A Cushy Life

I think Lynn was in the kitchen the other day when she confessed that she was not yet at complete ease in whatever room it was because she hasn’t yet established a routine. She still loves loves everything about her new house, but when pieces are still being inserted — no word on the bathroom […]

Nooks and Crannies

I didn’t really think we built any nooks or crannies into our new house, but it seems as though there’s at least one, because every evening we lose Marrakesh. Aided by numerous fox sightings, we have managed to hold firm to our resolve that he not go out once twilight arrives. This does not make […]

Season of Big Wind

Around here, I know April is going to be a windy month, something to do with the warmer temperatures and the melting snow, but I don’t really expect the wind to roar all October as it has this year. Last night it blew and blew and blew a bit harder, precipitating a wisp of snow […]

Fat Cat

I’ve been looking at Na Ki’o this past week, thinking he seems pudgier. He came to us in an overweight condition — that’s where he got his name. He came with a horribly unsuitable name that Lynn and I both said NO to, but then we struggled with a replacement. We at last settled on […]

A Skunk By Any Other Name

The one time, since he came to live with us, that Oz ran into a skunk, he did so with all the panache one might expect of a dog: full-bore, nose-first right under the skunk’s tail. He did this while out in the darkness of early morning with Lynn. This is what you need to […]

Electro-cat

Which do you suppose is worse, being awakened at 3 a.m. by a false fire alarm, or being awakened at 4 a.m. by a yowling cat demanding food? It seems like there is a clear answer here, but if I were still teaching and a student offered cogent arguments for either, I’d go with it. […]

Cat and Mouser

When we first got Na Ki’o, he was overweight and we were told he had spent some large portion of his life lying on the bed of his previous owner, who was elderly and ill. Without even reading about it, I started serving some of his food upstairs, well removed from the kitchen, so that […]

Walkabout

I don’t have much today — it is very late, and I’ve had non-stop problems with internet connection since arriving at work. But here, before your very eyes, is the update on Marrakesh. Yes, we went outside, probably in an ill-advised move, but boy did it put some spring in his step and made him […]

Shelf-a-Palooza

Oh, animals. . . One day after touting big, bad Oz, chasing off on quixotic midnight quests after creatures unknown, I found myself awakened at 3 a.m. by same big bad dog trying desperately to climb into bed with me — something he has only done previously on Fourths of July as fireworks explode everywhere. […]

Dog Days of August

I saw this the other day, but I don’t remember if it was a poster, bumper sticker or t-shirt: “I don’t always talk about my dogs. Sometimes I’m asleep.” And Phoebe, one of the tellers at my bank (who used to be Little Phoebe who lived down the street from me), has a poster at […]