Expanding the Family Dynamic

Amanda and I are almost done having kids. No, we don’t have a back-room sweatshop of little rugrats running around making us shoes and necklaces, nor have either of us actually reproduced yet, but we do have our brood of furry babies. Allow me to introduce you to them:

Pepper Anne

The eldest of the bunch (~4 years old), Amanda found our first kid running down the side of a back country road. She’s a Australian Cattle Dog mix (mixed with what exactly, we’ve never found out, but I’m guessing she’s part angel).


One of the smartest dogs I’ve ever been in contact with, Pepper loves chasing balls until she passes out, taking dad’s spot on the bed when he wakes up for work, and licking anything and anyone.

Izzykins Destroyer of Worlds

Cute, ain’t she? When we found her at our first apartment we lived in together, she was shivering outside mewing for her ma. I originally said “no”, but the damn thing had to go and sleep on my chest after I got home from work, and we ended up keeping her. Izzy started off well enough, but then she noticed she had these little sharp things on the end of her paws, and boy do we like putting them into mommy and daddy!

This little ball of fury is very independent, only allows you to pet her when she deems you worthy, and is generally the terror of the house; although when she gets in the loving mood she will NOT be denied.

Josie (a.k.a “JoJo”, a.k.a. “Tons of Fun”)

Oh Jo, you’re such the sweetie that Izzy could never be, and you’re also 3 times the cat Izzy is (and we’re talking square footage here). If you ever need some cuddling or nonstop purr action, this is the go-to furrball, just don’t let her step on you.

She’s not fat, just really big, and it feels like she carries all 13 pounds of her in her feet. We picked up this princess in an animal shelter in Lexington, KY., and she ended up helping to mellow Izzy out, so we’re happy with this addition.





So these are our 3 kids, and we couldn’t be happier with them. But you might’ve noticed a bit of a theme here. That’s right, they’re all female, and if you count Amanda, that makes it 4 females against 1 male in the house. Not really fair for the Y-chromosomes, if you ask me.

Ever since Amanda and I have been together, we’ve always said that we wanted 4 animals, 2 dogs and 2 cats, no more, no less. So with our recent nuptials we’ve decided to make our family whole (non-human, of course). And since Pepper was always Amanda’s girl, we decided that I get to pick out my little man. After many months of narrowing down some breeds and researching, allow me to be the first to introduce you to my buddy,

Murphy Einstein

Murphy was born on June 6th. He’s a pembroke welsh corgi, and the cutest damn thing I’ve ever seen, although I may be a smidgen biased. We won’t pick him up until we’re settled in our new house, but we’re hoping he’ll be the pal for Pepper that she’s always needed.

NOM NOM NOM!!!

So our family is almost complete. I know that 4 animals seems like a lot, and most of our friends have 1 or 2 animals at the most, but I’m pretty happy with our kids. Yeah, they need taking care of and cost a little bit of money to keep fed and happy, but they make us so happy that it’s an easy tradeoff.