A boy and his dog...

Besides generally being an outdoor kid, Jake loves animals. It doesn't matter what kind of animal, if it is fuzzy, or creepy, slimy, or makes any kind of noise, Jake will love it with all his heart. Until it dies, then he moves on to the next one. Seriously, this kid brings home moths and bugs from school in his lunch box, which often don't make the journey home in one piece and then he's devastated. I try to convince them that if he loves them enough, he should really set them free, so that they can go back to their families, but it doesn't often work. He's not too wild about spiders. By that I mean, he won't handle them, but he'll still check them out as closely as he dares venture. He loves frogs, which we often find in the pool, or puddles in the garden. He was totally fascinated when, after some recent heavy rains, we discovered 7 dead frogs in a bucket of soapy water (OK! We're sorry and promise never to leave the bucket of cleaning water out overnight again!!). I like frogs - they (not sure who) say a garden with frogs, is a happy garden. Ours sure is!

That aside, with my child's love of animals, our poor dogs have been seriously man-handled over the years! Jake has grown up, from a baby, with 3 dogs in the house and he absolutely adores them. Our dogs are very good with him too - when he was really tiny and on the floor playing on his tummy, the dogs would literally take a running jump over him on their way outside to bark at a passing bike or car and never, ever even so much as clipped him on their way past. In return, Jake has bitten, and tugged and poked at them at every opportunity he gets. He cannot leave them alone for a moment. Duracell (our Jack Russell) is the one who's picked on the most. He's commonly known as "your naughty dog, mommy". Jake cannot leave this dog alone and I sometimes feel really sorry for the dog, but he always goes back for me. Duracell loves eating the cardboard out of the loo roll and sits next to the loo waiting for the roll to be dropped down to him when it's finished. If Jake finds the roll empty first, he literally runs around the house and garden with the loo roll in his hand for hours, with Duracell following every step of the way. Duracell is the most long-suffering dog I've ever come across. He has NEVER hurt Jake - I have no idea why not, it's just not in his nature. He'll growl and move away, but never bite (besides a nip once on Jake's thumb and that was so minor). Jake is at his happiest, when he has Duracell locked up in his bedroom and when Duracell's tucked up with him on the couch.

Amber is commonly known as "my princess, mommy" and is a total lady. She was Jacques dog (also his "princess") and used to go down to the cellar with him every day, coming home in the evenings when Jacques did. She's a beautiful, soft natured and very lazy girl. She is 8 1/2 though, which is a pretty good age for a Ridgeback. Amber had a litter of 10 purebred, but not registered pups in 2002. Unfortunately, 1 puppy died, but we raised 9 of the most gorgeous puppies I've ever seen. It was the hardest thing ever to give them away and I'll never breed dogs again. NEVER! I will look for some photos for you sometime. Anyway, Jake loves Amber so much and she's just such a beautiful, gentle giant. She is a bit more wary of him then Duracell is and will move away as soon as things get a bit rough. And she doesn't like Jake touching her ears. She'd never, ever hurt him, but she's very protective, perhaps 'cos she's a mommy too.

I snapped these shots precious shots of Jake and Amber the other day when I came home from work...