What's this? Not a picture of Duchess? Not a picture of a niece or nephew? You're such a keen-eyed observer. No indeed, this is a picture of Ping. He's my brother's cat, and he'll be staying at my house until his family gets a more permanent living situation.

Personally, I think Ping is the prettiest cat I've ever seen. He's a mix between the traditional yellow tabby and a siames - thus a creamy white coat with yellow/orange points.

He's kind of old and cranky and isn't too thrilled about having a puppy for a roommate. Duchess thinks it's ever-so-exciting that there's a cat upstairs under the bed, or in the bathroom or whatnot. Ping has given Duchess a few good swipes, but no one has drawn blood so far. Duchess desperately wants to play. Ping just wants to sleep and look cool. Hopefully they will make friends eventually - or at least learn to ignore and tolerate each other.

First unwanted side-effect..... Duchess doesn't understand why the cat can go to the bathroom inside, but she can't. Wouldn't be so bad if Duchess would also use the litterbox, but no... right next to it seems to be close enough in the dog world.

Also, cat food seems to be more appealing than puppy food. And bark, bark, bark! The cat is on _top_ of the bed instead of underneath it like he was before! Bark bark bark!

How did I go from zero pets to three within a matter of months? (I've got a fish too. A very quiet red beta.)

Home again, home again, to see my brother Eric and his family. This is his son Caleb showing his mom how to play a board game. He's quite confident about what he's explaining with all his new words.

The hissing cockroaches aren't my sister's only pets. They also have two guinea pigs named Wiggle and Jiggle. They were hidden away in the master bathroom for our visit because we didn't think it would be a good idea for Duchess to get too friendly with them.

Duchess, however, sniffed them out after a while and she was quite interested - and upset - that we wouldn't let her play with the puppies upstairs. She was quite calm and friendly with them. They didn't squeal or run away, so I don't think she really registered them as prey. But we didn't encourage the relationship too much. I was just pleased to see they could be friends - at least in the short term.

They both sniffed at each other, touched noses, and everyone got out alive.

And here's another awwww, aren't they cute?

I stayed several days after Christmas with my sister's family. Since we were going to be there so long, I broke down and bought a dress for Duchess to wear around the house. She has a very short coat (the fur one she's born with) and would really prefer if the humans would keep their dwellings somewhere around 80 degrees ferenheit. At my house she can snuggle up to the fireplace, but my sister has no such source of radiant heat.

While it's pretty funny to see Duchess huddled over the vents for the forced air heat, I decided she might not be much fun that way. Thus the dress. Also, she's funny when she wears a dress.

When I got it on her, my sister noticed it looks a whole lot like one Elizabeth has. So we had to get a picture of the two of them together. So here's Elizabeth showing the world Duchess can dance - when given a little cheesy incentive.

Another Christmas present I made this year was a poncho for my niece Elizabeth. I think it turned out pretty cute and looks a lot like one I made for another niece, Mia. Isn't she cute?

One of my hobbies is "fiber arts" - the cool way of saying I crochet stuff. My nephew is _really_ into insects right now. Like, obsessively into insects. His favorite pets are his hissing cockroaches.

But you're not going to find a stuffed animal of one of those at your average toy store. So while I was visiting and could get a good look at the bugs, I made a big stuffed cockroach for his Christmas present. That's a crochet hook in the picture there for scale. Very big bug. Seems to have made my nephew quite happy. I'm glad I didn't have to take it home with me. Not a big fan of insects, myself. Ugh. The things I do for family.

So I had seen quite a few of my siblings all before Christmas time, and I figured out I could see all of them this holiday season if I took a trip down to Utah to see my sister's family, bump into my brother who lives the next town over from her, and get home in time to visit with another brother who was planning to visit Grandpa and Grandma for New Years.

Of course, if I showed up to see my niece and nephew without bringing Duchess along I was going to be persona non-grata. So I packed up her things and took off for a long road trip. Duchess travels really well, and my sister was very kind in letting me move in for a week with my dog.

Christmas is a lot more fun with little kids in the house curious about Santa and how presents work. Elizabeth was convinced that if we put presents under the tree before Christmas Eve, Santa would take them away when he arrived and leave new ones. I'm still not sure she understood that isn't how it works. I thought it was a very green sort of Santa concept, though. Very recycle/reuse minded.

Duchess did a good job Christmas morning only opening presents with her name on them. Santa brought her a stuffed mouse and some yummy treats. She was thrilled. A very merry Christmas was had by all.

