So Churro got out today. We're not sure when or how, but when I went out into the back yard to take the laundry off the line, I saw Stripes, the stray who hangs out in the back yard, come trotting up for pets, which I dispensed... and then a big cream-colored cat snuck around the corner of the house, and holy shit that's Churro. Churro started ( Read more... )

For the last week we've been in Florida, visiting Kathy's mom. She's 86 now, and starting to slow down a little -- she was a heavy smoker for many years; she quit thirty years ago, but her lungs are starting to give her trouble and she runs out of breath easily. She had surgery on one shoulder recently, and is going into physical therapy this ( Read more... )

Long-time readers of this journal may remember that in years gone by we have had various contretemps with neighborhood dogs. There was Maverick, the fear-aggressive German Shepherd next door, who was unfortunately afraid of everything and everyone except his owners. As long as he lived, never saw Kathy, me, or any of our dogs as anything but ( Read more... )

That feeling when the love of your life buys you half a dozen delicious handcrafted chocolate birthday cupcakes at the local craft bakery, and you squee in delight, put them safely out of reach, and then go out to run errands, and come back to find that despite being safely out of reach your IDIOT DOG has somehow reached them anyway and eaten ALL ( Read more... )

After a round of poking and prodding, which Bo endured with somewhat less than Spartan stoicism, the vet concurs with the sprained toe theory. Bo can put weight on the foot if he has to, he just doesn't like it. The vet gave Bo a shot and some pain pills to give him for the next few days, and advised me to curtail any strenuous physical activity ( Read more... )

It never fails -- Kathy leaves to visit her mother for a week, and something bad happens to one of the animals while I'm the only one here to deal with it. I leave the house, Bo is fine. I come back half an hour later and he's limping around unable to put any weight at all on his right front foot. And of course it's seven o fucking clock at ( Read more... )

We finally went to see The Force Awakens yesterday (I liked it a lot.) When we got back from the theater, Bo was so FRANTIC WITH JOY that we had not abandoned him to die in the wilderness that he raced madly into the living room and slammed straight into the corner of an end table, which set off several minutes of highly alarming dog screaming ( Read more... )

This is the time of year when baby birds get pushed out of the nest a lot. From a dog's point of view, this means the park has become an AWESOME DEAD BIRD BUFFET. If it's a dead adult bird, I can usually spot it and keep him away from it, but the babies can be hidden in the grass and half the time I don't realize what's happening until I see bird ( Read more... )

This is what I have to put up with:


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Dear Cairo ( Read more... )