Not only do special people sometimes enter our lives when we’re least expecting it, but animals can have equally surprising ways of coming into our lives. Local executives John Pettit, Karen Shaff, Mary O’Keefe and Peggy Fisher dish about their friendships with their animals.

John Pettit

Stadium is an unusual name for a pet. But considering the unusual way the cat became a part of John Pettit’s life, the name is fitting.

When Pettit, the president of the Iowa Stars, was running Tiger Stadium in Detroit, a wild cat living in the ballpark gave birth to a litter of kittens. One day, the mother cat and her kittens fell through the ceiling of the owner’s suite. Pettit and his staff bottle-fed the kittens and took care of them until they were old enough to be given away. Pettit ended up bringing one home for his daughters. His family named it Stadium after its first home.

Fourteen years later, Stadium still lives with the Pettits, along with two other cats. Pettit never imagined having one cat in the house, let alone three. He had always been a dog person, favoring English sheepdogs.

“I was always one of those people who couldn’t understand why people have cats,” he said.

But after bringing Stadium home, Pettit saw that like dogs, cats can offer unconditional love and comfort you when you’re down. And if you move frequently for work, like Pettit, pets help a family adjust to their new surroundings.

“They bring a sense of normalcy that helps with the transitions,” Pettit said.

His family’s second cat, Panda, came from an animal shelter in Connecticut. The third cat, Bernie, showed up two years ago on the family’s deck in Michigan.

“My family was getting ready to move to Des Moines where I was already living, and the last thing we needed was another cat,” Pettit said. “But when we couldn’t find its owner, we took him in.”

Each of the three cats has its own personality. Pettit said Stadium can be a little stand-offish, Panda craves attention, and Bernie “is like a dog” because of his larger size and uncharacteristic behavior.

“If he gets outside, you can call him and he comes right back,” Pettit said. “And he comes running if you offer a treat. The others have the attitude that they’ll come when they want.”

As you might guess, Pettit tends to spend more time with Bernie than the others. His wife and daughter who still lives at home spend more time with the older cats. Although the cats have become part of the family, Pettit hasn’t ruled out the possibility of getting a dog eventually. He checks the Animal Rescue League of Iowa’s Web site regularly for English sheepdogs.

“The cats are great, but I still love dogs too,” he said.

Karen Shaff

Karen Shaff, executive vice president and general counsel for Principal Financial Group Inc., grew up with dogs. After she was married, she owned cocker spaniels for many years. When she was at the Blank Park Zoo one day for an event for people and their pets, she stopped by the Animal Rescue League of Iowa display, where she met Bailey. It was love at first sight.

“We had lost one of our dogs a few months before, and we were thinking about getting another dog,” Shaff said. “We thought Bailey was really cool, and he got along well with the older dog we had at the time.”

Bailey, a springer spaniel mix, joined the Shaff family as a puppy about 12 years ago. Three years ago, the Shaffs added Cassidy, another springer spaniel mix from the ARL. The dogs live comfortably, sharing everything from beds to vacations with the Shaffs. They get to go along with the family on trips to Colorado. Shaff said either she or her husband usually makes the long drive out there so the dogs can come along.

“I wouldn’t want to put the dogs on a plane, because I don’t trust my baggage to the airlines, let alone my dogs,” Shaff said.

She said the dogs love to play in the snow in Colorado and chase after wildlife. They love to spend time outdoors in Iowa as well. Shaff said they regularly hunt down critters, and much to her dismay, they’ve mistaken skunks for cats on more than one occasion and ended up getting sprayed.

The active nature of the dogs is one of the reasons they’re a good fit for Shaff, who enjoys spending time outdoors. She wakes up early every morning to take them for a walk before going to work.

“When I owned cocker spaniels, I wanted a dog that was willing to go out and exercise with me,” Shaff said. “Now, when the alarm goes off Monday through Friday, I have at least one dog jumping on me, ready to go. They’re good at making me stick to my exercise program.”

Mary O’Keefe

It wasn’t until about eight years ago that Mary O’Keefe fell in love with horses. Then came dogs. Now the senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Principal Financial Group Inc. has two of each.

