Zoe

What the heck is a Chinese Crested Hairless? Sounds bad from my seat. The good news is they come in two flavors, including the "puff" variety which isn't hairless. Zoe, a genuine clown, is now hopping around the house, learning about the do's and ignoring the don'ts of life here. Other than a major medical issue two weeks after her arrival, she is now an extremely healthy and active pup who has learned that the cats are best ignored!

Max, 1995-2004

My "dog" is a gimpy Yorkshire Terrier. Max—originally "Grande's Turbo" and remonikered as "Grande's Turbo to the Max"—was born on Christmas day in 1995. He came into our lives when he was 10 months old. This was quite by accident—literally. I was visiting my friend, Pete Thomas and had Gwen and Megan along that day. Pete and Cindy were dogsitting Max for another friend, Margo.

When we met him, Max was in a bad way. His left front leg was in a cast. He had managed to break his leg in a fall. At 5 pounds and under 9 inches in height, a four foot fall can be serious. While his leg has fully healed, he sometimes runs with his hind-end slightly out of alignment, almost like a car with a bent frame.

This picture of Megan and Max was taken on Thanksgiving, 2003.

On May 4th, 2004 Max died — 5 days after drinking a small amount of antifreeze he found on our garage floor. The emergency care he received at the Waukesha Veterinary Referral Service from April 29th on was nothing short of heroic. We hoped that he would come home — just not this way. Farewell my friend!

Tanya, 1980-1995

Max was preceded by Tanya, a sweet German Shepherd mix. Tanya was with us for 11 of her 15 years and a better mannered dog couldn't be found. I swore we wouldn't have another dog after we had to put her down, but Pete said that Margo was looking for a home for him. The mistake here was that Gwen and Megan heard this too. The rest is history.

Our friend Margo was saddened when she heard of his demise. Two months later we went to her house to meet Zoe.

Cinnamon, Frisky & Shadow

Cinnamon is Megan's cat, starting life here as a tan and white kitten. Since he started life here with no preconceived ideas about superiority to Max, they became great friends and provided no end of amusement as they tore up the house together. Now Cinnamon, our largest cat was three times the size of Max, but Yorkies tend to be perspective challenged and didn't notice any difference. Much to Cinnamon's chagrin, Zoe is lighter but slightly larger.

When our neighbor's cat had kittens, and we agreed that Gwen could have ONE (1), as in a single animal. Megan and Gwen couldn't decide which one of two Gwen should take (you do see what's coming...) so they brought BOTH home for me to decide. History repeats itself. Megan creatively named the black and white tiger Frisky, and Gwen named the gray zebra-striped kitten, Shadow.

We now have arrived at human/animal parity in our house, and there will be no further additions (I hope!) Meanwhile, the cats have adopted professional indifference to Zoe, although Shadow will occasionally take a declawed swipe at our clown-dog's head!

Sammy

Gwen scared us in 2002 when she brought home an Golden pup she found wandering alone near a boat landing. We spent a few weeks trying to find the owner, because the young dog did have a collar and was a handsome animal.

When it became obvious that he had been abandoned, I put my foot down, we simply couldn't shelter another animal. Fortunately, Jenny and Brian wanted him. Sam is now happy in West Allis. The cats are happy too—except when Sammy comes to visit with Jenny and Brian.