Crystal Montoya

Bees

It was a beautiful day in San Diego. It's Dick's birthday so he was off work, and spent the morning working in the back yard while I wrote about HFCS. When he finished in the back, he headed for the front so I followed him because I was finished with my article and wanted to help.

We had a bunch of weeds to pull but it was a nice day and we had fun pulling them together.

 

 
Then we wondered if this clover is a major food source for all of the wonderful bees that seemed to be saying, "Hey - I'm eating that!"

 

We decided to leave some clover for the bees for awhile to make sure they don't starve to death.

 

 

  

 

My Animals

I know I go on and on too often about how much I love these animals but I just can't help it. They are hilarious! Sometimes really annoying but normally hilarious. 

As I was watching them; the two dogs and the fearless kitten outside this morning for their "we just woke up and it's another glorious day" celebration it occurred to me, yet again, that these guys really know how to live. For them, everyday is a brand new opportunity for mischief, fun, and most importantly the chance to share their love.  

My larger dog, Sierra takes awhile to warm up to others. She wants to be certain the newcomer is an accepted member of the pack before she lets her guard down. She has been tolerant of, but not overly affectionate towards the new kitten, Frijole, since I brought him home about 9 months ago.

Fleck, the other dog fell instantly in love with the kitten though so the kitten hasn't really noticed that Sierra looks at him with distrust and suspicion. Frijole is happy to mostly avoid Sierra as he has Fleck to torture and when that fails, he can always go after the little old lady cat, Princess, who is 16 years old and now lives in constant fear of being attacked. Okay, so maybe Frijole isn't the best example of how to live but I think Sierra may be.

We should all be a little weary of strangers, making sure they mean no harm before allowing them into our life. Once someone has earned our trust, we should give it completely and then find ways to let them know they are an accepted member of our pack. Then we can proceed with having fun and celebrating life.

I think Frijole finally found a place in Sierra's heart. Frijole likes to dig a hole in the yard outside to pee in and then he covers it up. This is doing wonders for the grass that Dick is trying to grow. Anyway, this morning Sierra sniffed out one of Frijole's makeshift toilets; she took a big sniff of it and then walked over to Frijole. 

Frijole is pretty fearless but Sierra is a big dog, especially compared to him, so while he held his ground as she approached, he did have a look of apprehension on his face as she got nearer. Sierra simply walked up to him and gave him one huge lick starting from his nose and ending on the top of his neck.

Sierra walked away and I did too, with the knowledge that Sierra has fully accepted Frijole as one of our own. For her, there is no higher compliment than a big, wet, lickery, kiss.

Nothing Sweeter

There is just nothing sweeter in life than having puppies and kittens. Well, okay I guess a bouncing actual human baby would be very sweet too but bear with me because I am childless. When I say it like that you may feel bad for me "Oh that poor childless woman" you may be thinking, but I'm perfectly okay with being a master to a bunch of fur balls so don't worry about it. In my mind the only thing worse than not having a baby is actually having a baby. Someone told me I was not a nice person yesterday and after reading that last line, maybe she was right but I do actually feel that way.  A baby would mean a drastic overhaul to our lives while a puppy or a kitten only means a slight shift. Babies grow up and expect to be educated and want a car when they turn 16. Animals grow up and expect that you continue to feed them. When a dog turns 16 they may need a wagon to get around, as they will be old and frail, but you don't have to worry that they are text messaging while driving that wagon down the freeway with three friends in the car. I am completely appreciative of all you sweet Mommas out there trying to raise good kids. I've discovered that I don't want any part of it. I've written about this before, motherhood and adoption or foster care and I got good feedback "Oh you should definitely be a mom - even if your intense attitude towards food and chemical toxicity would likely damage them for life."  Well we discovered that we're too old and not healthy enough to qualify for an adoption and Dickie is really nervous about fostering - for valid reasons. Don't even suggest that I actually give birth to a person; that's something I've never seriously considered even before my health problems, now it's just too risky. 

