If this is primarily pets blog, I figure it's time I should be writing more about pets - here are a few

Eleia is not this slim young pussycat any longer, but she still haunts the pond... though not this one, the one in our home that we moved to about three years ago. Right now it is about six inches deep in ice and has been covered with snow, so this pussycat isn't heading out to examine what might be worth her attention.

You will see her change a bit over the rest of this series of brief articles... and I sincerely hope you enjoy seeing my four-legged family... some you may know some not. She was an unexpected gift to me from my niece, to whom she was also an unexpected gift from the cat her brother had given her a few years prior. She wasn't aware that female cats need attention if they are not to reproduce...my niece and the mother cat.

Afternoon sun warms the rocks as she hunts for insects or perhaps mice around the edge of the wee pond I dug in the back yard.

Bliss the yellow lab and Spirit brothers from the same litter of 11 puppies, yellow dad, black mother, both loved to lie on the deck of the old church looking out at the farm across the road and also at what is happening in the valley. I got them when they were eight weeks old and in this particular photo the are both six years old. Great pals, though Bliss was the more outgoing and boisterous of the two. I have found some very funny photos of the two of them to share in this series.

Christopher, so named by Judy Heinrich my neighbour at the time, because he arrived on our doorsteps at Christmas time in 2001. He was 13 in this photo, and when he came to me he was about nine months old and weighed about 5 pounds. The vet - the wonderful Ardis Ardiel told me at the time that I was lucky he survived that bitter cold night when he showed up as he was so under weight and tiny he might never have made it... But he is now 19 and enjoying still, a cushion on a chair on the deck in the sun, or a cushion on my bed on which to spend the night. And he still gets along with Eleia.

And last but certainly not least, some of the fish that lived in the pond along with 86 frogs one year... Maybe Eleia was fishing?

More tomorrow... I am having fun searching my files, and will have to dig out old cds to give you some earlier photos, but what a great trip down memory lane for me. Please let me know if this is fun for you as well. Maybe you would like to post photos of your four-legged family in the comments section. I just found out that Blogger doesn't always publish the comments... so from now on I will make a point of doing so.

Cheers - time to go and feed all the babies.