aww, poor Bandit. kitties and doggies can be great friends but it's usually best to introduce the kitty as a baby cat who smells of milk and who likes having its face washed by a big dog tongue.

The hardest part about losing Puppers is that he had his own cat who goes by several names including FANG. Fang was a 3 weeks old when we found her under the house. Puppers took over parenting duties and for the next 4 years they were Frick and Frack. Fang wasn't a people cat, having come froma tribe of local feral cats. She loved only the dog who she would sleep with every night on the dog's bed. Smart cat she! She learnt early on that the warmest and softest place in the house was right up against Puppers' belly. Well, when he died, she spent a few weeks looking for him and sleeping in all his favorite places. She still sleeps on the dog bed and won't let us put it away. I wonder if when we get a young dog, she'll take to him/her?

Enough about my dog - Bandit's the new boy in town! I hope he's finding his way around and enjoying his new digs! Has he met the other neighborhood doggies whilst out for his evening walkies? Has he formed a little dog gang yet? Funny how dogs do that - not funny that they do it, just funny who they choose to be in their gang. Puppers was in a gang full of little dogs. On our street his best friends were mostly terriers and pugs. At the dog park, he gravitated towards "bad girl" types and ran with a Rottweiler mix named Ilssa who liked to lead her gang on big crashing expeditions through the brush. I was always afraid his fondness for Ilssa the She-Wolf of the Hollywood Hills was gonna result in him getting a rattlesnake bite. Thankfully, the worst Ilssa ever did was lead her gang to roll in rotting carcass of a squirell. Peee-yeeeew.

There I go again about my dog. Well, let's all toast Bandit and his new family and wish him long life, happiness and lots of swell dog-pals to play with! Make sure you post a link to some photos, Ranger1 - we dog people like to keep up with the Mudcat pups. Speaking of which, I wonder how Meg the now 3-legged Wonder-Pup is doing.....Sooz?

Here's to Bandit! Rescued dogs are the best dogs if you ask me.