Meet the Davenports!

Happy Monday everyone!  I for one am glad this day is almost over- work things made it a rough start to the week, but I made it through.

So I have yet to properly introduce myself and the rest of my family, even though you’ve seen some of us appear a few times on the blog.  Without further adieu, meet the Davenports:

Photo by Maggie Fan Photography

From left to right we have:  Kirby, Tim, Jackson, Ellie and myself (Emily).  We also have two kitties, Amber and Tweaker (yeah, weird name I know.  Trust me, it fits her!).  Here they are in my car on our drive across the country (Amber’s on the left, Tweaker on the right):

Let’s see- I’ll give you a quick crash course.  Tim and I met in Washington (state, not district!) in 2003 while I was an undergrad.  We got married in 2006 and moved to Georgia in 2009 from Washington.  We bought our house in 2010.

Jackson is the oldest “child” at 12 years- he’ll be 13 in 2012.  Tim has had Jackson since he was a baby.  He’s kind of a high maintenance dog, but we love him anyway.  He’s extremely thunder phobic, which we didn’t discover until we moved somewhere that actually had thunder.  He’s chewed through chain link and plywood and is now 7 teeth lighter than when we moved here- life is very exciting having him around.  He still loves life though and we joke that he’s going to live forever. 

Amber and Tweaker are sisters and are 8 years old this year.  Tim got them when we were dating- I like to say I married into having pets, since all I had were fish when we first met.  Not that I mind!  These ladies are super sweet and more like dogs than cats.

Ellie is 2 and the spoiled brat of the family- she’s very sweet but stubborn.  She’s a pound dog- we got her when she was 5 weeks old from our local pound.  She’s also what they call a “Georgia black dog”- a black, mixed breed dog.  That’s typically the most common dog to find at the pound and also the least likely to be adopted.  She and I do agility together, although lately her stubbornness has gotten in the way so we’re taking a break from that right now- she’d much rather prefer to play ball in our back yard anyway!  Here’s a fun action shot of her though, when she wants to behave for me! 

Photo by Maggie Fan Photography

Kirby is the youngest and newest member of our family- we adopted him in June of this year.  He’s 1 years old and was an owner surrender at our pound- when animal control went to pick him up, they found his brother dead in a crate.  So sad!!  We think Kirby has spent the majority of his life in a crate, but this doesn’t seem to get him down in any way.  He is the happiest, friendliest dog I have ever met.  And he has energy to spare.  We just got him started in agility so hopefully he can focus some of that energy!  My favorite part about him is his tail- it looks like a pom-pom and we joke that he carries his own personal cheerleading squad with him wherever he goes:

Kirby on the deck, prior to staining it!

Along the way we lost a family member- actually on the drive from Washington to Georgia.  Ty was 8 and Tim also got him as a puppy, when Jackson was 2.  We’re not 100% certain what he had, but he got sick suddenly right before our move, and by the time we hit Texas we knew we had to put him down.  I like to think a little part of him lives in Ellie and Kirby- I can definitely see his spirit in both of them.  We still miss him like crazy- 8 is too young!!

That completes my family- I hope you enjoyed “meeting” everyone.  One day hopefully we’ll add a non-furry child to that list!

What about you- do you have any fur-kids?  non-fur kids?