Welcome to My Jaded Reality

Our Pets


Max


Max, a shepherd / husky cross, was adopted from Animal Services on Valentines Day, 2007. His exact date of birth wasn't known, so we've honorarily given him Valentines Day as his birthdate ... his estimated age was 12 months when we adopted him. The only history there had been on Max was that he had been abandoned inhome by the owners, meaning the owners left their home with the animals indoors. Who knows how long he was there before AS intervened? Before that he had likely just been a bush dog.

Animal Services had kept him for 2 months, which is one month longer than their policy to keep animals, so we saved him from a not-so-kind fate. As a matter of fact, his 'put down' date was February 15th ... one day after we took him home.

Although being warned that he would be timid, Max has fit right into our family from the first minute. He does, however, have a few interesting personality quirks. He makes a great doorbell with that loud bark of his, but in terms of being a guard dog ... well, he kinda sucks, lol. He's scared of thunderstorms, swimming, and if caught off guard, his own reflection. Regardless, he's our suck and we love him.

Max, after coming to us with almost no human interaction, let alone training, now understands more than 400 verbal commands, and we're seriously considering training him for therapy work.


Rufus


Rufus came to live with us April of 2009, when he was 9 months old, and he's a beautiful little tricolored basset hound. His history is shaky, but this is what we do know. He was living with a family, who decided they didn't want a dog to mess up their house and banished him to live in the garage. While he was there, he ate something he shouldn't have, because he wasn't supervised or cared for properly, and ended up at the vets to have his stomach pumped. At some point, this family decided to get rid of him through an online ad, and another woman saw the ad, felt incredibly sorry for him, and took him in, even though she knew she wouldn't be able to keep him permenantly. She just didn't want to see him left in the situation he was left in.

This woman then placed ads looking for a responsible home for him, and that's how we found him. It was love at first sight, after first seeing his long droopy ears and sad face staring at us through their living room window. (How much is that doggie in the window ... )

Rufus is an incredibly stubborn dog, difficult to train, but not impossible! We were prewarned by longterm basset owners that scent hounds can be damn near impossible to train, and that training them for food tricks (leave it) would be a complete impossibility. Well, either they suck at trianing or are simply not consistent enough, because with time, Rufus has learned to leave a treat sitting on his paw and wait for a command. He knows probably about 50-100 verbal commands now.

If you visit the family videos page, you'll see videos of Rufus doing his trademark howling. It's so fun having a hound dog. ;)


Nyx


Nyx was born the first week of September, 2008, and came to live with us at the end of October, right before halloween, when she was 9 weeks old. She was named for the Goddess of Night (Nyx) and suits her name very, very well. She sleeps all day and plays all night. Turns out, this cute, fuzzy little kitten has a fierce! She is a little terror and has claws sharper than razorblades. However, that's only when she's intent on playfighting or is attacking Tricksy. Otherwise, she's also quite the attention hog and purrs like crazy.

She absolutey adores Warren and follows him around like a little puppy dog. The only time she'll consider cuddling with the rest of us is if Warren isn't home.


Tricksy


Tricksy was born the first week of September, 2008, and came to live with us at the end of October, right before halloween, when she was 9 weeks old. We didn't want Nyx to have only two overgrown mutts for playmates, and thought it only fair to have a playmate her own size and age, so Tricksy joined the family. Her name was supposed to be Trixie .. because it sounded good with Nyx, but as it turns out, the reference to Lord of the Rings and Gollum with his "tricksy little hobbitses" suits her much better ... tricksy little kitten. Tricksy is a little bit neurotic. She runs and runs and runs and runs ..then sleeps for ten minutes. Then she gets up, stretches, and runs and runs and runs and runs. This cat has chosen me as her owner, and wants attention and cuddles 23 hours a day.

She also enjoys bathing, and jumps in the sink at every opportunity. Strange little kitten. She sure makes doing dishes difficult, lol.


Frankie


Frankie is Raeanne's 5 year old dwarf bunny, but I don't have any pictures to offer yet. Sufficed to say, he's small, fuzzy, skittish and incredibly soft.