The Things I Do For Love

I was thinking it had been a while - a long while - since I'd made fishbiscuits for the dogs and little fishbits for the cats. I picked up a couple cans of salmon a few weeks back when it was on sale, and I had an unopened bag of rice flour in my pantry, so I decided I'd make fishbiscuits today. Salmon, eggs, oil, garlic, and a splash of water get pureed in the food processor, then I add the rice flour until it's sugar cookie-dough consistency. I rolled it out and used my medium dog bone-shaped cookie cutter to do 2.5 dozen biscuits for the dogs, then mashed the remainder together, rolled it out, and cut it into small squares with a pizza cutter. Got them in the oven about 20 minutes ago, and now I remember why I make these so seldom even though everyone here goes nuts for them - my house stinks to high heaven. Garlic and fish, it's enough to gag me. I had to open a window; I'm glad it's near 60 here today so I can do that without heating the outdoors! It's going to be another long while before I make fishbiscuits again!

I called yesterday and scheduled Dudley for his neuter. The first opening at the low-cost clinic is two weeks from Thursday, so it's going to have to wait until then. I'm going to start feeding cats in my wired-open trap, hopefully they'll be so used to going in there to eat that I'll be able to trap Roo the day before the appointment so I can get her in to be spayed at the same time. (She's very tough to get hold of, which is why she's still not spayed.) I need to go introduce myself to my neighbor to the south and ask her if any of the cats that are hanging around belong to her. If not, I'm going to see what I can do to trap one or two of them and get them in, too. This clinic does ferals for free, so as long as I've got to make the drive down there to get Dudley done anyway, I might as well get as many cats spayed/neutered as possible at the same time.

Speaking of Dudley, I've been having a blast training him. My clicker technique is improving rapidly, and Duds is learning quickly. Sit, watch me, down, and wait are all almost perfect, and he's learning to "be tall" (stand on his hind legs) and "ask nicely" (sit up and beg). He's such a hoot and he fits in here so well. I still haven't decided whether or not he's staying, but I'd like to keep him if possible.

I've got one boarder dog coming for a week over the Christmas holidays - an adolescent Newfoundland pup. I'm hoping to get one or two more boarders - or even three or four, depending on size - over the holidays. I love having canine company, I love the opportunity to work with different dogs, and it's a nice little income for doing what I like to do. I need to get either a permanent-installation pet gate or an old, solid-wood door I can cut to size and make a dutch door out of, to put between the kitchen and the front hallway, so I can divide the house in two. That will allow boarders to have the family room and the long hallway and my own dogs can have the living room, dining room, and kitchen. And the pet gate, or a small pet door in a solid dutch door, will allow the cats to come and go between areas as they please. I'll have to make a "wanted" post on the freecycle list, see if anyone's got a door I can have.