It's for the best, with all of these animals to take care of I can't imagine I would have time for a baby and honestly when I consider the amount of work and heartache that would come along with motherhood, I realize that it is clearly something that other people should do. This attitude could have something to do with the diapers I changed recently for a friend's baby - whew. I can just hear the ideas going through some of the heads of you mommas out there - the ones who would not feel fulfilled or happy without being a mommy. You're thinking if it was my own baby the diaper wouldn't bother me. You're thinking I simply cannot know what I'm missing because I am not a mom. Some women are just down right offended that I have made this decision - that I don't want children. I mean no offense and I believe motherhood is the most important job in America, I respect those of you who dedicate your life to your children and I respectfully choose to leave it up to you. Don't worry, I am actually fulfilled in life, perfectly happy and free as a bird - well free as a married bird - don't worry honey, this bird mates for life. I can still hear you Mommas, you're thinking  "She just doesn't know what she's missing and that's why she thinks she's happy with no children."  Well whatever.  I'll never be able to convince you that I don't need a child to complete my life. 

If it is any consolation to you, getting a baby dog is a lot like a human baby at first. You have the
 crying at night, the feedings, the poo poos - heck with a dog, you never stop having to pick up their poop - at least with a kid, eventually they'll manage all of that all by themselves like a big boy or girl. Our dog Fleck is the same age as one of my friend's daughters and they actually were extremely alike throughout their first 18 months. My friend would tell me how her baby was going through a paper chewing phase and I would say "oh my goodness, I know, so is Fleck!" Then there was the crying phase at first - they both went through it. Later on they both developed a wart at the same time, they had fun comparing them, or maybe it was just my friend and I who had fun comparing them. Just the other day I was telling my friend that Fleck has entered into a digging phase and of course I heard all about how the baby was doing the same thing. Now talking is the next milestone, Fleck may surprise me one day, we'll be cuddling on the couch together and he'll look at me and say "Momma." I'll immediately put an ad in the paper for a free talking dog because I'll be certain he will start demanding an education and expect a car when he turns 3 (that's 21 in dogs years). No thank you.  

My animals bring so much entertainment to my life. It's like having a little personal, comedic circus in my house. In the mornings Frijole is the first one raring to go. He's the kitten and he wants to go outside to hunt for bugs. Once I let him out he creeps ever so slowly towards the little grassy strip I've managed to grow in search of his prey. Once he gets close his bug flies away and then Frijole leaps into the air to catch it. He's a world class jumper. Then Sierra rouses and goes outside for her morning pee and sniff. She smells everything to make sure nothing has changed, I'll see her come upon a scent of something, maybe a squirrel and she'll linger for a moment, I can see the longing in her eyes, her ultimate goal her entire life has been to eat a squirrel. She'll realize the scent is old and the squirrel has gone away so she'll lay down, doing her signature turn around three times before she finally settles and she'll watch Frijole fly though the air for awhile. About 20 minute later Fleck will show up, he'll have decided that we're all too rude and too noisy for him to continue to sleep in. He likes to sleep in and he despises mornings. He always looks like he's hung over and still half drunk when he gets up, he wobbles by, stretches out, shakes his body and licks his lips. He'll slowly make his way outside pausing for another little stretch on the stairs on his way out and then he'll go lay down in the back yard and watch Frijole too. At some point Frijole's hunting expedition will be too much for Fleck, the jumping and running will infect Fleck and he'll just have to join in. Frijole will be moving in, ever so stealthily on a poor unsuspecting bug and then suddenly Fleck will blow it and pounce on Frijole. Frijole will get pissed and smack Fleck a couple of times with his south paw and Fleck will retreat. Eventually they'll all end up just laying around and I'll think what a bunch of moochers - if I actually had kids at least I could put them to work!

What should we be feeding our pets?

In the past couple of days I have been doing much research on what is the best diet for our furry family members. What I have found should not surprise me and I guess it doesn't, I'm just disappointed that again I find that money is a much bigger factor than human decency.

Commercial pets foods are garbage, plain and simple. Even the "good" ones are nothing more than crap backed by fantastic marketing teams who live and breathe to manipulate you into believing their food is beneficial to your pet. They are lying or at best they are ignorant.

Our pets will not thrive on these foods that are full of wheat and corn. You animal would never eat wheat and corn in the wild. Your cat especially would never even really eat fruit of vegetables. They are meat eaters. Before commercial cat food, cats lived on mice. Cats were used to control mice populations because their natural diet is mice and other small animals.

Your cat wouldn't build a fire and roast his mouse before eating it because your cat would know that doing so would kill off the beneficial enzymes and bacteria, things that are essential for their health. Animals need raw meat, this is the conclusion that I have come to after just a small amount of research.

