specifically a black female and she was the only one.
She was with me till Dec 98 when we had to put her to sleep at age 14. She had a tumor growing inside her we didn't
know about until too late and along with her age it was the only thing left to do. She is at home in the back yard
under a lilac bush. She was the dantiest, physically and emotionally, little dog I had ever known. What a little
love. She had two litters of pups. The last litter, when she was 4, provided my sister with an exact duplicate
of her, Krickett, (almost named Kisses because
she kissed alot!).
I don't think I will have anymore little dogs. I believe I have enough with 3 of them
in my heart. And of course after I say that....I rescue a beautiful 1 1/2 old smooth haired, toy rat/fox terrier
female named Princess.
How could I not! She and a kennel mate were the same age but the kennel mate Athena was a larger dog and eating
all the food! I gave my neighbors one of my dog igloos since my old dog had passed away, and they had no dog house
and it was WINTER, SNOW, COLD and everything! Their water was always frozen. When they fed them
Princess was lucky enough to get one or two kibbles before the other dog gobbled them all up. They were both cold
and hungry. Princess was skin and bones at 1 1/2 old! It was unacceptable! They wouldn't keep her in the house
as they were unsuccessful at house training her and the other dog together so they gave up and put them outside
with no dog house!
I went over for 2 winters putting hot water in their bucket 2 times daily. Bought bags of good dog food. Told
them they needed to feed her separately which they finally did during
the summer. Then winter came and it was all the same stuff again. So at age 1 1/2 years old, bone cold (she couldn't
even shiver anymore) in November I brought her into our house,
put her in the chair in my husband's office to warm up and we bought her a little blue jacket to hide her bones
out of embarrasement when we would take her in the car with us....She went everywhere with us for a good year as
she had been so needy for human companionship. This rescue was meant for me. First my 2 prior dogs just like
her, and then my husband
and I are high school sweathearts and he used to call me Princess. I knew I needed to take her and so I did! She is currently a bit on the over
eight side after fixing her and she
is now 7 years old. Time flies way to fast for me!
My neighbors moved out and rented a house for a year in a different area and wound up with a fenced yard for Athena,
but a stray
male dog jumped their fence and bred her, so they moved back next to me, she had several pups on Halloween Nite
and I make up post cards with pics of them and mailed them
to all the vet offices in the area and we got them and the mother all adopted out! Yeah! Then that winter they
got 2 kittens which they kept in doors and then the next summer
kicked them outside. I convinced them to spay and neuter them which they did. The kittens loved to come over
and visit me daily. The female Angel was peach colored tabby
with grey eyes and the cutest frown on her face as she would sit and watch me mix horse feed. The male Hunter
was more aloof but loved my kitty food too.
Then in the Summer I was gone for 3 days, and when I got back Hunter came over meowing like crazy, I called for
Angel but no appearance from her. I looked for
her for days and days! There had been a coyote who was leaving his "poop" out in front of my horses
for the last 2 wks, so since my other 2 outside ferral cats were missing
also, I knew she was gone. Very sad, as I was planning to bring them both in for the winter. I did bring in Hunter
the male and for a year he was scared of every fast
movement of your hand and of shadows. Bless his heart! He lives in doors with all my other's. We do have a kitty
bedroom, and of course they all get to come out
and play around the house but not all the time.
We also a few years back found a blonde Cocker Spaniel female on the highway that we picked up. Never found her
previous owners. She was an older dog probably about 10 when we found her. I was a little afraid I wasn't going
to be able to convince her to come to me as she started to wander back out into the freeway. Then I started calling
her "Sweetheart" and she came
to me with a big grin. Picture is of her and Nikoel. From then on her grinning/smiling little face was ours. She
was with us for about 5 years when she suddenly died (probably from a heart attack) while furiously/happily digging
a hole beside the house on Memorial Day (May 31st,1989).
