C.J.'s Pets
The black dog is Astro, the brindle dog is Rocket, the grey cat is the dearly departed Fozie and the new black cat is Sasuke (pronounced without the "u" like Sas-kay).
Astro at three months old when she first arrived.
We followed the advice in one dog book to give the dogs a sandy area of the yard for digging in. She loved it!
She was such a bundle of joy that first night! (and still is)
We got Astro in March and Rocket came along a couple of months later - he's about three months younger than her and they share the same great-grandfather. The breeders were an absolute joy to work with and did an incredible job socializing the dogs before we got them.
Rocket's first night was hilarious! Astro tried to hop the 2 1/2 foot gate to get to him - we just wanted him to have a few minutes in the new house to himself and she'd have none of it!
After an incredibly long first night with lots of crying on Rocket's part we had to put them in the same crate. They've been together ever since.
We had a good hold of her because she was so much bigger than his 9 week old size, we were afraid he'd get hurt.
That picture in the middle is from when we took the pups--one six months the other three months old on a Father's Day camping trip with a four year old boy and a six year old girl. Oh, all in a tent mind you. It will forever be known as THE TRIP FROM HELL and it's what prompted us to get a pop-up camper.
The dogs were pretty good on that trip overall. It was sleeping all together in one tent, on a slight slope, with not one but TWO sleeping-bag wetting incidents, four "I've rolled out of my bag and can't find it" middle of the night jarring wake-ups, and an outhouse--that finally pushed me over the edge (and should I mention the obnoxious people playing music till midnight when it was a "no music and quite after ten p.m." type of place?) Freakin' HELL I tell you.
People would never believe me when I said the dogs slept with the cat - I had to get some photographic proof! They were such buddies.
Fozie was the best cat ever. He lived til 18 and had a very full life. Yes, I'm a sad sap for saying I miss him still and my new kitty hasn't quite filled the gapping hole yet.
Meet the new household terror - Sasuke! He pees in my tub if his litter isn't clean enough, he meows NON-STOP when he wants something, and you'd better figure out what he wants quick if you want to get back to sleep. He has an unfailing sense of when it's past seven a.m. and we're all sleeping in. Furry bugger loves to wake us all up on the weekend because we're off the normal weekday schedule!
Yes, he's cute as a button. Yes, we saved him from a ditch in West Virginia.
But, he terrorizes Rocket and makes the poor dog afraid to even jump on the couch. I wanted to get him a new home when I found out I had a cat allergy, but so far we're holding out (and I take pills) to see if things settle down. Time will tell, but so far he's not my favorite member of the family.
**Fun Fact from the Animal Shelter: Black dogs and cats are usually the last adopted and often most likely to be put down. People have a "thing" about black animals. Who knew? And we have three!
