The Rest of the Gang

It is time to meet the rest of the gang.

Living with us at the house is a menagerie of pets. The oldest of these is the boss of the house, Dude. Dude is a male cat. He was born at my old place and has been with me since his birth (mostly). He was 4 years old in May. I came home from work one day to a squirming bundle of kittens, a gift from Bob, their mom. This gets tricky. I got a cat and named her Allie. Later, the kids came home from a trip with a friend to see him race, with a solid black purr-ball. We named him Bob. About nine months later, Allie's balls dropped and shortly thereafter Bob was pregnant. Don't ask me to determine your cat's sex. Cat gender is not my bag. Well, bob had 5 kittens. I gave most of them away and gave Bob away as well. Allie decided he didn't want to hang around anymore. As I was giving the kittens away, one of them would mysteriously disappear anytime someone came to pick one up. Chasity named her 'Doodles'. Well .. As you might suspect .. He wasn't a her .. and I was not going to have a male cat named 'Doodles'. So, doodles became 'the Dude'. He is definitely a cat with attitude. My friends say he has 'personality'.
About 5 months ago, Dude decided to leave. He hung around the house but would run whenever anyone approached him. Then just as suddenly as he left, he appeared on the porch seeking entry. He walked in as if he had never left.
There was one small change. That small change was a miniature Pomeranian named Donovan. Donovan is about 3 years old. Leonard (who gave us this gay dog) told us he was house broken. Let me tell ya, always suspect this statement from anyone trying to give you a dog. I mean, do you really think they will tell you that the dog is going to crap every where, and you will still want it? Anyway, Donovan weighs about 5 to 7 pounds. He is a registered Champion Stud dog. He is scared of everything in the house except Tammy. Every noise causes him to jump, run, and hide. Every now and then, he will come to me and stand by my leg looking for attention.
Now we are at Malcolm. Malcolm was born in May of 2003. He weighs about 80 to 90 pounds. He is a registered Boxer. He is a smart goofball. He takes to training quite well, but walks into doors and walls. We have only had him for about 2 months, but he is already a member of the family. He sleeps by the bed at night. He tries to sleep in it from time to time, but that doesn't work with his size, his nails, and our waterbed. He loves rough housing with the kids. He would never hurt them, except by accident.
Now we are down to Ava. Ava was born in May of 2003 as well. She is about 22 to 24 inches long now. Ava is a Ball Python. She is friendly, but her once a week feeding of a live mouse reminds you that she is first and foremost, a predator. She love wrapping herself around Tammy's wrist in what Tammy calls a snake-let. She is growing and getting stronger all the time. Her growth will be controlled by her cage size. Right now, she has much room to grow.
Temporarily, Chris has a white rat, Melinko. He has it in the room, but there isn't room in there for the cage, and the other room inhabitant does not like it at all. There will be discussion when he comes home today as to what we are going to do about this. There is no other place in the house to keep Melinko. Time will tell, and so will I.