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?