Good to see lots of pet people in here. Sad to hear about those who've lost theirs, though. We've got two dogs and two cats right now, and hopefully won't ever have this many pets again. I'm not a Cat person, and so made this house rule with my wife that for every cat she gets, I get a dog. Now we have a zoo. Anyway, our first 'kid' was Buffy, a 6 year old German Shepherd. She's just an amazing animal, who listens very well and is very smart. Trainable is an understatement. She's so good that we don't even have to tie her up during the day when we're not home (2 days a week both my wife and I work), and she'll always be there on the doorstep to meet us when we get home. She's a barker (I trained her that way, since we got her when we lived in the city and wanted a guard dog of sorts), but never EVER uses her teeth when dealing with people. She also doesn't jump up, unless she's really excited to see you. Oz (Ozwald) is our two+ year old Staffordshire mix that we got from a shelter a few years ago. He was wild when they picked him up, so he's a bit of a scavenger and a snoop, so we can't leave him untied, sadly. He's the kind of dog who has no fear of the highway, and I've lost too many dogs that way growing up. Awesome personality, and incredibly affectionate to every person he's come across yet. He does have a fear of men, though, which is why I think he was on his own to begin with. To this day, if I stand over him some days and bend down even to pet him, he tries to piss. Great dog, though, even if he does get into the compost way too much. Here he is after recently being attacked by a Beaver at the corner of our property. Vicious buggers. He looks odd, but he was still pretty stoned. They got Buffy a few months later in the belly, and she needed 15 stitches. It tried to drown her too, as she puked up half the brook on our kitchen floor. Oz also got hit that time, trying to draw it away from Buff, but he only got a slash in the chest that looked like a nickel sized hole. Happier days. (short video) http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v613/old...Oz-IvyIntro.flv http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v613/old...Buffy-happy.flv http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v613/old...Buffy-OzTOW.flv This was Faith, when she was still a kitten and cute. Now she's fat and ill tempered. I can't seem to find a picture of Willow, our orange tabby that we rescued from under our old porch in the middle of January. She's actually kind of cute, now almost as old as Oz, but is getting fat herself. We get along.