Balancing Pose

Buffy at Home

Kendra went to her "forever home" almost two weeks ago, and we're at it again, with another foster dog. This one is a four year-old King Charles Cavalier Spaniel and something else (Cocker? Sheltie?) mix whom we think will start answering to Buffy any day now. She just got a summer haircut. She looks very clean and fresh and her hair is short enough to qualify her for active duty.

Buffy is four years old, wonderfully house trained, and past a puppy's chewing and hyperactivity. She loves walks but pulls on the leash, and she is shy if people seem too eager to meet her, so we have a couple of things to work on. She does not, however, leap on the cat! She doesn't worry about the cat at all,  Leslie (the cat in question) is still pretty concerned about her. We are 48 hours into the foster-to-adopt experiment. Leslie can veto this, or seal the deal if she decides she likes the company. Stay tuned for more news as it becomes available.

 

Puppy Update

Last night, we picked up Kendra from Safe Hands Animal Rescue. We are fostering her, charged with the responsibility of getting her used to a house & humans, and plumping her up a bit. You can count her ribs by petting her.

After a long night for all (the crate takes some getting used to), we have had a quiet day. Kendra still seems a little stand-offish. She doesn't hide from us, but she backs away when we move too quickly toward her.

On a happier note, she enjoys sniffing around outside and she is batting about .500 in the appropriate-places-to-pee department. In addition, she learned stair steps today, down first, when going after Leslie the cat to ask her to play, then up. She still looks a little drunk when she lands on each up step and wobbles into a sitting position to get ready for the next step.

She has German Shepherd coloring, and ears that may stand up when she gets a little older. She is tiny, though, and it's hard for me to believe she'll grow into a big dog. We have another ten days or so to collect cute pictures of her and determine that she is healthy, and then she gets her own profile on Petfinder.com. We'll post more news as it happens.

New Clothes

 

This is Hank's new purple shirt. It is also a test of blogging on the iPhone.

Molly gets a new home

Molly the cat is trying out a new home, with a new human and another cat. I don’t have much commentary about this. Molly and I have been roomies for seven or eight years, including a year in N. Carolina for sabbatical and back home again to MN. Her only bad habit is vocalizing. She’s talked pretty much the whole time I have known her, except when she’s been asleep or hunting outside. I should have named her Chatty Cathy. 

Hank has not connected with the eight-pound irritant (as she has become known to him) and we finally decided the husband’s happiness was more important than the cat’s continued stay in this particular household. Samson (her new cat roommate) and his human have lost two cats in the past year to old age, and they were looking for company. Stay tuned for reports on how all of us are adapting.

Hank's Graduation

Hank walked today in the graduate commencement ceremony at The College of St. Catherine. He has one more course in his MLIS program (“Indexing and Abstracting”), but is otherwise done with the degree. I considered live blogging the ceremony, but wasn’t sure there would be wi-fi in O’Shaughnessy Auditorium. (True, that is a comment that could only be taken seriously by someone who has never attended a commencement ceremony.)

We got a chance to talk with a few of Hank’s professors and several other students in the MLIS program. After the reception, we continued celebrating with dinner at the Cleveland Wok and a fruitless search for the movie, Next, somewhere in St. Paul or Roseville. Both Har Mar and the Crossroads theatres are closed! Where do people go to the movies anymore?

Here are a few more pics.