BARE NAKED

Bare Naked Dogs

Summer Cuts

Do you even recognize Nora?

before photo

I was so startled when she was done being groomed
that I almost thought I would cry

but I quickly recovered and told her how "Beautiful" she was.

That's important to do.

Never laugh at a dog after a haircut!

When my sister and I were very young, we laughed at my Mom's poodle when he came home

with Pom-Pom hair and painted nails.

He immediately went and hid under the end table and refused to come out.

Speaking of Nora, here's an update on her.
She has put on some pounds. (That tends to happen in my home.)
She no longer needs her medicine. I'm doubting if she ever did and 
she now has good firm stools.
Yeah, I know TMI.
But that's what the expensive medicine was for, chronic worms.
By keeping her on regular Heartworm medication and good food, it's been taken care of it.

She is VERY protective. She goes crazy in the van at ANYONE she sees.

She bounces off the van windows and totally freaks out.

When she's at work with me, she will bare her teeth at some dogs until I tell her to stop.

Then she's OK.

She was barking at the neighbors over the fence where it is lower

but I told them to just call her by her name and then she stops.

Apparently she realizes that if you know her name, there must be 

no STRANGER DANGER.

And... she has taken to herding the little dogs.

Especially Mimsy.

Nora "nips" her on the back and guides her through the house.

I was feeling very sorry for Mims but then I took Mimsy to work with me and let her run full out in the big grassy play area.

Mimsy was racing around, and suddenly I think she felt overwhelmed by it all.

She ran to Nora and sat close to her, pressing her body against her.

So, apparently all is well between those two.

I just wish Nora wasn't SO protective.

She never acted like that when she used to belong to those other people and would board with me.

Everyone thinks that she's just so bonded with me that she's ready to defend me no matter what.

After getting Nora shaved down for Summer.

I decided to do Jimmy myself.

The groomer doesn't have a lot of patience and while I knew Nora would be good and just sit there

I wasn't so sure about my Jimmy.

(before)

Being a terrier he can be frantic.

But he sat quietly on the counter and let me buzz him.

I think I actually did a very good job!

I'm proud of myself.

So I came home and shaved little Ruby.

She has a very thick dense coat.

(before)

With her heart condition, she can't get over-heated.

I have never shaved her before and was worried.

The last two baths I've given her, she's twisted herself into a little mini-stroke!

She was bent in a weird angle and her tongue lolling out the side of her mouth and she was unresponsive

until I screamed RUBY!

and then she came back.

After doing that twice, I've just been wiping her down with a wet washcloth.

So....I shaved down Ruby

and afterwards set her in the pool and scooped the cool water over her.

She loved it.

Must have felt so refreshing.

Ah, Summer.... Life is Good.

Little Random Pet Tips...

I used to post Pet Tips on my blog

and then I stopped

and I don't really have a good reason why. 

Hmmm,

anyway......

I've decided to start again but this time they are going to be different.

Not your typical tips just little random things that I have discovered.

At least most of the time it will be just little quirky things unless I discover something BIG

that I wasn't aware of before....like BLOAT, which I blogged about HERE

when I was worried about Blue.

So, here's my first little random tip.

When putting a cat in a pet carrier most people tend to try to shove their cats in head first and that can be problematic.

It is usually much easier to put him in butt first.

source

OR the very EASIEST way is to have one of those soft carriers that unzip on the top.

Then you just plop him/her down and ZIP.

source

OK, I told you that it would be just a random quirky tip.

A DAY OFF

I have the day off today.

Perfect weather.

I'm trimming back the daisies.

Weeding.

Putting up flower boxes.

Planting flowers.

and finishing my raised vegetable garden.

I've come inside to cool off a bit.

I was relaxing BY the pool.

I would have gotten IN, but...

Rosie is hogging it up!

SQUIRREL

My Dad was a minimalist.

I didn't realize this until just recently.

Back in those days, there wasn't a name for it.

Or if there was, it wasn't that.

He only kept what he needed or loved.

He was one of those guys who had outlines around his tools on the pegboard above his work bench.

