While we generally love our house in Portland, the alligator infestation in the basement has been a constant aggravation. I don’t think we’re going to have to worry anymore!
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Dog Dog Dog! We Found Our Dog!
I knew how today was going to go, at least I thought I did, but thankfully life had a surprise in store.
I got up at 6:30 a.m. as planned, despite it being a Saturday, so we could drop off the ailing Subaru at the dealer. I came home and went back to sleep, planning on getting up in time to watch the two NFL playoff games today. I woke up for the second time as planned and heard Sam purring from his usual location in the gap between my knees. I reached down to pet him and felt Scout instead. Putting on my glasses I realized my mistake: Sam and Scout were cuddled up belly-to-belly with their legs wrapped around each other. Cutest thing I’ve ever seen.
As I settled in for football my day took an unexpected turn. I hit the Oregon Humane Society website to check for cat-friendly dogs, a daily ritual the past couple of weeks, and to my surprise there were several good candidates that just got added. I wrote down the list of five dogs I thought might work for us and down to the Humane Society we went.
I have a weakness for black labs and was surprised to see two on the list. I tried not to get my hopes up given our previous experience but today was our day! Lo and behold both labs were still available and we met and loved them both. We could only bring home one, I could have flipped a coin between the two, but my wife had a preference for 5-year old Sidka so ladies and gentlemen we had our dog!
We’re very excited! Maybe I need some more exclamation points!!!!!!!!
We’re not sure about the name, we’ll probably change it to something similar, perhaps Sitka since it ties in well with the Northwest (many of the big trees in the rainforests of Olympic National Park are Sitka spruce, and I think you know how much fun I had on my recent visit there). She seems like a real sweetheart, we have her isolated from the cats for the time being in the basement. She kept me company while I watched football before I traded with my wife who is sleeping down there tonight.
We’re going to take the introduction to the cats as slow as needed, but there are good signs so far. The Emma part of the Emma Liberation Front made a mad dash under our legs and down the steps before I caught her on the landing in the middle of the stairwell. After that she mainly sat by the door and waited, at one point when the door opened, Sidka saw her and didn’t make any motions toward her. To my surprise Emma didn’t seem upset either, I hope she isn’t planning a rescue mission when we’re all asleep.
These are a couple of quick pictures of her, I didn’t try for too many today. It was dark by the time we got home and the batteries in my flash are nearly dead, plus I didn’t want to startle her in her first few hours with us. In the first picture she’s sleeping on a plush alligator that we’ve had for years, the cats have ignored it and she seemed to enjoy sleeping on it, so it’s hers if she wants it.
No Respect
I don’t know if they are upset from their vet visits or the taking down of the Christmas tree or if it is just youthful rebellion, but I sense a little residual hostility from the cats. After I felled her great tree, Emma muttered “Yrch!” under her breath hoping I wouldn’t catch the meaning in her elvish tongue.
Sam was more bold and spoke in the Common Tongue. After I went to check on Scout to see how she was recovering from anesthesia after getting her teeth cleaned, Sam walked in and said “Well if it isn’t the dental patient and the mental patient!”
I would not say such things if I were you!†
†Said in your best Prince Humperdinck voice
The Things I Learn When Scout Sleeps On Me
When Scout sleeps on me while I’m sitting in my chair, she likes to stretch out like Superman across my chest so I can’t really get much done. This evening I had my laptop beside her and could surf the Web but not type.
While browsing I came across a site that reports the demographics of the U.S. audience of a web site relative to the average (and as we all know, my site is far above average). I have no idea how they estimate this or if it’s even remotely accurate, but here’s what it reports about my site:
- I do really well in the age group of 3-11 year olds, accounting for one out of every five of my visitors. Probably attracted by the frequent poop references in recent days.
- I have a higher than normal incidence of visitors with children. Oh no! Babies having babies!
- In regards to earning power, the report says I attract a less affluent audience. To my three year old readers: I’m very, very disappointed in you.
- For education level, it reports a high index of college graduates. Oh three year olds, I’m so sorry! I take it back! I’m very, very proud of you! But you probably should have majored in something other than art history.
Free At Last, Free At Last!
Emma was freed from captivity this morning, not by the Emma Liberation Front (though Scout did penetrate my defenses last night), but because she finally gave us a stool sample. We swapped Emma for Scout as she was now the lone holdout but as of 2:22pm she also earned her freedom (again, not due to the Emma Liberation Front. I suggested to Sam that perhaps they should now be the Scout Liberation Front but he said no, they had worked too hard to establish the brand).
