Summer

Well, summer is moving right along, is it not?  I'm having a hard time believing that July is over half over, but it is.  The calendar insists that it is.

As was inevitable, I took the kittens back to the shelter earlier in the month.  The three girls were spayed, the boy was neutered, and they were put up for adoption.  They actually were chosen to go into one of the Petcos...  and it just so happened to be the Petco nearest me!

So I've shown up a few times to see the "foster kids."

Or rather, the foster kid, singular, at least now.  Jeannie, Storm and Logan were all adopted (by separate people) but poor Rogue remains.  She's sharing her cage with another kitten, at least, and I know that she gets to run around the "cat room" for several hours a day.  So she's got a pretty good life.  But of course what we all hope for is for her to get a good home.

I don't know much about where the others went, but from the descriptions I have gotten, they got good homes.

I did not pick up another litter.  I think I need a break - kittens are adorable little fluffies, but they wore me out!  I also realized that they tend to aggravate my natural tendency to fuss and worry over them.  Were they eating enough?  Were they gaining weight fast enough?   All things that everyone has to consider, after all we don't want kittens wasting away if there's a medical cure, but I will admit in hindsight that I might have been a little over the top.  Particularly with Jeannie, who was so tiny and frail in the beginning.  (She caught up with her siblings by being the most voracious eater of the bunch!)

Anyway, it's been more of trying to avoid the heat for us.  Although it HAS gotten cooler over the past few days.  Not like the beginning of July was...  that was pretty miserable.  Not that it can't get that way again, but the heat in Pennsylvania TENDS to cap off in the high 80's.  Not the high 90's, whatever that crap was a couple of weeks ago.

So...

One thing that we did, was finally purchase a couple of pictures of the dogs, that were taken by photographer Mike Malat, at Greyhounds in Gettysburg last April.  I've never been able to get photos of our dogs in motion, since my camera isn't really up to the task.  But... here are the two that we have purchased so far.  There's plenty more to choose from, and they're all very good, but there's only so much cash I can set aside at one time!

I am amazed that the pictures of Argos turned out so well.  I guess I should never discount the abilities of a good photographer.  He refused to actually run... to the point that the person with the speed gun didn't even get a read on him.

I'm actually surprised that there were any moments that did not involve him peeing on various sections of the fence, LOL.

But here he looks happy and somewhat goofy.  This is the boy that I know and love.

And Maera, during her speed run.  Unlike Argos, she was straining at the end of her leash, DESPERATE to be allowed to run.

I think that this shot captured some of the intensity in her eyes.

She was so excited and so proud of herself.  I was happy to see her so confident and showing off...  I can remember last fall, giving her the chance to run with some other greyhounds at a HUGE dog park, but she was so frightened of the new surroundings and everybody else, that she stayed glued to our hips the entire time.

I wondered at that time if I would ever get to see her run.



Unfortunately, the cats don't get a professional photographer, because they simply refuse to go out in the car.  So they have to make do with my photos here at home.

Here is Bit, who got left out of the last post because of her insistence on staying in the super-hot attic.  This is the Bit-o-vator.  She waits for you to come up from the basement with a load of laundry, and then leaps into it as you're already staggering up the stairs.  And then cries imperiously, demanding that you carry her all the way up to the second floor.  Bossy little creature.

And Annie, who is supervising me.  What might not be immediately obvious is that the laptop computer is indeed on my lap.  Annie was keeping a close eye on what I was doing.  Which I believe was refreshing my memory on making deviled eggs for a birthday party we were attending later that day.

You might notice the cream colored slip-cover on my couch in the background.  The couch WAS green, but our trio of cats scratched it up really badly when we first got them.  I finally got around to getting a cover... which looks nice.  But was the dumbest thing I've done in a long time.  How long do you think it was before it had muddy dog prints all over it?

Never, never, get cream or white if you have dogs.  It's supposed to be scotch guarded, and so far the stains have come out pretty well, though.  So maybe it's not a completely loss!