adventures in birdland

sunday afternoon, the pets and i heard some fidgeting at the door and thought someone was trying to break in. when i didn't see anyone through the peephole, i opened up the door and it turned out to be a bird that flew into the storm door and temporarily got stuck between the wrought iron bars. poor thing. it was rather stunned and just sitting on our steps for some time and pablo loved it. he even started chirping!

STAY!! NO!!

sunday marked the second time that iris, zoe and i encountered a stray dog during our walk. the first time went much more smoothly - i noticed the stray pit bull, picked up the dogs and calmly walked back to the house. even though the dog followed us the entire time, he too was rather calm and didn't put up a fight when we went inside.

yesterday, however, was much more chaotic. i took them on their afternoon walk during a slight lull in the rain. they went about their business and we were walking back - literally only one house away from the sweet sanctity of home! when seemingly out of nowhere, i see a giant schnauzer on steroids sprint in our direction. i was pretty out of it (a pleasant combination of a major allergy migraine, felt lightheaded from the staining, and dehydration), so my reaction time was slow and didn't pick them up before he got to us. instead i reacted by yanking iris and zoe's leashes up and away. poor zoe was suspended in mid-air for most of the ordeal, being yanked in a bunch of different directions while i repeatedly yelled "NO!! STAY!!" at the giant beast. the dog had a collar with a tag, but that doesn't mean much in this city, plus i've never seen him before. i was not about to reach my hand in while he was trying to smell them and risk them being attacked or a round of rabies shots for myself. eventually i managed to get iris and zoe up the steps, but i had to unlock the door without looking at what i was doing, since by this point, the dog followed us up the stairs. i once read a story about a stray pit bull that followed an owner home, got inside and killed her cat. i was not keen on repeating this story so i yelled once more and got all of us inside safely.

dealing with a stray dog is stressful, to say the least - afterwards i was shaky and nearly started crying. stray dogs put other dogs and their owners in danger. since this dog had a collar, i am assuming it had an owner... but do not own a dog if you are unable to properly care for it and take responsibility for its actions - i never once heard or saw the possible owner coming to look for it during our ordeal. what if our dogs or others in the neighborhood got attacked?

productivity rules, part deux

although we had originally planned to go to the march for the animals on sunday, a horrible forecast of heavy rain forced us to change plans at the last minute. the event was rain or shine but iris and zoe hate the rain; it would have been pure torture for them.

so what is the next best thing? a trip to ikea! this week we headed to the college park ikea, since the one in white marsh was out of stock of a few things. it turns out that this store was too, but when i called on sunday morning before we drove down, the woman i talked to swore the piece was in stock... grr...

the rest of sunday was spent staining wood to match the (in-stock) pieces we picked up at ikea and doing some other odds and ends around the house. i went to bed super tired, a bit lightheaded, and sore. what a combination, but at least it was a productive day.

productivity rules

this weekend we finally got around to installing curtains in the bedroom. this is not to say that for the past three years we didn't have anything - there were ridiculously crappy and filthy blinds left by the previous occupants that we used until we "rehabbed" and then j tried installing an ikea set a few months ago, but stopped after one window because it wasn't working as well as we hoped. so for a while we had one window bare, which is always fun times when living within spitting distance of your neighbors.

on saturday we decided to hit up ikea to see if they had some sort of table that we could use to set the scanner and the printer on in order to free up some extra space so we could use the futon again or buy the ikea mini-couch/sleeper for chillaxing/overnight guests. unfortunately, there were no good tables but i did notice their window treatment section with rods for $3, cool finials for $3 and curtains for $5. whoo hoo! it took all of 10 minutes to set up and now the room looks classy! the only downside is that pablo is obsessed with the curtains.

bats

up until yesterday, i lived my life without fear of bats. now everything has changed.

last night i took iris and zoe down to the grassy gnoll #1, where we take them every day to do their business. when we arrived, i noticed something flash by in my upper periphery. i stopped to take a better look, and sure enough there were godforsaken BATS circling above. at first i thought it could be some crazy in love sparrows, but i heard the telltale "clap clap" that their ratty wings make while flying. all of a sudden something clicked, and i went from forgetting bats exist to being rather afraid of standing in that location while iris took forever to go to the bathroom. perhaps it was because i had exposed skin (tshirt weather) or maybe it was because they seeemed to get a kick out of flying low to the ground in circles that just missed my head by mere inches every 10 seconds or so. either way, i am not a fan! even doing a bit of "wisearch" (wikipedia research; said like a kid with a lisp) for this entry, i got squeamish: bats carry rabies and sars! bats bite humans! bats are flying rats! disgusting.

one another note, i find it extremely strange that our neighborhood is home to woodpeckers, bats, and praying mantis, among other things. i never would have expected to see so much fauna in a city, let alone in baltimore.

mona, queen of the house

for the past week or so, mona has taken over the house like never before. usually relegated to the living room out of fear (of pablo), mona has apparently decided the rest of the house is now her oyster and willingly can be found upstairs lounging/sleeping, exploring the digs, or trying to kill the pigeon through the bedroom window.

the question remains: is mona braver or pablo less threatening?

some things i learned

while mobile blogging didn't exactly go as planned (too busy and too tired), i have compiled a few nuggets of wisdom i picked up during my trip.

-ikea manages to trick you every time with their horrible directions. label each piece or add some words, for christ's sake!

-chipotle raises their prices according to the market. a vegetarian burrito cost $7.71 plus tax!

-apparently it is possible to house two insanely large dogs in an insanely small nyc apartment (speculation; saw two dogs on the street and am assuming their owner is not crazy rich with their own townhouse).

-avoid the checkout line on a saturday afternoon at manhattan's only tj maxx.

-although there are explicit signs stating that honking will come with a $350 fine, it appears as if they are just for decoration or to appease some crazy community activist.

missing a tooth

even minus a tooth, iris is still the best dog ever. today we took iris for her first dental. for those of you that hate the dentist be happy you're not a dog - their procedure involves bloodwork and anaesthesia! when we picked her up she seemed really groggy, but after the short car ride home she had way too much energy for someone that just had outpatient surgery! i think she thought we would feed her (no food since 24 hours ago and no more until tomorrow morning). this photo was taken when she finally got tired again.

if pets are this challenging...

since returning home from oregon, j and i have gotten serious about training zoe - once and for all. let me just say that teaching an approximately five year old chihuahua where and when to go to the bathroom seems to follow the old adage that you can't really teach an old dog new tricks. because we adopted her from a shelter later in life, we really have no idea about her past owner(s) and what kind of training she received, if at all. the only thing we know for sure is spaying and self-control were not at the top of the list. (as a side note, we are considering sharing with the world what we consider to be a real contender for the title of funniest pet video ever made.)

as we continue with the training (and she continues to learn and make the occasional mistake) it is hard to stay mad at her for long.