Prissy mutt vs Family fashion

Today I was torn between two topics - My prissy pit bull mutt that won't retrieve her ball if it is within 20 feet of her own poop OR the fact that my family broke into Biscuits ballet and horse show costumes for a fashion show this weekend. Yeah, this is what they do when they get bored.

Costumes win - Check it out.

Dumb and Dumber

Sammy – A tennis ball is tossed in the air. In her crazy desire to retrieve it, she smacks full force into the fence. The fence shakes and wobbles. Sammy yelps in pain and has to lie down. She then gets the ball and limps back to Jonathan.

Franklin – The side door slowly swings closed as someone goes outside. Franklin escapes right before the door swings shut when no one is looking. His desire to be outside is overwhelming. Suddenly a noise or an unfamiliar movement and he freaks out. What does he do? Runs to the front door (which we NEVER use) and stands there cowering, waiting for rescue. No, he didn’t ring the doorbell.

Drinking Stations

Recently I've discovered that Franklin has a drinking station in almost every room of the house. If you are headed into a room with a drinking station, he runs to beat you there. Then he sits as pretty as he can and stares at you expectantly. If you don't notice him sitting there patiently, god forbid, he starts to meow.

His drinking stations are as follows:
The kitchen - He has a gerbil water bottle. He can get water from this but PREFERs that you squeeze it to make the water flow more easily. We do NOT do this but he still waits expectantly.

The bathroom - I have caught him drinking from the toilet before - a funny sight with his feet on the ground and his body extended to full length to reach inside the bowl. Someone has since taught him that we can turn on the faucet in the tub really slowly, he can drink from the slow drip. Now imagine you are innocently headed to do your business when you almost get run over by a 15 lb cat barged in front of you to jump into the tub and wait. He will stare at you as long as you are in the bathroom -very unnerving.

The bedroom - I, like most people, like to have a glass of water beside the bed at night. He knows this and expects you to tilt the glass for his convenience. I'm not kidding when I say I've been clobbered in the middle of the night trying to get a drink. He's in my face, pawing at the glass before I know what hit me.

The last and most recent drinking station is in the basement, in the nasty utility sink. This is the most awkward for him but he doesn't seem to mind getting wet. You'd think he was living in a desert.

Here's looking at you

This is my view of the world at least 40 hours a week. Uninspired to say the least.

Back by popular demand....

Ok, demand is a strong word -two people mentioned that they wanted the videos to be longer.

So without further ado - some longer videos. I will mention that the kids are typically only funny for about 10-15 seconds so these videos border on the boring...

This first one is getting Sammy to speak. She does this funny hop every time she barks. I'm not sure I'd even call it a bark though, she kinda bites at the air. I'm trying to get her to really bark, like a big dog. I'm beginning to think our kitchen floor is getting more exposure than anything...

Portrait of a Cat

So i get home from work the other day and great the most aggressive member of my family with all the commotion necessary for our daily routine, her thumping tail banging against the oven, the prance of her paws and nails on the slate floor, the flop flop flop flop of her ears as she shakes her head, and of course the jingle-jangle of her pink collar as she dances around. After her greeting, she bursts outside as I barely crack the door.

Quiet calm regains control of the house.

Once I make my entry into the living room, I'm greeted with this visual.....

I seriously think he was thinking, "See how calm and patient I am—regal almost. Don't you want to just take a picture of me in all my cat-like glory? You go ahead and get the camera, I'll wait."

Living with a Pack Rat

My husband is a MAJOR pack rat. I can’t stand it.
Open a drawer and what do you find—napkins, tons of them. Open a closet—the floor is covered with an overflowing shopping bag full of bills and papers that never got filed. Two large dressers are so full of t-shirts and clothes that the overflow of clean laundry has no home. Instead, It lives in random laundry baskets tucked in corners or on a table that become a rotation of clean and dirty

This weekend I hit a WALL. I can’t stand that there are at least THREE rooms in my house that I don’t let people see.

I started with the paperwork, filing and organizing. I had to get permission to use my own discretion in trashing things. I got the blessing I needed. Four garbage bags and four hours later, I had organized the paperwork, the desk and the floor of the closet in the den.

I wasn’t about to stop there. I started pulling out all the clothes, belts and ties from the closet and threw it on the couch in the living room. The living room became my sorting area for all of my Husbands clothes—the stuff he can’t fit into anymore, the apparel that is so ugly no good wife would allow him to keep and the sentimental T-shirts that don’t justify space in the dresser.

We spent hours sorting into three piles, goodwill, sentimental, and wearable.

Here’s the sad part – we have THREE garbage bags full of clothes for Goodwill and I didn’t even touch one of the dressers!

Now if you were paying attention I cleaned out the following from ONE ROOM:
Four bags of garbage
Three bags of clothing for Goodwill
One bag of additional garage sale items

One room down, two to go...

The Laser Light...

And the video's continue...

Today, we get a glimpse of Sammy with the laser light. I must preface this with a description of how crazy she gets over the laser light. She gets wild-eyed and determined. The dog will slam her head into the wall to try and catch the mysterious light. Nothing will stop her from trying to get the light that can't be got.

Once we are done playing with the light, she can't let it go. She stares at the stick that the light comes with her ears perked and at attention, waiting, willing the light to reappear. If you move towards where the laser light has been placed, she jumps to attention.

We have had to ban the use of the laser light in the house because of the destruction. Her paws scrape craters in the hardwood and her mouth slobber stains every surface she jammes her nose into.

So why do we torture her so? Just watch this video and see how cute she is. (the end is the funniest where she pounces).

Oh and this is the only laser light video we could capture because she typically moves too fast for my poor videographer skills.

It's hard to be a cat...

The video's continue. In a never ending effort to torture our animals for our own amusement, we tied a scarf around Franklin to see what he would do.

He was so dramatic about the whole thing, he just kept throwing himself on the floor.

Sammy and the TV

So I finally remembered to upload my favorite Sammy videos. It only lets me upload one at a time so more videos to follow this week....

We have discovered that Sammy loves watching the TV. We put on Dogtown, USA so she can get really excited.

Oh and notice the trophy next to the TV with a blue ribbon - it is engraved that we are winners in LOVE. That was a wedding present!!!!!

Bad Dog

So Sammy has been a very bad dog all week. For some reason, she forgot what it means to be house-broken.

Since she now has the full run of the house during the day , she uses the basement as her own personal port-a-john.

This is frustrating for many reasons:
She is not sick, judging the consistency of the poo we've been forced to clean up all week.
Her/our routine hasn't changed at all (she has held it for much longer periods of time).
We've cleaned up at least 5 piles of poop this week and a gallon of pee
We gave away the kennel so there isn't a way to stop her

Today I closed both the cat and the dog in the basement and locked the door - if you remember, the dog has learned how to open the basement door, hence the lock. My hope is that she won't go to the bathroom if she has to be down there with it all day.

This is why I'm not so interested in posting the cute Sammy videos.