Design advice from Reiki

My friend Nina learned to sew recently and has already made dozens of nice things as gifts and for her home. This week she decided to stitch her grandmother's table runners together and then make them into a quilt. Of course, Reiki is close by, offering design advice.

Berry's in the dog house

For the past few weeks, every time I open the door to the master bedroom (where dogs are not allowed), Berry (who feels that he is the #1 candidate for Indoor Dog) has raced in like a rocket and landed triumphantly on the bed, smiling and wagging his tail after first checking my nightstand for used Kleenex (a yummy treat). I regret to say that I have rewarded him for this behavior by laughing and kissing him.

But no more.

Tonight he did the bed-rocket routine and while I was reaching out to pet him, he squatted and peed on the bed. Marking his territory, no doubt. I instantly switched into Psycho Grammy mode and cast him out of the room. He slunk out into the living room, where Psycho Grampy accosted and scolded him.

When the bedding was in the washing machine and everything had calmed down, I went back into my study, sat down, and attempted to work again. Within a few minutes, Jinx, Meg, and Teddy and Patch came up to me in turns to remind me that they are good dogs who never pee on the bed. They all said, "Vote for me as the Indoor Dog!"

Sanford & Son move to west Tennessee

Trudy's prospects are not looking good today.

While I was at work yesterday, she took one of Possum's kittens out into the back yard, almost to the edge of our property (we have over 4 acres). The kitten wasn't hurt, just frightened and yowling. Mr. P. told her (very loudly) that kittens are not toys.

This morning I looked out at our front yard and saw that Trudy has set up sort of a play area near a lilac bush. I haven't inspected it closely, but it looks like she's got 2 blankets, 3 large pieces of styrofoam, a piece of plywood, and 2 small garden statues. Fortunately our house is set far back from the street so passers-by can't enjoy the white-trash view.

So Mr. P. locked Trudy out of the garage last night. I see this as a temporary solution. A long-term solution would be for him to clean up all the crap he's got in the garage, the inside of which looks like a scene from Sanford & Son.

Kitten Bouquet

This afternoon I managed to gather a beautiful bouquet of kittens. It would have been a bigger bouquet, but some of the kittens were too intent on exploring the garage to bother being scooped up in my hands. Which is too bad, because they passed up a great opportunity to claw my hands into shreds with their tiny needle claws.

How to use your Schnauzer as a blanket

You'll never be cold as long as you have a handy dandy dog like Fritz. I love the way he's got his rear legs spread out behind him in order to achieve Maximum Mom Coverage.

The Mona Lisa Smile

The reason for the Mona Lisa Smile on my face is pure, unadulterated, grandmotherly joy.

Would you smile too if you had a snack-size kitten like that to cuddle?

Nursery News

Mr. P. made a nursery /playpen for Possum and her kittens on a big shelf in the back of the garage. They all like it and settled right in to have supper. Possum has her paws full. She has SIX kittens, 3 grey striped just like her and 3 black just like who knows who. Their eyes are open and their lungs are working just fine...plenty of mewing and yowling. When we gently pet the kittens, Possum watches carefully but doesn't protest. Even Mr. P., an avowed cat hater when we married (he had a dog and I had 2 cats then), admits that these kittens are very cute.

Flying

When I was a little girl, I wanted more than anything to be able to fly like a bird. My experiments with "flying" down the stairs (from the 2nd to the first floor of our house) were not successful even when I used a bath towel as a cape (a la Superman), and they were not at all popular with my mom. The only time I could fly was in my sleep. I would have marvelous dreams about flying and wished I could dream those dreams on command. At intervals throughout my adult life, I've had other dreams about flying - in some of them, I couldn't NOT fly - could not keep my feet on the ground (that probably says something about my personality, but I don't have the time to analyze it right now).

I think Patch has dreams about flying sometime.

Update on Trudy's creeping crud

Mr. P. took Trudy to the vet yesterday. She has mange on her face and the vet thinks the crud on her legs is warts. A lot of warts. We'll put mange salve on her face and wait and see what happens with the warts. If she gets warts in her mouth, the prognosis is not good. The warts could be an allergic reaction to something in her environment, or from a virus, and/or from an immature or poor immune system.

The warts look horrible but Trudy doesn't seem to notice them at all. I guess she's too busy stealing stuff our of our garage and toting it around the neighborhood. And our small bunny garden statue is now her favorite toy. Mr. Bunny travels far and wide.