Our Furry Friends

It's time to introduce you to the rest of our family.  Ari & Slim keep us laughing.  Slim is especially good at keeping our feet warm since he sleeps at the foot of our bed.  Ari is the world's sweetest dog & has us very well-trained.  Slim knows that if Ari is sleeping soundly on one of the dog beds in the office, all he has to do is lay down next to her & she will get up & move to the other dog bed.  Without exception.  Every time.  So this is a very unusual situation--

When Ari wags her tail, she actually wags her entire body.  She really wags if we say the magic words "Ohhhh, you're such a pretty girl" or equally magical "What a gooood dog you are."  Jim is definitely alpha for Ari.  I'm the one who talks to her, fills the water dish & sometimes feeds her...the hired hand.  My cool factor is amped up a bit when I put nutritional yeast flakes on her dog food.  Jim is one who gives her bones, takes her for walks & chose her out of the sweet little puppy pile when she was just a wee one!  Somehow she still remembers that.

Slim came back to our door one dark March night 9 years ago.  He's still a champion mouser & needy boy.  He jumps up on my desk in the morning & I give him his facial.  He loves it when I give him full-on ear skritches like the ones I gave Ari.  Yeah, the kind where you massage ears front & back!  Both pets L-O-V-E this--Ari makes swooning noises & Slim twists & turns his entire body.  After the ear skritches, I scratch Slim's chin & then put my hands on both sides of his face & pet his face.  I think his head & face must be major pleasure zones for Slim--probably for most cats.  Fur flies everywhere & then I put him down.  If I don't he tries to play with my fingers while I'm typing.  Uh, yeah.  My fingers are moving at lightning speed so it's hard for him to catch them...right...

There are often times when it's a challenge for us to be smarter than the pets.  Here's an example.  Slim adores sleeping on the furniture.  I try to discourage that--he leaves lots of fur everywhere!  He really loves my chair next to the fireplace--comfy, soft & near a heat source.  It's a 10 out of 10 for a lazy cat nap.  I thought if I placed the back cushion upright on the bottom cushion it would be difficult for him to sleep there.  Well, here's how that worked out--

Cat "1", Dawn "0".  Again...

We love the beach at Moclips on the Washington coast.  You can walk for miles on the sandy beach & only occasionally have to watch out for cars.  Yeah, Washington allows cars to drive on most of the beaches!  Seems crazy to this Oregonian--they do NOT allow cars on beaches there except maybe at Seaside but it's a honky tonk town (with apologies if you're from Seaside).  Anyway, Ari runs flat out for hours on the beach.  She's a very strong girl & has lots of endurance.  She loves all the smells & only rarely does she try to eat something long-ago-dead.  Ari is what as known as a versatile hunting dog (she's a pointer, flusher AND retriever) and Jim was beyond happy when he & Ari came home after her first visit with our vet.  Jim said that the vet had proclaimed Ari's breed (Wirehaired Pointing Griffon) as the "Cadillac of Hunting Dogs"!  You can imagine our pride.  Ari somehow knows this about herself.  Check out her noble stance.

Bill, our neighbor to the south is putting in a trail around his property & he took Jim & Ari on a tour.  Jim told me later that Ari had the best time ever walking on his trail.  Lots of new smells, new vistas, and new territory.  Jim told Bill not to be surprised if Ari came over for a walk.  Having a new place for a walk-about will also give Ari new trees to sit under.  She is fascinated with birds in trees--makes sense.  She's hard-wired to do this.  Ari will sit under a tree for 15 minutes or more looking way up in the tree for birds. When she's inside, Ari often "watches the Outdoor Channel," sitting with her head on the window sill observing the squirrels & birds at the feeder in the backyard.  She becomes highly offended when squirrels look as if they're going to head for the house.  She insists on going out & chasing them away.  This is a part of Ari's job description--#1: save your people from interlopers.  Ari is looking forward to living in the new trailer.  She's got a spot all picked out on the sofa.

May you & your furry friends have a fun day today.  Happy trails from the folks & animules at the end of the road.