And is watching the fire with the rest of us, in between bouts of digging up the plant pots and eating strawberry flowers.
Tag: dog
The cuteness
Every time that chair gets free, the dog claims it.
Damnit, dog…
The fast and the folly-ous
The dog has an understeer problem. The front end turns on a dime but the back end has cornering issues.
She goes off like a bomb but tends to end up head first in a shed wall.
It only took 3 hours…
… to get both animals settled quietly in the same space.
The dog and snake
Might sound like an English pub name, but it’s aalso a perfect description of the picture above. Katy bought the snake for Poley from IKEA. As you can see, the dog is now quite taken by it.
Lots of little news tidbits
Good news, Tolstoy is past cage rest and has been running around the house for the past few days and seems to be a lot better for it. Both cats were beating the stuffing out of each other while they were roughhousing last night, so things are getting back to normal.
Bad news, we had to give Annie back to the breeder. She wasn’t settling down well – she was quite jumpy and wasn’t coping well with Ben. She growled at him on a few occasions, mostly when she was trying to sleep and Bean wouldn’t let her be. It wasn’t really her fault, but it’s hard to explain things to a two year old. We tried, we really did, but the final strike against her staying was when she peed in the house in front of Tolstoy’s cage and then snapped at Katy when she tried to get her off the couch to put her outside. If Annie wasn’t going to respect the pecking order with Katy, she probably wouldn’t either with Bean, and that’s a risk we weren’t willing to take. It was the right decision to do, for the right reasons, but it still sucks. If Bean has been a bit older, things probably would have gone much more smoothly but live and learn. We’re going to try again when Bean is a bit older, and this time we’ll get a puppy, so that way it’ll know its place from the start. Jane, the breeder, was really understanding and good about it. She was disappointed – we all were – because all this acting out is out of character for Annie. Still, we weren’t comfortable with the situation anymore. It would only take one wrong moment for something regrettable to happen and it’s not worth the risk.
Speaking of Bean, he seems to be getting over his cold and is getting his appetite back. This is good. He’s also becoming a pain in the ass with all the tantrums. This is less good. Hopefully, this too shall pass. He’s getting bigger – and heavy to carry on my shoulders for the bus in the mornings. We bought him some bigger clothes and we got some new dig dig curtains and wall canvases for his room from Next (courtesy of a bank transfer from my mom).
It’s Easter weekend, and the folks are here. Mel and Katy are currently outside assembling parts of the slide/swing set we bought Bean for xmas. Things seem to be going well, but I’m sure they’d go even better if there was light out.
I treated myself today and made chicken wings. They were really nice, but they’re a damn pain in the ass to make. There’s a reason why I only break out the deep fryer once or twice a year. I also made shish-kebabs with marinated pork loin, peppers and mushrooms on the BBQ. Very nice! It reminded me of all the times I went to Alouette Steak House with Michel when I still in Montreal. The good news is that the pork loins were going for cheap at Tesco so I bought two. I just need to get some more skewers and a new bottle of gas and we’re good to BBQ again. That’s mainly the plan for this weekend. Cook. Eat. Build Swing. Cook. Eat. Paint Fence. Cook. Eat. Eat. Eat. Toss in lots of drinking in there as well and a side-trip to Scottsdales and it should hopefully be a nice weekend, if the weather cooperates.
Current Mood:
Full
Dog, squeee! Also, fret!!!
Katy brought Annie home today, so we are now dog owners. Let the second-guessing, have-we-done-something-stupid worrying begin :)
She’s had some food and some water, had a bit of a sniff of the garden, but we’re a long way off a harmonious household because the cats seem very unimpressed and Bean hasn’t seen her yet.
Hopefully things will settle down bit by bit with not too much fuss. Watch this space :)
A weekend update on the pet situation
So, first off, Tolstoy is starting to feel better after being a very sick boy. He went downhill very quickly two weeks ago and, after several tests and a week’s stay at the vet, they diagnosed pancreatitis. He also had a bout of E.Coli and some anemia. Fun stuff. The good news is that symptomatic treatment has been effective and, after having had cage rest for the past two weeks, he seems to be perking up. The bad news, as it were, is that in the course of diagnosing the pancreatitis, the vets discovered that he’s had a herniated diaphragm as a result of being hit by a car two years ago. Part of his liver and spleen have herniated into his chest and that’s compromised his lung capacity and constricted his heart. All of which can be rather, well, fatal and needs immediate attention.
It’s a weird situation. He was fine, and could very well stay fine for years, until he’s not. Then he’s dead. To avoid this, he’s going under the knife tomorrow. The vets wanted to make sure that he’s gotten over his previous malaise before they operated. He’s a lot better now, but he’s still not out of the woods yet. Because the hernia’s been around for so long, there is the possibility of nasty complications. He’s in good hands, and we’ll find out how things went tomorrow. Poor little guy. He’s not even 5 and will have had two major surgeries and a minor one. Yay, insurance…
On a more positive note, we went to visit Annie this weekend. Bean’s very excited about the prospects of getting his dog. Everybody at nursery knows the name of *his* dog :)
She’s really good about not pulling on the leads, so when we went for a walk, we were only loosely holding on to the middle of the lead while Bean was trotting along behind Annie. It was a case of not being sure who was walking who :)
We had very nice visit of Cambria Farm, which is run by a lovely lady called Jane Wilton-Clark. She runs a rare-breed pig farm that produces some truly excellent pig products. We bought some sausages and patties and had some for lunch when we came back. YUMMAY! Definitively have again, and driving back there with Annie will give us an excuse to go visit and buy some more :)
Speaking of food, I made a lasagna and a roast chicken, neither of which I’d done in a very long time – both of which were very good and therefore must re-enter the rotation of weekend dishes. Note to self.
Current Mood:
Giddy
New addition to the family
We thought long and hard and we’ve asked the breeder if we can adopt Annie.
It might be a few days of fun while everybody, especially the cats, get used to each other but we think we’re up for the challenge. She’s a really gorgeous girl and she seems very sweet-natured. Hopefully all will go well. Watch this space.
Current Mood: Giddy