About Me

Hi I'm Jill, on this page you will get to see my pets, We currently have 8 West Highland White Terriers (Westies) and one neurotic cat (Honestly who of us wouldn't be neurotic with 8 dogs around?) My Dogs in order of age are Einstein, Susie, Snowball, Fred, Daisy, Frank, Dolly, and Droopy. My cat is named Pete, he is about 16 months younger than Einstein is so he is the second oldest of the group. We have had several litters of puppies from our dogs and there is something about being there when they are born. Though they're a lot of extra work Gordon and I just love the time we get with the puppies and miss every one of them when they go to new homes.

Einstein is our oldest dog. We got him when we were engaged. He lives up to his name as he is very smart, sometimes too smart for his own good. Being the oldest he is the most set in his ways. He always wants to out think you. He believes he is the best of all dogs and assumes all others recognize it. He is the first to greet any guest and loves having attention lavished upon him. He loves children and will follow them around. He will carry a stuffed toy in his mouth, and never harm it. When he was just under a year old we got a little stuffed white dog called curly dog junior. We called it his baby. If you asked where was his baby he would go get it. When we praised him for being so smart it sort of went to his head. He enjoys going places and has traveled as far as Florida with us. He loved riding around my mother’s park in my Mom's golf cart. He greeted all the ladies in the park and was so proud of himself when they all praised him.

Pete is our cat; I went to my niece’s birthday part and found they had gotten 2 little kittens. Pete decided he liked me and spent the whole time in my lap. A week or so later my brother called and asked if I wanted the kitten I had played with, since the girls ignored him and played with the "pretty kitten" instead. I said sure and went and got him. He immediately scratched Peanut, my Border Collie mix on the nose. Einstein was more careful but they chased each other around for days. I was afraid he wasn’t going to fit in but Gordon said give it time, within a week or two they all got along fine. One night we woke up when our Gouldian Finches started squawking and flapping around. Gordon went and found the cage swaying from its chains. When he looked under the cover to check the birds he looked right into Pete's face. He had jumped up and clung to the cage under the cover. We moved the birds to a different room, which we kept Pete out of. He has always loved playing with the puppies, except when we have several litters at the same time. I once watched him run away from 14 - 5 week old puppies who just wanted to play with him, I guess he knew how sharp little puppy teeth can be. When he wants to be chased he will yowl and stretch out reaching high up on the wall while looking to see who is going to play. He is very shy at times, he runs away when the doorbell rings, but now that he's older, he will come out and visit the guest after a while. His favorite foods are salmon and chicken. If we are having that he tries to jump up on the table or just stretches up to the table looking forlorn hoping you will give him some.

Susie is our oldest female Westie. Our 2 Gouldian Ficnhes were named Calvin and Hobbs after my favorite newspaper cartoon. Susie was the nemesis of Calvin. Our Susie was the most beautiful little puppy, looking like a little stuffed toy. Her face is gorgeous and her eyes light up when you call her name. She loves playing catch and Frisbee. She also loves to swim in our pond. She loves giving Gordon kisses and at our old house she would stand on the chair next to the front door and Gordon would lean over so she could kiss his face. If she didn't get her kiss goodbye she was very disappointed. She had a litter of 3 puppies that Gordon called his 3 amigo’s. He would come home from work and lie on the floor and play 'Gulliver' with them. They would tug on his shirt, lick his face and nip at his nose and ears. Gerry and Charlie Smith got the first one of the litter and named him Q-tip after Susie Q. Charlie says it’s funny but when we get together, Q-Tip just wants to be on Gordon’s lap and lick his face, but he won’t do that to Charlie. I guess when he gets Gordon’s scent he knows it’s his old buddy from when he was a puppy. Susie has earned her nick name, "Smoochy Poochy".

When Susie had her second litter of puppies she had some problems and we had her spayed. Her surviving puppies died because Susie was not ableto take care of them. Susie cried pitifully for days and we saw an ad for Westie puppies. They were 5 weeks old and very tiny. My friend Kathy and I went and selected Snowball out of the litter. Susie was now happy she had a puppy to mother. It took some of the hurt away from losing Susie's litter. Snowball got very sick at about 6 weeks of age. The Vet said she might not make it. We worried all night until she climbed out of the towels and heating pad we set up and started to seem better. We sort of spoiled her after that. If we were sitting on the couch she would come up and bark so you put her on the couch. When she wanted off she would bark until you sat her on the floor. I did this for a long time until Gordon asked me why I let her boss me around. He showed me she would jump up and down from the couch when I wasn't there. That's when we came up with her registered name, Who's the Boss, because she was! She has had 4 litters of puppies. We kept Fred from the first litter, Daisy from the second litter and Dolly from the last litter. She's a great mother with one annoying habit. When her pups are very young she doesn't really want anyone to mess with them, so when she gets back in the house from doing her business outside she barks loudly all the way down the hall until she is back in the basket with her pups. Heaven forbid if Einstein or Fred is in the room with her puppies, she will chase them away. I guess that shows she's still the boss.

