What do these things have in common you ask? Well lets just say this morning’s bath didn’t stop me from licking my itchy leg.    My Margret and my Greg worked as a team, (they do that a lot) and while my Margret distracted me with my all time favorite snack CHEESE my Greg was busy with the buzzy shaver thing shaving off some of my beautiful fur. I couldn’t believe it, doesn’t he know how long it takes to grow it just right and then in the matter of a few pieces of cheese it’s gone!!!!

Then my Margret puts that white puffy powder stuff on it which of course I promptly licked off, then after that she sprayed this apple tasting vinegar stuff on it which is supposed to make everything better…I licked that off too.

The next thing I knew I was wearing the cone of royalty and my Margret put more of the white puffy powder on.  It’s enough to make even the happiest pup pout, which I did, and very well I might add!

The next thing I knew, my Margret was on the floor beside me and said my name in her gentle “I love you Belle and only want what’s best for you” voice and explained that they wanted to stop the itching before it turned into a hot spot, then she gave me a cuddle and another piece of cheese and you know things didn’t seem so bad anymore.

~this is Belle “the making the best of things especially if there is cheese involved” pup for the rest of the Pups and Kitties.

I. don’t. like. baths. at. all.

I don’t!

I’ve been licking my leg a lot the past couple of days and I’m not telling my Greg or my Margret why I am because it’s fun to make them guess why I’m doing that. Well it was until this morning when my Greg said “maybe a bath would help.”

I didn’t hear him say that so when my Margret told me to go upstairs with her I thought we were going back to sleep.  Humph!  Nope!

How much do I not like baths you ask?  Enough that my Margret has take me over to the tub and lift me in that’s how much.  Now I feel badly about that especially when I jumped out before my bath was finished and got the floor all wet and shook so hard my Margret got all wet. She told met that if she had wanted a bath she would have taken one.

She tried to go fast because she knows I don’t like baths and it does feels good getting towel dried but I still have to stay upstairs until I’m a bit drier.  *sigh*

My sister Bonnie stayed close to keep me company but she loves her bath so she really doesn’t understand why I don’t like mine.  But it was nice to have her keep me company.

~This is Belle “the can I come down yet, I’m dry, well kinda of ” pup for the rest of the Pups and Kitties.

We had company tonight!  Mrs. Melodie came to visit with us and it was a lot of fun!

My Margret had us practice polite greeting, we got lots of treats for that.  Mrs. Melodie kept telling me to  wait till it was my turn, I don’t think she knows how hard that is, but I tried.

We did such a good job that my Margret took  the gate thingy down and we got to get real close to Mrs. Melodie,  she smelled real good, she even let us lick her toes!

My sisters and I took turns sitting next to her to be petted. Do you know she can pet two of us at a time. She kept telling us that she would make sure to pet all of us and she did, she  petted Linus too even though he was being a pest!

We kept bringing her our tennis balls to show her. At one point she asked me to sit but I just stared at her, I wanted to fool her so she would give me a treat for sitting.  It worked!  but then she said “You did know what I wanted you to do!” so I don’t think it will work again, I’ll just have to figure out another way to trick Mrs. Melodie into giving me a treat.

I like it when we have company, I sure hope she comes back soon!

~This is Bess “the I like company because they give me treats”pup for the rest of the Pups and Kitties.

My Margret said it was my turn at the blog tonight because I haven’t had  a turn for awhile.

I’m the one who keeps everyone else in line and sometimes that can be quite a job but lately things have been pretty quiet, so quiet in fact I could almost doze off…..                                                                                                                                                              Well it’s been quiet unless  you count Bouncy Bess not believing the mouse is gone. She getting better because  today she has only given the water  a couple of sniffs.  I’m glad she’s almost over that because Bonnie and I had to keep reminding my Margret that we were being good so we wouldn’t get into trouble too.

My Greg shared his cashews with us the other night.  We all stood really close to remind him that we needed some too.  I got the most (well not really because he made sure it was even) but I should have because between my laying my head down on the chair and giving a pleading look I beg way better than my sisters.    Shhh don’t tell anyone but I practice when no one is looking.  It works really well, you all should try it.

We’re all really tired tonight, even Linus, because while my Margret and my Greg were at work it stormed really bad and we were kind of scared so now that everyone is home we’re ready to take a long nap, well at least until snack time.

~this is Belle “the keeping everyone in line” Pup for the rest of the Pups and Kitties.

I getting really good at my new job as mouse catcher.  Yesterday morning I found another one under our waterer. My Margret remembering what happened the day before didn’t want to deal with all of that before her first cup of coffee and told me that I needed to go outside in the pup pen for awhile.

When my Greg woke up he checked under the waterer and sure enough I was right, there was a mouse under there.  Linus just stood there and watched while my Greg took care of it.

All of this was going on while I was out in the pup pen so I didn’t know what had happened until Linus told me later.   As soon as I came in I ran right to the waterer to see if the mouse was still there.  I knocked the waterer around a bit just to make sure.

Even though Linus and my Margret told me it wasn’t I could still smell it so I was pretty sure they were wrong.  All evening I kept watch, Linus watched with me for awhile.

Finally today my Margret moved the waterer and put down a bowl of water,

She doesn’t understand why I’m not watching it anymore or trying to knock that over but anyone can see that there isn’t a mouse hiding under the bowl.  That silly Margret, what are we going to do with her?

