Chris & Joy's Critterweb

What we replaced the carpet over the plywood with…

Chris — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 19:49:57 +0000

So we’ve got our living room back together more or less… still have a lot of molding to put up, some cracks to fill, and the project of the two patches where the walls were removed, but the plywood in the addition part of the living room is now covered with vinyl planks we spent all day putting in. They look real good, are durable, and were cheap. A good solution for the time being.

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.

The Great Carpet Removal, day 1

Chris — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:07:44 +0000

We had held off on doing anything with the rug while Lindsy was still around, knowing she wouldn’t be able to walk on bare wood. But since she’s gone now…

Once I made the first cut, we were committed…

A few hours later a bit more progress has been made.

Finally we call it quits for day one. We’ve got about half of the area we’d planned on ripping out. The area around the fireplace will have to stay until we can get someone in to refinish the floors, as that area is just plywood. We’re going to clean it up as best as we can for now.

Once all of the carpet shreds, foam bits, and wayward staples are picked up, it’s safe to release our pica-prone dog. The white speckles and smears are old paint. The black area in the kitchen doorway looks like linoleum glue. Another unanticipated surprise was the area where the original dining room walls had been removed, and instead of hardwood there is 2″ x 4″ for flooring.

This is a LOT of work – pulling up the carpet and foam is the easy part; removing the nails, carpet strips, and staples is what really kicked our butts.

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.

More volunteers (or, “why not to use the compost before it’s ‘cooked’”)

Chris — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 23:23:41 +0000

So I took that random 6′ privacy fence panel we’d had replaced and cut it up a few weeks back, with the help of some power tools we found at a thrift store (total cost under $25 including new blades)…

Then I made a couple of small raised beds for next year out of the pieces:

Last week I lined them with cardboard, and added several layers of newspaper, then last year’s barrel of compost to the bigger one. It didn’t really fill it, so I just dumped this year’s bin in as well.

Then, when Joy’s mom was here yesterday and we were showing her the garden, we found a bit of a ’surprise’. I have no idea what they are. We had a cantaloupe a few weeks ago, some watermelon before that. I think I tossed some okra that was too woody to eat recently, so there were lots of seeds in that mess. There are several dozen of these buggers. Guess we wait and see what they turn into.

In other garden news, the squash and okra are flourishing, as well as the tomatoes, peppers, and the elephant ear:

This was supposed to be a pie pumpkin? there were several seedlings – some are making pumpkins, and then there’s this. Can we eat it? How do we tell when it’s ready? Are we going to step outside one day and hear a voice boom “Feed me, Seymore!”?

The Mr. Stripey (hybrids) have crested the 8′ stakes and are making a break for the porch.

This is a Cherokee purple monster. That mass in the middle that looks like two tomatoes is one big ugly goon. It must weigh at least two pounds and it hasn’t turned.

pruning the brandywine bush…

… which is also making monsters.

What Mr. Stripey lacked in size (it was supposed to be a beefsteak variety) it makes up for in volume, and they are tasty little devils!

A big weed we pulled out of the garden

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.