We have had big dogs too. Since passed on, we had an 13 yr old liver & white Springer/Brittany
spaniel female named Mandy. She was born to us from another female black & white
Springer/Brittany, Baby, given to us by a friend years ago (she is gone now, at age 13). Then since passed on a
13 yr old 1/2 Akita & 1/2 Border Collie male named Kwai who was given to us by a young man who couldn't keep him. He had helped to save Kwai's life along
with 11 other litter mates. The owner of the "Akita bitch" was real unhappy about the mistake breeding
and had ordered the pups killed. So instead they were all given away by the young man who couldn't carry out the
order. Another big dog who is in my heart is Muffins
(Old-English Sheep Dog). Picture is of her and Nikoel. She was a pound dog and was only a year when we got her.
She was a doll too. We did have to shear her every summer to make the heat tolerable for her. Very loyal dog and
great alarm watch-dog. She loved to bark and jump and bite at fireworks. Being protective we think. She died at
13 of old age in the month of August 1990.
As of now we have Dozier
1/2 Akita, 1/2 Shephard. He was rescued by a friend from along a river bank where the purebred and starving Akita
bitch was eating and he was 8 wks ish.
The only pup with her. Who knows....They weren't able to get near the Akita bitch but were able to snatch up the
pup. Dozier is now 4, he is a very "funny" fellow.
I have had several other dogs & cats too, Tiger (Tippy's son), Sally (basset hound), Rebecca (calico cat) whom we found shot with an arrow and dead in our yard, Timmy (siamese peach tip cat), Flash (siamese seal point cat), Kit Kat (grey short hair persian cat), Wendy (part Irish Setter), Abe (part german shephard), Punkin (cock a poo), Gi Gi (terrier), Misty (grey long hair cat) shot by a neighbors kid over our tall board fence in our back yard! , Baby (springer/brittany spaniel, Mandy's mom) Smokey (grey kitten), and 2 more that lived with us for a year and then got into some posion somewhere and died at home, and that's pretty much all I can remember. One thing they all have in common is they bring lots of love into our lives.
Our recent years endeavor has been to, although not-intentionally, become a "cat rescue". Jim, my husband has always loved cats Thank you God. He had one he remembers when he was very young that he called "Cat-Cat". He has the warm & fuzzy type memories of this cat since he was pretty young. This cat loved only Jim pretty much and would sit and allow Jim to pull his whiskers out. (Jim was too young to know better at the time). His mom couldn't believe the cat would sit for that. About 1985 Jim rescued a little grey kitten from inside a Safeway store. He managed to coax her to him (only heaven knows how she got in there) and brought her home. She was a very sweet and loving cat. He named her Sarah. Picture is of her and Nikoel. Sarah one day didn't come back home for several weeks (she always slept inside at nite), and then one winter day I saw where her foot prints had showed up to the back door and our bedroom window and then went off into the pasture towards some other houses. My guess is she had been inside someone else's home for sometime and then was let out. We had her for about 6 years or so. We didn't see her again, but we missed her alot.
Out of the 18 cats we currently have, only 2 were not dumped off on our place. If those people only could see in their eyes (the dumpee's) how they feel being dumped out in the "wilds" and know themselves how frightened they are, they wouldn't dump them like that. One is Blackie (green & blue eyes, part Siamese), who you will meet if you click on the Canine/Feline Solutions catalog. Blackie was dumped off on a friend of mine's place (big horse barn) along with his yellow brother. Blackie was just about 10 weeks probably and followed me everywhere in her barn and would not leave me alone or quit calling for my attention. He continually called to me, tried climbing up my leg and was under-foot the whole time. So the very next time (just a few days later) when I went to my friends barn, I brought him and his brother home. My friend had about 20+ that had been dumped on her. I couldn't resist him. How could I? He and I have a special bond. His brother dissappeared after about a year.
A year later when our house was broken into just before I got home, I found Blackie
& his brother in the house with my daughter's female, Tia. I had not fixed Blackie yet, opps! Still had
a teenage at home so money was always tight! A couple months later we had 6
new kittens. 3 black & whites and 3 blacks. They were a joy! One of the boys of this
litter was just like Blackie and from early on demanded my attention (Spanky-named by his new owners). I have pictures
of him and he is in my heart also. I did wind up giving away all 3 black & whites because of the number of
cats we already had and because they were the more popular with my friends. (A girl-Tazzie and another boy-Leo)
We kept the blacks as they were not as popular, we have Violet, Bubba & Pedro. As of 1998 we now have Mickey & Max (brother & sister
kittens black & white) Max is a hugger and loves to kiss ear lobes; and Baby
Doll (the sweetest little kitten grey & white girl), all were dropped off
at about 6 to 8 wks old. There is also Tiger
(white, green-eyed female with 2 blk smudges on her head) who I found at 4 to 5 weeks old in the creek crying for
her momma. We enjoy their personalities and love so much, the people who dropped them off don't know what they
missed out on.
