Air-Conditioning Blues

“Hey Spencer!” said Tasha.

“What?”replied Spencer, opening an eye from his sleeping position in the dog house.

“Look what they’ve done with the new air conditioning system. They raised it even higher off the ground. I bet you can’t jump on it anymore” teased Tasha. “Hah! no more standing and sleeping on the machine and getting all that hot air blown on you. You won’t be King of the Backyard anymore and now you have to look in the house windows the same as I do, by standing on your hind legs.” continued Tasha.

“Oh! I’ll jump on top of it, you just wait and see.” grumbled Spencer.

“Sure, you will, Yeah sure, Well, you are gonna have another birthday in September so you better do it before you become old and feeble,” giggled Tasha.

You’ve Got Mail!

from the voice of Sassy the cat

I’m a preferred customer at the local grocery store and I have never set a paw inside of one. Yet, they really must like me because they mailed me a sample of the latest Sheba premium cuts cat food. The sample can I got was Tuna Fillet & Egg. Doesn’t that sound so yummy? Some of the other flavors include Ocean Seafood Cocktail with Sauce, Tuna & Mussel, Chicken & Duck and lots of others. Oh! I could get so used to eating all eight flavors. Now, what can I do that would convince mom that I really need this brand of food?

Bill requiring Californians to spay or neuter pets gets clipped

from the voice of the author 

 A bill that would require Californians to spay or neuter their pets or face stiff fines was withdrawn due to lack of votes and opposition from pet lovers throughout the state.

Currently, there are some measures in place now to help reduce the number of animals killed each year. 
- voluntary spay/neuter for dogs
- reduced license fee for animals that have been spay/neutered
- animals are supposed to be neutered at the shelter before they are adopted
- leash laws are in place in all public areas to protect animals and people and to keep dogs from running off.

The proposed bill would have;
- made it mandatory to spay or neuter your pet
- you would have been given 30 days to prove this or pay a stiff fine of $500
- exceptions were carved out for licensed breeders, show animals, police dogs
- the bill would have interfered into Californians privacy by conducting how their pet lives.

Even with all the voluntary measures in place there are still problems that the animal shelters deal with daily;
- pets that are brought into the shelter are not fixed
- pets are not properly restrained and can become strays and end up in the shelters
- when animals are in the shelters they await two fates;
   - adoption or death
- running these shelters and killing animals is at a great public cost

Negative effects had the bill become a law could have been disastrous. Pet owners who oppose the practice could stop licensing and vaccinating their animals thus posing a more serious threat to all those come in contact with the animal. State assemblyman Lloyd Levine D-Van Nuys is the the creator of this bill and while his one size fits all bill has been withdrawn due to lack of votes it hasn’t clipped his enthusaisam for such a measure. Expect to see a neutered version of it back for vote again in the future.

This story can be found at the Daily Newspaper and the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, July 12, 2007.

Check back on this blog for updates on this controversial issue.

Excavate - Spencer’s favorite word

Excavate - make a hole; uncover by digging.

Sentence - Spring has arrived when Spencer starts to excavate the dirt and trees.

“Spencer, you’re making dirt fly all over the place. Please stop that digging?” pleaded Tasha.

“Be quiet, you’ll thank me later. I’m digging the hole so you can lay in it and get away from the heat.” Said

Spencer grouchily.

He didn’t like his work interrupted by useless chatter. He preferred to dig his holes without stopping until they were deep enough to lay in so he could get out of the heat. Today, he was digging the hole for Tasha to use. He wanted the dog house all to himself because she always brought the flies with her. He didn’t know what it was with her, but those flies clung to her and he didn’t want her in his dog house even though mom said they had to share it. He preferred to be away from the insects and other pesty things that bothered him. After all he figured I let her sit in front of the patio door so she can be close to the famly why shouldn’t that entitle him to be in the dog house by himself.
 

I hear dead people!

from the voice of Sassy the cat

My entire day was disrupted by noise and strangers coming and going.  They were working in my house and my garage and if they didn’t make the biggest racket I have ever heard, it was enough to wake the dead. To make the day even worse I didn’t get my beauty sleep. Everyday, I get to sleep all day on my bed in the garage until mom gets home late in the afternoon. Then she shows me the door and I have no choice but to go finish sleeping under the car. Sometimes, if I get really lucky and I stay very quiet I can sleep on one of the chairs under the table. However, with those rude people in my house, I couldn’t sleep anywhere.  Oh! I hate when I don’t get my beauty sleep, I become so crabby later in the day.

Now, I need to go find mom and take a cat nap in her lap.

I Kicked His Ass

from the voice of Sassy the cat

Just call me tough kitty.  That male cat won’t be messing with me again. If he thought he was going to get the better of me, he had another thing coming. His ass was mine as soon as he started down the walkway towards the front porch.  I let him get near to me and then I showed him whose boss. With a hiss and a whack of my claws I was meaner than a junk yard dog, I had him whining before I was finished. I wasn’t done, but he took off running down the sidewalk.

Let that be a lesson to all you sly cats out there who think you can cross my front yard and come after me. I am not interested in you at all.

Tasha turns 21 - in dog years

from the voice of Tasha 

Woo Hoo! it’s my third birthday today. I’m of legal age, definitely time for partying and drinking.

Oh! wait. I’m a dog. That rule doesn’t work for me. Never mind, I’ll go back to the doghouse now.

Well, happy partying if someone reading this is 21 today.

Drink responsibly.

Where’s the Beef?

From the voice of Spencer

Hey, mom! I’m craving one of those big ham bones that Tasha and I got last Thanksgiving.  I think mom put us on a diet, I mean what’s with this dry dog food crap she’s feeding us, it’s like eating cereal? Up until this week we used to eat cans of meat with gravy and  mixed with the dry food? For the last week all we’ve had is dry food mixed with water. We want the good stuff. Come on mom, we’re meat eaters not vegetarians. Give us the ham bones, chicken and turkey meat. We love when you clean out the big box in the kitchen where all the food is stored.

We want meat, we want meat. Is anyone listening to us?  

Road Trip - Sequoia

From the voice of Tasha

You wouldn’t belive what time we got fed one nightlast weekend. I was beginning to think that we were never going to be fed. It was close to midnight When Theresa came home from work and fed us.  Mom left for the weekend with the rest of the family. They went to the mountains in order to escape the heat and relax for two days, although, they left us here to suffer through the heat. I would have liked to have gone, but he told me that dogs aren’t allowed in the hotel. I wonder if Theresa wasn’t allowed in the hotel either and if that’s why she stayed home. I still thank that’s totally unfair that I’m allowed in the house on occassion and isn’t a hotel like a house. I mean how much trouble could I have created? I’m really a good dog and it’s fine if they want to leave Spencer here, he’s such a basket case and love’s his yard. I could use a vacation from him myself, he makes me nuts, always barking at noises and unimportant things. He takes his job as guard dog too seriously, he’s such a stuffy old fart.