Mostly Back to Normal

Whew!  The Cactus Show is finally over with, and Mom is staying home more, but she is still sort of resting up and trying to get caught up with everything.  She didn't put her plants back where they belong yet, so they are still sitting in boxes on the floor.  But maybe today she will have time to put them away.

The cactus club did not make as much money as they do some years at the show, so that was kind of sad.  A lot of people came there, but they did not spend as much money as they do some years.  Maybe this was because of the Bad Economy.  Or maybe it was because one of the vendors couldn't come, so there was not so much variety in the plants to buy.  But Mom sold a whole bunch of her plants, so at least we are a little richer than we used to be, and yesterday Mom went to Petco and bought some dog food and yummy treats.  Which made all of us dogs very happy.

Mom won a bunch of blue ribbons, which she usually does.  A blue ribbon is the best kind to have because it means you are Number One in that class.  But this year Mom also won something called a Rosette because the judges thought one of her plants was the Best Succulent in the whole show!  Mom was very, very excited about this because in all the years she has been showing plants, like maybe almost 30, she has never won a Rosette.

Here is a picture of the plant that got the Rosette.  It is called Petopentia natalensis, which is one of those weird scientific names.  I think it would be better to just call it Gertrude or Floyd or something like that, but nobody asked me.

Anyway, now that the cactus show is over with, we can get back to a more normal life.  And we started doing that already yesterday morning when Mom took us out to hunt cicadas.  The weather got a little cooler, so it was a good time to go hunt cicadas.  Gabe and I found a whole bunch of them while we were out with Mom, and we gobbled them all up as soon as we found them.

Then Mom took Mel and Barry out to hunt cicadas, and they found a lot of them, too.  I think it is probably the best time of the whole year right now to hunt cicadas, and this makes me very happy.

Oh, and here's some more news.  Gabe has a big, bad Urinary Tract Infection.  He had to get some of his urine sent to the lab, and they made the bacteria in it grow, but none of the drugs they used would kill the bacteria, so they will have to try some different drugs, and Mom will have to pay extra money for them to do that.  This did not make her happy, but she wants Gabe to not be sick, so she agreed to pay the extra money.

Our cats are getting very bold, and sometimes they come in the computer room while I am working on writing my blog.  Or other times one of them will come in the bedroom at night while we are sleeping.  And Sunday night they snuck down the stairs while Mom and Barry and Gabe were watching TV and went in the kitchen.  But then they got spooked and ran back up the stairs.  And Gabe never even woke up and knew they were there.

Charlie doesn't poop on the bed anymore because Mom switched to a different kind of kitty litter, and also she got a second litter box, so each cat has a litter box.  This seems silly to me because we dogs do not each need a separate back yard to use for peeing and pooping.  But I guess cats are just more fussy and more trouble than dogs.