My Bit of Earth

Moe Speaks: I'm Abandoned

Mom started a new job this week, and now she's only home at night. When she was going to school she came home in the afternoons to cuddle, but now she can't.

She says as soon as my head is for sure better I'll get to go to doggy daycare a few days a week so I won't be so bored.

Right now though, I feel kind of abandoned.

Moe Speaks: Feeling A Wee Bit Woozy

I could have slept in forever this morning, all cuddled up with Mom, but she said we had to get up so she could take me to the vet.

"Well," I thought, "I s'pose a little easy cheez is worth getting up for."

But there was no easy cheez this time! Instead they gave me a shot that made me really sleepy. When I woke up my head hurt a little bit, and I was kind of dizzy. Dad came to pick me up later in the afternoon. He says after they did the biopsy on my funny head spot they had to give me "stitches". So that's why they had to knock me out....

And Mom is gone again. Apparently something to do with my new cousin Zoe. Hope I get to meet her soon.

Blooming and Bloomed

We were just walking out the door Monday night to head to Topeka for the bar exam Tuesday morning, when I noticed that my little Tete-a-Tete daffodils were just beginning to bloom. I took it as a good sign.

When I got home today, they were in nice full bloom.

It's funny, we haven't really had enough winter for me to have Spring Fever yet. And we're planning on trying to move this summer, so there's no outside garden for me to plan and anticipate planting.

But the daffodils have reminded me that while I've been holed up with my books, the year has been trudging on--it's almost Spring!

Moe Speaks: Cutting the Apron Strings

I spent the last two nights without Mom. When she said she was going to take her big test in Topeka, I didn't think she'd be gone for two whole days!

I was just a little distraught. But Uncle Cole came and stayed with me and Porter, so that was lots of fun. And Mom bought me a great toy before she left--it's like my JW cuz squeaky's that are my favorite, but it's shaped like a dinosaur. I carried it around with me the whole time she was gone.

Mom was back just in time to take me to my school tonight. We worked on down-stays and "wait". Once my teacher helped Mom teach me how to do a down, I could do down-stays like a champ. I had a little more trouble with "wait". Mom says we'll work on that s'more this weekend at Manga and Panga's house.

That's right, we're going to Pittsburg this weekend! We haven't been there since Christmas because Mom's been studying really hard for her big test, and I'm so excited to get to play with Panga (he let's me play rough) and run in the big yard.

Mom says there's only one little thing I have to do first. I have to go to the vet tommorow so they can look at my head spot again. Hope it goes ok--I'll write more tommorow and let you all know.

Moe Speaks: Fatty McFatty

We have a guest at our house this week. Nice Redhead that Dad is friends with at school brought him over last night, and we're baby sitting him.

I'm not one-hundred percent sure exactly what he is. He looks and smells a little bit like my rat, Poppy, but there's something different about him. Dad forgot to ask Nice Redhead what his name is, so Mom said we'll call him Fatty McFatty.

He is certainly fat. And I don't know if it's quite polite for me to be saying such things about a guest, but he'd make such a nice little furry throwing ball...or a squeaky toy...or a snack. I just can't help it--centuries of terrier instinct are telling me he needs a shake between my teeth.

No worries though, Fatty is safely out of my reach.

Food Blogging--Ghetto S'mores

Pretty good for February, but they're missing something. Maybe I need the wood smoke blowing in my face.

Moe Speaks: Too Smart

I've figured it out!

If I sit just right on a surface with just a little bit of an angle to it, like the couch...

...and if I tilt my back paw at just the right angle...

...and if I twist my head around like an owl...

...I can just barely scratch the top of my head, despite this wretched collar!

Mom says I'm going to drive her to drink someday.

Moe Speaks: Countertops

Today I learned something very valuable, although it's probably not something Mom would have me learn--the stuff on top of the kitchen counter is very good.

