Obie

Carolyn's cat Obie passed away yesterday at the age of 17(?). I adopted him from the Idaho Humane Society back in 2002, before we were married. The last couple of years he started to have problems and he got to live in the garage. Obie wanted to be an outdoor kitty and he had free range to come and go as he pleased.

Since last summer though he has only ventured out of the garage when I was working in the driveway. We set him up with a couple of large (4' x 2') litter boxes and his own elevated, insulated, and heated sleeping platform. He got fresh food and water twice a day and he seemed relatively happy right up until the end.

We suspected his time was coming to an end when he suddenly stopped eating and started hiding out in the corner of the garage under my workbench. I was able to coax him out briefly on Thursday and he seemed fine.

Obie is buried in the back yard in a protected area next to my cat Miu. A couple of impatiens were planted over the graves.

I Met One of My Neighbors Yesterday

Yesterday I learned that at least of of my neighbors is simply bat-shit crazy, really cukoo for for cocoa puffs, if you know what I mean.

Every day I take my dog Tessa to the park.  I usually take her off-leash so that I can work on her obedience training.  She is a well-mannered dog that went through a prison training program before being put up for adoption at the Idaho Humane Society.  Tessa also loves going to the park and catching her ball.....more than anything. The walk to the park is the perfect time to "top off" her training because she is so high motivated.

Polly Update

I've blogged a couple of times about Polly, our Tortoiseshell kitty.  She was "interesting" when we first got her and I got to learn the meaning of "tortitude".

We got her last September and as expected she slowly started to warm up to the other pets, but we were still having some big problems, namely she would attack the other cat (out of the blue) and she enjoyed peeing on the dog's bed.

This simply would not do, but I'm not one to give up so easily and dump her back at the shelter.  We were the second home she had been placed with from the Idaho Humane Society and we thought maybe some of her problems stemmed from not having a stable home.

After an incident where we thought Polly might have had a bladder infection....turns up she was just trying real hard to get every last drop of urine onto the dog bed....the doctor suggested we put her on some kitty prozac.

We were hoping to avoid drugs, but in the end we relented.

Unique Exercise Routine

The wife and I are looking at a possible weekend trip for a networking event and since it is not even a whole weekend away I've been considering what to do with our cat Polly.

Polly needs to take her medicine every day and dropping her off at a friend's house or a cat-sitter isn't really an option because a good part of her crazy behavior seems to be due to the stresses of being shuffled around.

This is your cat on drugs......

This morning Polly was started on a kitty dose of generic Prozac, Feline Fluoxetine....if you will.  For some reason I was against dosing the cat, but she is still having problems fitting in.

For the most part the dog and the cat like Polly, and I have no idea why.  Tessa wants to play with Polly and Krystal lets Polly into "her" room and has no qualms about sharing the bed.  Polly is content to steal Krystal's food and Tessa's water, but likes to pee in Tessa's bed and refuses to come on our bed if she knows Krystal is in the room.

Polly is Finally Settling In

It has been five months since we've adopted Polly and it's been a bit of a rough go.  I don't know how much of the struggled has been against tortitude and how much had been against a cat that has been through some things.  I've blogged about her before, so some details might be there.

When we adopted Polly I learned that she had been adopted once before, but returned after a month.  I might be personifying this, but even factoring that in I doubt that could be easy for a cat.  I couldn't imagine why anyone would want to return this sweet cat.

Sgt Stubby

I'm pretty sure I came across Sgt Stubby through a Tweet by

Lindsay Ellis.

The story of this rescued pooch is simply awesome.  In brief: man "adopts" a dog while going through field training prior to going to war in France.  Smuggles dog onto troop transport where everybody falls in love with it.  Dog learns some awesome trick like saluting, alerting troops to poisonous gas attacks, and subduing enemy spies.  Dog earns a bunch of awards and medals, formally gets a rank, and is smuggled back to the US to become a national hero and then the Georgetown mascot.

