manrymission.com

Blaze is a very quiet dog. When left to himself he rarely makes a noise. He will whine at me when he needs to go outside or when he is trying to convince me that he should eat earlier. He has yet to learn, as the other family members know so well, that I’ll get around to making dinner eventually, but don’t expect it to be soon. When I visited the breeder, I was amazed at how quiet her dogs were. A kennel of quiet dogs is a bit odd. I was thrilled that Blaze carried on the genetics. However, we have discovered throughout the last month that there is one individual who greatly enjoys pestering him into barking. When Blaze can’t be watched, he is in his crate, to prevent sock swallowing. Patches has the run of the house and she makes him aware of it every day. Sometimes she’ll sit right next to his crate and look at him, sometimes she’ll turn her back as if he doesn’t exist, but what she loves most is to partially hide inside or under something as if she is stalking him. It drives him nuts and I will hear him make a high pitched whiny bark. I am often sending the kids to catch and relocate her, but she always comes back to play her favorite game. When I take him outside into the back yard to play fetch, she waits patiently at the sliding glass door. I often go in and leave him outside a little longer, but he doesn’t like to be alone so he will soon be on the top step looking in the door. Patches loves this moment and will touch her paw to the glass. Blaze, who moments prior had been patiently waiting, then goes nuts jumping on the door. She’s a piece of work.

Josiah is watching the neighbor’s dog this week, so we attempted to go together on a walk. Blaze was so nuts trying to get the other dog to play, that I thought it would be best to have them run around the backyard a bit. Josiah forgot to shut the back gate, so they decided to run around the neighborhood instead. Thankfully, no cars were driving by, Josiah was able to catch Blaze, and the neighbor dog just ran home. As I ran out after the dogs, a feeling of familiarity overtook me. The feeling of familiarity ended as soon as we caught the dogs, however, for Czar and Sasha would have been long gone and I would have gotten in the car to continue the pursuit. We tried to get the dogs playing in the back yard again, gate closed this time when suddenly we heard this terrified yelp. Blaze came dashing for us with his tail between his legs. The neighbor’s dog did not want to play. So, Blaze is far down the pack order. Well behind the cat and the neighbor dog.

Patches and Blaze at Door

Blaze

Patches Stretching

Blaze Walking the Dog

Patches has decided to make use of her kitty condo built by Gabe.  She gets up on it by jumping from Abby’s stuffed animal basket to the top of the dresser and then onto the condo.  She has slept on all levels except for in the hammock.  I told Abby that she’ll sleep in the hammock when she is old and fat and can’t get up any higher.  When my children were little, I would buy them elaborate toys.  What they liked most was the cardboard box the toy came in.  Now with the kitten I buy her this elaborate kitty condo, and just like my kids, she would be quite happy with a cardboard box.

Today, we went and picked up Abby’s new kitty, Patches. The kitty is a Tortie Ragdoll, a mix of reddish cream, gray, and white. She will darken as she gets older. The stripe down her nose cracks me up. We purchased Patches from a cat lady who has cats, cats everywhere. Almost all her cats are big and sweet. She kept a runt once because no one wanted him. She named him fatso and he lived up to his name. We left with only one kitten. Although, she tried to convince me to buy two. Knowing my husband’s lack of fondness for cats, I decided it probably was best to only bring home one. The kids have been having fun watching Patches chase the feather wand and swat the ball in the track. When Patches got tired, she climbed up onto the bed next to Abby, started purring while Abby was petting her, and fell asleep. I think they’ll get along just fine.