Real Men Wear Pink

This past week we have been picking away at cleaning up the spare bedroom.  That would be pushing it to call it the spare bedroom, as it doesn't even have a bed in it.  We took the bed to Oliver.  Might as well call it the junk room, as that was where everything goes that we didn't really have a proper place for.  

Including things like this.

When our dog club puts on an agility trial or a flyball tournament, we always have a raffle table.  Club members donate, or get other people to donate, 'things'.  Some of those things are items that you might have won somewhere else, and have no use for, hence the Snuggie.   A bunch of items are grouped together in a basket.  Quite often you put a ticket in the bag next to the item because there is ONE thing in that basket that you want.  I know it wasn't the Snuggie that I was hoping to win.

Since we don't have any dogs the right size, 

Nelson was 'volunteered' to try it on.

He wasn't impressed, but Luna found it all pretty interesting.

Luna finds him interesting whether he is dressed in pink or not.

He did some high stepping before just giving in and laying down

'Let me outside, I'd like to show the rest of the neighbourhood my new outfit'

In the end, I picked the cat hairs off it, shoved it back in the box, and will probably donate the Snuggie back for the next raffle table.

The Fur Rug

Nelson's belly hair needs combing, but it looks like that five minutes after you've combed it anyway.

Not Just a Pretty Face

The great black hairy beast has not only stopped dropping so many clumps of hair, he has started to pay rent.

This is at least the second mouse he has delivered to the back door.  At my Mum's, he had a cat door, and was back and forth through it constantly.  I'd love to put in a cat door here.  In fact we already have one that fits in a window that is accessed from the roof.   We got it for Smudge, who refused to have anything to do with it.  Nelson would like it just fine I think, he's pretty good at pushing himself into small spaces.  Leave a drawer or cupboard door open, and he's right there climbing up into it and checking it out.  The only thing is, he likes to bring his victims in with him, and they are not always dead.  And then he lets them go, and they hide under the furniture.  That happened at my Mum's.  The thought of it happening here makes me shudder.

The Flippin' Fur Factory

Nelson has adapted well to living with us.  He'd love to have some nose to nose conversations with Smudge, but she doesn't want to oblige.  Sometimes he can get within inches of her without her hissing, or occasionally  swatting at him, but she has no interest in getting close and cuddly.  He is entertaining, some of the things he does, what with being a younger cat, and the whole thing has worked out much better than I had thought.  He does spend some time outside, usually early morning and in the evening, and quite often brings a selection of vegetation back in with him.  It's that hair.

And speaking of hair, it's everywhere.  Probably it's worse now because it's Spring and officially shedding season, but since he actually spends 80-90% of his time inside, I'm not sure that he actually needed to grow a winter coat.

My mother used to complain about the hair he left around.  In fact she used to get very worked up about it.  I used to think 'really, is it that big of a deal?'.  

I eventually convinced her to switch to a higher quality food, having heard that it could help reduce shedding.  She went from Friskies to Orijen.

Didn't make a difference.

Now I'm feeling her pain.  Nelson doesn't just shed, he drops hair in clumps.  So instead of of random hairs joining the light airy dusty bunnies that accumulate in those dead air zones, we have these smoky grey clumps, not hidden in the corners, but out in the open.

Doesn't matter if you've just groomed him, or groomed him several times that day (yesterday).  You can vacuum, and you are guaranteed a few hours later to find clumps just sitting in the middle of the floor.

He has this very soft undercoat that mats easily and just seems to fall out in clumps. everywhere. all the time. endlessly.

Last Fall when he first arrived, I started saving his hair.  Not sure why, I guess just to see how much I was actually getting.  There was enough to clothe a few more cats.

You can't brush him, because all that does is glide over the outer hairs.  You have to comb him to get to the root of the problem, and he is generally good about being groomed, thank goodness.

If there is a next cat, and we have any control over the matter (sometimes they just show up) it won't be white, and it won't be long haired with a soft undercoat.

I think it will be a dog.

Things I've Learned....

......while my husband is away.
Larry is away for a few days.  He's helping his brother and sister-in-law move to Alberta.  They left Thursday morning, in a convoy consisting of a monstrous U-Haul truck pulling a car trailer, a car, and Larry driving a van pulling a utility trailer.  The weather was good the first day out, but the second day they ran into snow through the Rockies and all had to stop and chain-up.  Apparently they were going so slow that a highway traffic patrol car drove along behind them with his flashers on.  When the road conditions got better, he pulled out in front of them and made them stop and take their chains off, so that they would get going a bit faster.  Despite the truck and van being overloaded, they made it in one piece.
After dropping my sister at the airport very early Wednesday morning, I had joined them in the loading of the U-Haul.  It was a long, sometimes cold day with a bitter wind blowing off the ocean.  Thank goodness we only got a few drops of rain.  I had thought the truck was much bigger than they needed, but I was wrong.

So while Larry's been gone, I've learned a few things....

I learned that a set of car keys, that has been missing for months and months, possibly since last Summer, were in the pocket of a pair of capris hanging in the closet.

I learned that the marks I see on the ceiling when I'm laid in bed in the morning, are not from someone tossing a dog toy or ball rather erratically and bouncing it off the ceiling.  I've seen one for a long time that I assumed was from a dirty tennis ball.  The other one, which I've lain in bed many a morning wondering about, seemed more obvious this morning.  I finally remembered to have a better look at the marks when I got up and could stand right underneath them. They are wet spots from leaks in the roof.  It's raining again, so I suppose I'd better drag the stepladder in and haul myself up into the attic with a flash light and a bucket or two. (Yep, definitely a leak up there.  The buckets are in position. Thank goodness it's stopped raining)


I learned that even though I've got the whole bed to thrash around on, I still toss and turn and wake up with hot flashes.  Can't wait 'til I'm done with this.  A good night's sleep, I've forgotten what it's like.