Decorated by General Pershing

The guy who adopted Sgt Stubby had him for the rest of the dog's life.  Even though he was "adopted" by the owner's military unit, Sgt Stubby's enlistment lasted as long as his master, one J. Robert Conroy. Sgt Stubby was part of 17 battles and wounded twice.

Sgt Stubby died in 1926 and was probably the most famous "soldier" of World War I.  His name was known by every schoolchild in the country.  When he passed away his obituary was three columns wide in the New York Times.  His body was preserved and donated to the Smithsonian.

A "simple" project

Today was set to be a nice day so I decided to undertake a single "simple" project: replace the dog door to the back yard.  When we got Tessa I bought a PetSafe Electronic Dog Door.  She wears a tag that locks and unlocks the door.  Sounds great, right?  Well this $200 door lasted two winters before falling apart.  The locking mechanism has been broken for about 10 months and a couple of the teeth between the door and the part of the lock snapped off last winter.  PetSafe has a replacement door listed as available, but getting a replacement door, or any other part, is another matter.  I visited their website and sent their customer service department an email requesting assistance and have never heard back.  The easy fix would be to simply buy another $200 door, but why would I would I want to buy anything from PetSafe again?

I should also note that the door was far too drafty even when it was working and I disliked having to switch batteries so often....not to mention having to use a magnet to reset the locking switch far too often.  We needed a new door.

I managed to find a replacement at Home Depot for $100 that had two flaps and seemed much more capable of keeping the weather out.  This would be the 5th pet door I've tried to install.  The first two were cat doors....in the same door.  Now this might seem innocent, since I'm obviously replacing one door now, so maybe I had to replace a cat door.  The door going into Carolyn's office has two cat doors, one upside down at the top of the door and one where it should be at the bottom.  I thought I'd be smart and take the door off the hinges and outside to cut out the hole.  When I got it up on saw horses I also thought it would be smart to turn the door level to see which way the door was oriented since I had forgotten to mark the door before I removed it.  Little did I know that the handle can be turned up (to no effect) and down.  Doh!  There is also a third cat door going into the garage from the backyard also.

As luck would have it, even though the doors are close to the same size, the hole for the old door is much larger than what I need for the new door.  I could get a new backdoor, go through the trouble of framing it in, and then making a new hole, or I can basically use plywood to plug up the old hole, set the new dog door in it, and somewhere along the way seal in the big gap in the door.  I'll go for the "easier" and cheaper route.

I take my measurements and head off to Home Depot for some wood, sealant, bolts, and a new skill saw since my old one is MIA.  My FJ40 makes it 1/3 of the way there before my exhaust pipe breaks and the muffler comes free from the undercarriage.  I knew I needed to get a new muffler since the exhaust tip broke off and one mount was loose, but since I drive so little I really hoped it could wait until spring.  The car was undrivable with my muffler and about 6 foot of pipe resting free "down there".  Luck can sometimes be mixed.  While I was unlucky in having my muffler drop off, I was fortunate in that it happened across the street from Wal-Mart.  A quick visit inside to purchase a hacksaw and I was able to cut the exhaust pipe and extract it and my muffler.

A very loud and exhausty trip to Home Depot and back I have what I need to install the door.  There are the normal little fit issues I have to contend with, but nothing that is cause for worry....until I try to screw the door together.  Evidently the dog door is fit for use with exactly a 2" thick door.  The two pieces of plywood are too much.  I have 1/4" x 4" carriage bolts and I need something between 4.5" and 4.75".  I hop back in my loud and exhausty FJ40 feeling like a total ass for how rude I must seem to the neighbors for disturbing their peace.  A quick stop at D&B Supply yields nothing useful, which is a first for me.  They suggest I check out Industrial Hardware Idaho.  I've never been there, but I've seen signs for it while driving down Chinden. Of course as luck would have it I totally miss my turn and have to drive down the street longer than expected to find the next side street.  Guess what business is located at the next side street?

