Chicks dig Sharky. The tiny cotton puffs perch on his back, peck at his snout, and use him as a raft in the pool. They're also strangely fond of a Siamese-snowshoe cat called Max, who noses them into line. And Max and Sharky, well, since the cat put the dog in his place with a paw-slap or two, they've gotten along better than fine.

To Helen Jürlau, an Estonian who moved to Texas, it's a crazy circus of personalities—just the way she likes it.

She grew upon a farm raising pigs and cows, gathering eggs still warm from the hen. So when she moved to the States with her American husband, Helen was soon bringing animals back to the house, starting with a potbellied pig.

"It made me feel at home," she says. And as the zoo grew, the relationships among the animals took wonderful turns.

Sharky dove into fatherhood before he was a year old and was like an excited big brother to his pups. "He couldn't wait to see them, even more than the female," says Helen. "If I'd ask, 'Where are your babies?' his eyes would sparkle and he'd run off to look for them. He's just in heaven when he's surrounded by all his babies.

" Those babies came to include Siamese cat Max and the batches of chicks that Helen gets each spring.


The clearest bond is the one ever growing between dog and cat. "They make me laugh so much," says Helen. "Sometimes Sharky and Max sit in exactly the same position, one paw stretched out straight and the other crunched inward, like they're mocking each other." And other times, she says, they sprawl out back to back by the pool, two friends just looking at the sky.