The End of an Era...well, a moment at least

No more Katy. Tonight she is home with Mom. We had a nice final day together though.

You know, Katy would have been a great service dog, if she had been given a different start in life. Her early abuse and neglect has created a dog full of anxieties, so she would not now be suitable for the position. But she is so obedient and smart and eager to please.

Whenever we go somewhere, it is her job to carry her toy. That is the one thing that I expect of her, while I am lugging everything else inside! This is how it goes...

She's such a good girl! And today she got to meet a local news reporter and cameraman! We've been having some trouble at work with recyclable pickup (or lack thereof). I got sick of hearing the boss and office girl sounding like helpless victims, so I took it upon myself to email a few local news stations and the local news paper. I told them of our issue and asked whether or not they were interested. You can even see in the video above that I have bottles all over my office floor. This is due to me having no where to put them, since Waste Pro won't pick up our recyclables as they are contracted to do!

Well, today we had a call from the local Fox 4 news reporter asking to do an interview with me. I told her that the boss would be the better person to speak with. They came over, and we are now due to see the boss on the news in about an hour.

Yesterday I wrote the date all over a bottle, and stuck it in the recycle bin. Today I put a dated paper by it and took a picture. I was going to do this everyday until the recyclables were picked up, before we received the call from the reporter.

 

 They interviewed the boss...

...and got a shot of the bottles stacking up in my office, since I have no place to put them. Mom periodically hauls some off, or I take some home to recycle.

They say that they will pick up the recyclables on Thursday, but they have been saying that every time that we call. We'll see if being on the news makes a difference.

So Katy is gone now. I enjoy having her around. She's a good girl. However I'm glad to leave the feeding responsibilities of all of the other animals back to Mom and Tommy. It was about 2 hours per day being spent on traveling to three other places and feed 8 extra animals. Whew! I'm due to start my vacation in two days, and I can use it!

Katy-Kate: Part Deux, Day Two

So it's day two with Katy, and things are going well. The cats are adjusting to having her around. In fact, Delilah has decided that she loves Katy's bed, and this morning she even came over and laid down on the edge to share the bed with her.

But tonight she is taking the bed all for herself, and has even confiscated Katy's baby (see the orange toy that she is laying on?)

So where is Katy? Well after a quick bath to "freshen" her up, she has taken to the couch...

See, having Katy over is sort of like being the grandparent who gets the grandkids for the day-- you get to let them do all of the things that they normally aren't permitted to do, like climb all over the furniture. Just don't tell Mom. When she is surprised by Katy jumping up on the couch at her house, we can all just play dumb. Right?

A Visit From Katy

I had a visitor at my office the other day: my Mom's dog Katy. Mom had to go out of town for a few hours, and asked me to watch her.

She's a good girl. Unfortunately I think she may have been stung by a bee while outside, as she suddenly yelped and then jumped several feet. She then proceeded to show distress and licked her paw repeatedly. She ran up to me to show her paw to me, in hopes that I could stop the pain, but I could see nothing wrong. She tried exploring a little longer, but she was holding her paw up. So I took her inside.


She continued to show distress for another 45 minutes or so, and then eventually settled down to take a nap next to me on her bed.

I always love when Katy comes to visit!

Christmas Wrap-Up 2009

Well this year we decided to have Christmas at Mom's. It just seemed easier, but I put up a tree anyway and did a little light decorating.

And we decided this year on an Italian Christmas (meaning spaghetti and the sides.) Last year I think we did Mexican. Mom was doing Baked Spaghetti and I did roasted green beans and garlic bread, salad with Olive Garden salad dressing, and I decided to bring a gingerbread cake for dessert. Woodrow and I baked it together. He also helped me make some animal treats. He's never helped me in the kitchen before, so this was a first.

We started in the kitchen on making some Savory Cheese Treats and Salmon Tidbits for cats (using the recipe for Tuna Tidbits but replacing the tuna for salmon that I had on hand).

Then we went ahead and baked the Gingerbread Cake. Woodrow seemed to enjoy helping me do this. He'd never helped me cook before.
The cake had pretty good flavor, but was a little dry to me. I only baked it for 45 minutes (when it said to bake it for an hour). So I was surprised that it came out a little dry. But it was pretty good on Christmas warmed up with whipped cream on top!