Again, you may have a hard time with this because it goes against what you have been told your entire life. It certainly goes against what you would probably feed yourself. Most people are completely convinced that raw meat is dangerous and I guess it can be, especially for people who do not have the right bacteria in their gut to properly digest it. There are some people who eat raw meat consistently and they believe their health is much better for it. I don't eat raw meat but I am not going to say that people who do are wrong or crazy, it's working for them.

I'm not talking today about us though, I am talking about our animals who have very different nutritional requirements than we do. Raw meat and raw bone is absolutely the best thing we can give our animals, it's what they would eat if they had their choice and it's what we as responsible pet owners should be feeding them to ensure a long and healthy life for them.

They need more than just raw meat and bone, Some grains like brown rice or millet are okay, some good oils like sesame or fish oil are necessary, flax is good for them. Eggs are fantastic. They need beneficial bacteria like acidophilus, especially if you can't get past giving them raw meat and must cook it. Until I can get to a vet and talk to them about the best recipes to use to make my animals food, I am using a brand that I got at South Bark Dog Wash called Nature's Variety. http://www.naturesvariety.com/ 

The prescription food I was told to give Habanero before he passed away was Hill's Prescription C/D wet cat food. The first ingredient on the label is pork by-products. Now admittedly I don't spend a lot of time with cats out in the wild and I don't personally know what they eat. I am almost certain though that they do not eat pork by-products. It just seems like it would take one nasty pack of wild cats to kill a pig, maybe it's possible. If they did manage to kill a pig would they only choose to eat the by-products? I don't think so. The next ingredient is pork liver which is better than by-products but I am still not convinced that pork is something my cat should eat. Then we have fish - which I imagine is great but I have to wonder what kind of fish and how was it grown. Then oat fiber...that's not so bad I don't think. Chicken fat - that's good but wait ...corn starch and corn gluten meal? Cats don't eat corn do they? If they do are they going to separate the corn gluten and eat only that?

The pet food industry is just like the people food industry only I imagine they can get away with putting even nastier by-product sludge into the pet food than they can our food. Maybe not, the fact is that I don't eat by-products and my animals will not either.

The cost of buying the raw food is not that much more than buying the high end commercial foods that was had been buying. I imagine when I am able to get the proper recipes and start making my own I will spend the same or even less than I was on the Nutro Natural Choice that convinced us they were the best with their false advertising.

It would be nice to be able to walk into your average pet store and know that the foods there were nutritious for your pet but you can't. Gone are the days when the majority of companies wanted to sell a superior product for a fair price. Gone are the days when a reputation was all you had. Now, corporations do not care if their customers are satisfied, their goal is not to make you healthy even when they say it is. Food, pet food, soaps, cosmetics, cleaning agents, drugs, are all marketed to make you believe you will be gaining health by using them but very seldom anymore is that true and in so many cases the truth is exactly opposite of what they tell you. They know you will believe their advertising. There are still some good companies left and I encourage you to research the truth about how your pets should be eating and try to give them the closest thing you can.

Now of course, I believe many American people do not understand how to nourish themselves either which I also encourage you to research. If you are going to maintain your health well into old age, it will not be by listening to the authorities on health care, which really sucks but it is very much the truth. Your average doctor and certainly the FDA either do not have or do not share the best information on optimal health which will always begin with a natural diet.

Farewell Habanero

This weekend was a sad one in the Montoya home. Habanero, our 11-year old tabby cat lost his life yesterday after he suddenly became very ill.

He was just fine until Thursday night when he came down with cystitis and FUTI. He had what we would call a bladder infection and crystals in his urine. There is potential that the crystals can block the urethra and cause him to be unable to urinate. If this happens it is an emergency situation. He has gone through this once before and he was fine. We took him to the vet on Friday and they expressed his bladder, gave him fluids, gave him an injection (I'm sorry to say I don't know what it was), gave me amoxicillan to give him at home and told me to feed him Science Diet C/D wet cat food.

We came home on Friday and he seemed okay, he did urinate a little on his own. We went for a follow up appointment on Saturday and they gave him another injection and more fluids. Saturday night we fed him his second can of science diet food and continued with the antibiotic. He seemed to be feeling a little better and was purring like crazy while I was playing with him.

Yesterday morning things just went bad. Hab woke Dick and I up when he crawled up on the bed and was just not breathing well at all. We thought maybe his bladder had backed up and he needed to pee but he had urinated on his own. We rushed him to the emergency vet and they immediately put him on oxygen.

