Tag: Harriet

Crankypantsing, Pets

Apartment Life

Shelly

I took Harriet out for a last potty break at about 11pm last night. While we were walking across the parking lot, I noticed that there was large group of people in front of one of the other apartments (why, oh why, don’t people par-tay on their patios, instead of in the parking lot?). A couple of small children, presumably belonging to the partiers, were running up and down the terrace in front of my building. While screaming at the tops of their darling little lungs. At 11:00 on a school night. Mere feet away from the bedroom windows of a whole bunch of people who were most likely sleeping.

Charming.

What the hell were those kids’ parents thinking?!

And to make things worse, when Harriet and I returned from our walk, a young, unleashed dog was added to the mix. We re-entered the parking lot to the sounds of small children yelling, “Come back here!” and the sight of a goofy, young adult Pit Bull barreling toward us.

I know the dog, actually, because she is always off leash, and she always follows me when I take out the trash or do laundry. She’s super sweet and friendly, so I wasn’t at all worried about her picking a fight with Harriet. Quite the opposite. I would hate for such a nice dog to get the Cujo treatment from Miss Brown. Thankfully, a car pulled in at the right moment, which broke the puppy’s attention just enough that she heard her kids yelling for her.

All’s well that ends well, but I still think 11pm on a school night is a bad time for a parking lot party. What the hell is wrong with people?!

We also seem to have random people from off the street using our laundry facilities. Not a huge deal, I guess, as the machines aren’t free. Still, we only have two washers and two dryers in our court, so getting a unoccupied machine can be a little bit of a challenge.

I went downstairs to do a load of laundry on Wednesday, and found a girl folding clothes into a large duffel bag. I thought it was a little weird, but whatever. Maybe she didn’t have laundry baskets? She finished and left before I did, so when I got back upstairs, I looked to see where she went. Out of the complex and toward 3rd Street, was where she went!

Even weirder was that she left a wadded heap of clothes on top of one of the dryers. They were lots of different sizes of mens’ jeans, two pairs of sweat pants (one small and one huge), and a 2xxL T-shirt. As of last night, the clothes were still sitting on top of the dryer, only some kind soul was nice enough to fold them.

Weird.

Bumpass Update: They set up a screen room a few weeks ago, halfway on their grass and half on mine. As far as I could tell, they never actually used it. They didn\’t set it up very well, either, because it caved after a couple of days, and then they took it down. M’kaythen!

Friday night, they must have had a party, because when I got up the next morning, the cardboard packaging from a case of Bud Light (o gross!) was lying on the grass between our patios. Nice. It sat there all weekend. I really don’t feel like picking up other people’s trash, but I’m also sick of looking at the damned thing. Harriet’s reaction was priceless, though. She saw it through the patio door and barked at it. Obviously, it Did Not Belong.

Mr. Upstairs Update: He was doing pretty well the past few months, but he’s slowly sliding back into his old habits. I woke up in the middle of the night one day last week to the sound of his dishwasher running and him vacuuming. He’s also back to, um, “playing” the keyboard at random times during the night, and the midnight workouts have recommenced. Complete with dropped free weights. Right on top of my head.

Pets, Photography

Nests

Shelly

I thought I posted these here, but I guess not. The other morning, while I was in the shower, Harriet dragged the comforter off the bed, into the living room, and made herself a nest. Miss Brown is all about Teh Comfortables, but it was 5am and a little early for me to find it amusing.

Nest-making is something she does fairly regularly. Her most amazing nest was made from two brand spanking new bags of pine cat litter. I thought for sure that cat litter would be of no interest to her, so I left them sitting beside the couch when I went to work. I came home to a mound of cat litter with a Boxer-shaped depression in the center. Again, not very amusing!

Last week’s nesting was not a singular event. When I got home, this is the sight that greeted me.

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She’d dragged two blankets from a Rubbermaid tub in my bedroom into the studio, and built herself a cozy little nest in the middle of my studio floor.

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Not bad, considering she doesn’t have opposable thumbs.

Pets, Photography

Thursday Dog Blogging

Shelly

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Waiting for Bedtime

Our evening routine consists of one last potty break, then Harriet and Pandora get their bedtime snack, then I brush my teeth, turn off lights, etc. Harriet waits for “real bedtime” in her own bed, while I feed the cat and finish getting ready. After I go to bed, she hops up on the big bed with me. This is her waiting in her own bed for “real bedtime.”

