It's Snow Time!

Winter has only just begun, yet we've had two snowstorms already. Like most dogs, my three love the snow. I don't know what it is about the cold flaky stuff that makes Lilah, Jasper and Tucker, well, flaky.

Dogs who normally can't stand getting wet (that's you, Jasper and Tucker) romp around in the snow like it's the Best Thing Ever. A Gift From the Sky. And you can Eat It, too! Just an inch of white on the ground and my dogs turn into goofy puppies.

And I love it. I turn in to a kid as well, watching my four-legged friends romp and jump and pounce and bound. Sometimes I just run around in the snow with them. And then we all come piling back in the warm house, happy and tired--and wet.

Eventually, it all melts. And we're back to plain hard frozen ground--or worse yet, nasty thick mud that sticks to dog paws like Velcro. Until the next snow storm blankets our yard and we get to go out and do it again.

The first storm of the season came in the fall--November 7. This year, The Weather Channel started naming winter storms, and this one was christened Athena.  I'm sure our Athena felt she finally got her due.

"Wait! What? A snowstorm named after me? Of course. As it should be."

Tucker, Lilah and Jasper run through the snow as the storm just gets started.

Too much snow on your back and you have to Floppity it off.

By nighttime, we had more than six inches. The heavy wet snow covered everything with a soft white blanket, including our patio.

And the snow kept falling...

The next morning, a walk through the woods revealed nature's beauty at every turn. The heavy snow bent branches and trees already stressed from Hurricane Sandy's wrath a little over a week before, creating a new landscape--and in some cases breaking limbs that couldn't bear the weight.

Morning sun shines through the trees after Snowstorm Athena.

The wind blew snow against one side of the trees, streaking them with white.

The jagged jumble of fallen limbs was softened by the covering of snow.

I wasn't the only one walking in the woods after the storm. A deer had come through earlier.

Heading back toward the gate and my home. Leaves were still on some of the trees.

The front yard offered up its own beauty.

And in the back yard, the dogs explored their territory..

The second storm, Snowstorm Freyr, came just a few days ago. It was colder, and the snow was dryer. Only three inches fell, but that was enough for doggy fun and games.

With snow still falling, the dogs are ready to romp.

Ooh! A sniff under the snow.  All Noses report to duty.

Once the dogs get started, they play in all combinations.

Three dogs chasing each other. (That's Jasper's head in the corner.)

Jasper and Lilah

Tucker and Lilah

Jasper and Tucker

Tucker and his Ball. Doesn't matter how frozen or snow covered it is, we eventually have to Play Ball.

There are a few quiet moments, usually with one dog sitting it out while two others run around. It's at those moments that I like to try and capture a few Snow Portraits.

Lilah, with a snowy snout. I love how the snow decorates her fur like fine sugar.

Jasper, always looking regal, even as his fur is coated with snow.

Tucker, showing off his Snow Beard, acquired from digging in drifts.

And every once in a while, I capture something that just makes me smile. In the picture below, it wasn't until after I enlarged it on my laptop that I saw Tucker reflected in Jasper's eye. Cool.

Through a dog's eye's: Tucker reflected in Jasper's eye.

All of our cats are indoor kitties, though it doesn't stop them from watching us and wishing they could join in the fun. Though I would hazard a guess that one step into cold wet snow would have them turning around in a whisker's instant and heading back into a warm dry house.

Calvin, Elsa Clair and a partly obscured Athena peer out the window at us.

Once we head inside, we all play the Treats for the Feets game, where each dog gets a treat for getting his or her feet wiped. This also involves toweling off and removing snow clumps from furry paws. Of course all this activity requires Supervision by at least one of the cats.
 

Tucker and Lilah waiting for their Feets to be dried. Elsa Clair Supervises.

What IS this stuff? Calvin ponders snow brought inside and shaken off the dogs' fur.

The Winter Games have just begun, and we're looking forward to the season.

Stormy Weather: Sandy Pays an Unwelcome Visit (Part I)

I think you would probably have to be living under a rock these days to not have heard about Hurricane Sandy or Superstorm Sandy or whatever you call the monster storm that hit the east coast of the U.S. in the last week of October. It was, the weather forecasters told us ahead of time, a recipe for disaster. Take one nasty hurricane, add a nor'easter, sprinkle in a cold front and stir with a backwards jet stream. Cook slowly with a full moon to create an ultra high tide. And hunker down.

