Our household would not be complete without our 4 legged family. Hubby and I don’t have any human children, but the antics of our pets keep us amused. First, we have Bandit, who came with me when we married. He is a 12-year-old Red Heeler, Australian Shepherd cross that I rescued as a puppy. His name is Bandit and we consider him the elder statesman and ranch foreman. He is very friendly and smiles when he is happy.
Nothing goes on around here of which he is not a part. His little “sister” is Gracie. She is a 5-year-old corgi that we rescued 4 years ago. Both of these canines are definitely momma’s critters. We have lived with them long enough to know the difference between that ”I want outside bark” to an “I want to play” bark. Gracie can be very jealous when mom pays any attention to any other living critter, including dad. She is not vicious about it but she has that look, which says all you need to know. My in-laws live the equivalent of “across the street” from us. The puppies love to venture between the households, especially at meal time. You know, what
happens at Grandma and Grandpas, stays there. I’m pretty sure they get more treats and table scraps at that house. This reminds me that Gracie’s nickname is Hoover. She is an all-purpose vacuum cleaner as she noses around for every crumb of food she can find.
We also have 2 felines as part of our household. Now, I never intended to have house cats but these two were hard to resist. They were born to one of our feral barn cats. When she weaned them and brought them to the barn to show them where the food bowl was, they were too gorgeous to resist. How do you resist blue eyes and white coats? I decided to tame them and I thought for sure someone would want them as house pets.
Well, I didn’t try hard to give them away and before I knew it I had moved them into my house from the in-laws unheated porch. Anyway, that is how we got Tonto and Ranger, brother and sister Siamese crosses. Ranger got his name because of the mask across his eyes, like the Lone Ranger. It was just natural to name his sister Tonto, after the Lone Rangers sidekick. Ranger is a love bug and will jump in any lamp that happens to be in front of him, including every visitor we have. Tonto disappears when there are any extra people in the house. However, she cannot leave dad’s feet alone. She is always lying under them and/or putting her face in his slippers. They are both indoor/outdoor
cats. As the weather improves they spend more time outside and I spend less time cleaning the litter box. Yeah!!!
We also have about eight barn cats, most of them I have named. They are provided shelter, food and clean water year round. In return they keep the mouse population at bay around the houses and the out buildings. Last summer the in-laws had mice in their house. We sent Tonto over for a visit. Between the traps and her hunting skills, we took care of that population.
