The devil dog

I do this to my pets because I can. Although Molly does act like the devil sometimes. Maybe I should get one of these for me too. heehee

I need to find Teddy an angel costume. That would be hilarious.

My other children

My Mollygirl...

I thought to myself one day, one day I wouldn't have a little one following me around every second of the day. One day I could go to the bathroom--alone. One day I will not have to pick up toys from every corner of the house.

NOPE!!! Molly follows me everywhere. If I go to the kitchen, so does she. If I go to the bathroom she is following me in. She loves car rides. I take her with me to drop off and pick up Sam from school. I am constantly picking up her toys. She leaves them all over the house. She barks if someone is at the door. Good. But she keeps on barking even if I let them in. Bad. She has made Teddy a more social dog. I actually caught Teddy playing with her toy the other night. She's very smart. She likes to eat anything. In all she's a good dog. I'm glad she's mine.

Here's my other Old Man. Every year as soon as the tree goes up, there is Kiki. He likes to sleep under the tree. When I was taking out the stuff to put up the tree. I noticed cat hair all over the tree skirt from last year. He looks so cute under there. He's a good kitty. He doesn't chew or tear up the paper. He doesn't mess with the ornaments. He even stayed when the train was going around him.

My christmas wish is that Kiki live FOREVER.

Cathead

I don't know who is more comfortable in my bed, Sam or Kiki. I would like to let my family (who has heard me complain numerous times) that Sam has slept in his own bed for 9 days now. WooHoo!!!! Now if we could only get Kiki to do the same.

There is no spot on our bed that Kiki hasn't slept in. His favorite spot is next to Larry's feet. In the winter he likes to sleep between me and Larry. It gets pretty crowded. Good thing we have a king size bed.

I'm hoping science will come up with a way to keep Kiki alive forever.....

Turtle Power

Here are 3 of the 5 turtles we have in the tank. We started out with 3 turtles that Larry has had since he was a little boy. One came to us when my brother was living here in Ft. Worth. The turtle came knocking at his door and he brought it straight to us. Cecil, the smallest of them all, my Mom found and gave to Josh. So he comes from Seguin.


One of the oldest turtles died a year or so ago. We don't know why. My neighbor came knocking on my door one day. He had a turtle in his hand and asked if it was ours. (Obviously he would come to us first, right?) I told him yes, thinking we had a turtle trying to escape. I took it from him and put it back in the tank. Turns out it wasn't ours. What can I say, they all look alike!! So even though one died, it got replaced.

We have found other turtles but have had to sadly turn them away. We go turn them loose near the lake. 4 of our 5 turtles are skittish. As soon as someone walks outside they jump off the big rock into the water. One turtle doesn't seem to mind. I think it's because its gotten use to Sam being out there playing around the tank, throwing his toys in it and scooping water out to make mud.

Larry feeds them most anything. They eat frozen shrimp, frozen fish, turtle food and at one time dry dog food. I wish the kids weren't as picky about what they ate.

The rock you see in the picture is the one from Possum Kingdom. The one where Larry picked it up, a mouse came running out and I tried to run for the hills while knocking the kids over at the same time. We got it so all 5 turtles could fit on it. Can you see Rocky in the water? He's to the right of the rock. I can make out his body and tail.

Smiley

This is Smiley. He is a Pacu.


He is about 5 years old. He is 18 inches long and weighs between 5 and 8 lbs. He likes to eat grapes, fish food and most of all sweet potato. This picture was taken in 2005 so he's even a little bigger now. He lives in our 100 gallon tank. He barely has enough room to turn around. When Larry does a water change Smiley likes to get under the hose so that the water runs down his head. He will eat out of Larrys hand. He's not aggressive with the other fish. He doesn't like when people get up close to the aquarium.

It's always funny to see the reactions from guests when they see Smiley. They range from "look at that huge fish, what kind of fish is that, that's the biggest fish I've ever seen and what do you feed that thing?"


The picture on the right was taken at the aquarium in Dallas, Tx. These are also Pacus'. These fish range in age of 25 to 30 years old and weigh about 40 lbs. Smiley is a lightweight compared to these two.

Here are some Pacu facts: They come from several different species from South America freshwater ponds and lakes. Pacu fish are very closely related to the piranha fish as well. Most Pacu fish are herbivores and some even eat insects, left over meat from fishing lures, and often times whatever they can sink their teeth into making these creatures very easy to care for. The pacu fish teeth actually look a lot like human teeth which allow them to break apart their food that often times floats above the surface of the water. http://pacufish.org/

There is always time for a cat nap

Brothers or friends. Even they don't know. Kiki bullies Frisky like a brother but then gives him a bath everytime he comes in. Frisky tolerates Kiki but doesn't seem to care that he can go out of the yard and Kiki can't. I remember the day I brought Kiki home. Larry thought I was crazy. Well, who is Kiki's favorite? Larry. Kiki likes to sleep ON Larry, groom Larry's hair and take over the bed on his side.Then when Larry leaves to work, he does the same thing to Sam. Frisky has Josh twisted around his paw. There is nothing Josh won't do for that cat. Awhile back I had the opportunity to point it out to Josh. I asked Josh to go do something. I come back a few minutes later and he's still sitting in the same spot. Then Frisky goes up to Josh and meows, Josh shot out of his chair like he was on fire to go do what Frisky wanted(go outside,be fed). I pointed out to Josh what he did and he actually understood and was a little ashamed. At least I hope so. At 2 a.m. this morning I had to calm Josh down because Frisky wasn't in the house during the bad storm we were having at the time. I walked into his room and heard him praying for Frisk. So I put on my shoes, got the umbrella and went outside calling for the cat. Sure enough he comes running in.

Which reminds me of the quote "To a dog you're family, to a cat you're staff".

These cats can be annoying but I also have a soft spot for them. Larry laughs at the ritual I have before bed. I check if both cats are in. If not, I go outside calling for Frisky to come home. We call it "getting the chicks in the henhouse". Then I make sure all doors are locked and turn on the nightlight. Only after that can I go to bed.

I like to know ALL my family is inside, safe and sound.