A single St. Bernard named Beethoven was able to wreak enough havoc for six feature-length movies. Scott and Melody Lorraine have twice the fun.

At two-years-old, brother and sister Marley and Ava weigh 136 and 116 pounds, respectively, and are tall enough to both rest their chins on the kitchen table. A basket of towels for wiping up slobber greeted guests during the holidays. The Lorraines have replaced the knobs - apparently a canine delicacy - controlling the heat and radio in their cargo van at least three times, most recently after enduring a heater locked on full blast while returning from Maine this summer. And with both dogs sprawled on the living room floor, there’s not a lot of space.

“People see the dogs and assume that we must have a large house,” said Scott. “We don’t, we just trip a lot.”

In fact, Ava and Marley aren’t the only animals taking up space in the Lorraines’ home, a former 20x20-foot summer cottage overlooking the Wankinko River. Two rabbit hutches and a coop with a Muscovy duck stand sentry in the Lorraines’ yard. The front door swings clear, but just barely, of cages with two budgerigar parakeets and an eclectus parrot.  Three or four Siamese cats will snuggle into any object left on the couch, and don’t step on the white duck when you enter the barn - his squawking may start the whole pack/herd/flock going.

“It’s a nonprofit farm - emphasis on nonprofit,” said Melody‘s mother Linda, who lives in an apartment above the barn and is the primary animal-sitter. “Anything I can do to help!” she said, arriving home with 12 cakes of suet for the bird feeders, a bag of timothy hay for the rabbits, a 40-pound bag of wild bird seed, and 24 loaves of discount bread for the ducks.

“We bred the cats once,” Melody said. “But as you might have noticed, we’re not too good at getting rid of animals.”

But they’re good at surprising each other with a new addition to their “menagerie.” And after Melody’s latest purchase required that Scott construct a new stall in the barn where he restores wooden boats and does other carpentry projects, her husband had to up the ante.

“I told her ‘I have to tell you something,’” Scott recounts. “‘I got us a St. Bernard...and his little sister.’”

And while the Lorraines feared that two St. Bernards would require constant supervision and dedication, Ava and Marley have actually expanded their social circle... although the shedding requires vacuuming twice a day.

“We’re not really people people,” said Melody,  “but the dogs require a lot of exercise.  And when we’re out, everybody stops us to ask about the dogs.”

Watch Ava make a snow angel!