How the dog and the car almost died
Well last weekend was the big camping weekend at Kanopolis Lake. We got off early, but everyone else had headed out there first thing so we were already going to be the last to arrive. Andrea and I got off at about 2PM and stopped by the post office to pick up the mail before we packed up and hit the road.
As soon as I got back in the car, Andrea said, “Um… its stuck.” Sure enough the damn car was stuck in park! And we were double screwed because we couldn’t even put it in neutral to get a tow home. So we walk back to the house. Luckily nothing is farther than three blocks away from anything else in Albert! We loaded up the tools in the back of the other car and headed back to see if I could figure anything out. I tried several things, but finally just had to unhook the shifter and craw under the car and shift the transmission by hand, which at that time caused the car to start rolling with me under it! Luckily Andrea was quick on the brake.
Next I swallowed some pride and walked over to the local restaurant and got the owner to help push the car into the street and give us a tow home. I told him I’ll stop by his place and rack up a big bill here soon.
So we made it home. And since we weren’t planning on taking Andrea’s car anyway we loaded up the Toronado as planned and got the heck out of town. Figured I’d worry about the Cutlass when we got back.
Camping was great. It’s always awesome seeing the family and the kids, and it was especially fun haning out with my buddy Chris! We just don’t keep in touch the way we should so it was great to spend a little time hanging out.
One of the nights though, Daisy (who loves to bark at anything that moves within 1,500 ft) took off after a truck. Andrea had her on a leash, but the leash slipped out of her hands. So here goes this stupid little wiener dog chasing after a big ol diesel pickup in the middle of the night with a leash flapping behind her. She runs along side yapping and yapping, then all of a sudden we could see Daisy in the headlights of the truck. About half a second later she appears to trip over something and the truck rolls right OVER her. She goes right between the tires and the truck keeps on going and a bewildered wiener dog finally notices Andrea screaming at her, and in a daze, trots straight back over to the campground. Our guess is her leash she was dragging behind her got caught under a tire and tripped her up.
But despite some unnecessary excitement it was a very excellent weekend. We got Andrea’s car fixed that following Monday after work and Daisy is still the same as always.
A few random pics.
Well I haven’t been blogging much lately. I guess it’s just been pretty dull lately. So for lack of anything better to post, heres a few recent pics I pulled off of the digital camera.
My halloween costume. Whatever that's supposed to be.
Andrea's nieces up to visit. Annie and Lyssa.
Andrea's nephew Nick.
Covered in animals.
Andrea and Sydney
Invisible pilates ball.
Invisible pogo stick.
Enough sun for both of us.
How to catch a cat.
We were playing with Sydney last night and after it worked the first time, I had to grab the camera and see if it would work the second time!
I feel so bad.
But it’s not my fault!
The other day I decided to drive the Blazer to work. You know to kinda justify the insurance and registration, plus it’s only like 5 blocks from the house. What could go wrong?
Well the Blazer made it to work, and even ran a few errands around town without incident! (Yes, it was a proud moment). But there’s still a lot that needs done on that thing so I popped the hood and after about twenty minutes I noticed an ANIMAL stuck in the passenger fender between the battery. “Oh no. How long has it been there… please don’t be dead.” I poke it and it’s warm to the touch and squirms a bit. “It’s alive!”. It seems to be a cat. I try to figure out how the heck it got in there, but I can’t for the life of me. So I have to take the battery out, and can tell it’s starting to get scared. So with the battery removed I try to pull the cat out, while keeping it in a position that will keep my forearm intact should it FLIP OUT! I can’t get it out, so I decide to go inside and get some food and see if I can lure it out. By the time I’m walking out the door with food in hand, I see a white cat hauling ass down the driveway and down the alley out of sight. I knew there was no way I was catching it so I let it go.
That’s not why I feel bad.
Yesterday as I was leaving work I noticed the older lady next door. She was standing in her back yard calling “Kitty! Heeere kitty kitty!”
But it’s not my fault! Really!
Meet Sydney
Well, we got us another cat. Andrea had been hinting for quite some time that she wanted a kitten. And I kept saying, “No”. So she used my birthday as the perfect excuse to get me a kitten. I have to admit she’s too darn cute (as most kittens are). There was an e-mail at Andrea’s work for free farm kittens. They had cats of all ages out running around. It was hard to pick one, but this little gal was just so relaxed, I figured THAT’s the kind of cat I like.
The Nala and Daisy aren’t too sure what to do about her yet. Nala is happy to pretend like she isn’t there. But Daisy I think is afraid we’re going to forget about her forever. I’m sure they’ll get along eventually though. Sydney doesn’t seem too shy, but not quite ready to rub noses with anybody just yet. Infact just about all she’s done all night is sleep!
Check out my Picasa Gallery for a couple more pics and full size versions of these.
 |
| Sydney |
Dog-sitting
No, I’m not that cruel and keeping two dogs in a tiny kennel. I’m watching Andrea’s sister’s dog while they all head up to Wisconsin for a family renunion. Their weiner dog is named “Snoopy” and man is this dog a spaz! I got the above picture after I was telling Daisy to go to bed, and Snoopy just followed her right in there! Ha ha.
He’s not a bad dog, just the two of them get up to no good. Not destructive mischeif by any means, but they like to wrestle, growl at each other, and if one barks, so does the other one. I’m definetly a one dog guy!
JACKPOT!
What cats dream about.
Under our tree
Waiting for Santa Claus.
Unexpected
Something ever just catch you by complete suprise? I head to the bathroom to get around for the day and find my drain in the sink clogged.
Time to call the MeowMix Plumber.
Our dog is actually kinda smart.
