Suki Updates

Thunderation!

2007-04-30T21:40:00.000-05:00

I worked 7-4 today, but had to take a quick break at 10:30 am to come home and bring Suki in from the back yard because it was thundering. When I arrived, she was very agitated, standing in the middle of a flowerbed, and shaking like a leaf. She was also panting heavily. I left her inside for the rest of the day, which seemed to calm her down considerably. This evening, the thunderstorms returned. Suki came upstairs, panting and shaking, and tried to hide underneath anything she could fit under (the shoe rack was the only thing). She was quite inconsolable, although I tried singing her lullabies and Avinash talked to her. Here she is in the corner of our closet. Now she has quieted down and settled on the couch for the night.

Ned in purdah

2007-04-28T08:11:00.000-05:00

Ned has exiled himself to the bedroom, as he did last time. He refuses to emerge while Darwin and Suki are out roaming about. We have had to bring him his breakfast in the bedroom, since he won't share the same floor of the house as the other creatures. Fortunately, this does not bother Darwin and Suki at all.

Bath time

2007-04-28T08:07:00.000-05:00

Suki and Darwin arrived Wednesday night. Dad insisted that Darwin be left in the garage until I came home from work, so he became covered with oil from the garage floor and dirt from my gardening equipment. Here he is after his bath. He was happy to burrow underneath a towel all night until he was dry.

Darwin and Rowena

2007-02-15T10:58:00.000-06:00

Here's Darwin simultaneously enjoying a sunbeam and trying to get into the office closet. Note the immense size of his belly.

Here's Rowena's reaction to his nearby presence:

Sniffy-sniffy

2007-02-15T10:02:00.000-06:00

Here's a photo of Suki doing what she does best on a walk in Reedsburg, which is sniff. We have so many dogs in the neighborhood, and there are so many interesting places to sniff, a walk with Suki takes forever - no matter what the weather. Yesterday I was off work, so Suki got the luxury of five walks during the day. Despite that, someone left me a puddle on the floor in front of the fireplace. I'm not sure who that someone might have been, but I suspect Big White. Little White is also a possibility.

We had pulled up the wool rug which was in front of the fireplace, after the first time. Also, someone left a yellow spot on the dining room carpet, which is bigger and harder to clean. Also not the first time. It's possible it was Darwin at fault, although I've seen him head down to the basement to use the catboxes there. Or it could be one of our own cats, fearing to enter the basement while Big Scary Darwin is nearby. Who knows. Fortunately, we had just gotten our Bissell steam cleaner back from the hardware store (it was sent there to have a broken part fixed on Sep 12 of 2006) (!) (and cost $150 to have it fixed - cost $170 new!). I was able to shampoo the carpet after mopping the hardwood floors. The carpet steamer is a godsend for cleaning smelly puddles in a rug.

On one of our many walks, Suki and I went to the hardware store down the street. Although the temperature was hovering around 0 F (-17 C for all of you Celcius-o-philes) I tied her to a post outside since I was just going in briefly to buy a handful of washers. While I was in the store, someone (probably one of the staff) brought Suki a little green bone-shaped doggie biscuit. Naturally, she ignored the snack, as she always does.

When we returned home - I brought the biscuit with me, in case she changed her mind - the mail had arrived and I had received three samples of Canine Greenies dog treats. Since they are breath freshening, made with green ingredients such as alfalfa, Suki naturally turned them down. Suki had breakfasted royally on some disgusting breakfast sausages I had obtained free with a coupon - I couldn't stomach them - and she had declined dog food. I left her with one of the Greenies, and after a while I returned to find her all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and the Greenie had disappeared. I fed her the remaining Greenie and the green doggy-biscuit and she ate them all.

So Suki's tally for the day:
"lite" breakfast sausages - 8
dog biscuits -3
milk, Rowena's - 2 small bowls
burned bagel - none
dog food - none
dosa - none

We went for another walk in the afternoon. One of the music students I am accompanying stopped along the street to drop off her accompaniment music, and she thought Suki was just beautiful. She was shocked at how calm and mellow Suki is - she has a Boxer puppy. I told her that her dog would also be very mellow in 10 years. ;)

In the evening, we made dosai and watched Ice Harvest on DVD. None of our cats would cooperate in helping keep our laps warm, so Avinash pulled Darwin up onto our laps to enjoy an entire evening of laptime.

Tuesday

2007-02-13T12:31:00.000-06:00

Suki did very well today with her breakfast. She ate about 80% of it, all of it DOG FOOD. She didn't do so well with the 5 hour interval between the morning walk and when I got home from work - she left me a puddle in the kitchen. Fortunately, it's easy to clean up there.

