The pets all have pretty consistent personalities. Zeeke is the dominant, possessive male. Zoe is the submissive, over-reactive, anxious little girl. Merlin is a happy-go-lucky, playful, cuddly cat. But there are some situations where things are totally unexpected.

Take, for instance, the vacuum cleaner. Zeeke HATES the vacuum cleaner. In fact, he’s rather terrified of it. He totally freaks out every time it gets turned on (or at this point, when we even pull it out). If given half the chance he will bark insanely at it, then attack the hose… and he’s very very jumpy. He hates that thing and he thinks it’s going to come eat him in his sleep. I vacuumed the bedroom the other day while he was crated, and Zeeke was flinging himself at the crate sides, digging frantically at the crate floor, and trying desperately to rip into the thing.

We have a shop vac, by the way… that’s what we use. It’s noisy. So Zoe runs and hides right? WRONG! Zoe isn’t very affected by it, which is the weirdest damn thing. She freaks out at new boxes in the house, but she’s okay with a shop vac?? Well I mean she’s not “okay” with it - she doesn’t want it to get too close to her. Yet it doesn’t send her diving for cover, either. She just cautiously moves to the other side of the room. And the weirdest thing yet is that she gets totally ticked off with Zeeke when he flips out… SHE attacks HIM whenever he goes for the vacuum cleaner. Explain that one?! She’ll grab him by the cheek, growling. I don’t understand it one little bit, but she definitely does NOT like it when he flips out at it.

The cats don’t really seem bothered by the vacuum. They’ll jump out of the way, but that’s about it. They don’t flee the room either. Pretty easy-going cats.

::

Merlin’s oddness came out when he got sick. He’s Merlin, the easy-going, tote-me-around huggable dude. So I figured pilling him would be easy, right? HA. Apparently he HATES to be held down. He squirmed and scratched and drove me insane. This also translates to cutting his nails, I’ve discovered. He HATES having his paw held like that. He’s suspicious when you first touch his paw, he gives a little tug, and when he can’t get free he starts doing that cat-fish thing where they flop around in three directions at once. But with claws. Sharp claws, since I can’t seem to cut them. I finally got tired of the show and wrapped him in a towel like a burrito. He sure didn’t like that, but at least his claws got clipped.

And Jo, who was once my total punk, picking fights with cats and people and just being obstinate? Cutting his nails is no problem.

Well at least I’m learning.

Today Den stayed late at work and I decided to drive up to see him and bring him dinner. I also decided to bring a dog along with me.

I very briefly - VERY briefly - considered bringing Zeeke. And then I laughed at myself and locked him in his crate. Zeeke in a vehicle is bad enough as it is. Zeeke in a car, is worse. Zeeke in a new place when people are trying to work? That just doesn’t go together.

So I brought Zoe of course.

We get there and as soon as we get in the building I drop her leash, she knows where to go. So she slunk around the corner towards Den’s office. I am not really sure what she thinks may possibly happen to her in a deserted hallway, but obviously whatever it is really scares her.

I gave Den his dinner, popped open my laptop, and we sat there for about an hour and a half, working on “stuff” on our respective computers. Zoe layed on the floor and relaxed a little. (Just a little. But with her that is significant.) After a long period of silence I turned around. “This is what she does all day,” I said, gesturing to the dog laying on the floor directly behind the chair I was sitting in.

“Just like Zeeke does, right?” Den replied with a snort. We looked at each other, then laughed. Yeah. Yeah, that’s exactly what Zeeke does all day.

Zoe is so easy. Really, she is. I don’t think this baby that’s on the way will shake her up too much. She’s not going to be too thrilled about a new creature in the house that she cannot decipher - unless she places it in the same category as “cat,” in which case she’ll think it’s really awesome and can she play with it now? But most likely she’s going to skitter around and shoot me nervous “What the hell is that thing??” looks and take months to get used to the fact that it’s not leaving. But in terms of what she needs from me? Easy. She’ll happily lay at my feet when I’m nursing. She’ll follow me from room to room as I rock the baby to sleep. She’ll bark frantically at me if I am 2 seconds late serving her dinner, but I can deal with that.

Funny how she ended up being the lowest maintainance pet we have. Jo isn’t too bad either, he just wants food and some cuddles in the morning. The other two… well the other two are nuts. We won’t talk about them.

