@SoapChef – the dog in the picture is Gracie, our late Shar-Pei. She was a local rescue and had a terrible load of heartworms. We got her through that only to lose her three years later to lymphoma. She was a delightful dog, rather like a 60 pound cat in her personality, or like a Chinese version of an English Bulldog but quieter. She was an excellent mouser, unlike our cats.
Bourbon is, we think, Golden Retriever/Shar-Pei (a “Golden Pei” or a “Shar-triever”). She suffers terrible allergies so I wish she would hang out inside but she prefers to be outside most of the time.
We have three other dogs right now:
Shorty, an elderly rescued Dachs-weiler (think Rottweiler with really low ground clearance) who lies on his side and barks at everyone except Bourbon. She seems to think Shorty is her puppy and he doesn’t mind being snuggled up to her belly.
Sally, an even more elderly local rescue who keeps trying to explain the rules to the other dogs. She is definitely an FLM (Funny Looking Mutt) and is certainly part Chow, part German Shepherd, and part something with very short legs. She “talks” constantly with a range of whines, growls and barks, and recognizes about 40 human phrases, especially “feed the dogs,” “where’s (the name of the particular kid),” “check your bowl,” “Treat?” and “outside?”
And finally, the puppy, Miss Scarlett, 113 pounds of loving American Bulldog who has to be in physical contact with one of her people at all times and who eats books. She is a pure-bred who is also a rescue. Someone paid big bucks from a breeder for her and then stuck her in the backyard all by herself. She injured her back leg and he never bothered to fix it so the bone is now deformed. His dad, who was a vet, got fed up, took the dog away and turned her over to a rescue group. And that is where we found her, when she limped over, sat on our feet and smiled at us.
We also have cats, but that’s a whole other story. All are rescues of one sort or another. The most recent is Milo the Invisible, who is actually gradually becoming visible sometimes. There are also Outdoor Kitty, who isn’t one, Franklin the Blue-Eyed Wonder Cat who is blind and grumpy, Rena the Screamah, Peanut Butter (he sticks to you), as well as Shirley, Goodness, and Mercy, refugees from a stray colony where I used to work. The triplets, as we also call them, were lying on the front steps of the building, not moving at all when folks stepped over them and the front desk folks called me to get rid of the “dead kittens.” It turned out they weren’t dead at all, just totally oblivious. That was because they are all very sweet but really, really, really stupid.
BTW there is a sign in our front yard in animal language that says “Free Food” or “Suckers Live Here” or something like that.
Composing members:
0
Composing members:
0