Oh don't you worry. I'll spam this blog with more puppy posts later. Right now I need to pack up the pooch and go to Grandma's house for waffles with my brother and his family. Mmmmm.... waffles.

Did I mention Lucy was big on sharing? She was excited to lick the beaters when Grandma was done mashing the potatoes for dinner. And she very kindly shared her beater with Duchess, too. There was nothing we could do to stop her.

This visit is also where we learned the "Rawr!" game. Where you put your hands up over your head and saw "Raaawr!" if the dog is doing something you don't like - for instance, trying to lick the spout on your sippy cup while you wander around.

Little Lucy was here for a visit too. She's learning about sharing and decided to share her doll with Duchess. Fortunately there was no ferocious chewing of dolly's head or hands while mommy looked on. (And Duchess didn't get to sleep with dolly very long, let me tell ya.)

After Thanksgiving and before Christmas I got to see my sister-in-law Susan and her two kids. They flew in for a family funeral (on her side, not mine) and stopped to say hello to Grandpa and Grandma and Aunt Wendy and Duchess.

Here's Duchess getting to know baby Dallin while he's sleeping. Grandma wasn't so keen on the interaction when Duchess started licking his little closed eyes.

More adorableness!!! This is my niece Gabrielle, who made friends right away with Duchess at Thanksgiving.

Another picture of the Duke and Duchess. This time at rest. Here you can see that after a few days the crush wasn't just one-way. Duchess is pretty smitten.

Happy Thanksgiving!

One big reason for getting that operation before Thanksgiving is that my sister was coming to visit for turkey day and she was bringing along Duke. He's the little one on the right. At one year almost exactly, he's seven months older than Duchess, but she's significantly taller. He has naturally standing ears, she has floppy. He hasn't been fixed. She has (just barely).

I was quite worried - as was Duke's family - that we'd never have a moment's peace with the two of them together. They have a special talent for getting into trouble by chewing on kids' toys or peeing in the wrong place or digging up the carpet or biting or a million things we can't think of. They're good dogs, really. They're just full of energy and curiosity. So with them such a handful one at a time, we were quite concerned about how they would behave together.

The first few days were very funny. Duke flirted shamelessly. He fawned over Duchess and tried to mount her several times. She got really good at just kicking him off like he was an annoying fly. She ignored him most of the time - when she wasn't bullying him away from his toys. Duke started out being a real gentleman, letting her have treats without fighting her for them, letting her take his toys without complaint. But after a few days he dropped the gentleman act and we got to watch some hillarious squabbles over toys. Duke showed Duchess how to really chew on rawhide instead of just suck on in prissily. He showed her how to jump up on the couch (although she just watched admiringly from the floor since her stiches still hurt). They had a ball together.

And to our amazement, they didn't touch any of the kids toys and they were having too much fun biting and wrestling each other instead of the babies. Apparently their constant need for attention was satisfied by having another minpin around. It was a great little vacation for the humans in their lives. Made both me and my sister wonder about getting a second. One of my friends suggested we work out shared custody. Maybe that's a better idea.

Okay, I have some catching-up to do. Lots of posts with lots of pictures finally available for your viewing pleasure. I will begin at the beginning.

Back around Thanksgiving I realized it was just about time for Duchess to have her little operation so she wouldn't present me with any unplanned puppies. When I decided to get a dog I did a bunch of research and decided I had no interest in breeding. It was hard enough for me to face the idea of one puppy - let alone a whole litter.

But when it came down to getting the operation done I was surprised at how hesitant I found myself. Duchess is ADORABLE. She would make ADORABLE puppies. Also, it's scary to bring her to a vet and ask them to cut her open when she's perfectly healthy. As it turned out, I needed a lot of reassurance that I was doing the right thing. I was shocked. I didn't think I had it in me to be that emotional about an animal.

Fortunately, my wonderful vet was very supportive and understanding and convinced me I was doing the right thing. So off she went to have the deed done, and home she came again. I got this picture of her that day as she was recovering. I thought she would want to lounge by the fire on her favorite blanket, but no... she went straight back to her kennel and twisted around into this funny prezel shape. Who knew?

Funny spam of the day

Actual spam from my inbox today. I didn't open it, but I have to admit I did a double-take. Here's what I saw...

From: God Subject: Approval Process

Do you suppose he has an online form now? That would be handy.