If you guessed Ammerman's Custom Exhaust you'd be right!  I decided to stop in and get an estimate.  Why not...it's right here.  My thought process was that I'd get a second quote from another place on the way back to the house and then I could get Maggie repaired Wednesday.  Ammerman's estimate was just between my estimate and my hopeful cost, but I forgot to add in the new exhaust pipe work. When they said they could work on her immediately and be done in a little over an hour I decided I didn't need a second estimate.

Since I had roughly an hour to kill I walked back to Industrial Hardware Idaho.  I gave them my old bolt and explained I was about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch short (probably exactly 22/32 short).  They didn't have the exact size I needed, but they had longer full-thread carriage bolts I could just cut down to the proper size.  I asked for 6 so I'd have two extra if I screwed something up (Things hadn't exactly been smooth so far!) and to my surprise the guy just gave them to me.  It was probably just a $3 sale and nothing compared to their normal business, but the gesture meant a lot to me.  Maggie needs to have a lot of nuts and bolts replaced and I'd considered just buying just a bunch of some specific sizes in order to have them on-hand.  I know where I'm getting them now.

When the work was done I was able to get home and get the door finished before Carolyn came home.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the mess cleaned up in time, but I was in the process of putting my tools away.

I had hoped to get the door done rather quickly and have enough time to put up the outdoor Christmas lights, but the fates decided otherwise.  I'm pretty proud of myself not for accomplishing what should have been an easy task, but for not getting upset at the various problems and inconveniences that cropped up today.  Things worked themselves out in the end.  Not too bad of a day.

Human Training

Tessa has had me as her human for a few years now and she finally has me broken in.  She has her routine and is pretty good about keeping me to it.

In the morning when I am awake she jumps halfway on the bed so I can pet her.  She gets several false starts when she thinks I'm getting up.  She'll rise from her bed on the floor beside my bed, stick her nose over the bed and give a good sniff.  Often she'll do that thing where she puffs out some air to get things moving for a good sniff.  If that doesn't get me moving, she twirl around and lay back down for a quick nap, often with a loud "hrrumpf".

All these things wake me up in the morning, but I'm learned to ignore most anything she does except those times she gets a cold nose or a well-placed lick in.

Once I'm deemed "awake" and she gets here hello in, we get up out of bed and stagger into the kitchen where I make sure she has feed and water.  I might putter around a bit, but if I don't give her some extra petting in right off the bat she'll usually wander back into the bedroom and either go to sleep in her bed, or if my wife is still in bed, she'll jump up and lay down there.  She generally will not jump up if I'm in bed, unless I just got home from being out and she didn't get enough attention when I returned.

Once my morning ablutions are finished, she wants to go to the park.  In the summer I'll take her in the morning, but the other seasons I prefer to take her in the afternoon.  Tessa thinks that she is a working dog and being part black lab, she's partially right.  Her "job" is to fetch the ball.  In the winter I'll swap the ball out for a cloth training dummy.  Tessa usually gets to walk to and from the park off-leash, as long as she behaves and doesn't walk too far ahead.  She is great about not crossing the streets until she is told to.  At the park she gets to stay as long as she likes, usually only about 10 minutes.  When we get home she gets a treat if she behaved well, which is most every day.  It doesn't matter what she gets as a treat, as long as she gets one.  Sometimes she gets a bit of rawhide, or she might get a biscuit.  Tessa generally will not accept treats unless she has earned it.  Well, technically that isn't true.  When we go to the pet store and they offer her a treat she will take it, but she won't eat it.  She'll either dump it on the floor right then and there or she'll take it outside and then dump it.

Most of the rest of the day is spent sleeping, annoying the cats, running outside to crap in the backyard, or just trying to get some more petting in.  She's allowed to eat all day, but meal times are roughly 9 AM and 7 PM.  She snacks on her food all day, bringing in a mouthful at a time and dumping it on the floor far away from her bowl to eat a single piece of kibble at a time.  I don't get it and I've given up trying to change her behavior.  If she ignores one of her dump piles I'll tap my foot next to it.  She'll come over an clean it up pretty quickly.

