Recently I started been reading a blog called 1000 Reasons I’m a Crap Mom. It is adorable. Being constantly bombarded by parenting tips she is constantly reminded of her failings as a mother.

I don’t have children. I have pets. And even as a pet owner I have my failings. So its probably best that we are putting off having children. So imitating my inspiration I bring you 10 Reasons I’m a Bad Pet Mom.

1. I let my pets self feed. Yes I have a fat cat. But I don’t feel a need to put him on a diet. First my other cat is a skinny little thing, second what is the point of making my poor ex-stray fear he will starve. My dog is self fed and he is skinny as anything. So 2 out of 3 pets are skinny enough, that is a 66% success rate right?
2. My animals have to ask to be fed. It doesn’t matter if I filled up his dish ten times the night before, HappyCat always greets me with yowls as I come down the stairs in the morning. This usually means his dish is empty. This is also the real reason my pets are self fed, I cant really be bothered to feed them regularly enough.



3. My dog feels a need to steal from the trash.  We keep trying to break him of it, but he does it anyways.
4. My animals feel a need to drink out of the toilet. We keep trying to stop them but its so funny to see a cat trying to drink out of the toilet without falling in. I’m not sure what is wrong with their water dish, it is usually full when we catch them drinking from the magic fountain.



5. My dog plays with non-dog toys. His favorite toys tend to be soccer balls too big for his mouth and plastic water bottles he finds on the side of the road.
6. I don’t give my pets routine. Apparently animals thrive on routine. We purposefully tried to keep Cooper off a routine when he was a pup. I didn’t want him to get upset if we came home late, or didn’t take him to a park on Sundays.
7. My pets live a double standard. Cats are allows on furniture, dog is not.
8. I don‘t let them do what they want. Audrey wants to go outside, so shes not allowed. HappyCat wants to stay in the house, so I try to take him out. Cooper wants to be with me at all times, so he’s left alone in the house.



9. I’m terrible with a brush and nail clippers. But they don’t seem to enjoy it anyways so why torment them (mats and sharp claws that is why).
10. I love leaving my pets with strangers. Go on Vacation, get someone else to take care of your animals. Preferably with very lax instructions like, feed them this whenever you feel like it and if they get sick here is their vets number.

Why are you a good or bad pet owner?

One of the purposes of this blog is to stay in touch with friends and family. I post a lot about my life, the hubby and our pup Cooper. I sometimes mention Audrey, our pretty gray kitty. But I realized this weekend I very rarely mention our third pet.

HappyCat is pretty much just a mellow cow cat. He was once a thin kitty, we got him as a stray at the animal shelter. But since he has the shelter of our home, he’s pretty much spent his days doing this.

Sure he plays with Audrey a little, he snuggles with Cooper and he occasionally patrols the house, but he most enjoys cat napping.

And informing me that the food dish is empty. An empty food dish is an emergency to him.

This weekend, when Audrey was locked in the guest bedroom due to various openings to the outside world, Happy just sat at the openings and showed no interest in entering the outside world.

I think he knows he has it good. And I think he’s a very pretty cat, I sometimes wish that he wasn’t such a lump.

It’s been just over a year since we lost our cat Beavis.  Since then, neither Audrey or HappyCat has been allowed to venture outdoors. Ex-stray HappyCat has no real interest in the outdoors. But Audrey has wanted to wander the world desperately.

It’s her nature as a huntress. She’s always hunting everything that enters the house, why not go to the source and hunt the mice, chipmunks and snakes that have not breached our home.

This is one of the reasons we love Audrey. The reasons she is irreplaceable to us. Other reasons being her loving personality, her ability to do tricks and her amazing sleek low allergen coat. We’ve often joked that when she dies one day, as our favorite, we would have to have her cloned. Just to keep her physical characteristics.

As the favorite we are afraid of losing her.

We’ve started doing some work to the house. Adam wanted to replace all the window sills in the basement. In order to get the proper measurements we took out one of the cellar windows. And I spent the rest of the afternoon nagging Adam to block the window space. I didn’t want a raccoon getting in. Or Audrey getting out.

So he blocked the window with a big piece of plywood. He figured that the opening would require a tight squeeze on her part. It didn’t.

As soon as Audrey had an opportunity to get to the basement she went easily out the window.

Adam came upstairs at 5 in the morning to let me know he was leaving to go hiking. Oh and the cat was out.

Audrey is quick and sleek and hard to catch.

Luckily she comes to her name and likes canned food.

I spent my day searching for improved ways to block the odd shaped hole. I’d block the hole with a piece of sheet metal. And an hour later I hear a loud crash and see a kitty running across the lawn, making her escape.

So I reinforced the sheet metal by holding it in place with a cardboard box on the tiny edge of the cinder blocks.

