Impromptu Early Morning Playdate

Ted

It was 6:40 a.m. and dark out when I went to take Mojo outside. He immediately barked at the guy across the street standing on his porch. I walked Mojo in the other direction, when under a street light I saw a very fluffy dog.

"Is that Ted?" I called out.

Ted, the golden doodle, lives in our neighborhood and his mom and I have decided they need to be besties.

The guy with the fluffy dog did a double take our way, and either waved or said "Oh hi, Mojo." It's early. I'm not sure.

When I take Mojo out in the morning, I don't like to talk to other people. I'm sleepy, usually in my pajamas and am so not a morning person. I will make an except for Ted. He's just so darned cute.

Mojo hauls me across the street to Ted and Andy. Had I known I'd be sprinting, I would have put on tennis shoes instead of flimsy flip-flops. I'm sure I look crazy. The dogs circle each other and we try not to be whipped by the tangling leashes. And I try and walk Mojo in the direction of Ted's house so Andy can get to work.

The dogs are going nuts. Ted's trying to jump on Mojo, who's running around like a crazy dog. I let them play/walk for about two minutes and then we head back. Mojo was very happy.

So thanks Ted and Andy! I hope this was a fun way to start the dog's day.

Dog party

We had an impromptu dog party today. Mojo and Ted wanted to play and I asked our neighbor (who has a fenced in backyard) if we could just make it a dog party.

This is how it went down.

Teddy, Tonka and Mojo sniff each other.

Tonka (white) and Mojo play with a frisbee. 

The dogs were a little slow to warm up. They were sniffing each other but not playing like the crazy dogs we know they are. We tried throwing balls and frisbees and eventually they were crazy dogs.

Ted fearlessly defended his mountain (i.e. chaise)

Tonka showed off his fierce water-catching skills.

We tried to show Mojo how to use a doggie door. Maybe next time?

And then it was time to go. Mojo was a very happy dog.

Holding hands…

The pets like to cuddle and nap together. Gunnar and Mojo were napping on the bed and I saw this and it looked like they were trying to hold hands in their sleep. I thought it looked awfully sweet.

Date Night

Today, Mojo had a playdate with Teddy, a golden doodle from down the street.

Mojo showed off his impressive love of tennis balls.

They lounged in the grass.

Teddy

Teddy with his mom. He kept wiggling and this was the least blurry of the photos.

ZOOM!

Spotted tongue

Ready for a dental exam

Hanging with the dogs

My new friend. So cute!

Playtime with friends

Today Mojo got to play with his friends Bosco and Jazzi.

Bosco is his cousin.

Jazzi is his aunt. She's a rescue poodle who's still coming out of her shell. She's not sure about playing with a big dog like Mojo yet, but she likes to watch him play.

Cousins?

Mr. Awesome is the cat that lives at Artinis, a painting place I go to occasionally.

He is a charismatic cat, who loves to rub against the store's patrons. He's a total ham for pictures and he reminds me a lot of Gunnar—if Gunnar weighed a little less and had a tail.

Mr. Awesome.

Gunnar

I don't think the photos do them justice. Oh well.

And I love any business that has a shop cat. :)

Mojo's cousins

These are some of Mojo's cousins: Madision, Lexi and Sunny. Mojo thinks they're all delicious.

Sunny is sooooo happy to have a photo shoot. It was just what she wanted. She couldn't let cousin Mojo have all the fun.

Reasons to love Aerofit

If I didn't have enough reasons to love Aerofit (fun workouts, trampolines and more), here's another reason—dogs! Today Tonka came to help Alex teach TRX. Here she is supervising wall squats. "Five more seconds," she says.

Mojo and his cousin

This is Mojo's human cousin. She sure loves him. Also, Mojo sure is a big ol' dog.

Little kitty day #3

I sleep here, k?

Today, kitty (still no name) crawled up in my lap. ! It was completely his idea. !!! How did I get a cat so sweet? On the down side, he wanted to crawl in my lap and knead me—and his claws are WAAY to sharp. He's young enough that we can teach him to be gentle.

Later that night he had his paw out under the door and was playing. He managed to get claw me and there was copious amounts of blood. I need to look up places to get his nails trimmed.

Gunnar continues to be curious about the cat—watching him from the corner of the bed or sitting on the floor a few feet away from the bathroom door. They've seen each other across the room a few times now. It's pretty non aggressive. Grey kitty just wants to come out of the room and is very persistent about it.

