4 bodies fourteen legs

Life with Lester

2011-08-20T10:16:00.000-07:00

I've had him maybe 15 years at this point, since he was a mere pup. Amazing how mellow he was for about the first week or two- then WHAM-O! A 20-lb bundle of destructive canine energy, and heading all directions at once.

Over the years he's mellowed back out, gone full circle as it were. Getting him fixed awhile back there helped- at that time my neighbors had a poodle who used to drive him crazy at certain times. It was the scent of course, but I still contend that it was the way she shook that little thing of hers that also got my Lester all aquiver.

And age took care of the rest. He no longer goes crazy barking every time someone is on the front porch- or for that matter, any dog even across the street. If anything, he's a bit too mellow these days, getting that phlegmatic temperament like Jed Clampett's dog Duke.

With the mellowness though, seems to come cantankerous old fart'ness, an ornery stubbornness about such vital matters as his cuisine(must have gravy or the birds get it)and the basic pecking order in my animal kingdom. He was, after all, the first one here.

I got Lester around Christmastime of 1996. He got a feline housemate that following Spring, a kitten roughly his age whom I named Maxine. They were together for 12 years, until her death in 2009. From there I got two female kittens- Cindy and Jill-who've been with us ever since. So Lester has grown up in a household populated by felines.

Of late, he and I have been having our difficulties. Part of it has to do with his more frequent incontinence, some of which is age and some is anger towards me on occasion. Many mornings experiencing an unwelcome squishiness on certain areas of the carpet. He is also wont to walking in the kitchen while the cats are eating and just pushing them out of the way then proceeding to eat their food(yes yes I've tried elevating their food dish but one of them in particular gets up there, scoops the cat food into her paw and drops it back onto the floor, whereupon she leaps down and eats it from the floor. Oy...). Every time I catch him at this I push him out of the way and then he has to listen to me as I lecture him--well, he has to listen to that tone of voice I'm sure he hates. So I've been the Bad Guy, the ogre where he's concerned.

And so sometime Tuesday evening, I'd let him out into the backyard, and the side gate on my fence was slightly open as it turned out, enabling him to slip out the back, Jack. He'd made a new plan, Stan. No need to be coy, Roy- he'd set himself free!

The back gate has been left open(I'm thinking by some neighbor kids, who've since been talked to about it)and he's gotten loose before, but he usually wanders around the front of the house and one of my neighbors spots him. But this time he took off for points unknown: around the front of the house and this time veering off across the street and into the next block. Someone there said they saw him, and that he was real interested in what the cats over there were doing- which is understandable since he's grown up with felines pretty much his whole life. I guess that's sorta like a guy with lots of girl friends, or a girl whose friends are all guys. A dog whose friends(or at least cohabitors)are all cats.

Anyway, he got loose and I couldn't find him. Searched the block on foot, and then got in my vehicle and combed the neighborhood. As it turned out, the Pound got him. Had to go down to their facility in the middle of a workday, and took a bit of a lecture myself on his grooming. I took it, paid the fee, but still maintained that Lester is not a neglected animal: he gets 3 squares a day, all the attention in the world(you can always give your pets more though..), and has 2 cats to play with all day. That seemed to soften things a bit. I was just glad to see that he was there, and okay. Not thrilled to be there by any means, but alive and well.

He was delighted to be home, and gave me a doggie-hug(wrapped himself around one leg). And I was delighted to have him home(incontinence and other canine histrionics notwithstanding), so he was made over even more than usual. Actually as far as grooming, I've done that to some extent every time he comes back into the house wearing part of the yard. Lotsa cockleburrs.

Lester is now 'bagged and tagged', meaning he has tags around his neck and the microchip in his rear end(the doggie GPS). I'm just glad he's okay. Lester could have a lot more good years in him yet, but at 15 he is getting older. When his time comes, I'd just as soon it be here- with his feline and human buddies at his side.

Happy Anniversary Jill and Cindy

2011-07-21T18:21:00.001-07:00

July 13, 2009, is the day these two felines came into my life. Picked 'em up out in Pleasant Plains IL, maybe 20 miles west of home. They were about six weeks old, giving them a late May birthday. Had 'em inside a computer paper box, from which they escaped for pretty much the whole car ride home.