*crash bang*

So I look the other way for a few minutes, let her have some fun. I don’t mind really mind if she stays in the yard and no wild carnivores come in. But I’m always weary of cars and fisher cats.

The solution that seems to have kept her in for most of the evening is a suitcase at the kitty opening to the basement, a piece of plywood, several pieces of sheet metal, a cardboard box and a roll of saran wrap.

But don’t worry, she’s got brains to go with that beauty. I’m sure she’ll figure out how to break out of this prison.

After all, she loves to be an outdoor wild woman, almost as much as she likes to sleep on Adam’s legs at night.

And it’s hard to deny such a pretty little face.

And doesn’t she seem so thrilled when she’s back in the house.

But sometimes we have to make decisions to keep her safe. No matter how unpopular that decision is with our little wildcat.

Winter in New Hampshire has been disappointing to those of us who love snow. But the last couple days have been so nice that I couldn’t  really complain as I did my runs. I think the weather may have been in the mid-60s as people joyfully celebrated in the outside patios of all of Manchester’s Irish pubs.

Even the pets were out celebrating the weather. There was this lovely pit mix outside enjoying the weather as I left work today. See his festive Lei?

But something more interesting was outside today too. Sitting by the river, hanging out with her dad was this lovely lady.

It was her first time outside and she was a little nervous. Her owner wanted her to be able to get some fresh air and exercise, so he was trying to teach her to walk on harness.

She seemed more interested in learning to climb trees. To stay away from the dogs that were walking around the park.

And no offense to my pretty harness wearing kitty (Audrey, our gray cat), but this cat had one of the coolest colorings I had ever seen. Look at the close-up of the rings of colour on her tail.

Meeting her was just another reminder of why I should always keep a camera with me (which I do a lot more now that I have a point and shoot). You never know when you’ll find something different and interesting that you will want to remember.

How are you celebrating the start of spring?

HappyCat, Halo and Audrey

The last few days I have noticed a strange occurance. We normally have two cats. It’s an acceptable number because when we go away for a couple days the cats keep each other company. As much as they like to pretend they hate each other the cats are friends. Two cats generally do not cause me to notice anything peculiar.

Add a third cat and all of a sudden I feel like there are cats every where. There’s a cat on the bed as I wake up, a different one in the bathroom waiting for petting, a third in the kitchen asking for a treat. I grab my coffee, there’s two cats on the couch I sit on to read my e-mails as I drink coffee in the morning. There’s a commotion in the other room, the puppy chases the third cat into view. I walk to the downstairs bedroom where we keep an office talk to Adam, I turn around, there’s three cats in various positions in the hall. I feel a little invaded to tell you the truth.

The reason for this cat multiplication is Halo. Halo is pretty much my adopted cat niece. Her mother is a friend that I consider so close that she’s pretty much my adopted into my life in adulthood sister. After finishing grad school, my friend decided to travel a little before joining the grown up world.  So Halo came to live with us.

She’s a pretty layed back cat who loves (and demands) human attention. She’s usually the one waiting for love in the bathroom in the morning. She either loves the puppy, or is too lazy to get out of his way so pretends she loves him.  She will share a couch with HappyCat.

Audrey however has been a little vocal about the new addition. This is Halo’s third stay with us and I think Aud-ball is a little insulted by Halo’s repeat disappearances.  It’s probably also a two new cats on her territory within a month thing.

But for better or worst, my house will feel filled with cats for the next few months.

Anyone else noticed something similar, two cats is fine but add a third and you feel like you have a dozen?

Tonight I’m introducing our latest feline addition to the blog. We got Happy at the Manchester Animal Shelter a couple weeks ago and have yet to find him a name we like better. Happy is an approximately one year old domestic shorthair that was found as a stray. After a few weeks with us we understand how he got caught.

Happy is very much a people cat. I actually have very few pictures of him because he always wants to hang out on us. At least half the pictures we have are from the webcam. He wants to be a lap or shouldertop cat.

But he does have some of the stray left in him. And an incident this morning required his introduction to the blog. I bought a package of turkey bacon, which really only tastes good when mixed with other foods. Because I’m trying to get rid of the package faster I made an extra slice for the dog this morning. Cooper spent most of his time gumming and chewing on the piece of bacon as Adam, Ben and I watched and commented. All of a sudden we noticed that Happy was creeping up around the counter. He walked up to the puppy and took the piece of bacon right out of his mouth. A brief tug-of-war later, Happy had the meat and Cooper was left wondering what had happened. Scrappy kitty.

So he’s generally working out pretty well. We wish he got along better with Audrey but we are hoping it will come with time. And he’s overly affectionate when we are sitting around, but terrified when someone first enters the room. Sometimes I just wish I knew what he had been through.

