Animals are weird

We gave my mother-in-law’s dog a rubber duck nearly two years ago at Christmas. The duck is wearing a stocking cap and squeaks very loudly when squeezed or chewed on. Arfie (yes, the dog’s name is Arfie because when he barks, he says “arf” very clearly) loves that chicken, and takes it everywhere. But the reason I’m including this in my “animals are weird” post is because every Sunday when Kent calls his mother, Arfie runs off to get the chicken and brings it to my mother-in-law, making the bird squawk the whole way.

In a similar vein, Eddie is a talkative cat all the time, but he saves his loudest, most expressive meows for when I call my mother on Saturday mornings at 8 her time. He will walk down the hallway and come into the office, singing the song of his people the entire way. My mother can hear him very clearly—heck, I think the people down the street can hear him. He’ll do it other times too, of course, but never with as much feeling and meaning as he does when I am talking to my mom.

The truth about cats and dogs

My BFF and her husband came over for dinner last night with their two young sons. T is almost 9 and J is 7 1/2 – they are fun kids, bright and inquisitive and not at all obnoxious. I feel like I can say that since I raised two boys also and know that sometimes boys can be a little on the rambunctious/obnoxious side. We all went over to the pool before dinner, which was a great way to socialize and let the kids burn off their energy.

Mostly the boys were fascinated with our cats. They have two dogs, a border collie and an Australian shepherd, but no cats. So they really wanted to interact with all three of ours. As you might imagine, the cats wanted nothing to do with them.

As the evening went on, they’d ask me about the cats, what they like, how they act, what it means when they meow or hiss or run away or just generally behave like cats. I enjoyed telling them about the differences between dogs and cats, like how you know a dog is happy when the tail wags but it’s a very different story when a cat whips its tail. T told me very solemnly that Wally had hissed at him and that he knew that meant Wally was afraid and needed his space.

We had a great time with the adults too—I look forward to doing it again, and also helping my cats get more socialized with children.

As for the cats, they have been utterly wiped out today.

Chloe is so tired she doesn't care
 that Eddie is kitty piling with her. 

Wally has hardly moved all day except to go
into the guest bathroom & lick the shower curtain.