also, awesome book.

lukaluka - that's an awesome-looking dog you have there. Very cool.

snakeEyes - I love Charlie! Agree with Blarg that he looks very distinguished.

sneakyferret - great pictures. You are very lucky. Sounds like you have 2 wonderful pets. I am envious.

thanks..... nothing you can do about cancer except try and catch it early. just gotta enjoy your dog (and vice versa) while they are with you.

So my folks decided to keep one of the puppies. I'm not sure if it's a boy or a girl. This is the big black one you may have seen in the earlier puppy pics ITT.



I'll just call him "he" for now. Here he is with his pal, Buddy. Maile, his mom, is relaxing in the background, doing the usual arm candy stuff, probably texting friends.



Looks like he has really bonded with Buddy:



I can see why. Buddy's not their dad, but he is very energetic and ridiculously friendly.

Here is the new addition with one of his sisters, who looks a lot like her gorgeous mom, IMO.



Looks like Buddy can't resist this puppy either.



Buddy is coming into his own.



My advice to him?



What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind

Blarg, you gotta put those dogs on TV! They are all so cute.

Oh damn, you dropped the Wordsworth at the last!

OK, looked back through the old pics, and that's apparently Malia. So that "he" is a she.

Hey sugar, take a walk on the wild side ...

Welp, they decided not to keep her after all. My mother is out at work most days, and my father is too old and unsteady to housetrain the puppy or clean up after it religiously and with alacrity. My dad is a bit bummed, but he still has the other two to keep him company.

Considering how active such dogs are, it's not a bad idea to keep a tight lid on their numbers at my folks' advanced age. I don't want my mother struggling too much with them as her aging picks up speed. She likes cats okay but is not particularly a cat person. But I think she should taper down on responsibilities at this point in her life rather than picking too many new ones up.

My 16-year old cat that I wrote about in the original post had a stroke last night. She's all messed up. The vet says there's still a chance she might recover, but it's not looking good right now. I hate to see her like this. Bad situation.

Uh oh. That doesn't sound good. Sorry to hear that, kioshk.

To me, one of the hardest things about cats dying is that they tend to want to be alone when they do it. What's most compassionate can be what feels least compassionate -- just leaving them alone.

This thread is great. Fantastic pictures, especially by Blarg, and some great (and sad) stories. Can't wait until I'm out of school and living on my own with a dog.

here's my pro REXY, 1 year old red merle aussie

Very cute! That second picture is adorable. He looks like the mellow sort.

she's actually a girl, not a guy.

She's mellow at night, but gets pretty damn spun up when I get home from work. When she plays she plays hard, but after you take her toys away or end playtime she's pretty good except for the occasional pissed off bark at me if I'm grinding poker and not paying attention to her lol

Thanks, Blarg. She went downhill fast, and I had her put to sleep today. She was a great cat, very charismatic, very loving. I was lucky to get to share 16 years with her.

Damn that those things have to happen. My condolences kioshk.