Author: PPP

This is not too long after Bates arrived.  He and Cali have a special bond.  It seems she cannot do enough to feed him in sneaky ways.  Just this week the hubby sat down a slice of sour dough bread then walked off for two seconds.  He started back tracking his steps with a quizzical look on his face.  He said I thought I left it right here and the cat is there, but I don’t see it.  A few feet away on the floor was Bates and the bread.  I suspect she is so sweet and mothering to all the others because she gave birth to a litter of kittens while she was at the rescue and now she’s transferred that love to all the pups.

There have only been a couple of times where the camera catches her just right, but this is the result. Crazy Halloween eyes with no photoshop!

Cali has to check out the new-to-us midcentury plant stand from Germany.  I hope she does not think she will fit on the tiny platforms!  Pretty soon it will be covered with pics of my kids and plants on the bottom shelf.

She truly played ball until she just wore out then she would finally sit down.  At times she would carry the ball in her mouth and other times she would kick the ball around and chase it then bite it to pick it up and relocate it.  It was especially cute watching her kick this one around, just like David Beckham!

This silly face is Fletch having fun.  He likes to make eye contact, then squeal and look away, then if he doesn’t get your attention, he keeps repeating those steps.  His sounds get more and more ridiculous as he plays this game and you can’t help but laugh at them.  He will start to add in reaching out with his paw to touch you if you are really ignoring him.  When you do pay attention to him, he will run around and crouch down on his front feet with his butt in the air and wagging his tail.  Sometimes just paying attention to him will cause him to break out into song.  He is loud and high pitched and not always willing to stop singing when asked.  I’m so proud of how far he has come since he first got here.  He has really come out of his shell.  He was hiding such a big personality and a warm big heart.  Our home is so lively with this guy here.

In the last 31 days we have been busier than normal.  My hubby had two work trips planned that could not be rescheduled.  We had our first vacation in a while planned.  I had an urgent trip to see family that took a turn for the worst, followed by two funerals in two states.  The one this weekend had 6 dogs in attendance, including my kids.  The kids have taken two trips in the car this month, totaling 30 hours when you count there and back for each location.  I am really thankful for pet friendly hotels that allow us to add our tiny little one even though the pet policy says 2 dogs max.  We got a great laugh out of seeing a cat in the window two stories above our room.  Cali did the same thing at hotels when we took her on the road trips across the country.  She sat in the window as if she were at home.  The kids are a breeze in the car.  Sometimes Bates can get sick so he gets a pill from the vet first.  Fletch insists on his spot basically sitting on the driver’s armrest.  Polly goes from lap to lap and Bates likes the center console.  We are all home safe now and getting caught up on rest. More pics below:

Bates and Fletch have just watched Cali swat a green bean off my plate.  I was working and having lunch at the same time so she was able to accomplish it.  They ignored her getting in trouble for it.  Instead they are offended that I’m not feeding them part of my lunch now and they are giving the cat the stink eye.

 

My original babies!  So I am still taking pics of my film photos instead of scanning them, but these two are worth sharing sooner rather than later.  His eyes always showed up blue in photos and hers red.  Here you can see her face before the years made it fade to such a light grey that both sides almost looked the same.  We had 16.5 great years with Bella and 15 great years with Tippy.

Cali has been the Big Momma Bear watching over the pups for so long.  Here she is making sure Klunkers and Libby come back inside.  Klunkers was always very methodical about taking care of business quickly then coming to the porch to be the first to be let indoors.  It was rare for him to ever just sit in the sun or wander in the yard.  Libby could entertain herself in the yard as long as we’d let her stay.  She would take her tennis balls into the yard and of course they were fun for her because our house is on a hill. The game of fetch was automatic as soon as she dropped the ball it would start rolling.  She was very talented at seeing the possibilities for fun.  She was also afraid of jets flying overhead, packages sitting on the front porch and other random things so we never knew when she would be skittish about something that would make her run for the door to join Klunkers.