oh which color to cover the loveseat with..., originally uploaded by estacey.

today i had to take the car in for a battery issue. since about my least favorite thing EVER is to sit in the auto shop waiting room, i walked to the nearby target. we have been meaning to buy a blanket for the loveseat anyhow.

see, chris got these nice couches a while back. a loveseat and a couch. soft microfiber. we like them.

they have since fallen victim to buddy peeing on them... well, not THAT many times. but, uhh.. yeah. enough times. he's gone now. but they still get the dogs laying on them. the cats laying on them.

and now our girl dogs have a new issue. leaky.. um.. well. yeah. they're girls. you figure it out. it happens more to maggie than gretchey... it happens to maggie often enough that i encourage her to always sit on a towel when she's on the furniture.. but when it happens to gretchey, it is far more icky. as far as we can tell, through internet searches and consultation with our thankfully in-family ob/gyn, it is probably a hormonal imbalance caused by them being spayed. they'll need to have a weekly hormonal pill. until then, we have leaky vaginas on the couch every now and then. it's as appealing as it sounds. my sis said it happens to one of her girl dogs every now and then, too.

so we really like to keep things covered. so, i got a blanket today. and a ton of dog treats were on clearance, so i got, like, four bags. i started talking to the checkout and realized that EVERYTHING I WAS HOLDING was for the dogs. i felt guilty. i went back to get something for the cats, on principle.

they already have treats. wet food, greenies, etc. they have a laser toy. feather toys. balls. mice. cube things that they don't go in. they have a window seat in the garage they use from time to time. they have cat beds they don't sleep in. they have windowsills all over the house, which they love. so, well.. what can you get them? the dogs can ALWAYS use new treats. cats? they're a bit harder to buy for.

i stood in the cat aisle for, like, 10 minutes. they had felt necklaces for cats. i pictured the cats doing backwards somersaults trying to get them off. they had more of the same of everything i had that they already ignored. finally, i grabbed a bag of pounce treats and headed out. cats..

as i write this, by the way, i have oreo laying on the couch arm next to me and kitten giving herself a bath at my feet. they may be aloof, but they sure do like me.

as for the dogs... thank god for the muzzle.

last night i was on the couch, reading. gretch was next to me, with a chewy in front of her. she is always SUPER protective about her chewies. even when a cat walks by, she barks at them and growls, as if they're going to come after a goddamn pig ear or whatever... well, last night, maggie came over. after the chewy or after my attention, i'm not sure. she just walked over. gretch did her usual "it's mine" bark/growl, complete with teeth bared... i think she even lunged at maggie this time. this is what she always does. it's really very scary.

well. she's used to whatever creature she does it to, whether it be canine or feline, just running off. instead, maggie attacked. next thing i knew, they were all over me. i'm guessing gretch jumped on me for protection. i was screaming, trying to separate them. screaming for chris, who was getting ready for bed in the bathroom.

chris came in and grabbed maggie off gretch and threw her on the floor. he yelled, "no!" and she jumped onto the loveseat. we inspected gretchey carefully, who was shaking and terrified by this time... miraculously, and thanks to the muzzle, there was nothing wrong with her. not one mark. the muzzle is doing its job.

on one hand, i'm really sad - it's been a month since she started wearing the muzzle, and we haven't seen one bit of bad behavior from her. on the other, at least this time the behavior was actually provoked. not that gretchey was seriously trying to fight her, but at least maggie didn't just fly off the handle over nothing. at least we got to teach her a lesson that fighting is bad without having a bleeding dog at the end of it.

by bedtime, they were licking each other again. gretch had been coming around to maggie... this will set them back again, but hopefully not too far.

¶ 3:35 PM