Boolie

Life Used to be Simpler

Breakfast isn’t as simple as it used to be. What I eat hasn’t changed in decades, I mix up a big cold glass of milk and chocolate Carnation Instant Breakfast. The only excitement of the morning was seeing if it would be Templeton or Scout waiting to curl up on me.

But when we adopted Sam and Emma after Templeton died, in addition to the dry kibble we leave out all day, we started treating them with Tiki Cat wet food. As I prepare my breakfast, Sam and Emma circle underneath like ravenous sharks, knowing the treat they are about to receive. Sam like a noisy, ravenous shark driven so mad by hunger that he risks his paws on the forbidden counter. After portioning out equal amounts into their bowls, I walk to the edge of the kitchen were I feed them a few feet apart, careful not to step on them as they swarm about my legs, then step away quickly from the frenzy that ensues. Tiki Cat comes in a variety of interesting flavors, the one pictured here is Hawaiian Grill Ahi Tuna, but we haven’t found one yet that they don’t devour like they haven’t eaten in weeks.

We’ve offered it to Scout as well but she won’t touch wet food and hasn’t since she was a kitten. I’m not sure if she naturally would have or not, but her hero Templeton wouldn’t and that seemed all the justification she needed. But we have discovered some treats to feed her while Sam and Emma gobble down theirs. We’ve long treated the cats with tuna flavored Greenies, a Templeton favorite, but just recently discovered that Scout is the only one who will eat the salmon Greenies shown here. I never would have believed that there is a cat food in this world that Sam won’t eat if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, but it’s true, he won’t touch them. So Scout gets those to herself, she impatiently waits for me to feed Sam and Emma and then I walk her a little ways away for her treats.

And then there’s the recent discovery of Wildside Salmon, little chunks of freeze-dried salmon caught wild in Alaska. Heed my words and dispense with care — these fluffy treats really should be considered a controlled substance — all three cats go bezerk for them. Even mild-mannered Scout devours them with such passion that I worry she might cut me when I run out of treats. When all three cats get them, she’ll even pull a Sammy and eat them out from under the others if they aren’t quick enough, a first for her. I’ve learned in the mornings to get these ready before I feed Sam and Emma their wet food, as otherwise Emma will get distracted when I open the bag and follow me to Scout while Sam sneaks over and eats her Tiki Cat (not a first for Sam).

But you can’t hide a treat from Ellie’s nose, which doesn’t much care if they are treats for cat or dog. When she got a little close to Scout’s salmon treats our normally shy girl got right in Ellie’s face and shouted “Back off dog!” That’s what her hiss meant and both Ellie and I knew it. To keep my little salmon junkie from getting too agitated, I make Ellie wait a safe distance away until Scout has finished eating. If you know how food-crazed Ellie is, you know the strength of the temptation she resists, so her reward for waiting so patiently is one of her favorite treats, the charcoal dog biscuits we keep in a glass container. A sealed glass container, one that neither paw nor jaw can defeat.

And then I sit down to enjoy my breakfast. As much as I can with a black lab staring at me a few feet away with a hedgehog in her mouth, encouraging me to get a move on. Chop chop!

Better to Give than to Receive

Along with the glory of being a world-class receiver comes the responsibility to give back to your community, especially your young fans. Over the past nine months Ellie has picked up two young admirers. One morning when I woke up with Sam and Ellie beside me, Sam got up and started rubbing his head all over Ellie’s. Ellie looked at me with an expression that seemed to say “See how good I’m being? See how I’m not eating him?” and then proceeded to lick him about the face, which Sam tolerated in good humor.

But it is Emma who is most fascinated with the dog, whenever Ellie and I play hedgehog Emma comes tearing down from wherever she is in the house and tucks in close beside me. As I pet Emma and toss the hedgehog to Ellie, when Ellie takes a break and sits down Emma will saunter up to her and sniff her face, especially her ears. She also gets licked in the face for her troubles and tolerates it as graciously as Sam.

Ellie can’t be long distracted from hedgehog; a couple of times she even dropped the hedgehog in front of Emma and bent down as if she expected Emma to toss it across the room. But Ellie soon learned that, no matter how strong her affections, there are certain things Emma just can’t do.

