Thursday, 9/21 Yes, I know, I've been really bad about keeping this updated. It just seems that there's so much going on in the summer/early fall that it's hard to find time. If I have a choice between going out and playing with the dogs or staying in and updating my diary, I'll choose outdoor play every time. We've been going over to Chris's at least once a week, so the dogs can run and play in her huge yard. Since they're only allowed out here one at a time (they have to stay on the cable tie-out since the yard's not fenced), they don't often get the chance to chase/wrestle/play with each other. I'll allow some play inside, but not the really rowdy stuff they both enjoy. They get to do that at Chris's, and there are always Weimies to play with there, too.

So today? tomorrow? is the autumnal equinox, when the day and night are equal. From now until the 22nd of December, the darkness increases. Though I enjoy the fall weather, I do not enjoy the shortening days! It's cold and dreary here today. Seems fitting, somehow.

Pookah and Purrnie were spayed/neutered on Tuesday, and they're both back to 100% normal. Amazing, really, how fast these two have recuperated. I'm not so surprised about Purrnie - the little boys never seem to be much affected by the surgery - but I'm pleasantly surprised at how well Pookah is doing. I gave her a little milk thistle the night before the surgery and another dose when she came home, to help detoxify her liver from the anesthesia. I also gave her one tablet of Arnica when she got home and one before bedtime. Her incision looks really great - if there weren't stitches there, I wouldn't even be able to find it! She is such a sweet little girl! And her brother is a pistol - clingy-cuddly-purry (oh! he is the sweetest little cuddler!), geeky-noisy-rambunctious, and he's the greatest escape artist I've ever seen. When I let the dogs out, I have to put Purrnie in a carrier so he doesn't dash out the door. And when I'm coming in from being outside, I have to crack the door very carefully and have something in my hand to block his exit - when he sees my car pull up he goes and waits at the back door for his opportunity to dash out when I open it. At first he just went a few feet from the door but now he's going over into the pines and exploring. It's hard to get in there to get him. If I go back in the house, shut the door, and pretend to ignore him, he'll be meowing at the back door within 2 minutes, begging to be let back in again. In a way, I'm kinda hoping we have an early snow - I'll let him escape and see if that cold wet stuff doesn't discourage him.

I need to get off my butt and do some housecleaning. I've been keeping up with surface stuff - dishes, wiping up in the bathroom, laundry, etc. - but it's time for a floor scrubbing (down on my hands and knees, as opposed to mopping), carpet shampooing, soap-scum scrubbing, and some furniture rearrangement. Probably ought to straighten up my cupboards, too - it's getting hard to find stuff I know is in there. Gad, I wish I had more closets/cupboards! Gotta do some veggies too, in the next couple of days. I think there's room in the freezer now that half a case of chicken has been used up.

Those "poop tomatoes" in the back yard are getting big! They're about 3-4 inches in diameter now. I wonder if they're going to ripen before it gets too cold. Cracks me up every time I see them.

Wednesday, 9/27 Friday was a bad day. It had been cold and nasty here for two days. I was in a grumpy mood when I woke up. Purrnie decided to take off when I let Penny in from her wake-up tinkle and, when I dashed out after him, Blizzard dashed out too and decided to chase a squirrel in the yard next door. I dragged her back and crated her. It was nice (but cool) for a few hours in the morning, so I went to town doing laundry; had hung out the first load, had pulled the second load from the washer and started a third when the heavens opened and the deluge started again. I now have 3 loads of wet laundry that I don't know *when* I'm going to be able to hang out, and all my jeans are now either dirty or wet. I had to go to the supermarket, and got drenched. Came home and ground veggies - one of my favorite jobs. (That's sarcasm.) Let Blizzard out of the crate and she's full of zip and I can't get her to slow down. I'm still wearing my cold wet clothes and following her around picking up stuff she knocks over.

Then I read about some yahoo who's auctioning a 10-week old 3-legged kitten on Yahoo auctions. I can't even begin to tell you how mad that made me. I left a message for the seller, but Yahoo removed that "item" (due to complaint letters) so I wasn't sure the seller even saw it. I guessed at an e-mail addy and sent an e-mail to the seller offering to buy the kitten. (I heard back from him on Saturday morning - "sounds good, let me know." Despite e-mailing him repeatedly since, I still haven't heard back yet. Grrrrrrrrr.)

