Tales from the Rumpus Room

First snow flurries this morning. It was a cold and windy walk with Trygvi. He didn’t seem to mind, but it’s probably time to get the snazzy plaid dog coat out.

The couch remains as warm and cozy as ever.

We always had a terrible time getting Grendel to take pills, until we hit on the peanut butter-bologna roll-up: a dab of crunchy peanut butter on a strip of bologna, with the pill rolled up inside. Anything less and he’d daintily pick the pill out and eat the good bits. It even had to be crunchy peanut butter: smooth wasn’t adequately concealing.

When Trygvi needed a round of antibiotics for a skin infection (boxers: no fur on the underneath, and prone to allergies and the resulting infections), we quite naturally started out with the same system we’d used for so many years with Grendel. But it’s a lot of work, so one morning I tried just a dab of peanut butter. Right into the boxer! Trygvi: not so particular.

The other night I was feeding the dog bits of butternut squash. It’s good for them, and he loves it. So I figured that would be a good pill-enhancer. Yes, the first pill+squash blob combo went right in. He got ahold of the second wrong, though, and pulled the squash off of the pill, dropping the pill on the carpet. But before I could go for the pill and fetch the peanut butter, he leaned down and snorfled up the plain unadorned antibiotic.

Um, yeah. I guess we don’t have to worry about getting pills into him.

Then there’s the velocikittenraptors, who are HUGE. They’ve completely recovered from their recent surgery with no problems, and their spotty little tummies are once more covered with fur, if not the full fluffy glory yet. (Tummy spots of DOOM!)

I went to bed with my hair braided last night, and in the middle of the night they made off with the hair tie (under the guise of snuggling). But they very considerately left it in the water bowl so I’d see it in the morning,

Everything goes in the water bowl. The other day I found a nickel and a wine cork. I didn’t think they were old enough for drinking and gambling, but obviously I was wrong. I’m most curious how they managed to pick the nickel up, and how long it took to get it into the bowl.

Next project: continuing the boxer-kitten introduction. Don’t you think they’d look cute snuggled up with an up-side-down dog?