Since Grady has made a few appearances on this site already, I think it’s time to introduce you all to the rest of my herd.  Apparently Grady is quite a little (?) heart stealer, as I’ve had a few requests for more posts on him.  So here goes….

Grady

Grady has a bit of a colorful history as far as dogs go.  He is a Neapolitan mastiff that I rescued in January 2005 from the United States Neapolitan Mastiff Rescue.  I fell into Neos by accident many years ago and absolutely adored my first.  After I lost him, I decided that I would donate some money to the rescue organization as my Christmas charity of choice.  Grady was the featured pet of the month and the rest is history.  When I got him, he was about 21 months old and I was his 4th home.  Maybe that should have been an indication….I’m not always very perceptive, I suppose!  He has been a challenging dog for me, mostly because he ups the ante even for mastiffs.  Do you know anything about mastiffs?  Well, in a nutshell they are messy, stubborn, snore, drool, and occasionally put holes in your living room walls (no joke, he actually did this while he was chasing one of the cats around the house.  And he never even slowed down.)  All in all though, Grady has become a great dog.  (Minus the snoring, drooling, stubborness, etc.  At least we don’t still get holes in the walls.)  He is a certified therapy dog and has worked with children in hospitals and reading programs.  He has a huge heart and he loves everyone and everything.  Despite the frustrations I sometimes feel as I’m chasing an airborne goober across the room, he has a goofy charm that melts my heart everytime I look at him.  Generally, I feel pretty lucky that our paths crossed and I’m looking forward to sharing some of our adventures with you.

Photo courtesy of Teena Patel/University of Doglando

Bella & Milo

Crazy Milo

These guys came along kind of by accident and they have an interesting story as well.  Back in the early spring of 2004, I had taken my horse Moe to a show.  At the time he was in Orlando with me, and after the show was over my parents came back to my boarding barn to help me unload then take the trailer back to Ocala with them.  While we were unloading my tack we were very careful to keep the tack room door shut so no stray animals got in, but somehow one of the barn’s cats snuck into our trailer’s tack room.  After we unloaded my gear, we took a short drive to my house to unload some other items and still saw no sign of a cat.  We said goodbye and then my parents went on their way back home.  At that point, the trailer wasn’t being used much and it was parked outside the barn.  Almost a week after the show, my mom noticed a cat in the window of the gooseneck as she was walking by.  Horrified, she ran to unlock the door and let the cat out.  She was badly dehydrated and skinny, but alert and friendly.  They took the cat to the vet and I contacted the barn to let them know we’d found their cat in our horse trailer.  Turns out, she was a pregnant cat!  By some miracle, she ended up being fine – she completely recovered with no adverse effects from her adventure and her kittens were born about a month later.  Just as interesting is that she delivered her kittens on Easter Sunday of 2004 – the exact same night as another female cat at the same barn.  I’m a sucker for an animal needing a home and so I ended up taking two of them -  one from each litter since I wasn’t sure which litter was that of our Wonder Cat. 

From the beginning, they’ve had very different personalities.  Bella is skittish and is somewhat of a wild cat.  Everything she does is on her terms and if she doesn’t approve she will quickly let you know with her strange chattering.  She’s a smart little fireball, but she’s kind of unpredictable.  Milo, on the other hand, is a big oaf.  One of his favorite games as a kitten was to stick his head under a throw pillow and “hide” from you.  He’s adorable and a bit needy, and is often found hanging with Grady (he just MAY have been the reason that there was a hole in my wall, as he and Grady would playfully chase each other through the house in their younger days).  Milo and Bella have been a fun and interesting addition to our little family and I’m sure they will provide some entertaining stories for me to share. 

Bella mugging for the camera