We also have Tommy (big yellow adult neutered male dumped, it took a year to gain his trust), Sylvester & Grey Kitty (brothers left on our porch at 12 wks), Summer (rescued starving at 5 wks), Max & Mickie (dumped off at 8 wks), I think that's all for now. I know there are many people out there like us who wind up as rescue homes. Not planning to... I talk to someone new all the time. More pictures later. Haven't developed all my film yet.
I have decided though, any new babies I raise will stay with me. I am not going to
give them away anymore. Cats, Dogs, Horses!!! All included. They will be planned births.
I let Jim in on this already.
I do have a special bond with Mikey also. Mikey came to our door as a 5 wk old kitten with huge eyes in the month of Sept 1990. Our
daughter wanted to keep him and she named him after a cute guy she met at a Vintique show one summer. Mikey is
full of personality. When he was around 1 year old he used to get a piece of dog food from Nestle's dish and bring
it upstairs to the guest bathroom and proceed to play "paw-ball" (racket-ball) on the floor and in the
bathtub for about 1/2 hour each morning. He didn't do that anymore after we moved from that house to our current
ranch home. Since being here he has decided I am his personal attendant. He holds my lap down daily and sleeps
on my side of the bed every nite and on my pillow. Just like a "sqeeze toy" he does this special purr
and noise for me you can hear clear across the room. He loves canned food and is always asking and insisting for
it. He is very dear to my heart.
About 1998, Mikey started to have seizures. My vet told me this was not good news in cats, usually just have to
put them down. So after hearing an audio tape from our Royal Body Care company regarding Microhydrin and an ex-navy seal who had undergone brain tumor surgery and was plagued with seizures the doctors
couldn't seem to help him with, the Microhydrin stopped his seizures, so I put Mikey on it too, and in 2 months
time his seizures lessened in frequency and severity until they stopped altogether. Since then, he has not had
any! I am so relieved and happy! Be sure to check into this product!
We also now have Abbey and her 3 boys, Tuffy, Teddy and Travis. I found Abbey in our hay barn being cared for by the father a young Grey Tabby with soulful green eyes. He was leading her to the food I put in the hay barn for him. I was never able to rescue him but I did rescue Abbey before she had the boys. Abbey is a long hair black kitty and had 2 siamese/tabby twins (Teddy & Tuffy) and a grey tabby like daddy (Travis). Here they are Tuffy, Teddy,& Travis. I am so glad I kept them all, how could I not? I have been able to see how the twins are always together and they love their 3rd brother. They never forget who and what they are to each other. All 18 of my cats get along great. I did have to learn how to aclimate grown cats to each other. It went pretty easy.
I will eventually have a page up pictures and little bio's on each pet for all to see.
As far as our horse operation goes Amerose Horses, we have one Arabian stallion (a Bask Grandson),
Danny, 2 older Arabian mares,
Posey (Crabbett) & Fona (Polish) , 4 younger Arabian
mares that we bred and raised, Krystle (Egyptian), Sha Mara
(Egyptian), Maiya (Polish)
Mokka (Polish), 4 geldings,
General (Russian)
, Phoenix (Quarab), Cimmaronn (Quarab), ( 1 Arabian & 2
Quarab) that we bred and raised and one TB gelding, Allo , we bought from the track. I have decided since I have not been able to allow myself to sell
my babies, that I will just breed my stallion to their mares and let them raise their own babies. That way I won't
get attached. I have rescued a Paint Stallion and a bred to him Apendix Quarter Horse Mare, to add to our ranch.
I was raised with Qtr Horses in Texas. My mind is always working... I am horse and dog and cat obsessed, I admit
it! I don't have all my horses' pictures up yet either only a few. In time I will.