She has a second bed in the living room, next to the loveseat.  She spends most of her day there and tries to stay up as long as we do, but sometimes she just decides it is time for bed and wanders off to her "real" bed in the bedroom.  If I'm staying up and my wife goes to bed early, Tessa goes with her in the bedroom and my wife's cat comes to spend time by me.

When I do go to bed, Tessa has to say goodnight.  She'll jump up so her front paws are one me and she'll just lay into me and let me pet her for as long as I like.  When I'm done she just gets down.  Sometimes I'll let her jump on the bed so I can be lazy and pet her more easily with both hands, but the second I stop petting her, she jumps down.  She does the normal turn or two before laying down and quickly drifts off to sleep.  If she has little doggie nightmares (about once a week) I'll wake her up by petting her and telling her it's ok.  She calms down quickly and goes back to a calm sleep.

Tessa has me trained well.

Tortitude?

Everything is slowly getting used to the new pet dynamic that was brought into being when we adopted Polly.  There is still much hissing going on, but everyday it lessens.  Our other indoor cat, Krystal Meth (believe me, it was an appropriate name when we got her) for the most part could care less.  Our dog Tessa occasionally tries to play with Polly, but few cats would want to have anything to do with a big dumb dog.

Having Polly has been interesting.  She is very talkative and inquisitive.  More so than other cats we've had.  Polly likes to jump up on everything just to check it out.  Catching her in the act of jumping up on the kitchen counter is near impossible.  I'd only know she's doing it because she isn't so graceful jumping down as she is up.  At night she loves to rub against your face as you try to sleep and she loves to get in under the covers.  Our only saving grace so far has been Krystal.  Polly won't jump on the bed if Krystal is already there.  They have been switching off roughly every other night so I get a good night's sleep 50% of the time.

In reading up on Tortoiseshell cats I've found that they are almost always female, just like any other calico, but 1 in 3,000 males might have that coloration due to having a XXY genetic anomaly.  Evidently the coloring is tied to that same chromosome as sex is.  Evidently it is somewhat common for these Tortoiseshells to have a bit of an attitude.  They tend to be independent (even for cats), feisty, and   unpredictable.  Some have gone so far as to describe this particular mix of personalty traits "Tortitude".

Oh yes...Polly is full of Tortitude.

Washing the dog

For those of you who may be unaware, dogs tend to get dirty and stinky.  Even when they look clean, they can often smell horrible.  For an animal that is all about smells, I cannot understand why they tolerate getting so funky.

My dog Tessa is no exception.  Fortunately for me, she has a very thin coat which doesn't seem to get ripe so quickly.  My problem is that even though she's a Black Lab mix, she doesn't like the water very much.  Once I was able to coax her into the local stream and she had a great time.  On a daily basis though, if it is much more than a heavy dew on the grass she'll pass.

Getting her to take a bath was near impossible.  At first we took her to one of those dog wash businesses.  There seems to be quite a few of them, but the one I liked was DO It Yourself Doggie Detailing. I liked the high was basins they had with an anchor point to clip your dog's collar to.  Tessa was a bolter and even with two of us there I was afraid she'd jump off the high tub and crash on the floor.  She tried to do just that a couple of times.