Maybe I'm just emotional about the loss of my very good friend and very important part of our family  but I strongly feel the events that transpired from the moment I walked into the hospital with Hab were horrible. I am now solidly convinced the the practice of veterinary medicine is even more corrupt and disgusting than the practice of human medicine, something I didn't think was possible.

Hab was in heart failure and had a lot of fluid on his lungs. They immediately wanted me to authorize more than $300 to knock him out and drain the fluid. The vet did not come out to talk to me at this point and Dick and I had questions so we asked to talk to the vet. While sitting in an empty exam room and waiting for 10 minutes to talk to the vet I was wondering what was happening to Habanero. The vet came in and told me that Hab seemed to be okay on oxygen and instead of needing $300 right now to drain the lungs, they should probably do $150 worth of xrays to look at the lungs first. Knowing that I would not want someone puncturing my lung before they looked at an xray of it, we authorized the xray.

At this point Dick and I are very aware that these people care much less about our cat and the future quality of his life, if there is to be any than they do about acquiring as many of our dollars as they can while we are in a highly emotional state of mind. Dick and I want very much for our cat to come home again.

The xrays showed definite heart disease, fluid on the lungs, and they could not rule out cancer. As soon as they delivered this news they handed us an estimate for around $1500 so they could possibly get him through the night. They would not really say what his chances were, at one point I asked if he even had a 50/50 chance and the vet could not say. If they did succeed they were absolutely certain that Habanero would require frequent lab work, 2-3 medications twice daily, and regular vet visits for the rest of his life. They were not sure how long the rest of his life could last but they did want to make it clear that the exact episode that was happening now would likely happen again, even with all of the medical intervention that we would be providing for him.

Dick and I had to make the heart breaking decision to let Hab go. I hope we made the right choice. It's really hard to say for sure. Habanero meant a lot to this family, I suppose he was the King of the house. Now there is definitely an empty spot that everyone is noticing. If Dick and I thought that Habanero was going to have any kind of quality of life we certainly would have done everything to try and save him. We did not feel that Hab was going to have the same happy, lazy, and comfortable life after this. We didn't think it would be at all the same for him.

As soon as we told the vet our wishes, they inserted a needle into Hab's leg for the injection. They did this before we had a chance to say goodbye to him so when we got to see him he was in even more pain and completely annoyed because of the huge needle in his leg. Why would they do this when we told them we wanted to see him, didn't they realize this would make the cat even more uncomfortable than he was in the first place?

Of course there is always an icing on the cake and the icing we got matched the horrible taste of the cake itself. They immediately came in to discuss our options for Hab's remains. I cannot even believe this now but here are the options they gave us:

We could have him put to sleep and not be present for $80.00. If we wanted to be with our pet while he died, we'd have to pay $20.00 extra. This is complete BS if you ask me. We paid the extra so Dick could stay with the cat that has been his best buddy for the last 11 years while he died.

It gets even icier because now we have to decide what to do with Hab. We can either pay $150 to have him cremated and keep his ashes, we can pay $100 to have him cremated and have his ashes spread at sea (because cats generally love being in water so much?!), or we can pay $80.00 and he'll most likely be used in make up - yes ladies, I said he would most likely be used in making make-up. This is ACTUALLY what the guy said. 

I feel like I'm talking a lot about money and I do not want anyone to think that money is more important to us than our pet was. It is not. What I am saying is that it is quite clear to me that veterinarians are banking on the fact that most people value their pets as priceless. They are priceless but reality is that sometimes it is time for your pet to die. Sometimes money won't help. I don't think the average vet is going to tell you when money won't help. They would make less money then. I think the way Dick and I were treated yesterday was terrible.

After we made all of the decisions, they immediately came in with the bill so we could get that paid before Hab died so we wouldn't have to deal with it afterward. Yeah right, I may have believed that was a kind gesture if the preceding few hours had gone differently but they didn't. From the moment I walked in the door they were trying to play on our emotions and persuade us to spend a lot of money without giving us any real hope that it would make a difference. They were going to just puncture the lung without even looking at it. That's ridiculous. How does it cost them anymore money to have the owner of a pet present in the last moment of his pet's life?   

