Non-human family members .

and how they came to be family members. Don't want to discriminate, so I'll list by seniority.

Mandy (the mistake), is a black lab/German shepherd mix, age 3 1/2. Joined the family in early April 1999 after the natural, peaceful, and painless death of Myron, a tabby cat.

Mandy's mom is a purebred black lab. Her dad is an opportunistic neighbor German shepherd. Mandy, a perpetual puppy, weighs about 75 pounds. She's black and shepherd-shaped, with tan cheek and eyebrow patches and tan legs below the "knees." Her ears try to stand erect like a shepherd's, but they flop about an inch out from her head.

Sara is a 3 1/2-year-old humane-society-special tortie with lovely green eyes. I was after an orange male. Several were available for adoption, but all were asleep or indifferent. Then there was Sara, awake and upright in a dim, upper-level corner cage. "Me?" Ack! A blotchy black cat? Smallish? Well, yeah.

Sara, billed as an adult, weighed 6 1/2 pounds then. After four hours for her to adjust to the house, we let Mandy in. I held Sara because I knew Mandy would arrive like a herd of elephants. She did. Sara hissed. Mandy peed on the carpet. Guess who was boss? Sara now weighs nearly 12 pounds -- not fat, but "substantial" on a large feline frame.

That was it until late last July when a friend called about a litter of kittens born to a feral mom in a nest 35 feet up in a tree. (How he got down is another story.)

Like I needed another cat. One was orange. Enter Orange Julius. I hauled him home in a birdcage. He weighed about 3/4 of a pound and had coarse fur. Actually, he was a homely little devil.

Then he tested positive for feline leukemia, so he had to be quarantined for a month. The only available quarantine room was my computer room, so I had the chance to *really* watch him grow. I'll never forget the night he discovered the "other orange kitten" in mirrored closet doors. He screeched to a stop. "Another me!" Then he proceeded to "stilt hop" back and forth in front of the mirrored doors, tail askew, staring at himself/the other kitten, also stilt-jumping. :)

At four days shy of his first birthday, he's a gangly teenager with amber eyes, big feet, and velvet-soft fur. And an attitude, but I've read that's typical of "red gene" animals.

Julius and Mandy have become best friends. Mandy would give her life for Julius. It's funny to watch a 75-pound, sorta klutzy dog playing with a super-agile cat *in* the house.

Now, what about yours? (I'm Luise, by the way. The Shendoh name is that of my first dog, a German shepherd named Shenandoah of the Canyon -- Shendoh for short.)