Do you have an animal companion in your shop?

So, hey, Guild members and readers of our blog ... how about sharing stories and photos of your companion animals, especially animals that spend time with you in your woodworking shops? You can share tales of shop companions in the comments of this post, or send an email to helenawoodworkers(at)gmail(dot)com along with photos if you have them, and I will add yours to this post. Let's get some dialogue going on our website. Thanks -- I'm looking forward to seeing the animals other woodworkers share their shops with.


Kita, one of the sweetest dogs I've ever met, leans in for a "kiss" from Tim. Kita lives with Tracy Hamilton, who works at Timothy's Fine Woodworking. She comes to the shop with Tracy every day.



This is Sadie, who until late winter 2007, lived at Tim Carney's shop. Sadie died in March this past year. She was a victim of some of the tainted pet food that killed and sickened so many other pets in the US. Before Sadie moved to Helena with Tim in 1996, she lived with him in an earth sheltered house in Pocatello, Idaho -- she was an excellent mouser.


Kita greets her old friend, Sam, who used to be the main shop dog before he became deaf. Sam is now 18 years old and stays at home with Maureen, supervising her design business. Sam occasionally visits the shop to greet customers and put up with Kita's licks and frolicking.


For a couple of years, Tim's shop had a resident toad. We never did find out the toad's name. He/she hung out sometimes in the wet spot from a slow leak of the hot water tank. Good place to sit if you're a cold-blooded creature. Our shop toad was a bit on the shy side -- not quite as enthusiastic as Kita is, to greet customers.


Tracey (above) is Kita's human


Kita