I got you covered, bro

Rub-A-Dub-Dub

Three dogs in a tub! Kind of...

Responsible pet owners

Mr. P. & I often joke that our local animal hospital will soon be able to build a new 9 Dogs Howling wing on the money they've made caring for our critters.

I've been in their waiting room when people came rushing in with a dog they found abandoned and/or injured at the side of the road, or some other canine find, so I know they deal with discarded animals all the time. Surely they know how much it costs to provide veterinary care for all those animals?

I recently found myself in a conversation with one of the vets at that facility, who seemed to think we hadn't been providing adequate care for our gang. Well, no. We give heartworm medicine and yearly exams/shots to the indoor dogs, and the rest (canine or feline) get only flea/tick meds, food and water. Unless they come up with some obvious disease or injury (sad to say, we've lost 2 cats to bad injuries), they're on their own. So when the vet says, "Why hasn't Lucy had [xyz]?", I can only say, "We have NINE dogs and 3 cats and just barely have enough money to feed them all!" And I want to ask, "Can we get some kind of government subsidy for running an animal shelter at our house?"

You have HOW many dogs?

I don't go everywhere bragging about it, but occasionally it comes up in conversation.

I say, "We have 9 dogs."

And they say, "You have HOW many dogs?"

I repeat, "Nine."

And they say something like, "Why?"

And I say, "One day this stray dog came along and..."

We were so poor...

My mom and her friend Quimby used to try to outdo each other with stories of childhood poverty. "We were so poor, we slept on beds without mattresses." "We were poor, we slept on the floor." "We were so poor, we used newspaper for toilet paper." "We were so poor, we used leaves for toilet paper." And so on.

Well, Lucy has a similar story. In a recent conversation, Blackie said, "I was so poor, my only toy was a secondhand nylabone." And Lucy said, "I was so poor, my only toy was a summer squash."

Heeeere's Lucy!

I was finally able to get Lucy to sit still long enough for me to photograph her. She still looks kind of skanky but her skin infection is much better and her fur is growing again.

Above and Beyond

Berry knows that we perceive him as a fat, lazy dog who could easily be converted into a coffee table, but he's able to think above and beyond that. He's a finer, truer, more spiritually developed dog, one who has spent many hours of meditation (that we thought were naps) achieving intellectual and spiritual heights that we may never know.

A Safe Haven

Last week, the new "shortie" chair in the living room got tipped over (it's a long story). But Georgie, who loves that chair, was somehow able to find a comfy spot in it.

A man without a beard

Fritz's beard was so nasty, the groomer had to shave it off. Lisa says he looks like a lemur now, and I can tell by the look on his face that he knows he looks like a dork without his beard.