Oreo Remembered

It is hard to believe it was over 14 years ago that you entered our lives.  Which one of the kids brought you home making us believe you followed him?  Jon, I think, or maybe Richard.  Those two always brought animals home...  But you stayed...  You became our old German shepherd's best buddy and revived him in his old age.  You would never stay in the back yard, always finding ways to jump out.  And it might as well have been as when you didn't run away to find company, company came to find you!  i will never forget the day when we found two strange dogs in the backyard wanting to court you... ah ah...  we soon remedied that and you slowed down a bit but you were never cured of your love of roaming free and any chance you got you took.
You never went far.  You always came back to our front porch, to the poor mailman's great distress.  More than once I had to stop him after he passed our house because you were sitting there guarding the porch from any intrusion... him included...
Odie went the way of all old dogs eventually and you were left alone but Melanie and Joe came to the rescue and brought you another German shepherd to be friends with:Triton and after first pushing him away you accepted him as your son and raised him.  The two of you in the backyard...  One thing you were never able to teach Triton was to run away though...  he brought in his own type of trouble... and I'm not sure you didn't teach him that too as I caught you more than once scratching at the back door...
But Triton was only on loan, so after Melanie and Joe took him home, you were alone once more.
Still it was not very long until Jon brought home another puppy... 6 weeks old Max, found in a dumpster with his siblings...  oh how you despised him at first, growling at his futile attempts to nurse on you...  but you always had a good heart and you raised him and taught him ALL your tricks... oh yes, don't think I didn't know... I watched you coax him to jump over the fence...  and once he had had a taste of freedom, it was hard to keep him from running off...  Oh Oreo...
Before Melanie graduated from High School you had a permanent spot on her bed.  She was your whole world and when they came for a visit in those days, you would nuzzle your way to her and showered her with attention.  But she really could not take you home with her.  Besides by then they also had another dog because Triton was lonely for you...  It was quite hectic dealing with these new additions.  You hated Sammy and Triton would try to best Max, so we had to alternate you two in and out of the house with Sammy and max who got along fine.  Sammy was actually much more motherly towards him than you were, but that's ok...
Eventually Max took a bride, Zoey (thanks to Jon and Brandon) and together they produced Lucy...  And you took it all in stride.
You didn't run away very often any more but when you had the chance you took it... Pushing the gate open and setting all four of you into the streets of Peru...  How many times have I stayed home for fear you would run off while I was gone?!
A few days ago Jon noticed something nasty in your mouth and we hoped it would heal itself but by last night it had doubled in size and smelled horribly bad.  I took you to the Veterinarian this morning knowing full well there was a chance he would tell me it was cancer and that the cure was worse than the disease at your age.  You had been breathing so painfully for the past few weeks.  It all became clear.
When I came home alone this morning, my heart was heavy because I didn't let anyone else say goodbye to you but I didn't want you to be scared.  I didn't want you to have time to figure out what was going to happen ahead of time.  The doctor gave me the choice but it seemed like it would be more cruel to you.
You trusted me and you trusted the doctor who had taken care of you many times before.  I put my head close to yours and whispered softy in your ear that everything was going to be ok and that you were going to soon feel much better.  It was quick.  You didn't show any sign of pain before your spirit was released to roam free again, this time in fields much sweeter than those on Earth and I hope with all my heart Odie and Kei and Luke were there to greet you.

It was not easy but it was better to let you go...  You were a big part of our lives and will always be part of our family, Oreo...  Thank You for being patient with us and teaching us to love you (grouch and all). 
We miss you already...  Max, Zoey and Lucy wonder where you are...  I wonder how many times Lucy will take me to the backdoor to make sure you are not left outside... 
We will see you again some day but for now it's goodbye...

Cats and Dogs

Max is a funny dog... Jonathan brought him home when he was not even 6 weeks old. he was a ball of fur that fit in the crook of Bruce's arms. All black, except for white around the neck and around his nose, and the tip of his tail... The collar eventually lost most of its whiteness and left only a white spot.


