The Killing Fields

For some reason unknown we are having an unusually high number of geckos and lizards finding their way into the house this spring.  Add to that unusually high number a couple of cats who believe they are nature's great hunters.  Depending on which cat we're talking about, it can be pretty hilarious. For example, Toothless Teddy, (aka FatBoy/JoeBob/Teddy Bear) has not one tooth in his mouth and tries mightily to gum those poor things to death.  Whenever he actually is able to hold one in his mouth (as opposed to having it slip through the gums and run) he generally stalks around the house with his undead kill hanging out.

Khloe, on the other hand, is a seasoned killer.  On any given day we are picking up at LEAST 3 or more carcasses to dispose of.  The poor little things have been getting into our fireplace behind the glass and this is when Khloe displays patience that no one else (humans included) in the house has. She will sit for literal hours in front of the fireplace just waiting for one to poke enough of their body out that she can nab it.  Evidence:

Every once in a while, she'll try to flirt with them to entice them to come out:

And sometimes, she takes pity on FatBoy and will kill his catch for him and generously allow him to carry it around without having to fight to keep it between the gums.

Since I have all girl-children, there is at least of them who is terrified of any type of lizard - dead or alive and will act like this:


Fun times, friend, fun times.

Seriously Slacking + Chewy.com Review

This month has been one of those where we are flying by the seat of our pants and crazy-busy.  I've been slacking on my posts, but I at least wanted to give a shout-out to Chewy.com for the awesome treats that Khloe and FatBoy received this month.  I'm a horrible brand-blogger this month because while I've been diligent about giving daily treatie-treats (the beasts won't let me forget to), I've been bad about taking pictures of them enjoying said treatie-treats.

This month we chose the Halo Liv-a-Littles freeze-dried protein treats for the beasts to try.  We got the salmon flavor and they look like this:

Stock photo

These are very light, non-dense, and smell great (for kitty treats, anyway).  They are grain-free and 100% wild salmon.  Khloe loves them and will talk to me every morning until I give them to her.  FatBoy doesn't care for them at all and will look all offended until I remove them from his sight (drama-queen??).  I've even given Sandy-dog a couple and she scarfs them down.  The one and only con to all the pros is that some of the chunks are pretty large and need to be broken down before Khloe can eat them.  Overall these were only half a hit (only because of the drama queen mentioned above) and I probably would not purchase them only because I like to have treats that all the cats will enjoy.  Thanks, Chewy.com, for the opportunity to try these out!

While Chewy.com supplied the treats, all opinions are solely my own (with heavy weigh-in from the menagerie).  

TBT In Pictures

I thought I'd throw up a Throw-Back Thursday post with some of my favorite family pictures.

My 4 faves, right after we became a new family.

The unbridled joy in this pic slays me.

My two oldest and me.

Sandy-dog and Kels, just chillin...

Heck if I know...

My beautiful middle one.

Middle and mom.

A rare Halloween sighting of the elusive Moogle and Waldo.

Girls' annual San Marcos shopping trip!

Have a great one!

Treatie-Treat Time with Chewy.com (Sponsored Post)

Yes, we really call them treatie-treats, (because we're special - that's why) so don't pretend you call snack time something normal-sounding in your house when I know that you still eat pasghetti and read magdazines.

Anywho, we keep our pet treats in the master bathroom cabinet because the little one (Chloe) is a little rat bastage who likes to find anything in a crinkly bag that might be treats and carry them upstairs for her mom to open for her.  Funny side-story -- one time I found one of those little packets of freeze-dried vegetables that go into ramen soup on the stairs leading to my daughter's (Chloe's mom) room.  She had been stalking the kitchen counters for snacks and decided that freeze-dried veggies looked like just the thing.

Back to snack time.  Our animals are trained like Pavlov's dogs so that when anyone walks into the bathroom, all of a sudden there's an audience sitting in front of the cabinet impatiently waiting for treats.  Chewy.com was gracious enough to send treats for both the cats and our ancient Collie in February for us to try.  For the cats, we received Nature's Variety Instinct Raw Boost Minis in the Rabbit Flavor.  

This box ain't going to open itself, you know.

Chloe isn't really a very vocal cat, but whenever she saw the box for these treats, she went nuts chirping and meowing, and in general just begging for them.  Our two foster kittens also loved them to pieces and risked their lives by trying to steal Chloe's from her (MAJOR smack-downs when that happened).  Our oldest cat, Ted, didn't care for these too much although to be honest, he's not only picky but completely toothless.  I think that these were a bit too hard for him to comfortably gum to death.  These were a big hit overall and we'll definitely buy them in the future.

For the aging Collie, Sandy, we received Blue Buffalo Blue Bones Regular Dental Chews. Historically, she has displayed an allergy to anything red-colored (makes her sick) so when I saw these were red, I was a little apprehensive.  I checked the ingredients and found that they were colored with beets and not dye, so we decided to give them a try.  Again, these went over great and didn't make her sick at all.  As a matter of fact, she would take her treat to the back door and wait to be let out to enjoy her snack in peace because the cats would try to steal them from her.   Since she is 15 and ancient, we really couldn't see a difference in the whiteness of her teeth, but her breath was pretty decent. 

Couldn't get one of her with the treats.

The menagerie would like to thank Chewy.com for the opportunity to try these great products out! While they supplied the treats, all the opinions are solely my own (with heavy weigh-in from the beasts).