Introduction

As I sat staring at my blog photo, wondering where to begin, it suddenly came to me. The big dog sitting beside me might be a good place! That is my buddy Shadow, Cedarhollow's Moon Shadow to be exact. He is an 8 1/2 year old brindle mastiff. He stands about 34 inches at the shoulder and weighs about 160 pounds, which actually makes him a rather skinny mastiff, honest. But oh, he is one wonderful boy: smart, well-trained (honest), beautiful disposition, loves people, makes a great early-warning system and doorbell, fetches you when the timer on the kitchen stove goes off or the teapot whistles, chases 'ugly birds' aka starlings, is the chief of our household 'cat police squad' and loves to chase 'bad kitties', sheds one hair at a time all of the time, slimes up everything pretty nicely so we have white towels all over the house to use as 'slobber rags'..... But he'll do darn near anything I ask of him, including standing still while I grab onto him to haul myself out of the bean patch, which I fell into butt first, or simply standing by my side looking mean and ugly at whomever is going door to door on our cul-de-sac. I love it when folks just stop, wave, and go on to the next house...

Our other dog is a 17 pound, fuzzy, white 'designer dog' named Stuie, which is short for Stuart Little. He adopted us almost three years ago, shortly after my father died. He was my 'solace dog'; the only thing that could make me smile at that point in time. He literally showed up on our doorstep and wouldn't leave, and believe me I tried! I like big dogs; I grew up with horses; I have cats bigger than he is! And now I love small dogs too!

Sometime I will tell you all about our trio of cats: Samson, Delilah, and Smokey.

Keep on keepin' on!