Beach dogs.

Awesomedog has a typical heeler-shriek bark. He is particularly shrill when he is excited and impatient.

We go to the off-leash dog beach a lot. We meet a lot of other cattledog owners there. Most people who own them are pretty enthusiastic about the breed, but it's always a bit difficult to chat with each other.

Bedmaking.

There are few things that can bring together a house full of animals like stripping the sheets off a bed and putting on clean ones.

The cats like to get buttoned inside the duvet cover and they all like to race around in circles on the empty bed, but the most exciting thing is crawling under the fitted sheet and getting made into the bed.

Some People are Afraid of Dogs.

It's true, and there are a lot of different reasons for it. Some people have an irrational phobia, they're afraid of dogs like tons of people are afraid of spiders. You know, you're way bigger than it, you're a safe distance from it, but it still gives you the creeps or maybe makes you want to flee screaming. Dogs make some people feel that way, and there's no good reason for it, but they don't want dogs touching them the same way you don't want a tarantula or an orb weaver touching you.

You can understand how this person feels by picturing the dog as a giant spider. This is one reason why it is polite to not let your dog approach strangers uninvited.

Some people have movement disorders like cerebral palsy and Huntington's disease. The way these people move often creeps dogs out, even really friendly dogs that never act aggressive. Many people with movement disorders are afraid of dogs because they have been by normally nice dogs.

Some dogs are fine with everybody, and some have been specifically and deliberately trained that people that move in unusual ways aren't scary, but most dogs don't have a whole lot of experience in this area and find it kind of horrifying. The problem is that scared dogs do scary things like bite, lunge, and bark. Sometimes you can tell that someone has a movement disorder because they are equipped with a cane, crutches, a walker, or a wheelchair. Sometimes you can't tell until they take a step and your dog suddenly freaks out because it's seeing this:

It's polite to keep your dog on a leash because just seeing an unleashed dog can ruin this person's whole day without you ever knowing it.

For someone with a movement disorder, a leash means the difference between a safe dog and a dangerous dog.

Likewise, plenty of people are afraid of dogs simply because they've been attacked before.

There's a good chance the dog that bit them was supposedly friendly, and that dog's owner probably said it had never done anything like that before.

People who are afraid of dogs are everywhere. We dog owners can avoid scaring them by keeping our dogs on leashes and not letting them get into anyone's personal space in public. It's a good idea, because people who are afraid of dogs might be landlords, politicians, city council members, and other people who can actively make life easier or more difficult for dog owners. Think of it like scooping poop: when a few people don't do it, it makes all of us look bad and it makes non-dog owners want to make rules and ordinances banning dogs from places. Likewise, seeing a dog owner break a leash law can make a person who is afraid of dogs feel that way. Let's stick together and make dog owners as a group look good by keeping all of them on leashes, even small, friendly, harmless, elderly, and young ones. I can promise that the people who are afraid of dogs don't visit off-leash areas.

Christmas Tree

I love Christmas trees, and so do the Hellions, but for different reasons. The tree is basically a cat playground, and since we acquired the Hellions four years ago we haven't put anything breakable on the Christmas Tree. We could probably take some extraordinary measures to keep them out of it, but they have so much fun I actually feel a bit guilty depriving them of their seasonal escapades.

I am hideously allergic to real trees (pine, fir, oak, any trees, all trees) and so we always get fake ones. I like to get free fake trees on Craigslist of Freecycle and then give them away after the holidays so I don't have to store them all year. This past December I decided to get a 3' tall tree, both to save space and to maybe discourage the Hellions from enjoying it quite so much. It's too short to climb, so they can't climb it, right?

While they can't technically climb it, they can wrestle it into submission, which they did at every opportunity. The poor tree never spent more than five minutes upright for the entirety of its career here. The Hellions still had fun, though.

The Cat Room.

The tiny dining room off our kitchen is the Cat Room. It didn't start out that this, and it's really all a matter of coincidence. We never intended to have a designated cat room, it just turned out that way.

We never really eat at the dining table, the room itself is super-tiny, and trying to fit more than a couple of people in there is a little silly. We do, however, feed the cats on the table, and although it is tiny, the dining room has two extremely sunny windows that are usually open. Evilcat's litterbox issues and pawprints on the table led to a few more additions.

The stools we keep under the table turned the tablecloth into a perfect place to hide. When the dogs decided to start raiding the litterbox, we put a tall babygate across the door and ended up with this:

It's a perfect dog-free cat habitat, complete with food, water, litterbox, places to hide, and sunbeams. Someday I'm going to add some shelves so they can climb/fall a bit. Yes, the dining room also has a doorway with a rounded top. It is way too cute. (When I'm outside I like to poke the cats through the window screen.)

A Very Scary Story

I teach a summer class about animals every year and bring a different pet every day. I also take them to visit other classrooms during the school year just because I know a lot of people in the education field. I tend to play up the amount of care and cleaning and time any given animal requires, because even simple pets take more commitment than a kid is really capable of. I'd rather scare them off pet ownership than doom some poor creature to a lifetime of neglect. Sometimes I run across a really smart kid who realizes that I have a ton of pets that all require a lot of care.

And then I get to horrify the kids.

I'm not sure exactly why the thought of never watching television is horrifying to children.