We Are SO Excited

Welcome (almost) Home!

We are all so happy about your homecoming. I tried to document it:

First I spoke with the guys and I maybe should have given them a hint.

But Groundy gets it

We hope you have safe and easy travels and will all be inside waiting for you!

Love
A, G, P & B

*Disclaimer: do not read into my being in the kitchen for during those interviews.

On Winn Dixie

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh Because of Winn Dixie.

I don't think I was adequately emotionally prepared for BOWD.

I knew it was about a dog. But still. When I saw that face.

I was really mad at Jeff Daniels for being so uncool about everything. Tell her something about her mom, Jeff. Don't call the pound, Jeff. Stop trying to make church funny, Jeff. None of it was working.
....But he won me over when he explained WD's reaction to the thunder storm as a "pathological fear." I should have seen that as foreshadowing, btw.

The character named Amanda also bummed me out, but she turned out okay.

In fact, everyone turned out okay!

LOVED the librarian and her sadness candy.

(Though I question her choice of Gone with the Wind for Gloria.)

LOVED the party

 LOVED the pet store with geese, goats and a tiny pig!

I did NOT love it when WD ran away during the party. Okay. I know he was only gone for a few hours--but still. Also, did not love Gloria's immediate reaction of "don't be rude to your party guests" "let it go" attitude. What the heck, Gloria???

Overall, it was a real tear jerker and there may have been moments of hugging Groundhog while crying. Hogs was also moved--I'm pretty sure.

Finally, this movie contained one of my favorite dialogues of all time. Because I too have been to parties without pickles and they were the worst.

---------------------------
Now back to real life. Grammy is in the the garden and Tammy is coming in a few hours.

G at the Pump Room

This morning, I finally took Groundy with me to see the girls. I should note right away that there are no photos of this event. This is not because I didn't take any, rather that half of them are a frantic blur and the other are of my bed--under which Smidge was hiding.

G was beyond beyond excited about this adventure and true to form, she knew exactly where we were going when we rounded the corner on my block. She practically dragged me to the door of my apartment (which is extra funny considering I'd always assumed she was excited to see me there and I was clearly already with her--maybe she's been excited to see Lu?).

When I unlocked the door, S looked at me as though I'd arrived with 10 running vacuums. G's tail was wagging wildly and S bolted. The conversation was probably something like this:

Groundhog: HELLO NEW BEST FRIEND--LET ME LOVE YOU!!!!
Smidge:--------

G's feelings couldn't be hurt for long because my apartment is SO exciting. She went running around smelling everything, delighting in the leftover yuks and, of course, Lu. This whole time Lu was in her red throne just glaring sassily. G stuck her sweet face right into L's and L started making a mrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr noise BUT she never hissed or swatted or bristled.

I fed Lu her fresh yuks while Hogs supervised and then went to try and coax the chicken out of hiding.

Poor S was making these pathetic weird squeaky noises and audibly panting but she crawled from under the bed and let me hold her next to G who was momentarily very still and gentle.

All in all, it was a grand experiment that I will retry tomorrow.

Otherwise, today has been warm and humid and LOOKS a lot like rain.

I am finally going to watch Winn Dixie and will report back.

If the rain holds off, G and I might try Carl's again tonight.

And now: a random cat pics because let's face it, a post is no fun without pictures.

I love this sweet sleepy guy.

B is content to cuddle with any part of my person--including, I guess, my foot.

Between Storms

Last night we had some big storms and woke up to a rainy morning, so the pets stayed in again, but the rest of the day has been pretty adventurous.

B spent a long time on the back porch acting skittish and intense. I went out to investigate and found him hunting a large beetle. Afterwards he posed like this for an hour.

He was so proud of himself and is currently snuggling my foot whilst chewing on the power cord to my computer.

Miss G, while not as itchy pants, was looking a little raggedy. So, I seized the opportunity while terrible neighbor was out, to bathe her in the driveway. She was SUCH a sweet girl and stood still the whole time. She only shook out once in my face and after her bath, I let her chase the hose water for a little while. She loved it and is now looking, feeling and (most importantly) smelling a whole lot better.

Here's her glamor shot while she was drying on the back porch

Finally, the other day we ran out of kitty treats, so I picked up some basic Whiskas Temptations from Giant, to tide us over until I got nicer ones later in the week, but oh man: P is OBSESSED with the ones I brought home. They are "milk filled" and he loses his mind and sense of decorum every time I give him a few. He will dart in front of both G and B and steal theirs before they know what's happened.

