Just a Little Kiss

This is Your Puppy.

This is Your Puppy on Drugs.

Zeb was up almost all night last night. He was driving me crazy! Run, run. Woof, woof. I got up this morning feeling like I hadn't slept at all. One of the twins was waiting for me when I got up. "Mom, Zeb got into something. It looks like chocolate." I felt sick. The chocolate! My friend had dropped some by the office yesterday, you know, after Valentine's Day sales, and I had left it in my work bag, on the floor. I felt so bad, but the deed was done. Almost the entire twelve onces, gone. And one very, very hyper puppy. He was bouncing off the walls, literally. We found a great website right away that helped us ascertain Zeb had not ingested a lethal dose, thank goodness it was milk chocolate, but still, it's pretty unnerving seeing you puppy acting like he's on speed. We gave the little buddy a charcoal slurry, and within a half an hour he was SOUND asleep. He woke up his old self and he's been behaving normally ever since. But it was scary! I might ban chocolate in the house for good. Unless it's in Mackinaw Island Fudge Ice Cream. That couldn't be bad for a puppy, could it? At least it would always be secure in the freezer. Seriously, be careful and keep that chocolate away from your puppy. We are very fortunate Zeb is doing fine.

Answer to the Cat and Dog Problem

All Hail the Superior Wisdom of Grandma Kitty

We have four cats. Zeb gets along great with all of them. I wish I could say I had something to do with that, but I can't. It was Grandma Kitty who taught Zeb "cat". Grandma Kitty, aka Fia, is our oldest surviving pet. At 15 she's pretty much seen it all, including our first dog, Willie, the Border Collie who wanted to EAT cat. Somehow Willie learned to leave the cats alone, although it took a few months. Maybe it was Fia who taught him "cat". I don't know for sure, but she's been a stabilizing influence on the farm population since she was a kitten. Now, you may ask yourself, what is "cat"? It is the language of our feline companions. Just like your puppy had to learn "dog" with it's mother and litter mates and "people", in our case English, when they moved in with you, they need to understand "cat". Fia is a master at interspecies communication. When the puppy comes running, she just sits there. When the puppy play bows, she turns her butt to him and ignores him. When he gets a little too wild, she gives him a cold stare. Very little running or hissing, rarely the swatting of the paw. Because Fia has learned dogs like that! And she's not going to do what they like. In short, Fia is very boring, and so Zeb leaves her alone. The other cats picked up on this, so now they are all boring. Cats are boring. Ho-hum. So Zeb leaves them all alone. Superior wisdom, indeed.