It is most definitely in shedding season here. It’s been a very strange year, weather-wise, and I guess it was all late getting started. But the warm weather is here, and Zoe’s coat is leaving in bucketfulls. I went outside with the undercoat rake again today and brushed the heck out of her. Our front lawn looks like a 50-cat-fight took place. Zoe is looking much slimmer than she did. I just hate seeing her look so scruffy with clumps of white undercoat sticking out all over, as if I haven’t brushed her in a year! She’s usually so sleek and shiny.

I also clipped her nails today. It’s one of those things I keep saying I need to do, but don’t do nearly often enough. It went fine. She would much rather have been running wildly around the yard, but she sat still okay for me. No whining or pulling away, just some argument when I wanted her to face my right and she wanted to look at something to my left and kept turning around. But honestly she’s very good. Oreo always obeyed fine when clipping her nails, but she always looked like I was torturing her and was surely going to use those clippers to remove her tail next. I don’t even know why she always behaved like that, as the only time I ever nicked a nail quick was when she was about 5 years old!

Having only previously ever clipped Oreo’s nails - all of which are black - I never really concerned myself with being able to see the quick. Black nails are pretty much proceed at your own risk - I’d err on the side of caution and trust that I would do just fine. And like I said, I only got the quick once. (And of course, it was right after I was explaining to Dad that cutting her nails was really easy and I’d never cut the quick. I think I scared him off from ever trying it himself.) But Zoe now, she has white and black nails. And you know, I prefer those white ones. Much less stressful, I must say.

Behavior-wise Zoe has been acting… well, not terrible. But not great either. I don’t know where my perfect little princess has gone, but I’m not so sure she’s coming back. Zoe is 2 now, and apparently somewhere along the way she picked up a little bit of confidence - which is a good thing! Unfortunately she also picked up some mommy doesn’t exist. She’s been frustrating lately. Outside on leash she behaves just horribly. It doesn’t seem to matter to her how many times she hits the end of the leash, she just keeps doing it! In fact I was injured last week by her and Zeeke (but mostly her). She clotheslined me with her leash across the back of the knees, while I was yelling at her to STOP! STOP! STOP!!!! I have two huge very PURPLE bruises now. So she and I are working on the commands such as STOP (which is supposed to mean STOP MOVING) and HEEL (which is supposed to mean STAY NEAR MOMMY). Right now I think she hears everything as “blah blah blah”.

She’s just very frustrating because she’s very hyper and yet very sensitive. She’s either over-stimulated and doesn’t listen to anything, or she shuts down completely and doesn’t listen to anything. You really have to be very firm, very calm, and very, very patient. I’m finding it difficult to find that balance.

But she is still the sweet, happy-go-lucky dog she’s ever been. In fact, she just brought me a very disfigured goose toy. I think she knew I was writing about her.

I need to take more photos soon, I’m afraid I’ve been direly slacking. We just haven’t been doing anything at all of interest around here.

Today we got home from a short evening out and I went in the bedroom to let the dogs out of their crates. I observed two distinctly different behaviors:

Zeeke didn’t even get to his feet until I’d opened his crate door. Then he stretched and yawned as he came out, headbutted me, and trotted out to the living room to find Denis. He than sat with his ears back and yawned again. He looked sleepy.

Zoe started moaning and barking as soon as I walked in the bedroom. I walked over to her crate and told her to be quiet before letting her out. She shot out of her crate like a bullet, sliding around the corner into the hallway, careening into Zeeke. She spent the next few minutes bouncing around the living room waiting impatiently for me to put her leash on and take her outside… or put some water in the bowl… or pay attention to her… or anything.

I turned to Den and asked him if he’s ever seen her sleepy or tired. We both thought for a minute and realized that no… we never have (at least not since we first got her as a puppy). Zoe is either asleep, or she’s bouncing around having a great time. There is no “in-between” for her. There’s no waking-up period. The first thing she does in the morning when she spies movement from one of us is to launch herself across the bed like a frog and land on hubby. (This can cause him some pain, depending on where exactly she lands! She knows better than to land on me.) It doesn’t matter if she just woke up. She immediately launches herself in great frenetic movement, bouncing and yipping and licking and happy happy to SEE you get up get up the day is here! If she pauses for a moment to, say, wait for me to drag my butt out of bed, she may stretch her legs.

