At the vet’s Megan and I took the 15 year old Miss Schatzi for a check-up last week. It’s been over a year since Dr. Carl alerted us to the Swiss Cheesiness of Schatzi’s bones, and five months since she last saw Dr. Karen, so it was time for a check-up. When a dog gets [...]

Weather’s comin’ It was a winter wonderland this morning, Northern California style: hard frost on the grass by the road; the Ridge glittering with frost and puddles frozen. The ocean was shades of pewter and lavender, and the wild, white-crested waves told of storms to come. It looks like we will get another series of [...]

Note: The post below was interrupted by a power outage, literally out of the clear blue sky. I guess I was overly optimistic about the rest of the day being better than the morning. I’m doing laundry before I go to the jobette. It’s a sunny day and I want to hang out laundry while [...]

Star (left) and Schatzi (right) On Friday, Megan and I went to the Farmers’ Market in the Village. I have to admit that the Farmers’ Market has become somewhat less exciting for us since Megan and Jonathan created their amazing garden. Pretty much everything they have at the Farmers’ Market, we already have, though there [...]

Megan’s Boss We all have little tricks for helping us remember things. Post-Its on the mirror so we are reminded of mundanities like picking up milk while applying our DiorShow mascara. The classic string tied around the finger (though I’d probably forget why I tied the string there in the first place, and then I’d [...]

This year was about change: getting the jobette; swimming lessons; having to make peace with driving a lot more. Change is good, right? One deleterious effect of working more is reading less. I read 118 books in 2011, vs. 140 in 2010. The favorites of the year were Sue Grafton’s “V Is for Vengeance” and [...]

Today marks the second anniversary of my moving to Hooterville. What better way to celebrate the occasion than a walk with my sister and Schatzi on the headlands of the Village? Come on, let’s go! Here’s the Village. If it weren’t for the cars, it could be the 1800s: Here you can see the remains [...]

Mugshot Megan was getting ready for work when she discovered that she couldn’t find her handbag. In all fairness, it must be said that she is a little careless of it at times. Mostly it lives on the backseat floor of her car, just as her keys live in the ignition, except when she’s at [...]

Sleeping shop cat in the Castro While we were away, Jonathan was on pet patrol. It turned out to be a lot more complicated than he thought. Early one morning, he woke up freezing, only to discover that his door was wide open. Star was sleeping peacefully, but Schatzi had apparently pushed the door open [...]

Star meets Padawan, June 2010 Yesterday morning, I saw Schatzi go tearing past my house. Alarmed, yet impressed with her speed given her state of decrepitude, I hurried outside to make sure she was OK. Calling her is pointless at this point, yet I persist in doing it. I clapped my hands a few times [...]

Yesterday, Megan and I took Schatzi to the vet. They wanted to take some blood to make sure that her medication isn’t affecting her liver too much. The test results were complete in about ten minutes, and Schatzi’s liver is fine, though her kidneys were showing on the high end of normal. Dr. Karen said [...]

Today’s sunrise I woke up this morning to the comforting sound of the propane heater downstairs. I set it for 52 degrees before I went to bed, so I knew it would be a chilly morning. But for the moment, I luxuriated in the warmth of my bed and the fact that the kittens were [...]

It’s a sunny morning, and you know what that means. It’s still barely 32F/0C outside. I’m drinking hot, black coffee from my tiny, as yet unbroken cup. The kittens are sharpening their claws on the records (a few days ago, I discovered the damage they had done to the Martin Denny section and walked away, [...]

Saturday morning hail Ah, twenty-nine degrees. Bilingually unpleasant, both in Fahrenheit and Celsius. It happens to be the F version here in Hooterville this morning. We knew there was a freeze warning through tomorrow, so I brought in the orchid, fuchsia, geraniums, and marigolds, which were still valiantly blooming. I also left the heater on [...]

About twelve hours after Megan and I parted ways with Lu at the Wharf, we met up at Big River. Ligament tearing seems to be all the rage these days, since both Schatzi and Lu’s dog Marko (who can be admired here) are sidelined with the same injury. Schatzi will see Dr. Karen next week [...]

Megan gets a kiss from Shiloh, Monica’s foster puppy It’s Megan’s birthday today. For the first time we can remember, her traditional birthday BBQ has been rained out. When we were giving Schatzi her walkette yesterday, Megan mentioned that Hooterville’s longest and most beloved resident had recently told her that one year long ago the [...]

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: It’s 35 degrees outside, dark enough that I have the lights on, and it’s pouring. The cats and I are huddled by the heater, the girls in their fur coats and me in two unmatching sweaters. The calendar claims it’s May, but I think there’s been a [...]

The good old days First of all, the truly important news: Schatzi does not need multi-thousand dollar surgery! [Pause while the crowd goes wild] Thank you, thank you. Dr. Karen said we should keep her on the anti-inflammatory for another week, but continue giving her the Chinese herbs for another six weeks. We can start [...]

Thud! Splat! That was my head exploding and falling off. It’s raining yet again. I can’t remember it raining in May since the evil El Nino winter of 1996-1997, when it rained from September until May, and rained every single goddamn day in February. I worked in a cool old brick building in downtown San [...]

Schatzi in a field of clover You know how when you go to the dentist, your tooth stops hurting? Well, Schatzi has her own variation on that. Within an hour of coming home from the vet last week, she was limping around the garden. An investigation of her paw and leg showed former EMT Megan [...]