Pets

Aren't these faces just precious? These are our furry little friends. The lab on the left is "Cheyennne", but we call her "Shy". She is so sweet but came from a shelter and is still a little nervous around loud noises and fast movements..(I'm sure that my 'quiet' home is the perfect therapy for her...not!) In the middle picture is "Sam" He thinks he's half human/half dog..We love him. He is very spunky and will stand up and box you with his paws, like a human would hit someone in a fight. Nothing really scares him, and he's overly nosey. He's pretty much just a laid back and lovable cat. We have another cat, but I can't find a picture right now. She's pretty old and crabby hates everyone and everything, very neurotic..After $500.oo in vet bills we finally nailed down why she pees around the house...it's because she needs calm and quiet. She has anxiety issues. Again, I don't know what the problem could be. I ONLY have 3 boys and their friends running crazy around this place! So, she's pretty much grounded and is being kept away from everyone so that she can enjoy her peace and quiet and be calm and happy. Our dog on the right is Heidi. She's another yellow lab, although she's not related to Shy like everyone thinks she is. We've had her since she was a puppy. She's a very nice dog, pretty smart too (although Leo would disagree with that) She is an adult now and was still so full of crazy energy..she was driving us nuts! So, we got her Shy to play with..They absolutely love each other. It's quite a good mix of animals and the boys couldn't be happier with their pets.

Ok..so what's wrong with this picture. It's an animal that has no hair, you can't pet it, carry it around or cuddle with it..But Kogan has decided to keep it. (I don't think that he's named it yet) It's some sort of beetle thing. You see the small black dot in the middle of the jar? Trust me, this thing is HUGE up close! It looksl like a cockroach or something...eww! Someone please tell me how this animal qualifies as a pet? This is from his class project. (Thanks Mrs. S.) The teacher gave the kids a baby food jar and they put holes in the lid. Then they filled it with Oatmeal..then they put in the bug in its pupa stage. (cocoon)? Well, the thing actually lived and has been with us ever since. It's been about a month or so. Kogan has to leave this thing up in his bedroom..I was tucking him into bed the other night and peeked in the jar. I just saw a little bit of it poking out of the oatmeal. It wasn't moving! Hallelujah!! I was so happy..I was even forcing a fake frown on my face for when I turned around and told Kogan that his beloved pet had finally died. I was even preparing the funeral for the little guy in my head. (all of our pets get a proper burial in our back yard, no matter if I liked them or not..We have a Hermit Crab grave yard back there) As I picked up the jar to hand it to Kogan, I saw it move. I actually saw it's little tentacles twitch. So, I put the jar down, and it stopped moving. So, I handed it to Kogan and he looked. By now it was buried deep under all of it's oats. I told Kogan to shake the jar really hard to make it come out..I was secretly hoping that it would give the thing brain damage. "Shaken Bug Syndrome" or something...but nope, here it is all of these days later just sitting in it's jar living the good life. One of these days I might be tempted to just get rid of it. I wouldn't torture it or kill it..although I have thought about sucking it out of that jar with my vacuum cleaner..but no, I would free it into the bushes outside and then replace it with a raisin or something and bury it under the oats. Kogan would just see it and assume that it was his bug. Now, where can I get a raisin that BIG! Did I forget to mention that I HATE bugs. I don't even like lady bugs.

**Oh, and Kogan doesn't normally just sit around reading books to our dogs..He was doing a book report on the book "Winn Dixie", which is a story about a dog. So, we thought that it would be cute to take a picture of him reading the dog book to the dogs and include them in the report. No one was actually reading or listening in these pictures..The best part is that he got an "A" for his grade..woo hoo!