Mo's Haven

Gidget	Sampson	Roxie	Cricket	Risa
Mo & Scott's Family Pets

Gidget : Born approx. June 1 st, 1985.  I brought her home when she was about six weeks old, a sweet little orphan.  Her mother died when the pups were only a few weeks old ( due to heartworms ).  I kept looking at them as I came by each day on my bike (I used to bicycle to that first job out in Northfield).  One day I stopped to ask if the people were going to be giving away the pups.  Told that they were, I spent several minutes being jumped all over in the back yard by the frisky bunch.  I finally chose the quietest one, who was curled up in a little ball next to the back step, watching her brothers and sisters with big, anxious eyes.  I cleaned out my backpack into the bike's basket, and placed the puppy gently inside.  She was so quiet during the ride home, that I asked a passing neighbor to peek into the backpack and make sure the pup was all right.  Peggy laughed when she saw the pup looking up at her from inside the pack, quiet as a mouse.  I introduced the pup to my dad by laying her on his chest as he was resting on the couch after work.  She licked his nose, and he was a goner.  I was going to call her HugaBug ( yeah, silly name, but I was 18), but Dad said her brown eyes reminded him of Sally Fields when she played Gidget on the old TV series, so Gidget she became.  She is a little bit neurotic (fears cameras, thunder, and toy guns) but very sweet, and bouncy ( like her namesake). 

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Roxie: Came to live with us November, 1997, just before Thanksgiving (as covered in page two of Sam's story).  She was seven years old, and her owner had to give her up because he couldn't take care of her any more.  Our friend Tommy introduced her to us, and we loved her right away.  She's good with children, obedience trained, and to the kids delight she knows some tricks.  Fetching shoes on command, playing dead at a pretend gunshot from your fingers, beg, high five, etc.  She loves the attention.   She also loves to munch---this is a regular chow hound, who won't overeat, but loves to beg for people treats, like cookies, fruit....and your dinner.   Her stare is intense.
She made friends with Gidget immediately, and the only difficulty I've seen between them is the occasional quarrel over a bisquit, usually being Roxie's fault for trying to steal the one that Gidget is hoarding!   The most wonderful thing that I remember from that first week with her in our home, was her reaction to the cat.  He was mightily offended by her presence in the house( typical cat ), but after a few hours, he came out of hiding, and checked her out from the safety of the underside of the dining room table.  Roxie saw him, but made no effort to chase him, or even to get close to him.  She simply stood there looking at him, with her ears perked up, completely still except for the rapid wagging of her tail.   Cricket retreated underneath the bed.  But a few hours later, he was out again, Roxie stood still again, and they sniffed noses.  One week later, I saw Cricket rub up against her legs as she was standing in the living room after breakfast.
2003 - Having lost weight over the last year, at the end of the summer Rox was diagnosed with cancer. We spent the last weeks giving her anything at all that she wanted to eat - which appealed to the ever-mooching pooch :) and lot's of hugs and scritches when she would tolerate them. She was a great dog - and we'll miss her very much. R.I.P. Rox - Sept. 16, 2003.

Cricket : His honorary  birthday is Sept. 1, 1992.  He was found in the woods by some children, who brought him to my mother's house the week before Halloween.  They had seen a dead cat out by the road not far from the woods where they found him, which we think might have been his mother.  My mother immediately took the orphan kitten in.  When I came home from work that day to pick up my daughter Bethany, she said, "Mom, we have a kitten!"  At the time, I had been checking around to see if I could find a siamese kitten.  But I didn't want to disappoint Bethany, and the kitten, a ring-tail tabby in black and grey, with a white belly and paws, was so tiny and cute.  We took him home.  Now, Scott is not a cat person.  When he saw me get out of the car with cat carrier in hand, he said emphatically, " TAKE THAT BACK."  I said I had already promised Bethany, who was 3, that she could keep the kitten.  I also said that the kitten would probably chase the crickets, which at the time were EVERYWHERE in the house(I HATE crickets).  What followed was the kitten naming......Tiger was out, to commonly used for tabby cats.  Bethany wanted to call him Green Eyes. We settled on Cricket, since he was going to be our cricket hunter until we solved the problem, which we finally did during the house restorations after the '92 flood, when we laid down a chemical under the carpets, and around the outside edges of the concrete pad of the house.  Which was a good thing, because I was ready to run screaming into the night if I had to spend anymore time listening to the chorus while I was trying unsuccessfully to sleep.  Also, Cricket had absolutely no interest in crickets, which Scott loves to tease me about, since he said that this was my only excuse for keeping the cat. Not so!!!! Was not!!!  Scott, the cat hater, loves Cricket.  He started rough housing with the kitten from the first day home, and created a monster.  Walking through the house at night without paying attention is a mistake...an ankle stalker is on the loose.  He ambushes you in unguarded moments.  Beware...... The cat loves to romp, so you have to be cautious when reaching out to pet him, unless you want to wrestle.  Those teeth are sharp!  Our next kitten will be handled a little more gently! 

Risa: Not long after Gidget left us, I started thinking about another dog companion for Roxie, since I've never liked having just one dog. I was considering adopting a pooch, checking local ads and www.petfinder.com, when Scott walked into the office and said, "Mo, our dog is out front in the truck, could you go take a look?" Seems our friend Harry was looking for a home for his adopted labrador pup. One look at her and Scotty knew we'd love her. By the end of the day she was in my car and headed home. We renamed her Risa, which is Italian/Spanish for laughter. She was just one big smile when we brought her home, so it suited her perfectly.

So, that is how we ended up with this lovely chocolate lab. She loves to swim...the first dog I've ever had who did, and would regularly escape through the fence to go do so - we had the fence rebuilt so she's no longer able to do so...and boy, does that ever make her sulky! She checks it out for exits on a regular basis. She is clever enough to open sliding doors, kitchen cabinets, and the refrigerator. Child safety latches have found their way back into our home to keep her nose out of the food supply.
Risa adores Roxie and is constantly trying to get her to play, which is difficult because Rox had never really learned how to play with another dog. That never bothered Risa, she just kept trying!
I highly recommend a labrador to anyone who wants a dog and who has a strong measure of patience....the puppy years are looonngg. She's 3 yrs. old as of Aug. 26th, 2003 and still quite rowdy sometimes, although she does tend to settle down a little faster now.