The end of 7

Going back to work this week (and getting up early again) has been very painful. It’s Wednesday now, though, so I made it through another “week”. We’ve had really bad fog this week (Sun. – Tues.), so driving to Madison hasn’t been much fun. Thank goodness I missed the 100-car pile up, which still hasn’t been entirely cleaned up.

Last night Allegrea and I spoke at a meeting of “Young Explorers”. It’s a group in which kids pick an area/field that they are interested in and spend the school year learning about it and doing activities. These kids were in the “animals” field. There were about 15 girls there, between 14-17. Allegrea got things started and did the first half without me, as Tuesday is my late workday, and I couldn’t get back from Madison in time. Jezebel and I came for the last half of the meeting, which turned out to be longer, because they had lots of questions. We felt it went really well, and they seemed very excited—took a lot of pamphlets and bumper stickers. One of the girls was already a vegetarian and trying to get her mom to be. I don’t think the groups are separated by gender, so it was a bit discouraging that not one young man was interested in the animals field. Not surprising, but sad. Jezebel was a big hit, of course, and was very well behaved. The meeting was at the education room of our Humane Society. I wondered how she would do and if she would have bad flashbacks of living there. She seemed a bit distressed at first, but I don’t know if it was due to the smells or some remembrance that she did NOT want to be at that place. Once she realized that there was a room full of girls—potential belly scratchers—who wanted to give her attention, she was a happy pup. She wandered from kid to kid the whole time like the little love whore that she is. Two of the (many) topics we covered was pits/dog fighting and pet shops/puppy mills. Jezi was a good ambassador for both issues, as a very sweet pit mix rescue dog.

I got home in time to read to L. before bed and have a little cuddle. I didn’t have nearly enough time with her. Then it was time for another bunny date. Yes, my rabbits are a-courting. It’s been so long since I’ve tried to pair bond rabbits, that I couldn’t remember the best approaches, so I called the expert, my friend Julie. She reminded me that they need to have “dates” in a completely neutral area (outside their room), so territory isn’t an issue. So every night, we carry the rabbits to the upstairs bathroom, shut the door (although the cats would desperately love to join us), and wait for the magic. The magic is another way to say that they must establish their roles and form a relationship, which can only be done after several “mounting” sessions occur and they form a bond. It doesn’t matter that they are fixed, and it doesn’t matter who is the mounter and who is the mountee. Scraps has decided that she is to be the mounter and Thumper is the mountee. He just wants to snuggle next to her and be groomed. She wants to vigorously hump his head until he runs away. It's a power thing--not a sex thing. I am not loving this whole thing, but we are making progress. I think after a few more dates, I will be able to get rid of Scraps’ cage and let her run free with Thumpy. It’s times like that—when I’m sitting in my bathroom, trying to write VB code on my laptop, while watching my girl bunny hump my boy bunny like, well, a rabbit, that I wonder how I ended up with such a very weird life.

We had friends over Saturday night and stayed up much later than we should have, but we had fun. Denny (also my cousin) and Susan came over with their dogs, Max & Millie. We ordered in Chinese food. L. also had her friend Emily over to spend the night. After dinner, the girls went off and did their own thing, and Dej went out (of course). We went downstairs with all four dogs (Petey and Ivan also joined us) to watch the movie, Sicko. The dogs all got along, except that Max & Millie were much better behaved than our dogs (of course). Most dogs are better behaved. Daisy, the smallest of all four dogs was determined to hump Max, who is a LARGE (over 100 pounds probably) golden retriever about three times her size. If dogs could laugh, he would have laughed at her, I’m sure. It was hilarious, yet embarrassing. The movie was fantastic! I can’t recommend enough that you see it if you haven’t already. It was enlightening, and certainly sad in parts, but ended up leaving me with a feeling of empowerment. This problem can be fixed, and we can change the U.S. to truly be a government by the people and for the people (and it is so, so far from that now). All it takes is enough people to wake up and demand better. It doesn’t have to stay this way. Please, watch Sicko!

My baby will be EIGHT tomorrow! How did that happen?! Tomorrow will be the "Day of Luciana".