Scruffy and Barney

We are house, dog and cat sitting for a week at our neighbors. Every morning, we take Scruffy the dog and Barney the cat for their morning constitutional walks here in Vista Atenas, Atenas, Costa Rica.

Here is a video I made of one of our morning walks.

 

Scruffy and Barney from Diana Miskell Turlock on Vimeo.

 

Where Is a Cat When You Need One?

I was lying in my hammock about half an hour ago, swinging back and forth and reading John Lescroart's book, "The Suspect" (excellent).

Out of the corner of one eye, I saw a little creature running into our house. We keep the front and back doors open all day for the lovely breezes but they are not screened.

At first I thought it was a little lizard but this one was round, furry and brown haired, with a tail. It seemed too small for a rat but ....

"Lance, shut all the doors to the other rooms", meaning especially "shut the door to our bedroom!". I don't know if this creature has left the premises or not.

Barney and Goobio, get down here now! We need a rat sniffing cat pronto! So much for sound sleep tonight.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Dogs and Cats

We arrived in Costa Rica with just one animal, a cat named Genny. Since living here in Vista Atenas, we and our neighbours seemed to have acquired more animals without any effort at all. They move in and out of our lives.

There is Barney, whom I have written about in previous blog posts. Then there is Scruffy, the dog who appeared from nowhere and has adopted all of us.

This is what it looked like yesterday afternoon at our casa:

Genny

 

Scruffy the Dog and Barney the Cat

Scruffy the dog appeared today wearing a lovely collar bought for him by our neighbours.

Barney the cat just sleeps all day long on our patio chairs or at our neighbour's house. All three animals get along fine, except Barney will give Scruffy warning hisses now and then and sometimes Genny and Barney smack each other in the face.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Barney the Neighbourhood Cat Comes Home

Rose Mary and Tony picked up Barney at the vet's office last Wednesday. They worried that he might run away as soon as the cage door was opened but he was fine and settled down to a bowl of food.

He came down the hill to visit us the same day and has shown up regularly since. He was sleeping on a patio chair this morning so perhaps he stayed overnight. Yesterday, he and and our cat Genny were lying on the grass looking very content and enjoying the sun and breezes - they reminded me of cows in the meadow chewing their cuds.

Cost for neutering Barney: 14,000 colones or about $28 CAD and that included worm pills.

Barney the Cat Update

Barney - Pre-Nutcracker

I've written previously about Barney the Cat and our attempts to get him to the vet and neutered.

Well, it's probably happening right now as I write this! Neighbors Rose Mary and Tony, co-caretakers of Barney along with us, phoned me earlier today to say Barney was at the vet. They used a cat trap to get him - a wise decision after the way he broke out of our airline approved cat carrier.

Apparently, he was plenty mad - and became even angrier when his cage was set down on the floor at the vet's and a puppy gamboled up to the cage to have a sniff. He comes home tomorrow and I'll tell you how he reacts when let out of the cage.