There were green alligators and long necked beast

and then there is the resident horde here.

Blogger still isn't letting me post photos but here are some I put up special for you all.

First, Amos Moses, the flying kitty from the wedding. He grew to be a monster tiger with wonderful hunting skills. He was also a lover and a fighter. I am not sure which he was doing when I heard a gun shot one day and he never came home again, I'm betting on making babies.

The next photo was the mate's favorite of the best dog he ever had. When he picked him out of the littler of classic boxer pups his hair was so thin he looked "buck naked". For his courtesy registry we named him "King William's Bucky" aka Mate's sidekick. We all call him Buck.

He is a white boxer and has all the best qualities of the breed. He is playful, wonderful with children of any size, energetic, loves to romp and minds his boss.




















He almost died of Parvo at eight weeks old but when the vet sent him home to die the mate rubbed canned cat food on his gums and washed it down with water dripped on the back of his tongue and carried him out to do his business then held him in his lap. He got laid off that Monday for two weeks and darn if he didn't nurse him back to health. They were bonded with a real respect and affection for each other. Buck had been on double guard duty ever since the mate left us. So has the escape artist/road block, Shadow, my chow/lab half breed. Shadow was gifted to us when my own wonderful Lt. Warf passed on. She was just old enough to make puppies.

You guessed it, Buck had never had a girl friend and he was about seven years old then, in his prime. We had TEN boxadors. She was an excellent mom and we only lost one of them. I was up all night with her and have photos of the little, wet wigglers, one through ten. In this one they are about 4 weeks old.




This is kind of a before and after deal. I got exausted putting five out for her and then switching off as they got older. She did, too.

It was summer and the mate and I used to carry them out to the puppy part of the dog pen in two laundry baskets. All nine got excellent homes, and boy, was I glad to be back down to two dogs and two cats.

At that time we had Fancy and her son, Timone. I have mentioned them before.

Fancy was a rescue from a box in the hot sun at a flea market. No, not by me, by the big, rough looking biker I was with.

The mate was always soft for babies of any kind and they liked him. Kittens, puppies, kids, if it was little and cute I had to master my own instinct to bring it home and then beat him into leaving it behind, too.

This kitten had black eye liner like Tammy Faye but we named her Fancy because she was just a barn cat, or "plain white trash". She would climb this pine outside the window and glare at us until we let her back in where it was warm. She was Timone's mom. We lost her to an accident with a rescued dog later.














Timone and his litter mates we always called a "boat kittens". His mom escaped the house, where I had a nice box with a blanket ready, and had them outside under our fishing boat. I picked him out to keep while he was still little and wet. He was the biggest and grew to be the fuzziest, just the way I like them. His regal attitude and stuffy demenor belie the kitten still within him.

Two christmas's ago, when we were a cat short, so to speak, we went to the nephew's for the holiday and his cat fell for the Mate!

Mystique came to join us a day or two later. We solved her problem of wanting to be inside all the time by introducing her to our other cat, His Highness, Timone, and our two dogs. She didn't like them and they didn't like her.

It took six weeks to get all of them getting along together. In the early spring she started acting strangely. It took me more weeks to figure out I had an addict for a cat.

The 'nip was up and she was IN it! All the time. I can't believe how hot she is for her catnip. Last winter she got my stash I dried for tea and tore it all up all over the kitchen floor. Now, I just call her the stoner cat and try not to let her rug flipping habits trip me up.

They all speak basic English; back door, front door, No, good, bad, here, stop, etc. The dogs do their tricks to hand signals. I even have a very subtle one that tells Buck to bark. It works for people at the door that I want to have leave..LOL!

The cats open the back door from the porch when they want in, the dogs open the gates if I don't lock them. Buck unties knots for fun, Shadow escapes. The dogs chase the cats in the yard when they are bored but the neighbor cats have been unseen since the new fence went in.

Shadow is always near me, behind me, at the foot of the bed, between me and where ever I want to go. She and Buck both go off on "intruder alert" for the littlest unknown noise or if they are startled when the cats open the back door. The cats are pretty worthless. I don't have any mice right now because we had the basement all torn up and ran them off. They will be back this winter and I will have to think about getting a real mouser because I can't run the mate's trap line. I hate mice.

I keep them fed, medicated, flea-ed and fussed with. The kids and grands all come when they can just to give the dogs attention. We are all short some pets right now but it is harder on them. All my habits are changing and the one where I sit in on the couch and watch TV with the mate is history. There is no more "sitting on the couch with our people and getting pets' hour and they miss it. But we are ok, just thin on the pets.

They are glad to see me when I get home and make me get up to let them out so I can't lay around on these days that are too hot and too stressed to make going out seem like a good idea. I really was going to go out tonight but next thing I knew it was closing time.

They make me angry, frustrated, cranky and they cost me money. They make me laugh and go out and play and stop what I am doing to pay attention to them. We have been together now in this formation six months and with these critters two years at christmas, I think. Timone is one year older than Buck and Buck is ten this year. Shadow should be about 4 and I think Mistique is 3-ish. I worry about losing the two old ones. I get heart broken easier all the time and I'm still pretty tender. But I need to thin the ranks, anyway, it's a lot of work with four of them and I am too lazy to want to do it forever.

I think I will always have a dog of some kind, I have gotten used to it. I like the added sense of safety they give me with their better hearing and quicker reflexes. I hate mice so I will probably always have a cat, too, as long as I have a house.

I always felt bad for kids that couldn't have pets. I still do.