This is Taffy, my big, loveable, golden retriever. She's 11 years old, and the baby of the family :-) She has the most patience of almost any dog I've ever seen. And she loves everyone, though she is very protective of her girl :-) She goes everywhere that she can with me. She's been in the family her whole life, and we don't know what we'd do without her! She delivered 3 litters of beautiful pups which were all sold, to the disapointment of us kids. She's brought much joy to our lives, and we love her. With her gentle ways and heart of gold, she is the angel of the house. I plan to spend a few more very good years exploring the West Virginia mountains with her. And then...there is Tigger of course :-)

Tigger, as you can see from the pictures, is a rather strange cat :-) He sleeps in the sink, curls up next to Taffy, and has a very strange personality to go with his strange actions. For such a little cat, he's had a mountain of problems. My sister found him on the street as a baby. He barely had his eyes open, and was very sick. We bathed him and forced warm milk into him. And found a huge wound on his neck. I won't go into detials on that though. Needless to say, no one thought the little fellow would pull through. But he surprised us. And he became the only one of 5 cats that was allowed in the house. He even dared to presume upon mom and dad's bed as one of his nightly resting places :-) Something that, if you knew my dad, you would have never dreamed would happen. He gets picked on a lot for having a cat sleeping in his bed. Last year, 97, little Tigg again had a brush with death. He got a blood clot at the base of the artery that splits down the back legs, and was paralyzed. Through several months of trial, and several times of near death, and too many mishaps to tell you about, he finally came back into good health. He has at least one good leg, but he lost the other one. It is crippled, and useless to him except for keeping his balance. He's just as frisky and ornery as ever. And has his kitty cat attitude back into full swing again. In other words, don't touch him unless he gives you permission. He goes outside and leads a full and happy life. And he brings a lot of happiness into my life. I'm not a cat person really, but little Tigg is an exception. He's my special kitty.