Everything had a place.

He had a filing cabinet, with hanging folders

and brought home receipts and warranties and filed them by month and year.

He would fix something rather than replace it.

If it had to be replaced, he would pull the paperwork out of his file and dispose of it.

No clutter.

He believed in quality over quantity.

My Mom was the opposite but after her passing the house had order.

(except for my closet, under my bed and in my dresser drawers)

He sold and gave away just about everything.

I think that this partly explains why my sister and I both battle the tendency to be pack rats.

I'm leaving a lot out of this story but he and I went from strangers to enemies to finally friends.

In his later years, he told me that I was his best friend.

I felt the same. I shared more with him anyone else.

Amazing... if you knew the journey we had traveled together to get to that point.

But, back to his sparse ways.

In his den he had his work papers and notebooks, a few books and a couple of trophies.

A few photographs and and a painting I had done for him.

On his desk was a paperweight made of salt and water from my early school days and another of my sisters hand.

That was pretty much it, except for my grandfathers little travel clock

that used to sit next to grandpa's bed

and this little wooden squirrel.

The squirrel is very small, just over 2 inches from the bottom of his feet to the very top of his tail.

I don't know where my Dad got him or who might have given it to him,

but that little squirrel sat on the shelf above his desk lamp and watched him work.

I wonder what his story was. 

How did the squirrel come to live with Dad?

I wished I knew, but I don't.

But I do know this, if he was in his den, he meant something to my Dad.

He must have been very important.

After Dad passed, there were very few possessions of his.

Me and my sister split them up and saved almost everything.

I originally kept several of his shirts and stored them in a drawer by themselves.

I would pull them out just to smell them sometimes

when I was really missing him.

After a while, I let them go.

Over the years I've passed most other things on to my sister or nieces.

He's been gone 19 years now, as of last weekend.

I've come to realize that I don't need things to remember him by.

But I do need his little squirrel.

He sits in my kitchen on a shelf and watches over me.

CATEYE GLASSES

I got new glasses.

I knew exactly what I wanted.

I'd seen several photos....online.

But I couldn't find the right ones in true life.

So I took my niece Maggie, the middle child, the one who is just like me except for the dog thing, to help me pick them out.

I think when you are near sighted it's hard to step back and make a decision when the world is a blur.

Unlike me, she has a great fashion sense.

Like me, she's very indecisive.

So I tried on a million glasses and finally we found them.

I was so happy and decided to take a picture of them to share on the blog.

Oh my goddddddddddddd!

It was worse than a really bad mug shot.

A very rude awakening. 

It's startling to realize what I have aged into.

In my mind I was -

Or maybe mature but trendy like Cyndi Lauper -

 But reality was more like-

Depression set in.

Maybe I was taking shots of the "bad side" of my face?

I found that it's very hard to take a photo of yourself.

Finally, I stood in front of a mirror, held the camera in front of me and kept taking photos.

Apparently my "good side" is just the top of my head.

Maybe if I edit the Hell out of it.

Make it sort of psychedelic and 60's? Mod?

Crap, whatever!

Here's a shot of my new glasses...

Jeez, it's hell getting old.

SO MANY PLANS

I had so many plans for today!
I had the day off.
Got up early, stopped at the library and then went and
got another load of cinder blocks for my garden project.
Now I have a total of 32!

and then it rained.

SUNDAY DRIVES

I've been thinking about my Mom lately.

She passed when I was 14 after a horrible battle with cancer.

Back then you didn't talk about cancer or about people who had died.

You kinda pretended it never happened.

Or at least that's what you did in my family.

But now, decades later I'm thinking about her and allowing myself the memories.

I'm thinking about how superstitious she was, about everything.

Everything caused a consequence, and you can bet it wasn't good.

So the other day when I was having a frenzied dog-mom day I said something that immediately made me look over my shoulder.

All the dogs were being rowdy and just getting on my least nerve.

I had the backdoor open leading to the patio area but someone still just had to go poop on the potty pad.

Just a few more steps but no! they had to do it in the house!

