I've always been an animal person. Growing up we always had 6 or so dogs, a cat, and random other animals including pigs, goats, chickens, fish, and now my parents have donkeys.
In fact, it made elementary school tough at times. Remember bar graphs? One year the teacher wanted us to report how many pets we had so we could make a bar graph of the class results.
Heh. I messed that up. That day we learned what outliers were, too!
To be fair, I wasn't trying to be a punk about it. I figured the dogs and cat would count as pets, but when it came to the goats and fish, I really wasn't sure. So I shared my dilemma with the teacher, who suggested I just count the ones that we've named, and consider them the "pets."
We had them all named. And I named all of them for her.
Poor teacher. Are you reading this? I apologize. I was most definitely a punk but I really wasn't trying to be on that particular day.
The count was up into the twenties-- possibly even the thirties.
I had a similar experience when they asked how many siblings we each had. At least another kid was an outlier with me!
And again on the venn diagram for where your parents were born. My mom was born in Japan. It might as well have been in outer space, as far as our small town was concerned.
What was I talking about?
Oh yeah... animals. I've always loved dogs and cats. I'm picky when it comes to other animals, though. Love goats, scared of horses and cows.
Anywho, I thought I'd update on (and for some, introduce) two of the furry friends that I call my own.
Here's Jigsaw. He was born at my parents house while I was on a band trip to Washington, DC in the 8th grade. My brother's dog was pregnant and I was promised the pick of the litter. My dad had him picked out and named before I got home (even though I told him not to). I swore that I'd pick another one just out of spite, but once I saw this little bugger, it was all over.
When he was born he had two white patches on his back that looked like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. And no, he wasn't born with those scars on his nose. Let's just say he didn't have the best father-son relationship.
Can you see the piece of ice he's chewing in the picture above? This crazy dog isn't much for toys, but throw him some ice and he's all over it. He'll even pose as a platypus for ya:
My apologies to whoever this drawing belongs to. So many people had clearly ripped it from a google search (like I did) that I couldn't track down the original poster/creator.
Anywho, this dog has been through everything with me. From my first boyfriend to my first breakup to my wedding day, Jigsaw has been there.
And then there's our little buddy, Max. Josh brought him into the marriage as his dog. He's somewhere around the same age as Jigsaw (10 years), but had a very different lifestyle. He was an inside dog and was kennel trained from the time he was young (Jigsaw was left to romp the mountain freely).
Max is one of the most timid dogs you'll EVER meet. He is scared of his own shadow, putting him as the lowest man on the totem pole, even below the cat.
But he always has a smile. He can't jump up on the bed, and he managed to get himself his very own e-collar a few weeks ago. If you'll notice in the picture above, he was trying to pull it off, but was unsuccessful.
Max's favorite activities? Running in circles ranks really high on the list. Self inflicted wounds would also be up there somewhere, and touching people with his wet nose seems to be a favorite pastime.
But don't get me wrong... being timid works for him. It's how he gets the ladies! He looks at them with those sad puppy dog eyes and they melt. Pretty much everyone melts. Until they smell his breath.
And then they melt... but in a completely different way!
But when these two guys get together?
It's like watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Jigsaw is most definitely Ferris. And Max is his best friend, Cameron. Ferris was always the ring leader and could get Cameron to do anything. Yup... that's about like these two!
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