Abbey the hunter, Cincinnati pictures

As always, the pets are keeping us entertained. Yesterday Abbey was outside and I could see from the family room that she was hanging around the patio door wanting inside. As I approached the door I could see she had a dead bird hanging out of her mouth! She was pacing back and forth and really wanted inside. John and I got outside without letting her in, although it was obvious she was upset she couldn't get passed us because she was meowing a lot about not being able to take it inside. She was really funny about the whole thing -- very proud of herself. Although it was quite sad seeing the little bird hanging from her mouth, we knew she was being nice presenting her kill to us so we made a little fuss to her about how brave she was (although after thanking her kindly I did have to remind her that I am a vegetarian). She ended up dropping the bird and Lucy grabbed it and took off with it, leaving Abbey pacing and meowing about where it had gone. Somehow John managed to get it back from Lucy and bin it.

Abbey's five years old and this is the first time she's hunted something down that we know about, apart from the occasional leaf that she proudly brings back to us. A couple of weeks ago there was a dead bird by the patio door, but none of the pets were near it when I found it so I didn't know if Lucy was responsible or one of the cats. The bird was a really pretty little green thing. I told Abbey that really if she is going to be a hunter she needs to graduate to chipmunks, vols, and moles, as those are the pests that we and our neighbors are constantly trying to outsmart. We like the birds. Although I must admit that since we've been letting the cats out we have noticed a big difference in the chipmunks. I don't think they've gotten any of them, but just having the cats out there seems to have scared them away.

In summary, thank goodness we don't have a cat flap! I have the feeling that if Abbey could have gotten into the house of her own accord yesterday, I would have heard a cat flap followed shortly by Abbey jumping onto the couch and dropping the bird onto my lap!

Lucy is also still making us laugh. She has suddenly taken to laying on top of the hottub! Abbey spends a lot of time laying up on the cover of the hottub, and we guess Lucy just suddenly decided she belonged up there, too! This just started on Friday. We're surprised she's able to jump that high, but she does so with ease. I'm sure she feels like she's queen of the world up there. We just hope she doesn't lure Macy into going up there, because Macy is 30 lbs heavier than Lucy and I'm not sure the cover will hold!

About a month ago we went to Cincinnati to see a baseball game with my mom, stepdad, brother, sister-in-law, nephews, stepbrother, and his girlfriend. Here are some pictures from that trip.

F1, birthday, and baby shower pictures

Here are some pictures of recent happenings.

Baby shower


My birthday on the lake


F1 race


Pics of Lucy, some (if not all) taken with John's new camera. Also some of her going down the slide.

This post is not about pets

Sunday John and I went to the US Grand Prix. Neither of us had been before. It was actually really fun! I was a bit leary, only because it was forecasted to be really hot (95 degrees and humid), and I didn't know if I would be capable of sitting in the hot sun at 32 weeks pregnant and not melting. We managed to get seats in the shade and the humidity wasn't as bad as they said it would be, so it wasn't all that uncomfortable in the end.

The race was very different from the Indy 500. First of all, the cars go the other way around the track! The crowd was very different. I knew it would be very international, but I didn't realize people would be so passionate about the countries they were supporting as well as the teams. There were loads of flags everywhere -- both country flags but also Ferrari flags and others. People were also all decked out in F1 gear -- hats, shirts, etc -- supporting their teams. People go crazy for the Ferrari team. Also it was very, very loud. I regretted not buying some earplugs. It was so loud that in the beginning I had to close my ears with my fingers. As the race went on, though, my ears got used to it and I didn't have to do that anymore. I'm sure that is a bad sign.

We had gotten seats that were right by the start and finish line. That was really good for the start and ends of the race, and also for watching the pits. The pit stops take literally about 7 seconds. It was amazing. The cars would come in and they would become covered with the pit crew. You couldn't see the car anymore. It was like a pride of lions feasting on an antelope. Then they would refuel the car, change the tires, and whatever else they need to do and be gone in the same amount of time it takes my brain to realize I'm touching something hot.

The best thing was the guy we were rooting for won! There is a rookie driver called Lewis Hamilton who is from near John's hometown. He's all the rage right now and he won the race! So we got to hear God Save the Queen since the play the national anthem of the winning driver at the end. Also, the winner's circle celebrations were right in front of where we were sitting, so we got a great view of it all. Of course, you'd never know that since John's camera ran out of batteries before the end of the race!