He tried to snuggle up to Oreo but she was in a bad mood.
She was not his mother, what was that thing doing trying to invade her territory?!
Eventually they became friends. A bit like mother and son even.
Then Jon brought home yet another dog: Zoey..
His cousin had bought her at the local pound but could no longer care for her and ... Jon ... you already know the rest...
Zoey was a year younger than Max, spirited, playful. It was fun to watch the two of them play. Now, Oreo was not eager to have an intruder but she again eventually acclimated herself to the new addition... like a mother when her son brings home a wife...
And so they lived happily for 6 months, until Zoey came into heat and things became VERY interesting.
Max had taken to jumping the fence whenever there was a dog in heat in the neighborhood and we were very disconcerted to have to keep him chained up. But it was nothing compared to the whining mess he became when his true love Zoey was in that situation. No need to jump the fence now... there she was, right here, but we were keeping them apart and it was killing him.
When our vigilance let up, Max saw his opportunity and he became a father... of 8 cute little ones... We kept Lucy but no more dogs will be born again in our household. But the Zoey and Lucy must still have something that gives out the scent of going into heat as now and then Max goes crazy around both of them.

We still tie him up because he still jumps the fence and runs away. He was sitting on my porch the other day because he had slipped his collar and after his run, he was ready to come home.
Last night when I let him out I could not find the chain... Somehow it had broken.
I could not leave him out unchained but I also didn't feel like staying out... I wondered if I could simply attach what was left of the chain to his collar and see if he'd think he was tied up. He did... I am not going to take the chance of him finding out he's not and so we will be getting a new one this morning. He waits for us to put his chain on... Does it make him feel important, or safe? I don't know but there is definitely something going on...
Lucy is another funny one, like her dad...

She is definitely an indoor dog... She figured out a way to get them out and then run back in quickly. She loves car rides and howls when I leave her behind... Lucy loves Grandma's house best. There she runs free and no other dogs to bother her...
Do you know many people who have such an arrangement: the daughter, the parents and the mother-in-law...
And this is not mentioning the cats!
They are not Jon's fault though. They are James' responsibility: he brought us a pair of tiny kittens.
We had never really had much luck with cats. We kept them about a year and then they would just die.
Bruce killed the one he loved most by accident: a beautiful gray one a neighbor had given us. Sheba climbed on him every morning and rubbed her nose on his neck as she walked back and forth across his shoulders. She was not an indoor cat and so one morning as Bruce turned on his truck, he tore the belt... the cat had spent the night under the hood of the truck where it was warm... That was a blow to all of us...
Bruce, trying to replace the cat, brought us home, the most miserably dirty cat we have ever had. Luckily this one ran off.
Then we were adopted on Christmas Eve by this tiny little guy, who needed a home as he was found on our door steps - so the kids told us anyway - this cat had been through some serious trauma and was scared to death of being outside... he died a year or so later after getting sick. Jon was heartbroken over it as he had become his constant companion, sleeping on his back or shoulders or...

We were finally rid of cats when James brought the little ones: a beautiful orange cat and his sister a brindle - yes - who suckled our fingers or any part of our arms she could get a hold of. The male was a tough kitty... you could see in his eyes that he was an explorer but he was also very gentle and Bruce took a great liking to him and loved the way the kitten would lick his face.
When he was about 6 months, he took off and never came home.
He's still around but free.
At first his sister looked for him. It's as though she was us asking us to go outside with her and we would literally go for a walk with her - no leash.
She too eventually grew up and had a first litter of which remained two females: a grey velvety cat with a white collar and white paws. Bruce named her "grey friar".
Her sister "Didi" - named such because she runs just like the cartoon Didi - was completely white except for a grey spot on top of her head, which in time faded completely.
Momma cat 'Little Girl' managed to get out once more when she came into heat a second time and this brought about the birth of 7 white kittens... only one was completely white (we only kept him), the others like Didi. They were born two weeks after Zoey gave birth to her 8 pups!

Do you know why we won't have any more cats or dogs born here?!
But we got to witness amazing things...
Didi loved her momma's milk so much that she managed to nurse with the second litter!!! But that's not the funniest thing she ever did...
Little Girl didn't want to nurse her any more, so she snuggled with Zoey!!!
Zoey raised her head, looked at the cat and them lowered it again and let the cat nurse on her... We tried to take pictures but they didn't turn out...

When we take the dogs for a walk the cats follow and they linger with us.

Add to that a bird - who has since flown the coop - who ruled the roost pecking at the cats who backed off!
Of course our kids, who brought these animals home to us, now also have pets of their own and their personalities do not work well with our animals so it gets hairy whenever they bring their pets with them for a visit...
This makes life interesting...