So there we have it internet, there’s Happy the cat. We still might rename him, but for now that’s it.

This is not a happy post, but it is one I need to write in order to deal with this.

This morning Beavis slipped out when Adam brought Cooper out for his morning ritual. Because the cats are usually hard to catch and it was raining so we assumed he would go hide under a car, Adam left him outside. When I went out less than 20 minutes later to head to my yoga class and try to convince the cat to come in I found him. Beavis was hit by a car on the road in front of my house. I couldn’t have been more horrified when I realized it was my cat there at the end of the drive way. We think he died instantaneously of a broken neck.

What is most upsetting about this is that Beavis used to have permission to spend time outdoors when supervised until he had a near miss a month or so ago. Then he had slipped across the road and decided to respond to my call to come back as cars where traveling both directions on the road. Nearly getting hit twice a few feet away from me.

Beavis was just over two years old. We adopted him as a 10 month old. He was just another “generic black cat”. We were lucky that a shelter volunteer pointed him out. At the time we were looking for a young short-haired cat that would get along with our other cat Audrey. He had been in the shelter for 2 months and he worked out wonderfully.

At first he wanted nothing to do with us. He enjoyed playing with Audrey and was a great companion to her. After about 2 months of being with us he warmed up to us.

In fact he warmed up to us so much that he would occasionally get in the shower with me if I had not slept at home the night before.

He was an independent animal, but he loved being pet and would talk to me. He played with Audrey, when we got Cooper he adapted to Cooper quicker than Audrey did. He kept the puppy in line. He slept next to me when Adam was out of town. He’d get in bed with me when Adam gets out of bed in the morning. He meowed at me if I stayed in bed too long.

In short he was my buddy. He was my cat of the two. I feel terrible that he got out. I feel terrible that we didn’t scramble to get him back into the house. I’m going to miss him tremendously.

We will get another cat in a few weeks, in a few months, I’m not sure. The cat will not replace Beavis, but will help fill the role of playmate to Audrey, as friend to me. In the meantime I will snuggle with my puppy and other cat to help me feel better.

R.I.P. Beavis
February 24, 2009 – June 21, 2009

I’ve always heard about ticks.  I didn’t really remember ever seeing one until a couple years ago when I found a wierd bug crawling on my sweater which Adam identified as a tick for me. We pulled one off his mother’s cat that had dug in under the cat’s chin.  It was an adventure to pull that one out. Adam pulled one off himself when we lived in Fremont. It was still alive and started making threatening motions towards Audrey. I grabbed my cat and rushed her to a room far away from the bloodsucker.

My experience with ticks prior to my move to New Hampshire consisted of mythical creatures.  They were extensively discussed in my “Kids who want to be Veterinarians” summer camp when I was 9 or 10 years old.  And I developed a disgust for them then and there.

In the last couple days I have probably had to deal with ten Ticks.  And by “deal with” I mean “honey can you kill this tick for me”.  We have pulled two ticks out of the puppy and I’ve taken at least three ticks out of his hair (including a tiny deer tick, carriers of lyme disease). I had three ticks crawling all over my clothes yesterday, and Adam had a couple on his.  I still havn’t had to pull any out of my or the cats’ skin, but I’m constantly convinced that every little itch is a tick.

Oh and they don’t seem to die when slapped, squished or stomped on.  They are pretty much indestructible!

I just spent a pretty penny to get Frontline for the cats, and will get what the vet recommends for the puppy when he gets to a more convienient size, but is there anything I can do to keep the ticks off me? Is it just a high tick year? It’s silly that I can handle the mosquitoes and black flies, but the ticks make me want to run back to the city… and take my pets with me.

Me: Hey honey, I just bought this bag of puppy food to be ready for the puppy’s arrival. Where should we put it?
Him: Oh we’ll just put it under the breakfast bar until he gets here.
Me: But wont the cats get into the bag and eat the food?
Him: Dogs eat cat food, but cats would never eat dog food.

I took this picture only a couple hours after that conversation, it’s a terrible picture but you’ll understand why I used it instead of snapping more in a moment.  And don’t think that Audrey was sitting around innocently watching Beavis scarf down.  She was happily eating away until the camera came out.

So as I set up the camera, Audrey walked away and Beavis chomped down like I hadn’t fed him in days and I was going to take his food away.  I took the picture and realise my setting were wrong. As I fixed my settings Beavis’ stomach decided that it couldn’t digest the dog food and he threw up.  Not just a little bit either.  So I put the camera away.

Good news is, since then our cats do not eat dog food.

Audrey, originally uploaded by mbarsalou.

Audrey was sitting on the mini greenhouses for the seedlings again this morning (being a hen). So I decided to take a picture before correcting her. I seriously don’t understand why she wants to sit there all the time.