Furry News!

I know this is technically a food blog, but don't you think it's time for a post full of pictures and news about our sweet fur family?! 

Dottie Bonkers

Sweet Dottie Bonkers.

Dottie is spunky and nosey and curious about every thing and every one. If you get out of bed, she will follow you. If you get off the sofa, she is right there with you. She follows the cats around the house relentlessly (much to their dismay). She is always paying attention and keeping track of what's going on.

If she sees a squirrel in the back yard she goes absolutely nuts and starts woof-woof-woofing her way all the way out the doggie door. By that point, the squirrel has long since taken off!

But she's also so shy and coy. She'll duck her head if you try to pet her. She likes to lie under the desk while I work at the computer. I think it's a cozy little nook where she can keep an eye on things and also avoid being petted. 

Dottie has the most piercing and shrill bark and she is not afraid to share it with the world. She doesn't want you to pet her, but she also doesn't want you to pet anyone else either. NO. So if I start petting Stevie or Snoopy, Dottie will stand 5 feet away and bark at us like a maniac. This is a bit nuts. 

She has a super sweet and kinda new thing that Mr VE&T got her doing: After a dog walk, she jumps back up into the car and for some reason, this is the time that she loves to get petted. She gazes into our eyes, with her ears all tucked back and just soaks up as much affection as we will dish out at her. 

Francisco "Footie" Foot-Foot

Footie is such a rascal!! It's been two years now that we've had Footie and he is FINALLY feeling like part of the family. It took him such a long time to get used to the dogs, and for Yummers to stop attacking him relentlessly.

Footie is truly a free spirit. Some nights he'll slip out the doggie door and we won't see him until 9 or 10 am the next day. Just this morning, he didn't come home for breakfast. Then, sometime around 11 am he showed up with his face covered in dirt, looking expectantly for his breakfast. Ha ha. Where has he been???

Other nights, he'll spend the whole night power-snugging on Mr VE&T. Those two have a deep, deep bond that is absolutely darling. After all this time, I finally get a few enthusiastic snugs from Footie every day, but his main focus is definitely not on me.

At bed time, Mr VE&T plays a special beeping sound on his cell phone, and Footie will come (literally) running into the bed room for snuggles and purrs and pets. He just loves the sounds that come out of the cell phone!

Snoopy Snoppy

Our sweet little Fella Snoopy. Snoopy has been getting a lot of attention and care lately, because after a really long stretch of good health, he recently hurt his back again. Man, I love this little booger so darned much. 

When he's feeling good, Snoopy is just a loveable clown filled with joie de vivre. Even the tiniest thing is cause for celebratory wiggingly and panting and frisky fun. When he gets really excited, he taps his little toenails on the ground and snaps his teeth like a snapping turtle. It's all so silly and cute. 

Lately he's been much more subdued, but every day he gets a little of his silly spunk back, and a little more spirit in his eyes, and I get a little more relief in my heart. Who knows what the future holds for this little guy and his fragile spine, but it's a good lesson in impermanence for me. He's my super cuddly sidekick and I'm grateful for every day together with him. 

Snoopy's primary interests are Food and Warmth -- and a great deal of his day is spent in pursuit of those hobbies. He also maintains a disciplined practice of sitting on the back of the sofa and going absolutely ape anytime anyone or anything outside moves. It is both hilarious and maddening! He loves to howl, and after we adopted him, Stevie Wonder learned to howl -- which was very cute. 

Stevie Wonder

Wonderbear! Bearpig! Stevie Weevie! Stevie was our first dog that we got together, and we didn't really realize that she would have preferred to remain our only dog. She's shy and sweet and absolutely devoted to us. One of her favorite things is if we completely ignore the other two dogs and just gaze into her eyes and pet her and swoon over her like she is the only dog in the world. She just soaks it up.

Every time I'm cooking in the kitchen and I look down, she's right there, looking up at me. SO ENDEARING. She shoots little love beams out of her eyes and they hit me right in the heart.

Stevie can mope around the house like a pro, but when it's time for a dog walk, she puffs up and comes to life! She sniffs and prances and runs and lopes with such joy when she's outside -- it's a completely different side to her personality. Sometimes, when she's just sitting outside in the backyard, she looks like she's been reading too much existentialist literature... contemplating the meaninglessness of it all. But just a moment of dog walking time, and her head out the car window solves all of her heavy woes.

Stevie's favorite things are for you to pet her bald little armpits and/or for her to maniacally lick your hand. Preferably both at the same time. It gets old (for us), but she seems to have no threshold, and it makes her so happy... so of course, we acquiesce.

Yummers Potatoes

Yummers was the very first pet we got together... and now he's about 15 years old. He's the old man of the house, and other than an occasional little problem here or there, he seems to be doing really well.

Yummers is "highly food motivated," as the vets like to say, and absolutely goes bananas for meal time or treats. Around dinner time, he starts hunting the other pets -- especially Dottie. He and Dottie have this hilarious cat-and-mouse routine where they each taunt one another mercilessly and then try to act innocent and persecuted when we tell them to stop. It's so funny.

Yummers loves to cuddle on the sofa with us at night, which is kind of a new thing. For years he really wasn't all cuddly, but now he really looks forward to our cozy sofa time together at night. Even if we've been out late (which is quite rare), I still try to spend some time on the sofa with him before going to bed.

Sometimes, if I'm lucky, I'll wake up to find Yummers cuddling between my feet. He's warm and smooshy and sweet in the morning... but he's not reliable. In fact, it seems like he has a special knack for coming to bed on the mornings when I have to get up super early, and then forgetting all about my desperate need for kitty snuggles on the mornings when I actually have time to sleep in and snuggle him. Sigh! This is the prerogative of being a cat!

This is the response to "Who wants a cookie?!"

Snoopy must be right under my feet, because he is definitely VERY interested in cookies

Winner: Congrats to Sherielynn who won a copy of "The Great Vegan Protein Book"!

ps. I'll be doing another giveaway on Friday, 

for Miyoko's latest amazing book "The Homemade Vegan Pantry"