Darwin seems quite content now, after being accidentally shut in the workroom in the basement all morning. I had gone down there in the morning, to get a bagel out of the freezer, and apparently Darwin had followed me there. He enjoyed getting some laptime after that experience.

Busy Day

2007-02-12T20:42:00.000-06:00

Linda and I had a busy schedule today. She had to come home during her lunch break to walk Suki. When I got back from work at 6:45 Suki was waiting for me, smiling and wagging her tail. I think she was desperate to go out for a walk. I walked her, shoveled snow from the footpath, and made some dinner for myself. Darwin greeted me with a big yawn. He had just woken up from his slumber.

I decided to feed the cats after I finished eating. Then the circus started. I gave Darwin his special food and along came Fatty to share. As soon as Darwin finished eating, I put away his food and gave Fatty her (cheaper) food. However, she wasn't interested in eating as long as Darwin was standing right next to her. Suki showed up and had a bite of Fatty's dinner. Linda gave Suki her own dinner, garnished with dog treats. Suki, as expected, looked away. Fatty, as expected, showed immense interest. While this was happening, Darwin decided that Fatty's food was much better than his own food. The only problem was that Fatty's food was by now on top of the kitchen counter. So he hopped on to the kitchen stool, gauged the distance between the stool and the counter in about 7 minutes, and with a gleeful look on his face jumped right up to Fatty's food dish. I took away Fatty's food dish, which made her miserable.

Meanwhile, Ned was carefully making his way towards the kitchen, like a sneaky commando on a secret mission. He was stopping and hiding beneath the closest piece of furniture every about ten feet, while moving in the general direction of the kitchen. He ran up against his biggest obstacle when he saw Darwin sitting right in the middle of the doorway leading to the kitchen. Darwin's mere presence stopped him dead in his tracks. His confidence took a nosedive and he took cover under the dining room buffet. From the shadows he issued a loud hiss and a big, angry growl. Darwin didn't budge. After a lot of hissing and growling, Ned decided to work up his courage to come out and sneak past Darwin. After a few halting steps and a few precautionary crouches in anticipation of an attack from Darwin, Ned slithered past his to the safety of the kitchen. It was a touchdown moment for commando Ned. After all this, THERE WAS NO FOOD IN THE KITCHEN! Darwin was still interested in Fatty and Ned's food, so their food was kept out of reach, while Darwin finished his own dinner. Upon realising that there was no food in the kitchen Ned ran downstairs to the safety of the basement as quickly as he could. Darwin followed him, only to be hissed at again.

Right now Darwin has finished dinner and gone back to his original, not-upright, plant-like sleeping position inside the folds of a blanket. Ned and Fatty are buttering us up for dinner. Suki is showing great enthusiasm for everything except dog food.

More later.

The Food Web

2007-02-11T15:33:00.001-06:00

Food Web, originally uploaded by avinashbhat.

Nobody wants to eat their own food at the moment. I'm a great believer in diagrams, so I made one up to show you the complexity of the food situation here. Ned, being the smallest and and skinniest, gets the smallest and skinniest flowchart shape and flowchart text font. Darwin gets a well-rounded shape with bold text for obvious reasons.

The Food Web

2007-02-11T13:13:00.000-06:00

Suki's visit this time seems to have been somewhat less frightening than her past visits. I'm not sure why. It may be something to do with Darwin's presence. Maybe Suki feels that Darwin is somebody more familiar, since she lives with him in Baraboo, and less intimidating than Ned and Fatty. She didn't follow us around the house the first couple of days, like she usually does. However, her food habits are the same. She refuses to eat anything.

The food situation is quite complicated right now: Darwin wants to eat Ned and Rowena's food; Suki wants to eat Ned and Rowena's and Darwin's food; Ned wants to eat Darwin's food or anything else that may be available when he tiptoes into the kitchen in the middle of the night; Rowena wants to eat any food she can find anywhere. Darwin's requirements are important because he can't eat ordinary cat food. The magnesium in ordinary cat food makes him sick. However, his prescription cat food is expensive, not something the other cats should be eating. Whenever he shows up in the kitchen with a hungry look, we feed him his special cat food. Usually upon hearing the sound of kibble on china, Fatty comes running to join the feast. We've to feed her then. Yesterday Suki was around and she wanted Fatty's food, ignoring her own bowl a few feet away from Fatty's bowl. We have to change their food bowls often to ensure everyone is eating the right thing.

