Pets – Page 31

Insomnia

Boo’s been hanging out with me more than usual the past couple of months, sometimes sleeping on my legs, more often tucked up beside me, and lately often sleeping on the couch behind my head. Last night I fell asleep briefly with Boo up there and Trixie and Sam curled up on top of me. I got up to go to bed but after laying wide awake for an hour or two eventually got up and stayed up until I went out for a hike before sunup. I went to one of the closest trailheads and took an easy 5.5 mile loop as I didn’t know if I would start to crash but I didn’t have any issues. Back home and sated with a homemade breakfast sandwich I finally tired and fell asleep on the couch once more, this time with just Sam and Trixie, and didn’t wake until late in the afternoon. Well-needed rest but it may make for a long night tonight …

Bargaining With God

Our Heavenly Father,

Please let me live a long and happy life so I can look after my family no matter where they go. In return I promise I’ll be a good girl and not steal any pizza off the counter. Except I really like pizza and I know they want me to be happy and also someone needs to test it to make sure it hasn’t been poisoned. How about I promise not to steal any vegetables off the counter, they can cover it from one end to the other with broccoli and carrots and I won’t take a bite.

Also, I’m sorry I ate the entire batch of freshly baked cookies. And the tub of caramel. And …

More Things in Heaven and Earth

Boo in 2014 at the picture window of the dining room of our house in Portland, deep in the philosopher part of his philosopher/goofball persona.

Spread Eagle

Ellie shows off her classic spread eagle pose on the floor of the kitchen of our house in 2013. It became her most common sleeping position late in life when getting up became more of a challenge as she could push off with her front legs to compensate for her weakening back legs, but it was always in her repertoire from when we first adopted her in 2009. On this particular morning we had adopted Boo the day before, he was staying with my wife in her office while Ellie and Sam and Emma were with me.

Come Closer, Little Squirrel, I Mean You No Harm

(sound of lips smacking)

The Squirrel Blind

The kitchen of our house in Portland had a little section where the windows extended out of the house, providing an expansive view up and down squirrel alley. Fortunately it was down near the end of the counter, away from the food prep section, as our smallest wildlife watchers found it irresistible no matter what rules existed about walking on the counters.

Contentment

Of Views and Neighbors

Sam has taken to this south-facing window where he can lie with the sun warming his belly, all with a view of the quail and doves and woodpeckers in the backyard. As happens in life though, sometimes a neighbor moves in and blocks your view, or climbs into bed with you for a snuggle. C’est la vie.

The Handsome Fellow

I was editing this picture of Templeton from 2003 so I could bring its associated blog post back online only to discover there was no associated post, and it never even made it up onto my old site before then, but better late than never. Templeton was a handsome little fellow with his green eyes and gray tuxedo and had a charming personality to match. I wasn’t a cat person when I met him a decade prior when my wife and I started dating, how little I understood then of how he would change my life. I didn’t get my first camera until college or grad school, the most basic of point and shoots, with my first SLR in my last year of grad school, so I’m thankful I switched to digital in 2000 and began photographing him more often. This picture encapsulates a lot for me, I took it during our first full year in the house in Portland where we would live for sixteen years. I think of him every day as I do all the pets and am thankful for the pictures I have to remember him by, he was a little charmer!

Calm Before the Storm

Storms approached both literally and figuratively as Ellie slept peacefully in our dining room in Portland in February 2018. Snow would arrive that evening, making the walk to the train to the airport a little more interesting the next morning as I left for my interview in Arizona. A whirlwind followed as I’d get an offer right away, kicking off a storm of activity for the next month in the mad dash to get here. Through it all one of our biggest worries was her health, she had recovered from some minor issues she was having but we were about to put her through a three day drive. She did great on the trip though, we found a wonderful vet pretty quickly after we arrived, and remarkably Ellie would not only see us to Arizona but into the home we bought a year later. She was such a tremendous blessing in so many ways, this pup.