A big happy day for everyone in between some nice thunderstorms.

Guess Who Got Her Video Working?

Highlights:
B winks at the camera around 24 seconds in
P makes a very sweet noise

Midnight TV Madness

Here's a chilling little tale:

Last night (this morning) around 2am, I heard voices murmuring in the family room. I sat right up and tried to wake up enough to make sure my mind wasn't playing tricks on me. P was sleeping by my side, G was fast asleep next to the bed and B was in the hall stretched out on the big dog bed--none of the pets seemed at all bothered by what I was hearing.

I crept out into the hall and there was definitely a loud conversation happening downstairs. At this point, all 3 pets began to stir and assume (wrongly) that it was first morning. They were swarming my ankles and running up and down the first three steps.

Then, I heard the familiar jingle of the Stanley Steemer commercial.

The remote control was next to the TV and yet, the TV was on, on a different channel than I had been watching, and with a significantly louder volume.

You guys,  I am not sure what BooHoo is trying to tell me, but I am certain that I don't love it.

In all fairness, this brand of haunting is much less messy than the time he exploded the champagne bottle all over the pantry, but still....not great.

Another Lazy Weekend

For some reason it didn't occur to me that there would be fireworks on Saturday night, too. There were. We spent much of the night in the same arrangement as Friday--with G sticking close to me and P sticking close to G.

Overall, it's been a very sleepy and lazy weekend. Yesterday morning Grammy came by to work on the garden some and Groundy was VERY well-monitored. She got lots of treats (G, not Grammy) and pets, but stayed inside with me for most of the gardening.

In the afternoon, we took a walk with Tippy. I went over to get him and spent a good long time calling him and getting more and more nervous when he didn't come from wherever he was hiding before I remembered that he's deaf. Finally, I found him sleeping upstairs. Both dogs were very polite on our little stroll around the neighborhood and put a herd of barking corgis to shame.

Yesterday was so so nice and cool. I even left the door to the back porch open for most of the early morning. Purrcy and Bilbo were beside themselves, and even though they could now come and go as they pleased, they still liked to reowwww and creep by the window respectively.

This morning P caught yet another bird and left it on the roof of the van. It took some fancy tricks, but I got it down. If you're keeping track, that's: 3 birds, 1 snake and a creature. I never did find the creature again after I saw him carrying it around. I sort of hope I never do (actually, I entirely hope it).

P is such a smart guy, that I think the last bird was actually a gift for you all. He knows you'll come home in the van and was hoping to leave it there as a surprise--sorry for ruining his plan...

Cozy after another stressful night

Also, Ghog is SIGNIFICANTLY less itchy. I would even say she is just normal-for-her itchy and is shedding only a normal amount, too. I am so happy that she seems more comfortable.

We hope you guys had a great time in Ireland! Fáilte ar ais!

Continued

Previously on the pet blog: Everything was actually going pretty great.

Groundy and I took a good long walk and saw the river (not flooded, but nice and full from the rain). We had a quiet afternoon. I let G out for the last time before anything started and got her dressed in the latest fashion for fearful dogs, which she didn't seem to mind at all.

All suited up with emotional support

Then. The fireworks started.

Now, don't get me wrong--there was a lot of shivering and shaking and general worried Ghog face, but it was not nearly as bad as last time. It could have been the Thunder Shirt, it could have been the Tammy spray, and I was definitely holding her close; however, I think the real comfort was Purrcy.

Photographic Evidence (please excuse the poor quality of these nighttime iPhone pictures):

Here, G is on top of my legs, under the quilt and P is standing on her back.

He stayed right by her side.

Holding paws!!!

Purrcy! His Royal Highness! The Aged P! Love. That. Cat. 

There was no panting and G never once tried to hide in the shower. She seemed calmer still when I turned out the light. 

All in all, Terrorfest 2014 was not so terrible. Still, Groundy would like it known that she'd prefer for fireworks to cease to exist from this day forward. Thank you very much.

Another Special Message

xoxo
A, G, P, B, L &S

And now, an outtake:

Editor's Note: It is very hard to get all three of these guys in one picture.

"Celebrating" Our Independence

All things considered, today is really quite beautiful. It is much cooler, much much less humid, and there's been a nice steady wind all morning. The awnings are down, the cats are circling the house, and G and I will be taking a long walk down to the river in a bit.

