Location, Location, Location

Apparently, in order for the kitty to show interest in the obscenely expensive Crinkly Cat Hole, one must place said cat hole in the place that the loyal feeder would find the least attractive. In fact, the loyal feeder must remove a favorite globe from its place of honor on on the fireplace mantel, and replace it with the ugly cat hole. Then, and only then, will the cat hole become a favorite hangout.


Himself has now permanently planted himself in the cat hole, and has no plans to come out.

In other news, the dogs were groomed today.

Sergeant Cotton Dog is looking svelte and happy.

(The word "cookie" may have been responsible for that look on his face.)

The groomer deemed Tallulah too skinny to go out in the cold with short hair and refused to shave her down. Now she looks fat, which may have been the plan. I suspect that after seeing so many obese animals, the groomer has lost sight of what a healthy weight is for a dog. I may not be able to do it for myself, but I've managed to keep both of my dogs at an ideal - thin - weight.

I'm not too upset, though, because I was only charged half price for Tallulah's bath, comb out and face/feet trim.

Typical poodle, Tallulah's always happy to jump on anything resembling a pedestal.
However, she has yet to master the whole "sitting like a lady" thing.

A funny story from the groomer:

Her shop is downtown. Over the last few years, there's been a pretty big problem with the druggies in the downtown area. The front of her shop is all windows, and she watches the area carefully. At any sign of drug activity, she gets on the phones and calls the cops. She's also very protective of her clients, since many of us are dropping our dogs off in the early morning hours. Once, there was somebody rooting through the garbage can that had been left out for pickup when I drove in, and she came out, chased him away and escorted me in.

This morning, she came out from the back area of the shop and saw one of her clients getting out of her car. As the lady reached into the back seat to get her dog, a rail-thin man came out from behind the car and started talking to her. She said he was almost skeletal, his hair was long and greasy and he was wearing ratty old sweats about 6 sizes too big with no coat. (It's -20C today.) When he turned around, his pants were falling down so far that she could see his plumber's crack. Normally, she calls the police first but this guy looked so bad she was worried about the lady's safety and didn't want to delay. She rushed outside, grabbed him by his arm, and told him to get off her property because she wasn't going to have him accosting her clients.

It turns out that this guy was the client's boyfriend, who she hadn't seen get out of the passenger side of the car.