Found this old picture of some of our old pets from about 1992

[csziggy]

At the top is Dan The Dog, our off-the-side-of-the-road-dog that was the best dog we ever owned. In this picture he was about eight or nine years old. Smart dog and very grateful to no longer having to live on road kill.

He's checking out a gopher tortoise. We used to have a lot of those around here, until they widened and paved the road in front of the farm and damaged their tunnels. Gophers in this area are a keystone species - many other animals use their abandoned tunnels. It is sad that we don't see them anymore. The tortoise was not really a pet, he just came around every so often. If I had some fruit, I would put it out for him.

The cat in front is Merlin, hubby's cat from before we got married. Merlin was the meanest cat I ever knew. He beat up pit bulls if they even looked at him. Merlin was probably twelve in this picture. He lived to over nineteen years old, mean to the day he died. The last thing he ever did to hubby was scratch him when hubby went to check on him one evening. The next morning Merlin had passed away.

[blogslut]

1. Awww

What a sweet trio!

[csziggy]

4. Thanks, though they are all long gone

Merlin died a few years later. Dan lived to be sixteen, was senile, blind, partly deaf, and had a tumor. No telling where the gopher is if it is still living.

They were cool together, though.

[Very_Boring_Name]

2. sheesh what is it with cats like that?

My grandmothers cat was exactly the same way. She was just plain mean, she would hiss and bite/scratch you if you ever tried to pet her. My granny had her since she was a kitten, and absolutely spoiled her, so it wasn't like she'd had some traumatic experience with humans or anything, it was just a miserable old thing.

[csziggy]

3. We always figured it was genetic with Merlin

His canines were so long they hung over his lower lip like vampire fangs. His claws were so big her could not fully retract them. He could be nice to hubby when he wanted something, but he was always cranky with me. I blamed it on hubby's first wife, who never liked him and did not treat him nicely so he did not seem to like women.

But he was an amazing cat. He was not afraid of anything. The pit bull just looked at him wrong and Merline was all over that dog's face, trying to rip it off. It was great to watch!

[old mark]

6. My wife's cat Emma, was like that-Meryl found her digging in a garbage can in

an alley in Philly when she was a tinly kitten, and had her ever since. She would let you pet her a few minutes, then bite your hand. She attacked dogs and everything else for years when she was allowed to roam, but she became an inside cat after we got together...and she lived almost 20 years, too, fighting till her last second of life.
We have her pic in our pet's gallery, looking sweet...
We have another pretty cat with an abrasive, nasty personality who seems to have learned it from the years she spent with Emma and she will soon be 16... Only the good die young.

mark

[Suich]

5. That's a really nice picture!

I like it!

:)

[csziggy]

7. Thank you!