This is Zoe trying to engage her Aunt Maggie in a super-fun doggie romp. Maggie isn’t interested, and doesn’t seem to understand what Zoe is even talking about.

Update: Mom reports that when she played the video, Maggie started barking at it.

AJ: That’s right. Cats have pointy ends.

Me: Five of them.

AJ: Exactly.

Me: You know that if they could, they’d evolve spikes on their tails. Like dinosaurs.

AJ: They’d also want to fly. And shoot fire out of their mouths.

A few days later, someone from the group called. The dog I was interested in was adopted, she told me, but what kind of dog was I interested in? I explained that my family has had cocker spaniels since I was eight years old, and that was about the size and temperament of dog I was looking for.

Well. “Did you meet Zoe, the little cocker we had at the clinic?” she asked.

“Yes. She’s so sweet! I loved her.”  Ten days later, I brought her home.

Here’s her description from the brief time she was on Petfinder and the rescue group’s page:

Zoe
Cocker Spaniel

Size: small
Sex: female
Age: adult

Notes: Zoe is a five-year-old, spayed female, black Cocker Spaniel. She is just about the perfect dog–sweet, well-behaved, and great with everyone.

She’s housebroken and crate trained. We’d like to see Zoe be adopted by someone who knows and loves this breed of dog. Zoe lost her home due to a divorce in the family.

I have to agree. She’s the perfect dog for me, at least. We’re a good personality match.

“Loves everyone?” Yes. To a fault.  It’s a struggle to keep her from running up to everyone she sees on a walk. People we meet on the sidewalk, people sitting on their front porches, people gardening…. She’s getting better about this, but she’s friendly to a fault. Not everyone likes dogs, and a few toddlers have been scared of her. (All 16 pounds of her.) She is especially eager to run up to kids–her previous owners were a family with three of them. This bad but not as bad as it could be–I’ve interacted with more of my neighbors in the last four weeks than I did in four years living in my old apartment.

I’ve learned that she’s obsessed with fruit. I think you could put a plate of steak and a plate of watermelon in front of her, and she’d go for the watermelon. I haven’t tested this, though. She peeled three bananas with her paws and teeth and ate them last night.  Talent.

She doesn’t bark much, which is a good quality for an apartment dog. She loves to cuddle and sit in my lap, which I enjoy.

We’ve had a happy month together.

I adopted a lot sooner than I had expected, because I fell in love with Zoe. And who wouldn’t?

Do not annoy him. Do not make him angry. Why? Because he will MESS YOU UP.

RAR RAR HAMSTER RAGE

But if you’re nice to him, he will not bother you. He will be innocent and adorable…like this.

Consider it a warning.

Two weeks ago, my hamster Rodney broke out of his cage. It took a while for me to find him, because he didn’t want to turn himself in like most loose hamsters eventually do.

He found something on the floor that hamsters shouldn’t eat, ate it, and it made him horribly ill. The above picture is him wrapped in a blanket, on top of a heating pad. I kept him warm, hydrated, and cuddled, but without knowing what he ate, and having gone for so long, even the emergency vet couldn’t have saved him. 

He was only six or seven months old. I haven’t been able to bring myself to go find a new pet. This is the longest I’ve gone hamsterless since fall 2002. I’m heartbroken, guilty, and I miss him a lot. This was so soon after my dwarf hamsters Cartman and Kylie died…and they were also far too young. Pet rodents don’t live long, but it’s so sad when their lifespan is less than a quarter of what it should have been.

Good-bye, Rodney Stanger Northrup/Rodders/Rodney Bear. You were sweet and soft and a good companion.

Only with more wildflowers. And maybe more puppies.

Having Bandit limited some of what we could do, but not by much. For some stores and a coffee shop, we took turns hanging out with Bandit outside. I think he liked being included.

We visited the Grafton Peace Pagoda (it’s a lovely spot, and was on our route), and made shopping stops in Williamstown, Lenox, and Stockbridge. I didn’t find anything I needed or that fit at any of the thrift or consignment stores that were our main goal, and one store we were interested in was temporarily closed (Noooo!) but I did hit Colorful Stitches a little hard.

Williamstown is lovely but brought back bad memories of the time I spent imprisoned in Clinton.

Except for how these hamsters were filmed in a studio. But that’s still TOTALLY WHAT THEY WOULD DO. If they didn’t have food dishes.

She was just about five months old. Kylie died even younger. They were victims of the scourge of diabetes in Campbell’s dwarf hamsters.