The easiest was to get her washed was to have someone else do it.  I know, brilliant.  I'm too cheap to drop her off for a wash & wax with a pedi and mani.  I don't pamper my wife that way, why the hell would I do it for my dog? Of course, if Carolyn wanted a full "work-up" I might be so inclined, but back to the dog.  I used to travel a lot for work.  On longer trips I'd bring my wife.  Also we went on a few vacations or quasi-vacations every year.  When that happened instead of taking Tessa to a friend or family member's house we'd drop her off at Boise Kennels.  I'm a big fan of this place and Tessa is too.  This kennel has been in business since 1939.  Unlike a lot of the kennels here in town, this place is about taking care of your dog, not pampering it.  We have doggie daycares here in Boise that treat your dog better than some daycares probably treat your kids.  Tessa doesn't need to have her own TV set and I don't need to be able to watch her 24/7 on a webcam.  She stays in an appropriate sized cage while she is there and taken out 5 times a day to stretch her legs and do her business.  Once a day she gets played with for 15'.  If she was up for it, she'd get to go swimming every day also.  This setup really isn't far from what happens at home.  She prefers to keep in her small space and go out once a day for about 10 minutes of play.  When we go to our park she decides when it is time to come home. Tessa loves Boise Kennels, she doesn't even look back to say goodbye when we take her.

Back on topic: when she stays for 4 days they wash her and trim her paws.

This last year we haven't gone out of town as much so I've taken to washing Tessa at home.  She doesn't like it, but she behaves much better.  I can coax her into the bathroom, but she won't go into the tub voluntarily.  No amount of cajoling or ordering works.  I have to pick her up and plop her in. She doesn't whine or bolt, but if she is a bit of a sly escape artist.  She'll wait a couple seconds if you have your guard down and then get out.  As long as I keep myself on the edge of the tub and praise her constantly we both can make it through.

When getting ready to go through another washing ordeal, I tried looking around for dog shampoo.  Everything seemed to be either crap, expensive, or just expensive crap.  I even found a John Paul Mitchell brand of dog shampoo.  Now I'm not a big designer-brand-name kind of guy, but this sounded awfully familiar.  A quick internet search tells me that I'm thinking of Paul Mitchel shampoo.  Heck, when I do a search I get both shampoos, but the Mitchell isn't on the dog stuff and the John isn't on the human stuff. Guess that is Google for you.

You just know there is some high-end pet shampoo out there that rivals high-end human shampoo.

I had made some dog shampoo in the past.  I cannot remember all of the ingredients, but I did have to go buy Aloe Vera gel.  It was ok, but not really worth the hassle.  Since I was already surfing the web, I did a search for homemade dog shampoo and I found a great, and easy, recipe:

1 Part Antibiotic Hand Soap  to 1 Part White Vinegar

A wet, but happy (and clean) Tessa

Quick, easy, and made with readily available materials. What the hell, worth a shot.  I would have expected it to smell more than it did, but it was easy to use.  It foamed up well and rinsed off very easy.  The best part is that afterwards Tessa did not have that wet-dog smell.  That in itself made this a winner.

Well, the dog got clean, but now I have a helluva mess to clean up in the bathroom.  Oh well, the shower was way overdue for an overhaul anyway.

Dog Crazy

This afternoon I was called for help by my Mother-In-Law.  My FIL was out of town at the moment and their dog, an ancient Chesapeake Bay Retriever, had fallen (or jumped) into one of the windows wells.  The window wells are a good 5' deep and Babe was unable to get out.  She needed help.

No problem, I just drove over and after inspecting her for any obvious wounds, picked up up and lifted her out of the well.  If her name was Lassie and mine Timmy, this could have been utterly hilarious.

Notice the purple harness?

On the way home I noticed a lot of dogs.  It isn't unexpected since it is a really nice day.  Most dogs simply had their head out the window, sniffing the world as they drove by.  A few pooches caught my attention more than most.  First was a small black Toy Poodle standing in her owner's lap as she drove by in a yellow Corvette convertible.  I love my dog and take her out for rides, but no way do I condone ever having a dog in the front seat with you.  Tessa sometimes gets to ride in the passenger seat, but only when she has her harness on and is buckled in.  She couldn't get to my seat if she tried.  I don't care how small your dog is, allowing it to roam free over you is just an invitation for an accident.

Go ahead and get yourself killed.....I'm all for Darwinism at its finest, but these heroes drive in traffic around other people....people like me!

