Aw crap, I missed knight MZ, sharp MZ, and the cat/pet phase. Welp, since I'm incredibly proud of my pets I'm going to spoiler it up with a bunch of pictures of em.
Oliver, a rescue dog who was 5 when we got him. He weighed 30 lbs when they took him from his last owner, and he's now at a healthy 65 for his size. He could hardly walk when we got him and he has a few bone deformities and joint problems from malnutrition, but he's the best natured guy in the world. The weird thing is you could take food right out of his mouth and he wouldn't care, despite food being tied with his dad (not myself) on the top rung of the importance ladder.
Here are a few from the ride home from getting him. He enjoyed sticking his face in the camera, so sorry for the low quality.
And here's one of him at home a few days later. While they really fattened him up after rescuing him and before giving him to us, he's still just skin and bones in it.
And finally here's Niya, our other Shar-pei. We got her from what was said to be a reputable breeder in the state of Georgia, but it turns out that any old puppy mill can call themselves a reputable breeder in Georgia. We've reported them and since then those breeders have gone under, and strangely another has cropped up with the same address but under a different name. No one takes animal abuse seriously. Anyway, Niya's adorable but afraid of everything, probably because of all the treatment she had to go through as a puppy for mange and worms and everything else.
Playful stance beside a dog-bed
Puppy-in-the-window look
I'll post my tortoises at some point in the future, but I feel like being overbearing about one species of pet at a time is sufficient