Friday, March 11, 2005
The Animals and I
So, as you know, we have a couple of dogs and a bunch of cats. By “couple”, I infer “two”, of course, and by “bunch”, I mean “FOUR”. The cats were recently integrated into the household and have now settled down, mostly. Of the dogs, the NoodleDog remains calm. The Cooter does NOT. The Cooter is not at all calm about having cats. He’s frenzied.
Cooter loves the cats, I think, or at the very least he is fascinated by them. Or, well, some of them, anyway. He is in lurve with Smudge, the kitten and smallest one. He is interested in Tobey part of the time, but knows he’s not allowed to chase or harass poor, clawless Tobey, who growls little growls of discontent about the whole dog situation. He is a little bit interested in Rumble (the big cat), but Rumble doesn’t put up with any of his shit and hisses and swipes at him frequently. He is not very interested in Caspar, and this is heartbreaking, yo. Caspar is interested in Cooter. Caspar likes dogs. I think Caspar must have been exposed to dogs in a good setting at some point because ever since I got him, he’s been pretty friendly towards dogs, whereas Rumble seems to hate most of them and only tolerates the dogs at our house.
Caspar comes up to Cooter all hopeful, tail upright and friendly, and tries to engage his attention, and Cooter invariably just runs past him, chasing or looking for Smudge. I can see that Caspar is disappointed, because he’s all “what am I, chopped liver?” only that’s not quite correct, because Cooter would probably be more interested in chopped liver. Dejected, Caspar retreats to the bed, where he can put all sorts of white fur all over the dark-coloured duvet cover.
Cooter, on the other hand, pursues Smudge with the affection and intensity of a stalker. He loves her, and thinks, “There’s that thing I love so much! I MUST see her! MUST SEE!! At all times! Where did she go? Under the sofa? Behind the sofa? WHY?!! I must see her. I must shove the sofa out of the way, knocking things off the coffee table with my giant furry tail, in order to see her. Is she on the sink? I can’t quite get up there! I can’t, but I must see her! What could she be doing up there? Why can’t she just come down on the floor where I can see her? I love her! I want to see her! THERE SHE GOES! Quick, follow her.”
Smudge, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to care much that he’s there, other than that at times, he blocks her access to things or areas. Damn, she thinks, “there’s that stupid thing again. He’s so goofy, waving that giant tail around and grinning all the time. He follows me everywhere! He can’t get at me behind the sofa. I’m gonna go there for a while. Maybe I can sneak out the other side and behind the plant, and then into the kitchen to see the water drip. That’s neat! Water, dripping! It’s so cool. Oh, that rotten thing is there again. I’m hungry, too, and he’s blocking me from getting my food. You know, that’s it. I’ve had it. I’m gonna bop him on the nose next time he sticks it in my face. Reee! EEEEEE!” [bop]
Cooter: Wow! She did something! That must mean she likes me! She must want to play! I’m gonna crouch down and invite her to play with me. I just love her so much! Let’s play!
Smudge: Damn, didn’t work. I better hide.
Tobey: Don’t bring that thing near me. I’m trying to sleep, here. [tenses up, extends back claws in trepidation, then launches himself off my lap causing great furrows to bleed where his back feet were]
Caspar: Look at me! Look at me! I’ll play with you! I’m interesting! Really!
Cooter: Where’s that thing I love going? Where? Why? Oh, there’s the other one, the one I’m not supposed to chase. Should I chase it? Maybe I should. I’m gonna.
Tobey: Aaack!! [skitter skitter]
Me: COOTER!
Cooter: Rats. Now I lost track of that thing I love so much. I’m going to have to find her by looking behind and under everything!
Rumble: Not over here, you’re not. Grrrr!
The NoodleDog: Are there any snacks available? Would it be too much trouble for someone to get me some food? There might be food on the coffee table, which is conveniently located right at my head level. Can I eat this container? Lemme see…
Me: YOU GUYS ARE DRIVING ME NUTS!! DOGS OUTSIDE!
And then the dogs get tossed out into the back yard so I can relax for a few minutes and give the cats some breathing room. If Cooter isn’t following Smudge like a frantic boyfriend, he’s counting the cats. He feels compelled to run around the house and find each cat, then start over at the beginning and find them all again. It’s usually not too hard because if they’re sleeping, they’re probably not going to move around all that much. Except Tobey, who doesn’t like it when Cooter rushes up at him.