Something of an adjustment for all involved bringing them home, but it's worked out beautifully. All involved is just me and my dog, who'd had a feline housemate for the last 12 years. Lester, my dog, was definitely down-in-the-dumps when Maxine died, back on the 1st of July 2009. Well, he and I both were, but I think it hit him even harder than it did me. So he was overjoyed seeing them for the first time.

Unfortunately, they didn't take to him quite as quickly as he to them. One of them even hissed at him that first day. He was crestfallen, and I intervened, "Lester, just hang in there buddy". Well of course it's the tone of voice that he picked up, but it seemed to help. The next day, coming home from work, I found them all sitting together, as if they'd had a meeting.

So here we are two years later. Got two adult cats, both of whom have been fixed of course. I let 'em keep their claws, though. This has not been a problem, so I'll leave it alone. They wake me up on occasion wanting to be fed, but are otherwise great company- both for me and my dog. Here's to many more years together.

Portal to the New World

2010-11-26T17:30:00.000-08:00

Things have been pretty much business-as-usual with my quadrapeds, over these past couple months. Nothing of any consequence to report. I do have a fairly recent development though, which might prove entertaining.

In my music/computer room upstairs in the house(where I do all this kinda blogging stuff among other things)I've got this funky old window unit air-conditioner. It was given to me years ago by the mother of a girl I was seeing, in exchange for me attending one of her pool parties and sitting around playing my guitar. I felt kinda cheezy in this sorta nebulous role as 'Julie's musician friend who just happened to stop by with his guitar', but what the hell- I got an air-conditioner out of the deal.

And it works just fine, more or less, except that there's a little extra "ventilation" in there, which I patch with a towel or two. Had it nice and snug, until the cats discovered the space. So now it's one towel with a space for them to get their heads through there to see.

They're just fascinated with what they see and hear and feel, and spend many rapt moments with their heads poked through to the 'other world'. As far as that goes, I've tried letting them out back, which they were equally fascinated with but scared of at the same time. Good. As far as worlds go, I'd just as soon keep them in this one.

A Blog for the Dog

2010-09-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

Poor Lester. I'm afraid he's being left out in the cold as far as these blogs. I have had to devote some time to his sisters, getting them all fixed and so forth. Hormones were getting out of hand with Cindy, and would've with her sib soon enough.

So this guy here. He doesn't like to be photographed, so I have to sneak up on him to do it. Getting more settled, and just a little disoriented, in his advancing age. Doesn't bark like a wildman at the door anymore(he useta go nuts when the postman would be on the porch, "violating" our house by putting stuff in the mailbox), and sometimes gets a bit confused.

But he's still hanging in there. (His ears must be burning, as he just made an appearance here in the room). And he gets along famously with the felines. They invade each other's space much more than was the case with the cats' predecessor Maxine. A different dynamic, as it were. Not getting any younger,but still hanging in.

Cindy and Jill- back Inaction

2010-09-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

This is about a month late, but better late than never. Gotta work on this problem of - how you say- dilatoriness. I'm gonna go for the ten-dollar word here, since I can always change it if it's wrong. Tardiness, lateness. Get more on shhedule, as the Brits might say.

Anyway, after a turbulent July here in the Roundly household, things have settled down with my two felines. They're both fixed, and all the feline histrionics(hissing, bullying, general shitheadedness)have gone completely. It was worse with Cindy coming home to a wacko Jill after being done than Jill coming home to Cindy. Jill is inherently nuttier anyway. So they're back to being my dynamic duo, aka the Investigation Team as they plow the dining room table for anything they can knock to the floor and bat around from there.

Actually it was probably more than a month before things were completely back. There was an iciness with the girls that went on a week or two after both were de-ovaried. But thank goodness everything's back on the track. Animals hate change, and like their routines. And so does their adopted human.

Cindy in Heat

2010-07-04T18:25:00.001-07:00

Cindy is the smaller of my two cats(though strangely enough a little heavier), with finer, more delicate features- and thus, if my two felines were human, the more likely to get pregnant first. It almost comes as no surprise that she's been the first one to go into heat.

According to one of the Vets at the place I take my pets, cats will go into heat every three weeks or so for their whole lives. No menopause in there- which would actually be a relief. So I've now had two cats fixed once they started having trouble.

