pets Archives | Page 1 of 3
| 1 2 3 | next ten entries
Monday, February 04, 2008
four things
Thing one:
Crate training proceeds apace. I can see a tiny light of sanity at the end of the tunnel. (This dog, T points out, has cost us more than a vacation to the beach would have. More than we spent on our first child in his first, oh, three or four years of life. More than I could have reasonably spent in an absolutely dizzying expedition to a bookstore. Or, to get all practical and also to tie in a reference to my other current obsession, possibly more than it would cost to have our driveway graded. She had better plan on saving someone's life, Lassie-fashion, at some point.)
She has just emerged with a very guilty expression from my bedroom. I had better not find any dog-logs in there, missy.
Thing two:
C is sick. She is puky, and flushed but so far not feverish. Poor princess. Here's hoping it's a 12-hour bug. (And also that I don't get it, because tomorrow is a Very Important Night in history class, and also who would take the dog out to poop?)
Thing three:
looklooklooklooklooklooklook:
Not even a single solitary chance of rain. BLISS. I am no longer a person who loves winter. I cannot wait for spring. Heck, I cannot wait until I'm taking the dog for a walk at 8:30 in the evening in a tank top and capris, instead of freezing my toes off in my jammies, jacket, and canvas shoes taking her out for her morning potty. (seriously, we will need some more moisture before the annual drought sets in or we'll all catch on fire around Labor Day. But a break is going to be very very nice.)
Thing four:
HEE.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
test post
Back in the early days of my Internet experience, my primary focus was on e-mail lists. This was, believe it or not, before there was any such thing as Yahoo Groups. I was on several lists covering different topics, and frequently a person would want to bounce a post off the majordomo software to make sure that they were still subscribed, so there would be a post that came through to EVERYONE ON THE LIST that just said "test post. seeing if I'm still subscribed." I always thought, geesh, people, what is up with pestering us all with that? Could you not come up with any content? Even just a little?
Like, say, this scintillating content. Test post! Just seeing if my feed-reader is on crack or not.
OK, ok, ok, content. Um. We are now hopelessly addicted to jibjab.com! There's more snow coming tonight and tomorrow, which makes me want to scream! I desperately need to go to the valley to buy groceries and would like to take the whole family but can't! Because last night while we were gone for twenty minutes Scout completely wrecked some of the curtains I had slaved over so patiently not three weeks ago! So today I am buying a crate! Because everyone recommends using a crate for her if we are gone for short times! Because it's better than an outside run in this nasty snowy weather! And she will dig right out of our nicely fenced yard, it turns out! And because we are not generally gone for all day at a time!
Seriously, the crate will address the symptoms of the separation anxiety that has caused Scout to, in the short space of a week and about four brief absences, do the following:
- unplug and then chew -- I presume in that order -- the cord of the lamp by our door
- tear up the aforementioned curtains
- pee on the couch, because she stands on it to watch us leave and presumably whine and fall to pieces as we drive out of sight. Yay for super excellent odor-removing stain-removing upholstery cleaners.
- poop on the couch (ditto.)
- poop on the floor.
- get up onto the counter
- twice. Once she knocked over a full go-cup of cold coffee, and the other time she
- drank some (very little) cooking oil that was sitting there cold in a pan and then puked on the floor
- twice, and only once was on the easy-clean laminate flooring.
... but I have no clue what to do for the problem itself. Anyone? Anyone? I'm beginning to get a glimpse of an idea as to why Scout may have been abandoned. Not that I even think of doing that, but it might not have been just that someone was moving into an apartment where they couldn't have a dog, which had been my previous assumption, because this is one very nice friendly dog with, as far as I can tell, no faults. Except that apparently she requires absolutely constant human companionship (we tried a little experiment yesterday with Roman and it was a dismal failure, so T is spared any further pestering for a second dog) or she goes completely bananas. Poor thing. Poor us.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
I guess this mostly ended up being about Scout. Again.
Yuck. I had to get that whiny post out of the top spot. Dichroic was right: I needed to go to bed. Anytime I start to feel that way again for the rest of my life I am going to remember that sage advice. Everything looks better in the morning.
(Even if the poor dog DOES get so anxious when we leave that she just HAS to poop inside. Hey, at least she holds the pee! We take her for SO MANY walks, trying to get her to do her dirty business outside, but it just seems like her body clock schedules that second poop of the day right during any meetings we ever have in the evening. I am studying up on how to housetrain an adolescent dog. I'll let you know how it goes.)
OK, that's the only scatological reference in this entire post; no need to leave.
Speaking of the dog, she went to the vet on Monday as aforementioned. She is approximately eight months old, is not spayed yet (but she will be), and is most likely a Queensland/terrier mix. I really thought there was pinscher in that face, but the more I looked at her, the more I remembered a dog my grandpa had when I was a girl -- Jenn and Debi, do you remember Patches? This was Patches' dad -- who was a Queensland and who had exactly the same coloring. He was just larger and stockier, with a slightly shorter face, which of course is where the terrier comes in, in Scout's case. The vet says she doesn't think Scout is even a bit of pinscher. Which honestly eases my mind a little, what with Scout sleeping practically on my daughter's face most nights. I know, I know, it's more nurture than nature, but still.
