Busy Aslan

Aslan had a very busy Tuesday! He loves to fetch things for Mom and Dad. One of his favorite games is "foil ball" where Mom and Dad will make a ball out of Hershey Kisses wrappers and throw it for him. He will either bat it out of the air, or go chasing after it and return it to Mom or Dad for them to throw it again.


Tuesday, he decided to fetch some things from the kitchen. This is the lid to Mom's water bottle for the exercise bike. It was on the kitchen counter.

But the one that got him was when he brought Mom a jalapeno from the counter. Mom thought he was bringing her a bug (it's happened before), but then she realized it was a hot pepper. Poor little guy was panting and uncomfortable. Mom noticed a few teeth marks in the pepper from where he carried it, and got him some milk to neutralize the heat. He was OK, but I think he learned a lesson too.

We got a Nano Bug for Christmas. It is like a robotic bug that vibrates around the kitchen floor. We had another one that never really got our attention, but this one has a fuzzy purple tail, and we really like to hunt this one.


Here's Maggie and Huggy Bear investigating the bug. Huggy Bear is really drawn to purples and pinks for some reason, so he was all over this guy.


Huggy Bearin action -- whapping the tail to check things out.


Of course, no hunt is complete until you put your mouth on it. Huggy Bear got a little excited and almost ate the purple tail, so Dad put it away on an old bread in the kitchen. We usually ignore that table, but Huggy Bear wouldn't be denied, and continued to look for the bug and found it on the table. Dad eventually had to put the bug in a drawer and give Huggy Bear some treats for all his hard work.

Our bug came from Target in the cat toy section, but they have other versions with the kid's toys too. If you don't have one, I highly recommend getting one.

Protecting Mom from a skink

Mom's been home sick this whole week, so we've been tasked with monitoring her and making sure she gets enough rest. We've also had to protect her, apparently. On Tuesday Mom was feeling a little bit better and while she was in the kitchen she let us in the garage for some playtime. While we were out there we found a lizard. More specifically, we found a skink. If you're not too familiar with skinks, I think it's what you get when a lizard and a snake have a baby.

Here's what happened:

Mom opened the door from the house to the garage (with the big outside garage door shut). As soon as we get out there she hears all kinds of ruckus. She looks, and Huggy Bear has the skink in his mouth and is running toward the door to show Mom. Mom, less excited than Huggy Bear, quickly shuts the door -- locking us IN THE GARAGE! Well, the door to the garage has a big peep hole, so Mom is watching us play with the skink while she calls Dad to tell him he has to come home and remove the skink from the garage so we can come back in.

In the meantime, we're still playing with the skink. There is a drop cloth on the garage floor from a project Mom and Dad are working on. Well, the skink got under the drop cloth. But that didn't stop us from playing with him. Mom looked out and saw me and HB and Josie on the drop cloth. (Maggie was off doing her own thing.) After a while Mom checked on us and we all looked bored so she opened the door and Huggy Bear came in (no lizard). Then Maggie followed, hoping for some treats. I came in next -- Mom was being very careful to bring us in one at a time in case we tried to sneak the lizard in to play with later. Josie had to be coaxed in because she was determined to make sure that skink didn't try anything tricky. But finally Josie came in too.

Since we came in without the skink Dad didn't have to come home at lunch. So when Dad got home that evening he checked the garage. Apparently we broke our skink. He found a tail bit by the steps and a broken skink under the drop cloth. He has pictures but hasn't uploaded them. The skink was silvery-blue with stripes, probably six or seven inches long -- nothing Mom ever wants in the house again. (Again, because of this incident in 2008.)

I guess the lesson here is, if you have a lizard or a skink to play with, check with Mom forst before inviting her to play -- especially if she's not feeling good. And be careful with your skink/lizard because if you break it they aren't nearly as fun to play with. On the other hand -- once you break your lizard you will get all kinds of treats from Mom.

