Happy New Year from Cooper

Cooper enjoys the festive winter holidays. After all, what's a little snow when you've got fur like his? There are still birds to hunt and projects to investigate, even if the neighbors aren't as sociable in the cold.

Today Brenna decided to assemble Jack's hang glider in the cul-de-sac and Cooper stopped by briefly to have a look. Scott let him pretend he was flying. Then he waddled to the neighbor's porch where he arranged himself artfully amid their holiday decor. Happy New Year, everyone!

Fall Fun

It's a beautiful day -- the morning's ice has melted in the noon sun and there are a couple of hours to work comfortably outside sans jacket. Where to begin? Well, despite three prior rounds of leaf blowing there's a full yard's worth again, so I choose that task. Scott gets out the chop saw to cut wood to size for the shed. Who shows up almost instantly? You guessed it! The cat without whom no work can be accomplished: Cooper!

I Know You're Home

My Name Is Not Bob

The longest running part of our recent home repairs has undoubtedly been the creation of a concrete slab and extension of the driveway down to the toy garage. After long periods of quiet and at odd times, workers and equipment would show up and then disappear as suddenly, or just hang out at the curb for weeks at a time. The actual work seems to be finished now, but there's a bobcat and a tamping machine still loitering on the premises. To Cooper, they're just more things to investigate. Too bad he doesn't appreciate irony, but I guess that's my job.

Who's that knocking on my door? Who's that ringing the bell?

It's funny: Cooper will brush right by the dogs to get into the house, but he pretty much leaves them alone when they're outside. Toby doesn't understand. He just wants to play.

Halloween is Coming

Scott and I chopped some wood this morning. The idea was that I would sensibly build up my chopping capacity while he sensibly refrained from inflicting additional damage on his tendons. We filled a wheelbarrow and declared the activity completed. Meanwhile, Cooper had stayed tantalizingly just out of reach of the dogs, so we decided he owed us some studio time. Scott carried the porcine feline to our Halloween display and I started to snap merrily away. Coop obliged by producing a furball. Happy Halloween!

Kitty in the Dew

We've been having a lot of work done on the house as a result of the hail storm we had in May. This morning a team of Korean men from Minnesota are fixing the siding. Unlike most of the other workers, these men are singularly uninterested in Toby and Roxy (our dogs) who nonetheless bark with excitement as they move around the house. For his part, Cooper threads his way unperturbed through ladders, workmen, materials and equipment. So here are workers outside banging on the house, dogs inside barking, and Cooper strolls right up to the door and meows.

Oh, incidentally, Roxy had a noisy run-in with a racoon on Sunday. Cooper, where were you???