So an ad pops up on my Facebook feed for a cardboard cat bed. I'm not sure why it got my attention; our cats have multiple cozy places to nap, from a heated igloo in winter, to their very own chairs, official pet beds, and a summertime favorite: a cardboard box. Most of the places they lounge are up off the ground, so I was surprised when they choose to sleep in a cardboard box that we left lazily sitting on the floor of the garage. Perhaps, then, it was the cardboard that fired off some neurons in my subconscious, motivating me to order a cat bed that I couldn't possibly need. It's made by a company called Katris, and is called a Katris Nest. It's also $49.00 plus shipping, so for a circle of cardboard, it's not cheap. The bed arrived the next day, and Jim set about putting it Read More
Archives for July 2020
Physical Exercise for Active or Aging Dogs
On July 6th, 2020, Dr. Chris Zink, a sports medicine veterinary specialist and a person I greatly admire, wrote a piece titled "Stop Taking Your Dog for a Walk." You can imagine that got my attention, since I had recently written a post about the importance of, uh, taking your dog for a walk. However, it turns out what we were saying isn't as far apart as it might look. I was advocating for, as was clear in the title--The Best Exercise for a Dog is Using it's Nose--letting dogs walk at their own pace and use their noses as a way of exercising their brains and improving their quality of life. Let dogs be dogs, essentially. Dr. Zink, on the other hand, is arguing that a regular leash walk is not the kind of physical exercise a dog needs to stay healthy as they age. Her point is that Read More
Empty Stairs
No one needs the stairs to the couch anymore. Goodbye Tootsie, our adorsable, baby-faced, sweet-natured, always-underfoot, silken-bellied, ear-flapping, anime-eyed, cocaine-infused tiny Dumbo dog who could bark like a seal on laughing gas and whine like an abandoned orphan. No need for the stairs to the couch anymore, but I can't bring myself to take them to the garage. We put Tootsie down on July 7th, 2020. She was 16+ years old, had congestive heart failure, was deaf, going blind, and increasingly couldn't stand up by herself. She couldn't begin to get up the stairs to the couch by herself anymore. How many times, while sitting on the couch, did I look down to see nothing but huge, pleading eyes in front of a white, wagging tail tip? "Please would you pick me up and help me Read More
Just Photos
Just photos this week, I've been either ridiculously busy or brain dead from the heat. It's been hot and humid forever, and it's going to continue for at least two more weeks. Getting up extra early to work the BC's before it gets too hot. Watering my desperate plants before the sun is too strong. Going outside to garden or walk dogs for short periods; coming inside sopping wet with sweat. (In the late 60's, on my very first night as an independent semi-adult at UC-Boulder, I walked downtown to a bar and danced with some guy who said "You sure sweat a lot for a skinny girl".) So it's all photos this week. Here's my favorite: I was taking close ups of the day lilies, and didn't discover the star of the show until looking at the photos on my computer. I was, and still am, Read More