It all started when my favorite Uncle (well, my only Uncle, actually) called Mom to tell her he was sick. Since Grandma lives a few hours away, Mom took some medicine and soup and stuff to his dorm room. Among other things, she took him a small ration of spiced tea.

Spiced tea is a powdery drink mix that my Manga (Dad's Mom) makes. Mom and Dad really love it. Mom says it's the only thing for clearing up her head when it's stuffy, and Dad says he loves it more than any other hot drink.

Well, Mom put some of the spiced tea in a baggie for Uncle Cole, and put us in the kitchen while she took it to him. But she forgot to put the container of spiced tea away. I thought that it might be my only chance to sample this magical drink, so I jumped up and pulled the container off of the counter.

I just got a little taste--Manga's pretty smart about the ways of young puppies, I think she may have put it into a dog proof container on purpose--but it was sweet and cinnamony. I didn't have hot water to mix it into, like Mom and Dad do, but it was still ever so tasty.

When Mom got home and found the container with my teeth marks in it, she wasn't very happy. She told me that Dad was going to be even more mad when he gets home, but it was SO worth it.

Tee-hee, then Mom was in the living room studying and I managed to get my treat pouch off the counter. It was a shower of jerky and liver goodness.

Too bad Mom came in and tossed me out of the kitchen before I could eat too much.

I wish I could teach Porter to jump up on the counter too. I can jump pretty high, but she's a lot taller than me. I know she could reach more. She's such a goody-two-shoes though, I'm not sure if I could talk her into it.

Food Blogging--Fromage Savoureux*

I've stumbled into some new blogs in the past few weeks. One such blogger, that I've become fond of, shamelessly mixes "food blogging" in with talk about politics, animals, and a little bit of everything else.

It's been inspiring.

Because I think food can be really pretty. Like this cheese.

Last night it was cold and snowy, and I was sipping on some left over Valentine's Day wine as I studied ("a spoonful of sugar" as Mary Poppins would say). Then I thought, "This would be even better if I had some cheese to nibble." So I bundled up and went to the Merc to get some.

The cheese on the left is called "Mimolette" and I picked it out because of it's beautiful color. Mimolette, according to The Teddington Cheese, comes from northern France and is made from cows milk. It tasted something like Parmesan cheese, but a little less salty and not quite so hard.

The cheese on the right is herbed Brie, which also originated in northern France. About five years ago, I spent a month studying in England and noticed that the Brie there had a different (and much better) flavor. I later found out that in the United States the milk that Brie is made from legally must be pasteurized, but the rest of the world makes it from unpasteurized milk--this accounts for the better flavor elsewhere. To that I say, "Vers le bas avec la pasteurisation!"**

But really, even the pasteurized stuff is pretty tasty. With a loaf of crusty bread...a glass of red wine...are you ready to go get some cheese yet?

*Fromage Savoureux=Tasty Cheese
**Vers le bas avec la pasteurisation!=Down with pasteurization!

(Do I really speak that much French? Of course not, knuckle head! But I completely dig the AltaVista Babel Fish translator.)

Variegation

I pulled the tulips out of the fridge about two weeks ago. I had checked about a week before that and saw that they had a few inches of roots, but they didn't have any sign of sprouts. The bulb book said they were supposed to be just barely sprouting before pulling them out, but I decided they had been cold for long enough and went ahead and brought them into the kitchen.

The first week they didn't do much, and I thought I had done something wrong. This week they've really sprung up though. I picked these out because of the pretty variegated leaves, so I was excited yesterday when I noticed that the leaves were beginning to show some color.

Moe Speaks: School, Week 2

I was very happy to be able to go to school last night. Dad decided to come with us too, which was kinda fun.

My friend the Rottweiler didn't like my e-collar. Mom said it must of scared him a little bit because he barked at me instead of being friendly like last week. Everyone else was really nice about it, though.

We worked on sit-stays for awhile and then we started doing this new thing called "leave-it". At first I thought it was a mean game. Mom had a piece of pepperoni in her hand and she wouldn't let me have it. Why tease me like that?

