Yes, Mojo has not been blogging much lately, mostly 'cuz she's busy doing More Important Things, but also because she's had some of the air let out of her tires (or wind out of her sails, or whatever other form of windiness you might ascribe to her) with the recent demise of Ratty Cat, our big ol' stray Coon cat bruiser. Which actually happened some time ago, but we know how long it takes for things to sink in to Mojo's big ol' fat head sometimes.

Despite his formidable size, Ratty was one of the kindest and gentlest cats I've ever known, who never once laid a claw on me, nor my Favorite Husband, nor small children, nor the dog, even when the hyper beast maybe deserved it. In fact Ratty loved dogs, inexplicably so, as evidenced by the pictures below of him meeting Rosie for the first time.

Ratty came to us as a full-grown adult and we have no idea where he came from or how old he was. Searching the blog for pictures I found more than forty entries referring to him, usually complaining about how yowly he was. So it just sorta figures that THAT is what we are currently missing most around the house. The silence is deafening.

So how's this for timing? Just last week I blogged about getting the snowblower ready for winter, got it all primed and ready for the season, and wouldn't you know it? A little storm we were told all week would be rain turned out to be snow. Not SUBSTANTIAL snow, but maybe two or three inches. Enough to purty up the place.

Does the superiority of all things feline go without saying? Still I should say it. Publicly. And try to ignore the razor-sharp claws at my neck as I type.

How appropriate, to go from the horrific Love Is.... cartoon yesterday to today's horrorfest. Yay!

Usually we have Ratty to thank for bringing wild animals into the house, although usually with Ratty they are not dead but very much alive. Dead I can handle, Alive, and shrieking and dashing around the house with the cat and dog both in incompetent pursuit is another story.

But nowadays Rosie--sweet, wouldn't-harm-a-fly Rosie, is to blame for the carnage. We've noticed for the past week or so she's been disappearing, enough to notice. Not for DAYS or even HOURS, but just long enough to arouse suspicion. We realize the dog's not around, one of us says, "Hey, where's Rosie?" and if she doesn't appear eventually one of us goes to the door and calls for her. And sometimes, when she comes--and thus far she always comes--there is a significant delay from our call to her reappearance. Meaning, while still within earshot, she's quite aways away from the house.

Thus far when she's not right around we just tell her she's a good dog for coming when she's called (dog training tip #1: you must ALWAYS praise the dog when they come when they're called; otherwise if you call them and punish them they eventually won't come! Duh!) but then gently remind her she needs to STAY HOME. She then looks guilty and indeed that seems to be the end of it....until the next time we discover her further away from home than we like.

She's not a wanderer, but quite the sissy homebody, and she has no interest whatsoever in visiting other dogs or checking out the neighbors, so it's not that. And she hasn't done it all the time....just enough to arouse Mojo's highly-tuned suspicions.  MORE Mojo! »

Tomorrow we get Princess Wigglebutt, aka "Katie", the Weasel's dog. They are going on a trip out west and we get to dogsit. I think it will be good for Rosie to have some competition. It will also be good for her to socialize with an older dog who will put her in her place if she gets too obnoxious.

Katie is a very nice, very well behaved Lab mix. If you annoy her too much she has a very theatrical but totally harmless lightning-fast snarl-and-snap which I think Rosie needs to experience.

Both dogs are "only" dogs who live with cats. So it will be interesting to see how they get along with another dog...  MORE Mojo! »