Ned gobbled up Suki's food two nights back. A few hours later he deposited almost the entire thing on the closet carpet (he always finds a carpet to vomit).

Saturday news

2007-02-10T19:09:00.000-06:00

Not much to report today, since I worked all day. Avinash reports that Suki had an accident in the kitchen while he was in the shower, so it looks like 4 hours without a walk is about her limit. At least the kitchen floor is easy to clean.

Ned must have indulged in a dinner of dog food last night, since there was a large pile of, uh, "recycled" dog food in the closet this morning. I obviously need to hide the dog food better after Suki refuses her dinner.

Today we had a heat wave with the temperatures reaching 15 degrees. Many people were taking the opportunity to take their cars through the car wash, as we did, now that the temps were above the sub-zero range.

Darwin has laid low all day, sitting on the blanket on the couch. Rowena seems to be adjusting to his presence - she has been using better language in the last day or so.

Last night, we watched a dvd on my computer in the office (our Philips DVD-R in the TV room is not functioning properly, only 14 months after we bought it). Darwin kept us company by sitting on my lap the entire time and emitting syrupy purrs.

Avinash says that Ned, in a testament to his Muslim faith, has decided to enter purdah. He now spends all of his time under the floor-length tablecloth covering the bedside table. He only emerges briefly, under the cover of darkness, when he is safe from encountering the great white peaceful one. (We think Darwin must surely be a Buddhist or a Jain.)

Here is a photo of Darwin helping me keep my legs warm. ;) While not particularly comfortable for me, Darwin was so happy that I couldn't move from this spot.

Picky eaters

2007-02-09T15:38:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, Suki's diet consisted of:
5 crackers, poppy seed, stale
3 slivers of ham, elderly
4 bite-size pieces of apple pancake, week-old
cat food, nibbles while I was not looking
milk, a tad, while Rowena was not looking

Today, she had:
Piece of Canadian bacon from Egg / English Muffin sandwich
Circle of egg from Egg sandwich

I did a drive-thru breakfast mystery shop today and received the wrong item, so Suki was the lucky recipient of the bounty. She declined the English Muffin itself, even though it had cheese on it.

Darwin has been only interested in eating everyone else's food. Our cats have only been interested in eating dog food or Darwin food, but not their own.

Here's a photo of Darwin catching some z's in a blankie. I tried to pick up the blankie to fold it, because it had inexplicably gotten crumpled up, but found it immensely heavy for its size. Here is the reason.

Suki and Darwin get settled

2007-02-07T15:41:00.000-06:00

Here is Suki on her favorite couch. Darwin has found his old haunt, the furnace ducts in the basement. They are warm and one of his favorite hideaways.

Darwin and Suki

2007-02-06T21:03:00.000-06:00

When I got back home today, I found a smiling Suki sitting on the couch, wagging her tail. I'd forgotten that she was supposed to be there. She seemed a little less unsure about our house and the cats this time. Most times when she comes to stay with us, she spends a very nervous first couple of days. The nervousness decreases with each passing day, until it completely vanishes by the time she's ready to go back to Baraboo. I wonder if she's less nervous this time because Darwin is also here with her.

Darwin, as everyone knows, remains unperturbed by most things that happen around him. He is the Bahubali of the cat world. Rowena and Ned are both being quite rude to Darwin. He doesn't even seem to notice them, and goes about his business like nothing has happened. This makes Fatty even more mad, I think. We're hoping that Fatty will make friends soon. I wonder if Fatty is trying to defend Ned from Darwin. She usually feels very, very defensive about Ned, even though Ned feels exactly the opposite about her!

So, anyway, Darwin is exploring the house right now. He hasn't been here for a while, so he has probably forgotten everything about the house.

More later.

Suki returneth

2007-02-06T18:01:00.000-06:00

Suki has re-joined our family for a two-week visit, while Mom and Dad go to Florida. They've picked a perfect time to go, since temperatures here in Wisconsin have been in the deep-freeze. Yesterday it was -22 F when I got up (that's -30 for all of you Imperially-challenged folks out there!). Today it snowed most of the day, though it didn't amount to much due to the temperatures never getting above zero.

Suki and Darwin arrived about 3 pm. Suki was her happy, smiley self, accepting snacks of 5 stale crackers and 3 smidgens of elderly ham left over from Christmas. Darwin was a bit more subdued, due to his cool reception here by the Chickering-Bhat cats - even genial Fatty hissed and growled at him this afternoon. He will probably take a while to settle in.

I just got back from a walk in the snow. It is too cold to risk taking the camera outside today, so this post is photo-free.

