Dog People

How were you at algebra? If the grandpeople leave Rock Springs at 1 p.m., traveling 75 mph, and The Boy and Girl leave Cheyenne at 1:30 p.m., also travelling 75 mph, when should we start looking for each other in order to wave as we pass?

My mom asked for tickets to an Avalanche game and someone to go with her to said game for Christmas. So, this weekend, my brother’s family and my parents were in Denver. The Boy and I agreed to Jigger-sit.  At first, Jigger was going to come to Cheyenne. Then we decided it would be easier on everyone if The Boy and I went to Rock Springs for the weekend.

The first thing we did when we got there was take Jigger for his afternoon walk. The dog was not sure The Boy and I knew his route. He was not sure The Boy was certified in leash management. Somehow, we managed to walk the dog and get back to the house without incident.

We kept Jigger up way past his bedtime. There was a little bit of concern that he wouldn’t sleep well up in my room, but that was unfounded. He was so tired that he tried to climb into his bed while I was carrying it upstairs. As soon as it hit the floor, he was in it and unconscious.

In the morning – way too early in the morning – Jigger needed to go outside. I let him out, fed Spade and Gracie, gave the dog breakfast, and went back to bed. A moment later, Jigger made it clear that it was not okay for me to go back to bed. I went downstairs to sleep on the couch.

Jigger convinced me that I should let him sleep on my belly on the couch. He said that’s what Mom does.

I texted this photo to my mother. She called the dog a con artist.

We took Jigger with us to Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge. He loves birds and walks so we figured he’d have a great time. At our first stop, he led the way down a trail for about half a mile. Once in a while, he would have to stop because the trail was hard to see. As soon as The Boy would step down the trail, the dog would rush in front to continue leading the way.

He jumped over logs. He walked through a bog. At one point we lost The Boy who went through some wetland that Jigger and I couldn’t manage (sharp sticks at dog-eye level). Jigger was VERY concerned that he was out in the middle of nowhere with just The Girl.

By the time we got back to the car, Jigger was ready to get back in the car. At the next stop, up the road, he jumped down onto the floor of the car and refused to come out. He was done. We asked him at each stop and he refused to get out.

He slept through six swans, two bald eagles, several hawks, and a moose. He also slept through ice cream cones in Farson.

We texted my mother to tell her we wore out her dog.

When we returned to the house, exhausted, the dog was well rested and ready to play. We sent him to the back yard to run around while we plopped down on the couch.

Luckily, I had three critters to care for and Spade was ready for a nap.

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A Very Special OutTV Crossover Episode

As you know, I put our leftover bread on the window sills to attract OutTV programming for Kitten Thunder. The one bad thing about bread during the spring, though, is that squirrels tend to take their meals and run. I’ve always assumed they were taking it home to their kittens.

This week, at least, I was wrong.

Obi and I were in the breakfast nook, watching a squirrel hang upside down from a branch to eat seeds out of the bird feeder. The birds were landing, looking ticked off, then noticing the copious amount of seed on the ground then would shrug and chow down. Since I had bread to give…I gave.

“Would you like some bread?” I asked the squirrel. He was hanging upside down still, looking worried that he was going to have to get away. But I tore up some bread and left it on the porch for him.

Inside, Obi and I watched. The squirrel approached the bread. He grabbed two pieces, jammed them into his mouth, and climbed up the side of the house onto the roof out of sight. Obi and I made eye contact. We did not approve.

A while later, I was straightening the cat shelf blankets up in the reading nook and talking to Oliver. I heard the pitter patter of feet on the roof. They pittered up one side and pattered down the other. Outside, the squirrel came into view with a mouth full of bread. He ran to the end of the garage and hopped into a tree. And there…he ate the bread.

Then he went back to the porch.

Then he came back to the tree.

And I heard the pitter patter of bigger feet. Obi was on to this special OutTV program. He came running up the stairs and flew up to the cat shelf. When the squirrel returned to the porch, the brown kitten tore down to the dining room to watch.

Oliver and I approved.

***

In actual television news this week, The Boy and I decided to get rid of cable and start streaming our screen entertainment. I hear there are special channels for cats.

The screen saver seems to work for now.