Katie is, of course, the most affected by all of this. She hates change and has been napping on the downstairs couch (as opposed to the bed) and hiding out in one of the extra bedrooms. She just doesn't want to acknowledge the cat. I bought her some ham—her favorite—and she started to come around a little more. She even came into the bedroom. She looked at the bathroom door some, which I counted as progress. She even crawled into bed at night. She hasn't seen the cat or pawed at the door, but she's coming around.

Kitty contentment or contempt for not staying still enough?

Announcement

It's boy! 9 pounds 7 ounces

We brought home baby #4 today. 

After I asked all the neighbors, made signs and scoured Craigslist for an owner, we decided that grey kitty was indeed homeless (and had been for at least a month). He's outside at all hours of the day—I could find him any time of the day. There's no time that he appears at his house. He weathers storms, comes to me with tree sap and pine straw in his fur. And he really wanted to live with us.

Hey mom, there's a cat outside.

Mom, there's still a cat outside.

He's sleeping on our doormat.

Kitty rubbing against my ankles. "Please! I can live with youz?"

He picked us. He adopted us. He'd nap on our porch. He had a spot under a bush to the side of our porch that he'd nap in. And for the last few days, he's been persistent in getting in the house. This morning he got so far as to put a foot on the silver door jam. He tries to sneak in every time we bring Mojo in or out.

And finally Matt decided that kitty needed a home. We could either tell him YES or NO for living with us.

We told him MAYBE. Get a clean bill of health from the vet and we'll consider it.

But did I really want another cat? The closer we got to actually adopting the cat, the more filled with dread I became. Matt told me I could take him to the vet. I put it off a day—trying to decide. I woke up Thursday morning wanting a sign, any sign YES OR NO. Am I supposed to have this cat?

I walked down the stairs and closed my eyes. I told myself that if he was sleeping on our doormat, then it was meant to be. If he wasn't there, then maybe not.

I rounded the corner, and there he was, sleeping on the doormat.

I called the vet as soon as they opened and made the appointment.

I'd been calling the vet all week—the secretary was remembering me and all of my questions about adopting strays: how much would it cost to get all of his tests, no, he's not allowed in the house, etc.

And taking kitty to the vet was surprisingly easy.

I left work an hour early and called for the kitty when I got home. I went inside and changed and kitty was sitting on the porch. It took two shoves to get him in the carrier and then put  him in the car. He cried a lot at first, but after about five minutes, he decided that he liked the air conditioning and he was supposed to be taking an afternoon nap anyway.

Really, he didn't meow nearly as much as Katie. And I was brainstorming names like Meredith Grey and Roxie.

It's a boy!
We got to the vet very early to out appointment. The cat isn't microchipped and the vet tells me he's a boy. A neutered male. And I was instantly in shock.

A boy!

I had thought girl. The cat was affectionate. And I was so sure the cat was in heat a month ago—with all the MEOWING!! and rolling around.

Then I ask the vet, "so that means he's not pregnant."

The vet laughed. "Yes, that means he's not pregnant."

I was so worried SHE was pregnant and I'd have to worry about kittens that I don't have time for or the cost of spaying. What a relief! The pregnant cats always seem to find me. I think I have SUCKER written in catnip across my forehead.

But being a boy confused me thoroughly. In my head, the cat was a girl. And then we'd have two boys and two girls. A boy meant three boys and one girl. Poor Katie.

The cat was also neutered, which saves me time and money. But that was problematic. Because it means he was someone's pet—someone spent the money to neuter him, cared about him.

And while I went to the vet full of hope and optimism that THIS WAS MY NEW CAT, I was confused, guilt-ridden.

Is this someone's cat? What am I supposed to do?

There was a lot of indecisiveness as I called Matt and tried to figure out what to do.

But this cat was not being taken care of—he was not being fed (except occasionally by a neighbor who said the cat wasn't his), he was not being looked after. He was clearly in distress and needed a house.
So I told the vet to go ahead and do the tests. They came back clean. And a few minutes later I told him to go ahead and give him all of his shots and deworm him—just in case. If he'd had the shots before, getting them again wouldn't hurt him.

The new cat did wonderfully at the vet. He was well behaved. He was prowling the exam room like a seasoned pro. Even the vet complimented his behavior and said he was really good when getting weighed and getting bloodwork done. He was SOOO good. He squirmed a little when getting his shots—but other than that, he was better than I had hoped. (I worried that he would go in the vet spitting and hissing like a feral cat.)  And really when he did hide under the vet or squirm, I couldn't blame him. Probably, the last time he was at the vet, he lost his balls :(

$150 later and it's time to take the kitty home.

