Locks of Love For Dogs

It's that time of year again: from late April to mid-November, Vito munificently leaves little bits of himself around the house for all of us to enjoy. Dust-bunnies have no place in our house; Vito's fur takes over everything.

I swept and mopped yesterday, and I didn't want Vito to immediately ruin the effects, so I took him onto the back porch and brushed his fur. It came out in clumps and filled up a plastic grocery sack. Then we took the hose and sprayed him so he'd shake off his fur. He did accordingly, only to promptly run through the cloud of hairs, then take off and roll around in our dandelion field, getting dandelion puffs all over himself, thus defeating the purpose of all we had accomplished.

I just wish there were something we could do with all his fur when he sheds. I know of a few dogs in Thailand who could really use a nice coat. And some cats, too. But, because I'm pretty sure it wouldn't get past customs, I just threw the bag o' fur in the garbage. What a waste.

Second topic for today:

Yesterday was our first experience with "You break it, you buy it." We were at the book store and we ran into some friends that used to be in our ward, one of whom David works with, so we were chatting and the boys got pretty bored so I handed them a couple books to look at. One was a very cute pop-up book titled, A Day At The Farm. So David and I are standing there chatting about credit card points and cruises (our friends are going on a cruise, and we're saving points for one), when suddenly I hear, rrrrriiiiippp. I look over and there is Owen, holding a little paper rooster that used to be in the book. Oops. So I put the rooster back in the book and said to David, who didn't know the book had been ripped, "I think we should get this book for the boys. They seem to really like it. AndOwenbrokeitsowe'rekindofobligated-topayforit." Luckily, it is a book that the boys really like, and it only cost $6. Not too bad. And the rooster was easily glued back into place. But I've learned my lesson about letting the boys play with things in the store. And I'll make sure they are much, much older before I tell them the story about the purchase of the book, because I don't want them getting any ideas.