Then the kids came home and with them, ………

 

Ajax was first. A shelter puppy who'd already been in one home and been returned. Looked like he couldn't believe his good luck at landing in our yard. A Plott hound. Not super bright and a little insecure, stubborn, but a fantastic tracker and a sweet boy.

 

 

Thor came at the same time. A shelter kitten and the kids' first experience with kittens. Thor is well mannered, a cat's cat. A bird chaser, we see him wandering everywhere, hunting. Then he comes in the house and hides and sleeps.

 

 

 

A bit after Thor, Gunnar who has grown into a large lanky fellow with beautiful black striped coat, white shirt front and three white stockings. He's a shy one. Takes all day to work up his courage to come in the house and where he goes the rest of the time, no one knows.

 

 

Aries arrived from a friend, in fact the same family that gave us Zeus. Aries was a young rag doll kitten dropped on the road in Pope Valley. The friend caught him, had him checked out but couldn't keep him. Here he found the food bowl and now weighs close to 20 pounds and looks like a pile of lovable rags.

 

 

Zeus is a Rhodesian ridge back pup from the family's litter, so he came as a roly poly little fellow, now 80 pounds of happy dog. A good hunter himself, of feral pigs in the absence of lions. A definite force to be dealt with.

 

 

 

Romulus and Remus were waiting at the vets looking for a home when Aries went in for a mat brushing. So, of course….two more kittens.

 

And then there was Chalupa Batman……

 

Really.

 

We thought we’d stop at six beautiful kitties and two happy dogs but fate never lets you alone.

 

Son’s fiancée went off to school and the empty apartment was too much to bear after the menagerie.

 

So a shelter provided a sprightly little gray tabby whose main occupation appears to be bouncing off the walls or arranging himself between girl and study materials……..What deity is named Chalupa Batman?

 

And…..the baby….Hiccup

 

Our friends, of Aries and Zeus fame, were driving up the night dark Pope Valley road on New Year’s Eve to a little get together at our place, and a quick shape dashed across their headlights.

 

They stopped, got out and were attacked by a kitten

desperate to be saved. They brought him along and

he is now being returned to health, de-fleaed, de-mited,

fed and lots of sleep safe in an apartment almost all

to himself.

 

He was a hiccup in the plans......  

 

But families keep growing.  The kids have now married and starting their official family with.........ATHENA!  She is a beautiful English mastiff pup, gentle, funny, reasonably sedate.  Zeus was appropriately jealous, but she seems to be winning over even his hard canine heart.   

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Ah, but who can refuse kittens......besides there is a mouse problem in the garage.  So....a brother sister act, a little ginger named Tiger Lilly, or Tilly for short and her brother, a grey named Flintlock, or Flint for short.  No signs of mice this winter.

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