Sleepyhead

As always, Polly has a very busy schedule here. She supervises all human, canine and feline activity. She's responsible for the Mealtime Warning System, an important function even though no one has ever forgotten to feed her in all the years she's lived here. She also has to lick both ears belonging to the other dogs at least once a day, preferably three times a day. And she also has to administer her patented Pug Hugs to her mom and dad. Polly's a spry little lady, but even she gets so tired she can barely keep her eyes open.

New House Rules at 9 Dogs Howling

We just finished a big home improvement project here at 9 Dogs Howling Headquarters. We had the nasty carpeting in the living room, hallways, laundry room, and my study replaced with beautiful porcelain tiles. The dogs were not allowed inside during the project, which was hard on everyone. Earlier this week they came inside for the first time since we began the project weeks ago and were extremely puzzled to find cold tiles instead of their beloved, warm, stinky carpet. Since the weather here is in the mid 90's, you'd think they'd appreciate nice cool tiles, but no.

Anyway, one of the new House Rules here is that the indoor dogs must be crated at night and when all the humans are gone during the day. Polly & Georgie don't mind this at all, partly because their crate is one of the only soft, warm places here for a dog to sit now. We've gotten a bigger, wire crate since this photo of Georgie was taken. As you can see, he's resting comfortably.

Leaping Lizards!

Or napping lizards, as the case may be...

The World Is My Toilet

Smoky says: It's great to be an outdoor cat. I have a litter box in the garage, and the entire world outside the garage is my toilet.

Looking Good

The new porcelain tile flooring is looking good. We can only hope that it will be as impervious to pet damage as we've been told. Anything would be better than carpeting at this point.

Work in Progress

Polly stopped by to do a quick inspection of the flooring work in progress.

The truth will out

We knew that the dogs were piddling inside, drawn by the irresistible scent of the previous owner's dog's urine and compelled by the Canine Mandate of Marking Your Territory, but we didn't know how bad it was until the carpet came off the floor last week and revealed the disgusting truth. They were peeing in places that we didn't even know about. As John the Carpet Man explained, "That's the problem with carpet. It hides everything."