VeganMom...stumbling through life

Poor Charlie has been looking for a snuggle buddy since Basil died. He and Basil were always touching when they slept and often hugged each other as they slept. He is a very affectionate guy, and keeps trying to creep up on the other cats and stealth snuggle them. He generally gets shut down but will still try to creep closer and closer, or slip out a paw, slowly, moving a hair's width at a time until he makes contact with his sleeping snuggle candidate. Sometimes the hand holding is tolerated, sometimes not. He just needs to work on building relationships more slowly.  Tica does not like Charlies snuggling advances. The girls snuggle humans or sleep alone. They boys tend to want to be in physical contact with someone (human, cat, or both) while they sleep. Tica's face says it all. He got close enough to make contact, and she tolerated it but only because I was right there. If I'm not close, she moves as soon as he gets within about 6 inches of her. I don't think he's ever been mean to her, but he's three times her size and it frightens her.
I was back to working alone in the kitchen this weekend.  I made 2 batches of dog food, so I'll be good for a few weeks again.  Damon went to the vet this week (his chronic ear condition took a nasty turn), and he's gained a little more weight, so I'll have to cut his food intake back a bit. I don't want to stress his arthritic back end with any extra weight! I made the following but didn't get to pressure cooking the chickpeas. I'll have to do that at some point this week.

• Spanish rice (to include in the next dish)
• Layered nachos/Mexican casserole (I have no idea what to call this; I just throw stuff together--Spanish rice, black beans, refried beans, tomatoes, spices/seasonings, salsa, topped with Daiya)
• Three-bean tomato curry soup
• Eggplant & chickpea curry (with quinoa)
• (Frozen) chocolate bananas - bananas dipped in cashew butter, dark chocolate, and topped with chopped walnuts & pecans; a delicious, protein-packed, healthy dessert

Damon had his swim appointment Friday, and we brought Sophie along (Dej's dog) to see if she would enjoy it.  She did not love it.  Damon loved it enough for both of them, though. He spend his entire hour swimming--not getting out of the pool at all.  He loved these stuffed chicken toys that she has there (Dunkin Dawgs), and spent most of his swim time carrying around 2-3 water toys at a time.  He didn't want to give up the chickens at all, but would let me take one (as long as he could keep the other in his mouth) to throw for him.  He repeatedly fetched and grabbed the toy without losing the two others in his mouth. It was so cute and quite impressive.  

When it was time to go, we had a lot of difficulty getting him out.  Every muscle in his 111 pound body fought to stay in the pool.  It took three of us to physically drag him from the pool, leaving me extremely wet.  He was so, so sad to go.  He really wanted to take "his" chicken with him and worked pretty hard to try to sneak it out.  Unfortunately for him, I noticed the bright-colored chicken hanging out of his mouth, though he did his best to keep his face pressed toward the door and away from me.  Our next trip to  Mounds will involve hunting for a chicken toy like that.  Damon really likes his toys. He plays with them; he shows them off to guests; he destroys them pretty quickly, though. I'm hoping he loves the chicken enough that he won't shred it so quickly.