oh and on cat food, my sillyhead cats will not eat tuna, or stuff if I put tuna juice on it. they will eat almost any wet cat food.

Sylvester will also not eat any treat that I have tried thus far, but he also LOVES the hairball gel stuff. He begs for it each night even though I only give it to him like once a week. FREAK.

Oz, the giant scary cat keeps hissing at both Sylvester and me. He smells the dog, but has not seen it, so we are both SUSPECT!. Then he will forget and come begging for pets or curl up next to Sylvester for a nap. Then an hour later he'll be hissing again. Sylvester has actually seen the dog, but Oz has not, he RUNS under my bed anytime he hears her in the mudroom.

Poor Oz. My Oz would be similar.

How does mac like the dog, msbelle?

Yours is adjustable, Sue? (Also, you're in Canada, tight? Probably works differently there.) Mine is fixed rate, I have to refi to change my rate. Which I could look into, but might cost me more in the short term, and I'd like to keep my savings cushion for now. I still should check. I got what, 5&1/4?? Whatever, it was pretty much the lowest possible rate at the time.) My fluctuations come from the property tax. It's somewhat an estimate based on the state's assessment. So the first full year I underpaid (because it gets re-assessed on sale but the assessment isn't available when calculating for the mortgage, so it's the old assessment, I think?) last year, I overpaid because the 2 year assessment dropped the value, so this year, I got a check from last year and the mortgage drops $50 a month in April.

I don't think I just made any sense. But really, it works out.

Oh, the dogs in the Downton Abbey photos! That's marvelous.

If I were a stickler, I would go see if there were yellow Labs in England at that time...

The big new dog bed arrived: it's just a medium, but it's still plenty large enough for my 65-lb GSD. I put it in the bedroom, but maybe I should put it in the front bedroom, instead. Hmmm. Where would she be most likely to use it most often?

Sue, you have my sympathy on your mother. That's scary, but maybe her doctor will be able to help. Anxiety can be treated, even if the memory loss can't; however the anxiety aggravates the memory loss, so treating the one will likely help with the other.

I've learned that the pink can in the fancy feast multipacks is really unpopular around here. Chicken, I think.

Salmon! Krippers hates it too!

bon, pulled/ popped rib? One of my swimming pals, J, has to be careful because she tend to pop the bottom rib out of place.

I have no idea, but thanks for the suggestion -- off to Dr. Google!

ok, I think. He has gone out for a bit each day to play fetch. He does not like her jumping on him and of course she jumps on him more than she does with me. He is really used to my parents' little lap dog even though he thinks he wants a bigger dog. Now if the dog could come in and lay down beside him while he was playing games or watching tv, then he would LOVE it. The cats do not cuddle with him like they do me.

Sounds weird, but what does Syl think of vaseline? When Dev started turning her nose up at the hairball goo, I sorta kinda accidentally learned she liked vaseline. And Pumpkin tried to eat aquaphor.

Sylvester will eat as much vaseline as I can feed him (not that I do). Oz will take a dab only.

It was because of his jonesing for vaseline that the vet had me get the real hairball stuff since it has no chance of bad effects if he say, eats the whole tube.

What are people doing this weekend?

Ideally, doing taxes, cleaning the house, cleaning the car, and exercising. In probable reality, sitting on my heiny watching television.

msbelle, great news on the financial front, and the doggie is lovely!

Tom, I echo what the others have said. I fully support you in your decision to go to the class you're looking forward to so much, instead of visiting the father you have such a rough history with.

cats eating wet food

I started putting out the wet food at set times, and slowly putting out less dry food. They were both used to getting wet food already, but they both liked their regular dry food as the main course. Leo made the switch to mostly-wet-food easily, but Percy is still fussing and wanting his favorite dry food instead. Leo likes tuna more than is good for him, and he seems to be allergic to salmon. They both like chicken and turkey, and don't care much for beef. I don't want them to entirely stop eating dry food, though, because when I go away for a few days, I want to be able to leave out enough dry food that I don't fret about them starving. (I never fully trust catsitters to actually show up every day.)

Lee, I don't even know how to parse that.

I do! My head reflexively banged on my desk in sympathy when I read it.

Damn, I miss that cat. He filled so much space.

I'm so sorry, sara.

My mom is completely undone by falling last week.

I'm sorry, Sue. Something similar happened to my mom, too. It's really hard. Anxiety was a big part of it. She just became afraid of everything, for a while.

msbelle, if he can manage it, it's best to just turn away from the dog when she jumps, rather than shoving her down or giving her any kind of attention.