Due to some unfortunately spaced firework practice, sleep was hard to come by last night. This morning, I heard Purrcy yelling from the driveway. I am not sure how he could yell so loud since his mouth was full of some kind of creature. I can't say for sure what it was, but I told him that he couldn't bring it inside (I know--total killjoy) , so he took it under the van for a while. G and B were pretty psyched about this for reasons I don't fully understand. Groundy was wagging her tail wildly and sort of looking from me to P with anticipation (of what, G?). B went full on bonkers and started leaping from the fence to the side of the porch, to the top of the van and then clinging to the trunk of the tree koala style. He was like a ping ball on the loose.

Mr. Baggins exercising his freedom

Most mysteriously, when I got back from taking care of Shmu and Pidge, G was watching the 700 Club. What? I walked in to hear her LOUDLY learning to, "doubt her doubts." I am not sure whether to blame BooHoo or G. Maybe they were working together.

So far, P has celebrated by moving  from here...

to here.

 To be continued..............................

As Our Local Meteorologist Reports...

You said it, B.

The awnings are still up from the storms last night and are staying up because it is likely to storm again tonight. It's not as hot today, but you could practically swim through the air--the humidity is so high.

Tammy came today and brought two sprays for Groundy. One is supposed to help her itchy back and the other is called "Thunder Spray" and will hopefully help with the Friday situation. It's been sprayed on the carpet in the family room and her collar. I may do another mist of it tomorrow and hopefully between that, the thunder vest and lots of hugs, she'll be even slightly more at ease. One thing we know for sure: we love Tammy.

I accidentally fell asleep on the world's most comfortable couch last night, which seemed to please all of the pets greatly. They all stayed very close and acted irritated when I went up to bed in the middle of the night--a funny role reversal.

Now G and I are off to the dog store downtown to stock up on yummy things for the weekend. I will report back on this adventure later :)

We hope you have a fun/amazing/spectacular time in Ireland!

Ps. the video feature on my phone hasn't been working, which is why I haven't posted any videos, but I will try and get it taken care of soon.

In Other G News:

This happened

She was pretty much beside herself with joy. There were also treats. It was a very very very good moment in Groundy's day/week/life.

It's Coming...

Currently, we are all living in dread of the inevitable Friday events.

That's right. Friday=the 4th of July=Terrorfest 2014

When I say "all" I suppose I should discount the boys, who are seemingly unaware, but certainly Groundy and I are full of dread.

On Monday night I heard a few firecrackers go off pretty far away. It was hard to tell if G even noticed them, but I simply turned up the volume on the TV and she seemed okay. Last night I heard them again and closer. This time, G kind of looked around and when I let her out back before bed she was smelled the humid air, hesitated at the edge of the yard, and came back in rather quickly.

I so wish there was somewhere we could go to avoid all of the firework nonsense, but it seems pretty inescapable. I will try the thunder vest and hold her extra close.

At the very least, I wish that these pyrotechnic loving fools would give it a rest tonight and tomorrow night.

Lulu completely agrees

Bonus Post for the Bilbo Baggins Fans (ie: everyone)

For even more peace of mind, if I had to categorize Bilbo, I would definitely call him an indoor cat. Sure, he goes outside and seems to enjoy it, but he's definitely in more than out, he always comes when I call to him, and he never seems to wander very far from the house.

As I've said, I love it when he is at the back door and I let him out, only to find P waiting to come in. B almost always changes his mind and comes in too.

This is a common view for me:

If he's not sitting directly on me, he likes to be as close as possible, usually with his back end right against my leg.

My two most favorite things about Mr. Baggins besides his general wonderfulness:
1. The way he kind of falls into a lying position
2. When he's licking your hand and doesn't quite put his tongue entirely away and looks up with a sleepy face and just a bit of tongue sticking out.

Outsmarted by a Cat

The Aged P is quite the stealthy gentleman. Last night I noticed him hanging out underneath the van. I then spent 20 minutes or so trying to lure him inside with treats. He would creep up, lick the treat, but if I made any movement, he would dart back under the van. In one instance, he managed to grab the treat from my hand and still got away. I was tired, so I went back inside and not 5 minutes later he was REOWWING by the back door to come inside. I guess he had to do so on his own terms.