It’s Not A Ball Game Until Your Uniform Gets Dirty

Oh how I love this dog!

Labrador Receiver

On fall weekends throughout the years, we’ve heard the names of many great passer and receiver combinations. Bradshaw to Swann. Montana to Rice. Aikman to Irvin. Manning to Harrison (and now Manning to Wayne). But this fall, a new pair arrived on the scene that some think could be the greatest to ever play the game.

Cameron drops back … rolls to his right … finds Ellie all alone downfield! No one will touch her! No one will catch her! Touchdown! Touchdown! Touchdooooooooown!

The greatest pair of all time? I’ll let the pundits decide. My detractors will point out — fairly I think — that unlike Peyton Manning, I haven’t had to face the complex blitzing schemes of the modern NFL. I can’t argue the point. On the other hand, Peyton has never had to deal with Reggie Wayne drooling all over the ball.

We all have obstacles to overcome.

Fully Recovered

After a week of house rest Ellie was feeling better and definitely ready for the cone to come off. While Ellie wanted to jump right back to her normal routine, we followed the vet’s advice and slowly ramped her up to her normal activity levels. This meant her toy hedgehogs had to be hidden for a few days after the cone came off to reduce the temptation for too much running and jumping, two staples of hedgehog play.

Soon enough she was fully recovered and the house was once more filled with the joyful squeaking of hedgehogs at play. Squeaking, and squeaking, and squeaking …

Templeton! Who Raised You?

Templeton was not sticking his tongue out at Scout but rather licking his lips after chowing down on catnip, which was usually followed by him laying on his back on the concrete sidewalk and wiggling around, a legacy now claimed by little Sam. While he is definitely his own cat, he does share many of Templeton’s traits.

He’s a full-on no-apologies I’ll-sleep-on-your-legs-until-you-can’t-feel-them lap cat, just like Templeton was. He sticks his head out the door to greet me the moment I come home, just like Templeton did. He then goes downstairs to his food bowl and meows loudly to be fed, meows even if his bowl has plenty of food but he can actually see a bit of the bottom of the bowl, meows just because he likes the comfort of having me come down and go through the motions of feeding him. Just like Templeton did.

He’s an excellent groomer and yet never has hairballs, just like — well, Templeton was an excellent groomer.

Where Did All The Birds Go?

Scout can’t quite figure out why there aren’t any birds in the birdbath when she sits beside it, even though she sees the birds playing in the water when she’s watching from inside the house. This is another picture from 2003, I broke the birdbath not long after.

Gargoyle

Templeton used to love to sleep atop the bookcases but as he aged he had trouble jumping that high. If he sat beside my bookcase to indicate he wanted up, I’d place him up there for a catnap and get him down when he woke up. On this particular day, I climbed on top of a chair so that we’d be eye to eye when I took the picture.

Waddling Clothes

Two young marmots play in a mountain meadow as one of the adults looks on. We came across this colony in the early fall beside the Skyline Trail in Mount Rainier. You can see how chubby even the youngsters are at this time of the year as they prepare to hibernate through the long winter on the mountain. Despite being wrapped in waddling clothes, the marmots move with surprising speed when they want to, bursting across the talus fields with a speed that belies their bellies.

Cone Free

After a week of house rest Ellie is doing much better. She’s finished her meds, the plastic cone has come off, and she resumed her walks a couple of days ago. The vet wants us to hold off a bit on allowing her to run or play rough, which means hedgehog time has been curtailed except for times like these when she lays on her back and waits for me to wrestle it from her mouth (these pictures are from before she hurt her leg).

Ellie is very anxious to be active again. While I was watching football the other day and working on my laptop, somehow baby hedgehog kept landing on my keyboard. I’d look over at Ellie and she had a look that said “I don’t know how that got that there, but since it is, let’s play!”. I’d get her to lay down with it, but a short while later hedgehog was back on my keyboard. The battle went on and on until I eventually put hedgehog in the closet.

Soon, Ellie, soon.