But then I started to understand. Mom would let me see the pepperoni and then say "leave it". When I moved away from the pepperoni I got a liver treat instead. Once I figured out what was up though, I started ignoring the pepperoni altogether. Mom kept trying to get me to try to take it, but I wouldn't. I'm not stupid, I knew she wasn't really going to let me have it.

But then she surprised me and did let me have it, and my-0h-my was it good!

Romance is...

...when your husband knows you love Dahlias, but realizes that, under the circumstances, a bottle of good red wine is best of all.

Moe Speaks: My new enemy and more about my mystery illness--not- necessarily in that order

The spots on my head are starting to look better. Some of the icky scabbiness is coming off and it doesn't hurt so bad when Mom cleans it. Unfortunately, last night when Mom was wiping away my eye boogers--yes, she feels the need to do that every few days--she noticed that I have a new spot just under my eye. 

I heard her call the vet this morning to see if they've been able to identify the cause of my spots yet, and whether she should use the wipey things under my eye or not. From hearing just Mom's end of the conversation, it seems that they weren't sure, but were going to get back to her soon.

I wish they knew what was wrong with me for sure. Mom says I can't go to the dog park or to school until we make sure it's not contagious, and I really like both of those places. It's no fun to be cooped up.

And Porter broke part of my collar the other day, so now I look even funnier than before.

But enough about that....there is a new enemy in my house and it's name is White-Round-Thing. What's worse, it's been there for a long time and I've never noticed it before. Most of the time it just hangs on the wall. But this weekend it attacked us twice. A very vicious sort of attack too--it makes a high pitched, loud scream that hurts my ears.

I think it must not like it when Dad cooks dinner. Both times before it went off Dad was cooking and the house was getting full of that hazey stuff. Then White-Round-Thing started screaming, and Mom ran to where it hangs to make it be quiet. 

Grr...I wish she'd let me take care of it next time. I would make sure White-Round-Thing never screams again!

Moe Speaks: Stubborn

Last night I made Mom really happy. I was doing sit-stays for a whole minute, and even letting her take a few steps away every so often.

But this morning I decided I was tired of sit-staying. Why do we always have to do what she wants, anyway? Sometimes I just want to jump up and grab my toy or a treat out of her hand without all this rigamarole beforehand. Why does she always get to be the boss?

I think I made her frustrated, and I know I hurt her hand a little when I was trying to grab my toy. But today, I just don't care.

She's making me wear this stupid collar that makes it so I can't itch my head. She and Dad are scrubbing my head twice a day, which hurts! And when she's not messing with my head or trying to make me sit-stay, all she's doing is studying.

I know she's got a big, important test coming up, but have you ever sat and watched someone study all day? It's the most boring thing in the whole wide world. I was supposed to get to go to doggy daycare while she was studying this week, but now I can't because of my stupid head.

I'm cranky, I'm bored, and my head itches--I think that gives me the right to be stubborn.

A Smattering of Snow

We woke up to just a little bit of snow this morning. There might be a half an inch on the ground, but tiny flakes are still falling. Very cozy.

Crocus Died This Week

She had only been with us for about a month, but it's funny how fast you get attached. We were cleaning their cage the other night and she bit Sweet Husband two or three times--neither of them had ever done that before. Then we started looking really closely and noticed she was moving funny and making a little coughing noise. I was planning to get up and call the vet first thing in the morning, but by then she was already gone.

And now poor sweet Poppy is living all alone. We might get her a new friend after the bar, but I want to wait until I have time to watch and make sure they don't fight.

Grrr....

Maybe it was something we did...maybe she was already sick when we brought her home....I hope it wasn't something we did. I think that's my least favorite thing about small pets--by the time you realize they're sick it's really just about too late, and then you never really know....

And I know lots of people would say, "It's just a mouse," but I really think that when you adopt an animal you have a responsibility to take care of it. Even if it is small--maybe especially if it's small. I can't help but think we failed somehow.