This was a big misconception of mine(no pun intended), that you had to wait until the animal has had a 'heat' episode to have them fixed. Cindy has had this problem for a not-so-good couple of months, and I've been waiting for her sister to follow suit so I could just have them both done at once. But Cindy had a particularly grueling siege just this last week and I just couldn't bear to see her in any more discomfort. So I just had her done.

Shoulda had them both done at once. The re-entry into the household was difficult, with her sister hissing at her and generally being a little shithead(after the surgery, she had the post-surgical smell of alcohol on her, which is anathema to cats ). Sis has since recognized her scent and gives her a conciliatory lick when near. They're not back to being buddies yet but their co-existence is much more amicable on this Sunday evening than it was Friday night. It's gotten a little better very slowly since then.

A rough go for Cindy, being boxed up in the carrier, hauled off and then cut open, then returned to a partly hostile home environment. But she is fixed now, and free from the monthly itch. I'm sure she'll thank me later. But not just now.

Cindy and Jill

2010-07-04T18:25:00.000-07:00

Even though I give my pets human names and refer to my two female felines as 'the girls', I try not to anthropomorphize them in our relationship. They're still two cats and a dog, who have fur coats and don't shit in the toilet. Still, if Cindy and Jill were human girls, I can pretty much imagine how it'd go down.

They'd both be cute, and both would have guys lined up to talk to them. Cindy would have the edge there, though, with her finer features. More guys would want to get next to her, and Jill would get pissed off from all of them wanting to talk to her about Cindy. I can just see it. She'd probably be the first of the two to get pregnant- Cindy the cat was the first to go into heat.

And Cindy and Jill the two cats do share some other 'human' traits already. There's a bit of jealousy as far as my attention, so this is something I have to watch with them. So far so good with me and them.

It's been almost a year and we' re still hanging tough. A bit of discord between the two just this weekend, but it seems to be smoothing out. Cindy just got fixed, just this past Thursday, and in getting her home, her new 'scent' didn't hit home with her sister. Lots of hissing and some territorial bullying(the only time I intervened), all of which has disappeared in two days' time. They're not back to being buddies, but it's at least a peaceful co-existence once again.

I've been told by a reliable source that it's a good idea to get Jill fixed as soon as possible, so this is around the corner. Once again, one cat missing for the day, to return to what I hope is this time a more hospitable reception from the other cat. But I understand why it needs to be done. Has to do with their hoarmones and such. So more possible domestic quadraped upheaval.

It'll be nice to get everyone back to normal. That's the nice thing about having pets is that when everything's cool, you get a nice routine going between you and them. A groove. But, one more bump in the road first. One more cat to fix. And then hopefully the pavement will be smooth again. At least for awhile.

Awwwww

2010-03-07T15:17:00.000-08:00

In a 4-bodied, fourteen-legged household such as this one, everybody spends time with everybody. Each cat has her time with me as does the dog, and there is of course plenty of cat/cat time as well as of the cat/dog variety-and, I'm happy to say from each cat(at very first, one of them would hiss at him).

But of the various pet/human combinations in here, one I see a fair amount of is these two: Cindy, the little yellow cat; and Lester, the bigger black dog.

In every group, certain alliances just form on their own, certain mutual affinities. This seems to be one of them.

Cool.

I Think My Cats are Demented

2010-02-25T21:08:00.000-08:00

Well if not demented, at least they have some serious pretzel logic going on.

Case in point: I have a food dish, a little two-compartment affair they eat out of every day. Right on the floor in the kitchen, along with a water bowl. My dog, Lester, has his meals out on the back porch. When they're all three chowing down, with the dog out back and the cats in the kitchen, everything is cool. Peace on Earth and enough rice for all the people.

The problem here happens when Lester is in the house and the cats are eating. They invariably leave food in their dish which Lester just comes in and eats. He used to jump when I'd catch him eating Maxine's food, but with these two he seems to have no compunction. Maybe his reasoning is from Peanuts's Snoopy: "anything on the floor is legally mine".

So I've tried putting the cat food dish up on a table in the kitchen. The cats are up on it anyway much of the time they're in there, so I figured they'd see the dish with food in it and that would be that.

