At least it's never boring.

The other day, my husband said to me, "There will be no more pets in this house. I am done." I think it was listening to Marco scream (for no good reason) for the 133,563rd time that sent him over the edge. Maybe.

I understood and agreed with him. Two dogs and a parrot are more than enough for anyone! That's not even counting the aquarium animals that have to be cared for (that's his department). Our pets are always needing something: feeding in the morning, walks twice a day, baths for the dogs, cage cleaning for Marco. Lots of attention for all three before we leave for work in the morning and again when we get home in the evening. Feeding everyone again at suppertime. Sometimes all I want to do after work is watch trash tv and zone out for a couple of hours, with no one needing anything from me. But no, I have responsibilities....and to be fair, it's not like they asked to live here with us. Duty calls.

And the vet bills! Two weeks ago, George had to go to the vet to get his limp checked out and also his yearly heartworm prevention shot. That visit was over $300. Then on Tuesday I had to take him back to the vet because his ears had gotten red and inflamed and were driving him crazy. It turned out he had bacterial and yeast infections in them and was prescribed an ointment that we'll be putting in his ears every other day for the next two weeks. He also needed a refill of his anti-inflammatory pills for his arthritic knee. Cost of Tuesday's visit: $190. Five hundred dollars and we're not even halfway through October yet! The vet bills are breaking us.

But hey, you can't put a price on love, right? They bring us a lot of fun and happiness. Plus, there's never a dull moment in our house, as the following little anecdote I shared on Facebook just now so vividly illustrates:

This morning when I let Marco out of his cage, he took off flying. The breeze from his wings as he passed through the kitchen caused a piece of wax paper (that had held a medicated dog treat for George) to flutter to the floor. Before I could stop her, Poppy snatched it up, raced to the bedroom, dropped down on her belly, and ARMY CRAWLED UNDER THE BED AS FAST AS SHE COULD so I couldn't take it from her. Then when I went back to find Marco, he was in the pantry attempting to bust into a bag of walnuts.

This is my life.

Still around...

It hasn't been a great month for blogging. Life is super busy at the moment, plus these last two weeks of school seem to be dragging on and on and on. I'm so glad this awful year is over, and I'm really looking forward to my seven weeks off. It's sorely needed, for lots of reasons. One of the things I'm really looking forward to is spending more time reading blogs and commenting and writing more often than once a week!

In leiu of writing a lot of uninspired drivel today, I'll just leave you with some pictures I've taken over the last week or so with some brief context. I'll be back for real sometime next week. I hope everyone is well and enjoying the start of summer! (Or winter, if Sarah is reading) 

Our beautiful niece and her husband were visiting family in North Carolina last week. They made a special trip down to Florence last Friday afternoon to see us. They currently live in Portland, Oregon, where Melissa is finishing up law school. It was so good to see them! And as you can see in these photos, Marco, George, and Poppy were thrilled to see (or in Poppy's case, meet) them, too.

Speaking of Poppy...

What a sweet, smart dog she's turning out to be. George is starting to have fun playing with her, too. Who can resist this face?

On to a couple of garden pictures. My tomatoes are starting to flower, and I'm still getting bagsful of beautiful fresh lettuce.

My bee balm is over 4 feet high, and it's about to flower. The zinnias have a few buds getting ready to open.

And finally........Marco! I know he has more fans than all the rest of us put together out there. :) Here he is with a little "snuggle teepee" someone sewed for him...and then another photo of him on the porch the other day.

 

Life with boys

It's been five months since my girl Ginger went and left me as the lone woman in this house. Between her passing and the Covid restrictions on gatherings of friends, I find myself surrounded by males 24/7. This house is seriously low on female energy at the moment. But hey, I guess you could say I'm the Queen Bee!

The Marcoman "supervising" Gregg's  water change technique.

George looking sadly towards the door as Gregg was backing out of the driveway this morning, headed to work. George thinks we should all stay home as a pack, together, all day every day. He has no respect for the what it takes to earn a living! Speaking of which, here's a photo I emailed to the whole staff at work on Friday. My work-from-home office assistant helping himself to my coffee--and standing on my keyboard to do it. Talk about no respect!

With the exception of my husband,  the boys in this house are way more needy and troublesome than Ginger ever was. (Gregg's just a normal "husband" level of needy and troublesome! lol) Marco is naughty, but super cute and smart enough to charm you just when you're about ready to open a window and toss him out. Yesterday a wineglass slipped from my hand when I was washing it and shattered, dramatically, on the hard kitchen floor. Marco, who was perched on the countertop a foot away, stared, wide-eyed, for about 3 seconds and then said in a little doleful voice, "You bad bird." Even he rarely destroys something in so dramatic a fashion.