I did learn that it's possible for one person to hose down a cat, holding it's tail and scruff in one hand, and the shower head on a hose thingy in the other.  Poor Nelson, with all that long hair.  Hope I don't gross anyone out, but Nelson had a big blob of poop stuck under his tail.  I didn't think I could wait for help.  His anus was blocked, and he wasn't happy.   I got the water running in the shower, got some disposable gloves on, and carried poor Nelson into the bath tub.  It actually went better than I thought.  I'm sure if it had been Smudge I would have been bleeding.  As it was I was just wet, because every time I let go of the shower head, it didn't quite reach the bottom of the bath, and insisted in turning in such a way that it was pointing out over the side of the tub and spraying all over my legs.  I towelled Nelson off, he went and used the litter box, had something to eat, and then worked on smoothing his ruffled wet hair back into place.  I did manage to trim a bit of hair off as I was drying him, but I'll have another go a bit later.  I can't wait until that smell is out of my nose:(

If looks could kill.....

Larry's back Sunday.  I had planned on doing some cleaning while he was gone.  Some of the things I've had to clean weren't quite what I had expected.

Big Boys at the Birdfeeder

I was wondering why the bird feeder was being emptied in a day.

Look at the pile of seed in that Jay's beak.

Usually they just work at the suet block.

They only manage to hang on this feeder a second or two, and probably as much falls on the ground as they carry off. 

 Not much gets wasted though, the rooster and a hen or two find their way over there to do some cleanup.

The blackbirds were in on it too

And the little guys were being pushed out

Nelson gives them the hairy eyeball, but doesn't want to go out there.

He prefers to go out in the early evening, when it's dark.  While he isn't bothered about the dogs in the house, being outside with them is a whole 'nother ball game.

Trying to Herd a Bearskin Rug

Nelson, are you in there? Move...damn it!

Trying For Some Feline Christmas Spirit

Smudge and Nelson weren't particularly thrilled by my visit to the dollar store this afternoon.  They didn't really want to look like festive court jesters.  I was trying to get them not looking right at the flash, but no luck with that.

I've had this niggling thought lately that maybe things aren't quite right with Smudge, so I'm going to take her for a check up next week.  We know she's getting old, she's about 16 or 17.  The thought that is now eating away at me is the congestive heart failure that  took one of our previous cats.  She showed up one day with massive amounts of fluid in her abdomen.  She was a barn cat, so we didn't always see her on a regular basis.  Smudge isn't presenting like that cat did, but I've got the thought stuck in my head.  Hopefully I'm wrong.  There's just something about the way she sprawls out on the floor in front of the gas fireplace that's got me wondering.

Golden Friday

None of that Black Friday stuff here.  Although I did hear there were retailers offering their own versions of the retail deals and madness taking place in the States, to keep the Canadian money from crossing the border.  Not interested.

We celebrated that golden orb in the sky, not a black cloud to be seen.  

A rare sight this time of the year.

A day where some border collies looked for a soccer playing partner, and others were sampling various piles of horse manure.

A day where dogs once gold are now fading to white

And manure piles threaten to disappear under the encroaching blackberries.   

That only took a year. I always say to people that if you didn't touch those blackberry vines, in ten years our area would be just one massive blackberry patch.

A day you thought would be good to dig some more dahlia tubers out.

I didn't realize just HOW wet it was where that row of dahlias was planted, until I put the fork in and wrenched them free of the sucking mud.

A day where black cats with golden eyes, take their first solo outdoor walkabout, and return!

Nelson was gone for a couple of hours.  I went out once to try and find him, with no luck.  An hour after that I stood and called from the deck, and lo and behold he sauntered  from the barn and came to the back door.

A taste of real freedom now means that he stands meowing at the back door to go out.

Nelson has really come out of his shell, which has it's good and bad points.

We've caught him on the counter a couple of times, and that really grosses me out.

A day where Mt. Baker catches the last blue skies and the sun's rays.

A day to go somewhere a bit different for a dog walk.

When you stop to sit on a new bench at the viewpoint, certain horse manure eating dogs find a stick and beg you to throw it.

And then you throw it to the other dog

How dare you?

Okay, this time make sure you throw it to ME!

We were 'good' park users and kept our dogs on leash.  Well mostly because we've heard that the dog police there are always on your case. There is an offleash area there, but the place was packed with too many people and dogs just hanging around, so we avoided it.  We met a few horses and riders on the trail, and of course other people with dogs, none of which were leashed.  They held on to their dogs as they passed, except for the last group.  Two white shepherd types.  I ended up unclipping Luna's leash, as her hackles were up and she was ready to explode.  Fortunately both dogs ignored her, and she was quite happy to dash ahead and catch up to Larry and Calli.

A nice sunny break before the next weather system rolls in.

Nelson Tours the Jungle

The beast has been unleashed.  Nelson has been taken out on a couple of supervised day passes.  Now he is hanging around the door in the evening, wanting to go out, and complaining loudly.  He has got braver and yesterday evening wandered through the living room when all four of us where there, as well as Jake, Luna and Smudge. Of course no one dared move, although Luna would have loved to, but she does know what stay means, most of the time. We could almost imagine Smudge going lalalalala with her paws in her ears, and her eyes closed, refusing to admit that Nelson exists.  She wouldn't look at him, not sure whether it was by design or just dumb luck, but she never seemed to be looking in the direction he was.  Surely she could hear him or smell him.

Click on the arrow here, while you watch the kind of boring video below. Makes it a little more bearable:)