Cricket slayer

Dad woke up this morning to find a slain cricket in the kitchen. We're not ones to brag on ourselves, but Dad suspects it was Josie because she really likes to patrol the downstairs at night. It's the first cricket that ever made it into the house, but I suspect it didn't have much time to explore -- we're very efficient hunters. It's getting to be that time of year where intruders try to venture in. We don't get many in the house (very few actually) but there's always the garage to patrol.

Huggy Bear and the lizard

For everyone who heard the scream around four o'clock yesterday, have no fear, it was just Mom battling a humongous lizard in the upstairs bathroom. She found it because Huggy Bear was trying to get it, and Maggie was watching him in action. The lizard was hiding behind the bathroom door (opened against the wall). The lizard was about nine inches long, body and tail, and an inch-and-a-half wide in the chest. Mom suspects that Huggy Bear found the lizard in the garage and brought it up to show Mom, but took it to the bathroom where HB likes to hang out.

Mom knew she'd have to capture the lizard herself, and quickly, because she needed to go get Dad from work, and didn't want to leave the lizard in the house (to hide somewhere, or be hunted).

Mom ushered HB and Maggie out of the bathroom. She wanted to try to get a box to put the lizard in, but didn't want to leave the lizard in the bathroom, and all four of us were at the door investigating the commotion on the other side, and digging and pawing at the door. When HB had the lizard cornered, the lizard was perfectly still, but now that it was just Mom and the lizard, things were starting to heat up. Mom dropped the bath mat on the lizard in an attempt to capture it, but the lizard just went wacko. Mom let out an aaah, aaaAAHH, AAAAAHHH because the lizard was thrashing around and flicking his tail and looking at Mom sideways and blinking at her in a threatening way and skating all around the slick bathroom floor. And it was fast, and big and Mom wasn't really sure how she was going to, first, catch it, and second, get it out of the house. So quick thinking, Mom chased the lizard/mini-Komodo Dragon up the shower curtain (where it either bled or defensively oozed onto the white curtain), and tricked it into "escaping" into the trash can. Then Mom covered the trash can with the bath mat and rushed the lizard outside (much to the entertainment of the neighbor, Mom is sure). Later, Mom saw no sign of the lizard, so it survived enough to go somewhere else, hopefully far away.


Huggy Bear was pretty proud of himself, and took a well-deserved rest. He praised Mom for her lizard hunting skills, and gave her the title Lizard Hunter Extraordinaire, and said that should be on a badge or certificate. (Mom hopes to never have to use those skills again.)

Froggy Friday

It must have been a year ago when Josie freaked Mom out by coming in from the garage with her tongue sticking out and dripping mouth foam everywhere, Huggy Bear and Maggie right behind her. Josie apparently corner a frog and Mom suspects Josie licked the frog, leaving her with a bad taste in her mouth and a reason to exit the garage quickly.

So last night, Dad looked into the garage and Huggy Bear, Maggie and Josie were all investigating a corner of the garage. Dad saw where the paint drop cloth had fallen, and figured this had gotten their attention. But as he put the drop cloth away Maggie went deeper into the corner and was looking around an extra plunger (always good to know, if you are a guest -- extra plunger in garage!). When Dad moved the plunger, there it was, another frog in the garage -- the second one in a week. Well, Dad wrangled HB, Josie and Maggie then set the frog free in the bushes out front.

Dad found us checking out another one earlier in the week. Josie had it hopping along the garage door. Again Dad brought us in, opted against licking it like Josie did last year, and instead let it out.


Here's Mr. Frog, in the little sandy spot by the garage. He quickly moved to the mulch and disappeared under a bush.

Tabby Tuxie Tuesday

Tabby Tuxie Tuesday
Originally uploaded by jenianddean

All of us have totally been enjoying the beautiful summer, I mean, fall weather. Mom and dad have had all the windows open and it's been awesome. Josie has been hunting birdies and squirrels all week. She really knows how to give them the business.

On Saturday, she and Maggie had one of their afternoon naps in the family room window. It gets great afternoon sun plus the girls could keep a close eye on the squirrels from this window.