First things first.

This is us...and a bowl of oatmeal on one of our travel adventures in Maine.  

We met in Moscow, Idaho in 2004. I was working for the University of Idaho and Cass was finishing up some prerequisites for grad school.  We were both looking to meet new people and decided to give the world of internet dating a try.  That's right, we're a match(.com) made in heaven. When Cass left Idaho for PA school in Billings, Montana the following year, Baxter (one of the illustrious hell hounds pictured below) and I refused to be left behind.  Alas, Billings was not for us in the long run. A mid-winter tour of the Northwest brought us through Montana's capital city of Helena.  We liked the community, the recreational opportunities and the job prospects.  We decided to move to Helena if we could both find gainful employment. Finding a job for myself turned out to simpler than expected.  I quickly settled into a GIS (mapping) position with Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.  Cass joined me in Helena after her didactic year at PA school and spent the next year doing clinicals in Helena, around Montana and in Colorado.  Once school was finished, she landed herself a job at the local hospital in the Emergency Room and Urgent Care.  

Cass and the hell hounds, Stewie and Baxter.  If you're not familiar with this term, 

let me enlighten you, courtesy of mythicalcreaturesguide.com: 

"Hell hounds typically have features such as black fur color, glowing red eyes, 

super strength and/or speed, ghostly or phantom characteristics, and sometimes 

even the ability to talk....Hell hounds appear out of nowhere suddenly 

and have been known to vanish in the blink of an eye." 

Ok, so that's Stewie. 

Baxter, not so much. He embodies more of MGM's Droopy character. 

Mountain Kitties, Grayson and Tiger.