Hotel for Dogs (and cats)

Tuesday morning started like every other morning in the land of summer vacation. My DH got up for work (whilst I continued to snooze). The monkeys joined me on the bed right after they heard the garage door shut. Everything was quiet....UNTIL...

Our dog Buster started barking his head off. I, not to be disturbed from my overall laziness, knocked on the window behind my bed for the dog to be quiet. I was sure he would know I meant business. Then, I heard not one, not two, but three dogs barking. Apparently, we had visitors. I went outside to see what on earth was going on. It was like a barking standoff, and in the middle was my DH trying to catch neighbor dogs (one big and growly, one small and hyper). He told me to toss him a stick and to go back in. So I did (when there is growling coming from a dog bigger than me, I don't argue).

Not three minutes later, the home phone rings and it's my DH asking me to come back and catch the two kittens that have the dogs riled. Hold up. Cats too? I went out and caught one of them (more on that cat later). The other cat ran up into the truck (literally, I had to crawl underneath and try to pull it off the axle?). Meanwhile, the big dog ran off. The little dog (weinerdog mix who was promptly named Oscar) was put on a leash and tethered in the front yard. The wild cat continued to crawl further under the truck and hiss at me. I finally chased him out, and he ran under the porch. At that point, I was like, "Fine, let the dogs eat you." She did escape (I saw her later in the field next door, so that's not on my conscience). So, at the end of the day we had two dogs and one cat.

I am not a cat person. However, the kindergartner is. After a late night discussion we voted to go ahead and keep Wild Rosie (we let the monkeys name her. I preferred Harriet Houdini). I took her to the vet, and after made a cruise through the trailer park down the road to see if I could find the big black dog Oscar was with (no luck). Then DH cruised through the neighborhood where our dog has his lady love, and found the owner. Oscar was returned (I'm glad he got to go home). So now, we are back to one dog, one cat and two monkeys.

Almost Amity Island

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Independence Day. We had an all-weekend extravaganza at my Sister-in-law's house (10 adult children in a family makes for a huge deal). It was pretty organized with each night having a theme (luau, Mexican and All-American BBQ cook off). A good time was had by all. However, I do have a story to tell.

In the movie Jaws (yay for you if you already knew Amity Island was the setting of the scariest. summer movie. EVER.) the Mayor said, "Martin, it's all psychological. You yell barracuda, everybody says, "Huh? What?" You yell shark, we've got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July."


So on the 4th after the cook off was over (we were totally robbed), and before the fireworks, all the kids decided to go down to the creek to swim. The creek is only about 3 feet deep, and really clear so I not only went, but got in too (I have a thing about not being able to see my feet when I swim). It was so very cold and so very needed on a muggy day. Everything was going great. Our internal body temperatures were no longer in the 100's and the kids were all having a blast letting the adults pull them on boogie boards. It was nice until...I noticed my sisters-in-law all gathered in a circle looking at the ground. I overheard one say, "I don't know what it is." Another said, "It looks like a slug." The last one said, "Could it be a leech?" As I started walking toward the scene, they called over my DH (their brother) and asked, "Hey, do you think that this is a slug or a leech?"

My DH took one look and said the words, "Everybody out of the creek, it has leeches." (notice there is no exclamation point because he doesn't get all excited). All it took was the word leech to put me in a full panic. I ran to the side, and like the one woman on the beach in Jaws, I started hollering at the kids to, "Get out of the water! There are leeches!" This got everyone's attention. Then, they all stopped what they were doing like deer caught in the headlights and ran out of the water (I'm not sure if it was the teacher/crazy lady voice or the fact that there were PARASITES in the creek that made them hustle). To make matters worse, two of my nieces got out too late and we (by we I mean my DH) had to pull leeches off their tiny little legs. The swimming party was O-V-E-R.

The moral of this story is, if you yell "LEECHES!!!!!" you also have a panic on your hands on the 4th of July.