So what ARE the animals doing?

As predicted by many of our friends BC (before Conor), the furry children in our house have taken a serious backseat to the human child we now have.  It’s not that they are not still an important part of our household, but our focus has shifted, and rightfully so, to our non-furry offspring.

Nonetheless, they continue to be important if not frustrating parts of our household.  (Feel free to skip today’s entry because it is sappy and dwells on other people’s pets---a topic about as exciting as other people’s dreams)

Thus, we shall use this entry to catch up on the animal shenanigans in our home.

Let’s start with Sergio, the red Betta, since the poor fish is clearly not at the top of any list otherwise.  He continues to swim around….actually, no he doesn’t.  He hangs out in his fake grass and waits for his three food pellets to appear twice a day.  We’ve eliminated the major problem we were having with algae by not using gravel in his bowl any more.  But that leaves his home place with just floating grass, which is a little bare.  Conor loves him though and will point to him again and again.  Simba loves him, too, but has not yet tried to eat him.

Oh yes, Simba, our small 6 pound minx of terror.  She is the best cat with Conor.  She’ll let him pet her and pull her tail and will just purr and roll over.  Nonetheless, she continues to pee on any pile of clothing we leave out over night.  (I’m not particularly fond of that habit)  She has also started sleeping in bed with us, but has not quite learned to draw the line between kitty and Mommy.  She likes to sleep on my head.  Originally, that meant sleeping on the pillow above my head.  But the colder it gets, the more likely it means actually, physically, literally, ON MY HEAD.  And she’s not really all that willing to move, which leads to a fun game of black flying kitty at 3:00 in the morning.  She is getting along better with the other cats. Dave even saw Scarlett give her a nose kiss two days ago.  Of course, not too long after, there were paw swats exchanged which is still more of the norm for her.

Scarlett is the normal cat around here.  This is an unexpected twist of events because for the 5 years previous, she was known as Psycho Kitty and with good reason.  She has been quick to hiss and swat at strangers.  And that has not necessarily gone away, but considering she is the least likely cat to pee outside the box, that gains her points in our normal poll.  As far as Conor goes, she’s not too thrilled with him.  She’ll let him get close to her and touch her, but it’s clear that Hiss and Swat are not that far from her mind.  It doesn’t help that Conor screeches every time he gets near her.  It’s ear piercing to us; I can’t imagine what it sounds like to her.

Duncan is actually doing much better.  He is now close to 15 years old but can still get around pretty well.  He is actually peeing less than he was, but we’re not taking many chances.  He tries to keep as far away as he can from Conor.  As soon as he sees the child, he runs—under the bed, into his new favorite spot in the linen closet, anywhere he can as far away as he can from Conor.  (Perhaps this exercise is what keeps him in share?)

And finally, Patches.  Patches is the one who probably has it the best and the worst with Conor.  He loves having a small human around to play with, but he’s getting more and more jealous of the attention we give Conor.  And our small human loves his similarly sized dog.  Looooooves. Looooooooooves almost too much.  More than once lately we’ve had to rescue Patches from some Conor love/torture such as trying to honk his nose his he honks ours.  Patches is so good natured about it, but he still has a pleading look in his eyes when Conor screams and pokes his snout again and again.

Patches is not always so good.  Dave and I continue to lose underwear and socks whenever Patches can reach a snout into the laundry basket.  Used diapers within reach are also up for grab-and-tear.  (Fortunately, these are only pee pee diapers, otherwise, I’d still be retching)  But overall, Patches is amazing in our new household.  He dits with Conor tells him too.  He protects Conor’s toys from the cats.  (Although the cats don’t really give a hoot about the toys, he really just chases them away as they walk by Conor’s toys.)  In the morning, Conor rushes over to Patches’ bed and pets him and Patches just rolls over and licks Conor when he can. 

It is true nonetheless though that when Dave comes home, Patches really, really, really, really, really wants Dave to come outside and throw the Frisbee until Patches can move anymore.  Now, though, the Frisbee throwing has to occur with a little peanut by Dave’s side.  Dave throws.  Patches fetches.  Conor picks up the Frisbee and gives it to Dave and the process starts again. 

OK.  You probably were not so curious about how everyone has been getting along around here.  It’s just another area of guilt for my neglect that I can check off my list now. 

10:41:19 AM