Then someone was walking down the sidewalk in front of the house and a couple of the dogs noticed from the window and started a chorus of barking.

I tried to quiet them down and then I noticed Jimmy running after Poppy.
She was scurrying away, dodging back and forth under furniture.

Jimmy was trying to grab her and do the humping thing.

He doesn't do that as a mating goal but more as a dominance thing.

He used to do it to Griffin but now that Griff is gone, he seeks out the weakest link.

and Poppy is tiny and weighs less than 5 lbs.

Yes, Rosie is just as small and OLD, she's almost 14 but she gets in his face and barks at him.

"Get the HELL out of here!" she snaps, so he goes after Poppy. 

I scooped her up and yelled at him.

I held and gave her a kiss and told her
"Don't worry, someday it will be just you and me"

GASP! 

I can't believe I said that!

WHY did I say that?
Yes, she is one of my youngest dogs and the smaller the dog, the longer they tend to live, but...
I looked around and immediately wanted to take it back.

I suppose mothers feel like that sometimes. They just wish their kids were grown up and out of their hair.

But that doesn't happen with pets...
and I DO love my fur kids with all my heart.

I looked over at Blue and almost started crying.

I didn't mean it.

Yeah, that made me think my mom again. She would have had me throw salt or spit or something

but I don't remember....

Then the other day I was scanning the real estate listings on my lunch hour.

It's a habit now, even though I have decided I'm happy with my home.

I'm in a nice neighborhood, a very safe one as far as that goes.

If someone was going to rob anyone, they probably wouldn't pick my house.

It's too visible on a main street and also the fact I'm surrounded by much nicer bigger homes.

That, and the fact that the dogs  are ready and set to sound an alarm.

Then I thought about my mom again as I clicked on listings.

She loved her home.

I knew that she came from very humble beginnings and was so proud of the fact that my dad had built their home.

Yep, Mid-Century, maybe that's why I still love the style.

When you came in the front door the first thing in front of you was the fireplace and then when you walked around into the living room, there was the other side of it.
The back of the house was a big picture window and then a jalousie porch ...all glass.

Yes, it was nice, but almost every Sunday afternoon she would make us all go on a Sunday drive.

A drive through neighborhoods to look at houses.

(I suppose if she were here now, she'd be scanning listings on the Internet too.)

She would have my dad drive really slow and they would make comments and observations.

Me and my sister would be bored to tears and sometimes I would see kids from my school playing in their yards and I would slink down.

"Hurry up! Drive faster" I was so embarrassed. I mean, what was the purpose of this?

One of her favorite places to drive to was the old rich neighborhood in the most wooded section of town up on the hill.

source

It used to be very elite, but now it's older and the homes considered smaller

and on the other side of town is the NEW mega mansions.

source

In my town, you want to live up on the hill. Anywhere ON the hill.

But that was THE hill on our drives.

Sure there are some beautiful homes down below, but not the safest.

source

and now... my sister lives in that Hill neighborhood.

I wonder if somehow all those Sunday drives worked their magic into her brain?

She used to drive  out of her way and through that area on her way home from work on some mornings and one day, there was a house for sale that was HER house.

That's what she said. She knew it was her house.

Anyway, another place my mom adored was a high-rise built into the middle of town.

Now people call it high-rise condominiums.

The tallest building in the city.

She used to talk about maybe moving there too.

So the other day at lunch as I'm scrolling through listings, I see that one of them is for sale!

source

I excitedly clicked on it. 

OMG!!!  Heaven.

I went up front (the office is very quiet usually over the lunch hour) so I showed the girls the listing.

They all immediately agreed, it was totally me.

What with all the white, how could it be more perfect?

(except I'd like different counter-tops, most likely marble and get rid of the green and a new faucet)

and they said,"But what about all your pets?"

and I waved them on and said, "NO! not NOW!
I'd like it when I'm older, and I have all my bills paid and
it's just me and Poppy."

CRAP! I said it again!

WTH?

I don't mean it.  Really I don't!

and yet I now feel like something is going to reach out and smite me.

and once again.

I'm thinking of my mom.