Before Thursday Habanero was a healthy cat. He was a happy cat and an incredibly loving cat. He went downhill very quickly. I believe that my cat was a victim of horrible veterinary care. I believe he was over medicated and given food that could have contributed to his sudden heart failure. The Science Diet brand has included a couple of their foods in the recall that you may have seen all over the news but they maintain that the food they told me to give Habanero was not included. I think something was wrong with one of the medications or the food and you will never convince me otherwise.  I am kicking myself for subjecting Habanero to this kind of care, I would not subject myself to it. There is no way in hell I would go into my doctor and allow him to give me injections I knew nothing about or take antibiotics without trying nutritional approaches first.

Animals will benefit from a holistic approach to their health just as much as humans. I will find a holistic vet for my other pets today and I will start giving them food that matches their natural diet as closely as possible.  I will be doing much research on animal health so that I can try to prevent something like this from ever happening to another one of our pets.

I'm sorry I failed you Habanero. Rest In Peace.

Oh My Dog, What Have I Done?

(If you want to see larger images, just click on the picture and then hit the back button to return to the story)

Last week, the only thing I found to write about was Habenero, our friendly house cat. Well, my dog Sierra felt that she deserved the spotlight too and after yesterday's experience I agree with her, but more about that later. If you do not just love furry critters and reading about them, please don't get discouraged, I promise not to continue going on and on about my furry family members.

So this is Sierra, or at least what she looked like when we rescued her from the pound. Who could resist this face? As soon as I saw her, I knew we had to bring her home. She was 4 months old and had been found running around near the 94 freeway. Poor baby. We were very proud new parents and we got all the right stuff to raise her right, the best leashes, a big crate, nice comfy sleeping pads, toys, the best food, and anything else we thought our new baby may need. It was an expensive day but our puppy was going to have all of the things she had not had before.

We took Sierra everywhere with us and she was loved by all. We couldn't walk past anyone without them stopping to tell her how cute she was, how beautiful she would be when she grew up, some people even predicted she would be extremely intelligent, the compliments were never ending  and Sierra reveled in the attention. She loved her fans and gave them all plenty of kisses (nasty doggy tongue lashings) to show them.

I was working at home at the time so she was my assistant. She sat with me during the day while I worked away in the office. She knew when I had enough of someone I was stuck on the phone with and would start barking uncontrollably, which gave me an excuse to get off the phone. She gave me a nice nudge every once in awhile when she could tell I was getting frustrated. She'd force me to take breaks to play, so my day didn't get too stressful and I didn't get too bogged down. She was the perfect office companion.

We knew she had the potential to be the world's smartest dog at this time and we hired a trainer to help us uncover that potential. She was a pretty good student. We taught her to walk properly on a leash, that is until she saw another dog and then all bets were off, she learned to come but decided that trick is only fun if she really feels like it. She learned not to jump on people when they come to visit but she decided that she likes people too much not to give them her standard jump and lick greeting. She learned how to do all of these things and yet she has decided to live her life the way she wants to. Actually if you include food in your commands of the dog, she is perfectly behaved. She sits, lays down, stays, gives you a high five, spins in circles, you can put the food in front of her and tell her to wait...she won't take it until you tell her it's okay. So really she is the world's smartest dog, she learned a long time ago not to work for free!

As Sierra got a little older, she lost that irresistible puppy appeal. Her hair filled out and to my dismay, was much longer that I had hoped it would be. Her legs grew disproportionately long for her body, and she just ended up looking a lot like Santa's Little Helper from the Simpsons. Now when we would go out for walks people would walk right by her without paying any notice. This profoundly affected Sierra, where had all of her adoring fans gone?  She still loved them just as much but they had completely forgotten about her, now much younger dogs were getting the attention that used to belong to her. She tried to regain their love and would stop dead when someone walked by, looking up at them with what used to be her persuasive puppy dog eyes, waiting for some acknowledgment and when none came she would let out a little whimper and move on, hoping the next person would shower her with love and attention. When they didn't, she finally realized that her time to shine had passed and she had become completely average. I can sympathize with her, when I was 17 I sure got a whole lot more attention than I do at 30. That's just life.

I still think she's just as wonderful as she was the day we brought her home and she knows that. When I got sick, she took full responsibility for making sure I was okay. She lay by my side day and night, escorted me to the bathroom or kitchen and waited for me to do what I was doing and then escorted me back to bed. She gave me plenty of kisses (nasty doggy tongue lashings) and would often just lay her head in my lap and tell me everything would be all right. This dog will always be my very good friend.