(The last time we got hit by a hurricane was Irene in 2011; feel free to read my post on the battening and hunkering we had to do back then and the post about how we weathered the storm, which was only a little over a year ago.)

We knew it was going to be bad when Jim Cantore of The Weather Channel showed up in Battery Park in the lower tip of Manhattan. He only goes where they expect the worst weather to happen. Jim Cantore and Mike Seidel. Mike showed up on the Jersey coast. When you see them in your neighborhood, you know you're in for it.

So it wasn't too surprising that Sandy hit New York and New Jersey very hard.

During the storm, which began in earnest on Monday, October 29 and lasted through the next day, we spent most of the daytime in the basement. It was the first time the kittens were down there, so for them it was mostly fun and games and exploration.

How do kittens while away the time while in the basement? By playing Foosball. Of course.

The wind kicked up as the day went on, and by evening the wind really was howling. I would take the dogs outside to do their business and I kept looking up at the sky and wondering why jets were still flying--and so low that I could really heard their engines. And then it dawned on me. The sound wasn't from airplanes; it was the wind. That loud. Really.

The dogs weren't happy. It was loud and wet. And blowy. Not fun to play in. They kept looking at me as if to say, "Turn it off already!"

Jasper and Tucker: It's raining! We're getting wet! Let us in already!

Even when the rain let up a bit, Tucker and Jasper weren't that happy with the nasty winds.

 

A wet Lilah didn't mind wind or rain.

I always thought hurricanes meant lots of rain. But this was really a wind event. We would get bands of rain with serious downpours now and again, but it was the blowing, thrashing wind that showed Mother Nature's power to us.

Pine siskins attempted to shelter from the winds by clinging to the side of our large maple tree.

Strong winds shredded leaves from the trees and plastered them against the house. Jasper didn't care; he just wanted to get inside where it's warm and dry.

In the midst of it all, Athena slept right next to the windows as the wind rattles the panes. She barely twitched a whisker.

By nighttime, the winds were getting stronger. You could hear it even within the safety of our home.  The dogs and cats and kittens, for the most part, ignored the storm. You could tell Lilah wasn't very happy as she stuck a little closer to me when the winds were bad. And every once in a while, a gust came through that made everyone perk up their ears and brace for something. But nobody was panicking or hiding...except for maybe Dawn, but she Hides all the time; it's her hobby.

At 7:30, the power went out. I would say we are lucky enough to have a generator, but we have a generator because two years ago we were very unlucky; an ill-timed storm caused us to lose power, and our battery back-up sump pumps couldn't keep up with the rain. We lost a lot of what we had stored in our basement from the resulting flood. It took us months to pick up the pieces; the silver lining was we were able to put the insurance money toward finishing the basement, and most important, installing a generator that is hooked up to our natural gas line.

That last part is real important: the generator is hooked up to our natural gas line. Which means when the power goes out, the generator automatically starts up. And keeps going. We don't have to fill it with gas. All we have to is check the oil if it runs for more than five days. Which one always hopes never happens.

We invited our neighbor over to spend the evening with us, and we spent the evening with our generator providing light and warmth--and power to the pumps. At one point, a particularly vehement gust shook the house. We halted our conversation and looked at each other, wide-eyed. When we started breathing again--not realizing at first that we had been holding our breaths--I could feel the adrenaline pounding through me. We all did. It felt like we had been brushed by something unbelievably powerful.

Later that night, we put the cats and kittens in the basement, as it was one of the safest rooms in the house--and the one most likely to stay closed and untouched if a tree landed on our roof. And my husband and I slept (make that "attempted to sleep") in my son's vacant room, along with the dogs, figuring it was furthest from the giant tree in our backyard, and hopefully less likely to be damaged.

It was a Very Long Night.

In my next post, I'll write about the aftermath of Sandy.

Tear Down That Wall

Ever since we moved into our house seven years ago, I have wanted to renovate our kitchen. The walls, floor and countertops are so neutral that their very blandness offends. Dark-stained trim invades the room, outlining the ceiling, the soffit, the doors, and bisects the walls in the form of a chair rail. The overall affect is to look like a coloring book that has yet to be touched...just aching to be colored in, if only by a two-year old wielding a fat Crayola.