More tomorrow!

Hot dog

2006-07-17T20:54:00.000-05:00

Today again the mercury reached 100 degrees, and Suki was rather overwhelmed by the heat. She spent the day indoors with the AC on, and only ventured out in the humid and torrid weather to take a few brief walks.

For dinner tonight, to continue the hot dog theme, 4 hot dogs and 3 doggie biscuits, polished off by the remainder of the cat's milk.

Friday news

2006-07-14T22:50:00.000-05:00

Busy day today. I had to work all day. Suki just ate two pieces of turkey, 1/4 pound of hamburger crumbles, and 1/2 bowl dogfood (microwaved) for lunch after refusing anything for breakfast. We went to Baraboo after I got off and checked on the kitties (fine), plants (fine), and berries (winding down). Suki enjoyed spending a little time "at home". I took some more Nov 2005 sliced luncheon meat from Mom & Dad's freezer to feed Suki; I hope they weren't too attached to it. She snarfled down 4 or 5 pieces of roast beef and 3 hot dogs when we got home, after refusing more dogfood. Tonight she is firmly refusing to go for a final walk and is in the darkest, deepest corner of the basement. I think there are firecrackers going off again.

I don't have any good Suki photos today, but here is a recent picture of Avinash making "phulkas" (puffy rotis).

More gastronomic delights

2006-07-13T11:43:00.000-05:00

I forgot to update today's Suki Menu. Today she started off with her usual refusal of dog food. I think I am going to throw it away; it's a week old and pretty yucky by now. Suki spent some time in the yard this morning after her walk. I had a breakfast sandwich in the fridge left over from my breakfast shop, and I shared that with her for breakfast. She ate both the sausage and the biscuit. She was still hungry after that, so I got out the bag of stuff Ani had raided from Mom and Dad's freezer to try and feed Suki. I fed her four elderly and freezerburnt cheap hotdogs (they were brown and shriveled) and she gamely gnawed them all down - taking them carefully to the Persian rug, of course. She then polished off two more weiners dating from March, also very tough and nasty looking. This has the added benefit of clearing out Mom and Dad's freezer while they are on vacation. This makes a total of three packages of hotdogs no longer hibernating in their freezer - not much, but it's a start.

Hot and Muggy Day

2006-07-13T11:18:00.000-05:00

Wednesday I was off, so Suki and I got a lot done around the house. I started the morning with a breakfast shop at a local undisclosed location. Suki came along for the ride and was very good, as always. She had four pieces of turkey bacon for breakfast (which I had liberated from Mom and Dad's fridge; it outdated in February).

I vaccuumed around the house and cleaned the kitchen up. Make dosas and idlis creates a lot of dishes to wash. Suki came to the library with me in the afternoon when I returned a book. I picked up the DVD "Must Love Dogs" at the library. Suki and the gang can watch that tonight.

In the afternoon, I left to go check on the kitties before picking up Ani at work and heading to Madison for the Concert on the Square. The cats were fine and the houseplants also looked good. Fermi was talkative as usual. I brushed Darwin a little bit. Fermi was so happy to see the person responsible for the new food arrive that he was quite affectionate to Jenni, rubbing his head up against her many times.

It was a very hot and muggy evening for the concerts, but that is quite pleasant after our cold and dry winter. Ani and I walked to Monona Terrace afterwards and enjoyed the view for a few minutes before returning to our car on E. Mifflin St. It was still very sticky at 10 pm, so we picked up an ice cream cone from the McDonalds drive-through and shared that on the way home.

Here's a nice backlit photo of Suki which I took on our early morning walk. You can see that it was already hot and hazy at 6:30 am.

Suki ready for bed

2006-07-11T21:31:00.000-05:00

Suki has gotten into the habit of sleeping in our bedroom at night. She feels secure there, we think.

Wet Dog Day

2006-07-11T21:02:00.000-05:00

Today I left Suki outside when I went to work. I arrived to a memo which came out of the blue (as far as I was concerned), saying that all of the frequencies for medication administration were to be changed at 7 am that day to layman's terms. Nursing management was under the impression that was a simple process; just a pharmacy computer switch to be thrown. In actuality, it meant that after the frequency table was adjusted (a more complicated matter than nursing thought it would be because of space limitations), every single medication order for every inpatient and every standing order and every pre-defined order (there are about 3000) needed to be manually edited, as well. This quagmire took up my entire morning, and I had to stay late as well. I escaped at noon to quickly run home and bring the dog in, since it had been raining steadily all morning. Then I went back to work and got things stabilized there before returning home.

