Tsar Wins Cat-egory

A short time ago the winner of the 2010 MangoMinster Cat-Dog Group was announced and the Honorable Judge Khyra kept the high suspense by announcing the winners in reverse order.

Third place went to the big eared Hyssing.
Second place went to the furry Mica.
And the group winner was ME.


Mom says I must thank Judge Khyra and my fellow contestants. She also tells me that I finished second in the internet poll and thanks must go out to all those who voted. I agreed to thank you all, but don't expect me to carry out any commands. We cats don't like to do that kind of stuff.

I'm taking my big win in stride. I was outside when Mom got the news and she came to tell me. I wagged my tail, for us cats that is a big show of pleasure.

Mom, on the other hand, is very excited about my victory and that does make me happy because tomorrow is my Mom's birthday and if she is still this happy tomorrow, I might get some of her cake. As you all know, I am indifferent to my dog food, but birthday cake is another matter.

Now voting still continues at MangoMinster. Todays group is the Hounds. Be sure and hurry over there and cast your vote. We already voted for our friend Sissy, the Basset with attitude.

Dictated by Tsar

Away We Go

It snowed all day Friday and most of the night. When we went out Saturday morning there was plenty of snow on the ground and it was the good soft kind that was fun to play in.


What's Dad doing inside? Why isn't he out here playing with us?


Wow, what's that thing?


Let's take a closer look at that yellow and blue thing.


I've got it. It's all mine.


No Noah, you have to share.


We want to see it, too.


The first run down the hill.


Are you all right, Dad?


Wow, you went fast, Dad.


That was fun.


Now what do we do?


Getting ready for the second run, everybody wants to ride along.


No guys, there only room for me.


Stand back everyone.


Oh oh, Morgan thinks Rob is in trouble. Last year she saw Rob on the sled and to save him she grabbed his leg and bit down. He had a bruise for a month. He hopes that this time he can convince her that he's OK and avoid a painful bite.


Let's go help Morgan save Dad.


We're coming Morgan. We'll save you, Dad.


Come on guys, Dad needs our help.


Don't run into him.


Boy, that was fun. Can we do it again?


Good girl, Morgan. Thanks for not biting.


Now we all have to run back up the hill.


Look at Norma Jean run.


I've got snowball feet. Let's go inside and have cookies.

When the pups were about six weeks old we had some snow. I took the sled outside and five of them ran over and sat down on it. Their combined weight made it start moving. All five sat up very straight with their heads up and ears flying and rode it all the way down the hill. The other three ran along behind it. Of course, I didn't have my camera with me and they never repeated their performance.

Vote For Tsar

The voting starts today for MangoMinster. Tsar is entered in the Best Cat-Dog Group and today is the only day the public can vote in that category. Tomorrow we'll be voting for a different group. Go to MangoMinster.blogspot.com and cast your vote today. Voting ends at 7 PM EST Sunday.


Please vote for me!

Save The Mess

Whether we knit, crochet, sew, quilt, cross stitch or do any other type of needlework, we all have the same messy problem. We all have the ends to deal with. After finishing them off, we clip the leftover yarn or thread or floss. Then what?


If you're anything like me, some of it winds up on the floor or the furniture, no matter how careful I am.


Now I don't throw it away. I stick a small ziplock bag in my knitting bag and in go all the yarn and floss ends. I have another bag tucked into the sewing cabinet.

About once a month I take the colorful mess outside and spread it out along the top of the hedge. We also stick some on a tree branch. The birds will be attracted by the colors and carry it away to use as nesting material.


I used to offer it to my birds when they were nesting and they loved carrying it around and tucking it into their nest boxes. Now that I have only female birds, they still enjoy playing with string and thread. Holly likes to chew on her duck toy with the strings hanging down.


Cloud loves this thread toy that was originally meant as a dog toy. She grooms it daily and when she needs to hide, she sticks her head deep into the thread.

Another nesting material highly prized by wild birds is dog hair. When you groom the pups, gather up a handful of the soft, fluffy hair and leave it in a bush or fork of a tree. The birds will appreciate the soft fur for lining the nests and you'll have recycled at the same time.

Tempers Flare

Did you ever have a fight with your best friend and afterwards you felt awful? The next time you saw each other, you were so happy to be together that you forgot about who was right and who was wrong and the whole thing seemed unimportant.


This has been a rough week here at Legacy. Samba and Morgan are best friends. They do everything together, but occasionally, like any best friends, they have a little disagreement. Usually there is some growling and maybe they will snap at each other, but there is almost never any blood shed.


This week was different. Going out the door into the yard Samba growled at Morgan and Morgan snapped at Samba. That might have been the end of it except that Samba's four daughters were right there and came to their mother's defense. They all attacked Morgan.


I was right there to break it up and send everyone to their corners, but there were some casualties. Samba has a spot on her shoulder where she was scratched and she lost a patch of hair. Because of her illness, her hair comes out very easily, so it looks worse than it is.