Maybe normal cats, but not my two. Jill, seeing the dry cat food in her dish, reached in with her paw, scooped the food out of the dish and onto the floor! And from there, jumped off the table and proceeded to eat the food off the floor.

She's figuring that food belongs on the floor, whether in her dish or not. So she's just putting it back in its rightful place. Apparently this makes perfect sense to my cats. And this is why I'm convinced I have insane animals.

Or maybe they are the sane ones.

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PS I see this site now has a follower. Thanks, dude! Glad you enjoy the posts. I'll try to get off my ass and do more.

Meet Jill- she lives in the wastebasket!

2009-10-23T19:49:00.000-07:00

Well, cats just kinda follow their own weird- particularly this one. She's been the one I've had to bail out twice in the 12 weeks I've had her: once being stuck to a glue-board(okay, that was partly my fault, not having thrown it out)and once being "stuck" under the front porch. Not really stuck, but just freaked out and thus rendered inert.

Plus, they like small, enclosed spaces. About a fourth of the time, they're both in there, but it's usually Jill. This shot was taken in a rare moment of non-repose in that usually she's pretty firmly entrenched in the wastebasket, all settled in. Making herself at home.

So this is a little bit like the Beverly Hillbillies converting their pool table to a dining room table, in the "fancy eatin' room". It's no longer a wastebasket(or at least couldn't be with any conscience)but rather Jill's Domain. Cat's basically pick their owners and kinda take it from there as far as their Order of Things. Hopefully she'll let me keep my bed.

Meet the Girls

2009-09-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

Cindy(l)and Jill(r)are the two newest inhabitants of the house. They've been here since the evening of July 13, 2009. And they're relatively new inhabitants of the Earth, being now maybe 3 and a half months or so old. Still babes in arms.

This picture was taken right after I got them. They've grown appreciably since then, as you'd imagine, by about a quarter of what they were. Still little, but growing almost before my eyes. They eat like there's no tomorrow, just like young life forms should.

Just like little kids, they provide free entertainment. It's a floor show that goes on much of the day, and night. And just like a parent, you sit and watch the "young'uns", being entertained but all the while making sure nothing gets broken.(Only my patience so far!) And as with kids, you're not unaccustomed to hearing a distant crash and then the sound of scampering feet.

And too, as the first commentator to this new blog said, with kittens as with kids, you have to "batten" the house down. Getting home from work I used to just toss my car and house keys and badge from work on the dining room table, knowing that they'd be sitting right there the next time I needed any or all of them. Now I have to put all those items in a jar on the table and make sure the lid is on there to ensure their presence next time I need them. Otherwise they're kinda wherever...

Their personalities are developing along with their bodies, and they have very distinct ones. Personalities, that is. Cindy, the short-haired cat on the left(and in the Welcome blog below)has the more placid nature. She's calmer, and is more the follower in this dynamic duo. Robin to Jill's Batman. Ethel to her Lucy.

Jill, the longer-haired feline on the right(and the close-up shot in the Welcome blog below), is the more aggresive personality. She's the incendiary. The instigator. The shit-stirrer of the two, and usually finds herself at the heart of the matter. Fecal matter that is. Two examples in the short time I've had these two:

Right before getting the kitties and just prior to Maxine's demise, I had a rat problem. Very brief, Lester(my dog if you haven't read any further in here)ended up getting him, but anyway I had an assortment of glue-boards and traps in the kitchen and dining room. The day before I got my kittens I threw away all the rodent-catching paraphernalia which could prove harmful to kittens- especially the traps of course. I thought I'd gotten them all.

Wrong. There was a glue board I'd had under a lawn mower in the kitchen- the one trap I missed-and the cats had dug it out from underneath. Jill was completely stuck, mired, impaled on it. This was a horrific sight to behold, like something from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, seeing her stuck in that goo like some bizarre mutation that's going to emerge as an automaton from outer space(and then try to convert her sister: "sleep, Cindy- sleeeep. It's goooood.."). I somehow got her extricated from all this mess and then off to the Animal Hospital, where they got off maybe 95% of it.

At this point you can't tell anything like that had ever happened, but she was quite a sight for awhile there. Jill Emergency #2 happened a couple weeks ago, when a friend from work and her daughter came over to see the kittens. After they left, we all three noticed Jill missing. Cindy was running around the house and Lester had me let him out back to search for her. I finally found her under the front porch and was able to get her out. This after an hour of looking, including under that porch.