At one point when I was sick, we were really concerned that Sierra was not getting enough exercise and that she may be really bored and lonely. I was spending really long days in the doctor's office and Dick was working. Sierra seemed to be getting depressed. We decided to get our dog a dog to keep her company and to run around with. Dick had always wanted a Jack Russell Terrier so we set out to buy one - for Sierra. Now you would think anything this damn cute would have to be a good thing, right? WRONG. They need to start calling these dogs what they truly are - Jack Russell Terrorists. Sierra was sort of confused when we brought this monster home. I'm sure she was wondering what the hell we were thinking. Now she had to deal with this menace to our household while she spent long days outside in the backyard. Okay, I know you're thinking that this little, tiny, adorable guy could not possibly reek havoc over every inch of our home but that is just what he did. We tried all of the training methods we had learned when Sierra was a puppy and this dog did not care about any of them. He peed, chewed, dug numerous holes, barked, scratched, chased the cats, ate the side of the garage (seriously), and tried to single handedly unearth our huge avocado tree within the first week he was here. Oh, but he was cute so we tried to manage him. Sierra even tried to help keep him in line for awhile but gave up because she knew much sooner than we did that this heathen was a losing battle.

Sierra was just not as thrilled about Jake as he was about her.

I could go on forever telling you about the mischief, torture, and destruction this amazingly adorable puppy brought into our life but this is Sierra's story and that wouldn't be fair so I'll just tell you that after months of trying to train this dog and only getting a ruined couch, carpet, backyard, and garage in return we had to make the decision to pass this problem onto a more willing and capable family. I was completely honest about Jake's terrorist ways and still someone was willing to adopt him. I hope he's happy with his new family and while we do care about his well being, I would be lying if I did not admit that I am overjoyed he is gone.

So now this brings us to present day. Sierra and I are much happier, she spends her days with me, mostly just hanging out, and sometimes I'm able to take her for the occasional walk. We play fetch in the backyard, she gets all of the attention she wants from me, and of course always tries to thank me with kisses (nasty doggy tongue lashings).

The only problem is that she has a long thick coat of hair and while she is always shedding, it gets much worse this time of year. With two cats and Dickie's seemingly endless supply of hair shedding, adding the dog means that our hardwood floors have a constant coating of hair on them, almost as if we have carpet. This drives me insane and it's really too much for me to keep up with so I decided to have the dog groomed this year for the first time in her 3 year old life. Sierra was having some bad hair days anyway, so I knew she would appreciate getting a new do.

I made an appointment with the groomer and I took Sierra there. It was her first car ride in awhile so she enjoyed it thoroughly, sticking her head out the window the whole way there. We arrived and Sierra was even happier to see that I had taken her to a place where there were other dogs and people who recognized that even though she's no puppy, she's still cute. The groomer presented me with a fur board, like I was picking out drapes or something. There were different lengths of fur on it and she asked me to pick out what length I wanted Sierra's hair to be. Now just like when you're picking out drapes, it's very hard to visualize what they will actually look like in your home. This is true with fur length too; it's very hard to imagine what your dog will look like with a certain length hair. All I knew was that I wanted as little hair as possible shedding in my home, so I picked a very short length. Sierra had long thick hair to begin with, hers was actually a very beautiful coat when it wasn't falling out all over my house. Please remember this picture, because this is the dog that I took to the groomer.

So I left my sweet Sierra in the very capable hands of the groomer to get a bath, her nails trimmed, her teeth brushed, and her hair cut. She was gonna get the whole pampering package. I went home and spent a lovely afternoon with Dickie, waiting to get the call that my beautiful, newly groomed doggy was ready. I got the call and went to pick her up, knowing that she would be very happy with her afternoon, getting so much attention.

I arrived at Petsmart and entered the grooming area. Sierra was still in the back so I waited a little impatiently until they brought my baby out to me, I couldn't wait to see her. Then I did see her. I was a little taken aback at first and then I just had to laugh. I had made a terrible misjudgment in how long my poor dog's hair should be and this is the dog I got back. Now Sierra doesn't seem to know how ridiculous she looks, she's just as happy and friendly as always but I think other people know some thing's not quite right here. This was confirmed for me when I took her outside of the grooming area, after getting over my initial shock, and a man standing in Petsmart looked at her, then at me, then again at her and asked "What kind of dog is that?" Now before her new haircut, it was plainly obvious that she was some kind of German Sheppard but from this man's tone when he asked the question; I knew that she now looked like some kind of canine alien.