I am just very very thankful that she has an excellent on/off switch, as I’ve mentioned before. Before bed she likes to wrestle with Merlin feriociously. I let her, even if it means they’re wrestling on top of me (that’s always fun) because it lets her get some energy out. She also has a fabulous ability to occupy herself by chewing on her toys and “beating them up” (which is a very amusing thing to watch, I must say). When I get in bed in the evening with my laptop, this is how she spends her time. And as soon as I turn off the laptop and lay down she jumps up on the bed, curls up, gives a sigh, and falls asleep. It really is that immediate, too. She might not fall asleep for a while, but she stops whatever she’s doing and closes her eyes at least.

I just found it odd, though, how she has two modes and bounces between them so easily. I’d love to be able to do that! Me, unfortunately… I’m a cranky beast when I wake up and take a long time to finally surface from that hazy fog of sleep.

I have never seen a cat without a temper. In my experience, even the loviest cat gets pissed off if you do certain things. For some cats it’s touch their tail, for others it’s picking them up. For some it’s looking at them. Whatever it is, almost all cats have times where they put their ears back and take a swipe at you… or maybe they just lay there pissed off, swishing their tail.

But Merlin doesn’t get mad. I have never seen him get angry in any way. He has many moods, including psycho-crazy-kitten - a mood which is coming out far more frequently now that spring is approaching… He gets spazzy and attacks random objects (like shoes). He’s also a cuddle-bug and will spend hours on your chest purring and nuzzling you. But he never gets mad. I’ve seen a couple times where Zeeke has him pinned down and is practically chewing on him, and Merlin’s just laying there like a dead fish. Granted that’s a very smart thing to do with Zeeke - if you don’t react to him he does tend to give up most of the time. But still, what cat just lays there getting chewed on?

There are times when Jo and Merlin are playing, and Jo gets too rough. I don’t know why he does it, but it’s like he gets ramped up into attack-mode and he just starts pulling fur out. Pulling him off doesn’t help, he goes right back at Merlin. And what does Merlin do? “Meeep!” and runs away. And soon as Jo stops (which usually takes a brief time-out), Merlin’s back to his old self again.

Zeeke just started chewing on him again. Merlin actually gave a half-assed swipe at him. (It was more of a “Gee, stooooop!” ) I got Zeeke to stop. And Merlin? Is still purring.

He’s a lot like Zoe, except for the freak-out thing. Zoe only gets mad at Zeeke infrequently, when he gets too rough. That’s the only time I’ve seen her put on her bitch-face. Otherwise she still only has two modes: happy happy lovey-whee! and omg-it’s-going-to-eat-me!! That’s it. It does make training her rather difficult, though. Half the time she’s so ramped up she’s bouncing around practically unable to sit still like a child overdosing on sugar - and therefore not all that receptive to direction. But if you correct her even slightly too “harsh” she shuts off completely. It’s very frustrating.

Some things that are perfectly acceptable and understandable from wee puppies are not nearly as acceptable and understandable when coming from an adult dog.

Like puddles on the floor. If it’s a little puppy you really do expect that sort of thing and you know it’s not the pup’s fault. You just try harder to be a better mom, take them out more often. When Zoe was a pup I never complained about having to take her outside all the time. When Oreo was a pup I got up middle of the night every night, sometimes twice a night, to take her out. I could barely see through my droopy sleepy eyes, but I did it without complaint.

However when it’s a 2 year old dog that leaves a puddle on the floor that’s a different thing altogether. I’m really not so amused anymore by Zoe waking me up at 5am to take her out - she’s 2 years old, she ought to be able to hold it for an entire night.

Right now both dogs are being whiny. We got a major snowfall last night which means people are shovelling, snowplows are going by. Zeeke is barking a lot, and then subsiding into whiny whimpers when he realizes no one is going to let him out there. Then Zoe joins in. It’s a cacophony of twitch-worthy high-pitched whines. They’re driving me nuts! I know that there are exciting things going on outside… but Zeeke needs to learn that not everything is worthy of a 3-siren alarm. The snowplow does not need to be heralded with an intruder alert every single time it goes by. (Light forbid he stop in front of his house to scrape his windsheild, like he did last night.)

Plus right now Denis is outside shovelling the driveway. Zeeke does not like that. He hates it anytime Den goes outside without him, but for some reason shovelling snow is the worst. Zeeke goes freaking nuts if he’s allowed to see him through the window. So this is why we’re all locked in the bedroom for a while. Hopefully the dogs will get used to the sounds outside and just give it up for a while.