George is a total love these days, but he's so needy he's like an overgrown puppy. He depended on Ginger and probably loved her more than he loved us, and now we've had to step up and give him lots more attention. He's eating it up, and getting super spoiled. He's going to be a sad boy when I go back to work. Which, by the way, isn't happening for an extra week. He's going to have to suck it up and deal with it eventually, though.

One day we'll probably get a puppy or else a young dog as for a companion for George. We're still not ready in any way, but maybe by the end of this year. And it's going to be a little girl!

It's time.

You all know that I love my pets. Our two dogs and our bird bring lots of love and happiness and fun to our home, and I wouldn't want to live without them. However....

They're driving me crazy this summer. If I don't go back to work soon I'm going to lose my damn mind.

First there's been keeping the dogs in the house this summer. It's too hot for them outside, so we've allowed them indoors since I'm here to keep an eye on things. With Ginger, that's no problem. She's good as gold and would never think of peeing in the house or chewing something up. George, on the other hand....well, he's been mostly good, except when he's not. We've caught him chewing up two paperback novels and the cover of a heating pad I'd left on the side of my bed. One night I fell asleep with both the dogs still in the house, and I woke up at 3am to find that George had peed and pooped in the hallway. I was not a happy camper cleaning that mess up in the middle of the night! Since then we've had to make sure they go outside at night to sleep. Ginger has gotten spoiled, though, and now she has to be forced out at night, which makes me feel terrible. And of course, Marco deserves time out of his cage and that has to be when the dogs are out of the house. It's been a constant struggle accommodating all three of them this summer.

The other night Ginger was having a terrible attack of seasonal allergies. Once or twice a year we have to take her to the vet for an allergy shot to make her feel better. On Thursday night we had made a vet's appointment for the next day, because she was miserable. Her eyes were red and swollen and she was rubbing the fur off her nose. Well, George did something to piss her off (we didn't see what) and she snarled and jumped on him and bit him on the side of his mouth. Poor George was bleeding and cowering in a corner, Ginger was sulking, and the whole house was in an uproar. George is always pestering Ginger to play, and sometimes when she's not feeling well she lashes out at him. I imagine that's what happened. I took her to the vet yesterday and got her a shot, and today she feels much better....

but now something is wrong with George's skin. We noticed the other day he had a couple of swollen red spots on his legs that looked like mosquito bites. All of a sudden there are several of them and they're turning into small sores. I freaked out this morning when I saw that and called the vet to see if they could see him. Well, they're only open a half day on Saturdays and they said they're booked solid this morning, and also that they have an emergency surgery. The receptionist said that unless something life threatening was going on, they couldn't see him until Monday morning. They advised me to give him Benadryl in the meantime. My friend Martina  who's a vet tech (and also happens to be out of town this weekend, of course) also advised me to pick up some antibiotic spray to put on the sores to get him through until Monday.

I swear, if it's not one thing, it's another.

I told Marla the other day that I can't wait to go back to work. These pets are driving me nuts!! It's definitely time.

Pigpen

Work has been bearing down on me this week and will reach it's nadir tonight with the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child midnight release party, which sounds like it should be fun but will actually just mean my working until 2am and dealing with crowds of irritating hipsters "reliving the release parties of my childhood" and bored families with small children up way past their bedtime. Tomorrow night I have to work until midnight doing a seasonal reset of part of our educational toys and games department, but after that it's just one more regular closing shift and then I will finally (finally!) have a day or two off. I've not had a day off since early this past week.

So hi! How are you, all my blogging friends? I've had very little time to visit with you this week.

I was trying to think of something quick and easy to blog about today before heading off to the grocery store for the 3 pounds of ground beef I need to make hot dog chili to take to work tonight (the managers are pulling together a hot dog dinner and snacks since over half the staff  and a few volunteers will be working the event tonight). It occurred to me that I haven't shared any pictures or stories about Ginger and George lately.

Speaking of George, he needs a bath in the worst kind of way. Both of the dogs like pawing up a cool spot of dirt under one of the camellia bushes in the backyard and lying on top of it when it's hot. Ginger's coat is thick and fluffy with an undercoat, and dust and dirt just shake right off her. But not George. His coat is so short and even somewhat sparse on his belly and the insides of his thighs that dust sticks right to him. He'll turn a grayish color all over and you know it's time to give Big G a bath.

And that day has come again. Gregg told me yesterday that if you pat George just right, a cloud of dust poofs off of him with each pat. Remember the character Pigpen in the Peanuts comics? Yep, that's my dog right now!

Georgie P

As soon as I get a day off, both the dogs are getting nice, thorough baths. They're going to love me for it. Ha!