So that told me maybe this will be a pattern. Just today they were in the bathroom and I heard a PLOOSH! sound and then saw two kittens scurrying from the scene with one of them shaking off the water that'd gotten on her. Gee, which one do you think that was?

It's definitely been an adjustment. As I said, I have to "batten" down the house and close the door when I eat and sleep(and bathe, lest I get another PLOOSH! experience), and in the midst of their play I've been bitten and scratched more times than I want to recall- many band-aids for awhile. But the good outweighs the bad by a long shot. Mainly, we all like each other. Just tonight I was laying on the couch after dinner watching a movie(Secret Life of Bees- pretty good flick)and had both Jill and Cindy lying on me purring away, and I was enjoying both the show and the loving animal companionship and thought to myself, "Huh, my life doesn't really suck that bad".

Maxine(1997-2009)

2009-09-13T20:24:00.000-07:00

Maxine is also a charter quadraped in the Roundly household, having shown up on the scene in the summer of '97, courtesy of the same girl who got me Lester. The girl and I went our ways shortly thereafter, so it would seem that Lester marked the beginning of our relationship and Maxine the end.

Ahh, shit happens! But Maxine, like Lester, stayed the course and was with me until her death just this summer. She had kidney and lung problems, both of which seemed to come about all of a sudden. May and June were pretty much a blur of rounds of medications and trips to the Animal Hospital and Animal Emergency Center. Things got a little bit better and then a lot worse, until I had to make the difficult decision to have her euthenized. July 1st is a day I won't forget.

It's something you just have to go through at one point or another with your pets, the fact that they don't live as long as you do. That you have to say goodbye to them. Maxine was a member of the family, having had her for 12 years, so her loss was not taken lightly. I bawled like a baby that evening, and felt the sting of her loss for- well, I still feel the sting of her loss, as it were. Just like losing a person, you don't stop missing them but rather simply get used to it.

But except for a funky May and June of this year, we had 12 good years. I had her de-clawed and fixed during her first year, and the very occasional Vet visit thereafter, but basically no real problems. Between her and me and the dog, we formed a nice intact little unit over the years, pretty much had our routines down. Maxine was there curled up next to me every night when I went to bed and then every morning when I woke up, a purring little bundle of fur to bring me into and out of sleep. My two quadrapeds definitely had their own space(s) within the house. She had her chair in the house and Lester had his, and ne' er the twains met as far as that went. But I'd catch them sitting together on more than a few occasions. They were better friends than they'd let on to be.

She did have some personality characteristics that were all her own. There was a certain coquettish way she'd throw herself on the floor when she wanted to be petted, as if to say, "C'mon, do me baby!" I suppose, all told, she was just your basic cat: feed me, pet me(when I want it), leave me alone. But she was my cat-or, okay, I was her human. I did have a cat before getting Lester and Maxine, but she ran off after about a week, so I can't really count her. Maxine, like Lester, had a bond with me.

I now have two kittens here in the house. They've been here a little over two months at this point and we're all doing just fine. Lester was overjoyed when I brought them home, which made me realize how much he'd been hurting without his feline buddy. It'll take awhile for him to have the kind of rapport he had with Maxine, but they're getting there.

And their rapport with me is something that's growing as well. It won't be exactly like it was with Maxine, them having their own personalities as well(plus there being two of them and all the sibling rivalry that brings forth), but still we have a nice relationship. You don't replace one relationship with another, but you do have to move on in life.

We still miss you, Maxine. Me and Lester both.

No. 1 Dog

2009-09-09T21:09:00.000-07:00

Lester is the charter member of my quadraped family, having been here pretty much from the beginning. Well, the beginning of this particular chapter of my life.

The day I closed on my house- March 1st, 1996- sorta begins this chapter of things. For the two years preceding that date, I lived in an apartment complex in which pets were strictly prohibited(even to visit, if you can believe that!), so this marked a new phase of life, one in which I was once again allowed to have four-legged creatures in my life and my home.

