in no particular order....
- Julius -
My Bell. My darling, darling, Bell. We made the impulsive decision in 2017 to adopt Julius, one year after welcoming Chance into our home. We saw Julius online because a friend had commented on his picture. Through that connection we were able to secure the adoption and we brought him home within a couple of weeks. It was fast and exciting but Julius was struggling when we first brought him home. He was itchy with terrible skin allergies, he was skinny, his ears were infected and in hindsight he was riddled with anxiety. We made so many mistakes as he transitioned into our family. We were naive dog parents. I cried often, I thought I had made a huge mistake and we even discussed returning him. To write that, my heart sinks and that makes me cry with regret for simply thinking such thoughts and not being a more informed guardian. We love Julius beyond measure. It took us time to find our stride but he has been one of the greatest gifts in our life. He doesn't have a negative bone in his sweet little body. His sense of humour and playful mischief has brought so much laughter to our household. He is by far the funniest soul in this family. He is pure and gentle. He is a nurturer and my shadow. We do everything together. He wouldn't dare leave my side and when I am unsettled he soothes me with kisses, often he recognizes my busy mind before I do.
On hikes he wanders ahead but only to a certain point, he always stops to look back and wait for us. At night when it is family time upstairs he insists we are altogether. If either Ryan and I should need to head downstairs, we better make certain we head back up quickly or Julius will howl with a whiny gurgly howl until we are all together again. His sense of pack and family is strong.
Recently in the winter of 2022, prior to his 15th birthday he was diagnosed with Wobblers Syndrome (a compression of the spinal cord in the neck) and since then it feels he is slipping away from us quickly. His once constant tail wag is no longer. I suspect it hurts to do so. We carry him up and down stairs. We no longer hike but sometimes we head for a very slow walk down the road only a short distance, it's best we just stick to the big back yard where there are plenty of sniffs to have and lots of chicken poop to snack on (such is a dog's life.) We shower him with gentle kisses and whisper "I love you" into his ear all day long. My heart sinks and my heart breaks to imagine a time and space without Julius by our side but this is the price to pay for loving someone as much as we do.
Julius (adopted) March 18, 2017 - April 26, 2022. Thank you for giving us the time of our life, Julius. We will love and miss always.
On hikes he wanders ahead but only to a certain point, he always stops to look back and wait for us. At night when it is family time upstairs he insists we are altogether. If either Ryan and I should need to head downstairs, we better make certain we head back up quickly or Julius will howl with a whiny gurgly howl until we are all together again. His sense of pack and family is strong.
Recently in the winter of 2022, prior to his 15th birthday he was diagnosed with Wobblers Syndrome (a compression of the spinal cord in the neck) and since then it feels he is slipping away from us quickly. His once constant tail wag is no longer. I suspect it hurts to do so. We carry him up and down stairs. We no longer hike but sometimes we head for a very slow walk down the road only a short distance, it's best we just stick to the big back yard where there are plenty of sniffs to have and lots of chicken poop to snack on (such is a dog's life.) We shower him with gentle kisses and whisper "I love you" into his ear all day long. My heart sinks and my heart breaks to imagine a time and space without Julius by our side but this is the price to pay for loving someone as much as we do.
Julius (adopted) March 18, 2017 - April 26, 2022. Thank you for giving us the time of our life, Julius. We will love and miss always.
- Chance -
bio coming soon...
- Butter -
Meet Butter the polydactyl forest kitty. She wandered up to my father's house in the valley one late summer's day (2020). We offered to babysit her for a week while my dad went off to work. A very long story short, she now lives here. It hasn't been an easy road; I had always said Townes would be be my one and only, so to have her join our family was unexpected. Now here we are happy to be together finding our way with one another and learning to appreciate her energetic and loving ways. She is a wonderful guardian and friend to our flock. She loves Chance and especially Julius. She wishes Townes were more spry because she is eager to play, instead she has learned to only tease him and then move on to her own independent daily adventures.
- Townes -
My beloved cat, Mr. Townes Van Zandt, named after the late American singer-songwriter. He is known around here simply as, Townes, and he and I have been together the longest, long before my husband, dogs or chickens were around. He doesn't love the dogs and preferred life when it was just the two of us but the times have changed. He is with us everyday in the studio, often sleeping in a clay box on our work table. You won't likely see him if the dogs are out, which is too bad because he does love to greet people. He was my first true love and I am thankful we have had and continue to have so many fine years together. Townes turned 19 in March 2023.
- Odie -
Sweet, shy, Odie. We welcomed Odie into our home late 2021 shortly after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis for Chance and later a Wobblers Syndrome diagnosis for Julius. Our hearts broke. We made a very careful decision to bring a third dog into our home. I fell in love with Odie online. He had been sitting in a rescue shelter in San Antonio, TX. Texas is the second highest kill state for shelter dogs. Odie had been found as a stray and was moments from being euthanized but because he was considered highly adoptable his life was spared. I follow the shelter that saved Odie's life and everyday they put out pleas for other animals to be spared, and most often they are not so lucky. It is complete genocide everyday, young, healthy, beautiful animals lose their lives because they are overpopulated with stray and unwanted canines. Odie sat for months in the American shelter, finally he was placed in a foster home, and shortly after we decided to connect with the rescue and begin the adoption process. It was important to us that Odie know Chance and Julius. We knew they would help him to adjust and this would give us the time to get to know Odie for who he was rather than confuse broken hearts in a time of grief and mistakenly try to fill a void in an unattainable and irreplaceable way. After living with Odie for a short time we quickly dubbed him our heart heeler (it's a play on his breed - blue heeler mix), he truly has been mending our hearts as we live with anticipatory grief for both Chance and Julius. Life with Odie will be different than the harmony we have learned to cherish so deeply amongst all of our animals here on our homestead. He will probably never cuddle or be trusted with our cats, and he will definitely never be left unsupervised with the chickens but somehow it doesn't seem to make a difference to us, he is who he is and we accept him fully. Odie is a darling, with kind eyes and a sense of adventure just like Chance. He is a goof and makes us laugh with his trouble making ways, similar to Julius and they share the same tenderness in their hearts. He is an excellent hugger and incredibly smart, among so many other wonderful traits that are slowly being revealed to us. He is our hope and our future. Although, if we could somehow hit pause, we would leave things just as they are and live happily until the end of time, all of us together.
