Chris & Joy's Critterweb » All things Critter-ish

The filthy carpet has left the building

Chris — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 18:39:04 +0000

Yeah, we said we were going to leave the carpet that was over the plywood till we figured out what our plans were but that was also the nastiest part…

…as you can see.

A lot of moisture issues in front of the fireplace. We aren’t sure if it is all due to Lindsy sleeping there, or if there’s been a leakage issue (other than leaking dog).

Finally the cooties have been purged, and the area repeatedly treated. Of course, now we have a plywood living room… for now.

Winter makes her mark

Chris — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:38:39 +0000

We aren’t quite ready to say what is under those crate halves, but we will say that Winter was unexpectedly underneath the one half when I picked it up to cover the spot…

…as her signature proves.

The Great Carpet Removal, day 2

Chris — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:22:12 +0000

The rest of the carpet – what we can take out, anyway, is gone. Good riddance to that icky, gross mess.

I will have nightmares about removing these things for months. Most of the scratches. bruises, and bashed knuckles I have arose from prying loose the carpet strips.

It looks a little odd where we left the carpet down, when we moved the furniture back the couch sort of straddles it. But there’s nothing underneath except plywood so we had no choice. Next project for that: a quart of nature’s miracle, at least one pass with the carpet cleaner, and I guess some sort of strip along the edge to hold it down for now.

The other side of the living room.

Paddy didn’t care what we did to the rest of the house, as long as we left his chair.

View from the kitchen.

We’re getting a couple of quotes from flooring people; not sure what the best solution will be to deal with the plywood…

the 2″ x 4″ patches where the dining room walls were…

The many blemishes and owies a sixty year old house that spent a few years as a rental incurred…

…and of course, the spot near the front door where the alleged dead body was.

Nemesis.

Chris — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:34:24 +0000

Paddy has looked upon the face of the devil.

“Ehhhh… I don’t know about this…maybe if I don’t make eye contact I can get by?”

“What if it gets me?”

“I can do this.”

“Or maybe not.”

“Damnit! I really want to be in that room. Why does it mock me?”

The face of pure, unadulterated evil.

We SO know what dog is going to be the Cowardly Lion for Halloween this year. Nerd.

So long, old friend

Chris — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:09:23 +0000

R.I.P. Lindsy aka Lenny

We said farewell to Lindsy this morning, she went peacefully at the vet’s after consuming nearly a half bag of ginger snaps, which must have been a dream come true for her even in her state. Our vet affirmed that we were doing the right thing, seeing how feeble she was, which both made me feel good and bad; the change of scenery had I guess given her a bit of a boost and she was actually more steady on her feet than she’d been in a long time… I thought “wow, if he thinks this is bad…”

Anyway, she had a good 15 1/2 years – maybe not perfect but the best we could give her, and we tried to make her last bit of time happy. In addition to the ginger snaps she also had an entire can of dog food and as much peanut butter as she wanted before the trip. It was very sad, but a relief also to know she’s free from suffering.

The picture above was taken almost two years ago… gosh, we thought she looked old then. Sometime soon, I’ll write a better tribute for her and put it up as a permanent page on the web site. For now, I just wanted to say goodbye. My deepest gratitude to Laurie and Chris for sharing their thoughts in response to my prior post about Lindsy, and to everyone who posted condolences here and on Facebook. It means a lot to us.

Olive, at almost 14 years old, is now the last of the original pre-Tucson gang left.

Letting go

Chris — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 14:23:05 +0000

I think I’ve mentioned a few times lately here that Lindsy has really been declining, and I think we’ve gotten to the point where her quality of life just isn’t that good. We’re having such a hard time making the decision… well, not making it — we’re pretty much in agreement that it’s ‘time’ — but acting on it. I think I, at least, am still holding out this hope that she’ll just pass peacefully in the night. I tell myself that I don’t want to cut her life short before she’s ready, but I recognize deep down that there’s some element of cowardice involved, of not wanting to deal with the situation.

In the meantime, she grows more and more fragile, less aware, less all the things that made her Lindsy. She teeters around on legs that barely hold her up and sometimes can’t get up at all. She forgets when she’s already eaten. She follows us around like she wants attention, then ducks and runs away if actually approached. She has a myriad of weird nasty growths that ooze and tend to get infected — one even abscessed and the area where it had been isn’t really healing.

