So - Today has been declared stop cyber bullying day. I feel like I must make a small comment about that. I’ve followed a little bit of the chaos mentioned in that article, although after seeing a few bloggers go through some awful cyber bullying experiences, I’ve simply stopped reading about it. I’m not even thinking about it. I’m simply doing what every blogger who has been through it has said to do: Ignore it. It’s awful, it sucks, but I think the best way to stop cyber bullying - is to ignore it. Probably wishful thinking, and probably naive, but you know what? It helps me keep this blog about rainbows and teddy bears. And that’s the way I like it.

So: How about a little question that is both silly and fascinating all at the SAME TIME. I’m blowing your minds here, people. Step back.

Why is it that ugly dogs are so cute? I have two dogs that fall into a breed that is not conventionally cute, they may even be considered conventionally a little ugly, but not only do I find them utterly and irresistibly adorable - but so does everyone else! It doesn’t work that way for humans, why does it work that way for dogs?

Don’t let the academic prowess I demonstrate intimidate you. Not everyone can be as brilliant as I am.

I’m at home now. NikkiZ had exhausted her “quiet” mode (The last entry was a slight exaggeration. She was really only noisy when I was the only one in the office, and torturing her for entertainment. She became Angelic Quiet Baby when my coworkers were there - she’s no fool.) and I decided to work the rest of the day from home. Her appointment is in a couple of hours anyway. My dogs think they have died and gone to heaven, they’re all, “You’re home! You’re home! Give us treats and scratch our backs!”

My cats, on the other hand, are not that impressed because when I’m home I kick them off the back of the couches - their favorite napping spots. They know they aren’t allowed to sleep there, but they also know when we’re not home we can’t beat them. So, they sleep there all day while we’re at work. We know this by the tons of cat hair left behind as evidence. Cats are too smart to be obedient, but also too cute to eat for dinner.

I woke up this morning and immediately started doing work to prep for our trip today. The first thing I had to do was put a load of laundry in the dryer. As I was squatting down to put the laundry in, with my arms full of heavy wet clothes, Sweetie decided to jump ON MY DAMN BACK. She has NEVER done that EVER. Of course, she gets a little neurotic when she knows something is wrong (she hates to see the suitcases out), but she’s never resorted to playing leapfrog to get attention. Of course it threw me off balance and if it weren’t for the wet clothes cushioning my fall, I would have busted face first on the floor.

Then, as I was walking and carrying NikkiZ’s stuff through the hall, one of my cats sat on the floor in the hallway AT MY FEET. Of course I didn’t see him (or her, I couldn’t tell who it was) but I put my foot down and immediately felt fur and heard and angry “Meow!” as whomever it was ran away. I caught myself before putting all of my weight on that foot, but the maneuver had me busting into the wall on the way down to the floor. Injured: One should and one knee.

AND THEN (Yes, there’s more. The title to this entry is not an exaggeration.) I stepped on a damn cell phone that I know my cats knocked on the floor. They can’t resist pushing stuff off of counters and tables onto the floor. The cell phone survived but the bottom of my foot (I would have to step on the CLIP and cut my foot) and my ankle did not. The odd step caused my ankle to turn and now it’s throbbing.

WHAT THE HELL? Someone paid my animals to take me out, I know. I’ve always joked it would be easy to kill me and make it look like an accident because I’m such a damn klutz. I think my animals heard me say that one day and decided to try to make some money off of that fact. Of course, I don’t know who would want me dead. Maybe Russel Crowe? I tend to bad-mouth him a lot. Or maybe the cashier at Wal-Mart to whom I said, “You know, you don’t have to be rude, I’m just trying to make your life easier,” when she got snotty at me for taking hangers out of the clothes I was buying. She may have not liked my tone and wanted me dead.

I can see the headlines now. Disgruntled Wal-Mart Employee Hires Cats and Dogs to Kill Customer.

Mr. Z here. Zoot’s on the road with the kids, so I thought I would update everyone on Little Girl’s condition. The neck wound that she had was most likely caused by TREMENDOUS amounts of scratching at welps from some allergic reaction that she had. The vet had to knock her out so everything could be cleaned up. Now Lilly G has one rockin’ haircut and is pretty out of it, but she seems to be doing well… all things considered. Click below if you want to see a pic (kinda grody)
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So far this month:

I had to face the facts of the hell that is parenting a middle-school-er

Had my closet collapse on the head of my husband

Dropped my son off at the first day of middle school, making me age 10 years in one trip around a parking lot

Took my daughter to the emergency room to be poked and prodded after she puked on me for several hours on end

Well, I was starting to think this month was out to get me. Damn you August and your vengeful nature! You’ll never forgive me for being born in July, will you? So, I woke up this morning trying to psych myself out for a upswing of my mood. “I will NOT be stressed!” I told myself. I was going to quit letting the little shit bug me and I was going to look at the positive side of my life. Because seriously - my life ROCKS.

Then? Of course, MrZ realized less than an hour ago that LilGirl has a horrible wound on her neck. Like, so bad he almost gagged. Bare flesh. We don’t know what in the hell happened. I looks like a bite without puncture wounds. It looks BAD. And of course, it was 15 minutes after the vet closed so he had to take her to the Vet ER (which will cost us an arm and a leg). And the more we looked at it? The more we realized it looks really infected. I swear it wasn’t like that yesterday, but it looks like an older wound that has been festering. Her glands are swollen.

To put it shortly: We feel like the worst parents in the world. We have no idea how or when this happened, but it was more than a day ago and we missed it. We didn’t even notice her hurting.

So, he’s at the vet with her right now and I’m waiting to hear back from him. Trying my best to be positive.