Busy, Busy

I've been neglectful, again. In my defense, I've been busy.

Ginger's broken leg is healing, and she's getting a little more socialized, but she is still leery about being picked up. She comes close, almost close enough to touch, and her tail wags wildly while she happy-dances, but she's still not sure it's OK for me to pick her up. Even with her cast she's so fast I can't catch her, so she's back to dragging a leash again. But she does come close enough so I can step on her leash, and she knows that's what I'm going to do so she's deliberately putting herself close enough to catch. She doesn't mind sitting on my lap so much any more, and she's even fallen asleep there a couple of times. Now that she's got a regular splint on and she can get around more easily - and there's less chance she'll get stuck on something - I've been giving her a little more house time. She loves the other dogs, and I was amused to see she's got a special affection for Ruby the Cavalier. She loves Ruby as much as she loves Penny, and she loves to be able to curl up with one or the other, so as long as I can supervise I let her be free in the living/dining rooms.

Mrs. Parker went to her new home yesterday. I'd gotten half a dozen applications for her, but none of them were a good match. But this home has turned out to be perfect for her, and she's just what they were looking for, so everyone's happy. She was a bit of an odd-dog-out here, she tolerated the other dogs but preferred not to interact with them. She'll be very happy to be an only dog. And she could be an annoying little noodge, when she wanted something she'd bark-bark-pause, bark-bark-pause. Persistently. She's one of those dogs I'm happy to see go, both for her and for me. And the timing is serendipitous, I got a call this morning from the woman I got Sparky from, someone dumped a puppy in her yard last night and she wanted to know if I have room for him. I didn't have room yesterday, but I do today! She's going to see if perhaps he's just lost, but she's pretty sure he was dumped so he'll probably be coming in a day or two. She thinks he's about 3 months old, he weighs 6 pounds; hopefully he's cute and will place fast.

I got the carpet up on the stair between the kitchen and the front hallway. As I do every time I pull up more carpeting, I found sloppy work below. It's a cement step, it used to be outside. It's got chips in it, some of them very large, and it doesn't go all the way across the hallway. They put a couple of wood blocks next to it, to extend the width. I can't paint it the way it is, I can't remove the blocks without having to patch in a couple pieces of drywall. I decided the best thing to do is make a plywood cover for the step - one piece the depth of the step and placed on top of it, a short riser from the front to the hallway floor, and a short riser from the back to the kitchen floor. Didn't have a clue how I was going to get a sheet of plywood home, though. I stopped at the lumber yard this morning on my way back from the s/n clinic (Brie and, finally, Ruby, plus I transported a mini-Dachsie from this area) and they had a 2' X 4' piece of 1/2" plywood. It's exactly what I needed, and it fit easily in the car. I forgot to get nails, but maybe it's better to use screws anyway.

When I go back to get the dogs this afternoon, I'm going down a little early so I can stop at Costco and get food, and then at Home Depot to pick up another gallon of sealer/primer and a gallon of the Behr floor paint I picked out for the living/dining room. I've re-thought the color I want to use on two of the dining room walls, and on the trim for the other 2 walls and the living room wall. I'd picked a pale blue-green for two of the dining room walls and the trim in the living room, and I'd picked a pale green-blue for the bedroom walls. I picked a color that falls right between the two, and I'm going to use that color on the bedroom walls, two of the dining room walls, and for the trim on the other living and dining room walls. One gallon ought to be enough for both the BR and DR walls, so it'll save me the cost of a pint of paint for the two DR walls if I'd gone with the original color. That blue works very well with the dark teal floor paint I like, so that's what I'm going to use in the LR/DR instead of the "Cedar Plank" brown.

I've moved The Chooch's Petfinder listing to the Happy Tails (adopted) page. I got a few apps for her, nothing quite right, and she decided she wants to stay here. She loves Dudley, she loves Penny, she adores Sparky, she thinks the cats are great to snuggle up and sleep with, and the other day I caught her snuggled up to Lumi's rump, with her head resting on his hip. She doesn't want to go anywhere else, she likes it just fine right here thank you very much! Who am I to argue with such a determined little missy?

The cats emptied the dry food bowl this morning, and I don't have anything to fill it up with until I get back later. By that time, they'd have gotten into everything they could possibly get into, looking for food, so I put out 8 6-oz. cans a few minutes ago, and now I've got sated, sleepy cats who'll last until I get home with more dry food in 5 hours. Sleeping cats, sleeping dogs, and I'm off for an hour nap myself.