Cooter: Where are all those little things? There’s the one I love so much, on that chair. She’s not moving around. I should find the other ones and see what they’re doing. I should find them! FIND THEM ALL! There’s one – that one doesn’t like me. I will follow him at a distance. Oh! There’s another one! That one’s alright. And where’s the last one? Where?!! I need to find him. Is he downstairs? [kathunka, thunka, thunka] Is he in the bedroom? [clickety, clickety, clickety] Is he in the bathroom? OH! There he is! I found him! Where’s that thing I love so much? I need to check the back of the sofa – sometimes she goes there. Not there? Not on the sink? Oh, right, she’s in that chair. And the others? I should find them now…
And he runs from room to room counting the cats and then starting over. It’s funny, but when he keeps on doing it, I start to worry he’s going to lose his furry little mind.
Cooter and the NoodleDog are trained to run down the stairs when they get inside. It’s supposed to wear the mud and moisture off their feet, because the basement stairs are carpeted with older, rough carpeting, and we would rather that gets muddy than the kitchen floor or our nice new area rugs. Occasionally, Tobey and Cooter have a little standoff when Cooter gets inside, because Tobey likes to hang out at the bottom of the stairs. So Cooter will start to run down the stairs and then remember he’s not supposed to bug Tobey.
Cooter: INSIDE INSIDE INSIDE!! Yay! Inside is where those things are. I like to see those little things! OH. Except that’s the one I’m not supposed to bother. Hmm. I’m stuck here. What do I do? I have to get downstairs before I can start looking for that thing I love so much, but that other thing is down there, growling at me.
Tobey: Don’t come down here. Don’t. Just don’t. Don’t do it! I can’t take this!
Cooter: Well, I can’t go back up, I’m not supposed to, I have to go all the way down.
Tobey: I can’t get up because you’re there, and I want to run away from you! I need to get upstairs! This isn’t safe at all!
Cooter: Okaaayyy, I’m gonna tip toe down, slowly. Maybe he won’t see me if I move slowly.
Tobey: Aaaaa! It’s coming! What should I do? What should I do?!! Maybe I can get by him!
Cooter: Slowly, slowly… slooooooowly…
Tobey: EEEEEEEEEEEE!!! Run!! Run run run!!!
Cooter. Ah. INSIDE INSIDE INSIDE!! Where’s that thing I love so much?!!
There are other run-ins between the dogs and the cats. For instance, last weekend, Rob was fooling around with the dogs on the bed, getting them all riled-up and playing games. They were thrashing around, and Rob was making OOOOOooooOOOOOooooOOOOOoooo sounds like a siren, and the NoodleDog was barking and barking and barking at him, trying to get at Rob’s face to lick it. BARK BARK BARK!! OOOOOooooOOOOOOoooo BARK BARK BARK!! And Cooter joined in with his high-pitched barking, too, all “Yaaark! Rirk! Rih!!” Rumble was woken up by all this noisy fuss, and came down the hallway to investigate. He saw what amounted to a massacre in his mind.
Rumble: Those stupid dogs are KILLING THAT GUY!! My girl really likes that guy! This is NO GOOD AT ALL! I must put a stop to it immediately. Grrrr! Yeowlrrrrrr!! Get out you dogs!! Get out!! Reeeaarrow! SSSSSSSSS!!
And he came at the dogs hissing, growling and swiping. Funny, at first, only Rumble has a heart condition, and he didn’t think it was funny at all. He really believed Rob was in mortal peril and that the dogs had to be chased out of the room entirely. He swiped repeatedly at the NoodleDog, which was fine until the NoodleDog decided he’d make a stand because that game was just too much fun to give up. Also, the NoodleDog is in love with Rob and always wants to be near him, so he wasn’t about to let himself be chased out of the room. It was a tense situation for a while, and we had to shut the dogs out of the room and calm Rumble down. Poor guy. He was only doing his duty protecting the household.
