Meet My Furry Crew!

Debbie over at Debbiedoos is having a fun par-tay to meet our furry friends...and I'm warning you--I have a lot of them! :) I've always had a love affair with animals...from the time I was tiny, even though my parents were less than willing hehehehe. Now that I'm grown and have my own home, it's over-run with dogs...and a bunny. If I *could* have more, I would! Lizards, fish, a monkey...I could start a zoo. Yes...but I digress. Let me introduce you to my brood!!!

I spent my years from age 9 up in the company of a pretentious, feisty, fabulous miniature Schnauzer named Nick. He was a hoot and a half, and infamous...even my friends who proclaimed to "dislike dogs" couldn't help but adore him. He passed away just a month or two into 2006, quietly and at home with us. I think about him all the time; he was really my first 'true' pet (I had a hamster named Lucky; he had a short life, hated me, and well...he was just grumpy, RIP little guy). So not wanting to be without furry friends (much to my parents dismay, as I was living at home and single then) I headed to the humane society where I intended to adopt perhaps one small-ish doggie to bring home and love.

I ended up with these two rascals.

Jasper is the reddish little fiend, Doc is the plump hound that spent most of his puppy hood asleep or eating. Or falling asleep eating. They loved to play together, and Jasper would promptly take any toy Doc got from him...he amassed a collection, as Doc was (and still is) far too docile to really care what anyone else is doing.

My "small-ish" puppies grew into much larger dogs, and I made their home in my parent's huge back yard. When James and I got married, we did the same...until Jasper, with his Christopher Columbus mentality, continued to dig out every opportunity he got (and there were many). Doc is a sucker for peer pressure so if he could fit his fat hiney in the hole, he went along too. Jasper is now an inside pup, and Doc has absolutely zero gumption about himself to leave. He knows where the food bowl is and he's content...and not alone (but I'll get to that in a moment).

James and I were married in May, 2007, and we each really missed having an inside dog. So off we went to the humane society (they love me there hehehe). We intended to get this sweet little female terrier mutt, as her brother was away at an adoption drive. He was returned just a few moments before closing, and we got a glimpse of his hiney as he dove into his food bowl. We decided to return the next day to get HER. The next day came and a woman in line behind us whispered to her grandson (they hadn't unlocked the doors yet) to "run ahead of those people" (that'd be us) and "make sure to grab her" (that'd be the puppy we'd looked at). So the doors open and he did exactly as told...so he ended up with the female and we ended up with this little troublemaker (her brother)...

We took him to a 'bonding room' and he promptly flexed and pounced onto James' hand like a tiger...or...Tigger. I immediately said "we have to have him and his name is Tigger." He went from a sweet, smooth-coated little 2.5 lb. puppy to a wire-haired, obscenely long-bodied dog of about 20 lbs. He's my entertainment. Tigger sits, shakes, high-fives, jumps, speaks, and his favorite--bang! (shoot him with your finger...he falls over)

That didn't seem too much...at the time both Doc and Jasper were outside, Tig was inside...and then James started to travel for work and I said, "I want a big loud dog to have indoors with me, like a guard dog." (giggle*snort) We ended up with this little dude from a rescue group...his name is Bear.

Bless his heart...his is not very bright. He is very clumsy and he's scared of his own tail. No, I mean it. He really is scared of it. And as you can see, he did not get nearly as large as the 'guard dog' I had envisioned...but I love him nonetheless. He even crosses his paws.

"That's it, Leighann, no more dogs!" James told me over and over. And I was okay with that. I mean, 4 dogs? That's a lot for anyone right? So one day, I'm driving down the road and I almost hit this gorgeous white dog in the road...I turn around and go back to check on him and to see if he has a collar. He's sweet, but without a collar, and it's summer and he is HOT. So what do I do? I put him in the backseat of my car and home we go. I think...oh someone HAS to be looking for him. He looks purebred. He's beautiful. "You are NOT naming him, Leighann because we can NOT keep him" James says...yes, yes, I know. We put up fliers, we put up ads on CL, I mentioned him on FB...no one seemed to be looking and before I realized...he'd been with us 3 months and learned his "name"--White Dog. That was two and a half years ago...here he is playing in the snow we recently had. He enjoys his time outdoors keeping Doc company and generally harassing him--he loves to play.

When I was teaching preschool, the K4-K5 teacher adopted a mini-rex rabbit for her classroom. Towards the end of the year she decided to relocate, and change jobs, and just couldn't care for him as she wanted...So Marble (that's his 'official' name) was in need of a home. She asked if I would be willing to take him in...We had kept him on the weekends for her before, when she was traveling for job interviews, and James and I both thought he was an awesome little guy...So in the spring of 2010, Marble came to live with us.

I had never owned anything like a rabbit before, but he's super easy to care for. If you've never owned one (and I say one, but my experience thus far is just with the mini-rex), they are hilarious. He has a very distinct personality and he is MOODY. When his cage is changed he promptly and huffily sets to rearranging EVERYTHING, no matter where we put it. Food, hay, shavings, etc. Then he gets lazy and does things like you see below :)

And funny enough, he and Tigger get along really well. Tigger just doesn't quite grasp that Bunny Bunny (as we tend to call him) is NOT a puppy for him to play with...Tigger barks at him and jukes around trying to get him to play and of course...Bunny just looks at him like, yeah so? It's comical. Here they are hanging out on my bed one afternoon.

So if you've read this far, I thank you, and I hope you've enjoyed meeting my crew :) I love having my dogs and my grumpy bunny and while they can be quite a handful (and eat a LOT), I don't know what I'd do without them. Ironically enough, when James and I started dating, I had Doc and Jasper. His parents also had two dogs, Nahla and Camden. To date, James and I have amassed 5 dogs and a bunny...his parents have 5 dogs and a guinea pig...I promise it wasn't planned, but our vet (we use the same one) just looooves us hehehe :)