Good lord what a fat dog

Meet Moses, our foster dog. His owner died and the lab rescue folks needed a place for him to stay and we said OK.

We were told that he weighs 92 pounds and has arthritis and needs ear medicine and is depressed. I know how he feels, being a bit overweight myself and having all kinds of aches and pains. Who wouldn't be depressed?

Actually, he seems quite happy to us. He loves everyone. Wants to jump in the car and ride every time we go out in the front yard.

Compared to our granddog, Princess Buttercup, he is rather comatose.

We've been walking him several times a day and feeding him very lightly. I bet if he dropped a few pounds, that arthritis would clear right up.

Moses likes cats we are told, but you wouldn't know that by the reaction of our cats. They have all locked themselves in various rooms upstairs and refuse to come down. There is one crunching food under the sofa right now, after Chris kicked her out of his room.

Tippy has just come out from under the sofa to get a look at the large, panting behemoth sleeping in the middle of her playground. This should be interesting.

College Boy Comes Home

We've had our college boy home for a week now. Things have been pretty chill. He seems to be handling the lifestyle change OK. It only took 4 days to do all the laundry. We haven't figured out yet what food to buy and how much. I hope we will get it right soon.

I noticed a barricade of shoe and other boxes in front of his door. Then I noticed that all of his pillows and blankets and sheets were in the laundry room. Hmmm I thought. This can't be good. Better investigate.

I stood in front of the barricade when the door was open and leaned into the room. "What's up with the boxes?", I inquired in a non-scolding voice. "Don't want those cats in here." The feral kittens I presume. "One of them pooped on my bed." "And you had to take all the pillows off, too?" "Yes, he peed too." Oh dear. "It was Tux", he said. I said maybe it was Pepper, who has pooped under our bed a couple of times to punish us for bringing those horrid kittens into the house. No, he said, Tux was in here for a long time with the door closed. "I'm sorry about that. You sure the cats won't just hop over these boxes?" Grrrr.

It took another 3 days to do all of the bed-related laundry.

Tonight Paul made cheeseburgers for him. "Mom, where's the ketchup?" Hmmm, that might be a problem. "Bottom door shelf", I said hopefully.

He's in his room packing now. Life is better in Blacksburg where they have an unlimited supply of ketchup.

Politics and World Affairs

are not covered by this blog.

Tippy approached me about getting into the blog scene. "How do I get started?", she said.

Here are two tips. Don't sit on the computer. Get some thumbs so you can type.


Often when I work on my computer, Tippy helps and with her help I have recently sent out a number of interesting messages. Samples:

"I hope to see you soon.

Janet2222222222222222222222"

And

"Please let me know how much it will cosm548233 xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx kkky34567"

Tippy likes to pick a letter or number and really let it have a star turn. Kind of like Sesame Street.

Right now I am watching Washington Journal on C-Span. This is the show where a question is given for callers to comment on. Questions such as should Guantanamo be closed, should GM be bailed out, should there be an investigation of torture, what kind of dog should the Obamas get? Some of the callers are so stupid that you have to wonder how they dialed the phone. Today's topic is the White House Correspondent's dinner last night. It's hard to take seriously any caller who contends that our president has no sense of humor. Dang, that's why I voted for him. Anybody who can say "wassup homey" and look and sound so good saying it is OK by me.

hold on, Tippy wants to say something:

ddjkajwfih238y52ym28yt3q8rfkvnjujfehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjfQOD

sEE YOU LATER HOMIES

Tux Steps Out

oh yeah, I'd call this progress.

At the Rookery

On Thursday I visited the heron rookery on the James River in downtown Richmond. The river was very high and very wild. Walking on the pipeline was noisy and windy. New leaves on the trees hide the heron nests a little bit. All of these photos were taken with a telephoto lens. I hope you enjoy them and that you get a chance to visit the rookery someday.

Exclusive Photos of Mystery Cat!

He's out! Life under the sofa (and stove) proved unsatisfactory, so after 2 weeks, Tux came out for air. Not all at once, of course. Take a look.

Tippy is happy to have someone to pounce on.

Bring it on, brother.

Report from the Wild Kingdom

Things are going pretty well here at the Cattery. We had some rough spots during the week but all is calm right now.

Tippy adds to her play skills daily. She loves yarn and her peacock feather and socks. Which is good because Pepper likes to drag socks around the house, so they should be able to find common ground on this issue.

The boy cat, tentatively known as Tux, continues to resist our efforts to convince him that life among humans has benefits. He has drawn blood from both of us now so we are reluctant to try to hold him, which makes us sad. He didn't eat for a few days but he is now. He stays under the sofa most of the time. He did spend some time upstairs, including an unknown period of time stuck between the glass and the screen of a window. We aren't sure when he went upstairs, but he did eat some tuna while he was up there, so we saw that as progress. He's back downstairs now.

We read up on handling feral cats and one of the tips was to not make eye-contact with the feral cat. Perhaps that is what upsets Tux so much. I suppose he doesn't like it either when we holler "he's out from the sofa, come and look." Or how about a hoarse whisper, "He's got white feet!" I guess it's that rude behavior that sends him back under the sofa. No eye-contact my foot. How can we see what he looks like??

Needless to say, I have no photos yet. I suppose I could stick a camera under the sofa and use the flash, but that would traumatize him further.

Please enjoy photos of Tippy and Pepper. Tux isn't ready for the blog scene yet.

Tippy changes the channel

Tippy under the blanket