Growing up in a modest home in Chicago with 10 children in the house, pets were something that didn’t fit into the fabric of O’Keefe’s life. It wasn’t until she was raising her own family that the idea came up to own an animal.

“My son Michael really wanted to learn how to ride a horse, so we got a beginner horse and he and I signed up together for riding lessons,” O’Keefe said.

As they became better riders, they got horses for more advanced riding. Now they have two American saddlebreds, Nora and Salty Dog, and for the past several years, the O’Keefe’s weekends have revolved around horse shows, with both her and Michael competing.

O’Keefe said the horses have brought “a new dimension” to her life. She likes the exercise she gets from riding and caring for them, and she has met great people who share her interest in horses.

“If you had told me a long time ago that I would be riding three times a week and traveling to horse shows, I would have said, ‘No way,'” O’Keefe said. “But now I can’t imagine life without them.”

About five years ago, her son persuaded them to get a dog. As he researched breeds to figure out which would type of dog would be a good fit for his family’s busy lifestyle, he concluded that a greyhound would be the best choice. Contrary to what most people would expect from a racing breed, greyhounds have a calm demeanor.

When the O’Keefes went to the Quad Cities to adopt a former racer, they encountered many dogs who were whining or wouldn’t come out of their kennels. But one walked right up to them and stood, calmly looking them over. When O’Keefe asked an adoption officer what the dog’s name was, she was delighted to hear that it was “Flanagan.”

“With us being Irish, it seemed like a perfect fit,” O’Keefe said. “He must have known, too, because he walked up and chose us.”

Flanagan proved to be such a good fit for the O’Keefe family that they decided to get a second dog a few years ago, a small Cavalier King Charles spaniel named Dolan. The two dogs are opposites in many ways. Whereas Dolan wants to be a “people pleaser” and is eager to greet people, Flanagan keeps to himself. The only similarities they share is that they both have had health issues. Flanagan had a spinal cord injury a few years ago and Dolan had ear infections that caused him to go deaf.

When O’Keefe sent Flanagan to Iowa State University for nine weeks of rehabilitation and water therapy after his spinal injury, she remembers someone commenting to her, “You didn’t grow up on a farm, did you?” meaning that it was absurd to spend so much money on a dog. But to O’Keefe, the dogs are part of the family.

Peggy Fisher

Peggy Fisher, chief operating officer of the The Stelter Co., was upset when her first cat was given to her as a gift. In fact, her first reaction was, “Get it out of here. I don’t want it.” But within minutes, Fisher changed her tune.

“The kitten came right up to me and rubbed its face on mine,” Fisher said. “I was hooked from there on.”

Fisher has owned several cats over the past 25 years, sometimes as many as three at once. The ones she has now, Lucy and Gracie, are 3 years old. They came from the same litter of kittens at the Animal Rescue League of Iowa.

Fisher admits that she spoils her cats. She has even bought them their own “cat videos” featuring squirrels and birds to watch for entertainment when she’s not home. The felines often travel with Fisher and her husband, Larry Stelter. Their favorite place to go together is the family’s vacation home in northeast Minnesota, where they spend summers and long weekends enjoying the wildlife together.

“They love to sit at the back door at the cabin and watch the chipmunks that come up to the door and taunt them,” Fisher said.

Sometimes her cats’ love for the outdoors gets them in trouble. Fisher remembers a time when one cat slipped outside as she rushed to answer a phone call. The next thing she knew, the cat was eating a baby rabbit in front of her dinner guests. Fisher, who never had children, figures that the naughty things her cats have done are no worse than the embarrassing things children sometimes do.

“I definitely treat them as if they’re my kids,” Fisher said.

And don’t try to argue with her that a cat is “just a pet.”

“For me, it’s not just a pet,” she said. “They can’t talk back. They can’t hurt you. They give you unconditional love.”

Fisher said she was worried that Larry wouldn’t like the cats, but he warmed up to them when they got Gracie and Lucy. Fisher said she almost got a third cat recently, but talked herself out of it. Instead, she got one for her stepmother, who had never had a cat.

“She was like I was at first,” Fisher said. “She didn’t think she would like cats, but now they’re good companions for each other.”