Kahuna

Rock-a-bye Sawyer

Shower Time

Shower time - LuLu

Benny

beautiful boy🐈 - Lulu

Frappe

big mama frappe - LuLu

Sawyer At Rest

Ralph Passes

At 11:15 this morning I saw that Smiley was calling me at my office. Knowing that it would have to be something bad for him to call (not text) during work hours, I answered by saying "What's wrong?"

He told me that Ralph was dead.

Smiley had woke up and found Ralph beneath his cat tree, clearly having passed away overnight.

I remember wondering that morning why Ralph wasn't downstairs to greet me as I prepared for work, as had become his custom.

Even in this picture, you can tell he'd lost a lot of weight in the last three months.  We were concerned enough to adjust his food to a less diet- conscious brand, but we chalked it up to the stress of joining a chaotic household. 

In retrospect, while he did become a resident of the second floor instead of the common areas on the first, he never seemed phased by the noise, or by Sawyer. 

I told Smiley to wrap Ralph in a pillowcase and lock him inside one of the dog's cages and to tell the rest of the family.  I told him I would leave early to bury him and say goodbye, but that I had to stay at least until early afternoon.

Shortly before 4:00 I came home, dug a hole along the fence line, and gathered Lulu and Junie with me. Yaya had been notified by phone and sent her sympathies and a number of great pictures of Ralph. By this point Smiley said that he had shed his tears and said goodbye and did not want to participate.

We clipped some hair from him, collected his custom engraved brown leather collar that I had ordered for him, placed him in the grave, and said some prayers.

He was not with us long, just like the grandfather that I named him after, and the similarity of him passing in his sleep unexpectedly was mentioned more than once.

He deserved a longer life. We deserved more time with him.  But I am confident that his 3 months with us were spent surrounded by happiness and love, and were certainly a better alternative than life in the shelter that I took him from in September.

Rest in peace Ralph. We love you. 

Kahuna

:(

Road Trip Doggos

Seeing as they tagged along for the ride to work this morning, here are my doggos as they came to pick  me up from work in LULu's car back on September 20th!

The Cat Tree!

After a study session at Collectivo, Smiley and I came across this colorful cat tree abandoned in our alley. A brisk vacuuming later, courtesy of Smiley,  Ralph (and to a lesser extent Kahuna) love it!!

Sawyer

pics by Smiley

Nugget

Da Doggos

The doggos. And the head of a broken broom inexplicably left on the floor. But whatever, look at the doggos.

Now

While Junie and her friend continue to . .. whatever this is,  I'm out on a walk with Sawyer . There may or may not be Pokémon involved 

A Walk with the Boys

Smiley and I went on for a walk with the doggos, in large part to gather Pokemon lol

In Which Petco fails us and loses my trust

So I decided to take Sawyer to get his rabies update a clinic at Petco, and brought Huckleberry along for a nail trim. Thankfully, Smiley agreed to go with, because otherwise I would have been soooo bleeped LOL

There are many lousy things to forget about the Covid years, but the protocol that was set up by vets to deal with it was something not only worth remembering but worth continuing into the present day. You'd call or text the vet from the parking lot when you arrived, but then wait in the car with your pet until it was your turn. If it was an end-of-life procedure, you could accompany your pet inside; if not, you handed off your pet and waited outside until they were done. 

Easy peezy, no contact, no fuss. 

Petco, on the other hand, chose to line up a bunch of dogs for this clinic, all strangers to one another, up one one aisle and down another. While you waited, hoping your dog didn't freak out on the dog ahead of him, or vice versa, you had to deal with idiotic parents that ALLOWED their kids to touch strange dogs without asking (and even asked to pose for a picture with them - this was the PARENT asking mind you!), and heat, and impatience, and dogs reacting to the sounds of other dogs getting treated . . . what a mess. 

Thankfully, Smiley took Huck to the groomer there for his nails, then kept him busy 95% of the time Sawyer and I waited. Quite unlike him, Sawyer was well behaved and chill, that is, until the vet got ahold of him. 

From the jump the vet was nervous and skittish, and her fear wafted off her. Sawyer (again, not the norm) reacted without violence or misbehavior, merely trying to break free. Time and again the vet would dramatically drop the syringe on the floor and jump backwards like she was avoiding a striking cobra. 

Wrong profession for you ma'am. Wrong profession. 

In the end she gave up. Just quit. Said she couldn't do it and we should go elsewhere. 

W. T. H. ????

Epic fail Petco. Epic fail. 

Sleepy Huckleberry

A Pair of Unwilling Bathers LOL