She is learning tricks. Or commands at least. She will sit, and stay. You can even tell her to stay, walk out of the room holding food in your hand come back in a few seconds and she’ll be right where she was. She’s even starting to get the hang of “shake”. All this talent provided she’s not too excited and jumping around like a cartoon spring coil!
I’m still a cat person, but this has been the best dog I’ve ever had. Although that’s not saying much!
Duane’s nutzo cat.
Here’s everyone’s favorite 2007 cat modeler. Here’s one of the new models. Extra loud. I was talking to mom on the phone the other night and I swear you could hear this cat plain as day. It was going. “HEY! HEEEY!” Looks like a cute cat, although kinda blurry. I hope Bryson isn’t making a kitty “shaken not stirred.”
Like another hole in my head….
There is an addition to the household. Duane decided we need a kitten. Don’t get me wrong, it’s cute and all that kitten stuff… but I swear, it’s like a dog! It wants me to constantly pet it, hold it. And meow!? I wanted to call it Sassy cuz this cat NEVER shuts up. Duane named it Tiger, it’s his cat. Well, it’s his cat the one day a week he is home!!!!!!
What is amazing is that I really didn’t want another cat. I tried to talk him out of it. But it is a cute little fart, and you’ll see when you come out here, you can’t help but like it. It’s quite the little snuggle bug. Hey! I just realized…I just might have a cat that will be social with people!
Those crazy cats!
There’s a trend going around the interent using comical cat poses and adding captions to express some sort of emotion or reaction. I came up with one of my own to add.
So if you see that anywhere else you know where it came from!
A few of my favorites are:
Meet Daisy!
She is our new doggy. Her kennel card said that she was a daschund, but we really think that she’s a miniature. She just looks a lot smaller than one’s I’ve seen before. It didn’t take her long to get used to the house, which was really nice. She had a few accidents on her first day, but I think that’s just because she was nervous.
The one thing that surprised me was that Matt actually liked her a lot. You know, he’s a cat man, so I thought it would take a while for him to get used to Daisy being around. Especially when he doesn’t have Nala back yet. He’s been taking her out and everything.
Oh well, I’ll stop talking about her and show you some pictures. Here she is!
It’s just that time of year…
We just got settled into the new house, Fuzz is finally back to her old self and Duane is gone on the road again. You think things are getting back to normal and WHAMMO, literally!
It was about 8:30, Fuzz and I were in the kitchen when something hit the house. I opened the back door and peeked out, but the only thing I saw was a big ole hoot owl in the neighbor’s tree next to my driveway. I just shut the door and figured I’d show Jamie the owl when she came over to use the computer in a little while.
When she showed up I stepped out the back door to have her look up and see the HUGE owl. I heard this clacking noise and I looked down. There at my feet was a baby owl trying to nip at me with his beak. I took off running for Jamie’s car. When she sees the little owl right next to my back door she keeps saying it’s a cat. Just as I show her the Momma up in the tree it takes off flying and we take off screaming.
We ran around front and came inside, ran to the back door and Jamie sees it is a baby owl. I know it’s illegal to kill them so I was afraid to call Bryan. Sure as we tried to do anything the dang thing would die and we’d all have huge fines with Fish and Game.
Duane happened to call home as we were trying to think what to do and he said no matter what don’t mess with it cuz owls are mean. Great! Tell me something that I DON’T know! Seriously, do the math…sharp beak and big ass talon claws? Duane said to call the sheriff’s dept and have them deal with it.
A couple hours later Shannon showed up and I stepped outside. I had heard the momma owl in the trees earlier but never could find her. We checked out the trees and never could see her. He made a call to Fish and Game and they said to move it to a quiet place and hope it’s momma grabs it back over night. So I gave Shannon a broom and he moved it over behind my garage. He said if it was still there this morning that they’d have someone from Fish and Game come take care of it.
I was up early to check and the baby was gone. Not sure if it’s momma got it or it went back into the tall grass behind the house. The game warden said it’s just the time of year when the little owls are learning to fly. Shannon said it’s the second owl call they’ve had from this location in the past couple of weeks. The up side of it all, if we have owls this thick here, I bet we don’t have mice this winter!
The last straw.
As you may or may not know. Our cat has had issues remembering where her litterbox is. Now…I don’t completely fault her. Sometimes my lazy ass puts off cleaning the box out for too long, and I can’t blame her for pissing somewhere else. Imagine if you didn’t flush your toilet for a week. Yeah, I’d whizz on the bed too!
Well I awoke at 6:30 this morning to a cat pawing at my leg. At first I thought that she was being a little brat and though that she needed fed a couple hours earlier than usual. But no! Apparently she had just finished crawling up between Andrea and I to take a piss! That was pretty much it. It’s one thing to do it while I’m gone and come home and find it, but it’s quite another when you crawl ON ME to do your business. I was seriously ready to haul her off back to the animal shelter where we got her.
But after I cooled down abit, Andrea and I decided that we’re just going to have to keep her out of the bedroom. She’s got her scent on the bed (from several occasions) so it’s hard to keep her from doing it. And we’re going to start scooping out the litter box daily. All the things we do for a freakin’ cat! But if she finds a new place to call a toilet, I’m afraid poor Nala is going to have to find another home.
Stupid cute cat.
Cats, trees and tinsel…
After I brag all about my ‘wonderful’ cat that NEVER messes with the Christmas tree she has proven me a liar! The bi-polar feline has knocked over the tree three times, broken off a leg of the tree stand so that it has to be propped up with a trash can and eaten approximately 4 inches of silver garland off the tree. I’m thinking that ingesting the garland is probably not the best thing, but I imagine she is thinking ahead and wanting to make her litter box just a little more festive!
