...well, let's see. I'm an Australian, married to an American and living in central Virginia. We have two boys aged 13 and 10 (Scott and Luke respectively); three dogs aged 11, 4 and 4 (Agnes the whippet, Doodle the afghan / whippet cross and Sirius the black lab); two cats (Evil Kitty and the Baby Liselle) and a fish.
Most of these posts will be about the critters, because they aren't likely to be horribly offended in ten years time when they're trying to get a job and someone says 'Oh yeah, I read what your mum wrote about you back in 2007...'
As these posts will also cover previous critters, I'll do a quick run-down of how we ended up where we are...
My husband Darren & I got married in 1992 in Australia and moved to Wichita, KS where his parents were living. We lived with them for a month or so while we were house hunting. Darren's sister Beth was also living there, with her two golden retrievers Emma and Giggle (who was then a three month old puppy). Beth is very into obedience, and currently trains dogs for a living, so when Darren and I decided one day to go to the local animal shelter and bring some random stray home, they were all thrilled. Sam was in a cage with another dog, but there was only one tag hanging on the door. We asked about him and they said 'Oh, he's a chow and we don't generally adopt them out.' We pointed out that there was, in fact, a black and white lab looking dog in the cage as well. This came as a surprise to the shelter people, as apparently his group had been put down, and they'd missed him. How could we not take him home after that? So Sam, who was the good ole boy of the dog world, came to live with us.
Christmas was not far away, and unbeknownest to me my husband had commissioned his sister to find a whippet puppy for me as a present. Now Beth would not normally have gone within a million miles of a puppy broker, but when you're trying to do a huge favour for your new sister-in-law you get a little leeway. As anyone with whippets is probably fully aware, they tend to get car sick, at least when they're puppies. So Aunt Beth became the first person Holly ever threw up on - an honour I'm sure she really appreciated! I know Sam was nearly as thrilled as Aunt Beth by the new arrival - he had enjoyed being an 'only dog' and suddenly here was this skinny little puppy who insisted on using him as a chew toy.
(one day I really need to scan and upload all our old photos!)
So there we were, the four of us, happily living in Kansas. Coming up next... then there were five!