She usually gets very excited about her meals, but sometimes doesn’t finish the food, which isn’t like her at all. She’s very paranoid about someone stepping on her or trying to touch her. Her breath is atrocious and her teeth are nasty now that she no longer chews bones.

She leaks urine, sometimes loses control of her bladder entirely. The rug in the living room makes the house smell and totally grosses us out but we can’t do anything about it as long as Lindsy is still wandering around leaking… we can’t even tear up the part that’s over hardwoods because she would slip and fall and hurt herself on bare wood, and already does in the bedrooms.

It would be a lot easier around here with her gone, and yet that makes it harder instead of easier to take that final step — I don’t want it to feel like we’re just putting her down for selfish reasons, getting rid of an inconvenience. But am I being selfish in not wanting to be selfish? Does that make sense? Am I putting my guilt over what’s actually best for her?

We went through this with Lilly, and more recently, Wednesday, but it’s been a few years… unless you count the periodic drama we have when Cricket goes through one of her bad spells, then bounces back. We even made ‘The Appointment’ once, only to cancel it again. (If Cricket does ever pass away, she’ll probably have to decompose for a few days before we’re convinced she’s really not just ‘off her food’ again).

Our friends Chris and Paul just went through this with their Tika, who was about Lindsy’s age or a bit older… we’d joked morbidly in the past that it was a race to see who’d go first. Chris wrote a very moving post about Tika’s last days and how she finally came to the decision and it helped me realize that we have to face this. It’s not fair to her, and it’s not fair to us because it’s painful to watch her toddle around, panting and confused, stumbling and falling if she encounters something as small as a dog toy in her path. We have to just brace ourselves and do the right thing.

But it sure does suck.

Happy 9th birthday, Simon!

Chris — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 22:32:27 +0000

Today was Simon’s birthday, or at least it’s the day we celebrate it. Since Simon was a rescue that we adopted while living in Tucson, AZ, we kind of had to estimate by the age he was when we got him. We can’t believe he is actually NINE!

There was vanilla ice cream, and cheetos, two of Simon’s favorite things…

… though there was also no shortage of volunteers offering to help him finish the ice cream.

It being the first birthday party Paddy has attended, he had some etiquette issues involving others’ ice cream and had to have a leash.

Cricket was proud of her party outfit, which she got from Wag!…

Winter chose to show up fashionably late and missed the ice cream.

Olive isn’t much for crowds and watched from a distance.

Calvin didn’t have time to pick out an outfit so he made his own.

After the ice cream, everyone headed out to the park to play soccer.

Simon got to play first, it being HIS birthday…

…but Calvin couldn’t resist jumping in…

… and like many good parties (and sporting events) it kind of ended in a drunken brawl.

Black cat camouflage

Chris — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:26:05 +0000

We took the bird netting off one of the two blueberry bushes, since it was done producing for the year, and Simon thought it made the perfect cat bed.

I should mention also that Simon is nine years old today… he’ll get to celebrate later with a party collar and some of his favorite treats.

I love happy endings!

Chris — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:13:51 +0000

The other day I was browsing through Craigslist and saw a lost dog posting for Hendersonville, so I mentioned the description of the older tan dog, greying around the muzzle, to Joy and he sounded just like a dog they had at the shelter. We looked up his listing on the shelter’s site and I sent the link with the picture to the person who posted the lost ad, in case it was their dog. It was! The owners were overjoyed and relieved, and came down first thing this morning to get their boy. It really made me happy to help reunite the old guy with his family.

No room for a cat? How about a micro-cat?

Chris — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 22:58:10 +0000

Neko came in with her mother and siblings a few weeks ago. For whatever reason, she’s about 1/3 the size of her sister, but she’s healthy and feisty. Most people seem afraid to even touch her, for fear she’ll break like a glass ornament. Her sister is super-pretty but no one seems interested in her either… I am not sure if they don’t want to break up the two sisters, or are worried Neko is sick and Amelia might come down with whatever she has, or if it’s simply a matter of there being hundreds of kittens being born right now and not enough homes for them all.

Please feel free to forward this to anyone who might be able to give either of these girls — or their very sweet mom — a home. If you know of anyone who has cats (or dogs) that aren’t spayed and neutered, please let them know there are programs to help with this. Here in Henderson County, it’s free for low income households and Community Partnership for Pets has low-cost vouchers for everyone else. Mst areas also have programs for trapping and neutering ferals. Imagine – if everyone fixed their pets, the cycle of death could be ended within just a couple of years.