On my way home I decide to stop off at Fred Meyers to pick up a couple things I needed.  As I'm coming down off of the bench I can see the parking lot and sure enough, there is a very noticeable yellow Corvette convertible.  This car is parked way out at the end of the parking lot by itself, so it stands out even more....has to be the same car.

Before I can even pull into the parking lot I spy yet another dog in the front seat with the driver.  This time it is even worse.  The vehicle is a 60's Willy's Jeep and the dog is a medium sized beagle mix.  This dog isn't just sitting in the owner's lap or leaning out the widow....no, this dog is actually propped up and laying on the outstretched arms of his owner.  This guy has his hands at 10 & 2 and his dog is lying across his arms!  I wish I had a 360* camera mounted on my rig because I wish I could have gotten proof.  The old lady with her poodle is bad enough, but do you know what it takes to drive a 60's Willy's?  That car doesn't have power anything.  How is he going to muscle the car around should he need to?  Hell, a sharp left turn could dump your dog out onto the street.

(Some) people are morons.

After parking my car I pass by Mrs. Corvette as she exist the building.  Her little pooch has a service dog vest on.  You have got to be kidding me.  I so call bullshit on this.  There is no way this dog is a bona fide service dog, which brings me to another rant regarding dogs.  There are too many people slapping vests on their pet and calling them service animals so they can work the system.  I know it happens, I've seen it in person.

At my old job I ran into an interventionist who got a fake service dog vest for their pet German Shepard so they could bring her on planes (for free) and take her on vacation without having to pay a non-refundable pet deposit.  They (his partner was in on it) totally were working the system.  I did the briefest of google searches and found a place where for $150 and your initials you could "certify" your dog as a service dog. They have a simple list of 11 "qualifications" and you simply agree that your dog meets MOST of the qualifications, send them your $149.95 (plus $10 shipping and handling) and *poof* instant service dog.

Legit association

What a racket.  Legitimate service dog certification includes having your dog signed off on by your vet, your doctor, and by you.  In addition to actually being trained to perform some function for your medical well-being, they should behave in a specific fashion.  The certification paperwork from NASD ends with a great line: "In other words, the service animal should be an animal that behaves as if they graduated at the top of their obedience training class."  Huge difference between this and the fly-by-night folks.

The fakers don't even have a logo, just a great sounding fake name.  They don't do much anything other than sell you a vest, some ID cards, and some paperwork.  Their tenuous grasp of being legitimate (FAIL btw!) is summed up in this one statement, "Service Dog Certification of America recognizes that every person in The United States of America may have some form of disability."  Seriously?

Tang

I have a nice 29 gallon aquarium that Carolyn got me for Christmas.  I used to keep ornamental goldfish until all of them died quite suddenly.  It bothered me enough that I kept the tank empty for a couple years.

Last year I decided to re-establish the tank and this time I went with some African Cichlids.  We have five of them of varying colors and sizes.  The largest we named Tang.  He is yellow and seems to have a swim bladder problem.  His stomach has been distended for months but it hasn't slowed him down.

Until today.  Technically we've noticed for a week or two that he has not been so aggressive with the other fish.  Tang would often chase the others with such fury they'd splash water out of the tank onto the underside of the lid.  I had to explain to Carolyn this is just how Cichlids are.  We once put Tang in an isolation tank and the dynamic changed dramatically.  One of the other fish quickly moved into the role as tank bully and he was worse that Tang for a while.

When I got up this morning I fed the fish and noticed that Tang isn't swimming around so much.  His fins are tore up.  It is obvious, at least to me, that he won't be around much longer.  The other fish can sense he is sick and dying and they are tormenting him, literally running him ragged.

It won't be much longer now.

Miu has finally passed on

Miu died sometime within the last half hour.

We knew she was on her way out and I was hoping to be able to spend some time with her this morning before going to the vet, but she passed away while I was driving Carolyn to work. I missed her death by mere moments.

She was a good cat..my cat, and I miss her already.

