September 29, 2006

Mighty Huntress is She

As we walked last night and came upon the corner, Lola snapped at something in her no-fly zone and injured it. (I guess all our tennis-ball-catching has honed her hunting skills.) I barely got a glance at it (something in the nature of a grasshopper or a preying mantis), since Lola proceeded to try to eat it, and I tried to drag her across the street away from her prey. Once across the street, she planted her butt down, staring back at her fallen prey with a big grin on her face and Did Not Want To Move. It was so cute.

She was sooooo proud of herself the rest of the night. :)

September 23, 2006

In Memoriam

Lola has lost two fur-pals to mental illness this past year...

Grim - thank you for sharing your home with Lola. We know that was not easy for you.

Indy - you were Lola's first and only Valentine, and a very sweet boy.

You will both be missed.

September 11, 2006

Adult Entertainment

I received a letter from Lola's regular vet a few days ago. Apparently, the new owners of the building next door to them (a defunct Shakey's Pizza) have petitioned the city of Pasadena to open an establishment for "adult entertainment" (some incarnation of strip club). You know, I pretty much a live and let live kind of person, but it seems like a terrible location - it's very residential, near grade schools & next to several family-friendly businesses like my vet's office (who are known to give school tours several times a year). Residents in that part of Pasadena are fighting it - not just to stop the strip club, but to have the city adopt a code requiring adult entertainment businesses be at least 500 yards from a residential area (similar to what was adopted in The OC). Interesting.

I read the letter to Lola & this was her response:



You decide what that means. :)

September 07, 2006

Can I Have Some Hummus?

[Sorry for the long delay since the last post. I have no idea how so much time passed so quickly. It's not Lola's fault - she's been doing interesting things; I'm the one who's lame.]

I don't like red peppers per se, but I do like the flavor they give to food (if that makes any sense). In fact, one of my favorite things is roasted red pepper hummus (Trader Joe's or Athenos - both are yummy). I needed a snack the other day & grabbed a bag of blue corn tortilla chips & the roasted red pepper hummus and planted my butt on the couch. At the sound of the crinkling of the chip bag, Lola quickly came over to see what was in the bag. Oh, she knew it wasn't the "Opening Hefty Zip-lock Baggie Sound of Something Truly Wonderful Like a Chicken Jerky Treat," but a crinkly sound apparently intrigued her enough to see what "snack-age" might come her way.

Me: No corn tortillas for you, young lady.

Lola sat, sniffing the air, really curious, but never demanding. (She's awesome like that.) Translation: Can I have some of that?

That was the same look she had given me when I had eaten grapes in front of her for the first time; I had offered her a piece of one which she had promptly spit back out.

Me: I don't think you'll like the hummus, sweetie.

I know my girl likes garbanzos. [They will always be garbanzos to me. I didn't know they were called chickpeas until I was in college.] But I felt that the roasted red pepper hummus would have too much of a kick for her taste.

She shifted a little, still sniffing curiously in my general direction, trying to be polite, but frustrated that she wasn't getting some of what smelled yummy. Translation: Can I please have some of that?

Sigh. I had a quick internal debate between my mother's "you should try everything once" food philosophy and my "I don't want to clean hummus off the rug" philosophy. Then Lola gave me The Look. You know, the super sad puppy look with brow furrowed & sad eyes, where she's clearly wondering what she could have done that was SO wrong as to deserve the punishment of not having blank - fill in the blank with whatever you are eating at the moment.

Me: Alright. But you're not gonna like it.

I put some on my finger & she licked it a bit tentatively. Her eyes lit up, her tail wagged and she shifted in place again, as if resisting the urge to snag into the tub of hummus in my hand and politely waiting for more to be offered. Translation: That's nummy! More, please.

Oh, yeah, she liked it. Hm. I wonder if I should give her meds with hummus now instead of Easy Cheese. :)




Lola health update: urinary incontinence seems under control; allergies+possible bacterial skin infection are back. She's got quite a few bug bites, too, that have irritated her skin.