So now I have to work with Diamond helping me, which she does this by continually hitting the keys on my keyboard.

It’s going to be a long year.

Well, she did just fine!  She sniffed everything in sight, played with Dot, ignored the cats, sat on everyone’s lap, and came running when she heard Vin open a bag of snacks.  We don’t give Dot any kind of treats except veggies, so Lola had to abstain as well.  And Dot was such a good dog!  She was a bit jealous whenever Lola would cuddle with someone, but Dot is not a cuddler, so there wasn’t much we could do about it.  Besides, Dot gets jealous when Vin and I hug good-bye in the mornings!  We just made sure we kept petting her, playing with her, and telling her what a good dog she was.

In the evening, Lola settled on Vin’s lap pretty early.  My God, does she snore!!!

Katie had warned us that Lola likes to sleep on the bed, and that she was a bed-hog.  With Schrödie spending so much time in Kerri’s room at night, we knew that there was no way Lola could sleep in there.  We usually have Pixel with us at night, and we knew my MIL would never had a dog sleep in her bed.  So, poor Pixel got the shaft.  Lola slept with Vin and I, often right between us, snored all night and licked us whenever she woke up.

Dot got her back the next morning however (because Dot had to sleep in her crate): she ate all of Lola’s breakfast!  All in all, though, it went so well, that I now want a second dog, a pug just like Lola.

• Never give Schrödie flea medicine while wearing a decent shirt; she still has back claws.

• There is a limit as to how much milk one can ingest in the span of three minutes.

• High school kids that play in pit bands are really cool.

• The Comfort Inn is not that comfortable.

• It can take 50 minutes to drive 5 miles when there is night construction on I-95.

• Always make a backup of a database table before you do anything to it.

• Agatha Christie is still a good read.

• Some vampire cable shows should never have been made.

There was a snow storm in which Kerri carried Timone out to the back fence, put him down, and then recorded him finding his way back to the house in snow as deep as he was tall.  It was funny!  He was such a good sport, even though he hated snow.  I swear, this photo could be of that day.  Just amazing!

Well, let me tell you, Dot is ANNOYING.  It is 8am, and she is howling.  And barking.  And whining.  “Ruht-roooooooooooo”.  Over and over.  The kids are at the bus stop, which is in front of our house, as we live on a corner on a busy road.  They are there every day.  They sing. They talk. They laugh.  They’re real cute! But if Dot’s awake when they are there, she howls and barks. And heaven forbid Schrödinger walk by Dot’s cage during all this.  Then Dot barks louder and furiously while scratching at her cage door.

Over the weekend, one of the little girls in the neighborhood came down the street, probably looking for a playmate.  Vin was out in the garden, and Dot was out with him.  Dot heard the girl and started barking like mad. Through the fence, Vin heard the girl say “Aw, shut up Dot”.

See Dot. Even the kids think you’re annoying.

Last summer, only weeks after Timone’s death, Kerri had heard about a kitten that was still available because it was “ugly.” Needless to say, Kerri had to have the ugly kitten, and decided that we should bestow the equally ugly name Schrödinger on it, named after Irish quantum mechanics physicist Erwin Schrödinger and his thought experiment that involves a cat. Well, this little kitten turned out to be beautiful, a tiger with orange throughout. Her fur is split on her head between gray and orange, and if you look at her head-on, it looks like half of her is black-n-white and half of her is in color. She still wears a sweet, shy expression on her face, like the one in this picture when she was a few months old.

However, we soon found out why she was the last in the litter to find a home. She was terribly shy and scared of everything! Kerri was the only one who could hold her (and thus the first one to realize the kitten had fleas!). Schrödie spent much of the first few weeks with us in hiding. Eventually, she came out of hiding and started following Buster around. As she got used to us, she became much more active as well, to the point that we all decided that she was the most hyper kitten we’d ever had! The vet agreed. When she was spayed, and Vin went to pick her up after surgery, the vet’s office had put her in “kitty-time-out” for “fingerpainting with her food” and continually “running into walls!” (Kerri was pleased that we had such a cool cat. I was mortified at her behaviour.)

These days, Schrödie is much calmer, and pretty much an “upstairs” cat. We see her at (her) dinner time and after the dog is in her crate for the night. She’s still shy, and no-one can hold her, let alone give her medicine, but she’s still a cool cat.