Always An Adventure

As I've mentioned before we have a new puppy named Giblet and Giblet is growing daily from a cuddly, squirmy ball of fuzz into something the size of a small Tyrannosaurus Rex. And being a chocolate lab he also chews on EV. RY. THING. Yesterday afternoon I went outside to get pellets for the stove and I'll be danged if that dog didn't chew the button on my sweater - while I was wearing it. We've had a lab before, but I think Jake was just a special dog because he never chewed on things. Never. We expected it when he was a pup, but Jake never chewed. Every other dog we've brought on the place has all but chewed the walls, but not ol' Jake. Giblet may very well take on the walls and soon he'll be big enough to just plow 'em down before he commences the chewing.

A few mornings ago the kids had already gotten on the bus and Conner wasn't here yet so I took the few moments of free time to start a load of laundry. I heard the front door open as I was stuffing a load of laundry made up of nothing but camouflage clothes into the washer. Then I heard Courtney's voice question, "Kiki? Kiki? Can you come here?" It wasn't her usual vibrant greeting and I crammed the rest of the camo into the washer and hurried to the entryway. She was standing in the doorway with the storm door partially open. I had just let Giblet off the chain for the day and all I could think was that he had gotten in her way and she'd hit him. (We've had that happen before when my ex brother in law came barreling up the drive and killed a pup while my son watched. Yeah, that was good times.) She said, "Come here, please. Would you look at this?" My guts in a knot I stepped onto the porch.

There sat Giblet with something in his mouth, his tail thumping the concrete happily. I hadn't had time to figure out what it was when Courtney said, "Is that a frozen squirrel-cicle in his mouth?" Sure enough, the dog was holding a frozen-stiff dead squirrel in his jaws and that poor squirrel either died a horrifically surprising death or he just happened to freeze solid with his front legs stretched out to the sides, his tail straight up and a look of eternal startle on his furry little face. There was no drooping, no limpness - just solid, stiff squirrel jutting stiffly from my dog's face.

Courtney looked at me and said, "Really? There are things I see here at your house that are not seen anywhere else."

That night when she came to pick Conner up one of the nearly-year-old cats was nursing Michelle Duggar. The cat, not the woman. We might be weird, but we don't get that bizarre around here. This black cat is nearly the size of Michelle and she was just laying there letting that large cat do her thing like it was as normal as a squirrel-cicle. She looked at the cats, cocked her head to one side and asked, "Is that cat nursing?" I just nodded and kicked the cats apart.

She shook her head and said, "Seriously. It's like a whole other world here."