Suki was in the mood to snack when I got home. She started off with an appetizer of several dog biscuits. After that, I tried to feed her her dog food with a torn-up hot dog decorating the top. She ate the hot dog, but not the dog food. Since she's had so little to eat, I hand-fed her another two hot dogs and two pieces of toast. She was still feeling snacky, so I gave her a few pieces of bacon, which she wolfed down in true dog fashion.

Avinash checked on the kitties and fed them. He said that Fermi was quite vocal and affectionate until the food appeared.

The evening meal was refused by Suki, as usual. I gave her some more bacon. Rowena hungrily watched the proceedings with great jealousy, wondering why she never gets a) wet food; and b) no special treats, either. Ned avoided the jealousy problem by eating Suki's dog food and polishing that off with a long drink from the bathtub.

Tomorrow we are planning on going to the Concerts on the Square in Madison. We haven't decided what to do with Suki yet.

Suki's Monday Blues

2006-07-10T21:41:00.000-05:00

Suki was very subdued this morning when I got up. She had spent the night in the corner of the bedroom, panting loudly. Avinash gave up trying to sleep in the same room and went to the guest bedroom to sleep. Her panting didn't bother me at all, since I can lay on my "good ear" and not hear it at all out of my deaf ear.

I took her meal out to her in the yard, and she did sniff it. When I went back into the house, I saw her dragging out the pieces of bacon from the dish. I think she will probably eat them, but it didn't look good for the rest of the dog food. I left her there in the yard with her dish, to ponder for a while.

When I came home at lunchtime, all of her water was gone, but the dog food was untouched. I hand-fed her two hotdogs, with the arthritis pill tucked in one of them. She's been getting creakier and creakier without the medicine.

After (my) supper, I brought her out onto the front steps. It was a beautiful evening and Avinash was enjoying the balmy temperatures and a magazine on the steps. I brought out the package of hotdogs, to try again, but Suki started shaking like a leaf and hid behind Avinash's legs. I eventually gave up and took her down to the basement.

At bedtime, I asked Suki if she wanted a walk. She was laying very low on the floor in the corner of the basement. She did not show any evidence of wanting a walk, despite the licking encouragement of Rowena and lots of pats from me. Avinash reported that he could hear crackers outside when he was reading on the front stairs, so that must account for her fright. I gave up for the evening and will try again tomorrow. Fortunately, I only work half a day tomorrow, so I won't have to leave her outside alone all day like I did today.

Fine dining in Reedsburg

2006-07-09T18:24:00.000-05:00

Suki continued her dogfood boycott yesterday. She started the day off by refusing her proper food, as usual. She did accept half of a fresh hot pancake with butter and real maple syrup. In the evening we went to the drive-in theater in the Dells to see "Superman Returns". The special at the concession is a HUGE hamburger called the "Big Mamaburger". Suki and I split one of those for supper. The movie was not particularly interesting, but it was a fun atmosphere. It was the first time either Avinash or Suki had been to a drive-in. Suki met one tiny puppy who was quite scared of her, but she enchanted her customary entourage of small boys.

Bath

2006-07-08T12:26:00.000-05:00

Suki just her aforementioned annual bath. By the time we got her wet, we could not see the bottom of the bathtub. The water was black and smelly. She is definitely a frontrunner in the dirty dog competition. Linda is drying and combing her right now.

More later.

Suki Visits Fermi

2006-07-08T10:19:00.000-05:00

Linda and I went to Baraboo yesterday to feed Fermi, Darwin and Jenny. We took Suki along because we thought she would like to see her cat friends. All three cats were very glad to see us. Ned, still in Reedsburg, was very glad to get a few hours of dog-less time. He must have thought that the dog had gone back to Baraboo for good. To his dismay, Suki returned in the evening.

Linda and I hiked along the west bluff at Devil's Lake. Suki had to be left behind on her couch since she has such a hard time walking these days. I think she was glad to spend a few hours on her favourite couch and with her favourite cats in her favourite house. I'm sure she thought she was home for good, too.

Devil's Lake was teeming with people. Teeming is a relative term, of course. Teeming takes on an entirely different meaning in Old Delhi, for example. I still remember that walk a few years back near Chandni Chowk. Now, that was teeming with people. Anyway, there were a lot of people enjoying the excellent weather.

After our walk, we picked up Suki and were back in Reedsburg at around 6.

