Now that we’re letting Zoe and Isabel outside since we’ve moved to the country, we’ve decided that it’s time to try getting rid of the litter box. I’m having some anxiety about it even though I’m eager to not have to scoop the poop anymore, and I’m thinking that parents going through potty training experience the same anxiety. You know, you want to ditch the poopie diapers, but then your baby is a big kid because he or she doesn’t need you anymore, and are you really ready for that?
Continue reading
Rub-a-Dub-Dub, Pug in a Tub
Like her sister Zoe, who’s obsessed with people in the shower, Pickles the pug likes to supervise baths by circling in front of the tub and standing up against the edge to peek in and make sure her people are still there while her bullmastiff brother Ty watches from afar, feigning complete disinterest.
I was mid-soak at the end of last week when SPLASH! There was water everywhere, and one very, very concerned little pug was treading water in the middle of our master bathroom’s deep soaking tub.
Continue reading
Meet Ty, Red Male Bullmastiff
Name: Ty King
Birth date: September 25, 2005
Breed: Bullmastiff
Distinctive feature: Giant head
Favorite color: Red, because I’m red, too.
Favorite treat: Giant rawhide bones
Favorite toy: Simon the stuffed tiger. I love to carry him around, especially when someone comes home or visits for the first time — I have to make sure they meet him.
Favorite pastime: Chasing kitties
Least favorite thing: Umbrellas
Jesse: “Hey, let’s get a mastiff!”
Me: “Ooo, yeah, great idea! Let’s see if there are any up for adoption online!”
The next day we’d already gotten a call from Ty’s foster mom, and after talking to her for 20 minutes, we knew he was the dog for us, and she knew we were the family for him. We planned to get him two weeks later, but then he blew his cruciate ligament (a common problem for big dogs) and needed surgery, so we waited an extra four weeks to give him time to recover a bit before we brought him home.
The whole car ride from our home in Virginia to North Carolina, where he was being fostered, the two of us could barely sit still. Pickles, who came along to meet her new brother, had no idea what was going on–but she knew it was good.
When Pickles and Ty met, they were instant best friends. They slept together in the car on the way home and they’ve been completely inseparable. Ty loves Zoe and Isabel, but they’re not quite as fond of him.
Meet Pickles, Female Fawn Pug
Name: Picklesworth “Pickles” King
Birth date: July 15, 2006
Breed: Pug
Distinctive feature: Lightning-quick tongue
Favorite color: I don’t care what color it is as long as I can eat it.
Favorite treat: Ice cubes and rawhide twists
Favorite toy: Penelope Pug, because she looks like me
Favorite pastime: Licking Ty’s jowls
Least favorite thing: Getting my claws clipped
Before Pickles, I hated small dogs. I thought they were yappy and annoying and that anyone who liked them was yappy and annoying, too. I was so, so wrong. Pickles is the coolest dog of any size I have ever met in my life. She turned me from a cat person who tolerated dogs into a dog and cat person.
Jesse and I had been talking about getting a dog, but we kept putting it off because we both worked so much. But about a month after I quit my job to work from home full time, we met a pug puppy at a friend’s party and fell in love. We actually called a breeder on the way home from the party and met him that night to put down a deposit!
Waiting five weeks for the puppies to be old enough for weaning was torture, but we filled the time by spending hundreds of dollars on a crate, more toys than any dog needs, about a dozen different kinds of treats, and five or six little pug outfits. Then, the day came and we met up with the breeder and his family to pick out our new baby.
At 3 lbs, Pickles was twice as big as any of the other puppies, and she was also the most wiggly. It was love at first sight. And even after she kept us up all night howling for her littermates and pooped all over herself repeatedly, we didn’t even mind because she was the best thing either of us had ever seen.
Now, the novelty has worn off, but the excitement hasn’t waned one bit! Pickles completes us.
Meet Isabel, Female Tuxedo Kitty
Name: Isabel King
Birthdate: On or around September 25, 2005
Breed: Tuxedo cat
Distinctive feature: Goofball personality
Favorite color: Black, because my white fur shows up best on dark colors
Favorite treat: Anything on Mom and Dad’s plates (when they’re not looking)
Favorite toy: Daddy’s shoes
Favorite pastime: Sneaking drinks from the faucet
Least favorite thing: Coming inside at night. Outside is so much better than inside!
She’s utterly adorable and extremely sweet, but Isabel isn’t exactly a Mensa candidate. When I adopted her from the local PetSmart just before Christmas in 2005, I knew she was the right cat for us because I could hear her purring before I even picked her up. When I held her to my chest, I could barely hold her because she was wiggling so much. She couldn’t wait to smell my face and lick my eyelids, a bizarre habit that woke me up in the middle of the night for the first six months we had her. (I’m still not sure whether she’s stopped or I’ve just learned to sleep through it.)
Isabel is one of those cats who will tear around the house in circles for no reason and then scare the living daylights out of herself when she catches a glimpse of her own reflection while rounding the same corner for the fifth time. She locks herself in cupboards, falls in the toilet, and gets her head stuck anyplace she can stick it. She wrestles with Pickles, our pug, but until last week fled from the bullmastiff, Ty. She hides under the bed when the doorbell rings, but she’ll climb up your leg purring if you just let yourself in.
She frequently forgets where her food is, so when we notice her trying to steal things off of our plates, we have to carry her into the laundry room and remind her to eat. She’s dumb, but we love her.