Catch Up

It has been a very busy week. Lady went away for work. It is the end of the month so she had a lot of business stuff to do (she has to do her books so she gets paid), she had to see clients and most excitingly Emma has arrived!

Emma came Saturday afternoon. The Lady decided to pick her up then so that the Man would be around to help with the adjustment. So far everything has been good. The cats didn't even hiss at her.

There are several big challenges to having Emma. She is not really house trained. She goes where she wants, when she wants. She is use to having access to her food all the time. Our Lady hopes we can overcome some of these challenges. We aren't sure how long she is with us. It is for at least a week, but could be until Mid May. The military may be sending Uncle Chris somewhere. So we will see.

Our Lady says she will do her best to keep you abreast of our adventures but she is gonna be a single mom with 3 dogs (aged 1, 2, 3) and 2 old cats. It may be challenging.


In other news:

We are thrilled to announce we won Susie and Sidebite's guess our weight contest. We were off by 1/2 pound.

We are late in accepting this but thrilled that Kirby awarded us the Liebster Award.

We have been fighting over who should accept and our Lady decided Phod could write 11 things about himself:

1) I love to play fetch. I can play for hours. I will even bring a ball if you are in the bath. 
2) I will groan if I want attention and am not getting it.
3) I love to run to the end of the driveway and pee on the tree there.
4) Rope toys are the only ones that will survive around me. And eventually I will take them apart, but they last weeks and not hours. 
5) I like to drag Lee by her neck and collar
6) I may run ahead but I don't really run away
7) It took me a bit to understand training and why we are doing it but now I get it and like cookies.
8) I have a little scar on my nose
9) I don't watch TV so when Lee barks at it, I think someone has broken in.
10) I eat really slowly
11) I just want people to love me. 


Our Lady will answer the questions on our behalf:

1. How old is your dog/dogs/cat/bunny?

Baggy wil be 18 this month, Nin will be 18 in July, Lee is 3 and Phod is about 2

2. What is your favorite thing to do with them?

Walk and snuggle

3. Do you think of your pet as your child/or another member of the family?

They are pack members and not kids (but I am not convinced children wouldn't have been cheaper!)

4. If you were wanting a breed of dog in the future what would it be and why?

 I don't know about breeds, I never thought I would own a German Shepherd and now I am in love with him. I think it is more about the individual dog then the breed.

5. Are you more artistic or mathematical minded?

Neither really. I do like order and do have decent analytical skills, so probably more math.

6. What is your biggest pet peeve about dog owners/cat owners bunny owners?

When they don't try and train them. I know it isn't easy (oh do I know) but people who don't put the time in to try, drive me crazy!

7. If you could either win a free trip with a loved one to anywhere in the world , or stay in your state but get to bring you and your pet to a deluxe pet vaca which would you choose?

Hmmmm, is it a good or bad day here? Somedays I want a vacation from them and others I want them to be with me every day!

8. Is your dog a barker? Is your cat a loud meower? Is your bunny load in their cage a lot?

Hailey is a barker if she thinks we are being invaded. Phod joins in. Baggy complains to get on the counter or to be fed and has the loudest purr. Nin yodels. 

9. What is your favorite movie right now?

Now and always, the Muppet Movie

10. What is a dog/cat/rabbit treat/toy you would recommend?

We LOVE greenies in our house and kongs. 

11. Does your dog/cat/rabbit sleep in bed with you?

Lee does. Phod may come up for snuggles when we first go to bed or in the morning, but he sleeps on the floor. 

Thanks Kirby! 

Our Alarm System

First: Thank you all for your kind words yesterday. You will see that Aunt C posted a comment yesterday to thank you all.

Second: As always, we are hopelessly behind. It doesn't help that we didn't have power for 9 hours on Thursday and Lady had to travel for work and other crazy things happened. We hope to catch up more tomorrow (and will write a catch up post then). Today we are busy helping the Man get ready to go away for a week. We may have time today, but we will see how it goes.

Now for today's blog:

There is no picture to this video. It is just the Lady's phone sitting on the island in the kitchen while the dogs are on the other side of the house.

Lady's guess as to what caused this sound:  the wild turkeys walked by. We don't need an alarm when we have these 2!

Feline Friday - Please send your love - by Lee

Hi Blogville,

We are asking everyone to send their love to our Aunt C today. She is having to make that horrible pet owner decision to say goodbye to our beloved cousin Lemew. Our Lady is very sad because she is out of town for work and can't be there. She has done this before and knows that this is a selfless act - to actively relieve another beings suffering but by doing so to really bring on your own pain and suffering. My Lady says it sucks when the hardest thing and the right thing are the same.

We haven't talked much about Lemew (because we don't get to see him much because he doesn't like dogs), so we thought we would write about him today to honour his memory.

Lee: I want to know why it is cute when the
cat begs at the table, but bad when I do. 

Lemew's birthday is celebrated on October 31st. He turned 17 last year. 17 years ago he was found as an abandoned kitten, way too young to be away from his mom, in the apartment building the Lady, Man and Aunt C were living in. He came to live with them. Over the years has lived with my people and Baggy and Nin several times.  He has never lived with me and cause he is old and doesn't love dogs, and  he never got to meet Phod. He wouldn't have liked him.

He was named after the hockey great Mario Lemieux. It is fair to say that when she was younger Aunt C had a little obsession with Mario . . . [She owned a life sized cut out of him]. So while Aunt C changed the spelling of his name to be funny that is how he got his name.

