Scary stuff

Today was an awfully long day for a holiday. Hyphenated Corp. gave its peons the day off with pay, but Flannel Jammies, being self-employed, had to work most of the day. I went in to her office first thing this morning, and we balanced her IOLTA account and one guardianship annual account. Then I went to water-walking this morning because there won't be a class offered tomorrow morning.

Ordinarily, that would have been enough for one day for me, but I came home, had a quick lunch and started putting the study back together. I got the vacuum cleaner out and started with that. Little Miss went absolutely bonkers, growling, snarling and trying to bite the vacuum cleaner. The 'Foots always ran away from it, so I was trying to get her to back off while not stopping the vacuum. All of a sudden, Littlefoot charged into the room and laid into Little Miss. I'm not sure why he thought she was a threat to anything but the vacuum, but they were really going at it. There was a lot of snarling, a few yips, tons of big flashing teeth and overall just a very adrenalin-inducing 30-45 seconds.

For all that I may bitch about Littlefoot being a long-haired, double-coated dog, that coat proved incredibly handy today. I took three steps to get around behind him, grabbed two giant handfuls of fur and yanked. The minute I separated the two of them, he calmed down and she hid behind my leg, trembling. I put him outside, and it wasn't until I'd been petting her for a bit that I noticed there was blood all over my hand and my leg. Littlefoot had gone across the top of her nose and nailed her on both cheeks, and dog faces bleed just as profusely as human faces, so it took a little bit of time to get her cleaned up. When I'd done so, I put her out and let him in, and she'd gotten in a shallow slice on top of his ear, which was also bleeding like mad. I got him cleaned up and felt like collapsing, but then Mom called and said she was on her way.

Mom and Dad spent the afternoon here. Mom helped out with the cleaning and furniture moving, and Dad installed my new ceiling fan/light fixture. It's amazing to have a fan with more than one speed, and truly luxurious to have a ceiling fixture that actually provides real light. As long as the JammiesFest attendees don't bring white gloves, we should be okay.

Oh, and all future vacuuming will be done with Little Miss outside on the chain!

Puppeh pictures!

Someday, there will be pictures.

For right now, my few loyal readers get stories.

Little Miss Smoky has fit herself right into the household. She still needs some reinforcement to not jump on or paw at people, but she's a sweet and loving little girl. Littlefoot got in her face twice on Saturday and got snapped at for his pains, so he's being very nonchalant toward her and very needy to make sure I still love him just as much as I always did.

I don't know that Little Miss has ever had toys to play with. I do know that since I gave her one of the toys and then didn't scold her when she found the toybox Monday evening that she has been very happily occupied most of the time since. She has had every toy out at least once, and while she shows a marked fondness for the rope toys, she likes the squeaky ones too. The only ones I will have to add to the banned list are tennis balls--I came home last night to a study full of quarter-sized pieces which took me a good half hour to clean up.

She's really good about telling me when she needs to go outside, and if I put her out when she hasn't asked to go, she will sit on the top step and sulk until I let her back in.

Tonight was her first visit with Dr. Mark. She weighs 43.8 pounds, and Mark thinks she could stand to gain three to five more pounds. He's pretty sure she's a shep mix, and the only reason she looks slightly Rott-ish is that her head is too big for her frame. She's also got some very dry skin from slightly substandard nutrition, and she got her first kennel cough vaccine tonight. The receptionist working tonight said Little Miss looks like Bigfoot.

After the vet visit, we went out to see Plaid Jammies. She was scared of him at first, but slowly thawed out. At least she didn't growl at him the way she did with Dr. Mark. Dad was supposed to have a quiet bachelor week, what with Mom being up at the lake with my nevvies. Unfortunately, something has happened to the electrical system at the lake house, and Dad was going to head up there as soon as Smoky and I left. Since there were some really violent thunderstorms going on tonight, I think I'll go call and make sure he got there safely.

