Pet News

Item the First:
Sunset (or Harvey, depending on who you ask) the Fish is not doing well. There were "fish lice" in his tank recently and although we seem to have gotten rid of them, he hasn't been able to bounce back. The sites Mikey has read say that once a fish has a problem with their swim bladder they aren't likely to recover. So he has been miserably flopping around the tank - more recently, around the bottom of the tank - and although I know the humane thing would be to put him out of his misery, I just can't bring myself to do it. I know that he is dying, but somehow the idea of taking him out of water and making him die is just too awful. It isn't my job to decide when things die. On the other hand, I can't help but think that it is just plain selfish of me to refuse to stop his pain. Aaaugh. This is why there will be no more fish in our house. EVER.

Item the Second:
Yesterday, I was picking Ollie up off of my lap when he lost his freakin' mind and turned into a whirling ball of teeth and claws. I suspect that he was less than confident in my ability to keep him from falling and was only trying to protect himself. However, the end result was not pretty. I have two slash marks on my arm, a gash across the top of my right thumb and a puncture wound on the fleshy part of my thumb (just under the knuckle on the palm side) that is looking a little too red for my liking. The whole thumb is slightly swollen and more than slightly bruised, making it difficult to do, well, just about anything involving my right hand. Hopefully, it will heal up quickly. Good news - Ollie and I have already made up. Neither of us is holding a grudge, but I don't think I will be trying to pick him up any time soon.

Item the Final:
My good friend "A" was giving away a batch of puppies a couple of years ago and two of them were adopted by another friend and her family. This week, that family decided that they couldn't handle the dogs (both lab mixes, good sized, poorly trained and socialized), who were getting out of their fence, knocking people over, and generally acting like untrained dogs. They decided to take them to the pound where it was decided that they would have to be put down. As "A" was telling me about this, all I could think about was our large, completely fenced, 2 acre lot. I called my loving and lovable husband who agreed that it would be rediculous for us to let these dogs die when they could be fostered at our place until a suitable home was found for them. So, tomorrow afternoon, we are going to have our cat-run* reinforced so that it can contain 2 largish, very active dogs. "A" is going to continue to look for a home for them (I promised Mikey that the only way we would keep them would be if HE couldn't bear to let them go and that isn't likely to happen.), and in the meantime, we are going to try to give them some love and some training. We'll be doggy foster parents. Wish us luck!

*Please note that the kitties are not being kicked out of the cat-run, nor are they being asked to share it. They have been banned from it since Bonsai figured out how to climb onto the garage roof. Once the dogs have moved on, we will kitty proof it again and they can reclaim their territory.