By the way, I totally lied in the subject of this post. OF COURSE there are pet stories! For my birthday John, Lucy and I went down to the lake to go boating with my dad and Gretchen. Lucy was a lot more confident this time. She had to be put in the water a couple of times, but then she started to get a real interest and at the end she jumped in by herself when there was no one else in the water and swam by herself for a few minutes! She seemed happy as a clam! Before that, I was in the water and she and John came in. I was on a floaty chair and she got right up there on me and was perfectly happy chilling out with me for quite a long time. It was really nice. So it seems she is turning into a bit of a water dog!

New car

I had a rude awakening on Saturday night, because I have been counting down my time left on the road for some time now, and Saturday I was told I had been a week off the whole time! I thought I was down to three weeks, and John was looking at the calendar and said there were actually four more weeks to go! I don't know how my calculations were off so much (I mean, it's weeks here not days), but looking back I know I have had the wrong calculations for a while now, at least since our England trip.

Anyway, since we only have four more weeks with me travelling, we are in the market for a second car. We have shared my Prius for nearly a year now, and when I'm home on Fridays I take John to work and we just work it out at the weekends. Really at the weekend we are together all the time anyway, so I can't even think of any times where we've both needed the car at the same time for individual things. But once I am home all the time we know we are both going to need ways to get around, and particularly once the baby is born. So we test drove a few mid-sized SUVs and have decided on the Honda CR-V. When we were test driving we looked at the Equinox, Escape, Rav-4, and CR-V. By the time we'd seen the first three we nearly passed up the Honda dealer as we didn't know if we wanted to add any more choices to the mix. We had hoped by test driving them we would be able to rule some out, but we had liked them all so far. But we thought we would take a few more minutes and go ahead and try the CR-V. And there just seemed to be something about it that we both really liked. Even though we liked all the other ones really well up to that point, something stood out with the Honda. So we have ordered one and will get it in a couple of weeks!

Doggie drama

I haven't made a post for a while so there is a lot to catch up on! Just thinking of the main points of the last couple of weeks.... of course my mind races to what the animals have been up to. I think I should rename my blog from 'Kara's World' to 'Stories About Pets to Bore People With.'

So a couple of weekends ago Lucy got hold of a corn on the cob while we were preparing to bbq on Sunday night. She scarfed down about 3/4 of it while we were chasing her round the garden. I remembered hearing they are dangerous for dogs, so looked on the internet and all the sites said to seek medical attention. So I called three emergency vets and they all recommended she be seen right away (I was thinking one of them at least might think we could wait and see, but no it did seem to cause concern at each place). So we went and they made her throw up and it all came up because it was soon enough that it hadn't left her stomach yet. It could cause intestinal obstruction which can be fatal. So no x-rays or much worse surgery. So the question is, why do these things always happen on a Sunday? I must be nearing the 1/2 dozen mark on pet visits to the emergency vets on Sunday, between the three of them!

Over Memorial Day weekend we took Lucy to Dad and Gretchen's condo at Lake Monroe. Lucy had never been out on the water before, and as she seems to have a lot of Lab in her (including the webbed toes) we have been anxious to get her swimming. She was pretty unsure in the boat and tried her best to keep a low-profile. We anchored up in a cove and despite her best efforts to become invisible, no one forgot that she was there and she was quickly placed lovingly (cough: [gently] tossed) into the water. We had hoped she would jump in after the peer pressure of watching my dad's dogs jump in, but that turned out to be wishful thinking. Once she was in, she started paddling away like an old pro. We were shouting, 'Good girl, Lucy! Good dog!' as she swam and swam. Then we realized that she was actually swimming away and seemed to have no intentions of returning to the boat! Yes, she swam to shore. She didn't even look back as we were calling to her to come back and she was swim-swim-swimming away. She got to where she could stand up, and she just stood there looking at us. I told my dad that I couldn't hear her, but I knew she was standing there whining and whimpering. We pulled up the anchor and drove the boat over to her, and John got in to bring her back to the boat (once we were within earshot we could hear I was right -- she was whimpering away!). She got back on board and again tried to shrink into the floor, hoping she would be forgotten. We took it easy on her, but she was made to get in the water two or three more times, this time with a rope tied to her life jacket so she couldn't get out of reach. Yes, she had a doggie life jacket, but it's mostly for ease of getting her in and out of the boat because there is a handle on the top of the back of it. She was so funny at some points because she would swim to where different people in our group were on floaties and she'd climb up on them. She did it to me when I was on a flimsy little floatation thing, and she somehow managed to stay on it for about a minute or so without drowning me too much. My dad had a sturdier floaty and she climbed right up with him and parked herself in his lap! She is a good little swimmer, we just hope she really gets into it someday and really likes the water, instead of timidly tolerating it like she was.