So Lester showed up at the beginning of '97, a present from a girl I was seeing at the time. He was so named, by her, because we got him from the east side of town, which is predominantly black(though strangely enough from a white family). Well actually we both agreed on Lester, but it was her idea to give him a "black" name, and she ran through a few before we finally found one we both liked. I did, however, in this same spirit, give him his middle name of Vernell.

And Lester Vernell Schuette-Roundly has been with me now for 12 years. Through thick and thin, I might add. He was not easy to raise as a puppy, puppies being quite destructive with pretty much whatever crosses their path, so I had to leave him outside all day while I was at work- and then often in a doggie-crate when I was home(and there was the time Lester actually shit the crate, but that's another story..). He'd bark quite a bit, much to the chagrin of a neighbor who was home all day and thus got an earful. This neighbor was a bit hard to deal with for awhile in there, but did try to work with me and with Lester as far as alleviating the problem- even going so far as bringing female dogs into my yard to mate with Lester! "I can't figure out why he's so hyper, Rog", my neighbor told me, confused. "He got him some pussy twice!".

So we survived both his puppyhood and our neighbor. The neighbor ended up moving and the destructive puppy stuff(and thus the need to keep him outside)just kinda waned to nothing with the advent of adulthood. Well, getting him fixed may have had something to do with it as well, but basically coming of age, he just settled the hell down. He's a Lab/Spaniel mix, which gives him some natural exciteability he'll never outgrow, but still much more manageable in his maturity.

Not too long after getting Lester, I added a cat to the household, in maybe July of that year. Her name was Maxine. She was maybe six to eight weeks old. Like Lester, she was a keeper, and stayed with me- and Lester of course- until her death in July of this year. Actually she and Lester spent a lot more time together than either pet and I just by sharing the four walls of the house all day. He was sad and worried the whole time she was sick- basically May and June-and particularly down after she was gone.

I didn't let too much time go by as far as that goes. Maxine was euthenized on July 1st, and I brought home Cindy and Jill on July 13th. Lester was overjoyed to have the new life in the house, and wanted to play with them right off the bat but of course they weren't having it. So he was bummed for a brief while, disillusioned as it were, but these dog/cat interactions sometimes take time. I came home from work the next day and things were fine. They'd apparently had a meeting and ironed it all out.

Lester is No 1 Dog for a variety of reasons, but mainly because he's the only dog I've ever had. Mom was a cat person, so that's what we grew up with. Generation upon generations of cats. So Lester is my maiden voyage into the world of canines. And dogs are great. Much more high-maintenance, especially at first, but they do have their wonderful qualities.

His exciteability, as I've said, does flare up from time to time, even though it's much more managed. If there's a dog walking down the street past the house, or if the mailman is on the porch(or for that matter most anybody else with certain exceptions), he's on it like mud on a turtle.

Or if anything gets inside the house. About a week before Maxine's demise, I had a rat problem. Saw him in the kitchen, actually just the tail, scurrying along the wall. Lester later saw him in the dining room and took off after him, on two different occasions that day. A tense two days followed, with traps and glue-boards set at various points, just waiting. Wednesday morning, Lester wanted back into the house from having his breakfast as he does every morning, only this time he had something in his mouth. At first I thought it was a plastic glove but it was our rodent buddy. Deader'n a doornail. Lester marched right into the house with it hanging from either side of his mouth. I think he wanted to show Maxine.

Naturally I praised him to the skies: "Lester, you da man!!" all the while getting Senor Ratone wrapped in paper towels and into the garbage. And out of the house. He was so proud of himself. And I just hope I conveyed how proud I was of him.

No. 1 dog..

Welcome

2009-09-09T20:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome to 4 bodies fourteen legs. One dog, two cats and one human. I am the one human in all this, and having the advantage of opposeable thumbs, I'm handling at least most of the typing. At least for now.

Starting this site was a bit like going to the harbor with a pocketful of cash, renting(or perhaps even buying)a boat, and then heading out in it to destinations unknown. I have no idea where- if anywhere- I'm going with it, just that I wanted to have a blog which somehow involved the critters here in the house. But with this blog, we have pulled up the anchor and are heading out of the harbor and into uncharted waters.

So here goes with a blogsite about me and the three other creatures who share my home with me(aww how nice of them to do so!), and our various misadventures. For Lester, Cindy and Jill, hope you enjoy the site.

For that matter, hope I do too..