All I want for Christmas is you!

Oh, boy!  Oh boy oh boy oh BOY!!!!   I know this is a special time.  I see the funny lights outside and we have some of those inside, too!  And I got REAL excited last night 'cause my hooman sister was here...and she was still here today!  I was so excited I was dancing in the courtyard...haha.

But, guess what?  I got a present and it is something I have wanted for a VERY long time.

I...…………..got...……………..a...……………….KITTY!   I did!  I really did!  This is the best thing EVER!

Give the dog a bone....

I had my yumbers suppertime and then it was time to take a walk.  It's a little bit dark now when we walk around...but there's still lots of people and other pups.  I got to say hello to the spaniel down the block!  

When Dad and I were heading back home, I could see Mom outside with the neighbor lady.  The neighbors are nice.  They have a cat that I get to say hello to sometimes, if she is outside on her leash, but I guess it is too chilly right now.

The neighbor lady gave me some pats on my head and then she pulled something out of a bag.

????  What is this?  Why are you giving it to me?  Let me sniff.  Hmmmmm, smells good.  Maybe I will lick it a little.  What is this thing?  It's big and heavy.  But tasty!!

Mom looked a little bit scared.  What was that all about?

The lady put it back in the bag, but we took the bag inside our house.

Then this thing was put on the floor.  Hmmmmm.  I just don't know what to do with this thing.  Maybe I should try to pick it up?  Maybe I will sit down and give it a chew?  I really don't know.  Help me!  What is it?  What am I supposed to do with it?

While I was feeding the ferals, Marguerite came out with a "regalo" (gift) for Harry.  It was a rather large bone from what I gather was a large meal they had had.  Harry has never been one for toys or bones.  He just never learned how to play with toys and has no idea what to do with them.   However, one learns in Italy to never turn down a gift.

When Harry returned from his walk, Marguerite took the bone out for Harry to smell.  Which he did.  And he licked it.  He seemed somewhat interested but not overly enthusiastic.

We tried again inside, but it was pretty hopeless.  He was whimpering and flustered.

I have decided I will give it a good boil.  If he has no interest in the bone after that, at the very least he will have a broth to add to his meals.  (Hey, Harry, I'm not too enthusiastic about bones, either.)

I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed.

I love food!  I try to arrange my day around my food and snacks.  It is a good way for me to know what time it is.  

And I know I am a very lucky boy.  I get really, really good food.  I get vegetables and chicken and rice and spagetters.    I get kibble, too.  And sometimes cheese.  I get lots of delicious stuff!  

I guess if I have a favorite, though, it is spagetters.  I love spagetters.  I will eat it first because I love it and I can't wait.  Then, I might leave my  kibble for later, for a snack.  

Sometimes my pack laughs at me and say that I'm "spagetter face."  I don't know why that's so funny, but they like it.  And I still know that I am Harry Spotter.  Haha.

Harry does love spaghetti, plain, although I sometimes cook it with a bit of broth, or mix a tiny bit of tomato sauce in to give him variety.  Plain pasta is good for a dog with an upset stomach, too.

Harry's meals are a mixture of lean meat, vegetables and kibble and some pasta or rice.  It is clear that he adores spaghetti.  Sometimes while he is eating he will look up at us (he likes to have company when he eats) and spaghetti strands will be hanging from his mouth!  He looks hilarious!

Once he even decided to go outside on the balcony to "check his kingdom" with spaghetti hanging all over the place!  It's nice to know he enjoys his food.

Open the door...let him in!

I sort of remember that there was a kind of awful, pretty terrible, really, really bad day, but it's all fuzzy now.  I really don't even think about it anymore.  And my arm is all healed up and everything, too!  

So I felt happy and special because someone was at the door, and when I went into the courtyard to see who it was, guess what?  It was my dogtor!!  He came to my house to see me!!  I never had a dogtor do that before.  

He came right in, right into the kitchen and put his stuff down.  I'm not sure why he was here, but nothing bad happened and he sat at my Dad's computer for a little bit and then he went away.  

He did look at my little room that is out in the courtyard.  The kitties eat inside it now because it is getting chilly outside.  

I liked seeing my dogtor here, it was fun!!!

We do not have a car as yet and while the walk to the veterinarian's office is doable, it is not a short walk. The doctor volunteered to come to us, he said he likes to walk!!  Harry needed a vaccine to prevent disease from wild animals.  Harry didn't even know it happened.

While he was here, he used our computer to extend Harry's prescription for heartworm medicine. Because he had had heartworm as a pup and was treated, Harry needs to take the medicine all year round.

Then we talked a little about rounding up the kittens soon so they can be neutered.  THAT is going to be an adventure!

Our house is a very, very, very fine house.

Did you know I like cats?  Yep, I do!! I like kitties and they usually like me, too.  

I don't have a cat of my own, but there are lots of kitties outside here.  Mom feeds them.  

Some of them come around all the time, so I get to know them.  One little guy gets pets and stuff from Mom.  We rub noses.  They aren't afraid of me.  Well, some of them aren't afraid of me, anyway.