By now I'm in a really foul mood. Finally reached a point where I could sit down and watch a little of the Olympics and have a bite to eat, and my damn television died. It's been going for a few weeks now, but couldn't be resurrected this time. Now I'm really pissed. So I crate the dogs, go back out in the rain, and go to Circuit City to get a new TV. (Don't even get me started on the white-haired Floridian who was ahead of me in the parking lot going 2 miles an hour and who parked in the awning-ed customer pick-up parking at the store - to go shopping - taking up two spots which made it necessary for me to stand out in the rain with the hatchback of my car open while the ultra-slow stock guy got my new TV and loaded it.) I'm not quite sure how I managed to get the TV out of the car and carry it into the house without dropping it, but I did. I went back out to close the hatchback and slipped and fell in the mud. My cleanest pair of dirty jeans is now mud covered, I'm cold, wet, shaking with exertion, and ready to take the head off anyone who even looks at me cross-eyed. And I have nothing to wear to the "Dog Walk" on Saturday.

Saturday morning, I put the next cleanest pair of dirty jeans on and took the girls to the park for the dog walk. That was fun. Chris was there doing CGC tests, and Blizzard got to be the "friendly dog" distraction. But it started to rain again while we were there and didn't let up until Sunday morning. Let me tell you, I was really getting sick of wet and mud and dirty dog feet!

Sunday I went to town cleaning. Got the living room clean enough for even my mom. *grin* Even steam cleaned the carpet. My sis came over mid-afternoon; she had to go to a work-related thing here on Monday, so she came to stay overnight. At one point, I opened the door for Penny to come in and Blizzard went dashing out the door again. Only this time she wouldn't come and she wouldn't be caught - with a defiant look on her face she kept running, turning every now and then to see if I was still chasing her. Both my sis and I had to get in our cars to go after her, and Mel caught up with her over at the junkyard. I was so angry that, when I got her home, I "alpha rolled" her, straddled her, got my nose right up against hers and screamed at her. (Don't you ever do that again! Do you hear me?! DO YOU HEAR ME??!!!!") I think I scared the hell out of her because she was very happy to be allowed to "escape" to her crate. When I came back out to the living room, my sis says "That's the problem, she can't hear you!" then laughed at me. I don't care whether Blizz could hear me or not - she could "hear" the expression on my face!

Monday morning I woke up running a fever. I'd been feeling ill for a couple of days but was hoping it was just allergies or a cold that would go away quickly. By Monday morning, though, I was feeling really bad and spent the day sleeping on and off on the sofa. I didn't even feel like getting up to go to bed, so I slept on the couch Monday night. Spent most of the day there yesterday, too. Last night, Blizzard went dashing out the door again. This time she didn't pull the defiant act, but I did have to chase her down a couple of houses and then she pulled her dead-weight-on-the-collar act and by the time I got home I was coughing so hard from exertion I thought I was gonna die. I put Blizzard in her crate then collapsed on the bed and coughed uncontrollably for a good five minutes. I swear she's gonna kill me. The good news is that (until the next time she blasts out the door, anyway) she seems to have "gotten" sit/stay at the open door until given the OK sign. She hasn't so much as twitched a whisker until I told her it was OK to get up and go out all day. We'll see how long that lasts.

I Frontlined the "easy" cats yesterday - I still have 6 sneaky-Petes to catch and treat. Good think I stocked up on canned food today - a little lure never hurts. I also decided to try a brand of scooping litter recommended by a friend in the box I'm currently using Litter Beads in. If it can stand up to multiple-cat use, I may give it a shot in the other boxes too. I'll let you know. It comes in 50-pound bags; I'm still a little shaky from being sick and toting that bag indoors has worn me out. Now I just need to find enough energy to change the box.

There's a big power-play going on at Acmepet. Last week the Dog House got a new monitor who was censoring right and left, deleting posts and banning posters. Then she turned her attention to the "old" NDR board - the one that the dog folks have been hanging out at for over 3 years, one that's not linked from Acmepet's main page. (All the "regulars" already had the link and it was posted regularly so that others could get there, but not having it linked from Acme's main board kept the trolls and bored kids out. It was a "safe" place.) Today, the spiteful bitch deleted the "old" NDR board and the "dieters" board, changed the link from the old NDR board to the regular one, and was snotty with the posters there. They're all wondering who it is. I'm not - it's Wendy. I can't wait for her to turn her attention to the Cat boards. When that happens, I'm gone for good.