Oh, Bi

We had this crazy thought that we brought the parsley in to eat it. Evidently, we were wrong. We brought it in for the brown kitten to stand in.  He does this at least once a day.

While I was watering the parsley, I decided to start my potato planters. They are already sprouting so I jabbed them with a fork and set them in a plate of water. Then I noticed Obi looking at the ceiling.

So excited.

The shimmering water reflection on the ceiling is now his favorite part of the day.

Yesterday, I was late for an appointment because the clock in the living room was an hour slow. I don’t know why that clock slows down instead of stopping, but it does. So today I changed the batteries.

Which drew attention to the clock. Obi noticed it for the first time ever.

At least for the first time since the last time I changed the battery.

How Deep Does This Go?

The Boy and I were taking a walk this afternoon and discussing our house. His office used to be a bedroom, but at some point they removed the closet and turned the built in storage around to face the bathroom. This happened when they removed the bathtub from the bathroom to make room for real stairs to the attic addition. But, The Boy postulated, the built ins do not fill in that entire space. There is room to add a closet back in.

When we got home, we grabbed the magic toy making and started measuring. The Boy removed one of the drawers. Of course, this attracted help. Obi went in to take a closer look. The Boy and I measured the depth of the shelving in the built in, then the stairs. There is, indeed, enough room for a shallow closet.

Meanwhile, Oliver decided he, too, must check the drawer.

Obi came out to suggest that our use of the magic toy making stick was wasted on home improvement. His home would me most improved, he said, if we used the stick to get his mousies out from under the couch. So I did. In addition to the two flat mousies, I also recovered a bouncy ball, a milk rink, and enough cat hair to knit a minion.

Oliver doesn’t know what we were discussing in the bathroom, but he did eventually lose interest in the drawer and leave. The Boy replaced the drawer and we all returned to the living room to watch Obi play with a mousie.

Home sweet home.

The Cheese Test

I bought cheese at the grocery store on Sunday. A lot of cheese.

I figured The Boy had to be almost out of Swiss cheese for his sandwiches. On a whim, I got some provolone for me. And I got two packages of grated mozzarella for Monday’s pizza. Unfortunately, when I got home I realized we still had cheese. Lots of cheese.

But it gave us an opportunity to test out Obi’s opinion on a new cheese. 

I thought the mozzarella might have a chance because it was grated. So when Obi came begging – “please, Girl, I need the cheese! I love cheese! CHEESE ME!” – I grabbed a pinch from the bag and put it on his plate. He sniffed it. He glared at me. He sniffed it.

And the brown kitten stomped off in a huff.

He sent Oliver in to give me a second opinon. Sniff. Curious look. Sniff.

Nope. Not cheese.

The Invisible String

Well hello there! If you haven’t seen us in a while, it’s because we went off and tried hosting on our own and we lost some of our subscribers. We missed the WordPress community, though, so we’re back. If you didn’t follow us to the new location, the last several months of posts have moved with us so you don’t have to miss a thing.

And on with the show:

Oliver was doing a full-press cute this afternoon.

So much cuteness, jammed into 14 pounds of fluffy. It was almost painful.

I was down on the floor taking pictures because he’d been attacking the rug. Darting. Dodging. Leaping. Skittering. At…nothing. “Ooh, you get that floor!” I cheered.

Obi looked at me like I was stupid.

Last night, while transferring new beads into the organizer, I must have dropped the plastic string they were on. Invisible strings are wily.

It’s the best toy ever today.

The First Smell-O-Vision of Spring

I’m sitting in front of the space heater in my office because it’s the coldest room in the house. Colder than the basement, somehow.

But it is 61 degrees outside so Kitten Thunder is enjoying some smell-o-vision upstairs on the cat shelf.

 

The expected high temperature tomorrow is 33 degrees.  Ah, springtime in the Rockies.

Approval Ratings

The surveys are in. Polls have been taken. And my approval rating is at an all time low. I’m really going to have to do something special to improve or another Girl will be able to move in and beat me at the next election.

First there was Jigger-gate last weekend. Enough said.

Then, once we finally got that resolved, The Boy and I both made bad political moves by returning to work on Monday. Not only did we not ask Kitten Thunder if it was okay, we disregarded their opinion when they reached out to us.