It’s entertaining. Why in the world people wouldn’t want such endearing, charming creatures is beyond me. All of my animals were rescues, except Cooter (who is Rob’s dog). Rumble was found at a Humane Society shelter in Ottawa. Caspar was from the SPCA here in Calgary. Tobey was adopted from people who couldn’t keep him and were going to have to “get rid” of him because their unruly grandchild of a year (who was the size of a toddler, people – he was HUGE!) developed allergies to him. Smudge was found outside my condo just before a giant rainstorm as a kitten of about three months or so. The NoodleDog was being GIVEN AWAY by people who “couldn’t keep him”. So if you’re reading this and have nothing better to do this weekend, go and get a pet from a local shelter. Go!!
Also, today, we found out that Jetsgo has gone bankrupt. Rob and I had planned a vacation over Easter to travel to Montreal via Jetsgo, and now our plans need to be changed, rapidly. I have re-booked us, but in the process of doing so, I noted a bit of an issue. I booked on Air Canada, they had some nice low rates with their discount carrier, Tango. $124 direct to Montreal, $189 returning to Calgary through Toronto. Nearly the same as what we had paid on Jetsgo, so I figure it would be a good idea to book it. However, as I had just clicked CONFIRM ORDER, and sent it off, the Air Canada people conveniently returned a page to me stating “your rates for travel have changed.” About $300 MORE than the original price they had quoted. I thought, there must be some mistake, and retried the order. No dice. The rates had indeed gone up just that very minute. So I looked around the dates we had planned, and sure enough, ALL the rates were in the process of being drastically increased. Finally, I found travel times about a week out from our original plans and booked the trip at the original Air Canada rates.
I find it a little insulting that Air Canada is on the news, claiming to be trying to accommodate Jetsgo passengers and trying to be helpful to everyone, but are RAISING THEIR RATES!! They’re vultures. Really, profiting from this sort of problem for people is pretty low. I’m not saying lower your rates to what Jetsgo was offering, because well, duh, they couldn’t hack it at that small a profit margin. Fine. However, if you’ve already set rates out on your website, you can’t go about increasing them as people are in the process of booking flights. It’s just classless and an obvious cash-grab. So, Air Canada, I will never, ever fly on your airline again. If this weren’t a situation where we had already outlaid the money to Jetsgo (which we’re trying to recover), I would have no problem paying a little more to fly Westjet, an honourable airline. Air Canada = SLEAZY!!
Have a great weekend, everyone – go and find a pet to adopt!!
Cooter loves the cats, I think, or at the very least he is fascinated by them. Or, well, some of them, anyway. He is in lurve with Smudge, the kitten and smallest one. He is interested in Tobey part of the time, but knows he’s not allowed to chase or harass poor, clawless Tobey, who growls little growls of discontent about the whole dog situation. He is a little bit interested in Rumble (the big cat), but Rumble doesn’t put up with any of his shit and hisses and swipes at him frequently. He is not very interested in Caspar, and this is heartbreaking, yo. Caspar is interested in Cooter. Caspar likes dogs. I think Caspar must have been exposed to dogs in a good setting at some point because ever since I got him, he’s been pretty friendly towards dogs, whereas Rumble seems to hate most of them and only tolerates the dogs at our house.
Caspar comes up to Cooter all hopeful, tail upright and friendly, and tries to engage his attention, and Cooter invariably just runs past him, chasing or looking for Smudge. I can see that Caspar is disappointed, because he’s all “what am I, chopped liver?” only that’s not quite correct, because Cooter would probably be more interested in chopped liver. Dejected, Caspar retreats to the bed, where he can put all sorts of white fur all over the dark-coloured duvet cover.
Cooter, on the other hand, pursues Smudge with the affection and intensity of a stalker. He loves her, and thinks, “There’s that thing I love so much! I MUST see her! MUST SEE!! At all times! Where did she go? Under the sofa? Behind the sofa? WHY?!! I must see her. I must shove the sofa out of the way, knocking things off the coffee table with my giant furry tail, in order to see her. Is she on the sink? I can’t quite get up there! I can’t, but I must see her! What could she be doing up there? Why can’t she just come down on the floor where I can see her? I love her! I want to see her! THERE SHE GOES! Quick, follow her.”