I have been out of commission all this week due to surgery, so I’ve been spending an aweful lot of time in bed with my laptop, unable to do much else. The pets have been pretty good about it… the cats are still getting into everything (I think we’re going to have to purchase some cabinet locks) and Zeeke likes to bark just when I fall asleep, but all in all it’s going well.

The cutest thing is that I wake up and find all of Zoe’s toys piled on the bed. Yesterday there were 5 of them, including a kong, a rope, and a squeaky toy. They’re not for me, I don’t think - but she brings all her toys up to keep herself company while she’s keeping me company. She’s been very good at just occupying herself and napping until hubby gets home to take them outside and feed them.

I’ve just been careful to keep them all off my stomach, especially Merlin who has a habit of it. It’s been good, though - no accidental stepping on mommy’s incisions.

Well the change in daylight savings time seems to have solved Zoe’s waking up early. Maybe she was just trying to transition me?

I just had (minor) surgery, but it’s making it hard for me to deal with, well, anything. I have incisions on my stomach so it’s hard to get up, move around, and even hard to yell. Den has been home for most of the past two days to help me with the dogs. They’ve been pretty good, considering… Zeeke has been barky, which is annoying when I’m drifting in and out of sleep (the anesthesia really makes you drowsy for a day, then the pain meds do a number on you!). But other than that things are going pretty well.

Zoe has spent most of the two days on the bed beside me, whether napping or playing with Merlin or chewing on a toy. She’s good company, if a little pushy at times - whenever Den comes in to spend time with me she’s all over him with licks and wiggles and just won’t leave us alone! Den still needs to work on being more firm with her in not letting her get pushy. It’s funny because he definitely doesn’t let Zeeke get away with the same things, but when I tell him to push her away he gives me a sad look and says, “But she’s so small and cute!” Oy! He’s a softy sometimes.

The cats are doing really well still. Still into everything they can get into, of course. I set up Merlin’s water fountain again, and twice he’s already dis-assembled it. He’s not content just drinking the water from the fountain, he must find out where the water is coming from… which involves him popping off the top, sticking his paw into the bubbling part, and in the end pushing the fountain around the room so much it comes unplugged from the wall. :sigh: It’s cute that he loves it so much and all, but it’s annoying to have to put it all back together nearly every day!

Spring seems to be here - or at least a precursor to spring. The snow has almost all melted, finally… though what hasn’t melted is still in that dangerous icy mass stage. I think Zoe is excited to see grass again. When all there was on the ground was snow she’d spend half her time outside digging, I’m guessing to catch some scents from the ground itself. Now she wanders from grassy patch to grassy patch, sniffing before she squats to pee. It’s just really nice to not get numb fingers and toes when I take the dogs out. Hopefully we’ll get to spend a little more time out there letting them run around a bit on their long leads and burning off some of that energy.

We’ve been playing fetch with them indoors. Zeeke loves to chase, but he’s not so great at the bringing it back. He got as far as spitting the toy at Den’s feet - which, trust me, is better than he was doing. Den enjoys playing fetch with him, he just doesn’t like having to wrestle him for the toy every time. We do need a better space for it though… our hallway is narrow and not very long, plus it’s all hardwood and I worry about Zeeke’s hips (and my walls!). Too bad it’ll be a long while before we get the basement all done.

Hubby takes the dogs out every morning at 7am on those mornings when he’s working and I’m not, so I can stay in bed. (I return the favor in the evening.) So WHY does Zoe always wake me up at 6:30? Zeeke just lays down and waits. He knows when daddy’s coming. Zoe either still hasn’t figured it out, or is too impatient to care. She will whine and bark for half an hour. And yes, she always gets taken out before bed. She’s nearly 2 years old! She can’t possibly not be able to hold it.

Well anyways this morning she woke me up at 6. I got up to take her because there was no way I was going to listen to her for an hour - and since it’s rather unusual for her to wake me up that early I figured it was somewhat important. But when we got out there she didn’t even seem all that insistent in going. She did, finally, but she didn’t race off into the woods or anything - she actually was more interested in sniffing around. Gah. I swear.

