Home Sweet Home

I've never lived without pets and would find it difficult to do so. When I entered college, I moved into a dorm without pets but soon had fresh water clams, white mice and a rabbit. It made my dorm room seem like a home. Similarly now, the animals who live with me make my house a home:

The dogs have a fenced yard and enjoy it outside unless I am inside. Then, they collect at the gate and wait anxiously for me to let them back in:

Daisy has finished her antibiotics and is running low on eye drops. Her right eye is still half closed but that's much better than before. It's also cleared up and is not as opaque as it was previously:

Daisy and Bugsy got their antibiotic pills crushed and mixed in with canned cat food and meat flavored baby food, first twice a day and then once a day. When the medication ended, so did their special treatment. They still come to the kitchen counter twice a day, hoping for more delicious food:

Fergus lives a life of ease:

In fact, they all live a life of ease:

Bugsy and Clover like to cuddle up together:

All five dogs plus Rocky, the cat:

Bugsy has grown to an almost full size cat but still enjoys sleeping on the lamp table. And in case you're wondering, yes he does knock over the lamp sometimes:

Bugsy and Daisy often share the tallest upstairs cat tree. This used to be Georgette's special cat tree, but she almost never goes upstairs any more:

Fergus, Clover and Daphne:

Bed time. They get rawhide chewies to keep their teeth clean at night and Jack chews his under the bed:

Happy Pets At Home

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful," but the dogs don't seem to mind. In fact, most of the time they appear to enjoy it, possibly because I don't leave them outside in the cold for very long:

 Jack is more than likely the happiest he's ever been in his life. It wasn't long ago the shelter didn't know how they would place him, given his extreme fear, biting and screaming. But just look at the happy boy now:

 And Bramble too has come a long way since he was so antisocial at the shelter. Now he seeks me out to stroke his back. He still doesn't want to be held, but he recognizes me as a source of food and petting - and I often hear him purr now, something I never heard from him before. In case you wondered, that is a Mexican water drum beside Bramble. It's a clay pot with a skin stretched across the top. The amount of water you add will change the tone of the drum:

 Daphne, on the other hand, has always been perfectly behaved and as loving as a dog could possibly be:

 And when the dogs get outside to play in the snow, they sure do have fun:

 Daisy has become perhaps the most loving cat in the house. I'm sure glad the antibiotics worked, though she is still on them - just in case. She still has one eye which is half closed and cloudy, but it too is slowly improving:

 I now give the dogs rawhide chewies each night when we go to bed in order to help keep their teeth clean. Jack chews his chewies underneath the bed but the other dogs share the wealth peacefully:

 I put Dixie on the bed with the dogs for a photo but they all sort of ignored each other. That's how I ended up with a photo of Dixie alone:

 This scene of destruction means that Bugsy has been playing here. He plays rough: