House of Fur

Alan and "Samuel" Spring 1990

It's official!  I live in a house of fur.  No, not the kind with luxurious fur of all colors and lengths - wait a minute, as a matter of fact, there are all colors, lengths and they are luxurious feeling! 

Alan and Butterscotch - Alan wanted him
so badly to ride with him!  Had to keep
a hand on him to keep him in.

Paul and I both grew up with dogs - I had Princess (toy pekignese) and he had Gigi.  When we got married we had a black cat (Kitty - I know, how original!) and then picked up a stray that wandered the Mercer campus (Nikki, a mix).  Kitty wandered away and Nikki took up with someone else on campus.  Alan's grandma gave him a cocker spaniel the Christmas he was 2, named Butterscotch.  Butterscotch was taken out of our yard one day and we never really knew where he was or what happened.  We got a golden retriever - the first of many - named Penny; what a wonderful dog she was!  Cochise belonged to above mentioned grandma and came to live with us too.  Alan was surrounded by human and animal love!  He even had 2 rabbits for a while: Hoppy and Samuel.  We rescued a border collie mix, Oreo, and found a tiny puppy, Bubba, abandoned at our local dump site.  They all lived with us for a time.  Penny, Cochise, Oreo, and Bubba are in Heaven waiting on us to join them.  We've laughed and cried with and for our dogs over the years.  Then came the twins: golden retriever puppies Dixie and Maggie and they have grown up with us - they're 9 years old now.  We still have Dixie, and Alan and his bride have Maggie with them (and they've added a male golden, Ruger).  When Alan went to college I got a little lap dog, Cookie.  She's a pomerschnoodle (dad was a pomeranian, mother was mini schnauzer/poodle) and is 7 years old.  Last month we fostered, with the hopes of permanently adding, 2 small white abandoned puppies of unknown mixed breed: Rhett and Scarlett.  They lit up our house for a couple of weeks, but ultimately could not stay.  Whew!  That brings the current count to 2 at our house: Dixie and Cookie, and 2 at Alan and Ashley's house: Maggie and Ruger.  Bring on the fur, cause with it comes unconditional love!



Cookie, Dixie, Maggie and Ruger.  As usual,
Her Highness Cookie is holding court and
Ruger is looking for something to get in to.



We're currently doggy-sitting Maggie and Ruger so our house is full of fur right now!  Guess we have to prove ourselves worthy with grand-dogs first!