Tap....Tap....Tap....Tap....

We're still waiting. Irenie's so big that her belly's gotten taut. She's not lactating, so she's not quite ready to pop yet, but I don't think it's going to be much longer. She usually enjoys me rubbing her belly; today, it irritates her. I had her out on my lap, and on the bookcase behind the cat tree where she likes to lie, for a little while earlier today, but then she wanted back in the bathroom. First time she's wanted in instead of out. And when I popped in there half an hour later she was curled up in the box, instead of on top of the carrier where she usually hangs out. 24 hours? 48 hours? With my luck, she'll have them when I'm gone to class tomorrow afternoon/evening.

Nellie has learned to leave the cats alone. Mostly. She still needs a verbal reminder to "leave it!" once in a while, and only when Dudley or Ten get her fired up by chasing Flint. Nellie doesn't understand that Duds, Flint, and Ten play like that, and it isn't a hunt. Other than that, she's a very good girl. She can entertain herself, which is an unusual trait in Border Collies or mixes. When she has "Nellie only" house time (Penny and the little dogs are loose in the house all the time, the others rotate, usually in pairs but one at a time, sometimes) she goes and finds herself a hoof or bone to chew on, then settles down and works on it for an hour. She's very social, but is less demanding of personal attention than most other youngsters her age I've fostered. Ten and Dudley love her, she's a great playmate.



I sleep with a bedful of little dogs, now. Lacey Jane likes to be under the covers. She's taken over the spot on my left side that Dudley used to occupy, so now he sleeps on my right side down by my knees, or even down by my feet. Penny sleeps on the bottom half of the bed, Toby either sleeps just above her, next to her, or up by my shoulder. I also have the bedcats with me. (Or on me.) Getting up in the middle of the night is tough; getting back into bed is tougher. Mornings are fun. Dudley wants cuddles, Lacey wants cuddles, Toby wants cuddles, Ellie and Doobie want cuddles. I could use a couple extra pair of arms/hands.

The bulbs I planted last fall have been a mixed success. Some of the crocuses came up but not all, but then the ones that were already here didn't all come up either. The miniature irises came up and were pretty, but they got buried beneath the snow we had and didn't recover well when it melted. The narcissus bulbs my sis planted did very well, three different color varieties that bloom sequentially rather than concurrently. And I have some rose-with-white-edges tulips in the south side flower bed, so my sis must have sneaked those in there when she was planting narcissus. All the hyacinth bulbs I planted came up. There were 10 of them, 6 were purple. One is white, one is pale pink, and the other two haven't blossomed yet (I didn't check on them today, though) but it looks like they're going to be deep pink. They smell heavenly. Here's the pale pink one:

I'm waiting for my hummingbirds to return. The feeder's been out for a week and I haven't seen one yet. But I remember last year I didn't see any until a couple of weeks after they were first spotted in my area (according to the migration map: http://www.hummingbirds.net/map.html ) so it shouldn't be long before I see some action.

I had to stop at the dollar store last week, and while I was there I browsed some of their windcatchers/windchimes. The twirly purple one I had last year didn't make it through the winter, so I was looking for something to replace it. I found a nylon wind spiral with a pink flamingo at the top and the swirl in hot pink, purple, green, and yellow. It was so lightweight that it didn't spin right, but I used a paperclip to attach a penny to the bottom of it and now it spins beautifully. I'll have to get a pic of it. This winter I was in the lighting section at Meijer looking for either a clamp-on light reflector or a clamp-on swing-arm reading lamp and, after I got that, I checked out the clearance shelf. They had strings of little paper lampshade globes that fit over the (provided) white christmas-type lights on clearance. Well, I had to have 'em. The shades are white, hot pink, and burgundy and they're beautiful. I bought one set and hung it up in here, and bought two sets for the patio. I also bought a larger paper globe shade in the same hot pink; it fits over a regular lightbulb (40W max), so I think I'm going to put that out on the patio, too, over the seating area. If I put a compact fluorescent bulb in there it'll only cost pennies to have on in the evenings over the summer. I'll take pics when I get it all set up.

I've switched almost all the bulbs in my house to compact fluorescents. They're great, even brighter than incandescents and they're so much more energy efficient! The added bonus is that they're guaranteed for anywhere between 7 and 10 years (depending on the brand/type) so I don't have to worry about changing light bulbs for years to come. I've still got a couple of places that have round, decorative incandescent bulbs (over the bathroom and kitchen sinks), but I'll be replacing those with round, decorative fluorescents as the budget allows.

Time to Buy Cigars?

I think Irenie's closer to queening than I thought just a couple of days ago. She has gotten a lot bigger in just the 6 days she's been here, especially in the last couple of days. And I think she may be "dropping"; either that, or there's no more room to get rounder and her belly's just elongating.

I put a nesting box into the bathroom last night. Irenie's too big to use the bottom of a large cat carrier, which is what I usually use. But one of the cardboard boxes Kass sent my crate back in is a generous size and I think it'll work well. I lined it first with a quarter of a heavy fleece blanket to pad it, then put a towel down on top of that. I didn't think I was going to have to worry about it for another week or so, but now I'm starting to think it'll get used in pretty short order.