Friday Morning

2006-07-07T08:29:00.000-05:00

It's a beautiful morning today. Linda's still sleeping upstairs while I'm updating the blog. Ned, Fatty and I are in the sun room watching and listening to the birds outside going about their daily morning rituals. They seem to be a very busy lot. Ned, of course, is desperate to go out. He tried to convince me that it was imperetive that he got out, by meowing six (yes, 6) times in a row. He wouldn't say that much even if he won an election.

Suki and I took an early morning walk. The walk was productive for Suki. Now, all dog owners know that a productive walk for a dog has an entirely different meaning. In other words, I carried a plastic bag back. Suki seems to be doing very well with her new medicines for arthritis. After the walk she did not want to stay outside, as she usually does, so we headed back into the house. She's now on her couch panting away. I made myself some garam chai and sat down in the sun room with Ned and Fatty.

I just saw a bird taking a bath in Suki's water bowl in the backyard. By the time I got my camera out, the bird had flown away. I missed a nice shot. The bird landed straight inside the water bowl. She dipped her head in the water, spread her wings out and fluttered them with great vigour. Then she looked around to ensure total privacy, and repeated the whole process all over again.

Speaking of bathing, Suki needs a bath really badly. She hasn't yet had her annual bath at our house (which is the only bath she ever gets). This weekend sometime Linda and I will give her a nice bath. Ned has colonized the rocking chair and, having given up hopes of going outside, tucked himself for a nice morning nap. Fatty has decided to snooze right next to me, in the white wicker chair. She has covered her eyes and gone to sleep.

Everyone in the house is sleeping. I guess I'll go and have an authentic south Indian breakfast of idli and chutney. The coconut chutney that I made turned out really well. There's nothing like using fresh coconut. More later.

Suki arrives again for a visit

2006-07-06T20:16:00.000-05:00

Suki keeps us company while we prepare dinner.

Mom, Dad, and Jasio are headed for "points west". They want
to go to drive through Minnesota and the the Dakotas to the Badlands
by this evening, Yellowstone Park in Wyoming the next day, probably
staying in Idaho, then through Oregon to the Pacific Ocean and drive
down the coast of California to San Francisco. Then they want to go
inland to Yosemite Park, possibly the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Las
Vegas, and then back east through Wyoming and Colorado to the midwest
again. It's about 3000 miles and a really long trip with a lot of
traveling. I don't think Jasio has much idea how big the USA is.
They will probably end up cutting some of the journey out, unless they
drive all day and all night. Jasio can't drive, and my mom gets
sleepy, so it will all fall on my dad. He loves driving, so he
wouldn't mind, but he's getting older and he's diabetic, so that's a
problem. I hope they manage safely.

Suki spend most of the day indoors. It was sunny and hot today and she watched me water the garden plants a bit. We also took a small jaunt to the library, where Suki checked out three romance novels and a DVD named Chain Reaction. I think she will enjoy the movie more than the novels.

Suki's diet today:
One bite polish sausage
One bite toast
1/2 of yesterday's very smelly leftover dog food (about 1/4 bowl)

I was just getting her in the mood to try a bit more dog food when Avinash arrived home, so with all the distraction that was the end of the preprandial ambiance. I may try again one more time before bed, but I'm pretty satisfied for the day.

Suki enjoys a cookout

2006-06-18T20:24:00.000-05:00

Suki was in the mood to snack when I came home from work. I fed her 1 slice of buttered toast, from some nice Clasen's bakery rosemary bread. She liked this so well that we next progressed to dog biscuits. She accepted each one, from the relatively dangerous position of coming close to the hissing and crouching Ned, and retreated two rooms away to the firplace rug to eat each one. Ned scared Suki a couple of times by hissing, and she held the dog biscuit in her mouth until he darted outside. She then balanced the doggie bisbuit between her paws and ate it very daintily. She kept returning, smiling and wagging and following me around, until I had fed her 6 biscuits!

I really figured that would be enough, since it was more than she often eats for days at a time, but Suki was really in the mood to eat by that time. I decided that since we had no dog food, and she never eats dog food at our house anyway because it's not just like home and not the way that Mom does it, to cook her a proper dinner.

It was a fine evening. The termperature was 82 degrees, after a rather rainy and muggy day, and I set up the Weber grill on the patio and made a hamburger. Suki came outside with me, and continued her wagging / smiling / chop licking routine while the burger was being cooked. When it was ready, I ate half and Suki ate half, the bun this time! She was still very interested in food, so I cooked a hotdog and fed it to her the same way. I think she would have eaten still more, but I decided she had had enough at that point.

With Suki, it's feast of famine - literally!

We then took a small trip to the car wash and the grocery store, coming home via Ski Hill road to give Suki a chance to hang her head out the window.