When I got her home and Dickie saw her, he immediately informed me that he would not be taking the dog out in public with him anytime soon. Poor Sierra. I really had not intended on making her look this ridiculous, after all, who would want to admit this was their dog? That would mean they would have to admit they were crazy enough to commission someone to do this to the dog. Well, the good news is that Sierra will most likely get the attention she so desperately seeks from strangers for awhile. It won't be because she is so darned cute, it will be because she looks absolutely bizzare but I don't think she'll know the difference. So when you go to the groomer with your dog, please remember that fur swatches are shorter than they'll appear when applied to your dog.

My dad is worried that she'll be cold; maybe I'll buy her a nice sweater.

Flabby Habby

This is Habenero.You can click on the picture for a better look. He's one of our two declawed indoor cats and he certainly believes he is the master of our household. Dickie got him and Princess when they were kittens 8 years ago. He has freckles on his nose and a tiny black patch of hair on top of his head that looks like an oil spot. He's a big boy but not enormous. He has a flabby stomach and when he actually gets enough motivation to run,it kind of flops from side to side under him. When I moved in Habenero instantly loved me and I liked him a lot too. I found out later that he likes all the girls, he's quite the Casanova.

He sleeps with us and this took a little getting used to for me but it was his bed so what could I do? He had been sleeping in it for 8 years. I wouldn't mind so much if he wouldn't wake me up in the middle of the night by sticking his nose on my nose and staring me down or by licking my chest and headbutting me. He's a kooky cat. He sleeps all the way at the foot of the bed under the covers during the day. I have to wake him up or he'll stay there all day and drive me completely crazy at night.

Shortly after I moved in I decided I wanted a dog. We got Sierra from the pound, she's a German Sheppard mix and was really a very cute puppy. Hab didn't like her much and still doesn't. Sierra would really like to be his best friend but he wants nothing to do with her.  I think he is quite offended that we did not discuss adopting a puppy with him. It really has affected his comfort level in his home. Whenever Sierra is near, Hab goes either for the bedroom under the covers of his cozy bed or he finds higher ground quickly. Sierra has tried to make friends with him on several occasions only to be greeted by Hab's claw-less left hooks rapidly pounding her nose. I often wonder if Sierra would keep trying to talk to Hab if he had claws. I sort of doubt it.

He hates it when we dare to to leave the house and leave him alone. Our punishment for leaving is that he drags things from our dirty clothes pile from the (his) bedroom into the living room. The cat brings sweaters, full length robes and has even dragged an actual  queen size blanket into the middle of the living room to greet us one time. At first we thought there was no way the cat could really be doing this but one day when I was sleeping on the couch, I caught him! I looked up and he had my big sweater in his mouth dragging between his legs coming from the bedroom. He must of thought I was gone because when he looked up and saw me looking at him, he abandoned the sweater right where he stood and ran into his bedroom, onto his bed, all the way under his covers and acted like he had been there the whole time. I think he was dismayed that we confirmed his secret mess making tantrums.

Aside from the dog, Hab is very affectionate, like I said he really thinks he's quite the lover. He is always putting his head on my chest and if I don't watch him, he'll try to climb right into my shirt. He also has this ostrich thing he does, he will try to hide his head in the couch or my arm pit, I'm sure thinking no one else can see him if he hides his head, I am always quick to remind him that he has a  big butt sticking out and then he gets a little mad at me. He's a little sensitive about his weight, probably because I have made him that way. I'm always reminding him that he is too fat. My favorite pet name for him is Flabby - because really he is quite flabby. At one point about a year ago, I decided he needed diet cat food. So I changed the food he had been eating for 8 years and put him on the diet stuff. He developed crystals in his urethra and was unable to urinate and then couldn't stop urinating. I thought he was having kidney failure and I rushed him to the vet only to find out it was all my fault. I guess you can't change your cats food on him suddenly like that. Now he has to eat this prescription cat food. I'm really sorry Habby.

Other than eating, Hab's favorite activities include chasing the occasional bug that gets in the house, eating anything that resembles string, and basking in the sun in our kitchen window. Hab also thinks that he knows how to talk and often I will have complete conversations with him. I have no idea what we're talking about but I'm sure it either relates to food or the stupid dog. He's a good cat, he always makes sure I'm okay, if I'm in another room for more than 2 minutes you can bet he'll come in to check on me. I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful family.