Stages of Cages

As I am sitting here before getting ready for church I was watching our dogs chill out. Then I started looking at the crates & cages we have and began to reminisce about all the various forms of containment we have gone through (and the dogs have gone through) to get them to where they are today.
We started out with Cody in a simple 24x36 Lifestages by Mid-West. I know that they are one of the more popular brands, but we have found them very reliable. And of course, we watched Cody grow fairly rapidly so we upgraded to a larger crate - 30x48.
Then as Sandra began to work more and more in Kissimmee with her sister we were feeling bad that Cody was stuck in a smallish crate with not much room to do more than tightly turn to lay in a different position. So we started looking. And of course we ended up in Petsmart where we found a 4x4x6 kennel that is really made for outside. It even came with a tarp to go over the kennel for shade. Well, our dogs are all inside dogs so we kept the kennel inside (without the tarp).
By getting this for Cody we were able to give him more space to "roam" while we were out if we did not let him loose in the house. We were having issues at one point since he tore into the house. But, I think he is out of that phase now and he roams more while we are gone.
Well, then we got Sheba. She got the old 24x36. Then as she grew rapidly she got the 30x48. Then, we got the puppies who go the 30x48 and Sheba got her own kennel.
Soon, the puppies outgrew their shared living quarters and we had to put them in their separate crates. But early on we discovered that Sasha had severe hip displasia. She needed more room to move after her surgery. So we swapped out Sheba and Sasha.
Then we decided that everyone needed a kennel of their own. While we were brainstorming we had a epiphany. It is sometimes scary, but most of the time I just smile. One of us will say something and the other will just pipe in, "I was just thinking that same exact thing!" A 4x4 was ok for each of them, but what if we combined two 4x4 and then combined another two 4x4 and then connected them together?! Actually making it happen was not a problem, the only issue was how to lay them out in the house. We don't have that big of a house and we don't want the dogs outside. So, we took about 45 minutes to hypothesize the configuration and placement.
Well, we finally settled on what we currently have.
Then once that got settled, we were given Tilly, the pit. Well, she got a nice deal in that she had 3 crates to choose from. So she got a big crate and a life of luxury.
I know, you are probably thinking that we are somewhat crazy for all the things we do for our dogs. But you must know that they are our babies. We are currently looking to adopt a baby (human). Can you imagine how they are going to be treated? If we do this for our dogs, you can only guess how "pimped out" the babies place will be. It will be awesome!! =)
If you watch the slide shows on the right side you will see some of the different living room formats we have gone through to get to what we have today.