Some days I walk Groundy during first morning, and those days I am so drowsy that I can forget who is inside and who is out roaming. This morning was one of those times, and when G and I got to that grassy lot on Hanover I could have sworn I heard Purrcy. I made G pace the field with me and finally we got to a group of crows (a murder!) who were making noises almost identical to P. It was very unnerving. It was like the mockingjay mutts from Catching Fire.

 

It is possible that it wasn't this dramatic.



When we got home, I found P eating breakfast.

 

"Oh hey. Have a fun walk?"

What is happening?



Well Rested

Hi Friends,

No post yesterday because it was mostly a lazy day of recovering from Saturday's horror. But oh yes, there was napping.

World's most comfortable couch for the win

Also, I am happy to report that G, while still somewhat itchy pants, is not nearly as itchy pants as she was last week. She is still shedding, but no longer scratching as often or having to rub her back all over various pieces of furniture and doorways.

I have been giving her so much attention that yesterday when B came over for some cuddles, Groundy immediately and insistently inserted herself between us.

We DID attempt a Carl's run. I think this could work in the future but the line was LONG. It was so long and we wanted ice cream so much that one of us, and I am not naming any names or pointing any fingers, couldn't control herself. There was drooling and a bit of yelling and some invasion of the personal space of our fellow patrons. Again, I'm not saying who...I will say that I made the executive decision to go home and made G a homemade doggy sundae complete with dog treat toppings.

And look:

Okay, admittedly, G and I don't take a great selfie, but it's nice extra proof that all is well and she is quite a happy lady. It also seems worth mentioning that if you crouch down next to her, she will immediately lie on her back for belly rubs and act very confused when you instead put a camera in her face. Also, she will probably lick your chin if you aren't looking.

 

In kitty news: P wins the award for best sleeper. He is so still and barely stirs all night long BUT he loses some points because he is also the one who tries to make first morning happen earlier and earlier. This morning he was angling for 4:30. He was quite mistaken.

 

The boys have a very cute new tradition wherein they hang out together like this while G and I take care of various second morning chores.

 

It's almost like a meeting, except B is facing the wrong way and P is on the conference table. But besides that, I am sure they are discussing very important matters.

 

My girls have not pulled down any more blinds and still seem okay with my absence. Mostly they are just fascinated by my shoes whenever I go feed them.

 

We hope you have a cool and lovely afternoon!

 

Groundy, Grammy and Amanda's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Saturday Morning

Spoiler Alert: This story has a happy ending.

Warning: This story is not for the faint of heart.

Yes. That is poop. 

So, everything started out normal. First morning came and went, as did second morning, complete  with a nice long weekend walk. I set up the gate because Grammy was coming to garden and went and started the coffee.

Grammy came and greeted G and after a bit of chatting, I went inside to fix my coffee and left G on the porch (note: this was a huge mistake).

I was inside for maybe 3-4 minutes when I heard: SRABBLE SCRABBLE SHUFFLE SCRABBLE

I thought, "What kind of weeding makes that noise?"

I went out to investigate and that's when I saw it: G's body was on one side of the porch railing, while her face was in Grammy's hands on the other side. Apparently, her zeal to help garden coupled with the fact that she's convinced she's a cat, led her to try and leap through the lattice part of the railing, but it turned out much more like this:

She was twisting and trying to pull herself out, so I pretty much laid down on top of her back end while Grammy continued to hold her head  and we tried to calm her down and we. Did. Not. Know. What. To. Do.

Picture this dialogue whilst frantically staring at each other:
Grammy: "What do we do?"
Amanda: "What do we do?"

After a while of that conversation, Grammy went across the street and got Jeff (note: he is the hero of this story...and probably life in general).

Jeff came running back with a bucket of soapy water (convenient, as I was going to bathe her anyway today) and soaped up her head and the railing. We tried to gently twist her head and VERY gently pull it back through but it was really and truly stuck.

[It should be noted that at this point, I was trying to think of how I would explain to you that Groundy now lives on the porch.]

While I was panicking and still lying on top of your dog, Jeff went back to his house and got a saw.

You guys, I am not going to lie: this was scary.

Grammy and I held G VERY VERY VERY still and whispered sweet things to her and Jeff, skillfully and not unlike a superhero, cut her free.

G celebrated her freedom by running and jumping and pooping and seemed relatively unfazed. I cannot say the same for the humans.