~ this is Bess “the kitty” pup for the rest of the Pups and Kitties.

You would have been so proud of me! This morning  I rang the gotta go chime to let my Margret know I had to go outside. Ringing that chime is a real big deal around here.                               I usually don’t have to do it because my big sister Bonnie rings it for me but she wasn’t up yet so I did it. You should have seen how excited and happy my Margret was with me.

So that’s why I don’t understand why when I caught the mouse that was hiding under our waterer a few minutes later she wasn’t happy.  I mean I know I dumped the 2 gallon jug of water all over the floor when I was catching it, but how was I supposed to get to the mouse with that jug in my way?

I wish I wouldn’t have gotten in trouble for checking to see if the mouse ran back under the waterer after my Greg took it from me. I couldn’t help it that the waterer got knocked over again,  it was still in my way.  My sisters weren’t any help because they were too busy telling her that they were being good. Like I wasn’t being good…I mean who caught the mouse anyway. *sigh*

~this is Bess “the Chime Ringing, Mouse Catching” Pup for the rest of the Pups and Kitties

My Margret just doesn’t understand!

She say’s these aren’t toys!She says these are our toys, but she doesn’t understand those are my stuffies and that’s something else all together.

My sisters and I love to play with socks. We get three way tugs going, they stretch really good you know! We throw them up in the air and see who can catch them first. We also love to body slam each other out of the way so we can grab them first.

We also love to play with dish towels. We can play tug with those too but it’s more fun to play keep away with them. I am the princess of keep away!  And dish cloths,  especially the ones that are still wet from doing dishes, oh my, they taste so good, you ought to try them someday.

But no, my Margret has to ruin all of our fun by saying “leave it” or “give” and she just doesn’t  understand how hard that is to do.  I mean we listen… kind of…after awhile… well sometimes…

~This is Bess “the I wish my Margret would understand” pup for the rest of the Pups and Kitties.

Good news my Margret says that my hot spot is getting a lot better!  So I’m really hoping I can take this silly cone off pretty soon. My Greg calls it my clown collar, Mrs. Beth calls it a party hat, we all know my Margret calls it my cone of royalty, whatever it is I’ll just be glad when it can come off!

Twice now when I’ve come in from outside all of the snaps have been undone. I’m not telling which one of my sisters is helping me but I’ll give you a clue, she’s photo bombing my picture!

~This is Belle “the I’ll be glad when the cone is off” pup for the rest of the Pups and Kitties.

I love my big sister Bonnie, she rings the “gotta go” chime for me, she LOVES to roughhouse with me and play tug a war. She’s just an all around good big sister.

She does this one thing that I just don’t understand. When it’s time to go to bed and we all run up the stairs she just stands there like she’s thinking about it or something.

My Margret will shut the stairway door and we wait on the steps for a few seconds, longest time ever for this bouncy girl but my Margret will give me a cuddle pat right under my ear by my chin and says “It’ll be alright, Bess I promise.” After thinking about it for a little bit more  she’s ready to come up with us. And she gives my Margret a look that says “Okay, I’m ready are you coming?”

We race each other up the stairs to see who can jump up on the bed first and I almost always win!  After one last cuddle we’re ready to snuggle down and go to sleep.

~This is Bess “the I’m not going to bed until Bonnie does” pup for the rest of the Pup and Kitties.

On Saturday my Margret started rearranging the furniture in the living room. I decided that she needed a supervisor so I came up from the basement to give her my expert advice in moving the couch, trunk and cedar chest.

While we were working on this my Margret became side tracked (which happens quite often I’m sad to say) and started looking at the pictures she keeps in the cedar chest. That’s when she found a picture of me taken 15 years ago when I was a kitten, right before I convinced them to let me move into the house where I rightfully belong.

My sisters and I came in from being outside Saturday afternoon and ran into the living room like we always do to make sure things are the same as they were when we went out and they WEREN’T! The big couch that I lay on to look out the window was GONE!   The little couch where my Margret and I sit together was where my Greg’s big chair is and his big chair is clear across the room!  My Margret and my Greg spent a lot of time yesterday helping us get used to the changes but I don’t like it, I mean I don’t even know where to sit now. The only thing I like is that when I dropped my tennis ball under the little couch it keeps on rolling and doesn’t get lost.

All I care about is if there is still room for me on my Margret’s lap.

So like I think it’s fine, we have lots more room to roughhouse plus we have some snazzy new beds. We do need to figure out how to sit with my Margret in her recliner, when Bess and I try to jump up in the chair the foot thingy goes down and we slide off…but we’re smart we’ll figure it out.

I’m soooo excited, we have a window!!!! Do you know I can see and hear the same stuff from the living room that I can see when I run outside to our pup pen, the very same stuff! This morning though I got all mixed up, usually if I see something from inside that I want to see better I bark and my Margret or my Greg will let me outside then I ramp the steps and out I go to save the day.  But this morning I was out and barked to be let in because I knew I could see it better from the living room window but when I came bouncing in I ran a few steps toward the living room then ran back to the pup door then back to the living room and back yet again to the pup pen. While I was trying to make up my mind my Margret petted me and said “Bess you just don’t quite know what to think do you, pretty girl.” ( I like when she calls me that!) that helped me to calm down a bit so I could make up my mind…outside it is!

~this is Lucy, Belle, Linus, Bonnie and Bess “the living room looks different and we don’t like it, but kind of do, think it’s awesome” Pups and Kitties