The house is still a pit, the study is still a half-painted wreck, I am NOT ready for JammiesFest and there are pictures of Little Miss on the camera waiting for me to download them. Hopefully, everything will be taken care of by July 10th!

A New Addition to La Familia de Jammies

Please welcome Smoky Moon. I don't have any pictures of my own yet, so these are the ones from



Petfinder.

Doc went with me today to pick up Smoky. I'm keeping the name she already had, and adding a middle name so she knows when she's in trouble. Smoky Moon is the BPAL perfume I didn't get so I could afford the adoption fee, and she's totally worth it. There has been surprisingly little conflict with Littlefoot, just a bit of snapping when she thought he was trying too hard. She's adorable, and it's hard to understand why she was given to the pound by her former owner all of three days after Christmas. She's just about a year old, and although her foster owner called her a Shepherd mix, the jerk who surrendered her said she was a Rottweiler/Lab mix. I hope she has some Shep in her for the longevity, because I want to have her around for a long time.

We spent about twenty minutes in full sun at Pawprint Paradise so Smoky could get comfortable with me, and bless her heart, Doc didn't blink once at doing it. Then she drove home so I could sit in the back seat with Smoky, who fell asleep with her head on my shoulder at one point. There will be more pictures and plenty of stories, but right now, I wanted everyone to know that I once more am owned by two dogs.

Silver and gold, silver and gold

Silver and gold, silver and gold
Dude, this stuff is ug-leee
Silver and gold wallpaper
Is gone from my li-brar-eee!

Just a little reminder from me to me about why all my books are in boxes, my house is a wreck, my neck hurts and my hands are wrinkly old-lady hands tonight:

Before:





There will be "after" pictures when there is an after, but first there will be a wee paws in transmissions from KJAMZ, as my computer will need to be disconnected and moved this weekend. It is possible but not probable that Dad will have my new-to-me laptop ready by then, so my few readers should be prepared for radio silence.

Nothin' to Say

Night lets you down
Wonder and wander
There's no one around
Nothing to say now, nothing to do
I can feel my heart breaking
And it's all 'cause of you
Nothing to say now, nowhere to hide
I can feel my heart breaking
All the love left inside

"Nothing to Say" by Chris Isaak

I dreamed about Bigfoot Sunday night--he was leaning on my right leg as he loved to do while I was on the phone with the vet hospital, where someone kept saying to me that euthanasia is not reversible.

*sigh*

Somebody's Got Some 'Splainin' to Do!

Today was pretty much craptastic from the get-go. The drains in my driveway and inside the garage were blocked with maple keys and mulch that had washed out of the flower beds, so after a night of heavy rain, the garage flooded to a depth of about 4 inches before I managed to get out there and squidge around clearing the drains. There wasn't much in the garage that could be spoiled by muddy water, but my folding chairs got drenched and I can't even wash them and set them outside because it's still freaking raining.

On my way into work this morning, I discovered that some genius at ODOT thought that 8 a.m. on a weekday would be a perfect time to close the center lane of one of the main highways leading into Cleveland. A 35-yard lane closure backed traffic up seven miles and I wound up having a stress headache and being more than an hour late to work.

When I finally got to work, I discovered an error in the index for the book I was planning to build early and discovered that two of the people not in Cleveland that I nonetheless work closely with and like very much are both taking the voluntary separation offer and leaving in the next year. :(

The drive home was hideous, with lousy visibility and slow driving. The garage had drained, but to quote Jeff Foxworthy, "It stinks very much bad in there." However, I discovered a box in front of my side door from Blue Ridge Daylilies, containing a Big Foot lily plant. I haven't decided where I will plant it, but I will put the stepping stone Bigfoot and I made in front of it, wherever it goes.

Thank you very much to whoever sent this, and please 'fess up.

Confession received--it was my lovely friend Mouse from the Lush forum. Thank you, my fellow gardener who is also owned by furkids! <3

The dog I looked at is meeting a family today, so while I am sorry that I missed the opportunity, I hope she finds her forever home.