MIce, Rats and Alien Feet

What do mice, rats and alien feet all have in common? They all exist here at our house.

See this? At first glance one would think mouse.

Here's another one.

These aren't actually rodents. These are clumps of Sebastian's coat. He's leaving these 'mice' behind everywhere he goes. The more we comb him and pull out the clumps, the more he seems to produce. You people with heavy coated dogs such as Huskies and Saints know exactly what I'm talking about. Smooth dogs like Syd and Mac don't blow their coats, they just shed all year round. The Porties shed hair like humans, only instead of leaving it in the brush or the shower, they leave it on the floor in little drifts.

Now, on to rats.
Last month I told you about the new white bear that I gave Bailey to replace her worn out pink bear. Well, I'll admit I made a big mistake. Bailey loved the bear and immediately started carrying it everywhere with her.

One morning as she was trying to sneak it past me at the door, I grabbed the bear by the butt and got a big surprise. While most of the bear was filled with fiber stuffing, his butt was filled with styrofoam pellets.  Have any of you every tried to clean up styrofoam pellets from a carpet or a long haired dog? It's impossible.

When Morgan was a puppy I left the dogs in the house  one day when I went shopping. When I returned, Monty met me at the door to report on Morgan's bad behavior. Monty always was a tattle tale. Morgan had found Rob's lap desk that was filled with pellets and had ripped the fabric open. Then I guess she shook it and rolled around with it. The living room was filled with tiny styro pellets. That was the day I learned that those things are impossible to vacuum or broom sweep. They just float around and cling to everything. Morgan was covered in them and I carried her outside and shook her, then hand picked them out of her coat. We were picking up pellets for weeks. Just when we thought they were all gone, we'd move something and there they were again.

After that experience, I've been very careful about what the dogs get to play with. I was really surprised that the new bear had gotten by my inspection. Unfortunately, I had to dispose of him. Bailey looked all over for her friend, so I went to the dollar store that afternoon and found a cute little dog toy. It was a bright color and squishy. It had a couple squeakers and also made a crinkling sound. I put it in Bailey's crate at bedtime as a surprise. She sniffed it, but has never picked it up. It's still in the corner of her crate. She doesn't like it.

I went to my library closet where I keep a big bag of toys in reserve  and sorted thru. Bailey likes toys of a certain size and weight. She likes them to be fuzzy and have dangling legs. I found a gray Christmas rat that fit the bill. He was wearing a Santa hat and carried a candy cane. I snipped both of those off to save Bailey the trouble of removing them.

I put Ratty in her crate at bedtime. The next morning she came out carrying him and he's now her constant companion. It was love at first sight. I had planned to snap a picture of them last week and I wish I had because a couple days ago Ratty stuck his nose where it didn't belong and Bailey punished him by removing his nose.

She also brought me this rat tail the other day.

I'll keep it with the eyeball that Tsar brought me one morning as I was having breakfast. He wanted to trade it for a piece of my bagel. He had removed it very carefully from one of Monty's toys. Monty didn't seem to miss it.

Now about those alien feet.

These are Sebastian's feet. I love the long hair that grows up between his toes. I know I should trim his feet to make them look more like normal dog feet, but they amuse me and so I just stroke them and tell him how pretty he is.

 I may not have the neatest house, but it's never boring.