My mom is one of those farm women...when people ask me "What does your mom do?" the fastest and most suited answer so far is "She loves." Animals know this about her much faster than humans. One day, many years ago, a ratty little cat literally walked in out of the rain and made himself at home. Tuffy, as he was named for his indomitable spirit, was the one who picked out a puppy when her boyfriend's dog had an unplanned litter.
Until the day Tuffy succumbed to diabetes-related kidney failure a decade later, he and "his" puppy Panda (who weighed 110 pounds as a healthy adult) were inseparable. It took six or eight weeks, my mom says, for Panda to stop searching the property indoors and out. Panda was always a mentally slow dog--not dumb, just needed extra time to process things. When he finally figured out where Tuffy was buried, he stopped searching and for the rest of his life he was okay with cats but never bonded with another one.
Their story, and the one starting out in these lovely photos, is a great argument for "never choose a new pet without consulting the rest of your family no matter how many legs your family members have". I've seen the other version of the story, where someone picks out a pet for a loved one and chooses 100% wrong. I like this one better!