Room by room, we've painted and carpeted, refinished floors, and bought new furniture. And when we were finally ready to do the kitchen--and combine it with the other most-used room in the house, the family room--we had a huge flood in the basement, and all effort and resources went into fixing up that mess. We wound up creating a finished room down there, but were still left with the unused coloring book of a kitchen.

That was two years ago, and finally...finally, we're getting the kitchen and family room we've always wanted.  Of course, it's a lot of work, and even though we're not replacing cabinets or floors, there are still a lot of details and things to be done: removing our fireplace (the chimney flue is damaged and unusable and we didn't need it), replacing our family room window (for something more energy efficient), taking out part of the wall between the kitchen and family room to open up the space, replacing the counters, putting in a new sink and stovetop, and generally making the rooms more livable.

Now, with all that upheaval, and workmen coming and going, the big question needs to be asked: what do we do with the animals? This process will take weeks. And we have one scaredy cat (Dawn), one way-too-curious cat (Athena), a skittish dog (Lilah), a dog who is everybody's best friend (Jasper) and a dog who is very, very Helpful (Tucker.)

So, what to do?

Well, the answer is a bit complex, as would be expected.

During the noisy destruction phase, when folks were tearing down walls and breaking down the fireplace into itty bits, Dawn and Athena went to visit my good friends Patty and Dave. For Dawn, it was a trip to hell; she spent the entire time hiding under the couch. We actually had to go rescue her and bring her home because she didn't eat for almost 36 hours. Athena, on the other paw, with no smelly dogs to bother her, and Dawn essentially out of the way, thought Patty and Dave's place was a palace--her palace to be precise. She was treated like the queen she knows she is...and she stayed an extra day because she was so happy, and Patty and Dave just spoiled her rotten.

In past posts, I've written about how Lilah used to be terrified of all kinds of things, including tools and noises and new people bringing scary items into the house. She's much better now, but we figured she'd be better somewhere else during the really noisy bits. And Jasper (everybody's Friend) and Tucker (everybody's Helper) would probably get in the way as workmen were hacking things apart and carting them outside. So, the three pups got to spend a day at a home-based doggy day care run by The Pet Professor, Jamie Levin.

A friend hangs out with the gang as I drop them off at doggy day care.

Hours later, I'm there to pick up a tired (and happy) pack of pups.

As everyone came home, each of them discovered the changes in the house. Walls missing. Furniture in the wrong places. Hidey spots gone. And new smells everywhere. Lots to investigate and discuss.

Athena approves of the temporary set up in the dining room, which now contains most of the kitchen furniture. The Cat Shelf (that's what it is, right?) is just the right height to spy on a chipmunk hole. Very Convenient.

The work continues, and the cats spend the day in our bedroom. Dawn doesn't mind; she loves the Underbed Cave. Though it can still be noisy since the family room is directly beneath our bedroom. And Athena claims our bed as her throne...just the right size for a cat of her stature.

Dawn's lair.

The queen-sized bed in our bedroom is appropriately sized for Athena, the Queen.

When there aren't workmen going up and down the stairs to the basement, doing wiring and plumbing work, Dawn finds the basement another appropriate hidey spot. It's particulary attractive, since her kitty condo has been moved down there.

Dawn comes upstairs cautiously. There might still be Unapproved Visitors upstairs. And that would be A Very Bad Thing.

Tucker, for the most part, goes off to puppy camp at Camp Bow Wow; he needs to be occupied. And Jasper and Lilah stay home, find as quiet a corner as possible, and keep an eye on things. All the contractors and workmen who have been through our home have been awesome with the dogs, and we feel lucky and appreciative of the attentiveness. They've all learned to let Lilah Touch Things With Her Nose so she feels better about new items. And they all tolerate Jasper's exuberant welcome, though they are getting better at not petting him until he calms down and maintains four on the floor--feet that is.

Jasper and Lilah inspect Bill the contractor's tools.

Athena must inspect the tools as well.

Bill Farkas (Core Construction), our contractor, and Bonnie Johnson, (BBJ Remodelers) our builder, are so often visitors to our house, that the dogs treat them as family, greeting them with an exuberance that is second only to Grandma and Grandpa.

The dogs, particularly Jasper, just LOVE Bill. Jasper howls with delight when he sees Bill coming. In this photo, the dogs can see him coming up the walk toward the door. Bonnie gets the same treatment when she stops by.