Smudge, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to care much that he’s there, other than that at times, he blocks her access to things or areas. Damn, she thinks, “there’s that stupid thing again. He’s so goofy, waving that giant tail around and grinning all the time. He follows me everywhere! He can’t get at me behind the sofa. I’m gonna go there for a while. Maybe I can sneak out the other side and behind the plant, and then into the kitchen to see the water drip. That’s neat! Water, dripping! It’s so cool. Oh, that rotten thing is there again. I’m hungry, too, and he’s blocking me from getting my food. You know, that’s it. I’ve had it. I’m gonna bop him on the nose next time he sticks it in my face. Reee! EEEEEE!” [bop]
Cooter: Wow! She did something! That must mean she likes me! She must want to play! I’m gonna crouch down and invite her to play with me. I just love her so much! Let’s play!
Smudge: Damn, didn’t work. I better hide.
Tobey: Don’t bring that thing near me. I’m trying to sleep, here. [tenses up, extends back claws in trepidation, then launches himself off my lap causing great furrows to bleed where his back feet were]
Caspar: Look at me! Look at me! I’ll play with you! I’m interesting! Really!
Cooter: Where’s that thing I love going? Where? Why? Oh, there’s the other one, the one I’m not supposed to chase. Should I chase it? Maybe I should. I’m gonna.
Tobey: Aaack!! [skitter skitter]
Me: COOTER!
Cooter: Rats. Now I lost track of that thing I love so much. I’m going to have to find her by looking behind and under everything!
Rumble: Not over here, you’re not. Grrrr!
The NoodleDog: Are there any snacks available? Would it be too much trouble for someone to get me some food? There might be food on the coffee table, which is conveniently located right at my head level. Can I eat this container? Lemme see…
Me: YOU GUYS ARE DRIVING ME NUTS!! DOGS OUTSIDE!
And then the dogs get tossed out into the back yard so I can relax for a few minutes and give the cats some breathing room. If Cooter isn’t following Smudge like a frantic boyfriend, he’s counting the cats. He feels compelled to run around the house and find each cat, then start over at the beginning and find them all again. It’s usually not too hard because if they’re sleeping, they’re probably not going to move around all that much. Except Tobey, who doesn’t like it when Cooter rushes up at him.
Cooter: Where are all those little things? There’s the one I love so much, on that chair. She’s not moving around. I should find the other ones and see what they’re doing. I should find them! FIND THEM ALL! There’s one – that one doesn’t like me. I will follow him at a distance. Oh! There’s another one! That one’s alright. And where’s the last one? Where?!! I need to find him. Is he downstairs? [kathunka, thunka, thunka] Is he in the bedroom? [clickety, clickety, clickety] Is he in the bathroom? OH! There he is! I found him! Where’s that thing I love so much? I need to check the back of the sofa – sometimes she goes there. Not there? Not on the sink? Oh, right, she’s in that chair. And the others? I should find them now…
And he runs from room to room counting the cats and then starting over. It’s funny, but when he keeps on doing it, I start to worry he’s going to lose his furry little mind.
Cooter and the NoodleDog are trained to run down the stairs when they get inside. It’s supposed to wear the mud and moisture off their feet, because the basement stairs are carpeted with older, rough carpeting, and we would rather that gets muddy than the kitchen floor or our nice new area rugs. Occasionally, Tobey and Cooter have a little standoff when Cooter gets inside, because Tobey likes to hang out at the bottom of the stairs. So Cooter will start to run down the stairs and then remember he’s not supposed to bug Tobey.
Cooter: INSIDE INSIDE INSIDE!! Yay! Inside is where those things are. I like to see those little things! OH. Except that’s the one I’m not supposed to bother. Hmm. I’m stuck here. What do I do? I have to get downstairs before I can start looking for that thing I love so much, but that other thing is down there, growling at me.
Tobey: Don’t come down here. Don’t. Just don’t. Don’t do it! I can’t take this!
Cooter: Well, I can’t go back up, I’m not supposed to, I have to go all the way down.
Tobey: I can’t get up because you’re there, and I want to run away from you! I need to get upstairs! This isn’t safe at all!
Cooter: Okaaayyy, I’m gonna tip toe down, slowly. Maybe he won’t see me if I move slowly.
Tobey: Aaaaa! It’s coming! What should I do? What should I do?!! Maybe I can get by him!
