cats vs dogs

You know, I should really consider changing the name of my blog.  I am tending two cats and now a dog, after all.  I'll be honest and say that I am more a cat person than a dog person.  I like dogs, not as much as cats but I have welcomed Oscar into my home and will do my best to take good care of him.  We are still getting to know each other.  The two in combination crack me up.  

Skyler is so nosy to the point of risk sneaking up on Oscar in the open crate last night to see what he was gnawing on (a small rawhide bone).  I had gotten the baby gate to keep Oscar out of the living room but what I had not counted on was Skyler going around or over it.  Twice last night I stopped him from getting any closer to the dog.  The third?  I did not see him in time and Oscar finally did, barked and chased him out of the room.  BUT did that stop him?  NO, he did not learn his lesson---at all.  

Oscar meanwhile does not want to go OUT necessarily.  I can stand and hold the back door open and he won't budge.  However, if I get the leash and maybe his food bowl, he will go out the car port side happily.  He has piddled on the floor a couple of times even after walking and being out in the backyard for hours.  Those sad eyes when he is scolded.  "did you do that?"  and he looks like he has been whipped or something.

This morning at 6 when Skyler insisted for over a half an hour that I get up and feed him.  Oscar is buried so far under his towel cover that it looks like he is not even in there.  He did not budge through feeding the cat, my fixing and eating breakfast either.  Not until I went to open the gate did he even stir.  Food and a walk and he is back outside for most of the day.

At the same time, Skyler wants to run and play, wrapping himself completely around his scratching pole and digging in with those back legs.

If I were the one trying to sleep, I think I would want to be more like Oscar and drop like a rock and stay asleep till at least 7.  BUT you know who wouldn't hear of that!

When Oscar and I started out for the walk, Mamacita spotted us and I had to stop and feed her too.  It was a little early and I had not spotted her on my earlier outside trips.  She is getting a little bolder now and has twice walked into the house when I was trying to get back in the door for her food and holding Skyler back.  She has even been in the beauty shop when I went across the lane to get my hair cut earlier in the week!  Still no sign of the baby kittens, born on April 12 so they would not be weaned at 3 weeks.  I don't really mind as long as she and Skyler don't get in a hissing, fighting fit.  He just wanted to sniff and she just wants to get back outside to eat, LOL as that was why she came running when she saw me, after all.

I have had a dog before, back when I was in nursing school with my 4 housemates.  I forget just where she came from but we named her Abner---we watched a lot of Bewitched re-runs back in the early 70's and you remember how nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz used to call her husband "Abner, Abner".  Then came summer break between between junior and senior year and one of us had to take her.  My folks said she could come home with me but she had to be outside.  My brother Steve built her a dog house.  Then graduation came----could not have a dog and my family got custody.  I think my sister Janet was her favorite, after me.

We thought she was some sort of terrier but she really was no bigger than Oscar is.  These were taken when she came down to visit for the day with one of the kids.  The three younger kids would take turns coming to spend the day with me and we would fix whatever food they wanted, go out the mall on the bus, to the park or a movie or whatever.  I have pictures of Janet and I making fondue that were probably taken along with these pictures of Abner.  Phil was thrilled to make tacos as it was not something we had at home at that time.  It was not all that long after this that Diane lived with me for a time while she was attending the same school of nursing.  I loved this little apartment though I did not like the guy who later became the landlord.

This was back in 75 so the fabrics are really dated, LOL.  In the upper left, that was the flowered spread that I had used throughout nursing school in the dorm and house we shared but continued to use until I got a full sized bed. the same one I have today.   I still have and use the granny square afghan as my mom made it for me. I don't have a clue where the other one ended up that I have my head on watching TV with the dog.    In the lower right picture the dog is looking at Vernon the parakeet.  Birds were okay, I guess or I had one anyway for a short time anyway.

A little trip down memory lane, LOL.  In the here and now, since I was up plenty early as I said I have already been busy with the critters, breakfast detail and such.  I also swept up the grass clippings from the car port to try to cut down on the stuff I track in. (Robert mowed on Thursday Then I swept up the kitchen and laundry room, dusted in the living room and vacuumed the entire house.  I sat down to write this post just to cool down a bit!  The dishwasher has been run but needs to be unloaded/reloaded and a basket full of laundry awaits.  I'll save the bathroom cleanup for another day. 

 No sewing---maybe I will feel like it today?  What I need to work on has not changed but I do know now when my assigned day will be for the picnic hop so I have a little leeway but still, it would not be good to procrastinate too long when I have other things to work on too.  If I can only find some energy to get my rear end off this chair.

I hope you are having as lovely a day as we are here---got to love the low humidity and cooler mornings though I hear 80's are coming back in a day or two.   I like it how it is right now!