Here I am when they first adopted me. Mom and dad found me because my dog mother lived next door to mom's boss and a neighbor dog visited my dog mom and there were surprise seven puppies. Mom's boss plied mom and dad with adult beverages and next things they knew they have promised to adopt me. Most of the litter were girl dogs and most were all black. Dog mom was a German Shepherd and everyone thinks my no account dog dad was a Black Lab. They asked for a male dog that had more of the Shepherd markings and that was me.
When I first came home, they made a pen for me in their apartment since they had not puppy proofed the house. Good thing since when I was little I had a taste for electrical cords. It was bigger than a kennel. Dad was so happy I learned how to be "house trained" really fast. It helped that dad stays home during the day so doing a regular schedule was easy.
Here I am posing with dad on the bed. You can see my "Bad to the Bone" harness I wore until I outgrew it. I also outgrew the pen. They took it down when I wiggled my way over it. The darn thing still challenges me because mom and dad use one of the pieces to block off the bathroom where the cat litter box is. If I were a bad boy, I could defeat that gate but I am a good boy.
This picture is one of my favorite puppy pictures and helps explain how I got my name. I did some really cute things with my ears when I was a pup. I was about three months old here. Actually dad really wanted to name me Chewbacca. Mom said calling a puppy Chewie was just asking for problems. I do make some funny noises that sound a lot like Chewbacca.
Here I am all grown up in my wonderful back yard with my very own pond. Okay, so I have to share it with the rest of the neighbors but I make sure I bark at people that boat by so they know where my territory is.
And here I am doing my favorite thing - swimming and stick chasing.
Here is a picture of my mom. She does all my typing. Dad helps with some of my DJing and helps take pictures, but mom is the social media/computer queen of the house. Mom's other name is Nancy and she has a real neat job with Virginia State Parks so dad and I get to go visit them with her sometimes.
Here is a pretty good picture of my dad. His other name is David. He plays the guitar and loves video games. Mom calls him a "house husband." This means he stays home all day with us animals which is great. He also helps look after mom's mom who lives down stairs.
Here I am giving dad a giant Yoda Smooch.
As you have all heard, there are four kitties in my family too. The matriarch of the family is Majel. Mom and dad adopted her and her sister from the Peninsula SPCA shelter right after they got married in 1992. She will be 18 years old in September. Sadly her sister Isis died of kidney complications in 2003. I picked this picture so you can see that she has a calico colored tail. As I explained in an earlier post, Majel is named after Majel Barrett Roddenberry, wife of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. Isis was named after the Egyptian goddess.
Here is Majel with one of my other kitty sibs Cleo.
Speaking of Cleo, here she is. Cleo is short for Cleopatra. Mom and Dad adopted her and her real brother Caesar from a Pet Smart shelter adoption in 2003. If you recognize the year, you're right. Mom and dad wanted to get a new kitty to love in memory of Isis. They went to three Pet Smarts and at the third one found two little kitties that were brother and sister. The card said their mom had been hit by a car. Mom and dad only wanted one new kitty but the two kittens were all by themselves at the Pet Smart and they could not leave one of them alone. So they kept the family together. Cleo is the only cat that sort of plays with me. She has the cutest face.
I had to give you an idea of how big Caesar is. I think you could put the other three kitties together and be the right size. And yes, that means mom called the two kitties Caesar and Cleopatra. By the way, dad does most of the animal naming.
Mom always wants to order the kitties a cat tree but dad stacks furniture and other stuff for them to have high places. This bench is three feet off the floor and a popular perch for all the cats. Here are the two Caesar and Cleo.
And here they are cuddled together in dad's recliner.
And the last member of the kitty family is Sabrina who was adopted a couple of months after mom and dad adopted Caesar and Cleo. They were living outside Richmond back then and dad worked at a Dog Day Care place called All Dog PlaySkool. He stayed overnight with the boarded dogs. Anyway one of the women at work found a feral kitty and got all her shots and spayed her but couldn't keep her. Dad left five messages for mom at work but she was in meetings. The last message was, "Oh well, your fault I couldn't talk to you, we have a new cat." Sabrina is the smallest cat but there is still feral in her even though she was still a young cat when we adopted her so sometimes she acts a little.Sabrina's favorite spot was always on top of the TV and the DVR and DVD like this picture shows. Sadly mom and dad ruined that by buying a flat panel TV.
This next picture is mom's mom Anne. I guess she is my grandma. She is 85 years old. She loves downstairs.
There are two dogs that live downstairs with Grandma. One is my brother Goliath (the yellow dog). He is about 13. Goliath has really bad arthritis which is why he doesn't live upstairs with us. The black dog is grandma's dog Roscoe. Roscoe was actually grandma's husband's dog. Grandpa does in October 2003. It was the following January that mom and dad moved back to Yorktown to help take care of grandma.
Well that's pretty much my family. Actually the house we live in is very large and there is another upstairs apartment on the other side of the house. Mom's niece Sarah is staying there now with her small pit bull Honey. I don't get to play with her much but since she is young like me we have lots of fun when we do. I'm a little too frisky for the other two old dogs. We don't have any pictures of Sarah and Honey to share but we will get some some.That's just about it - my family and how we all got together.
And now, to make this post even longer - BOL - here is the blog hop!
