Our Stories

The Furry Ones

Truffle (Sable Tabby) My daughter thought it would be a lovely birthday present for me to bring home a stray kitten. Nope. i was't going for it in any way, shape or form. The house is full, ding, dang, darn it! I had an obligation, though, to be sure she was healthy and had her shots while I looked for another home for her. We took her to the vet, who held her down on the table and gave her the required shots. When she let go of the bundle of fur, Truff leaped for my neck with a kitty-cry of "Mom!". She didn't let go of my neck for 3 days. Sigh. We have another cat in the house, now. This one sure is a corker, though. She absolutely adores Jamie (the cat-hater), and will put both front paws around his neck and will hug him tight. Either that or just sit on his shoulder and look at the world. Sing along with me ... "Nobody knows the truffle I've seen. Nobody knows the truffle." And yes, that's the bathroom window, which normally is covered with bric-a-brac. Sigh.
Dutchess (White German Shepard) A friend of ours fell in love with this pup. A few months later he figured out why his eyes were swollen shut, and he could never stop sneezing. We lept at the opportunity to help him with his allergy. It broke his heart to let her go, but it warmed ours. This pup is still growing - at 6 months she was 62 pounds, and the sweetest, most gentle animal you've ever seen. If we could just convince her to open the screen door before she comes in. Sigh. Update: Dutch is now about 2 years old, 100 pounds and the screen door died a year ago. If we can just keep her out of the garden, I think she'll live a long and happy life. If she keeps pulling up my trees to play with, though, she's going to die young!
Dax (Norwegian Forest Cat) The best thing I ever stole! This is the quintessential lap slut! We almost named him Oragami because of the way Jesse would fold him into pieces - no bones anywhere in his body. His litter name was Norton, but he was renamed Norton-Dax for the Deep Space Nine trill that his meow so closely resembles. That is the cherrywood "throne" that Jamie made for me while I was president of a local medieval education group. I don't get to sit it much anymore, as you can see. But when I do, the cushion is warm.
Vespa (cat) The oldest, and by far the prickliest of our bunch. She is the perfect art deco cat. When curling up to sleep on a square pillow, she will be a precise oval, precisely in the center of the pillow, with every hair in place. She is also the most vocal of the animals. She is very opinionated and doesn't hesitate to share those opinions. Update: I think kitty dementia is setting in. Vespa is acting like a kitten. She "forgets" that she's uppity, or dignified, or opinionated. She is getting really goofy!

In Memory
Artos d'Baskerville (Black Chow/Belgian Shepard) I let Jamie go to Palm Springs Faire without me - once. And he found something to keep him warm at night. I get this call in the middle of the night, "Hi, honey." In the backgorund I hear a bunch of drunken men yelling things like, "Tell her he's cute. Tell her I'll help train him. Tell her he won't eat. Much." How could I resist a come-on line like that? Update: Artos developed a brain tumor the summer of 2002. We did what we could and watched the quality of life. The spring of 2003, his dignity was so affronted by his seizures that he was living his life under the bed where no one could see him. So we let him go.
Lady (golden retreiver/irish setter mix) This dog "appeared" behind a 6-foot fence, with a locked gate. We have no clue how she got in (she does't dig, nor does she jump), but she came to us when Jesse was less than a month old. So we look at her as a guardian angel. She's starting to feel her age, but we do everything we can to pamper and spoil her rotten. Update: The winter of 2002, our Lady passed on. Sleeping on a heated cushion just wasn't enough to keep the pain out of her hips. I still dream of her, leaping in the back yard like a puppy again. This one is going to take awhile to quit hurting. It's been over a year, but I can't bring myself to delete her from this page.