No Puppies for Christmas

Since our girls are attending college in Louisiana we will be traveling there to spend Christmas with them. This means we will be leaving our four little ones at home. No... we do not have four younger children. I am referring to our four precious canines. By the way, I realized I haven’t told you the “rest of the story” about how we got our dogs.

Muff, Jersey, Grace

If you remember, Muff was our first and Grace was our second. Grace is actually the mother and grandmother of our other two dogs.

• On a side note…Once upon a time, (totally unplanned by us), Grace got pregnant and gave birth to Zooby and Sasha. We were not ready at that time to take on any more dogs and Rodger was careful to make sure everyone knew we weren’t. This being the case, we gave these two wonderful puppies to friends of ours. Zooby now looks just like a male version of Grace except bigger and Sasha looks similar to her grandmother. Incidentally, we actually gave Sasha to the same home her grandmother and aunt (Grace's sister) grew up in.

Zeus

Anyhoo... after this first unplanned set of puppies we decided to plan our next ones.

Now let me introduce you to a special dog named Zeus. We don't own Zeus but we fell in love with him when we met a neighbor and him as they were on one of their daily walks past our home. Zeus met Grace one day and became very interested in her. They later became a couple and before we knew it, we had three little babies. Grace actually had four, but we lost one... it was very sad. We named him Tomorrow. As for the other three, they were Ozzie, Lucy and Hershey. Ozzie and Lucy found very good homes and Hershey became our third doggy family member. Within the next two years we met a wonderful little shiatsu named Skippy, who fell madly in love with Hershey and wah-lah... two months later five new babies; Jersey, Bella, Quincy, Figgy, and Rascal. Bella and Quincy were the girls. Bella went to Skippy's home, Quincy to a friend at church, Figgy to a friend of a friend, Rascal to my mom and after much resistance from Rodger, he said “ if we’re going to have any more dogs, it will be mine, it will be this one, and his name will be Jersey.”

Hershey

Well that's our story. Rodger says we have enough … sometimes I agree and.... well... sometimes I don't—hehe. Grace ended up having one more litter of four... they were adorable; Sammy, Poppy, Janeway, and Tuvoc. I think we’re all done … for now.

Skippy

Jersey

Sammy, Janeway(top), Tuvoc, Poppy-2008

Lucy, Hershey, Ozzie-Oct 2005

Bella, Quincy, Jersey, Figgy, Rascal-2007

Sasha and Zooby-Mar 2005

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I have FOUR dogs! (our dogs and how we got them)

I actually only have two dogs but... with the girls in college and unable to take their dogs, I now have four.  My oldest daughter (J)'s dog is 17 yrs old his name is Muff and my youngest daughter (M)'s dog is 12, her name is Gracie.  These animals have been a part of our family since they were tiny little babies.  I think it's better for them to stay home with us rather then move half way across the country with my girls.  And, of course, Rodg and I each have our own dogs, Jersey and Hershey. 

Muff

We got Muff for "J" as a Christmas present when she was just a little girl.  Then we decided ...to be fair and get "M" her own dog, so one year shortly after Christmas,(thanks to a wonderful friend of mine) Gracie became a part of our family.  It was just Muff and Grace for a long while.  Oh we had other pets that came and went but they were temporary.  There was Candie the guinea pig, Jack the German Shepperd, Blondie a beautiful dog of what kind I don't know.  There was Princess a poodle that everyone called Pooter, Newby the albino leopard gecko, Squeeze the boa constrictor (yes it's true, I can't believe I actually let this one in my home), Ed the baby chicken and various types of fish.  All this and I only had two daughter's I can't imagine how many different pets would we have had if our children were boys.  Of all those animals though, only Muff and Gracie remained, but don't worry the others all found very good homes.  I will tell you the story of how Hershey and Jersey became a part of our family in a later blog.

Gracie

Now that the girls are away from home and its just us and the dogs, I have a bit more time to spend with them.  They are all helping me adjust to not having anyone to mother.  What a blessing pets are.  I am amazed at how easy it is to make them happy...how easy it is for them to love me... Each night when I get home from work, these animals are so happy it's like I've been away forever.  I literally have to stop, drop my stuff and greet each one of them or else they just can't settle down.  I know they can be trained not to do that but... I kind of ...like it.  It makes me feel special.  After I sit and relax it's not long before they are all laying at my feet.  And if I get up to go to another room, they follow.

Hershey

Each of my little doggies have a unique personality.  You, who have pets know this is true.  Muff is our Pomeranian mix and he  gets so excited to greet you he can't stay still long enough for you to even pet him.  Everyone that sees him thinks he's the youngest because of the way he bounces around.  Gracie...poor little thing is such a lover she can't keep herself from whining ...when she's happy!  And then there's Hershey who thinks she's king of the hill even though she is the second youngest and her under bite is so bad she looks like she's smiling upside down.  And last but certainly not least is our youngest boy Jersey.  Jersey is so lazy he will lay down to eat out of his bowl.  His whole face will be buried out of sight inside his bowl that at times, I think, he's even fallen asleep.  And can that boy eat!  He is the heaviest of our dogs, and really should lose some weight.  Rodg and I will need to get on that.

Jersey

Rodger takes the 'kids" on a walk each day... or tries to.  They love it.  He also is the one that feeds them.  He's been able to teach a couple of them some tricks.  Gracie will spin around on her hind legs three times when Rodg says "three"...it's like a little dance.  Jersey will sit up and beg.  Rodger's trying to teach Hersey to lift her upper lip to the command "smile" but that's taking a while.  He doesn't make Muff do anything because of his advanced age but still that dog will leap and run and jump so much he makes himself cough.  They all know what "Let's get the bowls", "lets go to the kitchen" , "It's time for a snack" and "do you want to go bye bye"mean.  And when we sing "Hershey baby" to the tune of "Santa Baby" Hershey knows it's her turn to eat.

At any rate that's my current pet family.  I've attached some pictures.   I hope you enjoy them.  I've also attached a video of Jersey begging for food that I KNOW you'll enjoy.  That's it for now.  Talk to you soon.