Mom calls the friendliest one "Scruff."  Sometimes he even comes into my courtyard.  I don't mind that.  But things are getting scary now.  Now my little room that I flew over the ocean in is in the courtyard.  I think that my pack wants the kitties to sleep in there.  It is pretty nice - nice and big and comfy inside.  I hope that is all they want because I like my beds and I don't want to share them.  I like kitties, but they can't have my beds.  Nope.  

Sadly in this hill town there is no program for stray cats or dogs.  It breaks my heart to see animals without a home.

One of the street cats had kittens last spring and I began handling the little ones early on.  Scruff, Ink (Incubo) and Pirate.  Pirate, as a baby kitten, got into a fight with a big cat and had a serious eye injury.  It proved fatal in the long run.

Ink and Scruff trusted  me more.  In fact, Scruff also had an eye problem, some sort of infection, and I was able to help him recover by getting antibiotic drops into his eyes. With that, he began trusting me more.  I can handle him and I get schmoozes and purrs.

Now the whole family comes, usually for dinner - Mamma, Sib (from a previous litter), Scruff and Ink.  There are others who show up but not on a regular basis.

The plan is to get as many of them as possible to the veterinarian and have them neutered.  We hope to make a tiny dent in the problem of homeless street cats.  Now I try to coax them into coming in for the night to sleep in Harry's kennel.  No success yet, but we will keep trying.

It's a most unusual day...

I had a very strange, sort of awful, kind of scary, really, really bad day.  It was a while ago and I'm just fine now.  

It started out sort of fun. It was really nice out, warm and sunny and my whole pack was going for a walk and I just love it when we all go out together!  And we went by my store where we get my kibble and the nice people inside came to say "hello" to me!  But that is when things started to go wrong.  

All of a sudden there was another dog, just a little dog, too, but she was awful!  She wanted to pick a fight!  I don't know why!!  She was yelling all over and she BIT me!  My lip was bleeding!  Everything was kind of crazy so I don't really remember what happened after that, but when my mouth was not bleeding anymore we kept walking.

We went down this road I have been on before...oh, yeah...the dogtor.  I remembered him.  Mostly dogtors don't hurt me, but he did.  It was real fast but it hurt!  I was not liking this day at all.  Not one little bit.

Then I started feeling very funny.  I could not even keep my eyes open.  

I woke up and Mom was there....I was on a table.  I don't remember getting up on that table.  And I still felt weird and all I wanted was to go HOME!!!  I didn't like this day!  I wanted to go home and sleep in my bed.  But I couldn't walk right.  I was all wobbly.  Then a man in a car came by and Dad put me in the back of the car and...yay!...we did go home.

I felt awful.  Mom wanted me to drink some water but I didn't want it.  I didn't want to eat, either, even though I didn't have my breakfast.  I didn't want to stay awake and I didn't want to sleep, either.  I felt terrible!  

I think I went to sleep for a while.  Whenever I opened my eyes, Mom was there with me.  That was good.  So I went to sleep some more.  

It was a totally terrible, pretty awful,  really bad day.  

The next morning I felt all ok again.  And I was thirsty and hungry, too!  My arm hurt and had a bandage on it....but it wasn't that bad.  

I'm really glad most days aren't like THAT one!

Harry had a mole on his arm that decided to grow so it had to be removed and biopsied.  He was out of sorts the entire day and we watched and worried, but gradually his breathing became more normal and he would accept a few licks of an ice cube.  

The pathology came back "benign."  I am relieved about that and about the many totally terrific days we have had together since then.  Carry on, Mr. Spotter.

The trace of something in the air....

When I was a young pup, I was afraid of anything that went beep or boop or made a loud noise.  I did not like flashing lights, either.  The world was full of monsters, big monsters and little monsters.  The worst thing was some monsters were right inside the house!

But I'm a pretty smart guy and I learned that some monsters, especially the little ones, did some good stuff!  The toaster monster made some yummy things.  And the stove monster made even more yumbers.

My pack has plenty of yummy stuff, but Mom wasn't making some of the really good things she used to.  But NOW she is!  Best of all, the new stove monster doesn't make any beeps or boops!  (Our toaster monster doesn't either!)

I got SOOOOOO excited because I was taking a nice nap and my nose woke up!  Oh, boy!  Something is cooking inside the stove monster!  The whole house smells good! I can't stand still! I can't wait!  Oh, boy!!  Hot, smelly yumbers!

The old oven in our place did not work when we got here.  Then we learned it was really old and the company that manufactured it doesn't even exist anymore.  There was so much to do at first, cooking lovely meals was not high on my agenda, so we let it go for a while.

Then Spring and Summer came along and it was too hot to consider even stove top food.

Now we have a new stove and oven.  Just the other day I made my first casserole.  It was very simple, just pasta, tomato sauce (home made) and mozzarella. As the aroma started wafting through the house, Harry started going nuts.  He kept pacing past the oven!!  And since the light stays on the whole time the oven is on, he kept checking inside, too!  What a food hound!  Well, someone is happy that Fall has arrived!