Ahh, but forget all of that, because we have puppies!!

Perhaps a week before we lost Harley, these guys came to Mum's attention. Two little brothers who had been abandoned on the doorstep of a truck dispatching office. One of the employees there was a volunteer for a local animal rescue organization. Something about them just caught her eye. After some checking and no small amount of consideration, she decided to adopt them. They arrived the night before I did.

These are her two boys, Xander and Colby.
They're about five months old at the time I took this. Their exact breeding makeup is unknown, but we think the dominants are Catahoula and Rat Terrier.

Meet Xander. He's the larger of the two. Mum had decided on their individual names, but insisted that I pick which would be which. I settled on Xander for this guy based upon his personality. He's Mr. Cuddly. He doesn't show quite the same shrewd planner tendencies as his brother, but he's brave and protective. (Because he doesn't know any better? Hm.) Whatever it is that Xander is doing at the moment, he does it with his all.

This little guy is Colby. I really wanted to call him "Xander" at first because he has black patches and the physical tie-in was just too perfect, but I think I made the right choice. Colby is a sneaky little devil. Definitely the Brain to Xander's Pinky. Colby loves to lie in this position, watching everything around him like a grand overlord surveying his subjects. He's got a much more definite grasp of "right" and "wrong" too – though the only way in which it matters is so he doesn't get caught doing the "wrong" (read: fun), thing. So he manages to stop just before he thinks we'll catch him. Then when Xander gets in trouble for doing it, Colby comes over innocent-like with a wag and a lick as if to say, "I'm being good, aren't I, Mum?"

Perfect demonstration of puppy personalities. Mum ran the vacuum at one point – the boys' first interaction with it. Of course, when it switched on, they ran like mad. I was sitting on the floor, a small distance away. It didn't take too long for Xander to come over to me. He stood in my lap, enjoying the relative security, and watched the vacuum cleaner intently. Within a few minutes, he went over to the howling noise machine and began to sniff and investigate and even to bark. But where was Colby?

Colby was waaay down the hall watching every move everyone made. That way, if/when the monster bit Xander's nose off, Colby would have all the confirmation he needed to stay far, far away in the future.

Here they are taking a nap. Xander farthest away, Colby closest. Mum has said how she's glad she got them both, and I would agree. Despite their differences (or perhaps because of them) they're clearly good for each other.

Puppy basking. Again, Colby close and Xander far. I think Colby is a camera hog.

Xander enjoying one of two terry cloth squeaky toys we bought for them. I think it lasted about 28 hours. That was several hours longer than the raccoon version. (The long tail suffered horribly.)

Colby doing a very good Jett impression.

Aww, mournful looking Xander. Actually, I think I had a toy and he was planning to pounce.

Colby in his favourite pose.