Moe Speaks: "Left Ear"

The night before last, I got that darned collar off in the middle of the night and completely scratched open my head. When Mom and Dad woke up in the morning, it looked really nasty and Mom said she was out of ideas and we were going to the vet.

I have to preface this all by saying, I have the coolest vets ever. They take amazing care of me, feed me lots of easy cheez, and call me a good boy--even when I do my "terrier-fy-ing" bark that hurts everyone's ears. So, I wasn't really too upset about going to visit them.

As soon as Dr. E saw my head she said she knew there was something more than an aggravated scratch going on. She cleaned me all out and shaved my head a little bit so she could see better--hence my new nickname "Left Ear". 

It turns out there were lots of little bumps on my head that Mom and Dad couldn't see or feel under my fur. Dr. E said I have a skin infection, and she needed to do some tests to find out exactly what kind. So she pressed these funny clear, skinny things against my ouch and scrapped at it a little bit. It didn't necessarily feel very good, but I got lots of easy cheez while she was doing it, so I stayed still and was really brave.

I was even braver than Mom was! Mom gets really queasy around blood and needles and hospitals and stuff. She was feeding me at first, but after a few minutes of the doctor scrubbing and shaving and checking out my head, Mom got a little dizzy and had to sit down. I think she felt bad, but afterwards I let her know that it was ok--not everyone can be as brave as a Welshie!


But anyway, the vet's office is suposed to call in a few days and tell us exactly what's up. In the meantime, Dad's got to wash me off with these nice little spongey things twice a day, and put a cream on my head to make it numb so I won't want to itch so much. Dad says the cream is good stuff--he got some on his finger on accident last night and he said it was numb for a whole hour!

And I still have to wear the horrible e-collar, but Mom and Dad got me one that's a little smaller--since I killed the other one--so I'm not running into stuff quite as much.

Overall I'm still pretty laid-up, but I can tell Mom's relieved to know exactly what's going on.

Moe Speaks: School, Again

Tonight was my first official night of school--well, my first night of my new school, that is.

It was really lots of fun. We started out by playing a game called "Meet in the Middle". I think I might have come on a little too strong for the first dog I was paired up with, but then the teacher paired me up with a Rottweiler and we were just right.

Then we worked on a thing called "sit-stay". I liked that part because I got a ton of treats. I was doing pretty well--and paying very good attention to Mom--but then I got kind of full. We had a late dinner tonight, so Mom says next week we'll have to make sure and eat earlier.

Our homework is to keep working on the sit-stay and to go to one new place. I'm kind of excited about that last part, new places are usually great fun.

If Anyone Was Wondering....

....taking the bar exam sucks. I feel like I know all the stuff I'm supposed to know, but I'm still not necessarily doing well because the questions are so darned tricksey.

As one of my very favorite characters once said, "The sun will go on rising and setting whether I fail (the bar exam) or not. That is true, but not especially comforting. I think I'd rather it didn't go on if I failed."

That would certainly beat having to do this all again in July.

(And to top it all off, my dog looks like a satelite dish.)

Moe Speaks: Something New

Mom went to the pet store without me last night and she didn't bring anything home. I know she was at the pet store because I could smell it on her. But it's so weird that she didn't bring home new treats or a toy....

The only reason I can think of for that, is that maybe it has something to do with this school that she's been talking about. I went to school once before, but this time Mom says we're going to a different school, and the different school is at the pet store.

My suspicions are further confirmed by the fact that both yesterday evening and this morning she was making me do things--other than my usual sit--to get my treats. I can't figure out exactly what she wants though. She's trying to be all tricksey about something, but I don't quite get it. She gets out a treat and hides it behind her back. Then she says my name. I try to watch the treat very carefully because I want her to know that that's what I want, but she seems to want me to do something else. Every so often I must be getting it right, because eventually she gives me the treat, but I can't figure out what it is that she likes.