Then I took a break from Christmas stuff to make dinner. I had decided that I needed to use up some veggies that I'd bought at the farmer's market the weekend before. Hmmmm. Corn on the cob, red peppers, onion. What to do? Sounds like fine makings for fried corn to me!
Then I decided to saute up some baby portabellos and make a red wine sauce, and serve that over steak.
I had chosen a really lean steak (because I'm trying to watch what I eat, and there are so many other temptations to deal with at Christmas!). So the steak was kinda tough. But the fried corn! Oh my! Yes! Yes! Yes!

After dinner I made some Everyday Biscuits for dogs. We used cookie cutters to cut them into cute shapes.
The dog biscuits turned out cute, and Mom's dog Katy loved them! I also made some for a family friend and his dog Mya. I packaged them and the cat treats into cute boxes for gifts, and kept some for myself.

After the dog biscuits were done, I was finally free to sit down and opened a few gifts. I opened my Secret Santa gift that I got on the Book Blogger Holiday Swap, and I opened my gift from my boss. I was wonderfully surprised to find that my boss had given me an engraved silver business card holder filled with gift cards...
Wow! I did NOT expect that! I used the Home Depot card today to help with the painting supplies for painting my bedroom this week.

At one point I looked over and saw this...
Ahhhh, yes. All is well with the world when there is peace among the cats.

Once everything was done, I took a few minutes to try my hand at Hot Buttered Rum. This was something that I had never done before.
Yum! Yet very, very fattening and high caloric. Oh well. It's only once a year, right?

After the buttered rum, I had to call it a night. It had been a long, long day, and Christmas was going to be another one.

Christmas found me at Mom's. She had set up a small table tree and other decorations.
Mittens enjoyed the sunroom, as she always does...
...and Katy enjoyed the new hamburger toy that she'd gotten, even using it as a pillow.
Mom and Tommy and I opened our gifts.
Mom made me a homemade card that I loved! It came complete with a bookmark.
She underestimates how good she is at this kind of stuff. I keep telling her that she ought to consider opening up a little online shop.

Woodrow came by later and enjoyed dinner with us. The Baked Spaghetti was very good, and it was just what Tommy wanted!

It was a really nice day, if a long and tiring one. Thank God this is only once a year!

Katy Katy

Today I would like to introduce you to a valued member of our family, Katy (pronounced Katie).


Katy is Mom's dog. Katy came to our family a couple of years ago after Mom learned about her horrible living conditions. She had an employee who was telling her that she was "dogsitting" for her neighbors. She would go over each day and let the dog out.

This is what we've pieced together of Katy's early life:

Evidently Katy spent her first two years of life in a cage in the garage. The cage was barely big enough for her to stand up and turn around in. Her feet were resting on a barred cage floor all day, and she now has some dewclaws that are barely attached to her foot, due to them getting caught in the floor.



We think that the woman of the house and her daughter were actually trying to do good for Katy by keeping her in the garage. We believe that the husband abused Katy, so she was kept out of his way. Katy still gets nervous around a lot of men, and especially men with things like a broom in hand. She cowers as if she is about to be beaten, or growls at some men.

When Mom got Katy, she had the worst bladder infection the vet had ever seen. This was from her being kept in a cage and not allowed out to the bathroom for extended periods.



Katy is totally an omega dog, and collapses to the floor in submission with a simple word like "no". She is very eager to please and obedient. She is such a great dog. And she absolutely ADORES me! She gets so excited whenever she knows that she is getting to see me!

Katy's life today is a complete 180 degrees. She is hardly ever alone, as my mother usually takes her to work with her. When Mom can't take her with her for a couple of days (such as when she goes away on vacation), I take Katy to work with me. She's such a good girl. She knows that she is allowed in my office and the offices adjoining mine. She will go to the doorway, but will not pass through it until given permission.



Katy is the only dog I know that has a trampoline for a bed!






She has tons of toys, that she will get out of her toybox and take to her bed to play with. And she is so gentle with her toys.







Katy is a very lucky girl. When Mom heard her story, she told her employee, "Get me that dog! You tell those people I want that dog!" The woman agreed to hand the dog over to Mom once she was assured that Katy would have a wonderful life.

The woman and her daughter came to visit Katy at my Mom's work one day, several months later. Katy was very excited to see them, especially the daughter. The daughter asked her mother if they could take Katy home. Her mother told her "no", that Katy was happy and had a much better life now.

Katy may be a lucky girl, but we also feel very lucky to have Katy in our lives.