SCHOOF FAMILY ANIMAL ADVENTURES

The kids with Baron

Years ago (1972 ish) during a bleak and weak moment, I adopted a puppy.😎

Peanut Butter

I had been struggling with a profound life change.  I thought that the companionship could help me through the initial shock of a failed relationship.
My hopes were dashed by all the shenanigans this little adorable blonde lab managed to get into.  I quickly learned that adopting an animal was not something to enter into lightly.
The butter on the counter disappeared and crotches from dirty underwear went missing.  Slippers were chewed.
A lick on the face and furry cuddles made up for all his mischief.  I named him Smoochie.
However, animals and I have a love hate relationship.  They have always just sort of dropped in to my life.

During that year, a house mate and I had moved in to this cute little cottage bungalow  with a large front yard.
With sadness, I was forced to take him back to the shelter where he remained only a few hours when my then house mate made me retrieve him and he became hers.
I never saw him again after moving out of that cute little cottage to continue on in my education.

Smoochie Look Alike

My next encounter, came shortly after my husband and I moved out to the valley.  As we were settling into our home with a large back yard, a beautiful Keeshond was wandering around my uncles neighborhood.  Well long story short, after many inquiries and searches, he appeared to not have a current home so he came to live with us.
We named him Baron Von Schoof.

Baron Von Schoof

  He showed high spirits, high energy.
He ruled much of our time in pre-children days.
His spastic times of freedom, frequently found him spending time at the shelter.  Time after time we found ourselves bailing him out.  Each time trying to make his environment more secure.  He raided the trash and also got into a lot of mischief.
For lack of someone to care for him, we took him with us up to Oregon on a vacation.
He was in Doggie Heaven and that was an adventure.  He loved traveling in the old blue van.

Our first Christmas, with our "first child"

He loved his visit to the farm and a dip in the Wilamette River.  He loved running.

On the way back at the California fruit inspection check point, he bounded up on to my husbands lap to have the officer distracted by the “beauty” of this dog and that is how we got a whole crate of fresh peaches smuggled in.  She only asked where we had come from and just before she could ask if we had any fruit…

FRITTIE

When the youngest of my four kids was around 18 months old, Baron took sick and we lost him.
We never got another dog after that. Young kids and dog pooh don’t get along to well and living in the city does not help.
One Saturday, we were at one of those used homeschool curriculum sales and someone brought a box full of baby kittens.
That is how Peanut Butter came to live with us to the children’s delight.

KIRBEE

Peanut Butter was a Tom cat and terrorized the neighborhood female cats.  I was so naive to the fact and never even thought to neuter him.  He did not live with us to long before he met his demise by sampling some poison.  He died a painful death.  The vet could do nothing for him.

Fluffy

Then came, Snowball, the cutest little ball of kitten fluff, and of course the kids fell in love with her.

Snow Ball

  We did have her spayed but she had a wild streak in her and it came to the point she did not want to be around anybody.  She disappeared one day into the wild and we never saw her again.
One day two hamsters appeared and we learned they are escape artists.  Countless times found us searching the house.  One, we named Smudge because she had what looked like a black smudge on the blonde colored coat.
  The old house we were living in had one of those old grated floor heaters.  Countless times we would find them there.
Well Smudge died from lead poisoning.  She chewed on and ate a lead pencil.  The male one just got out of cage and disappeared.
Then to the delight of the kids, two rabbits showed up in our yard.  We captured them and made an enclosure but they escaped and ran back into the wooded area where they had come from. 
Well wouldn't you know one morning as we were all piling in the car to get to church Sunday morning, we spied a rabbit in our front yard.  My husband put it in the back yard and we continued on to church.  When we got back from church a couple of hours latter and went to check up on it, low and behold THAT WAS a mama and she had had babies while we were gone!

Kirbee at UCD

Kirbee at UCD

One day, my son, who had a tender heart for animals, befriended, a mamma cat who we named Frittie.  He coaxed her into his bedroom and lovingly took care of her.  Well, one day, we all learned where little kitties come from.  That is how Fluffy, Roi Roi, Kirbee, and Pirate came to live with us.

Kirbee~Roi Roi~Fluffy

One day we heard a commotion outside and it appeared that a big bird must of swiped Pirate away and we never say him again.  Frittie died not to long after this.
Kirbee was the runt of the litter and she lived the longest and spent her retirement at UCD and Davis.   None of this batch are still living.  Roi Roi got hit by a car and Fluffy got sick.

Our Babies ~ Dora (right & Jack left) siblings

A neighborhood mama cat took up residence in our back yard and unbeknown to us had her babies under our house.  When the 4 babies got big enough, my daughter captured them.  She found a home for two of them but could not find a home for the others. 

DORA

That is how Jack and Dora, our current residents came to live with us.  They have been with us for about 7 years now.
In between all this menagerie, we have also had fish in an aquarium.😎

JACK

Yes, we have had some animal adventures along our life journey and they still keep happening with the recent mother racoon who had babies under our house. 
On occasions, a possum will saunter through the yard in the early morning.

Dora

 We can just stay home and let the adventures roll on.