Dinnertime!
We started off sensibly enough, but then things escalated... Shortly after we moved to our current residence, we brought Spook to live with us. Shortly after that, we acquired Finian, since Spook needed a companion. Some time later, our tenant came home with Bobby, then we found MacKenzie wandering in the desert. Between September 2003 and May 2004, we managed to accumulate Lily, Brittany, and Creedence.
Part of the problem is that people dump unwanted dogs near where we live. (Our nearest neighbors have a similar collection of dumped dogs.) That is how we ended up with MacKenzie, Lily, Creedence, Geneva, Dmitri, Fiona, and Ivan. A larger part of the problem is that we're suckers. We decided that six is our limit and have found homes for most of the strays we ran into since we reached that limit; however, we broke that rule and kept Fiona. Now seven is our limit.
Our dogs are mostly outdoors-and-porch dogs. They dig holes, run around in the bushes, and eat bugs like dogs are supposed to do. The exception was Finian, who in the last couple of years of his life, decided to become a mostly indoor dog. He probably didn't feel like putting up with the heat, for which we couldn't blame him. MacKenzie and Bobby started coming inside whenever there was thunder, and before we set up our enclosed porch as a dog hangout, they spent some time indoors each day. The rest of them can't really be trusted around the cats and/or cat food and don't show much interest in coming inside, so they stay out. Their porch has a multitude of dog beds and can be heated, if necessary. During the summer, they have their own evaporative cooler.
In addition to the front porch, they hang out in a mostly empty building on our property we call the Workshop. They've got beds there too, and it's warm in the winter and cool in the summer. They also enjoy going under our tenant's trailer during the summer.
We're really bad about giving our cats one name, then calling them something entirely different. We've done better with the dogs: four out of six actually go by their real names. The two dogs who go by nicknames have nicknames that don't resemble their real names in the least, however.
I don't have nearly as many dog pictures as it seems like I should have. Dogs are much more difficult to photograph than cats are, as they tend to immediately stop what they're doing and come running right at you whenever they see you, and you end up with extreme close-ups of noses. As a result, most of the pictures I have aren't of a decent enough quality to share with the world. I finally decided to just post what I've got and try for more as time goes on.
I've made a few dog videos so far and will likely add more as time goes on. They are here:
There are also two audio files:
Dog Talk (all of the dogs howling)
Coyote Talk (a coyote standing right outside our fence and teasing the dogs)