Irenie is a doll. Ultra-affectionate and cuddly. I hope she passes that on to her babies!

The Bigger They Are, The Harder They Fall

It seems that Snickers has a new crush - Lumi. Now that he's been spending more time out and about, Snickers has decided that Lumi's OK. When Lumi's lying on the floor near my computer chair, Snickers is lying under one of the dining room chairs, no more than a couple feet away from Lumi. He has approached Lumi on more than one occasion to have a good sniff. Last night, Lumi was standing perpendicular to me with his tush next to my thigh, and Snickers was winding around Lumi's legs headbutting him. I sneaked in a couple of strokes, he knew it wasn't Lumi touching him but didn't appear too worried that it was probably me.

The cats have always liked Lumi, once they've spent some time observing him. I'm tickled that Snickers has apparently fallen for the big guy; Lumi likes to be close to me, and I'll be able to sneak in more petting when Snickers comes to headbutt him. Hmmm..... I wonder if the reassurance of both of his buddies on the bed would be inducement enough to get Snickers to come up and sleep on the bed the way Ivy (another buddy) does. She comes up on the bed after she thinks I'm asleep and curls up against my ankle/foot. She sleeps down there all night, but the instant she realizes I'm awake in the morning she's off and gone.

Got another odd couple becoming ever closer - Amalie and Onyx. They're both black, both about the same size (though Onyx is much cobbier), and lately they've been joined at the hip. Sometimes they stand side by side, touching each other; they look like a very odd pair of conjoined twins. *snrk* From the time I brought Mena's cats inside, Onyx has preferred to hang out in the laundry room. The laundry room door is a pocket door; I've attached an eye bolt to the edge of the door and another to the door frame, and I use a double snap-bolt to keep the door open wide enough for the cats to come and go but narrow enough to keep out the dogs. (Dudley fits through there, though. Little stinker.) The laundry room is right off the doorway to the kitchen, cats hanging out in there are able to keep an ear on what's going on in the rest of the house. It's a quiet spot, with lots of soft places to nap, and Amalie likes to sleep on the pile of crate blankets on the counter.

Apparently Amalie and Onyx made friends in the laundry room. Onyx has been gradually getting braver, coming in to the kitchen in the evening looking for me to come pet her. And her new hangout spot is in the family room. Last weekend my sis helped me carry the old sofa from there out to the pole barn (seating for the training room) and carry in the twin box spring, mattress, and brass head and footboards. I got it assembled and put it where the sofa used to be. When I let the dogs out in the evening, while I'm waiting for them to get finished in the yard and come back to the door, I flop down on the bed and kitties come out of the woodwork for cuddles. Onyx is one of the first ones there, and I'm pretty sure she's hanging out under the bed in there instead of in the laundry room. That's good, she'll have much more company out there than she had in the laundry room, and I think she'll be happier.

I'm crazy about Toby. Absolutely crazy about him. He is such a sweet, cheerful little charmer. (Oh! And there's the third new odd couple! Toby loves Ellie! He ignores the rest of the cats, but he follows Ellie when she's out and about, and insists on sleeping next to her on the bed. If she moves, he moves to stay close to her. I don't think she's terribly impressed with her suitor, but she doesn't appear to mind him.) Anyway, he's simply adorable. I'm going to have to find him a very special home. Gee.... Lacey likes him a lot, I wonder if her new mommy might be interested in two dogs......

By the time Lacey's new mom comes to get her, I should have some kittens for her to play with. The lovely, large, long-haired dilute tortie in the bathroom - Irenie - is definitely pregnant. She's still carrying them "high", but she's quite well-rounded so I don't think it'll be more than a couple of weeks, if that. This cat is so not feral! She can't get enough snuggling. (She can't get enough food, either, she's eating me out of house and home.) Last year my neighbors mentioned something about a cat having kittens under the skirt of the mobile home on the other side of them, I was wondering if it was Irenie. But I asked John about it and he said that no, Irenie was probably one of those kittens, the mother cat was a calico. So Irenie's still pretty young. It'll be interesting to see what color(s) the kittens are, and it'll be fun to have babies around.

I filled the front hummingbird feeder for the first time today, I can't wait for my little buddies to come back. I never got around to removing the kingbirds' nest from last year; I noticed earlier in the week it's been refurbished with some new fluff (probably dryer lint I put out for the birds) and mama's sitting on the nest. I hope we don't get any unseasonably hot weather this year....

Ten's Gotcha Day is coming up in a week. Hard to believe that scared-of-everything little guy grew into my big, beautiful, confident boy. He's still puppy-crazy at times, which can take a physical toll when he's bouncing around. I'd forgotten how physically demanding Dogo youngsters can be. When Blizz was Ten's age I often said, "I hope we both live through her adolescence"; I hope both Ten and I live through his. I don't know if I'll ever have another young Dogo, I'm not sure my aging body could handle the three-year maturation process of another. All that said, I wouldn't trade Ten for anything. He's a wonderful, loving fellow, I couldn't ask for anything more in terms of temperament.

Gotta get my seeds planted tomorrow. I'm two weeks late.