Where does she learn this stuff?

Yesterday, I took Sarah, Ashton and Sirius over to the track across from the house. Sarah rode her bike while I walked with Ashton and the dog. About halfway through, I figured out how to rope the dogs leash around him to force him to walk in a more controlled manner. Since he was well behaved, I had Sarah hook him to her handle bars and ride off with him. It was great! Sarah and the dog were exhausted!

After they rode for a while, Sarah decided to take Sirius onto the football field for "training". They practiced for a while and had a really good time. Then Sarah called for me and said "Look, I'm teaching Sirius Dog yoga. This is the mountain." No joke guys. I didn't even know they did yoga for dogs. According to Google, it's a big thing now.

Could you see yourself doing the downward dog with your pooch?? Not I said the Little Debby, Not I.

It Wasn't Me...

Doesn't he look guilty?

Rethinking Noah

I'm considering changing my mind on how bright Noah is. I was outside with the puppy the other day and Noah was laying at the edge of our yard. A car started coming down the street and the cat jumps up and runs straight in front of it across the road. He did it again a few days later. Maybe he isn't so bright...

Noah - The Sneeky Cat

I was outside with Ashton this morning and saw Noah (our black cat) do one of the most rotten things. Ted and Jinx were laying in the driveway across the street from out house. They had just finished rolling in the dirt (don't ask me why) when Noah comes sauntering up with his pal the white cat. Now, I don't know if cat's do non verbal communication, but I'm certain Ted and Noah did. Noah looked at the white cat and then moseyed on up to where Ted was laying and started rolling in the dirt. Ted looked at him and then stood up and faced the white cat. Ted is very territorial and went after the white cat. I had to pull him off the sorry looking thing. Ted was not too happy with me. I think it hurts his ego. He'll probably come home tomorrow with a few extra battle wounds to show me he's still a manly cat.

I swear that Noah looked pleased when Ted stood up and went after the white cat. It just seemed like he planned it all out. Daniel and I used to think that Noah was not the smartest cat on the block. Since he's been outdoors, our opinion has drastically changed!

Good Boy Pup Pup

I've taken to calling the dog PupPup. I don't know why. I guess it just works for me. I'm really impressed with him right now. We've been working hard to make sure he gets outside every time he displays potty behaviour. It takes a LOT of oversight, but it's starting to pay off. We've only had the pup for a week and he's already starting to go to the door and whine when he needs to potty. I hope this behaviour keeps going.

Oh, did I mention that our pup is named Sirius Black (some other name that Sarah added) Graybeal. I was outvoted. I wanted Hagrid. (Check out the Harry Potter series if you're wondering about the names.)

The New Addition

No, we've not added extra square footage on the house. No, we've increased the size of our household through adoption. Not the kind that gives you a walking talking kid. No, more like the kind that gives you a pooping, peeing, cute little puppy that adds on to your daily tasks. That's right. We don't have enough going on, so we decided to get a puppy.

Actually, the puppy is Daniels birthday present. He's been dying to get one for a year now. I've held off for a while but in the end it was really important to him. (I know that sounds pouty but it's not meant that way... yet. I'll reserve the right to whine and pout when housebreaking goes awry.) Sometimes we have to make concessions. And now we have a cute black ball of a dog. He's a golden retriever/lab mix. Both were purebred.

Tonight is is first night with us. Earlier, Ashton was in his Johnny Jumper and the puppy was trying to catch his feet. It was so cute. Sarah is working on his "training". She's convinced that he needs timeouts already. And my DH is extremely happy. I guess all the additional poop and pee may be worth it. We'll see...

Cat and Mouse Games

Over Christmas, Daniel and I found that a mouse had taken the fluff off of our angel tree toppers wings. We were quite amazed since we've never seen one is the house. Then a week or so ago, I found a mouse dropping in one of my cabinets. YUCK! So I went out to Walmart and got the ultrasonic mouse repeller plug ins.

To be honest, I wasn't sure if was a good use of my $20 bucks, but I have an aversion to the lethal traps. And, we can't use the poisons because of the kids and the cats. That night, I was sitting in the recliner with Ashton. He'd just finished his 11 o'clock feeding when out of the corner of my eye, I watch this little mouse start running across the living room floor. His eyes looked as if they were going to pop out of his head.

For a minute, I thought I was seeing things. So I got Daniel out of bed and put Ashton back in the crib. Daniel and I grabbed a broom and the swifter thingy and started pulling out the couch. Our "chase down" of the mouse was almost comical. We would see it and then suddenly it would disappear. Then Daniel noticed a slight movement in the old base board heater. I popped the cover off and we managed to shoo the mouse out the front door. If any of our neighbors happened to be watching our front door at that time, they would have laughed - a lot!

Poor mouse, the front porch is the cat porch. I tried to get it out the door before the cats came in but it wasn't cooperating. We decided to see if the cat's had a better chance at catching it now. I did leave the doors open so it had a shot at making it out alive.

The one thing that irks me is that Ted (our oldest cat) is an extremely good critter catcher. He brings home mice, moles, squirrels, birds and other stuff all the time. But he can't catch a mouse in the house. We also have two other cats. I've never seen Jinx catch anything, so I'll let her off the hook. But Noah, the youngest has been learning from Ted and caught his first bird a month or so ago. They have NO excuse! Oh well, hopefully we've seen the last of the bulgy eyed mice in the house.

The Dirty Old Mutt

Goodness, Cheech is getting old. I believe he's 13 this year. He's starting to slow down become a bit more grouchy! On top of that, he's become incontinent.

When we moved here, we kept Cheech outside. After breaking through two leads and the temperature going from insanely hot to insanely cold, we decided to move him indoors. That was going good until the newest aging development. Most mornings, Daniel gets up to find that the kitchen floor has once again turned into his urinal. I've had to mop the floor 8 out of the last 10 days. Now, my kitchen floor has never been cleaner but it's taking me away from doing other things.

What to do, what to do? Daniel and I have decided that the old boy needs to live out the rest of his days out doors. We're looking for a kennel to put him in. It's either that or put him down. We've decided against the latter because he still has more good days than bad. Hopefully, he'll be happy living the out door life.