Before the wall came down, we took the buffet away. That left Athena and Dawn confused because that's where they ate their kitteh noms. So they found the closest place to hang out.

Dawn, framed. And hoping for dinner, soon.

With some of the sheetrock removed, Dawn still finds the open frame a good option for resting and waiting for dinner to be served.

Athena has assumed the role of Inspector General. Every day she comes down from the throne room...er...bedroom and reviews the progress made while she was holding court. I think she is pleased, but it's hard to tell, as she's a Cat.

Athena, Inspector General and Queen.

 The dogs were a bit unsure at first, with all the furniture moved around. But Jasper found the couch. And as long as Mom was in the room, All Was Right. So it was okay to chill out and relax.

"It wasn't me, I swear. I did NOT tear down that wall. Though, come to think of it, it might have been fun."

Lilah, Tucker and Jasper find comfy spots to hang out in what's left of the family room.

We're only a little over two weeks into the project with many more days to go. It is a continuing adventure. Stay tuned for updates.

Imagine That: Dogs and Cats Texting

Those of us who share our lives with other species get to know them as individuals. We learn to intuit what they're thinking. They talk to us with their bodies, their eyes, their movements. And each cat, each dog, each bird or gerbil, has a different personality, a different way of looking at things, a different voice.

Athena, the schemer is obviously whispering some nefarious plan into Dawn's ear.

I "hear" Dr. Lilah patiently coaxing Athena into letting her clean her ears. I can tell what Dawn is saying as she tries to make me understand her plea, "You WILL feed the cat. You WILL feed the cat." I hear volumes in Jasper's sighs when he begrudgingly pours himself off the comfortable couch to greet someone at the door. And I get a peek into Tucker's mind when he's intensely focused on playing Ball. I can even hear the inflection and capitalization; it is most certainly not "ball," but "Ball."

What is Tucker saying?  "Please help. There's no dog food in the container."

I don't believe I'm alone in this. I think many of us speak for the animals who cannot. We hear their voices.

Jasper: "I don't really need to get off this comfortable couch, do I?"

Lilah: "What? You've never seen a dog floss her teeth with bunny whiskers?"

What if they could talk.

Really.

Okay, well, we all know that's impossible. But we're already imagining it.

Call me crazy. (Some do already.) But I've been thinking about this for awhile. This is why (and if you haven't called me crazy before, you will now), I created Twitter accounts for all my cats and dogs. And why each of them has a Facebook Page. (Go ahead, look up Athena Willett on Facebook, or LilahDogSpeaks on Twitter.) I was sure I could come up with a way to give them the voices I imagine.

And I've taken it one step fur-ther (intentional pun!). I'm happy to introduce you to my newest endeavor, a new website that imagines what would happen if Lilah, Jasper, Tucker, Athena and Dawn all had cell phones and could send text messages to me:

I call it (rather obviously) Dogs and Cats Texting.

It's been live for about two weeks. You can get there several ways:
http://www.dogsandcatstexting.com/
http://www.dogsandcatstexting.tumblr.com/
or simply Google "dogs and cats texting" and my site will come up.

Once I started writing, it was incredible how fast the ideas kept coming. I have about 50 already noted and in progress. Because of this, I am posting a new text every day. And I keep coming up with more ideas daily. It amuses me, and I hope it will amuse you.

Feel free to share the posts or the site with your animal-loving friends if you think they might enjoy it. Spread the fun.

Below is a sample of one of the posts. Each one is a text message between one of the dogs or cats and me...and each has an accompanying photo.

The sample is hard to read here, unfortunately, but you get the idea. To see all the texts--and photos--go to the Dogs and Cats Texting site.

Click on this picture and you'll see a larger version, which is easier to read.

I will be starting a separate email list, which I will send out once a week for Complete with Dogs fans to see the latest posts.  Just like I do for Complete with Dogs, I will be using a mail service that makes it easy for you to unsubscribe. (I do not want to spam anyone and I promise I will not be insulted if you opt out.) However, if you'd like an email every time I update, which will be every day, you can sign up on the site. One of my friends, when asking for this feature, compared my posts to seeing a daily comic strip. For the more technically inclined, there is also an RSS feed.

I would love to hear your comments and feedback on this. I think it's fun--and funny--but then I'm kind of partial. And I hear voices.