And it was a busy week.

I had what some might consider a “crap ton” of client work, plus two bracelets to finish for the silent auction at the Fur Ball that is this weekend. The Boy had a 6:30 a.m. meeting (WHA?!?) and a meeting Monday night. I also had a meeting Monday night, but I couldn’t find it. Instead, I spent half an hour driving up and down the road looking for it before giving in to my headache and going home. Where I had more client work. And bracelets. This meant NO snuggle time for either kitten.

Unacceptable.

Tuesday was more of the same. I worked all the way through the day with no lunch break. Oliver supervised from his box on my desk. He mostly expressed his displeasure in no snuggling. But I did NOTHING to fix the situation, other than suggest that HE should come sit in my lap. Why, he wanted to know, should he do all the work?

On top of this, Obi wasn’t asking for belly rubs. Tuesday night we finally confronted him. Was he giving up belly rubs for Lent? It turns out, he wasn’t asking because he didn’t want to be rejected. Now that is cleared up and The Boy’s approval ratings have soared. It also doesn’t hurt that The Boy is fighting off a cold so he’s had more couch time than usual.

In an attempt to bolster my own ratings, I announced my plans for Pajama Wednesday. Kitten Thunder loves Pajama Wednesday. But, after a small spike, my ratings plummeted when they discovered that I intended to work. At my desk. And THEN, in the afternoon, I got dressed. IN CLOTHES! (This last paragraph isn’t quite true…I didn’t actually intend to spend all day in my pajamas and only realized I wasn’t IN the clothes I’d ironed when I started thinking about leaving) And then I left.

Unacceptable.

This morning, I was the one with a crack of too early in the morning meeting. The day started out great with my curling iron going berserk and frying a chunk of my bangs. It was so hot, the whole section just disintegrated. And it smelled horrible.

Obi did not approve.

Then I was gone all morning. When I returned, I sat on the couch to eat lunch. Oliver was not coveting on the back of the couch and he wrinkled his nose because my hair still smelled like I’d set it on fire.

Oli did not approve.

Then I left again.

No one, not even me, approved.

Now, all the big projects are done and tomorrow is just another work day. Hopefully the kittehs will stick with me until Saturday. I think I can pull out all the stops on Saturday and recover in the polls.

After all, I have a great platform: the couch.

 

Inroads

It was state hockey weekend again and that meant lots of visitors for Kitten Thunder. My parents, along with Cousin Jigger, stayed at our house. And, since my nephew’s games were at way-too-early a.m., my niece also stayed with us.

The biggest issue Oliver and Obi has is that Lexi didn’t bring Barbi with her. What good is a little girl without a doll? So she bought one on Saturday – both cats helped get her out of the packaging and tried out her hands for chin scritching.

Meanwhile, on the dog front, things went a little more smoothly. No one got punched in the nose. Kitten Thunder spent most of their time in the living room with us…watching. It started out a little tense. But as the weekend went by, everyone calmed down.

Then, everyone discovered they have an interest in common.

Who doesn’t like squirrel watching?

***

An hour after everyone left yesterday, the squirrel came to the window sill and looked in at me on the couch. He wanted to know where his audience was.

***

This morning, I was glad that the audience was gone: spring has arrived an OutTV is a tiny bit pornographic. I’m thinking about piping mood music out to the front porch.

Not that they seem to need music.

 

Squirrels on Rye

The Boy and I don’t eat the same kind of bread. Being the only people in our house, we hardly ever finish a loaf of bread before it gets stale or molds or I just buy another loaf because I forgot to see what we had before I went to the store. This leads to a lot of extra bread.

Squirrel bait.

The same happens with tortillas, though not as often. When it was -20 degrees, I wasn’t putting out food because squirrels aren’t crazy. That is the exact type of weather that they store nuts or whatever for. So we had a surplus.

A giant stacks of the ends of breads and tortilla dregs. I did what anyone would do in this circumstance: I set up a taste test.

The results: Squirrels prefer rye bread over tortillas. But they’ll eat them both.

Next week we’ll be testing to see if they like my wheat bread over rye. Seriously…who wouldn’t?