"The Zoo" by Dabs

I vowed I wasn't getting another animal since I have a senior citizen cat but you know how these things happen, a friend has a stray cat that has kittens and they are so darn cute. That is until they start shredding your curtains, eating your venetian blinds, unrolling the toilet paper, licking the dishes, oh yes, it's coming back to me now! Off to the pet store I went, a bag filled with scratching posts and plastic balls with bells and stuffed mice laced with catnip and I'm sure he'll still shred my curtains and eat my venetian blinds!

Since my 1st four cats were all named after characters in the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons, I stayed with that theme and the little fellow is named Dudley after Dudley Do-Right, the Canadian mountie who could never quite catch Snidely Whiplash or win the heart of Nell. Mr. Peabody is a strong contender should I ever get another dog...

When we first got married, I went a "little nuts" adopting animals. My first two (sadly departed from us)were strays from a shelter, Natasha, a tortoise shell cat, and Boris, a black cat who thought he could make himself invisible. Then a coworker said "you can't have the spies from Rocky & Bullwinkle without having Rocky and Bullwinkle" and off I went to the shelter again to get them.

RIP 4/7/07

From the moment I saw this little ball of fluff at the local shelter she was my favorite, when she was small and wanted attention, she would climb up my pant leg to be close to me. After she ballooned to 17-18 lbs and this was no longer possible, she would jump on top on my computer and crawl into my lap or hoist herself onto the couch to curl up in my lap and keep me company. For most of her life she was 17-18 lbs, looked just like a bowling ball with a little head attached.

I suppose you know that the day to say goodbye will come, I struggled with the decision for a few weeks as I watched her drop weight and lose her appetite. But when she started to cry when I picked her up, I knew that it was time to say farewell to my chubba wubba after 17 years of companionship. She was a diva but a lovable one and I miss her enormously.

Rocky was a tough little cat, regularly beat up on Nikita the dog, but that was until Dudley appeared and started doing running leaps at her. Her favorite place is now wedged behind the toilet where he can't get a running start. People who say that cats aren't affectionate didn't have one like her. She sits in my lap and helps me write my tips :-)

But she can be a little devil, every time we leave for vacation she hides so I don't know for sure that I haven't locked her in a closet somewhere, how does she know that I'm leaving????

Both Rocky and Bullwinkle were born in 1989, the same year we got married, Bullwinkle lived to be almost 18, Rocky is now almost 19.

Well, then I decided I really wanted a Samoyed and while scanning the paper one day, I ran across an ad for a free 1 year old Samoyed who the owners could no longer keep and that's how we got Lucy. She was renamed Lucifer for the first few months we had her, she ran away constantly, knocked over our garbage cans, made incredible messes and I was wondering how such a sweet looking dog could be so bad!!! Turned out she was an unwed mother and right around Christmas she delivered 5 healthy puppies, one of which my mother in law adopted. She lived with us for almost 15 years. She settled down after being spayed, turned out to be a wonderful dog and is greatly missed.

The final addition to the zoo came through a coworker who's exboyfriend's dental assistant couldn't handle her dog and that's when we got Nikita, an American Eskimo. They told me he was just a smaller version of Lucy but Eskimos are bred to be guard dogs so they bark all day, never sleep, are very protective and don't handle having strangers in the house very well. The last couple of years of his life, he slowed down quite a bit, slept a lot but still kept constant watch over me. Nikita was 16+ years old when we finally decided to take him in when his quality of life was no longer OK. The house is very empty without him.

Harley was saved from doggie death row at the local shelter by my mother in law. I would have never picked this dog for her based on his size and coloring but he turned out to be the perfect dog for her, gentle and well behaved. He now lives with my brother in law and holds his own against Maddie

This is Maddie, the Christmas puppy. She only lived with us for a day in December 2005 before moving to her new home at my brother in law's house. She looks awfully sweet in this photo but right after this was taken she started chewing on those presents.....