Morgan has a couple of cuts on her ear. At first I was worried because there was quite a bit of blood, but if you've ever cut your ear, you know they bleed like crazy. Once I got it cleaned up and some ointment on it, it didn't look so bad. Morgan was pretty upset, so she got lots of special attention all day. Today they're BFFs again.


The bad boy has been at it this week. Fudge has been pushing Noah around until Noah couldn't take any more and fought back. Fudge wound up with a little cut under his eye. It's pretty well healed up now, but you'd think that dog would learn. he pushes the others around till they fight back, but he always loses the fight. Fudge is the one who always gets hurt.


Noah walked away without a scratch. Fudge never gets the message, though.


After Noah beat him up, Fudge turned his attention to Norma Jean. He won't leave her alone. He follows her around and he pushes toys in her face and to get her attention he tried nipping her. I heard her squeal and went to her defense, but not before she chased him away and twisted her foot. Now she's limping around and I'm keeping her close to me to watch her. Sometimes she forgets her limp and chases around the yard with her sisters, so I don't think it's too serious an injury.


Then there's Bailey. Bailey has been busy trying to excavate the yard. Who knows what she's hunting for, but she digs deep holes and she does it fast. Then she sticks her face into the hole to try to find her prey. Apparently she's inhaled too much dirt this week and has a cough that sounds like she's been smoking cigarettes. She's getting liquid Benedryl morning and evening and the cough is getting better. I'm also trying to keep an eye on her to prevent any more digging.

You may think things are out of control here, but consider if you had ten 2 year olds playing together in the sandbox everyday. Believe me, you'd have some similar problems.

I take full responsibility for the short tempers. I have been sick since Thanksgiving. My doctor, after running a bunch of tests, has decided that I had strept throat and an infected saliva gland. A double course of antibiotics have made my throat better, but the meds have upset my stomach badly. I only have a couple more days on them, then I hope to start feeling better.

Because I've been sick for so long, I haven't been giving the dogs all the exercise they need. We usually play lots of games with them and show them lots of new activities to keep them busy, but lately, it's been out and right back in. Like any bored kid, they've been getting on each others nerves.


We have a yard full of mud from all the snow melting, so our solution was to buy 40 bales of straw to cover the yard. Rob has been putting down grass seed, then covering it with a thick layer of straw. It's helped enormously. I haven't had to wash 40 feet every time they come inside and we can walk thru the yard without sinking up to our ankles in mud.

I haven't been completely out of it while I was sick. I did a lot of reading and a little knitting.


Dawn, if you're reading this, here is the lapghan that I finished. I'll be getting in touch for your address to send it to you.

So, for Thankful Thursday, I glad that I'm feeling better and nothing serious showed up on all the tests. I'm thankful that none of my pups got hurt badly and they're all getting along well now.
I'm thankful that I don't have to slog thru inches of mud anymore.

In case you're wondering, when the dogs go outside to play, Fudge is spending the time sitting in a crate by himself. When everyone else, except Tsar, comes inside, then he gets to go out and run around. I'm hoping I can impress on him that the others don't like being pushed around. Things are seldom dull around here.

Dinner For Two

What is Morgan watching?


This little fellow is eating birdseed that dropped on the deck from the feeder.


His brother is sitting on the railing eating his share.


Now the hungry pair has climbed onto the bird feeder to get some sunflower seeds.


It's quite a balancing act for these two fat little squirrels to balance on that feeder. Yesterday one lost his balance and fell to the ground. He immediately climbed the tree to get back on the feeder.


Isn't it nice to go out to lunch with a friend?

Smiling on Friday

I missed Thankful Thursday yesterday, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to smile about this week.

I have some before and after shots of Samba's legs.

This was taken a couple weeks ago. She was losing hair and had red sore spots on her skin form the prednisone.


This was taken today. The red spots are gone and hair is starting to grow in. Right now it's fine black peach fuzz (disgusting image) and because her feet are wet, it's hard to see, but trust me, it's there.


The right rear foot a couple weeks ago.


The same foot today. As you can see she continued to lose hair and had rather naked feet, legs and tail for awhile, but she's going to have fuzzy feet again by summer. I'm sure of it.


This is the best thing ever. She chases her ball and picks it up to bring back to me. This ball is larger than a tennis ball, so she has to open her mouth pretty wide to pick it up.


Although she seems to be carrying the ball more on one side of her mouth, it's actually the more damaged side on which she's holding it. Not only can she carry the ball now, but she can catch it. This is huge, because at the end of November she couldn't open her mouth wide enough to pick it up.
Had the disease progressed, she wouldn't be able to open her mouth enough to eat and would have needed to be fed paste like substances with a syringe.

I have found a support group of others whose dogs have MMM. We offer each other information, advice and most importantly, hope. They feel that Samba is doing well and I appreciate their feedback.


Samba puts her head in my lap and says 'Don't worry Mom, I feel good and I'm going to get even better." This dog never fails to make me smile. What a trooper.