Recent Trip and Kitty Update

I spent last week on a business trip visiting a treatment center in Mississippi....my first time in that great state. John (my boss) and I flew down to New Orleans and then drove over a couple of hours to the location in Mississippi. Since I had never been to New Orleans before John made sure to take me downtown to the Marriott for a quick lunch. The downtown Marriott has a restuarant on the 42nd floor with a good view of the city. I brought my camera, but I didn't take squat for pics. New Orleans is still in desperate need of repair from hurricane Katrina. It's been a couple of years and there is still a LOT of work needing to be done. I do suspect that I wouldn't have been terribly impressed even if the Big Easy was in pristine condition. Downtown seemed little more than a collection of eateries (some damn fine one's I've been told) and liqour stores. Oh well, been there, done that...got one photo:

I'm going back next month so I'll try to take some better photos.

The heat was oppressive. I knew the humidity might be a bit much, but they were actually having record heat while we were there. It wasn't as bad as I had expected actually. We flew in on Monday and John flew out on Wednesday to Chicago. I couldn't get beck to Boise until Thursday so I stayed at a cool new Marriott in New Orleans. The room had views to die for and really didn't feel like a hotel room. Unfortuneately for me I got sick on Wednesday and I pretty much just camped out and sweated in my bed. I thought I felt better Thursday and flew back...but I wasn't better. I slept from Thursday afternoon to Friday morning and have been recovering since. Good times.

Now Miu...she'd had her meds cut in half. She was being overdosed big time. To put things in perspective. Her thyroid test runs 1-10, with 4 being normal....her first reading was 9. Not good. After the first round of meds she was down to 1...whoops too much. Cutting the meds back by half really perked her up, except she still isn't eating on her own still. She's also been acting wierd. At night she's been playing with her water dish and she spends a LOT of time camped out in the bathroom. Most of it next to her bowl (all the cats seem to like having that bowl there....I don't get it), but she also likes to jump into the tub as soon as we finish our showers and today I caught her in the bathroom sink. She isn't licking the water off of the sides and seems to enjoy any dripping water landing on her back......again I don't get it.

Saturday Downtown Boise

Carolyn and I spent a late Saturday morning in downtown Boise. We started off in the Farmer's Market, which runs every Saturday May through October (but they try to sneak another one or two in December). It's a cool place to get some breakfast and possibly a few good trinkets. I bought a 5th Anniversary present for Carolyn (our anniversary is August 16th)....it's wood...the traditional 5th anniversary present.

We didn't see squat for food that interested us except for some dried fruit. There is one vendor that shows up every weekend that has awesome dried fruit. In the past we've gotten gift baskets of their product to send out for things like Father's Day. I got some dried Fuji Apples and Bartlett Pears for my trip next week.

So after a quick trip through the market we went over to Guidos for lunch. Best damn pizza in town! they were pretty busy and had a HUGE pizza order ahead of our desired meal of pizza and strombolis. We got a slice each and a drink and then had to wait for 45' for our "boleese" to be done. There are worst ways to kill most of an hour. We read the local rags and in one of them they mentioned a Koi "thing" going on at the Boise Depot. I used to have some beautiful ornamental goldfish, so we decided to go.

From Koi Exibition

The Boise Depot is the old train station at the top of Capitol, right where it turns into Vista. It's at the very edge of the area called "the Bench" and it has a commanding view of the valley. The commuter trains stopped coming to Boise decades ago and now the Depot is used for social events. Lots of weddings take place there, and even more wedding photos in their beautiful garden. They have a very large Koi pond out front.

There were lots of kool Koi (had to go for the alliteration) and some were several feet in length. I also found some nice goldfish and even a good source for new fish if I decide to get my aquarium back to full speed...which I really should.

Good times.....

The Mrs. seemed a bit on the disappointed side that I hadn't yet posted any pics of our cats. Yes, I said cats. We have three of them. One or two would've been fine by me and she would have even more if I let her. One of those things I had to put my foot down about, we can't have more cats than bedrooms. That's my general rule of thumb.

