This is Chako. He is a Shepherd Husky Wolf mix that is about 14 years old. I must confess that he is the dog that I compare all other dogs to. He would do anything for me if he could. He seems to know that bees are not good to have around me and he will keep them away by eating them if he has to. I once had a bee fly into my hair but I didn't notice at first. He was sitting next to me outside and suddenly jumped up and shoved his nose into my hair and snapped. I wasn't sure what he was doing till he whimpered (he had gotten stung) and spit out a dead bee. He is an incredibly gentle dog that loves to have little kids pat him, pull his tail and use him as a pillow. He is getting grumpy in his old age and has a hard time walking, but he still always has a smile for me and wants to let me know he loves me more than anything.
This is Cat-Trina our cranky kitty. She is also about 14 years old though she still looks like a kitten. She really doesn't like the fact that we were mean enough to get a hyper dog like Chaucer, but is getting used to him. She likes to sleep on my chest for about 10 minutes every night and then she migrates to the foot of the bed. You have to be careful though because if your toes dare to peek out from under the covers and move she attacks them. If she is sleeping on the bed during the day and I walk by without petting her she will try to grab me and pull me back. She loves people, but hates to be picked up. She is terribly terribly vocal which I don't mind except for when she decides that she needs a treat at 2:00 in the morning and is standing on my chest yelling into my face. She is a bit strange in her taste of foods. She loves cantelope more than almost anything (more than tuna and chicken!) she really enjoys an occasional dog bisquit or some dog food, she likes all types of beans and really likes broccoli as well. Corn is another one of her favorites. True, she will come running when she hears the can opener hoping to get some "tuna juice" (the water the tuna is packed in) but if you are opening a can of corn or cream of mushroom soup she doesn't mind as long as you share. When she was younger she was an expert at catching birds unfortunately. We put a bell on her and I swear she used it as a decoy because she seemed to catch more birds. Once we went on vacation and when we came back I found some blue feathers, a beak and two legs in my bed room. She was able to go in and out of the house and had brought me a present. When I didn't come back right away to praise her she decided to eat it herself and just leave me the yucky bits. Thank you kitten...how sweet of you.
This is Chako as a puppy with Chin-Chin our "whatsit" dog. It is hard to imagine that Chako when he was a puppy was about the same size as Chaucer is now. Chako weighs over 100 lb. now and still would like to be a lap dog. Chin-Chin unfortunately did not live too much longer after this picture was taken. The foot you see at the top is attached to Sandy, a Samoyed Golden mix that was about as happy as a dog can ever be.
Here Chin-Chin is proving why he made a perfect kid's dog. My sister and I loved him so much we wanted to include him in everything we did. We dressed him up in frilly pink dresses and put him upside-down in a carriage and wheeled him around the neighborhood. He was a true martyr though, he let you know that he didn't think pink was his best color and that ruffles weren't his style but he would wear the dress just to make us happy. Usually he would fall asleep while in the carriage. We used him as a target for our suction cup arrows. Don't worry, he wasn't hurt we didn't have great aim and never would have done anything to hurt him. We got him from the pound when he was 7 years old and he lived to be 17. It is a great lesson for people who don't want to get anything but a puppy when they visit the pound. He came potty trained, and we had 10 wonderful years of playing with him. He may have been considered ugly by everyone else in the world, but we thought he was incredibly handsome and got mad when anyone made a crack about him. If you are getting a dog for your kids, go to the pound and get a dog from there. I wouldn't have traded Chinny for any pure bred dog no matter what.
