Albus + Harry Potter

Going to the midnight premiere tonight. And no, the cat was not technically named after the character. It's a long story.

Bath Day

I meant to post this earlier, but I've honestly been too lazy to upload the images until now.

Clean puppy, still damp

The bathtub drain

On Wednesday, I gave Ebon a bath. Nothing special about that. It does amuse me, however, the sheer amount of fur that I get off of that dog every time I bathe him. It tends to look like I murdered a small animal. When balled up, I got a full handful out of the drain (so that's not counting the other handful or so that came out later when he dried out). I realize that Labradors often have more coat than you would expect, but Ebon's coat is very sleek for a Lab.

After the dog gets a bath I always try to go and wash all of the beds and blankets. We actually have quite a lot. There are four dog beds: a lot for one dog, but we had two not so long ago. There's also the blankets that always reside in Ebon's kennel. So, it's a lot to wash. I gathered everything up, piling the uncovered beds on top of the dog kennel to keep them from getting dirty. The covers went in the washing machine and when I turned around I saw something rather predictable in my house:

Albus had hopped onto the pile. That cat gets into everything. As with him drowning his toy mouse, it's more of Albus being Albus. He's very predictable, honestly. He has to hop onto everything, and especially into any box or bag that happens to be on the floor. In doing so, he once managed to get himself caught in a television box. He hopped into it from the back of a chair not realizing the sides were taller than his "jump maximum." He has a very distinctive desperate meow in situations like that.

By the way, that's his "you caught me" face.

I do occasionally subject Ebon to wearing things, though it's usually just a bandana. He looks good in red, so he has his very own red bandana.

All of This for Cheese Crackers

Three attentive little creatures: Ebon, Albus, and Ginny

I mentioned a little bit ago about Albus' love of cheese crackers. Well, he's not alone. At one time or another, all of the pets (the mammals at least) have managed to get their paws on one and they've gone crazy for them. I decided to have a little snack of Goldfish crackers today, and within a minute this happened. That's my foot, and they are all in fact staring directly at me. Well, Ginny was, but she glanced down right before the flash went off. Isn't that always how it happens?

Albus is the worst offender. He knows what the packages sound like when you open them and he will come running, meowing and purring and pawing at the counter in the hope that he will get one. He's always done this, but he's been spoiled a bit lately because he lost weight during his hospital stay and he's become especially bratty. It's funny because Albus goes gaga over cheese crackers, but he won't touch real meat. They get some occasionally as a treat, and though the others chow down he'll just sniff it and walk away. He's a very odd cat.

Ebon, being a dog, is nearly always at hand in case someone drops something. He especially likes crunchy things because they have nearly the same texture as the treats I use when training him, and he always gets excited about the prospect of training. I suspect he associates anything crunchy with this, and thus crackers = crunchy = treats = fun times. With a simple word he'll stop begging, but this was just too funny.

Ginny was a bit of a surprise. She's not very fond of Ebon because he's so much larger than her and his playfulness doesn't mesh well with her skittish nature (due to the fact that she's rather feral). However, they're on fairly good terms and she does love cheese crackers nearly as much as the other two. I think she's also learning what the package sounds like.

And yes, I gave in and they each got one. Except Ginny. She managed to put on weight while Albus lost it, so I'm being hard-hearted and abstaining from giving her any treats.