It's A Zoo Out/In There...

Today, I went upstairs to get my lunch and I ran into, first--our dog Patch. It's fitting I ran into her first. She's our oldest pet. She's blind and deaf and barks all the time. I think I would bark, too, if I were blind and deaf. She keeps surprising us with her ability to keep going.

I entered the house and was met warmly by Bec, our second dog. He's no longer officially a "puppy." but he's still got a lot of puppy instincts. He hears the basement door open and waits by the front door for me to walk through. He's been a wonderful companion for my son, and for all of us, really. Even though he's only been with us a little over a year, I can't imagine our home without him.

I came into the bedroom and was immediately seized upon by SamDean Winchester, the newest edition of the family. This little guy's a hand and leg-full. He torments Patch and Bec, along with the rest of us. I'm sure he loves every second of is as well. He's still a kitten. He no longer attacks us (very much...) and we think he might be mellowing. Time will tell if it lasts. But he's stolen our hearts.

As I leave the house, lunch in hand, I pass Teewinot, the pet we've had the longest. He's our hunter, our rock, annoyer of neighborhood--and our--dogs, and an animal that doesn't seem to give a crap what you think--he's going to lay down in the middle of the cul-de-sac and make you drive around him. We couldn't have asked for a better cat when we picked him up from my cousin's farm all those years ago. He's slowing down a little, which is to be expected.

Four animals and only Patch and SamDean can be in the same room at the same time. We have gates and closed doors, schedules and times when all the animals are asleep. It's truly a zoo both outside and inside. It's hard to imagine life with just one or two of these little guys. It seems like it would be so simple, but I'm sure it wouldn't be. Each one has their own personalities, their own traits, habits, quirks, and mannerisms.

Yes, it's a zoo, but one that makes life interesting.

When Your Doggie Goes Missing...

She barked as I left the house, lunch in hand, and made my way to work. She stood, like she usually does when we let her out at lunchtime, alone on the front lawn, barking at nothing, staring straight ahead, but seeing nothing.

Her name is Patch and she's fourteen years old.

She's also blind, as well as deaf.

I thought about picking her up and taking her inside, but I decided against it. After all, when she's ready, she'll find her way up the stairs and scratch at the door to be let in. Only today, she didn't go up the stairs...

And she stopped barking.

It was an hour or so later we discovered no one had brought her in. We began our search. We looked in the neighbor's yards--nothing. We looked where she has been ending up when she gets lost or confused. No sign of the fluffy puffball. Of course, calling out for her would do no good. That's when we got worried.

She's been known to wander into the next neighborhood, but the last time she did that was winter. Now, there's tall weeds blocking paths she would normally take. Because she's blind, tall weeds and other plants cause her to turn back. As I checked places a small dog might find herself, I began to think of all the possibilities of where she could be. The fact we could hear no barking caused me the most concern.

I came up with three options.

1. She could have been picked up by an animal control vehicle.

2. She could be resting in a shady area somewhere, tired from trying to find her way home.

3. Or, she could have graduated from this existence, her old and tired body having experienced too much.

Months ago, when we decided it was getting close to us having to put down our precious cat Gracie, we discussed Patch. Some days she's prancing about like a puppy. Other days, she'd sleep all day and not eat anything. It's actually a miracle she's still with us. That third option returned some of those thoughts to my mind.

A few hours later, my wife decided to drive to the neighborhood below ours. We heard someone saw a dog in a yard, but it was before lunch. We thought we ought to check there. As my wife walked between a couple of houses, she heard panting.

She knew.

Patch had been found.

She brought her home, sticker weeds throughout Patch's hair. She was exhausted. We set her before her water dish. She lay there lapping up water--it was all she could do. Patch isn't out of danger yet. She picked up a nasty cough that we hope will subside soon.

We have four animals in our house. The oldest is a farm cat that's around twelve years old. We then have a large dog that just turned one, a kitten that's a few months old, and Patch...the matriarch. It's like having a newborn, a teenager, a middle-ager, and a senior citizen, and we're dealing with the joys and the not-so-joys of each. Today, we had a scare. We're glad it turned out well.

Trying To Get A Simple Picture...Of Our Dog

Four days ago, I needed to post a picture for my Pic Of The Day. Since I hurt my calf muscle last week, I haven't done a lot of walking, and when I don't do a lot of walking, I don't find interesting things to photograph on those walks. And when that happens, I try to find something around the house to photograph.

Where's the dog?

Four days ago our dog got her hair cut. I thought I'd get a cute picture of the pup and post it. I take pictures all the times of our two cats. The difference between our cats and our dog is the cats many times just sit around being very photogenic. 

The dog, however, well...she has other plans. 

I tried again and again to get her picture, but every time she was looking at me and looking very cute, she'd turn away. I have proof. The iPhone has an interesting little feature. When you take a picture, it records a mini-video lasting maybe a second. The image you see when the video ends is what you're stuck with. I took a video of my iPhone pictures and you can see, the dog would not cooperate at all.

The most frustrating part wasn't that the dog kept looking away as soon as I pointed my camera at her. The most frustrating part was once she turned away from me, she would look at my son (engaged in a little video game playing...) and just stare at him. She'd stare at him for like ten seconds at a time. I'd call her name, she'd look at me for a split second, then turn and stare at something else, anything but my phone.

I've learned, with photography, patience is a valuable commodity. It took several tries, but eventually I got a picture that was good enough (i.e. in focus...) to use as my Pic Of The Day. As Pics Of The Day goes, I got a lot of feedback on my dog picture. People love pictures of dogs and cats.

Right now, as I type this, one of our cats is just staring at me. If the light were better, I could use either my phone or my Nikon and snap off several pictures of her--she wouldn't care at all, but if I tried photographing the dog, Heaven help me to get a good shot. Just one more difference between cats and dogs.