Animal Shorts

I might have mentioned before that my cat was not using his litter boxes consistently (or at all). Well, we tried many different ways to rectify the situation, and FINALLY I think we've found something that works.

We moved his litter boxes to the upstairs floor in Londo's office, got one of those self-cleaning boxes in addition to his other 2-3 boxes, and raised the babygate at the stairs that lead to the office enough for the cat and only the cat to go under. We also steam-cleaned the basement playroom's rug (many times) and scrubbed down the storage room area where his litter boxes had been located. And by "we" in this paragraph, I mean Londo. (Isn't he wonderful?) Although I did help with the ideas, planning and oversight. ;-)

As long as we are sure to keep the basement door shut and all soft objects (clothing, towels, rugs) off of uncarpeted floors (the hardwood and tile floors), and Londo is sure to keep his litter box clean, the cat goes in his litter box!! It's such a relief, and I hope to heck I didn't just jinx us!

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Outside our bedroom and bathroom window, there is an overhanging eave jutting out from the rooftop. There is a bird's nest in this eave. Every spring, the birds return and hatch their eggs in that nest. We can hear the chirping and fluttering and constant in and out of the birds for weeks and weeks, as the eggs are laid and the babies grow.

This drives the cat nuts! He sits by the windows all day and night, trying to crane his neck up so he can see the eaves and rooftop. He makes this clicking noise with his jaw as if he is vividly imagining chomping down on those birds. Every now and then, we open a window for him to sit in, which he loves and gets him more worked up. We figure he now also has smell in addition to watching the show. We call it smell-o-vision.

He's very amusing to watch.

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The dog thinks that the nanny comes every week day to hang out and play with her. It's very obvious. The nanny loves the dog very much, too. In fact, when we went out of town for a wedding, the nanny agreed to dog sit/cat sit/house sit. We couldn't have made the dog any happier! And the nanny finally got the chance to spend time with the cat and realized his charm as well (generally, the cat is no where to be found if the Pumpkin is around).

When the nanny takes the Pumpkin out in the mornings to play at the playground or go to a friend's house to play, the dog is SO UPSET that they left her behind. Even though they do this almost every day. If I'm still at home when they leave, the dog comes running upstairs to me, looking so pitiful. You'd think she'd get the routine by now, but she just doesn't get it.

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If it's not raining on Saturday mid-morning, we are going to take the Pumpkin to Green Meadows Petting Farm in Frederick, MD. We went last spring and fall and had such a great time! I see that they are also going to be open in June-July and again (as always) in October. They've got great animals, all of which are very domesticated and used to be handled by adults and kids of all ages. The people are incredibly friendly and helpful. And I could just rave about it all day. If you are around the area, I highly recommend going with your kids. It's worth the reasonable price and time to get there.