Here's a photo from when Avinash was vacuuming out the car at the car wash. Suki and I took a small walk on the clover lawn at the bank.

Nice day for the parade

2006-06-18T19:52:00.000-05:00

Suki Celebrates Butterfest in Reedsburg

2006-06-17T14:57:00.000-05:00

Suki is staying with us for three days. We picked her up from Baraboo yesterday, on our way back from Madison. Linda and I had been to Madison to buy my regular desi food.

Linda and I hadn't realised that today was Butterfest, the annual Reedsburg festival that showcases the local industries and institutions here. I can't think of an equivalent Indian festival off hand, but the Republic Day celebrations come close.

The Butterfest started off on a bad note for Suki. There were some loud noises made by small kids amongst the crowd that had gathered to watch the parade. Even though the sounds weren't particularly loud, they were enough to make Suki shake and shiver. Linda and I tried to calm her down but nothing helped, as usual. There were more bada bings and bada bangs later on in the festival, which made the situation worse.

On a more positive note, Suki got a biscuit from the mayor of Reedsburg. The mayor was riding some kind of electric vehicle. Linda said that he got off the vehicle, came to Suki, and handed her a dog biscuit. Of course, Suki didn't even so much as sniff the biscuit. I'm sure she appreciated the gesture.

There's not much else going on right now. Suki and I are watching the USA versus Italy football match right now. The score's 1-1 right now, but the US team has two players red-carded, both not such great decisions by the referee.

Suki goes to Mountain

2006-04-25T16:24:00.000-05:00

Suki made her first ever trip in the van this weekend, when we all went to Mountain for Jim and Diane's 65th birthday / retirement shindig. This was due to a comedy of errors - we had planned on taking her in the Vibe, and Dad was planning on going with Gregg and Katya - but that all fell through so we went as one big, happy, white furry family.

Here's Suki at Rib Mountain getting ready for the family photo. :)

Dinner report:
Suki ate two bites of a Mc Donald's cheeseburger the entire weekend.

Back Home

2006-04-14T16:33:00.000-05:00

Suki went back home today. Her parents came back from their spring break tour earlier than expected. In fact, they drove the whole day yesterday to make it back home as soon as possible. They called us at around eight last night to let us know that they would be taking Suki back today.

Suki was very excited to see her mom. Linda and I are hoping that she will starting eating more normally once she gets back to her regular routine. If nothing else works, Fermi should be able to persuade Suki to eat properly.

Suki on the terrace

2006-04-12T20:41:00.000-05:00

She May Not Like Dog Food But...

2006-04-11T20:42:00.000-05:00

Today Suki discovered that she liked chewing gum. Linda told me that Suki was gnawing on a packet of chewing gum this afternoon. She had not yet sunk her teeth into the gum itself, but was getting close. I can't think of a reasonable explanation for this behaviour, except to say that she has always liked junk food. Linda's food report summarizes Suki's nutrition for today.

This evening Suki, Linda and I watched TV Today's Hindi channel Aaj Tak, a free view we're getting through Dish Network. Aaj Tak made as much sense to Suki as it did to Linda. Suki knows 60 words in ENGLISH, not in Hindi, for those that don't know Suki's educational background. (Hoaarrk and hrrmmmffff are her favourite English words).

I visited Suki's cat friends, Fermi, Darwin and Jenny, in Baraboo on my way back from work. They were all quite glad to see somebody arriving to serve them food. Darwin took the lead in serving himself. Fermi was not sure if the food quality met his standards. Jenny was happy to get her dry kibble. Winston, "the other pet," was nowhere to be seen. I gave them enough food for a couple of days. I plan on visiting them again on Thursday.

Linda will be home tomorrow. Suki will surely like Linda's company.

Meal updates

2006-04-11T07:33:00.000-05:00

So far Suki has performed her usual "guest dog" fast. Since arrival, her intake includes:
1. Three bites of dinner roll (Sunday night)
2. 1 bagel, toasted, with butter (Monday morning) (she declined dog food)
3. large serving of baked chicken nuggets (Monday evening) (she declined dog food again)
4. She declined bagel and dog food this morning (Tue am)

Suki's Spring Break

2006-04-10T19:57:00.000-05:00

Suki arrived yesterday. Her parents have "gone south" for about a week. Suki's going to stay with us until next Saturday or Sunday. Her mother dropped her off early in the morning on Sunday. Suki was waiting for me in the drawing room when I woke up and went downstairs.

