Dogs and Cats - Oh My!

As an adult, I've had several animals in the house over the years.  There was Honey, a beautiful black Chow; and then Annie, a black lab/chow mix.  Then came Buddy.  He was the runt of his Collie mix litter, but my house somehow encouraged him to grow into an 80 pound oaf!  Add in Kiki the Cat, brought to me by my then allergic eldest grandson.  I was NOT a cat person!  Then Chomp was smuggled in.  Another Collie mix, he understood there was no need to hit 80 pounds and stopped about 40.  Kiki got bored and brought around Midnight.  He would purr at you from a distance, but please don't touch.  Because things obviously weren't exciting enough, I rescued Tyson, an 80 pound Rott/Pit mix - the only animal that was MINE.  Just recently, Kiki brought around Smoky.  

Every single one of these critters are smart.  I'm ready for a DUMB animal!

Honey and Annie are now running pain free over the rainbow.  Midnight stayed but a season or two and then went on about his adventure and  Chomp is enjoying his new home in Austin.  This is about the remaining four.

Buddy is the oldest, so he'll go first.  I believe he is my most troubled critter child.  It is because of him I had to drop awful amounts of money this past summer to divide my back yard in three - 2 dog pens and a people place.  This is what Buddy thinks of being kept outside, in a very large pen, with plenty of running room, potty room, drinking water, a dog house AND a tarp for shade and weather protection:

He dug under the gate enough to stick his head under it.  He would then use his neck and head and pull the bottom of the gate back in towards him - see how he bent it - until he could crawl fully under it!

This is Buddy:

Tyson is the newest canine addition to the family.  He was rescued before his prior family had to release him to the city - where he would have been put down.  He is a great dog.  My vet is scared of him, though.  Time to get a new vet!  Buddy decided he wanted to try to fight Tyson.  Zack and I broke up a few of those fights. An aggressive dominant Collie and a huge Rott/Pit defending himself - the outcome would not have been pretty.  He lives next to Buddy.  They will actually lay side by side (with the divider fence between them) and be content.  It took us a few tries to keep him in his pen.  He is very resourceful.  Here's his latest escape trick:

Look at me, I am King of the Tarp!  From here, I can pounce over the 6 foot fence.  Silly humans.  Oh, and in the right lower corner of the picture - an old screen door and big log blocking his last escape route - still needing to be fixed.

Then, if 2 crazy dogs weren't enough, there's Kiki the Cat.  He doesn't know he is a cat.  He won't use the litter box.  He will meow at the nearest person and walk them to the door to go outside to tend to business!  He also thinks he is part human:

Recently, he brought Smoky home with him.  Smoky was very scrawny and very skittish.  He is still an outside stray cat, but will let me pet him on occasion now.  Oh, and I believe he may be making this his home.  Caught him wandering inside the other day when I had the door open for a while bringing some stuff in:

So right now, Kiki the cat is curled up on my bed, Smoky is out front in the wood chips, Tyson is 'sunning' in his pen and Buddy, well he is once again inside after his newest escape route - he used his TEETH to pull apart enough of the chain link in his gate to squeeze his body through!

Yep, if there are ever more animals to come here, I will interview them first.  They must be DUMB!