Merlin has been a complete psycho of late. I don’t know if it’s his age, the weather, or a combo of the two - but he’s a little tazmanian devil. He runs around pushing things off tables, he tries to eat my food, he uses my carpet as a scratching post, he attacks any remotely string-like object (he attacks my pants as I’m pulling them on!). He’s still a major cuddler, he’s just… hyper. Sometimes I can’t wait for him to grow up!

Thank goodness he has both Jo and Zoe to vent his energy on…. between the two of them he does manage to get a complete work-out. The two cats run around during the day and night… up and down the hallway, up on tables, furniture, crashing into things as they roll around. Then with Zoe… it’s mainly on our bed that they have their wrestling matches.

Jo, by contrast, has mellowed out a lot. I think it’s in big part due to all the energy he expends playing with Merlin. He used to be pretty hyper himself, and now he’s almost always sleeping or just sitting around. He just acts much more mature than he did before. It’s kind of cool and sad at the same time. Jo is definitely still the pampered boy though. Hubby says he’s the cuter cat (I think Merlin is) and makes sure he gets his kitty treats and bonding time every morning. Yesterday Jo was in hubby’s office and wanted out, but Zeeke was running around… so hubby picked Jo up, cradled him protectively, and walked him to the kitchen. It was so sweet. (But of course, hubby doesn’t LIKE cats. Oh no. Not at all.)

Zeeke… is still frustrating. The last few weeks he has felt the need to bark from about noon until hubby comes home at 5. And it starts when I’m still in the bedroom with him. I don’t know if it’s boredom or frustration or maybe just a reaction to other dogs or kids he hears in the neighborhood… but it’s really freaking annoying. This is new behavior for him too, which is what makes me think it isn’t just normal boredom or frustration. He knows the routine, he’s generally okay with that.

We took down the babygate to the kitchen on monday. The dogs have been doing pretty well about it. Zeeke better than Zoe - Zeeke knows exactly where that line is and only creeps across if he knows no one is watching. Zoe on the other hand seems to be a bit of a valley girl… I swear sometimes she’s blond. Either she really is a ditz or she plays the innocent really really well. But while I’m sitting there she’ll kind of wander in only to come running back out when I tell her no. With her it all comes down to repetition. But it would be really really nice to not have that baby gate to step over every time.

I bought a couple of new toys for the dogs. One a nylabone. They are the ONLY chewie I will buy for the dogs (other than kongs, which neither of them care to chew on) because Zoe LOVES them and Zeeke ignores them. Anything that Zeeke likes? Gets destroyed in a day. So those nylabones actually stick around for weeks or months, occupying Zoe. I like that.

The other thing I bought her was a hand-puppet. She had a hand-puppet when she was a pup and it was her favorite toy! Plus she would actually play wrestle with “you” when you were using it (and it didn’t hurt when she got rough - well not usually, anyways).

Well unfortunately she is beating the crap out of that thing. Fluff everywhere (from it’s head). Stitches ripped, seams coming apart. I do not think Mr. Hand Puppet will be surviving much longer.

But in the meantime she is having a ball - wiggling around on the bed kicking it with her back legs, growling at it, throwing it around… you name it. She’s so entertaining.

:: ::

I am happy to report all animals are back to their normal (destructive) non-sick selves. Zeeke unfortunately got a touch of whatever Zoe had a couple days later and had a very large “accident” in the bathroom. (It was so BEYOND nasty.) But just the once. After that everyone seems to be chipper and healthy.

Merlin is still aiming to compete in the heavyweight category with the dogs. Jojo still weighs in at a nice 11.2lbs; Merlin clocks in at over 13lbs! The little porker. But he puts all his skills and strength to good use when he “pins” Zoe down and viciously bites her. Of course they both know that she could throw him off whenever she wanted to, but they kind of take turns playinig the helpless victim.

Zeeke however has never really caught on to the whole “moderation” thing and just plays too rough for the cats’ preferences - even ass-whooping Merlin - as my previous post indicated. The cats are unamused. And I’m afraid Zeeke will just never learn to be gentle with the kitties. He’s never mean to them or I wouldn’t let him around them… he’s just too rough. He tries playing with them the same way he plays with Zoe. I guess she’s tougher than I thought. Merlin still refuses to run from Zeeke, but he does give the most evil looks. Zeeke ignores those just as quickly as he ignores the squeaks and smacks.

I could wish for total household harmony. But I guess the best I’m going to get is the three of them peacefully coexisting.