FamilyNCritters

My family suffers from chronic gotta-be-doing-something-all-the-time-itis. Most of our time we're doing conservation work with Channel Islands Restoration, docenting at the zoo, playing with our own menagerie, attending school events and rock climbing contests, riding bikes and horses, re-enacting, catching Girl Scout and Roots 'n Shoots activities, fishing and camping, doing educational presentations, drum corps, playing computer games, stargazing, and whatever is the special activity of the day or week! Needless to say, we seem to eat out a lot! Our family play is often loud and boisterous! This has been assisted by our parrots teaching their Kimmick siblings to make calls of remarkable volume and timbre! Here's a partial cast list for our family melodrama!

Me... About the best it ever gets! Most of the time I don't look quite this normal though. Generally, I try to make it a goal of mine to spend as much time as possible in the 19th century, far from computers, cellphones, and modern Jeff Davis wannabes! Here's some stats I put together for myself...

Species: Intelligent Bipedal Mammalian Humanoid (most of the time).
Age: Younger than the Universe.
Marital Status: Legal Maximum. Any more I have to throw back.
Height: About 18 hands. That's around a 1/2 walrus.
Weight: Much heavier on Jupiter.
Ego: Smaller than the Universe but quite respectable.
Career: Electronic Equipment Abuse Management.

We have a host of animals to keep us on our toes. Our dog, the horses, cats, tortoise, iguana, bird, and fish make home pleasant if a bit chaotic. Here's an overview.

Twinkle. Our new dog. Our samoyed friend of many years passed away in 2002 of cancer (see the tribute below). Twinkle has been tons of fun. We adopted her from the City of Los Angeles Shelter system (which has greatly improved due to an infusion of bond money and the dedication of its staff). So many neat dogs looking for good homes! Twinkle looks to be a shepard/lab mix, and is shaping up into a fine frisbee dog. Very, very, bouncy and exuberant!
Neeka. This beautiful horse almost ended up a burger on someone's plate, and was rescued by a great organization called HorseAid. We adopted her, and she is just a marvelous horse!
Zusha. Our latest horse addition, Zusha is a purebred Friesian mare we purchased as a weanling. She has been shown and is doing well!
Glamour. Glamour is a fine old hackney pony who has had a rough life. She has been wonderful with our children (and many of their friends!), and is one of the sweetest horses I've ever had the pleasure to work with.
Mr Tortellini. A California Fish and Game registered California Desert Tortoise. These neat animals are endangered by enviromental change and introduced diseases. For more information on California Desert Tortoise conservation click here.
Iggo the Wonder Iguana. An old school iguana who was just not suited for the hectic life of a school. He is very affectionate, and is always begging for a head scratch!
Lucy the Green-cheeked Conure. We finally broke down and added a bird to our little menagerie. My daughters' spotted her in a local pet store, and fell in love with her. She's a lot of fun, and enjoys biting me much!
Lucky the Pionus. Just like potato chips, one parrot is just not enough! I spent months shopping for the perfect bird for me, and settled on a Maximillian Pionus. He's my best bud, though a bit mercenary with his affections if popcorn is about!
Spook Specklekhan. Our beautiful begal cat. The only cat I've ever known to walk on me while I'm IN the bathtub. He's a great fellow and seems almost dog-like at times. Perhaps it's the wild Bengal-cat genes...

Missing from the above are Figaro, the best cat I've ever seen around kids, and assorted amphibians and fish which have been adopted from my daughters' schools. We also just adopted Arabella, a really sweet dog who should have been named Superball for obvious reasons.