From left to right the cats are Miu, Krystal, and Obie. Miu and Obie we adopted from the Humane Society and we simply kept the names they were given by their previous owners. We figured that the whole affair if stressfull enough on them that we don't need to force new names upon them. Krystal.....her name is actually Krystal Meth. If you spent any real time with that cat you'd quickly come to the realization that we picked a very appropriate name for her. I kind of wish her name was a bit more...sedentary.

Actually the cats are pretty well behaved and even Krystal is starting to have more sane moments. We woke up today to find her sleeping next to my wife all sweet and "innocent". Miu, my cat, usually sleeps with us and doesn't tolerate any other night-time visitations. Obie, my wife's cat, is usually off in his own little world so we don't have to worry about him visiting us at night. Good thing too, since he often has bad "cat breath".

Fun with fish

Little Basho has become a bit too acustomed to his home. The tank has developed its biologic filter and the ammonia level has dropped to "safe" levels. Since we wanted another fish, this is the time to go out and get our next (and last) goldfish.

We went back to the same aquarium store, pretty much a hole-in-the-wall place. They had good stock and you can tell they've been around for quite some time. While I'd have liked to get another Lionhead, Carolyn really liked this small Oranda. I told her she'd get to pick they next goldfish, as long as it wasn't a calico, celestial, or bubble eye. I don't care for those types any. While we were at it we got a very small golden-colored chinese algae eater.

Together these two fish don't even come close to the size that Basho has gotten to. We put the new fish into the tank once the water was aclimated. Basho immediately chased after the new guys and was pretty relentless in chasing the new goldfish about the tank. At one point he got stuck behind the power head where the new guy was trying to use his smaller size to hide.

When I got up this morning and Basho was still at it. The new fish was cowering in the corner, occasionally coming out only when flushed out by Basho. I finally got ticked off and scooped up Basho and dumped him in the toilet. That'll teach the bastard!

Of course I didn't do that. What I did do though was put my small isolation tank-thingy into the fish tank and put Basho inside it. He was pissed for a while and then calmed down. In a couple of hours the new fish came out. Now he's swimming everywhere and is trying to spend time as close to Basho as possible. Basho is still a bit peeved, but I'll let him chill for a while and see what happens.

This is a quick pic of the new guy. Carolyn hasn't named him yet.

Basho

I finally broke down and cleaned out my fish tank. A couple of years ago my wife, then my girlfriend, gave me a beautiful 25 gallon fish tank for Christmas. We set it up in our new home and got some fish. I've always been very partial to goldfish so we got a Ryukin and an Orange Cap Oranda. Later we got another fish from a pet store.....it didn't last long and managed to pass on Ick and anchor worms. Needless to say I never buy anything from that store (I had similiar fish probelms with them in the past). I'm pretty sure it was PetSmart, but I get that store mixed up with PetCo too often. I like one place but hate the other.....

Anyway, even though I managed to get rid of the Ick and painfully removed the anchor worms (by hand more than once, in addition to medication) I lost the fish. The tank sat empty in my living room for over a year. It was just too painful for me to go through again.

I left my job in July to find a better one and needless to say I'm still unemployed. With too much time on my hands, I decided to tackle the tank. It took a long time to clean up the gravel and rest. We went out and got some big rocks and extra plants. After treating the water I let the tank sit for a couple of days and got a beautiful little black and white Lionhead.

We named him Basho, which (roughly) is Japanese for "spot/stain". He is pure white with black tips on his fins and a small black spot just above his mouth. After a couple weeks feeding him some quality goldfish food he has already grown a noticible amount and has developed a couple of orange blotches.

My wife wants to get another goldfish, but the tank hasn't cycled yet and the ammonia levels are too high. I don't want to use any chemicals to nuetralize the ammonia (besides, they'd give me false readings on future ammonia testing) and Basho is acting just fine. When everything gets established I'll get a small gold chinese algae eater. Once the tank cycles again I'll then get one more goldfish, of my wife's choosing.