Thursday, 9/28 This morning started off well. I woke up very early - the birds were singing but the sun wasn't up yet - and Penny was curled next to me with her head on my shoulder, cheek down, back of her head up against my jaw. When I woke up the second time, it was to Blizzard's head on my chest, nose a couple of inches from mine. It was her breath on my face that woke me. We laid in bed and cuddled, and the black and black-and-white brigade came for cuddles. First Mr. French who headbutted Blizzard a couple of times before headbutting me. Then Mysz. Then Tootsieroll. Then Lambchop. Then Fritz. Blizzard is being sooooooo good with them; she wants very badly to be friends, but she's figured out that when she approaches them exuberantly they run away so she's started "creeping" up on them. Every time she creeps toward Fritz, he objects in that high, squeaky squeal of his and swats her nose. Blizzard's trying so hard to make friends, restraining herself, and it's sweet to watch. After French got pets from me, he consented to being schnortled by Blizzard - OK, I made that word up, but what Blizzard does is a combination of nibbling (just her front teeth, and just the fur), sniffing, and snorting. She does this to Penny all the time, grooming her "feathers". It's her way of expressing affection. Pretty cute. And more cats are beginning to tolerate it - French and Mysz tolerate it most of the time, Loverboy tolerates it some of the time, and the kittens let her do it too. Purrnie often has a rather ruffled appearance - little spiky patches of fur all over his body where Blizzard's been grooming him. Lambchop headbutts Blizz, but won't allow any schnortling yet.

It's funny, but even being deaf Blizzard is one of the most vocally expressive animals I've ever met. Her vocalizations very clearly express whatever emotion she's feeling; pleasure, resignation, excitement, disgruntlement, contentment. She makes sounds identical to those a human would make trying to express those emotions in sound without words. I wonder if she'd be as vocal if she could hear herself?

Then, after all that gentle sweetness, she dashed out the door when I opened it to let Penny in. (Initially, she just wants to play with Penny but then she realizes she's not restrained and she takes off.) It took me half an hour to catch her this time, and she'd gotten as far as 3 blocks away during the chase. When I realized she wasn't going to come and was, indeed, in a defiant mood where she'd run away just because I was following, I came back home and got the car. I followed her all over the neighborhood trying to entice her into the car. Finally I parked it, left the doors open and walked away from it and she just ran up and jumped in. I'm so frustrated with this new, defiant, running away stuff. I don't know what I'm going to do to train her out of this, but I've got to figure out something; quite apart from the fact that it's dangerous for her to be running loose, I'm only a couple of blocks away from the river and if she gets down there she could run for miles and I wouldn't be able to follow her. It's wrong and it's counterproductive but when I got her home I spanked her pretty good. It isn't going to make the situation better - she'll just run farther and faster in the future, trying to avoid punishment. She's in her crate now, and when I finally let her out she's going to be seriously restricted and regimented - no treats, no toys, always on a leash (probably tied to my beltloop most of the time), lots of obedience drills, working for everything she gets. Chris told me to "set her up" - have people standing around the corner of the house where she can't see them and have them throw a bucket of water on her when she rounds the corner of the house - but first I don't have people who can come over on demand to help me train my dog and second there are too many places Blizzard can escape. If she's scared away from one spot, she'll just pick another place to run. I need to figure out a way to give a correction while she's in the process of dashing out the door. Hmmmmmm....... I'll have to put my thinking cap on.

That new litter is a big hit with the cats. A big hit. The kittens and the youngsters who've either never seen scooping litter or saw it last when they were just kittens themselves have been having a blast playing in the box. I scooped just before I went to bed last night, and when I scooped first thing this morning I nearly filled a gallon-sized ziploc with clumps. I'll let the experiment with this box run for a week or so and, if it's still as popular as it has been the last 24 hours, I'll set the other boxes up with this stuff too. I'll have to find a plastic bucket with an air-tight lid to put the clumps into when I scoop and then later dump it into a plastic trash bag. I'm going to run out of plastic shopping bags and ziplocs pretty quick if I switch all the boxes over to scooping litter.

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