I got him in the carrier, but when I got to the hall, he popped the side door open.

"Kitty on the loose," I yelled, as I tried to wrangle the kitty back into the pepto pink carrier.

It was grooming day at the vet and the vet techs had been very concerned about all the dogs in the lobby. The nice girl (who I'd been on the phone with all week) rushed over to help secure my little escape artist and finally we were on our way home. Not too much crying and again the kitty was digging the A/C. (He cried a lot before the AC got cranked up).

Home
And then we were home. Kitty was home. I brought him in the pink carrier and it was his first taste of being inside our house. Gunnar saw kitty right away. This was the kitty that he'd been ferociously attacking the door trying to get at. But Gunnar just seemed curious and asked to sniff the carrier. He did and it went well. Then I went up to the upstairs bathroom.

Matt got the kitty a litter box and something to scratch. I found some new toys in our pet cabinet and we gave them to kitty.

Kitty just wanted to sleep and hide. Poor guy was beat, which is understandable. He had a big day. Getting crammed in a carrier by the lady you thought was nice. Getting shots. Getting shoved into a small tiled room.

He kept trying to hide behind the hamper. Finally, he curled up on a towel we set out for him, and just slept. He had no interest in toys, but he did eat like he'd never see food again. He wolfed his kibble down (it was heart breaking really) and licked all the crumbs.

"Please sir, can I have some more?"

Poor starving kitty. You have a house now. You have people and air conditioning—even a dog to play with! We let Mojo go in the bathroom to play with the dog and then we turned off the lights and went to bed.

More on little kitty later.

Mojo's request

Matt came home from work yesterday and Mojo had something to say.

Matt saw that Mojo was wearing a dog-shaming sign and his first thought was "Oh no." Matt's not a fan of dog shaming. And then he read the sign and gave me a sad puppy dog face.

Mojo LOVES the neighborhood kitty. He watches it out the window. HE wanted to ask his dad if he could have a kitty, so a made a sign.

This morning I got a text asking how much would it cost a year for an additional cat. Mojo just might get his way.

Neighborhood cat

I've seen this cute little grey cat around my neighborhood for months. She likes to sit on our front window in the morning. This makes Gunnar fight with the blinds.

At first I thought she was a neighbor's cat. But I've seen so much more of her in recent weeks—at all hours. She's clearly a pet, but it seems that her owners have abandoned her, which breaks my heart.

I asked almost all the neighbor's about this cat and no one knows anything about her. The grad students two doors down did suspiciously offer her to me, but I didn't get the sense that she was their cat. But they did offer?

So this is grey kitty. She sits on my porch waiting for me to open the door. She always wants cuddles and is a very vocal girl, who just wants to come inside. 

I can come in?

Mojo doesn't know why she can't come inside. He adores this cat. Possibly because when I take him out, the cat walks right up to him and kisses him. Every single time. He watches her sadly when he's inside.

Mom, why you know let her in?

She's made a little spot in the bush next to our front door. I think the cat has adopted us, and it breaks my heart not to be able to let her in. But I can't. I don't know if she's someone's. (Looking like she's not). I don't know if she has any diseases or fleas. It would be several hundred dollars to get her vaccinated, fixed, checked out, etc.  She's getting more bold about trying to come in our house (with food and air conditioning and soft things to lay on.) 

This poor girl needs a home. And we just can't afford another cat—another set of vaccinations and revolutions, another litter box. And it wouldn't be fair to Katie (who did not approve of Gunnar and took a year to get adjusted) though she does look slightly interested when grey kitty is staring in our windows. And Gunnar just wants to beat up this little orphan. Seriously, he fights with her through the windows now. I couldn't subject her to  his brutality. 

Anyone want a sweet grey cat who likes big dogs?

Halloween Friends

Mojo made some cute friends this Halloween. He thought these pictures were too adorable not to share.

Don't let the giant bumble bee sting you.

Don't eat the fuzzy-footed chicken, Mojo.

That is one cute skunk.

Who knew roaches were for petting?

Some nice horses that live off South Milledge Avenue. 

Princess Lexi and her noble steed. 

Spider Web

I'm not sure if this spider is Mojo's friend or not, but how awesome is this web?

 I saw it this morning when I took Mojo out.

New Moth Friend?

Maybe this is a cousin of Mothra, I'm not sure. I found this funny looking guy hanging out by the front door. I guess it's some kind of moth.