Lady

Lady has been with us the longest, about eight years.  We think she's about twelve years old.  She was left behind when a displaced timber worker moved to Seattle.  We adopted her from PAWS (our local volunteer animal shelter) the next day.  Lady was the solo animal for some time, before we adopted the dogs.  She's adapted reasonably well to this big adjustment in pecking order.  She prefers Mo, probably because I am usually accompanied by dogs wherever I go.  She's not afraid to pick a fight with even the bigger of the dogs.

Kiyoti

We picked Kiyoti out of the lineup at PAWS in March of 1994.  Our guess is she's about ten years old.  Knowing everything we know now, we think she must have been given tranquilizers at the shelter.  When we brought her home, she went absolutely nuts at the sight of our cat.  For a couple of months, we took great pains to make sure the two were never in the same room together.  Eventually, she learned to respect the cat, but her control is very specific to our cat - she's always ready to give chase to any other cat she may come across.  She's been a real experience for us, but a more devoted dog I've never seen.  She's a natural born hunter, and will give chase to anything that moves.  Unfortunately, she's tangled with a few neighborhood domestic animals (one chicken and one rabbit that we know about).  She's also dispatched her share of birds, squirrels, moles, and even a mountain beaver or two.  When confined in the house, she's relatively calm, but when she picks up a scent outdoors, is virtually impossible to control.  We never (intentionally) let her off the leash when outside.  She gets at least three mile-long walks daily around the trails on our property.  I'm pretty sure the neighbors think we're nuts when they see Kiyoti and me on patrol at 6:30am, 6:00pm and 8:30pm every day regardless of weather or darkness.  She loves to go for walks in the woods, and seems to be happier the colder and wetter it is.  She's devoted to me, follows me everywhere, and only tolerates Mo's interference in our relationship.

Little Dog

Little Dog is our newest family member.  We adopted her in July of 1997, when Kiyoti and I found her lost in the woods near Mo's mom's house in Sequim.  We don't have any idea of her history, but think she may be about ten years old.  When we found her, she was in sorry shape, with large spots of bare skin, an ear infection, and a raging tooth infection that had exploded through the top of her jaw creating an open wound below her eye.  Our Vet (Dr. Bergey at Blue Cross) fixed her right up, and she's been a faithful companion ever since.  The name Little Dog came about because that's what we called her while we desperately tried to find her owner.  The name just stuck when she became ours.  Her hearing is largely gone, but she's got a terrific nose, and can track Kiyoti and me anywhere we go around the property.  Like Kiyoti, she tends to follow me around everywhere.  We believed she had been spayed, but got a real surprise when my brother Stephen brought his male Standard Poodle to visit.  Little Dog fell in love with Sterling, and their courtship was comical if unexpected.  Since then, she's been fixed for sure.