Puppy Training Madness

So, we're getting a puppy! As we diligently fortify ourselves about the best way to raise a puppy into a happy and healthy companion for life, we find ourselves getting some peculiar advice. One group is the "Treat Cult", which says that all puppy behavior that you like deserves a reward of food for the puppy. Puppy sits for you? Giver her a hot dog. Puppy comes when called? Time for a a piece of cheese. Puppy stays on command? Better give her a jumbo shrimp wrapped in bacon fat. Yet, these are the same folks who tell you not to over-feed the puppy! What happened to the dog wanting to be praised for a job well done? Oh no, the Treat Cult says, your dog will not respect you unless you are simply a dispenser mechanism for fatty, unhealthy food.

And then there are the "Affection Police", who insist that any affection given to the dog during its first fifteen years of life will result unwanted and often deadly behavior from the dog. When your puppy cries the first night in her new home, they say, don't try to comfort her, because that will turn her into a homicidal killing machine later in life. Also, no eye contact or petting the dog, ever. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't want to be the kind of dog owner that cheerfully says, "Oh, don't mind Snugglekins, she's just happy to see you" as my dog naws a a neighbor's ankle bloody. But can't I just pet my happy, loving puppy once a month or so? Sure you can, the Attenion Police say, once you manage to pry her clenched jaws from Grandma's throat.

Insane people have insane dogs, I guess, but can't the rest of us just have a little fun?

Big Cats!

The babies had their annual veterinary visit. They are now 3.5 years old.

Weighed in at 17 and 22 pounds!

This picture is when they were still babies, but now they are big bundles of snuggles. In front, Czar Hunter Petrolovich (a/k/a "Hunny-Bunny"), and in the back, Maximus Maximillian Maxwell (a/k/a "Max").

The vet said to stop worrying about introducing them to puppy--they will definitely put her in her place. I guess they'll each have a good 5 - 10 pounds on her when she arrives...but they'll get a surprise when she hits some 60 pounds of Labrador!

Preparing for the Pitter-Patter of Little Paws

We have decided to add a puppy to our family. Much thought, perhaps too much, went into attempting to determine a cat-safe breed so that our kitties would be all right. Much research, also, into how to make the dog-cat introduction go smoothly. Now taking the view that if we are freaked out about it, they all will be, too. Thus, trying to be as prepared--yet calm--as possible.

So, we'll be blogging our preparations and the trials and tribulations of training here.

Katrina

We're here in Miami and lost power somewhere around 7:00PM during the storm. A large 2-story+ tree in the backyard came down, destroying the fence around the deck for the tenant downstairs. Gratefully, the water did not rise enough to damage the cars. The cats slept most of the time, and even sat in the window in the middle of the night as the storm kept blowing, perhaps as desperate as us for a breeze in our new un-air-conditioned world.

It is difficult to imagine life in Miami without air conditioning. And with the food going bad in the fridge, and all of us overheated, we desperately tried to find lodging nearby with power. Of course, either no power or NO PETS ALLOWED. The hotels really need to get a clue and waive anti-pet policies after these storms, and if they do, find a way to let everyone know about it. Most people in this country have pets, why not create a little brand loyalty??? Right now only Loews and Residence Inn have a consistent pro-pet policy, and the market definitely has room for someone between those price points and offering some luxuries. We schlepped the terrified cats across the state to lovely, quiet Naples and vowed not to return to Miami until there was electricity. Personally, the power came back a few days too soon.

Enormous trees were down everywhere we looked. Despite the constant reminder that intersections without a signal light should be treated as four-way stops, the braindead Miami drivers flew by with abandon. We were in one of the hardest hit areas, but no one came near with ice or water. We learned our lesson about failing to fully prepare for this one. Of course, what we suffered does not compare with what Louisiana and Mississippi are going through right now. But whether it's just a "little" Cat 1 or a major storm, the aftermath of lack of power, heat exhaustion, dehydration, and risk of disease are no cake-walk.

Now we are home and have power...but there is an awful, deafening silence...no television! It is so sad that we strain to find a way to occupy ourselves without the idiot-box...I think it will have to be scrabble or backgammon...

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

AMC is completing its weeknight showing of the original Bond films, shown in order. Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to see AMC air my favorite Bond flick, On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Likely the least known of the series, I certainly think it is the best, and critical to understanding Bond in later movies and the knockoffs in the juvenile Austin Powers flicks. I find Lazenby's performance of Bond in love and married believable in a way it may not have been with other womanizing Bonds. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of Connery in the role, and particularly enjoy Thunderball, which I was able to catch on AMC last weekend. Admittedly, I can no longer bear to see the most overplayed of the Bond films, Goldfinger. Connery is the definitive Bond. But Lazenby should get credit for this performance and not be lumped in with the milk-toast Bonds of Dalton and Brosnan. The current so-called Bond films cannot manage an interesting fight or chase scene, all they can do is blow things up extravagantly, and the movies don't seem to have anything but the explosions to them. Sad to see the way this franchise was slaughtered.

Here are some links about O.H.M.S.S.:

JamesBond.com
Internet Movie Database

Burger King Coffee Gets My Vote

I used to brew what I considered expensive $10 to $15 per pound coffee. I gradually either lowered my standards, became cheap, or decided the "good stuff" wasn't that much better than major coffee brands to justify the price differential. I have always disliked Starbucks, the taste and mouthfeel of which approximate sludge. Since a trip to the U.K. last year, where it is practically impossible to obtain fresh brewed coffee, I developed a taste for Nescafe instant, and have stuck with it. But when I need a really great cup of morning coffee, it's off to--of all places--Burger King.

I just don't think of a fast food joint as the go-to place for java, but BK coffee is about the best cup I've ever found. (Now granted, it's even better with those "cini-minis" but they are verboten on the current diet regimen). In a recent attempt to find out what brand of coffee BK uses, I discovered another admirer of both the BK coffee and the nifty plastic lids they use. In Praise of Burger King Coffee provides a somewhat impassioned discussion of the coffee, process, and lid. One of the best features of the lid is its reclosable nature; it comes closed (which aids in avoiding spills before you're ready to consume), and when opened, the tab snaps onto a spot at the back side of the lid so it isn't flopping around in your face. (See the link above for pictures, which are probably worth more than my unartful description). Now that I know BK uses Douwe Egbert coffee, which appears to be a "system" rather than grounds, I'll have to find out whether there is a consumer product available. In the interim, I'll have to live with the BK drive-through.