Cooter: Slowly, slowly… slooooooowly…
Tobey: EEEEEEEEEEEE!!! Run!! Run run run!!!
Cooter. Ah. INSIDE INSIDE INSIDE!! Where’s that thing I love so much?!!
There are other run-ins between the dogs and the cats. For instance, last weekend, Rob was fooling around with the dogs on the bed, getting them all riled-up and playing games. They were thrashing around, and Rob was making OOOOOooooOOOOOooooOOOOOoooo sounds like a siren, and the NoodleDog was barking and barking and barking at him, trying to get at Rob’s face to lick it. BARK BARK BARK!! OOOOOooooOOOOOOoooo BARK BARK BARK!! And Cooter joined in with his high-pitched barking, too, all “Yaaark! Rirk! Rih!!” Rumble was woken up by all this noisy fuss, and came down the hallway to investigate. He saw what amounted to a massacre in his mind.
Rumble: Those stupid dogs are KILLING THAT GUY!! My girl really likes that guy! This is NO GOOD AT ALL! I must put a stop to it immediately. Grrrr! Yeowlrrrrrr!! Get out you dogs!! Get out!! Reeeaarrow! SSSSSSSSS!!
And he came at the dogs hissing, growling and swiping. Funny, at first, only Rumble has a heart condition, and he didn’t think it was funny at all. He really believed Rob was in mortal peril and that the dogs had to be chased out of the room entirely. He swiped repeatedly at the NoodleDog, which was fine until the NoodleDog decided he’d make a stand because that game was just too much fun to give up. Also, the NoodleDog is in love with Rob and always wants to be near him, so he wasn’t about to let himself be chased out of the room. It was a tense situation for a while, and we had to shut the dogs out of the room and calm Rumble down. Poor guy. He was only doing his duty protecting the household.
It’s entertaining. Why in the world people wouldn’t want such endearing, charming creatures is beyond me. All of my animals were rescues, except Cooter (who is Rob’s dog). Rumble was found at a Humane Society shelter in Ottawa. Caspar was from the SPCA here in Calgary. Tobey was adopted from people who couldn’t keep him and were going to have to “get rid” of him because their unruly grandchild of a year (who was the size of a toddler, people – he was HUGE!) developed allergies to him. Smudge was found outside my condo just before a giant rainstorm as a kitten of about three months or so. The NoodleDog was being GIVEN AWAY by people who “couldn’t keep him”. So if you’re reading this and have nothing better to do this weekend, go and get a pet from a local shelter. Go!!
Also, today, we found out that Jetsgo has gone bankrupt. Rob and I had planned a vacation over Easter to travel to Montreal via Jetsgo, and now our plans need to be changed, rapidly. I have re-booked us, but in the process of doing so, I noted a bit of an issue. I booked on Air Canada, they had some nice low rates with their discount carrier, Tango. $124 direct to Montreal, $189 returning to Calgary through Toronto. Nearly the same as what we had paid on Jetsgo, so I figure it would be a good idea to book it. However, as I had just clicked CONFIRM ORDER, and sent it off, the Air Canada people conveniently returned a page to me stating “your rates for travel have changed.” About $300 MORE than the original price they had quoted. I thought, there must be some mistake, and retried the order. No dice. The rates had indeed gone up just that very minute. So I looked around the dates we had planned, and sure enough, ALL the rates were in the process of being drastically increased. Finally, I found travel times about a week out from our original plans and booked the trip at the original Air Canada rates.
I find it a little insulting that Air Canada is on the news, claiming to be trying to accommodate Jetsgo passengers and trying to be helpful to everyone, but are RAISING THEIR RATES!! They’re vultures. Really, profiting from this sort of problem for people is pretty low. I’m not saying lower your rates to what Jetsgo was offering, because well, duh, they couldn’t hack it at that small a profit margin. Fine. However, if you’ve already set rates out on your website, you can’t go about increasing them as people are in the process of booking flights. It’s just classless and an obvious cash-grab. So, Air Canada, I will never, ever fly on your airline again. If this weren’t a situation where we had already outlaid the money to Jetsgo (which we’re trying to recover), I would have no problem paying a little more to fly Westjet, an honourable airline. Air Canada = SLEAZY!!
Have a great weekend, everyone – go and find a pet to adopt!!
