CATS?

Well, yes, we used to be cat people. When my wife and I first got married, we had a guinea pig. More sooner than later, we started down the path of having cats. Cats are aloof and exotic but also practical in a condo or small house.

Our first cat was a black Bombay type cat that had been living in the canyon behind the duplex we were renting while I was in the Navy in San Diego. Her story is extraordinary and takes a bit to tell.

Sometime after we moved into the duplex we noticed a scrawny cat coming up out of the canyon looking for handouts. Her name was Corky according to the neighbors. She was inky-black with a small white diamond on her chest. The first thing one noticed about her was that she was a stinker -- literally. You couldn't get within 3 ft of her without noticing a horrible decay laden rotten meat smell.

I was being deployed at sea and so wasn't home a lot, and my wife took to feeding her. Eventually, we were told I would be deploying to the Western Pacific. This was of some concern as it was during the early 70's about 3 years before the end of the Vietnam War. So we bought a condo in the suburbs. When I returned, on the way home from the Naval base, my wife said to me, "Remember that old cat that was living in the canyon back by the duplex?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Well she's ours now, and she's pregnant."

"Oh," I remarked, "When are the kittens due?"

"This weekend," was her response.

Well Corky had her kittens; there were seven. And then we went about fixing her smelly problem. It turns out that her lower jaw had been broken several years before and didn't set right. It was offset almost a half inch causing one side of her lower teeth to gouge into the roof of her mouth and the other side of her upper teeth to cut into the side of her tongue every time she tried to eat.

She went to the vet for some mouth work and, when we picked her up, we were shocked to find out they had pulled all her teeth. I was very concerned she wasn't going to be able to eat. The vet assured us that we could easily feed her liquid food with a syringe like device.

Yeah. Right. One bloody incident in the upstairs bathroom dissuaded us from that notion.

There was no way she was able to eat even wet food from a bowl. The vet declined to try and reset the lower jaw, and all Corky's valiant efforts could accomplish was to pack the wet food into a solid layer in the bottom of the bowl. Corky started to loose weight and we were resigned to the possibility that she wouldn't make it.

We found homes for the kittens but kept one, and just when it looked like the end was near, we noticed Corky had started scooping out the wet food and pushing it into her mouth. She gained weight, and went on to live with us another 9 years.

DOGS.

Now dogs are an entirely different animal altogether. The unfettered devotion of a dog to its owner is legendary.

Both my wife and I had dogs during our respective childhoods but gravitated toward cats once married. We first started getting involved with dogs in our married lives when my wife quit her job and began volunteering for a local dog trainer. My wife discovered she liked training dogs and became a full fledged instructor.

The local dog trainer had just convinced the local city government to create an off-leash dog park. We soon got involved and began organizing a committee to raise funds for night lighting at the park. The fund raising effort took 4 years, and my wife continued to grow as a dog trainer.

Then one day, while my wife was out on her morning walk, a stray dog (Daisy) followed her home. We've since had two more dogs; their full stories can be found by clicking the navigation links to the left.