Here she is with her soapy head right before I gave her approximately 10,201 treats.

I picked up the poop and Jeff is mending the bit of porch and Grammy got the weeding done. Later, I will be making Jeff cookies. All of the cookies. And even that will be woefully insufficient.

The whole situation lasted maybe 7 minutes start to finish. 

Lesson Learned # 1: G does not go out on porch alone. EVER.
Lesson Learned #2: G is not a cat. (She may still need some convincing on this point).

The actual cats spent this whole time casually wandering around and sunning themselves in the driveway.

Lesson Learned #3: Animals are not as helpful as the hundred acre woods would lead you to believe.

Lies.

Your Pets Sure Are Cute

Wednesday was a very big day for Groundy--Tammy came AND she had her first Grammy sighting. Predictably, she went crazy for both visitors. Grammy found the perfect scratchy spot and G did that thing where she looks off into the distance and licks the air.

I was going to take G to work with me today, but they are cleaning the carpets and wouldn't let me in--I am not going to complain about a long weekend. I think I will take her to the dog store tomorrow and let her pick a new toy or maybe a sweet potato hedgehog.

The boys are both being total cuddlers. And poor B really REALLY wants to play with P, but P isn't interested. I keep trying to get a video of it and then as soon as my camera is on, they stop.

I love when they both hang out in the tree house

 

 

This guy....

 In Smidge and Lu news: this morning I went over to feed them breakfast and found that one of them (ahem...Smidge....) pulled the blinds completely off of one of the living room windows and dragged the whole thing into the TV room. I am not sure how she managed it because it was a fairly heavy piece of plastic with strings and things but apparently S decided the whole affair was actually scary and so she hid in the bedroom all day. Crazy creature.

Hope you guys get to spend some time with crazy creatures in Bath.

Happy Birthday, Julia!!!

Lots and lots of love and wishing you a completely spectacular birthday!
xo
A, G, P, B, L, & S

Two Birds, Two Grandparents and a Flying Creature

Hi Friends,

We're back from our short hiatus.

Here's a rundown of all the happenings since the last update:

Still no more Jack sightings, which is disappointing and also makes me feel like maybe I made him up. An imaginary puppy? Like Snuffleupagus? I don't THINK I did, but one can never be sure.

His Royal Highness has really gotten into the hunting spirit and brought me not one, but two birds yesterday. There were feathers. There was pride. And now, whenever I let him out, the birds around your house go totally crazy and start screaming and flapping.



I picked up your grandparents from the airport last night. G hasn't gotten to see them yet, but I imagine there will be A LOT of jumping and leaping and barking. You know, general Groundy merriment.

Before I left last night, I got this face smooshed up against my knee:

When I got back it was dark and I'd left the porch light on for myself. All the pets were in and some kind of small winged creature flew through the door with me. P was untroubled and mostly wanted his yuks, but B completely. Lost. His. Mind. He went careening through the house to catch the bug. I have never seen a cat move so fast. At one point he jumped onto the comfy couch--or rather a throw pillow on the couch--with such gusto and with his claws out, so that he actually ended up lifting the pillow backwards and doing a kind of awkward back flip off the edge. I am not sure if he actually ever caught it because I was tired and went up to bed, but this morning there were remotes and pillows all over the floor.

    

I will try and take G with me to work on Friday.

Otherwise, not much is going on here. Our lovely cool-ish weather has returned to the humid hotness of a usual Virginia summer. Poor G is a total itchy-pants mess, and if it turns out that I did imagine Jack, I could probably fashion some kind of representation with all of the fur she's shed. But I probably won't. Because that would be gross.

And Now: A Brief Message From Our Sponsors

Thank you for your patience. We'll be back to our regular posting tomorrow night.

--The Management

Privet and Hallo!

According to the blog stats, we've had three page views from Russia and FOUR from Germany. We're basically an international sensation.

Today was perfect and rainy.

We breakfasted on the porch to enjoy the drizzle:

 Then, the Aged P noticed my cereal bowl

And he nuzzled my foot and circled the rocking chair and put his sweet little paws on my knee and looked right at my face with his big eyes and...

How could I resist?
(and don't worry, G swooped in shortly after this photo and got some too)

Bosie decided to stay inside and has been sleeping in various places all afternoon. 

And look at who's finally giving me big smiles:

What a sweet face! It's a nice way to finish the weekend.