Introduction: The Zoo

Editor's note:  This post ended up taking me the better part of a month to finish - I kept starting and stopping on it, and not having much time to devote to blogging due to our most recent addition to the family.  But, I finally finished - here we go!

I realized the other day that we've made several blog posts about Zach, Kristen, and Liam, but not The Zoo.  So, some introductions are in order.  First, our canine kiddos.

I captured them in this photo practicing their synchronized sleeping just the other day.  In order from front to back, we have Katie, Zeus, and Jiggs.

Jiggs has been with us the longest - she's been with Kristen since 2001!  She's an incredibly sweet girl, and one of the best dogs we'll probably ever have.  She loves to eat and go on walks, but what motivates her above all else is the love of the ball.  I've never seen any animal more single-mindedly focused on anything than she is on a ball - preferably a fresh new tennis ball.  She will happily chase and fetch a tennis ball until she falls over from exhaustion.  This is a cute picture of her sleeping with Chloe not too long after she joined our family - more on that below.

Zeus joined our family in May 2007 in storybook fashion.  I was driving back to College Station from Sinton, having spent the weekend wrangling cows with Kristen.  I had only been on the road an hour or so, and was passing through Goliad, when I saw a tiny little black and white puffball sitting directly on the yellow stripes in the middle of the road.  I immediately pulled over, thinking "I have to at least move this thing to the side of the road."  As soon as I picked up this tiny puppy, he immediately cuddled close to me and, looking up at me with his big dark blue eyes, captured my heart.  Long story short, Zeus joined our family and has been our sweet, handsome, furry man ever since.  I mean seriously - how could anyone resist a puppy that cute?

Katie is actually Jiggs' half sister - when Kristen got Jiggs, Katie went with Kristen's parents down to Sinton and became a ranch-loving dog.  More recently, she suffered an unfortunate attack down there, but luckily Kristen found her, patched her up, and did an amazing job nursing her back to health from the brink of death.  She came up to College Station for her convalescence, and has been with us since then.  She's a sweet girl like her sister, but has an unfortunate tendency to dig, which drives me to distraction at times.

So that's the canine half of the family - now, on to the feline (and in their minds, much superior) half.

In order from youngest to oldest (and least to most favorite - no, no, I kid - but seriously), we have Chloe, Katerina, and Luci.

Chloe came to Kristen and I during Hurricane Rita back in September 2005.  Kristen was in her fourth year of vet school and working rounds at a local animal shelter as Hurricane Rita came bearing down on Houston.  The shelter decided to temporarily foster all their animals at the time, and our temporary foster became a permanent adoption.  She quickly began to terrorize poor Luci, and he hasn't known a moment's peace since.

Katerina is actually a bit of a medical miracle, and a testament to Kristen's dedication and skill as a veterinarian.  While Kristen was still in her undergrad years, she spent one summer interning with a local vet from her hometown.  One morning when she arrived at work, there was a cat carrier left on the doorstep of the clinic, with an emaciated cat that was hanging on to this life by one little toe.  The vet Kristen was working under immediately wrote the cat off, but Kristen was made of sterner stuff.  Over the next few months, Kristen nursed the cat back to life by injecting saline under her skin to re-hydrate her (she was too weak to drink or eat).  Katerina then traveled back to College Station with Kristen, where she spent the next year or so living under Kristen's bed and never venturing out.  Fast forward 10 years, and she's transformed into a beautiful, mostly-friendly, very hairy member of our family.

Last, but certainly not least, we have Kristen's baby boy: Luci.  Luci, short for Lucifer (aka Mr. Fur) has been with Kristen the longest of all our animal kiddos.  He got his name during his early years when he was quite ferocious and would carve up the arms of anyone trying to hold him, or so I'm told.  Since I've known him (almost 6 years now), he's matured into an incredibly sweet, lovable man who is also devastatingly handsome.  He really is one of the best looking cats I've ever seen, and is incredibly photogenic (just like his mom).  He loves being outside but has to be watched at all times - he has an unfortunate tendency to leap fences when no one is watching and quickly scamper away (though this habit has happily faded with age).
There were a few infamous escapes before I met Kristen that I've heard about - since I've known him, Mr. Fur has only gotten away one time, and we thankfully found him within five minutes.  During that five minutes, however, Kristen was more distraught than I've ever seen her, before or since.  Needless to say if we had a Survivor-esque vote, Luci would be automatically exempted.


So there you go, an intro to the animal kiddos of our family.  So far they have all handled Liam's arrival quite well, though some are more fond of him than others.  It will be really interesting to see how they handle him once he becomes mobile...