I was out at Faulkner Park the other day and there were dogs everywhere! Young dogs, old dogs, small dogs, big dogs, well trained dogs and not so well trained dogs were all enjoying time with their owners. They reminded me of the many new additions to our family we have this year! We started out by welcoming a new Black Hereford Bull named Curly who came all the way from our neighbor to the southwest, Athens, Texas. We also welcomed Hereford half brothers Monte and Kenneth who are from down around Palestine. But the new addition I would like to talk about today is not of the bovine or canine persuasion and is not from out of town either! We did not pick our latest feline family member nor did he pick us but he came to live at my house by way of my daughter, through my brother from my niece’s cat. So basically, he would be my great-great nephew if he were a people. It took us awhile to name him for different reasons. In the beginning, we thought he was a female so we had to change the first name we selected. After throwing a few names around we settled on calling him Buttons, but somehow I always seemed to call him “Butt” for short and my wife didn’t like that, although it suited him perfectly. “DC” was suggested referring to the 1960’s movie “That Darn Cat”, as an alternative to “Butt” so we now call him “DC”! He runs and darts all through the house, he’ll take a swipe at you when you walk by and if you start missing him he’s probably perched on the top rod of the curtains and our ceilings are 10 feet tall!! One day he ran out of the house, was chased up a tree and unfortunately spent the night up there. (Luckily, the pole and skimmer bag we use for cleaning the pool was a great rescue tool, although I wouldn’t recommend it!) He will bite at you and claw at you if you try to pet him, but in his defense when he becomes tired and runs out of energy he will get right next to you and fall asleep. At night, we usually put him in our washroom so he doesn’t destroy the house and keep us awake. A few nights ago we may or may not have fallen asleep with the TV on and may or may not have forgotten to put DC up. I woke up in the middle of the night looked at my wife lying peacefully on her side with DC sprawled out over her like a jaguar lounging on a tree limb. I may or may not have taken a picture! Enjoy your pets! I’m sure they enjoy you too!