Good News and A Story About Scones

The good news is that Theo doesn't have any parasites or creepy crawly's other than tape worm, which is apparently not a very big deal. We start his de-worming meds tonight and our vet said we don't need to worry about treating the other three animals since they are not exhibiting signs of tape worm (i.e. dropping worms out of their butts all over my bed) so it is highly unlikely that they have worms too. The other really good news is that Mike and I don't have to worry about de-worming ourselves since it is also highly unlikely that we contacted the worms. Even though they were in our bed.

Now to make up for yesterday's awful post, here is a story my mom sent me. It is true, about her, and may give you some insight as to where I get my quirks.

But first, let me preface the story by telling you that my mother loves scones. LOVES THEM. One of my happiest memories from childhood is of coming home from school to find that my mom had baked scones so that we could have a little tea-party, just the two of us. We spent the afternoon drinking pink tea and eating scones and even though I didn't like them as much as I liked marshmallow cookies, it was absolute heaven. So while my parents were in town for an early Christmas celebration, I baked a batch of raisin scones. At the end of the day there was only one scone left and I sent it back to California in a zip-lock bag so that my mother could enjoy it once she was home. This is what happened:

So, what does the Scone Lover do? What does she do, after she walks downstairs, makes a cup of tea, and turns toward her last scone (which she transported all the way from Sugar Hill, NYC)? What does she do as she turns toward The Scone with great anticipation?

And finds it, in it's plastic bag (where it was presumed to be Safe), Covered with ants? COVERED.

I'll tell you what she does. She curses, and then she puts it in the freezer. Freezes the many ant butts solid. Then takes it out, brushes the ant butts off of it, and puts the lovely scone in the toaster oven at 350. Then she Enjoys it (every mouthful), with Orange Marmalade!

I love you, Mama. Thank you for making me laugh with such a funny story! And I'm glad you got to enjoy your scone, ant butts be damned!

Theo's Christmas Gift

The morning of Christmas Eve I woke up with Valentine curled against my back and little Theo in my arms. A perfect way to wake up, if you ask me. I yawned and blinked the sleep out of my eyes and Theo yawned and rolled over for a belly rub. I started scritching and scratching his belly and his chest and he wriggled all over with happiness. I reached down to scratch my favorite place on his little body - his teddy-bear bottom. I'm not talking about his anus, which is directly underneath his tail, I'm talking about the soft, padded, fluffy part behind his back legs. So I'm scratching that and then I notice what feels like four or five very small scabs. I can't see anything, but I make a mental note to keep an eye on the area in case he's chewing it raw. (When he's bored he chews at himself. I'm pretty good about keeping chews around to prevent self-mutilation-out-of-boredom, but sometimes he chews himself anyway, so I'm forever worried.)

Christmas morning I woke up the same way and gave Theo a similar rubdown. This time, I noticed more little scabs. I took a good look at the area and saw that some of the little scabs were hanging in his fur, so I plucked one out for a closer look. It didn't look like much and his skin didn't look irritated or anything, so again, I made a mental note to keep an eye on it.

At this point I should have asked my friend Val, who's home we were staying in, what she thought of the little scabs. Since she has both bred and rescued dogs, she'd probably have known. But I wasn't that concerned and by the time I'd made it into her kitchen for coffee I had forgotten all about it.

Fast forward to yesterday morning. We'd let the dogs sleep in bed with us again, and even though it was the third night in a row, it still felt like a special treat. Again I woke up with little Theo, sweet in my arms. I gave him his morning rubdown and made sure to check his bottom to see if anything had changed. The little scabs were still there, but no worse than they'd been. However, when I got out of bed I noticed that the bed was full of little scabs. Little scabs sprinkled all over my sheets like cookie crumbs. Did I mention that they were all over my sheets? The sheets on my bed where I sleep?

"That is very strange." I wondered out-loud.

"What is?" Mike asked.

"Theo is shedding little scabs all over our sheets."

I pointed to the scattering of scabs sprinkled all over my side of the bed. Mike had no idea what they were either, but he suggested we collect them in a small container and bring them to our veterinarian, just to be on the safe side. Then we changed our sheets and decided the dogs could just go back to sleeping in their crates, that would be perfectly all right with us. I checked Theo's bottom several more times throughout the day because by now I was a little bit worried, but nothing changed. The scabs didn't look any worse, I never caught him chewing the area, it was a complete mystery. And then this morning he shit a pile of live worms.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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Meet Morris:

Morris is a single worm living in Manhattan. He likes long walks in the park, gardening, reading the paper and making breakfast in bed. He's looking for a woman to cuddle and love forever.

7/27/09

I'm back from The Valley and my head is still spinning from the busy wonderfulness of it all. I have so many chores to catch up on, so much writing to catch up on, so much work to catch up on, I'm not sure how I'll ever manage it. But I'll try, a little bit every day, just like everything else in my life. I'm big on baby steps. Have you noticed? Also, is that an oxymoron? Big on baby steps?

The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out.:

Me: Good afternoon, Blapity-Bloop, how can I help you?

Caller: I'm very upset because I was expecting a call from Marjorie this week and it's already Wednesday and she hasn't called me yet.

Me: Marjorie is in a session with a patient. I would be happy to take a message for you.

Caller: I don't want to leave a message. She said she would call me on Monday and now it's Wednesday.

Me: You sound very frustrated. What can I do to help?

Caller: NOTHING. WHY DIDN'T SHE CALL ME?

Me: I wish I knew. May I take a message for you?

Caller: No. I just think it's very unprofessional that she didn't call me back.

Me: I'm sorry you feel that way. What can I do?

Caller: Nothing. I mean, what kind of professional doesn't return calls?

Me: Would you like me to leave a message?

Caller: No. Don't you think she should have called me?

Me: I'm sure that she has the best intentions. What can I do to assist you?

Caller: THIS IS RIDICULOUS. THIS OFFICE IS SO UNPROFESSIONAL. I'M VERY DISAPPOINTED.

Me: ...

Caller: .... Hello?

Me: So shall I tell her you called?

This, dear readers, is why I keep worms for friends, instead of people. Behold the worms!!

The newest addition to our little family, these are the worms as seen from the outside of their worm condo. The worm condo is constructed from a fine plastic storage box with plenty of air holes. These little guys, there are about one thousand of them, will eat all our kitchen scraps and then we will use their poop as fertilizer on all our plants.

Mmmm. Cozy worm bedding.

Mmmm. Kitchen scraps = worm food

I'm finally composting. I have wanted to compost for at least a year now, and when I discovered vermicomposting I nearly passed out I was so excited. When I picked these beauties up last Wednesday, (thank you Lower East Side Ecology Center!) I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. Aren't they beautiful?

There are two worms here. An adult and a juvenile.

They breed like rabbits worms.

I always dreamed of getting closer to the earth and living a greener life, even before it became fashionable. It turns out all I had to do was move to a place entirely made up of concrete and glass and voila! I'm just a big ol' hippie now.

P.S. Anyone who's interested in creating ecosystems (I'm talking to you, Vamp) should seriously check it out. It's amazing.