Patrick Henry was born March 16, 2006. I brought him hom on May 21, 2006 along with his brother (litter mate) Winston Churchill.

During that car ride we stopped to let them out to go to the bathroom. Before we could get leads on them, both of them lept from the car, and Winston tore out like a mad man. As my dad and I chased him, I yelled out for my mother to watch Patrick. After we caught the allusive Mr. Churchill, I called out to my mom and asked her where Patrick was. She told me he was sitting in the field. I got out my camera and took the picture you see above.

That picture sums up Patrick. He was quiet, stoic and was always interested in just observing the world.

We still don’t know what went wrong, but we lost him today after a few days in a veterinary hospital. This picture is how I will always think of him.

Okay, it’s official, I’m turning into a crazy old dog person.

Back in June of 2009 we added Franklin as our fourth and final dog.  They were all cocker spaniels, we were happy and then … a friend came into a situation where she had to move to an apartment that doesn’t allow pets.

… um … er … that picture to the right is my new dog, Dexter.

He is six-months-old, a mix of Chihuahua, Pappion and Poodle.  This is a permanent move and he’s been here for five days now, and all seems to be going well.  He and Franklin are only about four months apart in age, so they are pretty much in a constant tug-o-war over toys.

At eight pounds he is our smallest dog and is quickly learning to get out of the way of the thundering herd of cocker spaniels as they plow through the house.

Yes, I am clearly insane, but it was either my house or the pound, so here he is.

Five dogs and one cat … I swear there will be no more!  (I hope …)

There is one drawback to my blog readership exploding in the past year, and that is I am getting more and more reluctant to do personal stories. It isn’t what the majority of my RSS subscribers signed up for, but there are times where I just can’t resist throwing in a bit of personal news, and today is one of those days.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt has arrived!

(You can click the image for a super-sized view of him.)

He actually got here yesterday, but everything was so hectic that I couldn’t get a post up about him.  Here are a couple more pictures and a video.

The blonde Cocker Spaniel is Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, Franklin’s half-brother as they share the same dad.  Teddy is going on 3-years-old and has no clue what to make of the new addition to our pack of Cocker Spaniels (which now numbers 4)

And with a tennis ball to give you a better idea of just how tiny he is right now.

Finally, the video is more just an excuse for me trying out my new HD Sanyo video cam.  Enjoy.

Meet Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Yes, he is the one on the left.

It’s been quite a while since I talked about my dogs, and the only reason it is coming up today is that we are adding a fourth to our pack.  Franklin, as he will be known, is a tri-parti mix, although his tan spots are not visible in the picture.  He was born last night, and will be coming home around June 24th.  He is another puppy from Classy Country Cockers, the same breeder we got Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt from.

And therein lies the reason I agreed to adding a fourth.  This is actually something I have fought for quite a while, but this particular litter changed my mind slightly.  Franklin is a half-brother to Teddy by way of their father, Hunter.  The added twist is that he is also a nephew to Patrick Henry and Winston Churchill via Franklin’s mother, Jersey Girl, as she is a half-sister to them.  Yes, we know such relationships don’t really matter in the world of dogs, but it amuses us, and all four of our boys will be connected now.

No word yet on how William McKinley, the cat, will feel about this… we, however, are excited to add him to our little group.

UPDATE: We have a solo picture of him now!

UPDATE: We changed his name to McKinley… he’s a Bi-color (what a breed name)… and he’s under 1 year old. He’s had his shots now, and next is the snip-snip. Oh, and his favorite place to nap is on my chest when I am leaning back at my work computer… makes typing an adventure!

While I am still a die hard dog person, I find myself now living with a cat.  Meet Mulford.

Back in July I wrote about flooding a few miles from my house, well, that’s where Mulford came out of.  Someone who was staying on our property at the time as a guest went over to look at the flooding, and found a black and white cat walking around the Mullanix Ford (MULlanix FORD… yeah, I didn’t name him) dealership, and as he was obviously a stray, brought them back to our property.

Well, when said guest went to leave, it turned out he was going to be able to keep Mulford, so we agreed to let him live on the property.  We unfortunately can’t let him in my house due to my dogs, and my Grandmother is 86, so too much chance of Mulford tripping her in her house, so it looks like Mulford will be living in our business (which is not open to the public) for at least the winter months.  Don’t worry folks, it’s heated and 3,000 square feet, he’s not going to be exactly cramped.

However, here is why I post this: we have no clue how old Mulford is or what breed he is.  We believe he is under a year old (this picture was taken on Friday November 7th, 2008), and while we know we won’t be able to pin down his exact age, we would like to at least be approximate.  As for breed, we are clueless.  Anyone that has any guesses to either peice of data, please leave a comment or drop me an email.

I doubt this helps anyone, but he is an extreme talker, I swear he has an opinion on everything.  Very fast, extremely playful, loves rolling on his back… I know these bits probably don’t help, but they might be breed traits for all I know, I haven’t had a cat in about 28 years.

My boys wish you all a Merry Christmas. Click any of the images for a larger view.

Teddy has a problem.

He suffers from “snow addiction”.

We’re trying to get him in a program, he’s up to a couple inches a day. It’s horrible. (you can click the image for a larger view of his shame)

Laura of TLD Cocker Spaniels has her hands full with cocker spaniels at the moment. (For those who follow along, Laura was the breeder of my Winston and Patrick) Besides her usual puppies, which the current litter is ADORABLE, she has three adults that need homes.

Pictured here is Monte. He was born December 16th, 2006, and is fixed, house broken, and knows multiple commands (sit, shake and so on). His owner sadly had a stroke and is no longer able to take care of him. I feel horrible for the little guy, so before I go and do something stupid/silly, please someone give him a good home!

She also has two 2-year olds she is retiring from her breeding program, Jackson Brown and Kristee. Both have wonderful pedigrees and used to being indoors.

If any of the adults interest you, check them out at her site.

ETA: Monte has a home!  The other two still need them!

We built the dogs a makeshift crate at work that we can lock them up quickly when the UPS man comes. Patrick likes to lay on top of things, why, I have no clue, but he does. So, it took him no time at all to figure out he could jump in a chair and then on top of the crate, and lay down.

We’ve since blocked his access.

The breeder I got Patrick and Winston from, TLD Cocker Spaniels, has a new litter! They have the same mother as P & W, but a different daddy. You can see pictures of them here. Why am I posting this? So someone will hopefully take this one, and my mother will stop looking at him!

The boys have received their summer “slick shaves”!

Patrick!

Winston!

Teddy!

More pics here!

All the guys went for grooming today!

Teddy

Winston… and you can see his face!

Patrick… he didn’t want to sit still much.

You can see all the pictures from today in my gallery