Fall Waxing Dark Moon
A word about litter mates. Kate and I buy litter mates when we get puppies. Once in a while we’ve gotten adult dogs given to us by a breeder and we did buy one solitary wolfhound, but otherwise litter mates. Of our current pack all of the dogs were litter mates. Hilo and Kona were born 8 years ago from a champion whippet bitch. Emma and Bridgit (now deceased) we bought 14 years ago from a woman who was line breeding for really fast whippets. They were both crazy, but they loved each other.
Rigel and Vega don’t look like litter mates. Rigel looks like a miniature Irish Wolfhound (miniature at 100 pounds, of 
course) and Vega looks like, well, Vega. She’s a giant coon hound with a huge head and a lot of muscle. Appearances in this case deceive. These girls have been together since last December when they were born.
Litter mates have mutual space. They lie on each other, eat each other’s food, play together. They retain the bond you might expect from animals who shared a womb, then a mother’s breasts. The intimacy and trust they display toward each other is so sweet, so innocent and enduring. We buy them just for this reason, so they will have a partner through life, one they can count on, one their own size in the case of Rigel and Vega.
These relationships have been part of the magic for Kate and me over the years, an addition to the joy of knowing animals as friends and companions, we also know them as sisters.
