Stevie and Madonna chillin'

Kind of a bummer it's hard to get good still shots. I know I've posted pictures of Stevie and Madonna together in the same space, but this is the first time I've seen them together in this chair. In the living room, rather than hiding in the basement from the dogs. Most of the picture I attempted to take were a bit blurry due to the fact that Stevie was busy grooming the heck out of Madonna's head.

Beware Renee under delusions of cleverness

Here's the scoop. I twisted my ankle--YES, again, a couple days ago. Walking down to the basement and missed the final step. Thought I was actually on the mend fairly quickly, but guess I overdid it with a few little errands over the past couple days. Son REALLY has zero tolerance for the dogs, and even though Perkins is being AWESOME with respect to showing restraint around the cats, it still seems to make sense to crate Perkins when I'm going go be away from the house and can't supervise (or witness the circumstances as they REALLY unfolded). So Perkins was in his crate at I went to church and ran the odd errand. 

A while back, my mom gifted me with a prong-type collar for Perkins. One does not need to exert a lot of force to make once's presence known. Winnie doesn't need a whole lot in terms of control, but she DOES get wicked jealous if Perkins goes out on leash an she doesn't. So, the clever bit was that, given the extra influence of the prong collar, and Winnie's advancing years, I probably COULD manage to take both dogs out for a brief "pee walk" at the same time. Worked just fine the first few times I tried it, and I was, I think, justifiably pleased with myself. 

Sadly, the prong collar came apart today and fell to the ground, Perkins escaped, and I had to go get him, with Winnie in tow.

He's home safely, but I don't feel so good. Going to rest for a bit. And, Perkins is probably not grounded FOREVER, given that he at least DID is on command once I finally had him more or less cornered in a yard.

I has a house

This is Winnie's crate. Well, was. She doesn't care to sleep in it any more. So recently, Madonna has claimed it. She finds it nice and cozy.

Spot the geriatric rat

Dango (his awesomeness) survived to about 2 years, 9 months. Once he was 2 and still going strong, I felt sorry for him--he seemed lonely and bored and had no one to groom him or curl up with. So we got Spot and Stripe. Actually, Daughter named them Elemenope (sp?) and Doctor Shemp. Once Dango shuffled off this mortal coil, and Daughter really had no interest in these two (who, in all fairness, I was the one who insisted that we get them, because I had such a soft spot in my heart for Dango. 

Anyway, there's no way on earth I was going to manage to remember those names and use them on a regular basis, so I renamed them Spot and Stripe, after the markings on their foreheads. Stripe, the one with whom I had a MODICUM of success in socializing, died a month ago. Spot is still with us.

As I noted on Facebook, back on July 6...

Spot the rat genuinely seems to be slowing down now. He's over 2 1/2 years old, so he's definitely led a long life for his species. I was starting to wonder if he'd made the rookie mistake of asking the gods for eternal life without clarifying that he wanted that to come with a side order of eternal youth and heath.

Spot today.

I keep trying to give him minimally invasive sponge-baths, what with his living in his own filth. In my mind, it seems the kind thing to do. Spot would seem to disagree.