Pets from the Past

I had a friend on Facebook ask me if I had my old yearbooks from Marina del Rey Junior High School.  She wanted copies badly and even contacted the school but they said they were gone for good.  I told her I thought I had them but I would have to conduct a search in the dreaded entryway cubby where we store all our old photos and albums.  To make a long story short, I found them, sent her copies that I printed and then spent about the next 3 days totally organizing everything that was in the cubby.  I was so excited to find photos of pets from the past that I didn't think I had any photos of at all.

This first photo goes all the way back to the 1970's.  I was a student at UCLA and living at home and this stray mother cat had 3 little kittens in our backyard.  A few days after their birth, she took them all away and I was sad about that.  A week later she came back with all 3 and left them for good.  I kept this boy kitty that I called Gypsy (because of his past) and found homes for the other 2.

     ~ Gypsy ~

I loved this cat soooo much.... he was so affectionate and wanted to be with me constantly.  I even took him out with me on weekends.  He used to climb the backyard fences and one day he came home really sick.  Much later we found out that a man who had bunnies left out poison for cats. He died a miserable death and I was so traumatized that my mom had to take him to the vets early in the morning.  I was so upset I gave her the wrong address to the vet... and that's how I ended up eventually meeting Jeff because he worked at the wrong vets.  Those of you who've known me for a long time know the story of how we met and began dating.

After Gypsy, Jeff and I got another cat- Hobie- and when he was a year or so old he went missing.  It was then I learned about the man with the bunnies... he trapped Hobie and took him to a wildlife place (for ducks, etc... ) in the Marina.  (I guess he stopped poisoning and went to trapping.)  Hobie found his way to a backyard where a man had put out some salmon for his cat and he called us- Hobie still had his nametag on- this was 6 weeks later!  We never thought we'd see him again.  We were so happy to have him home...it was like a miracle.  After that, we printed up a letter to all the neighbors exposing this man - we gave his name and address- and passed it out to all the houses in the neighborhood.  When we moved to Agoura Hills, Hobie and Jeff's two cats- Mark and Mickey- came with us.  Here's a photo of Hobie Cat!

 ~ Hobie Cat ~

Finally, I found a photo of Clancy!  I'll bet you thought we've only ever had big dogs like goldens and labs.  Well, here is the pound puppy I brought home one day.  This photo was taken at the park- neutral teritory- when we first got Dylan as a puppy and wanted to introduce him to Clancy.  Clancy was so taken aback by the boisterous little Dylan that he climbed up Jeff's back for protection.

~ Clancy ~

  

Ryan's 6th Birthday

Ryan turned 6 on Thursday, the 17th.  He got really sick on Wednesday and Jessica kept him home.  We weren't sure if he'd be okay by his birthday but he was.  Jessica brought in Halloween-themed cupcakes for his class to share.  He wore a crown with his name and 6's in glitter and they sang Happy Birthday to him.  Here's a photo of the cute cupcakes and Ryan with his birthday crown.

 I remember when I was growing up having a girlfriend, Katie, whose birthday was really close to Halloween and she would always have Halloween-themed birthday parties.  We would dress up in our costumes and her garage was turned into a pretty great haunted house.  Her grandmother would dress up as a witch and tell us ghost stories.  I think Halloween is a fun holiday.  I like to drink out of my Halloween mugs.

Another fun thing about this time of year is all the craft fairs and local farms that have pumpkin patches and hayrides, etc... We have our local Thousand Oaks Street Fair to go to on Sunday.  I guess one of the things we miss in Southern California is apple-picking.  I never even realized that apples were associated with fall until about 10 years ago when some of my graphic artist friends made fall graphics with apples.  Have a great weekend!    

Birthday Week

Saturday was my birthday, Sunday was Audre's (Jeff's mom) birthday, this coming Wednesday is Robin's birthday and Thursday, the 17th, is Ryan's 6th birthday!  To celebrate my birthday, Jeff and I went to a movie and dinner on Saturday night.  We saw Gravity in our Muvico's 21 and over theater.  You can have food and alcoholic beverages in the theater and you get free popcorn.  We saw Gravity in 3D which normally I'm not a big fan of but it doesmake sense for that movie which has stunning cinematography and makes good use of the 3D technology.

We had Audre and he sister, Auntie Joy, over on Sunday night for a birthday dinner for Audre.  Her memory is fading more and more and didn't even remember that it was her birthday.  She stays pleasant and good-natured so that is a plus.  Jeff really has his hands full with helping her to remember things like taking her medications both morning and night and driving her wherever she has to go.

We will be celebrating Ryan's birthday this weekend.  I think he wants to go to Chuck E. Cheese.  I've promised to buy him a game on my iPad and Jeff is buying him a game on his Kindle on his actual birthday but the rest of his presents will probably wait until the weekend.

My Facebook friends have seen this video but I thought I'd share it here.  After several years, our peahen (female peacock) still resides in our neighborhood.  She pretty much hangs out in the backyards of about six of our neighbors- the three houses at the end of our block and the three that are directly behind us.  This past week, we found her on the balcony off our master bedroom.

     

Dog Day Afternoon

Happy Birthday Sadie!!!

We went to the 2nd annual Bark in the Park in Thousand Oaks on Saturday.  We went to the first one last year and enjoyed it so we made sure to catch it again this October.  Everyone brings their dogs and there are lots of activities and booths to explore.  The dogs got so many treats from the people running the booths and I walked away with a big bag full of samples of treats and dog foods.  Camp Bow Wow had a booth with a "Wheel of Fortune" type prize wheel.  I spun and won a free bath for Kanan and Jeff spun and one a free one hour training session fro Cooper.  Cooper could use some training to get him to stop pulling on his leash.  Not to be outdone, "The Barkley" had a spinning wheel and this time Jeff got a free day of doggie day care and I won a toothbrush.  That was our only booby prize.  The other 3 prizes are all quite valuable!  They had all kinds of contests like best howler, dog/owner look-alike and Halloween costume contest.  They had an obstacle course that we took Kanan and Cooper through.  There were even celebrity dogs you could take your photo with:  Beatrice from Modern Family and Aspen from Disney's Dog with a Blog.  All in all, a fun day!

From there, we went to Chris & Liz's for dinner and to meet their new English Springer Spaniel, Maverick or Ricky.  He's a rescue and a real sweetheart and got along fine with Cooper and Kanan.  It was unusually warm for their area which is closer to the ocean so we were able to sit outside and have a delicious dinner of BBQ leg of lamb!