Good news, Tolstoy is past cage rest and has been running around the house for the past few days and seems to be a lot better for it. Both cats were beating the stuffing out of each other while they were roughhousing last night, so things are getting back to normal.
Bad news, we had to give Annie back to the breeder. She wasn’t settling down well – she was quite jumpy and wasn’t coping well with Ben. She growled at him on a few occasions, mostly when she was trying to sleep and Bean wouldn’t let her be. It wasn’t really her fault, but it’s hard to explain things to a two year old. We tried, we really did, but the final strike against her staying was when she peed in the house in front of Tolstoy’s cage and then snapped at Katy when she tried to get her off the couch to put her outside. If Annie wasn’t going to respect the pecking order with Katy, she probably wouldn’t either with Bean, and that’s a risk we weren’t willing to take. It was the right decision to do, for the right reasons, but it still sucks. If Bean has been a bit older, things probably would have gone much more smoothly but live and learn. We’re going to try again when Bean is a bit older, and this time we’ll get a puppy, so that way it’ll know its place from the start. Jane, the breeder, was really understanding and good about it. She was disappointed – we all were – because all this acting out is out of character for Annie. Still, we weren’t comfortable with the situation anymore. It would only take one wrong moment for something regrettable to happen and it’s not worth the risk.
Speaking of Bean, he seems to be getting over his cold and is getting his appetite back. This is good. He’s also becoming a pain in the ass with all the tantrums. This is less good. Hopefully, this too shall pass. He’s getting bigger – and heavy to carry on my shoulders for the bus in the mornings. We bought him some bigger clothes and we got some new dig dig curtains and wall canvases for his room from Next (courtesy of a bank transfer from my mom).
It’s Easter weekend, and the folks are here. Mel and Katy are currently outside assembling parts of the slide/swing set we bought Bean for xmas. Things seem to be going well, but I’m sure they’d go even better if there was light out.
I treated myself today and made chicken wings. They were really nice, but they’re a damn pain in the ass to make. There’s a reason why I only break out the deep fryer once or twice a year. I also made shish-kebabs with marinated pork loin, peppers and mushrooms on the BBQ. Very nice! It reminded me of all the times I went to Alouette Steak House with Michel when I still in Montreal. The good news is that the pork loins were going for cheap at Tesco so I bought two. I just need to get some more skewers and a new bottle of gas and we’re good to BBQ again. That’s mainly the plan for this weekend. Cook. Eat. Build Swing. Cook. Eat. Paint Fence. Cook. Eat. Eat. Eat. Toss in lots of drinking in there as well and a side-trip to Scottsdales and it should hopefully be a nice weekend, if the weather cooperates.