...one born every minute

some people will go to ANY length for a post...

I went out in the country...

northeast of "the sleepy village"...
that is about 13 miles north of Mudville...
to Mr Greenthumb's childhood home...
to pick up a homeless dog...
now well known to readers of Miz Minka's blog...

when I read MM's post today... I had to help...
I've been there...and it's such a horrible feeling...
to want to help an animal...but to not be permitted to...
to want to adopt it... and not be allowed to...
and meanwhile... the animal's life is in serious jeopardy...

so I emailed MM... she replied...

and after everything else fell through...
it fell to me... THE CAT LADY...

you are probably thinking...ARE YOU NUTS ?
taking in a homeless dog when you have 15 cats... ?

oddly enough...in the last few months...
I'd found myself thinking how nice it might be...
to have a dog to walk with...

at first...I just tossed it off as impending dementia...
but it kept coming back...
and getting more focused with time...

I kept thinking,"I DON'T need a dog..."
the kitties would FREAK !!!
but the feelings persisted...
so finally I said...
[pay attention ...these will be quotable some day...]

"God...if you want me to have a dog...
then send it to me...and make it clear that it is the one...

mind you...I hadn't caught on yet when I read MM's post today...
but it started to percolate when she e-mailed that...
"the dog is really good with women & cats"...
she shies from other dogs and is hand shy around men...

she also had spent some time with it and said that she was mellow...
and responsive to the lead...as well as very quiet...
and mannerly...

so then I thought...
"well God...if this dog is for me...
work out all the details..."
and promptly dismissed it from my mind...

and that's when things started moving at "warp speed"...

MM called...the other possibilities had fallen through...
my help was needed for at least a few days...

so... off I went... to pick up the dog...
and bring her back into the inner "cat-uary"...

I'm not sure what I thought the scene would be like...
when I walked into Cat-hala...with a D-O-G...
I expected some growling...hissing...yowling...
& general carrying on...

with perhaps a bit of barking....

hackles raised...tails puffed...

after all...animals are territorial...it's natural...

so... what did I get ?



nada...zip...zero...bumpkus...

absolutely NO drama...

the kitties were curious...
the dog was timid...



it was pretty much a "non-happening"...

the dog... who I started calling Molly...
for no reason I can think of...
[I hear you laughing, MM...]

made a grunting sound after this picture...
so we went on a "fast" around the block jaunt...
during which time she piddled...

she wants to go really fast but is responsive to my command...
and doesn't pull on me...
she's also not strong enough or big enough to knock me down...
unless I lose my balance...

after we came back...

I gave her some of the dry food I got at the vet's...
[it was puppy food or prescription...I got "puppy"...]
as you can tell...she wasn't the first to try it...



turnabout being "fair play"...
she then devoured the remaining canned cat food...
fortunately...there wasn't much...
[she has barfed it back...I knew she would...
it's barf or the runs when dogs eat canned cat food...]



then she had a drink...and had a few bits of her food...



now she's laying on the floor in the hall...



she whined 2 different times... so I took her out...
nothing... she wanted to lay on the lawn...

then she came back in and barfed...
now she seems more comfortable...

opps... a single small "bark"...
and Lacy, who has been a bit of a butt...
came scampering back in...fast...
tail all poofy and eyes B-I-G...

Molly was just standing there...watching her...
and with a few soothing words from me...
all was once again peaceful & calm...

did I mention that the Piglet is STILL out...?

*SIGH*

Molly WAS in the bedroom briefly...
so Pigs may be staging a protest...
Fluff left... but returned...

I'll have to make the back yard "escape-proof"...
before I can leave Molly there, unattended...
the fence needs to be fixed anyway...

if you had asked me to describe the perfect dog...
to fit into my furry family as easily as possible...
this scenario would have been really close...

oh... and as to why I lost the contractor...?
[I've been wondering about that...]

if I had been in the middle of THAT redo...
there's no way I could have taken on a dog...
of any kind... at that time...
too much upheaval & commotion...

hummm... makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up...

opps... more "hi...how are you? ...WHAT are you?" noises...

guess I'll be hearing more of that...