No expectant father in a delivery room has been as happy to see his new arrival as I was to find poop in the litter box, the cats are now free to roam the house and and I’m free to stop watching for them to poop. Everybody wins!
A battle won but not the war. Tomorrow morning we have to try for a urine sample from Scout before she and Emma go to the vet. Hopefully the cat boxing will be less eventful than when Scout and Sam went a few days ago …
No Emma, No Peace! No Emma, No Peace!
I put Emma in the basement last night to isolate her from the other cats as we need to collect stool samples from both her and Scout to see which one is having some digestive problems. Emma does not like to be isolated so I spent a mostly sleepless night on the couch in the basement while she pleaded for her release.
We’re still waiting for a stool sample from both cats today so the isolation continues. Every time I open the basement door the ELF (Emma Liberation Front) attempts a mad dash down the steps to rescue the prisoner. So far I’ve managed to keep both Sam and Scout out but they have begun making a concerted effort which makes things harder.
Scout hasn’t been too happy either and spent most of the day hiding under the covers of the bed, a new behavior for her. It didn’t help that we had a couple of service people in this morning as Scout doesn’t care for strangers. Sam goes back and forth between his two sisters, sometimes crawling under the covers with Scout and sometimes meowing encouragement to Emma under the basement door.
Hopefully Scout and Emma will soon give us what we need so the household can be restored. But you know what they say, a watched cat never poops.
Emma, Are You Trying To Tell Me Something?
A minute ago Emma brought one of her favorite strings into my office and dropped it near my feet. Now she’s brought another of her favorites in and is standing beside it.
Subtlety, thy name is not Emma.
1 Year, 12 Books
I read twelve books this year, a paltry sum compared to the copious quantities my wife reads, but pretty typical for me.
The twelve, in no particular order except the order in which I read them, are as follows:
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- Payment in Blood by Elizabeth George
- One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
- Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
- Hear The Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami
- Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
- Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
- To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Wolf Willow by Wallace Stegner
- Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
- The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Some fun facts about the list that are sure to amuse:
- Of our three cats, two were named after books on this list, and all three were named after books by authors on this list.
- A full two-thirds of the books were authored by women. What can I say, I like the ladies!
- Most of these were first time reads for me with the exception of the Solzhenitsyn, Lee, and Tolkien tomes.
- The only book I didn’t enjoy was Wuthering Heights. I’m glad I read it but it won’t appear on any of my future book lists. I wasn’t particularly crazy about Mansfield Park either, it was no Pride & Prejudice, but it had its moments.
- All of these were books of fiction except for Wolf Willow, which had both fictional and non-fictional sections so I’m not sure how to classify it. In times like these I always ask myself, WWDDD? (What Would Dewey Decimal Do?)
- Louisa May did her best to get me to cry on the train but she did not succeed. Sure, I had a little something in my eye a day or two, but I was not crying! I later forgave her when I realized the events of the book were based on her life and that she wasn’t just playing with my heartstrings.
- Solzhenitsyn died after I finished reading Ivan Denisovich, but there was a six month gap between the two events so I don’t feel as though I particularly cursed him. Also because he was almost 90 years old.
- Of the twelve books, only one involved vampires although the jury is still out on Boo Radley.
- With Mansfield Park I have now read all of Jane Austen’s books at least once unless you count her unfinished work Who Weeps for the Wookiee?
Three Years
Happy New Year everyone! The blog turns 3 years old today, my one and only New Year’s resolution is to stop using my blog to fill everyone in on the daily minutiae of the lives of my cats.
So anyway, I welcomed 2009 by playing a game of String with Scout, Emma, and Sam. I was pleasantly surprised to see Scout playing, she’s been more playful lately so perhaps her young friends are wearing off on her. After the fireworks started Scout and Emma retreated under the couch to hide from the noisy celebrations.
Sam’s appetite was unaffected.
No Más, No Más
We went to the Humane Society again this afternoon when a promising dog popped up on the list of cat-friendly dogs. We met her, a friendly golden retriever who had lived with cats before and was just perfect for us except … she has some mobility issues which we thought would be too much for our three-level house. We talked to the medical staff and they agreed, so we left empty-handed once more.
Oh that hurts, she was a lovely dog. At least the shelter is closed tomorrow so we won’t have to fall for another dog that we can’t bring home. Her name was Sam like our youngest cat, so we would have had to rename her. Whew, dodged that bullet!
We did make the mistake of going by the pod that holds the dog we missed out on this morning, goodness but she seems like a sweetheart. We consoled ourselves with the knowledge that she probably chews on knitting and eats cats for breakfast 😉
Boolie 