Boys love cats love sunshine

Two dog night

We are spending the entire weekend reorganizing the house in order to make a more proper "learning office" for Calvin (we want him to be able to reach his crayons and markers without leaving them accessible to the pets, which can be more disastrous than it sounds). The dogs are desperately trying to ignore the chaos all around them. I'd say it's working.

Moose

This is our Moose. As an eight pound dachshund he weighs about 1/100th of the animal that most normal human beings are referring to when they use his name. He turned ten years old on my birthday this year and he's blind. Not "blind as a bat" blind, since bats can actually see, albeit poorly, but more like "blind as Helen Keller" blind. He has not always been blind but lost his sight rather suddenly last August due to bad genetics, and it has fallen to us to make his life as manageable as possible, mainly by keeping things in their place. This is a daily battle with a busy child in the house, but I think Moose has gotten used to the fact that the play room, at least, is never the same place, morning, noon, or night. Although he'd have an easier time of it if he was more than an inch or two of the ground—as it is he trips over the slightest things, including a flat piece of the favored, and often in use, train track—I think he's used to it by now. The rest of the house we try to keep to a relatively unaltered map, including the front step and garden. One thing we can't help, though, is weather.

Who put that snowbank in my way?

Cats love a good book

Either that, or they love a warm body near them in a cozy chair. Cookie and Calvin have always had what others might be tempted to call a thorny relationship; when Calvin was young he loved nothing better than to "love" the cat, and sometimes that kind of love still sneaks in under the guise of toddler exuberance. For the most part, though, their kinship has along with Calvin's greater sense of responsibility and tenderness.

Calvin is responsible for feeding Cookie, and it is to him that she directs her plaintive mews first thing in the morning or in the waning light of evening. Calvin is the only one in our family who is sucker enough to turn the bathroom faucet on at a dribble to allow her to drink. Calvin is also the only one who really takes a good nap  every day, providing Cookie with a comfy and warm cuddle spot to while away the afternoon.

It works in the other direction, too. Of all the household memebers, Cookie is the only one who doesn't have interrupting chores or work to do, and who will sit still long enough to be the recipient of a well-planned tea party, an acted out play or felt story time, or the reading of a delightfully long book (especially, you see, if she is napping). She is also the only pet mindful of the kid's personal space, whereas the blind little dog and the clumsy big dog tend to step on train tracks and collapse block buildings.

I am allergic to animals, particularly to cats, and there are days here and there when, as much as I love our pets, I find myself wishing them away along with my stuffy nose or itchy eyes, but this kind of companionship is a lesson in itself, and a valuable one at that, and while we'll probably never adopt a cat again, I am thankful for Cookies presence and the friendship she gives, in particular, to that precious little boy.

Afternoon sun on a cold winter's day

For Christmas this year we were given a window bench for our pop out window and my Godmother made a cushion for on top. Since then this has become the favorite spot in the house when the winter sun streams through the window in the mid afternoon. If I'm lucky I'm able to claim a spot for myself after Calvin lays down for his nap, and many an afternoon has found me dozing there, my head bobbing and weaving over the book I'm pretending to read. Cookie, however, believes that the spot was made entirely for her benefit, especially with the bird feeders being only a few feet away in the front garden. Can't you tell how intrigued she is by the bird feeders? I thought so.