Thursday Thoughts with Buttons... Mornings.

Each morning the first thing we do is go where the "Flyers" are. I wear a leash where my hooman doesn't get lost. Oh, I do something she likes before we go out. It's called "sit?" I put my backside on the floor and for some reason it makes her so happy. She rubs my head every time and tells the Old Gray One I'm smart.
Hoomans do not take long to train, you have to be consistent and patient with them. My hooman wears this raggedy old housecoat outside, so embarrassing.  I hope no one sees us. It's early though, I think we are safe.
I do my relieving quickly but it's all the smells that get me. I mean seriously, do you smell all this stuff?  Someone was here since last night. Who was it? Was it the Flyers? I do not trust those Flyers, they sit in the trees and seem to be mocking me. They won't talk to me. They go up high where I can't watch them. [Just thinking about them makes me mad]

Smells, all the smells... HOOGE smells. They were in OUR yard and hooman seems not to care. I'm at a complete loss as to why? She even seems to like the flyers. What for? They don't bring you a ball or anything? I think they are useless.

I have two hoomans and the Old Gray One is slower, his legs seem to not work well in the mornings. It takes him longer to get up and get ready to go outside. I keep hopping around to see if he knows how to hop but he never does it. [I do not think he is very smart but he's cute and friendly] I get my ball for him too and drop it off the bed where he can fetch it. He fetches well. I tell you, so easily trained!

The flyers made me hungry this morning and we go in again. My hooman wipes the bottom of my feet where I'm comfortable. She gives me crunchy food in a shiny bowl and cool water out of the big box in the kitchen. I love cool water. Hooman takes her brown water from a machine and my ball to the outside room and she throws it for me until I sit down beside her. It's going to be a good day.

Thursday Thoughts with Buttons

When my daughter was only a little girl of four or five she begged for a cat. As parents we did our level best to avoid, deter and try to get her interested in other things (for many years.) Finally when she was  thirteen I could justify being a cat-less household no longer. There came a delicate little Siamese named Topaz, a tiny little kitten-gentle, good natured and playful.
In her later years she became "our" cat when Danielle went off to college and she made the move to our bed to sleep under my arm each night. She resided with us until her passing in 2005, at the age of 16. Along the way we gained a husky Maine Coon fellow who relentlessly traded barbs with Topaz. Then came another cat.. who finally passed away in early 2015.
We were (are) for the first time in ages a strangely "cat less" household. Cat toys still occupy little nooks and crannies around the house. One day there will be an awkward conversation around my casket.
"There's something in the casket, see it? It's beside your mom's arm. It's fuzzy"
"Oh, that's KittyWitchens Ladybug. Mother played fetch with him and the Ladybug. It was his favorite." 

I can't seem to discard those little trinkets just yet, it's like those hand prints your children made at VBS when they were small. Still have all those too. I can never decide where to store them but I have them.
I find it a fascinating part of the human condition, don't you? It's a $2 ladybug but it tells more about how much we need and were designed for love than we care to admit. Our brain rejects something for so long, because of what all sanity and reason tells us will be a huge headache in our life. There will be vet visits, cat litter to be cleaned out, behavior issues, extra work and we all know who ends up doing all the care when animals are in a household.
Then your brain ceases to work rationally, your heart takes over at the first sight, snuggle or purr of that little kitten and. . . you now own a cat.

I will admit it feels a little odd that we are cat-less these days. It's hard to mess with perfection, they were three of the very best felines ever and to be completely transparent, it took far too long to stop thinking of them. I can't even entertain the idea of another. We've spent the better part of thirty-seven years with our cat friends.

Life marches on as it has a way of doing and we have another"furry friend" of a different color! I have spoken of him before, his name is Buttons. [Short for Benjamin Button] Buttons is a ball of love and happiness wrapped up in a complex little Mini Schnauzer. He was a gift from a neighbor who loved the dog but had no time for him, with his busy schedule. On that January evening almost two years ago, he became ours and I will forever be grateful for him. He loves us both, nearly losing his mind when his dad pulls in the driveway but he is clearly MY dog. I'm not quite sure how it happens, an animal choosing it's human. Buttons hasn't eluded to any kind of system in choosing a human but I'm thinking it can't just be random? I don't know, maybe this is a subject we should explore further at another time.
Buttons is very vocal and has impressed upon me, his need to feel more involved with the day-to-day running of things. He feels since he's just turned two, it's time he contributed to the blog.

Buttons will not be tackling politics or heavy duty issues because frankly he doesn't care much about those things. He will discuss subjects closer to home- dirt, other dogs, human friends, choosing  happiness every day, home remodeling and has current fascination with creatures that fly.

Look for Buttons first contribution to the blog tomorrow.