Also, I really REALLY think she wants a small doggy companion, but T says NO. Quite emphatically. So I guess she'll have to *snif* be lonely *snuffle* for the rest of her natural life. *sniffle*.
Yes, as a matter of fact, T does read my blog! Hi, T! Love you! Smooch!
The parallels between having a dog and having a baby are many, really, when you think about it.
OK, on to something else. Enough about the dog. The weather! Is still lame. Even my children are sick of snow, and that's all that needs to be said about that. We actually had a nice sunny day yesterday, which was good, except that it was also so cold that you couldn't go for a walk without a balaclava and fur-lined gloves. (OK, or maybe it was a knitted hat and mittens. But a scarf would definitely have helped.)
In other news, I have no clue what to make for supper tonight, and said supper has to be made in an hour and fifteen minutes. No. Clue. Yay for the tax return because I think we're going to the little neighborhood store for fried chicken. I am definitely not tracking today's food for my nutrition instructor.
Speaking of scarves (well, I was, up there), I am knitting one. I think I mentioned that before. I pulled out the foot or so that I had done and started over because I wanted to do the edges differently. Then I figured, what the heck, and pulled out the front pieces of the cardigan I am making for C to start them over with different edges too. Here's hoping that the new edges work out; otherwise I'll be making these projects for my grandchildren.
And that is all. I cannot bring myself to bore you all any further this afternoon, although you know I could if I wanted to.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Meet Scout
(as in Jean Louise. In other words, she's a girl.)
Another dream realized: We knew that when we finally lived outside of town, we wanted to find a smallish (so she can travel with us if desired), friendly, short-haired dog who would be happy both indoors and outdoors. So today, thanks to Craigslist and a nice woman named Carly who lives in a sad kind of Dog-Dumping Hot Zone outside of Fresno, we did.
The vet is closed today (it's her horse-riding day, how cool is that?), but tomorrow we're calling to make The Appointment. We don't know if she's been altered or not, and we know she'll need shots, and I have this vague consciousness that dogs require more expenditures than cats, for things like heartworm pills and licenses and who knows what all else.
We also don't know what her genetic makeup is. Any guesses as to the breeds that give her that sweet face? Here are some body pictures, too. She's about sixteen inches tall at the shoulder, although she genuinely DID NOT LIKE it when I brought that stick over to measure her. I'm thinking someone was not very nice to her with a stick at some point in the past. Poor girl. Her tail is longish -- it was between her legs here because this was not long after Smokey had attempted to assert his dominance over this New Big Thing that had come into his house. Poor girl again.
Please submit any and all guesses, because we are truly curious. I'll withhold my own completely uneducated guesses until after I've seen yours.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
can we keep him, Mom? can we?
Yesterday the kids looked outside and saw a stray cat (or rather a half-grown kitten) on the porch. They went outside thinking they'd try to pet him, and to their surprise he actually let them. Enthusiastically. They noticed that he was attempting to eat little black fragments of -- well, of whatever it is that comes off the barbecue grill when you clean it -- from the porch, so they brought him a bowl of food, which he scarfed, and a bowl of milk, which he did likewise. He came in the house without blinking an eye, and they presented him to me.
OK, I must be completely honest with you, my vast blogging public. That last sentence? Happened in the opposite order. Ahem.
Anyway. He was starving, matted with stickers, hosting a couple of ticks, and uncannily like our cat Henry, who died a little over a year ago. We cleaned him up, treated him for fleas, and put a collar on him. Meet Darcy:
(ordinarily I do not attempt studio-style photos of pets, but I had constructed a light tent for some ebay photography -- see the photo blog -- so while I had it already set up I stuck him in there. He didn't much want to sit still; I was lucky that he sat down to wash himself and I could snap a shot as he lifted his head.)
Anyway. At least I call him Darcy, because he fights with Elizabeth. C calls him Smoky, and LT calls him Oscar, because (having apparently been on his own and scrounging for quite some time) he has a strong feline passion for the garbage, which he is constantly trying to overturn in hopes of a snack, even though he might already have eaten a small plate of leftover spaghetti sauce, a huge portion of cat food, and probably a cup or so of milk. During the night he succeeded in his quest, and T thought the position of the FOUND flyer to be humorous enough to risk using THE NIKON while I was sleeping to take a picture of it:
(note the blurring to protect me from crazed Internet stalkers. I'm not just going to hand it to you guys.)
I did put several of those up around town but we secretly hope that nobody calls. If we haven't heard from anyone by the end of the weekend, I'll call the vet on Monday and see about getting Darcy/Smoky/Oscar his shots and his testicles removed and all that sort of fun feline stuff. And then I guess maybe we'll have to all actually agree on a name. :)
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Almost-Wordless Wednesday: Roman
(Roman is the name of Dad's new dog [see previous post]. Because he was roamin'. Get it? Maybe you had to be there.)