Some other random facts about Lemew.
-He was so little when he first was rescued that he would suck on Cinder's nipple (Cinder is a boy and he tolerated this).
- He was always very shy and didn't really like dogs so I never got to play with him.
- He didn't always like people and would often hid. Aunt C knew her now fiance was a keeper because he got the Lemew stamp of approval.
- It is rumoured he was a very stinky cat.
-Once he ate a rubber hose and it had to surgically removed from his intestines.
-He also very much ruled the roost in the house. He would give humans a funny look if they happened to sit in his spot.

7 years ago he was diagnosed with a thyroid problem and my Lady can never remember if it was hyper or hypo (you would think after 7 years she would have caught on, but she is slow sometimes). Anyways he was very sick and the vet really only gave him a couple years at best. He went on meds for this and it was controlled by meds. He then developed diabetes. Aunt C didn't want to live a life around needles, so she changed his diet and that controlled it. These things did help, but eventually age caught up with him.

We are very sad that Lemew has used up his 9 lives, but we feel lucky he spread them out over 17 years.

Lemew:
You were a good cat, even if you wouldn't play with me right. I still loved you. I loved to stick my head under the chair you were hiding under and get smacked in the face by you.
My Lady says she hopes you find your Smooshie (that was his sister cat who is already at the bridge) and the two of you sit on your pillows being waited on in the royal manner you both demanded.

Aunt C:
Hugs and if you really miss having a cat, we are happy to lend you our Nin. He is being very annoying these days.

Thankful Thursday - My New Toy - By Zaphod

Even though Hailey and I caused a lot of trouble last week, with running away and destroying things from the counter, my Lady still loved me enough to get me a new toy. It was a squeaky throw toy by kong. Look how happy I was to have it! 

While I like playing fetch, I also like to try and take toys apart. 

Here I am working really hard on it. 

Here is Lee jealous that I have the toy and she does not. She says it is her blog so she should make an appearance. 

Look how regal I look with it. 

Here it is one hour later.  The toy lasted . . . .

About 5 hours before we had it all pulled about and destroyed. We still have the rope which I love.

Wordless Wednesday - Paws

Dealing with all this mischief

As yesterday's post indicated, last week was NOT a good week for me and the pups. Besides the running away incident, someone peed on the guest bed, Hailey peed on the floor out of spite while Phod was at the vet, and 2 times they got stuff from the counter and destroyed it.  We got to practice patience a lot. I really need to start to get this under control now as starting Sunday, this is a 3 dog house . . . . .

The plan:

1) Increase exercise. We haven't been walking as much because it is winter. Now that it is getting warmer, it is time to get more exercise in. We are going to double our walk time.

2) Increase mental exercise. While we are doing some training, we could be doing more. I am going to make a chart [I love a chart] and work in at least 3 training sessions per day. 

3) New toys: I am going to look for new things that will keep their minds busy. 

4) I am going to remember to breathe.

This is by our front door . . . .

Mischief Monday - Practicing Patience by the Lady

Patience is not something, I the Lady, have a lot of. I would like to say I did, but this is something I am working on. Hailey gives me lots of practice with this.

Let's talk about last Monday, Family Day.  First, while I was doing laundry, she snuck into the laundry room and had a snack from the cat litter box . . . it is my fault for not closing the door, but still.

As I was working at home (when you work for yourself no work = no money, so sometimes you work on holidays too), we went for our walk in the afternoon. This had the main advantage of it had warmed up a little and the frostbite warning was gone. It wasn't our best walk as there were fresh deer and turkey prints, but it wasn't our worst.

As we were coming around the last bend, my boot came untied. I tried to walk with it untied but decided I needed it tied. So I stopped, put the leashes under my other foot and leaned down to do up my boot.

It was at this moment that Hailey thought she saw something in the field about 500 meters away, and after screaming (her screaming not me) she took off. Phod went after her. After finishing tying my boot and saying every swear word I could think of, I headed off after them. I hoped that Hailey would be going after squirrels again. I tried to remain calm and sound so happy as I called "Hailey, Zaphod, Come here."  Under my breath I would say what I truly felt  before calling them again. As I was walking as quickly as I could, I watched them go through the horse pasture and back out and then to my horror, up the main road (which isn't that busy of a road) and out of sight.

Awww, the sun

At this point I start to run as well as I could through knee deep snow in the bush up the mountain. I hit the road and they were no where to be seen. I spot their footprints in the side of the road and start to follow them while calling as nicely as I can. Almost right away, Mr. Zaphod came racing out of a driveway toward me. This was a relief because I not only had him, I now know where Lee was. I walk quickly toward the driveway. Once I get past the huge banks of snow, I saw Lee standing in the driveway. There was another dog on a tie out there. I approached slowly and calmly for both Lee and this other dog. The other dog appeared friendly and didn't even bark. Hailey played deaf and continues sniffing around and heads up a snowbank beside this dog. Finally I was able to grab her leash.

It was a very long walk home. I could feel my adrenaline pumping and I was mad. I looked at her and said "You just won your award, I want to kill you."  I know that is not a good thing to say, but that is how I felt.

For once the dogs both realized I was very angry (perhaps the smoke from my head was an indicator). The completely avoided me for the next hour and I raged while I cleaned the house. While I was cleaning and swearing under my breath, regretting my life choses that lead me to be a dog owner, I started to think, be patient. Look at this like a problem at work.

Tune back tomorrow for some ideas I have to help . . . .