Middle of the week and nothing much exciting going on here. Our morning began as it always does: morning walk, breakfast, second walk, car trip to clinic. I was pleasantly surprised to see some familiar visitors: Shakespeare and Charlie. As you may remember, Shakespeare has visited the clinic many times to get his heartworms out. Vonnie thinks they're finally gone, so he was in to have some red syrup taken. Don't tell Shakespeare, but Vonnie's getting things ready for mother to remove his boy parts. Maybe someone already told him because he was barking and yelling all day long. Charlie is a friend of mine since puppy hood. We grew up here together and after some short play sessions I re-established my complete domination of her.

Mother, Vonnie and Sweet Sally worked happily in the morning: a little white dog named Corkie took a nap to get her teeth cleaned, and several cats came in for the happy visits. One of these was “the cutest kitten I've ever seen!” said mother. A tiny gray cat named Tinkerbell drew sounds of “awww” wherever she went. I didn't see what the big deal was. She didn't dance or wiggle, no playful pawing or tail wagging. It made me realize that I probably don't need to work it as hard as I do for attention, little Tinkerbell just sat there and no one could get enough!

Aunt Becky, the hairless dog that smells like cheese, stopped by over lunch. She comes weekly for her bath because her skin is “such a problem.” It's not surprising though, I'd hate to think of what my skin would look like without my beautiful hair to protect it. Come to think of it, lots of mother's time is spent looking at pets skin. Some pets come in scratching, chewing and pulling their hair out. Some pets have sores but no itch, while others have itch but no sores. One little dog today was trying to chew her paw pad right off! We've seen flea bugs, and tick bugs (those are fun to squash), even bugs so small mother can only see them with the special glass eyes on the counter. But most of the pets have no bugs at all. According to mother, most of them have allergies. Near as I can figure it, allergies make you want to chew your skin right off for no reason at all. I'm glad that I don't have an incurable condition like allergies. I know that if my skin smelled like cheese all the time, I'd wouldn't be able to keep from licking it either!