Pets

Petsitting

Shelly

La Roux has gone home, and this is the final day of cat sitting. As much as I like getting to hang out with other folks’ critters, I will be glad to be done with pet sitting. I have another cat sitting job coming up in a couple of weeks, and it’s a long one, so I’m going to be selfish and enjoy having no responsibilities except to care for my own animals.

Something else I was reminded of, while puppy sitting. La Roux is just about as perfect as a puppy could be. She didn’t have a single accident, she was calm but playful, she was attentive, she has a soft temperament and is submissive toward people and other dogs. She’s really a dream puppy. But, she is a puppy. I put a lot of time and effort into working with Harriet, and she and I are (usually) a pretty seamless team. I don’t have to stop and think about how to read her, because it’s second nature, and she has learned to understand my subconscious signals, as well. It takes time to develop that sort of bond, and I’m definitely not up for the challenge of starting over from scratch. At least, not right now.

Pets, Photography

Dogs

Shelly

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When we got back from Minnesota, Harriet and I slept for about 24 hours. Harriet lost no time breaking in the fleece blanket Grandma sent back with me.

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This is Grandpa’s dog, Nina. This isn’t a good picture, but it’s the best I could do, because she was motoring around like a mad dog. When she plays, she plays hard. Grandpa was playing fetch with her in the house one day, and she slammed into the attic door, trying to catch the ball. I don’t think she even noticed. Yorkies may be tiny, but they are 100% Terrier.

She also has a whole fleet of beach balls outside that she chases around the yard. Grandpa was throwing them over the garage, and Nina would race to the other side to “catch” them and push them around the yard.

Alas, I did not get even a bad picture of Grandma’s mitten kitten. She’s got a black and white kitty with thumbs. Grandma swears she’s a sweet cat, but she’s not–NOT!–fond of strangers, so I’ll have to take Grandma’s word for it. She sure is pretty, though.

Pets

The Fish Report

Shelly

I woke up to no floaters. Yay! Both fishies are doing beautifully. They are active little buggers and spend most of their time zooming around the tank. They zoom together, though, which is cute. They also know that people bring food, so when you approach the tank, they shoot to the surface for snax. And boy are they hungry! I don’t know if half starved fish will over-eat, so I’m not feeding them all that much yet. Last night, they were unimpressed with the short rations, so they started digging in the marbles at the bottom of the tank for left-overs. Since it’s a clean tank, there’s not anything down there for them to eat. The sound of marbles chinking against a glass aquarium is loud.

Also, I think I only was startled by the “Who the hell is peeing?!” noise of the waterfall filter five or six times last night. That’s going to take some getting used to. Poor Harriet. The first time, I yelled, “Hey!” at her, only she was lying quietly on the couch, not peeing on the kitchen floor. As if she’d do such a thing, anyway. How uncouth!

Altered Photos, Art, Pets

Altered Photos

Shelly

Altered Photo 11

The photo was bleached, rinsed, and dried, then rewet with a baby wipe and incised with a stylus. My doodle compulsion apparently knows no bounds.

Altered Photo 10

This photo was sanded in parts with steel wool, then incised with a stylus, then colored with Neocolors II and RoseArt ColorSharp metallic markers.

And now I really have to finish getting my shit together. I spent the day doing the headless chicken dance (car to shop for oil change and tire/brake check, dog to vet for rabies vax[1], much doing of laundry, and a Target run for road trip essentials). I have a feeling I’m not going to get to vacuuming before I go, but I have to do the dishes and clean the bathroom.

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[1] Harriet never fails to amaze me. She is such a typical Boxer–bratty and bossy and obnoxious at home, but a perfect charmer when she has her visiting manners on. At the vet today, there was a little brindle Staffy Bull (oh. mah. gawd. was he cuuuuute!) who would not sit still. His owner told him several times to sit down and behave like “that other dog.” Haw! Harriet was lying quietly at my feet, like a good girl.

She also fawned all over the vet techs and the vet, who is a grumpy old man. Harriet does not like strange men, so I don’t know what the hell got into her. The most surprising part, though, was that she actually ate the two (two!) cookies that one of the techs gave her. She never eats food from strangers. She always takes it then spits it out.

I think my dog may have been abducted by aliens. I shall immediately commence the search for pods.

Pets, Photography

Cats and Dogs Livin’ in Sin

Shelly

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Pandora loves to sleep by the patio door, where it’s nice and bright.

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Harriet kept digging the cushion out of her dog bed. After the umpteenth time, I gave up and put the cushion in the living room, inside the patio door. Mostly, Pandora sleeps on it, but Harriet has stolen it back a couple of times.

Without the bumper sides to hold her in, the bed is ridiculously small for even a miniature Boxer like Harriet.