Fred is from Einstein and Snowball's first litter. He got his name from the color of his collar. We put different colored collars on each puppy to tell them apart. We called them names like Red Fred, Black Bart, Mr. Green Jeans, etc. Fred was the runt of his litter and was not sold the weekend our ad was run. Out of 7 pups he was the only one left. Rather than run another ad for just one puppy, I talked Gordon into keeping him, which wasn't hard to do. We liked the named Fred for him and made it Fred E Boy. He's very sweet and loving. He likes swimming in the pond and playing ball. He really likes it when he is the only dog with you, and he gets all the attention. He just sits right next you with his head on your lap. He may no longer have a red collar, but he's still my Fred E Boy. As he gets older he looks more and more like his dad Einstein.

Daisy was from Einstein and Snowball's second litter. She was the first puppy born and very big, compared to her sisters. Because she was bigger than the other girls were, no one chose to take her. Like before we ended up with one puppy. Gordon said we could keep her and she became Daisy Dog when the daughter of a friend from work told me that was the name she thought she should have. Daisy has been a good mother and has had 2 litters of puppies. She likes to lay on my pillows all day and even shares my pillows when we sleep. She sort of wraps around my head at night. When she was small I called her Dinky Daisy, but now I call her Mrs. Dinky. She is very affectionate, and she has the heart of a great hunter. Westies were bred to hunt badgers and other small game. Daisy has proven to be very good at catching moles. You can tell when she's on the trail of a mole because she comes in with a black face from digging. I think she has been giving lessons to the other dogs lately, because they are coming in with black feet and faces.

Frank arrived shortly after Daisy came in heat and we realized we better have Einstein and Fred neutered so there was no inbreeding among father’s, son’s, and daughters. So we had Einstein and Fred neutered. Poor Fred – he never did get lucky with the girls. Now we needed a new male to breed with Daisy and Snowball who was not related to them. We answered an ad in the Detroit News for a one-year-old male Westie. We arrived to find Frank… the smallest little guy, with curly hair and a great big smile. He was such a lover, right from the start he wanted to be with us, and he won us over in a very few minutes. We stopped on the way home for lunch and Frank hopped up on the outdoor picnic table and helped himself to my hamburger. He was half starved. I had not realized at first how thin he was. So we took him home and fattened him up a little until you could no longer see the bones in his back. He was very excited and happy to take care of Daisy and Snowball 6 months later when they came in heat. And he loved to play with the puppies before they were sold. He has a few nicknames like Frank-enstein, Schnoodle Burger and Roscoe P. Cole Train. He always has a smile on his face like he has been up to no good!

Dolly and her littermates were born in May 2002. Her parents are Frank and Snowball. She is one week older than Droopy and his littermates. Dolly was one of three females that were from those two litters. At about 6 weeks of age I noticed her eyes did not look quite right. When we took her in for her first puppy shots with the rest of the litter I mentioned it to the vet. She checked Dolly out real good and noticed her skull had not completely closed because she had a soft spot on her head. Her eyes also turned outward, not focusing directly on an object like normal. The vet said she was very healthy in every way but she may have trouble, as she gets older with logic and reasoning. So we decided we would not sell her, that she was a special little girl and needed plenty of love and understanding. We would keep her ourselves. She became our number 7. She is the most loving little girl. She spends most every night in bed with us and loves to lie in the bed even when we have all gotten up. She does not like to be separated from her brother Droopy, as they are best buddies. She cried and cried when Droopy went to his family, but when he came back she was the happiest little thing. She can make a lot of noise for being such a tiny little thing. She is our little Dolly Wolly.

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Droopy was named after several months of age because he had not yet decided to pick his ears up, like a Westie is supposed to do, usually between 6 and 12 weeks. He was the first pup we had that had not picked his ears up. So I started to call him Droopy Drawers, Droop Poop, and the Droopster. As a puppy he was the first one picked to go to his new home. The folks who were buying him were leaving on vacation and asked us to keep him for another month until they returned. So we said sure. Over that month we began to get attached to him more and more. By the time the family came back to get the puppy I didn’t want to see him leave because I had become so attached to him. Dolly had also become so attached to her little brother that she cried when she couldn’t find him to play with. About a week later we got a call from the family asking us if we would take Droopy back. Things were just not working out for them. We gladly said yes. Droopy came back home and I told Gordon we were not going to sell him this time that we would be keeping him. So Droopy makes 8. Some people might think we have rocks in our head for having so many pets. But we have so much love to give and it just multiplies each time we add another dog or cat to our family.