LilGirl had her annual trip to the vet yesterday. Oddly enough, (VERY oddly enough), we had an incident with LilGirl very similar (exactly the same) to the one near the same time (within DAYS) as last year. Again - she has another scratch on her eye that requires drops everyday. But also? The vet confirmed what we started to suspect this week - she’s developing cataracts in both eyes. We had noticed the cloudiness (read: I freaked out shouting “OH MY GOD SHE’S GOING BLIND RIGHT NOW WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO???“). This doesn’t seem to be impairing her at all (no running into walls - which I do repeatedly even without cataracts) so we shouldn’t need to fret about it for awhile. (read: Chill the eff out, Zoot.)

We also bought the first season of Dog Whisperer on DVD last night. I’ve been wanting to watch it forever because everything I’ve read indicates he helps dogs with issues (on a more severe level) that we deal with in our dogs. But - we don’t get the National Geographic Channel with our cable service, so I had kinda stopped thinking about it. However, after reading Dooce’s write-up about it this week, I again became even more determined to watch it.

I’ve been trying to use this perspective in a lot of my behavior lately - even without the awesome Cesar Millan telling me to do so. It’s just a desire that has come over me, to quick FREAKING THE HELL OUT about everything. So, reading what Dooce said inspired me again - hence the trip to Best Buy last night. In short? It rocks. Seriously. I hope it helps us treat our dogs’ neurotic behaviors (they all have them, in different manifestations) but more importantly? I hope it inspires me to continue my baby steps to being the woman I know I can be. One who doesn’t even have a FREAK OUT mode.

Or, one that is only used on severe occasions, like when someone cancels one of my TiVo recordings of The Soup.

p.s. - my camera is back!

Last night, out of the blue, the dogs started FREAKING THE EFF OUT. Now, if they see a person or an animal walking near our house, they freak. Especially Sweetie. But last night? They were ALL doing it to a degree like none I had ever witnessed. I thought Little Girl was going to crawl out of her skin to get out the window. She was actually CRYING she was so worked up.

Of course, our family is a tad lazy and we were just shouting to each other over the dogs, “Jeezus! They sure are freaking out!” and “SHUT UP, I’M TRYING TO WATCH MACGYVER” and “What the HELL is WRONG with you DOGS?” and variations of those exclamations. Of course NikkiZ slept through it all, but we just kept yelling to each other about how much they were freaking. Finally? LilZ, the least lazy of the family, got up to look out the window and see what they were barking at.

Heh. Damn cat was actually in our freaking yard, just TAUNTING the dogs. Like “Ha! You want to get me don’t you? Is this YOUR yard? I think it’s mine now, BITCHES.” Cats are evil in such a glorious way.

Lil’Girl, our female Boston Terrier, likes to bury herself under blankets to sleep. She will dig to the foot of the bed, under gobs of covers, and sleep there all night without making one single movement. She will take the fleece throw off the couches 100 times a day and bury herself under it on the floor. She’ll even use a jacket or a sweater to cover herself with if she finds one handy. It makes us warn all company at our house “Don’t sit down or step on a blanket, you’ll never know what’s under it.” She’s been sat on at least 100 times, and stepped on more, probably. But she still keeps doing it.

Well…she found another technique to fullfilling this need to be covered. Here is the full shot that MrZ walked in on the other day.

And in case you are confused as the perspective, here’s a close-up.

She buried herself BETWEEN the couch cushions. She is not allowed on TOP of them, but she found a way around that rule. I can not imagine a more UNCOMFORTABLE position to sleep in, since she is quite vertical. But she stayed there for awhile, and even let MrZ photograph her. When he found her, the blanket covered her face, so it was an even funnier sight.

My dogs are on crack and acting weird and possessed and I may possibly “accidently” cook them for dinner instead of the Sloppy Joes I was going to cook.

I think they are paying me back for accidently locking Bambi (male cat) in the nursery last night. And before you get all “Don’t put cats in the baby’s room!” NikkiZ doesnt sleep in there - so it’s okay. Sorta. Except for the part that Bambi could not get out for food or potty. Sunflower (female cat) was freaking out when I woke up this morning…trying to get my attention and failing miserably because no one gets my attention before coffee.

When I realized what she was freaking about (maybe an hour later…oops) I felt really horrible because Bambi is such a good cat he didn’t tear up anything and just wanted some love, which made me feel WORSE.

Let’s face it. With a 5 indoor pets a 10-year-old, a newborn, and a husband, they’ll be lucky if that’s the worst that happens.