Marino: Kind of the black sheep of the cat family; where Madison and Daphne hang out together all the time you don’t often see Marino near the two of them. In fact, Marino tends to hang out and ‘play’ with the dogs more than anything else.
Marino, at this point, is probably the cat that goes outside the least. Her biggest claim to fame is a desire to be the lap cat and the uncanny ability to understand when lunch meat is being used on the kitchen counter and showing up in time to get a few bites.
Daphne: I still think the Kevin departure has rocked Daphne to the core. She hides it well and has successfully transitioned her nightime antics from Kevin to Suzanne. It takes, oh, about 2 hours for her to realize when Kevin is home and she promptly relocates her entire life to the basement at that point.
Daphne, we are positive, is also the cat that will pee all over the beds upstairs if we aren’t careful to keep the doors closed. We think this is because she hates the dogs and won’t journey all the way downstairs to the kitty litter unless truly forced to it. So, for example, if Cpher leaves his door open, we will be washing sheets. Happily, for Daphne, Matthew and Cpher keeping their doors closed seems to have solved this problem.
Likes to chirp at the birds out the window. Not so big a fan of outside anymore but will venture out in warmer times of the year and sometimes will stay out all night.
Madison: These orange cats crack me up….she is certainly the queen around the house and is the only cat that goes outside on any kind of regular basis anymore. Little presents don’t show up as much anymore, but, sometimes we think it is because the dogs help out with ‘disposal’. Madison, like Daphne, has successfully transitioned her bed ‘game’ to Suzanne (the cats know that I will move them right the heck off of me if they try that crap….Suzanne is a lot ‘nicer’).
Aside from the constant presence outside, the distinguishing feature about Madison is that if you touch her she will make (usually) some sort of little noise. The noise varies from moment to moment but it is amusing.
Holly: Certainly wins the award for most annoying dog. The bright side I guess is she definitely lets the neighbors and strangers know that there is a dog here, but, we certainly wish she would just shut the heck up most of the time. She would get to be outside more if she could manage it. Bark collar has been successful at times but isn’t a consistent deterrent for some reason.
Holly still isn’t the biggest Bailey fan – Bailey knows this and the play-fights between them are few and far between and are always filled with a lot of trepidation on Bailey’s part (kind of like she is saying “I’d like to play with you, but, you will go psycho on me so I don’t trust you”).
(Matthew…out cold with the flu that blew through the house)
What else? By far the slowest eater of the three dogs, also the smallest of the three. Always seems to be battling with Bailey to be the center of somebody’s attention.
Bailey: Just an amazingly calm dog. While Bailey is barking her head off at whatever is walking by she just sits there, watching. Deer in the backyard? I’ll just watch thank you.
She can go absolutely crazy sometimes playing with Wiley…when she does laps around the living room it can be a very painful experience for the humans as she plants her paws on the unwary soul who doesn’t see her coming.
She is a retriever….she has learned that there are things that we’d prefer she not chew on and now her preferred move is to gently grab them in her mouth and bring them out to us to gently take from her. Not the best retriever-fetch dog; she will do it for a while and then gets bored with the whole concept.
Still think she is shy of Wiley by a few pounds. This doesn’t matter to her because she is relentless in attacking her favorite play partner. Feel bad for Wiley sometimes; Bailey can be ruthless, especially with Wiley’s ears. As mentioned, she is not shy about pushing Bailey out of the way to get some attention from someone and often Bailey and Holly will rotate in the spot right next to Suzanne for most of the night.
Wiley: Just turned 10. An amazing thing. Think he might be a few pounds too heavy but that might be the only thing wrong with him other than getting older. Will gleefully prance and dance around to get food or go outside.
Unlike the other dogs who compete for attention, Wiley is more than happy to just sit off to the side on the couch or floor and watch things happen. That’s not to say that he won’t make his presence known for petting every now and again, it’s just that he ‘s not nearly as insistent about it as Bailey and Holly are.