Saturday, January 07, 2006
Elizabeth again
Nothing special about this picture except that it was taken with a Nikon D70s. With my Nikon D70s. THE NIKON, as opposed to The Nikon, which is of course still an awesome little camera. (lest you think I'm joking with the capitalization, pay attention; those are their actual nicknames and there will be a test later).
This is, of course, the obligatory I-just-got-my-camera-set-up-now-what-can-I-photograph photo. I had all these grandiose ideas for what I'd point it at when I clicked the shutter for that momentous first time, but the UPS driver inadvertently shattered all my plans by arriving after dark. And then we had to drive to the valley (very, very foggy oh my gosh how I hate driving in thick fog). And the gorgeous half-moon was behind clouds when I got home and refused to poke out. So you get Elizabeth, because the kids wouldn't appreciate the flash in their faces. (tripod and 1600 speed, though, I don't think they could mind -- right? stay tuned...)
Friday, December 09, 2005
Elizabeth
... joined us today.
She's six months old and very affectionate. She and Mary (all we need are three more girl cats and we'd have all the Bennet sisters represented) are not exactly best friends yet, but there haven't been any hisses or growls either.
I had expected to have to do a bit of convincing to get T to go along with a new kitty. Turns out he had been wanting to get one for a few months. But I didn't tell you that, OK? We wouldn't want to ruin his tough-guy image. OF COURSE he wouldn't have already fitted out Broadway tunes with new lyrics that include Elizabeth's name. Only someone really soft-hearted and a little zany would do that.
Sunday, September 18, 2005
the sad and the funny all tangled up together
Tonight while I was on my way across our neighbor's field in order to get to a good spot to try and get a few decent moonrise pictures (and also to get enough stinky stickers on my person and clothing to start a tarweed colony on Mars), I nearly stumbled over what was left of the body of our cat Henry. I barely looked at him long enough to register that indeed it was what was left of Henry, and walked on, but I called T to let him know not to bring the kids over to hang out with me, like we'd thought he might, because we didn't want them to see. We decided that after he came out and moved the body off the path, he should go ahead and tell the kids, though, so they (like we) could stop wondering and finally know what had happened to our little buddy.
C's response was utterly typical of her: fifteen minutes of loud sobbing followed by several hours of intermittent sniffling. LT's was more stoic. He wondered if we should have a funeral -- "and what do people do at funerals, anyway? Is there cake and ice cream?"
Monday, August 29, 2005
the start of school (and Henry)
We start school this morning. We were going to start after Labor Day, but of all things, the kids bugged me to start earlier. Today was the soonest I could really feel ready. Here's hoping that this level of enthusiasm lasts, eh? If I were going to set up a betting pool about it, I'd put $5 on... Thursday. Thursday is when the enthusiasm will wane and the griping begin. But hey, I am darn sure going to enjoy this while it lasts. Here's what our day looks like (schooldays get longer and longer as they get older):
- Prayer and Flag Salute (the latter is largely a concession to T, who is a school-at-home homeschooler if ever I saw one, but honestly I'm that way in the beginning of the school year too)
- Read two chapters of Exodus, taking turns (this will happen every day until we finish the book, and is preparation for the 40-week-long study of Exodus on which we're about to embark in our chapter summary study)
- copy work (printing/cursive practice. The text they're copying today is Philippians 2:14 -- "Do everything without complaining or arguing." This has been our first-day-of-school verse for three years now. After Awana starts on Thursday, they'll each have one of their Awana verses to copy each day.)
- History (discuss early California)
- Geography games on the computer
- ---------BREAK-----------
- Math
- Science -- collages of animal groups cut from magazines (mammals, insects, birds, fish, etc), with discussions of characteristics
- Read Chapter 1 of The Indian in the Cupboard; discuss, and look up vocabulary words
- Crazy Libs (parts of speech)
- ---------LUNCH------------
- 1/2 hour free reading
- P.E. -- play catch, then ride bikes. (ordinarily we haven't done PE in the past, figuring that outside play was enough. However, our kids are a little behind on things like throwing and catching, etc., and so we decided that a little structured practice on large motor skills each day would probably be a good thing.)
So that's our day. By spring it'll look more like:
Read a lot. Do a page or two of math. Talk about whatever. Maybe do a little writing.
I've come to realize that this is OK. Our kids are at or above grade level in everything (except the aforementioned PE), so something about this entropic system must be working OK.
P.S. Our cat Henry disappeared over the weekend. In the grand scheme of things, especially this weekend (plenty happening on both a grand and a small scale), that's a small thing, but we're sad about it. He was the friendliest cat I've ever met. We've decided that we'll keep Mary but we won't get any more cats while we live here -- apparently (since this is the second of our pets to disappear this year) we live in a bad spot for them. Ironically, we had just started letting our now-flea-free cats be mostly indoors again when Henry went out at 2 AM and never came back.
pets Archives | Page 1 of 3
| 1 2 3 | next ten entries
