Awfully white around here

One of the things I do as part of the Pet Adoption Center is take in foster dogs, usually the smallest ones who wouldn't do well at the Center. Last summer it was a couple of litters of bottle-feeding pups, a couple of Dachsunds and a Cocker with a broken leg. Now it's two miniature poodles who came to me with matted fur and ticks, who may or may not be mother and daughter, that I have named Sadie and Suzi (after my friend who helped pay their vet bills).

What's funny about the current menagerie is that everybody's white. My own Maltese, Chica, is white with a touch of gold on her back and ears. My foster cat Sugar is pure white. And the poodles are white. 

While they're not exactly leash-trained or housebroken, I think we've made some progress in the two weeks the poodles have been here. Now I hook leashes on them and we walk together, including the cat who likes to stalk us as we stroll through the condo complex. I just let the poodles' leashes trail behind them because they stick right with me, but I plan to start holding the other ends soon. I read somewhere it's a good way to leash-train an adult dog.

As always I'll feel a great loss when they're gone, but that's just part of being a foster mom, I'm told. I'll get over it.

Mystery of the Disappearing Cats

My neighbor the Cat Man was very upset last week when he told me all his cats had disappeared. At last count, I believe he was feeding 17 cats, most of them feral but a couple were allowed into his house. When I talked to him, there was a huge black tom walking with him, but he said all the rest had vanished, just within the last hour.

That was also the last day I saw Fé. She wasn't pleased when we took in Sugar for fostering, but they were starting to adapt to each other, so I don't think she left in a huff. She was an indoor/outdoor cat when we adopted her last fall and I couldn't see trying to keep her indoors, especially since I always considered our neighborhood very safe, facing onto the golf course instead of the street. But it appears that wherever the Cat Man's cats went, Fé went too.

Since then, I have only allowed Sugar into the patio when I can be there to keep an eye on her. The Capt and I still sometimes walk around the neighborhood calling Fé, hoping she'll turn up, but now it's been almost a week and we are discouraged.  She was only with us for about eight months, but she was so much a part of our lives, it will take a while to get used to not seeing her perched by the front door, surveying her territory.

Decorative new desk accessory keeps it all tidy—or else

Unless I keep all loose objects tucked away (where they belong), Sugar will make them disappear. My desk has never been so orderly.