In the Trenches: Saving Slick

This is why we have a beta. Because they can survive stuff like this.

  Mike barely gave me enough time to snap a picture in his frantic rush to rescue Slick the fish.

Yesterday Sully & friends got a hold of the fish food.

Enough said.

I know it looks bad, but no worries, Slick came through in perfect health.

Our pets have to be tough as nails - in a family like this there is no alternative.

(Sometime have me tell you a story or two about our cat. And then of course, there's the Space Donkey with his ten-foot verticle. I think our pets have super powers.)

FYI, nervous citizen.

After a couple of episodes with the SoJo police concerning Jupiter, Mitch-darling had a few of these made & posted them in our yard (according to police suggestion -since we don't know who called and they can't tell us). Also, Mike made the rounds to all the neighbors within a visible radius, introducing himself, the dog, and giving out our telephone number. We want to cover all our bases.
My main concern in putting something like this up was that it might lead people to believe (falsely) that our dog is scary or that we don't want people to come to our house. Like those conspicuously posted BEWARE OF DOG signs that really mean, "We don't want you to come near our house, and if you do we'll send out our lethal-weapon dog."  But I had to concede that this was the best thing to do under the circumstances.
Anyway, to the person who called the police (twice):

The dog is nice AND restrained. Come over some time and hang out.

Down.

Just returned from a walking the dog and kids this morning. As we came up the hill into our circle a big ol' boxer (you know those with the brown and black stripey coats that are all the rage in dogs these days) came out of nowhere from behind. Jess, behind me pushing Sully in the stroller, yelled to warn me. Before I knew it I was on the ground - banged my elbow and head on the pavement pretty hard in the process. The Space Donkey managed to come out on top and said boxer jogged away. ...My next dilemma: Jupiter on the loose (which is tricky in the best of conditions) with another dog keeping his attention. My head hurting, I followed them into the next circle where a second boxer was wandering, a car trolling along nearby (apparently the owners trying to gather the dogs up again). Jupiter tried his luck with this dog as well, and then decided his odds weren't as good - so he gave it up and came to me.

My elbow is sore.

Come to think of it - this reminds me very much of another experience with Jupiter where I ended up on the pavement - tangled in the leash while taking him for a run. I had road rash scars for a year and a half after that one.

Weekend blur

An action-packed weekend. I know we're not the only people out there with too much on the calendar - all it takes is a couple of kids - and pretty soon you find yourself double and triple booked. We managed to make it to everything...only because of family and friends. Thanks. Friday night we dropped Jessie and her stuff at Sullivans so she could sleep over and my parents could take her and the horse over to the arena early Saturday...that way we could be up and make it to Noble's piano recital at 10Am (Jessie missed for the second year running because of a scheduling conflict)...had lunch with Mike's parents......after which we traveled to the arena to watch Jessie for an hour or so (just enough time for Tillman to swell up from exposure to horses and dust)...then I rushed off with the boys to make it to Tillman's soccer game at 2PM (trying to dilute the allergens with bottled water along the way- he drank almost a whole liter)...the "Black Widows" came away with a tie and Tillman with wet shorts (we didn't make it to the potty in time after all that water) ...sent Tillman home with our friends rather than have to drug him up with Benadryl, and returned to the 4H show in time to see Jessie compete in her last speed event, which she handled well ...helped clean her horse's stall... ...gathered everyone up and made the trip home ... the realtor called during dinner to ask if people could come look at the house this morning (Sunday) while we'd be at church. (Do you know how hard it is to keep the house perpetually perfect with 5 kids, animals and all the stuff we have going?) I had unfinished laundry (we're leaving on a road trip through No. California on Tuesday for a week) & a messy house. So I stayed up folding laundry...but I should have checked on the cat because she was "queening" (giving birth) to 4 kittens out in garage sometime during the night. Noble found them this morning and ran into the house to announce that Pluto had her kittens (later he told us that at first when he saw them he thought that she had mice).

I'm reminded of that children's book: Meanwhile Back at the Ranch. All in a day's work. No wonder I get so tired.

As a side note: there was a polo match going on at the same time as the 4H show on Saturday at the equestrian complex. Our usual parking area had been reserved for the upper classes attending the polo match (I think we actually parked in Prince Charles' spot - Mike stuck it to "the man" and parked there anyway). I couldn't resist taking this picture of the label on the gate and of the RED CARPET (I'm not kidding) leading from the parking lot to the covered seating area with medieval flags along the way. Don't get me wrong, polo is fun to watch (they play at the equestrian park all the time), but I thought this was hilarious.