The Uhland Zoo

One of my most favorite pieces of the Uhland puzzle is the piece that I call the Uhland Zoo. There are critters everywhere and I just adore them. Up above we have who I like to call the 3 Musketeers.

...or the 3 Stooges...

Meet Dee. Sweet, crazy, terrorist Dee. This would be the creature that woke me up at roughly 4 a.m. every day that I lived in Uhland. She would bounce around on my already deflating air mattress, licking my face and running up and down the length of my body. About thirty minutes later she would settle down and curl up in a ball on my neck. We had a love/hate relationship. But I miss her the most.

She's a fierce hunting chihuahua.

Here's Fee. She's fierce too. Well at least when it comes to tiny stuffed cows. Outside of that, she's pretty skittish.

Oh and she's the supermodel of the bunch. See that front leg down there...that's her supermodel pose. Diva.

And then there's Yum Yum. Yummy had a stroke a couple of months ago and although you can't tell it in this picture, she has a hunchback. So she's a bit...fragile. But she's oh so soft.

Oh sweet Yummy Yummy. Oh and she's extremely protective of the foodbowls. I don't know what that's all about.

And another of the usual suspects...Bootsie. Bootsie laughs, says "Hi" and "Roxanne" and screams. She's extremely loud and will literally outlive us all. That's all I have to say about that.

And then...Big Joe. He's smiling for you.

When I rolled up in the driveway in the dark of the night, my headlights caught the eye of this guy. I'm not going to lie. I was a bit concerned. At the worst he was a rabid, viscious, blood-thirsty Kujo type who was going to tear off all my limbs before I got out of the car. At best he was going to grab my flip flop and take off running. Either way...I wasn't looking forward to my options.

I opened the door slowly and here he came, not running, but hopping across the driveway, like a giant 4-legged rabbit. And just as soon as he could get his head into my car, he started covering my arm in slobber. This thing is literally the size of a small pony so I had to do a little budging to get myself out of the car. While I was getting my bag out of the backseat he was bouncing on and around my feet. I am now short two pinky toes and a middle toe on my left foot. But I digress.

As I walked to the house he walked with...well, on...me. The side of his horse body was touching the side of my leg the entire time we walked. Our legs got a little tangled trying to go up the steps, but we both made it out alive.

I watched his sad eyes as I closed the door behind me and yelled, "Hellooooo! Y'all know one of the neighbors dogs is hanging out over here?"

Before I saw any faces I heard, "Oh no, he's ours. That's Joe!"

Ah...Fee, Dee, Yum Yum and Joe. Makes sense to me.

Joe isn't really the brightest star in the sky, and he has no idea that he's a bit oversized, but boy golly is he happy. And really...what else matters.