My husband, Jim has had some interesting experiences with animals but not very long term with anyone of them as he lived in the city all his life until her married me. They (his family) had dachusends, siamese cats, a great dane, and Jim had an Iguana Lizard once. He had his mother fooled into thinking it couldn't run very fast so she allowed it. Then she saw it run! So away went the lizard. The horses he had ridden were not his so he never really had a relationship with them until we began to buy horses once I turned 30. 30 was one of those turning points for me as with many of you probably. Another turning point is 50!
In 1989 with 5 horses, we decided to take some horse management & training &
handling lessons. We attended our first Pat Parelli Natural Horsemanship seminar held here in Yakima, WA.
This was one of 3. We plan to do more in the future. His program has greatly evolved since then with the help of
Linda his wife and so many others. We learned so much practical and 100%
useful techniques and a whole new way of thinking. Pat definately is a great teacher
of both horses and people as he trains people how to do what he does. It's a mind set along with great training
techniques for "Resistance-Free" training. I really enjoy a poem he wrote and recites at his seminars.
Every word starts with "P". You'll have to hear it if you haven't yet.
Here is a great book authored by a friend I would like to recommend for hand-tied halters. Halter-Tying Success
Then we went to a John Lyons Symposium held here also and learned some great things to add in. Then we bought videos from Miller DVM on Foal Imprinting and began to imprint our babies that we have raised. And from An Australian trainer "A Fair Go for your Foal" and another video about starting under saddle. (I'll have to find his name later), from Monty Roberts (really enjoyed his book "A Man Who Listens to Horses"), Pat Parelli videos & John Lyons videos. The Trail Less Traveled is a great publication that we receive. Linda Tellington-Jones and the TTeam & TTouch methods are great.
For information regarding Quarabs, United Quarab Registry, 31100 NE Fernwood Road, Newburg, OR 97132-7012
Go here to see Al Marah Horse Ranch where our Posey came from.
Go here to learn more about Raffles
Go here to learn more about Bask*++ and here Bask*++ A Legacy
AQHA Home Page and the National
Qtr Horse Foundation
1989 was also the year I was introduced to the ABC products by a friend and began using them. You can read our personal product testimony by clicking Our ABC Testimony.
Boy what a difference all this has made. Really enhanced our ability to have great relationships with our horses.
Jim has become one of the best Natural Horsemanship trainers in our area. There is a growing number of men and women who subscribe to these kinds of training methods. He spent a year on a TB ranch working with all ages using these methods he had learned and the horses had much more to teach him. He was able to learn it in a safe manner though, due to the methods. He also spent that year plus working with individuals and their horses which was a great experience for all concerned.
Animals have a natural liking for Jim. Even before he began his journey in the Natural Horsemanship methods. Now they really accept him. (Must be that air of confidence they can sense) Even turtles that were known to be shy when strangers came in. This huge turtle sauntered into the dining room from the bedroom where he was hiding, because he had decided he needed to meet Jim. This turtle never comes out to meet guests, instead he always hides till they are gone. This is what the owners said and observed. Animals are the BEST at reading body language and sensing the general character of a person. They are more perceptive, fair & thank goodness more forgiving..
What else have we been doing?
We have 22 years experience in financial services, plus 20 years of Networking
experience in "traditional" style MLM type companies and I was a bookkeeper for 20+ years too, we owned
& operated a Guest Service Directory Provider business (we produced those for Motels & Hotels).
We currently are offering a new Equine Nutritional Opportunity which we will be using to fund Mycpr.org activities.
We are also investors in the Forex Market. Foreign
Exchange to support ourselves.
In our last MLM company, we made the rank of top Sales Leadership and created several
leaders under us in just 1 1/2 years.
Fill out our form and check into our Multiple Streams of Income approach to working-at-home (being updated April
09). MIS - FORM.
Thank you for droppin' in. Hope you enjoyed our bio. We always like to get to know about who you all are, so we went first. Hope to visit with you soon.
We have lots of information on this site. Our desire was to be informative
and hopefully entertaining too.
Surfing the net should be entertaining! Ya'll come back and see us again soon.
We'll keep the campfire burning for you. 
Now, take me back to 
Catalogs.
