Summer Loving Kitty

It's officially reached that hot and humid point of the summer, where when you open the door to the screen porch you can feel the air just hit you in the face. Now when I open the door, the cats, instead of running right out, will feel the air hit them and contemplate whether they really want to go out there or not, and most of them turn right back around to find a cozy spot in the nice cool AC. Except for one, Miss Bella lives for the hottest summer weather. I think she must have been a lizard in a past life, because even in the middle of the day, when it's really hot and muggy out there, she will march right out and roll over on her back like she's trying to get a tan on that speckled pink belly of hers! Sometimes if it's too hot, I will have to go forcibly remove the silly fuzzball so she doesn't get overheated.

When she's not busy napping or soaking up the sun, she hops onto the back of the wicker chairs and takes in all the activity in the backyard and woods.

Sometimes if Abby's not commandering the kitty bed, she'll crash out there...

or steal a place on one of Red's beds...

but mostly she just finds a nice spot on the wood floor and stretches out to get optimal soakage of the sun!

Luckily, she is very good about taking a break from her tanning to rehydrate!

One of the fun things I like to do with the warmer weather is to drag the cat toys out onto the screen porch and bust out the catnip! This past weekend I brought some of the cats favorite scratching posts and toys onto the porch to enjoy the warmer temperatures, and with the added catnip it only amped up the fun! Of course, I forgot to video it, but I did dig out an older video taken at our last house and I thought I would leave it for you all to see the silly antics in person of my crazy little fluffballs. Make sure to keep an eye out for when Sophie kicks herself in the head with her own back foot when she is playing with her catnip snake, it's a hoot and she still does it to this day when she gets overly excited! Hahaha!

Red Goes to College

It's been a crazy and busy past couple of weeks and I have been lacking in my blog postings, if only there were a few more hours in the day! I've been in and out of town the past week, as my brother and I are now in charge of getting my grandmother's home that she moved out of, ready to go on the market. My grandmother has been in that house for about 45 years, so it's a very big job, but thankfully Red loves to come along with me.

Last weekend Red went to college! I was busy with the Nana, helping her get some final things straightened out, so Red got to stay with my brother for the weekend, who is still in college. This was my brother's first test of how he would do with the responsibility of taking care of a dog all by himself, and he failed! Haha! Okay, so I was a little tough on him, but he did forget to feed Red the first day until I called and reminded him! Red is such a good sport, he never begs or lets on when he is hungry, so he didn't even try and clue in Uncle Reyn that he had forgotten his dinner. Initially I had these visions of a crowd of rowdy college boys chanting Red's name, while they prepared a beer funnel for him, but thankfully things went really well and Red did enjoy his time spent with Uncle Reyn.

But Red does love his Uncle, and even though my brother had sworn Red would not be allowed on his bed, Red had worked his magic within minutes of arriving and promptly spent the next few days cuddled up in his Uncle's bed! Haha! Red knows how to work his charms!

They are quite the silly pair, and have similar senses of humor and you never know what you'll find them up to when they get together, haha!

There are no words. Hahahahaha!

The best thing about Uncle Reyn's place is that there is a dog park right across the street, this pleased Red to no end! He loves other dogs, so he was thrilled to make multiple daily visits with the other pups during his stay. Of course, with the lovely hot and humid summer weather in full effect, he worked up quite the stink. And since it is so hot out, I figured there was no better time than to break out the hose for some cooling off and a little stink removal.

Red was all blissed out just enjoying the beautiful summer day.

Hey! What's this green bottle for?

Not cool my friend, so not cool!

Would you put the stupid camera down and get these suds off me now!!

Could he possibly look any more pathetic? Haha!

You owe me lots and lots of cookies for this.

Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark! Bark!

I love my dog. He is pretty much the perfect dog for me, my heart dog, but he has this one thing that can totally drive you out of your mind. He has perfected this bark scream/shriek that with prolonged exposure could make even the most hardened criminal crumble. Seriously, I think the military could utilize tapings of his bark screams to break people in interrogations. Haha!

Last night Red decided there was a possible perimeter breach and he wasn't going to allow it to happen without sounding the alarm...all night long. I trust his instincts, as he actually alerted us to a man in our backyard in the middle of the night a couple of months ago, so I always give him the benefit of the doubt the first time. But living in the country we have lots and lots of "Bad Guys", otherwise known as deer and squirrels and the deer love to come mingle in the empty lot next to us late at night.

Starting at about 3am Red decided there were Bad Guys too close to "his" yard for his comfort and no amount of getting up and letting him do a quick check of the backyard was going to stop the shrieking. I begged, I pleaded, I stomped my foot...and all Red did was bark back at me. He's lucky the other 99% of the time he is so darn cute!

It just so happens I have footage of said bark shrieking that I can share with you guys! I will forewarn you, that you want to check your computer volume before playing this video if you value your hearing, haha! As Red's favorite time to do his shrieking is late at night, the video is in night mode so you'll have to forgive the quality.

Right around the 35 second mark it gets really good...don't say I didn't warn you! Ha!

During the day Red surveys his yard from his favorite vantage point...the deck railing! He would make a great circus dog!

Love-Hate Relationship

Itty Bitty and Red have what I like to call a love-hate relationship, except without the whole love part, haha! This isn't for lack of trying on Red's part, he has tried to befriend Bitty since I brought him home a little over 2 years ago. At this point Red has realized that winning Bitty over is a pretty futile battle, so he has taken to doing his best to avoid any runs-ins with him, since Itty Bitty lays in wait to get a chance to remind Red who the boss man around here is.

This is what happens when you don't check behind doors before entering a room...notice the blood droplets on Red's nose after he was sucker punched by a lurking Bitty. Luckily, he takes things like this in stride, and has yet to make any revenge attempts.

Can't you just feel the love radiating from Bitty's face? Ha ha!

Do.Not.Touch.My.Grass

::Gulp::

He's right behind me isn't he?!?!