|
|
Our youngest family member is Netanya (Hebrew for "God's Gift"). Born April 25th, 1998. She's a real
bundle of joy and energy. Born of champion stock, her grandfather was GRAND NATIONAL CHAMPION a
couple year's ago, and appeared as a model in the Spiegel catalog and other national ad campaigns.
Here's Netanya shortly after coming to live with us.
|
|
|
As spring progressed, our puppy grew quickly. Eskies are VERRRY LOVING and loyal dogs.
Here's proof as Pepper gets plenty of PUPPY KISSES
|
|
|
Of course, Belly Rubs are a favorite of all puppies...
|
|
|
Eskies (and the Bauers) don't like HOT Illinois summer weather. Here's Netanya cooling off in a make-shift puppy-pool.
|
|
|
Netanya quickly outgrew the small container, so we had to find something bigger, yet shallow enough she could get in and out safely...
|
|
|
Puppies grow FAST. Here's Netanya in December - full sized and full of puppy energy.
|
|
|
Here's Netanya doing her favorite thing (next to chewing my socks)...RUNNING like crazy.
|
|
|
Here's Netanya doing her impression of a little lamb. Pretty good, eh?
|
|
|
Here's a more current picture of Netanya (Feb 2000) with one of her favorite toys.
|
|
|
Our household also has a resident CAT named Yoda.
She's NOT a very "social" animal, and most of our friends have never seen her.
She's lived here for about 13 years...and here's proof that she exists. Yoda found us after crawling into our yard when only 4 weeks old, after her cruel owners tried to drown her and her littermates in a nearby pond. She escaped, got attacked by a hawk (the talons had punctured her lungs) and was barely alive when we found her...
|
|
|
Here's a more current picture of Yoda (Feb 2000) trying to steal Netanya's Tigger.
|
|
|
Our Purple Martin house was taken over by a family of American Kestrel Falcons (Sparrow hawks). Mrs. Kestrel raised FIVE healthy birds 1999, then a bad storm destroyed the martin house. In previous years,
she's raised three and four young. We spent hours watching them learn to fly, hunt, and
soar over our yard.
|
|
|
In February 2001, we purchased and erected an official Kestral house from Wild Birds Unlimited in Peoria. Kestrals choose their nesting sites in February, so we had to get the house up in spite of an 18 inch snow cover. Our reward was watching three young kestrals emerge in late June.(look closely - see the little bird-head sticking out of the house?)
|
|
|
Finally - here's our God-Daughter, Megan, with our God-Dog, Dakota, a Siberian Husky.
|