Posted On Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 By David Veatch
For the last two nights, Elliott the Cat has been quiet the whole night through. Over the course of the last few weeks, he woke us in the middle of the night with incessant, insistent crying. He was fairly consistent from night to night, making minor adjustments in his timing. First, he cried at 2:30. Then at 3:30. Then 4:30. 5:30 followed. A slight relapse back to 4:30. Then back to 5:30. His best nights had him sounding 8 to 12 meows, followed by a head butt into the door. His worst night was 73 meows. SEVENTY THREE meows in quick succession, and in a variety of tones and volume. That night was about a week ago. Seventy Three. Three score and thirteen. I don’t know… maybe that’s not that many. But I’ve only rarely cohabitated with a cat, and not for very long. That seems a lot to me. But for the last two nights, he’s been quiet. Nary a single “mrrow” has awoken us, and he has apparently determined that the door will not yield to the ministrations of his noggin. In fact, this morning, Jami found him laying next to the door in the hallway, seemingly with more »
Posted On Wednesday, August 11th, 2010 By David Veatch
A few words on The Squanto and Elliott the Cat
Posted On Friday, July 30th, 2010 By David Veatch
I never wanted to be “that guy” that posts pictures of his pets on the web, thinking that anyone would care. But, here I am. He was a great little puppy, and I miss him. Everyone Loved The Squanto…
Posted On Thursday, July 29th, 2010 By David Veatch
This afternoon at about 5:15 I put my puppy, who I’ve had for 15 years, to sleep. I was petting him when he died. I’m very sad. He was my most favorite puppy. His first mommy is very sad too.
Posted On Thursday, July 29th, 2010 By David Veatch
The trouble with pets is that they don’t use their words. By that, I mean, they don’t talk to us in plain spoken language. Is it really that hard? Then again, maybe it is. We start learning how to speak around the age of 3, give or take. It’s been said that the average dog’s intelligence is on par with the average 2 year old. Cats are probably fairly similar. That means they missed the speaking boat by about a year, which sucks for them. Or rather… it sucks for us. See, we’re having pet troubles now, which would be very easy to solve if they could just talk to us about it, instead of just laying around, or meowing all the time. On the one hand, Elliott the Cat has kept Jami and I up every night this week. It’s not constant, mind you, but every couple of hours, he’ll wander through the room with something very important to say. “Meow. Meow meow. Merrrrow. Meow meow meow thhrrrbt meow.” Then he’ll jump on the bed and, because we clearly didn’t hear it, say it all over again right next to our head. “What, Elliott?! What do you want?! Use more »
Posted On Monday, July 26th, 2010 By David Veatch
And indeed it was. I’ll start with Sunday and move backwards, because it’s just easier that way. After a hectic day, I had intended Sunday to be a relaxing day, but as it turned out, I got quite a bit done. First, Jami brought her kitty, Elliott over from our Southern Home to live with us in the Northern Home. He’d been staying down south since the wedding, and we felt it was time to integrate him. He’s 23lbs of Big Baby, and cried the entire drive, and when the terror of the drive was over, he wedged himself far up underneath a table and boxes in the basement. He did, eventually begin exploring with more confidence, and by this morning, he’d all but settled completely in. However, if his shenanigans of last night are any indication, he’ll be fantastic practice for when we have a baby, and a full night of sleep is but a fond memory. He. Was. Restless. It’s possible that my banging around didn’t help him settle in, and served to spook him something good. I can admit that. But I got on a bit of a roll, and didn’t want to stop. The Squanto didn’t more »
Posted On Thursday, January 15th, 2009 By David Veatch
Slightly off-topic post today, but this is, or could be, a rather pressing matter, and I’d like both to record the timing of it, and submit a request for thoughts and ideas. I took The Squanto to the vet yesterday, and found out that he’s 20lbs. On a 16lbs dog frame, that’s a lot of extra weight. It’ll dramatically increase his chances of having all manner of internal organ problems, including his heart and lungs, increase his risk of cancer, and very likely give him premature joint issues, such as arthritis, and could be the cause of his coughing as the extra weight compresses his trachea. I’d like to keep him around for a while, and given Schipperke’s lifetimes, that could be another 8 years or so. That means he has to lose that weight I’ve been aware of this for some time, and to maintain his weight at the healthy 15-17lbs, I’ve had him on a pretty strict diet of 1/2 cup dry dog food, given to him twice daily. In spite of that, he’s still been gaining. There is only one possible reason: The neighbors. I knew the neighbors fed him treats every now and again, but didn’t more »
Posted On Thursday, September 25th, 2008 By David Veatch
What would possess a dog, an otherwise seemingly intelligent quick learning dog, to eat a box of staples? An entire box of staples? Then, having eaten said box of staples, what would possess same dog to puke them up on not one, but two carpets, as well as the hallway where everyone walks? Then, having puked in the three aforementioned locations, what would possess this dog to puke in his own bed? The GF has him at the vet right now looking into surgery options. The X-Ray showed two huge clumps of staples bound up in his stomach. They won’t easily or safely pass given that they’re clumped up like that, so surgery is a necessity. It won’t be cheap. It’s been a great morning. Update: Surgery is going to be a lot cheaper than we thought, and within reason. He has a fist sized chunk of tangled staples in his gut right now that won’t pass, so it’s either surgery or sleepy time. The GF is opting for surgery.
Posted On Thursday, July 17th, 2008 By David Veatch
Due to health issues that I won’t go into in depth, we had to make many (many) stops on the way out. We hit every rest station, and then some. Our 9 hour drive turned into more like 11 or 12. We weren’t in a huge hurry, though, so it really wasn’t a big deal. Finally arriving in Denver, we stopped at the Swedish Medical Center, where the GF’s newborn niece was… well… born. A week premature, and weighing in at almost 7 pounds, she’s very very tiny. She’s almost, but not quite, as long as my forearm. I didn’t hold her, but the GF did, nearly swooning in the process she was so taken by her. While at the hospital, we decided to head off at the pass the health issues that were plaguing us on the drive out. That added about an hour to our hospital stay, and having driven for about 12 hours already, I was getting tired and even a little cranky. However, I’m not one to force my agenda on anyone, especially when there be health concerns on the table. In the end, the wait was worth it. Health concerns dealt with. Leaving the hospital, more »
Posted On Thursday, July 17th, 2008 By David Veatch
Pretty simple. We drove. To Wichita. We detoured thataway in order to drop the puppies off at my parents. We couldn’t afford to board them for the week, and Mom and Dad were kind enough to take care of them for us. My parents rock. We stayed up a while chatting and introducing our puppies to their new puppy, Chloe. Squanto and Chloe got along great! They played and did their little butt-in-the-air slapping-the-ground dance with each other until we were in tears laughing so hard. Chloe and Tank… not so much. Tank really wanted to play, but Chloe didn’t care for him that much. There was minor growling and a little bristly fur, but after a while there didn’t seem to be any real threat, so we hit the sack, ready to make the long slow drive to Colorado.