Of course, she didn't think she was going to stay for more than half a day here. However, as it always happens, hope faded as the day wore on. Linda, Suki and I watched Spider Man 2 in the evening. Suki was not very interested because I think she was thinking about going back home. Ned was also thinking about Suki going back home. Both Suki and Ned take a long time, each time Suki stays with us, to figure out that the visit would be longer. It must be like going to boarding school. Some of my friends behaved like Suki when they got back to Westcott after the winter and summer vacations. Actually, I used to get that Suki-in-Reedsburg feeling going back to Westcott after any holiday longer than one week.

Today Suki is feeling a little better. She stayed outside almost the entire day. It was the most beautiful day of 2006 so far. More later.

Big White

2006-03-17T09:32:00.000-06:00

Suki had a busy evening last night. She first had to undergo the annual bath experience, which involves lifting her outright into the tub. Avinash and I soaped her down and rinsed her and dried her with three regular-size towels and a beach towel. After combing her out, she looked much whiter. Then we finished the evening by watching Jerry Macguire on tv.

The next morning, Suki seemed in the mood to eat. She indulged in 1/4" of seasoned hamburger crumbles from the freezer. She begged for something else, so I gave her three elderly slices of sliced turkey. After that, several dog biscuits. To top it off, she polished of all the cat food in the dish. She was still exhibiting the lip-smacking and golden-retriever pawing of hunger after that, but she had already eaten everything in the house that I considered to be dog-edible.

We went to visit Pam in Watertown to celebrate her birthday, and took Suki along in the backseat. She accepted several curly fries from Arby's at a pit stop on the way down and was a good passenger without any nervous shoulder-chewing. Suki indicated in no uncertain terms that she wanted to sit on the couch at Pam's, which doesn't leave a lot of room for other occupants since it's grandma's old small hide-a-bed couch.

Colleen was up from her nap and rather tired and grumpy. After about an hour, she warmed up to us and came to share the couch with Suki and me. She has picked up a lot of words and especially likes to look at photo albums and name those pictured inside. She has gotten the knack of patting hair rather than yanking hair and seemed to find Suki's thick flank hair especially interesting to bury her hands in.

We dropped Suki off at Mom and Dad's on the way back home. Suki seemed very happy to be home and was greeted lovingly by Fermi as usual.

Springtime in Wisconsin

2006-03-16T14:05:00.000-06:00

I got up at 6 this morning to walk the dog. We were supposed to have 4-7 inches of snow overnight, but there was nothing but some freezing mist at 6. Suki very happily went on a protracted sniffing adventure all the way to the library and back. She finds that it takes several days to get caught up with the "Reedsburg Paper".

It did start to snow soon afterwards. Avinash was happy that he didn't have to scrape or brush his car off before he went to work.

I had a LONG snuggling session with Ned this morning. He always becomes extremely affectionate when Suki comes to visit. He rubbed his nose all over my face, licked my face, nibbled on my face, and did the same to my arm. Then he went and licked the computer monitor very tenderly as well. He is a very strange cat.

For breakfast, I had a sesame bagel (Suki accepted two bites) and two pieces of whole-wheat toast (Suki accepted four bites). Rowena was quite jealous of this hand-feeding but she certainly doesn't need carbohydrates.

Mail call today:
e-week magazine
paper survey to complete with $1 cash inside
money order for $13 for e-bay

Suki and I went for another walk a bit later and then we took a short drive to the post office to send my e-bay packages and books. Suki enjoyed the car trip, even though it was very short.

When we got back, Suki very firmly led me to the back yard, where she insisted on sitting on the snow, rolling in the snow, diving in the snow, and eating snow. I tied her out there and will go and rescue her from the cold in a little bit.

Back in Reedsburg with Suki

2006-03-16T13:35:00.000-06:00

Once again Suki has joined our household for a few days. Dad has gone to Florida for a week or so and Mom is at work full-time, so I volunteered to dog-sit while Dad was away, so Mom didn't have to worry about the dog while she was at work.

I went to Baraboo yesterday to pick up Suki. I was greeted with pleasure by Jenny and Darwin, and Fermi made an appearance as well. Suki heard me coming and scratched at the porch door, and when I let her in she squeaked and twirled and pranced for a little while in greeting. Mom had left some dog treats by the door for Suki snacking. Since this visit is only going to be for three days, there is no real point in sending dog food since Suki always fasts for 4 or 5 days when going on a visit.

Suki was greeted at the door by Rowena, who rubbed up against her legs and they nosed each other and licked faces. Rowena is a very licky cat and tends to lick everything, so that's not a real surprise. Ned retreated to the upper level of the couch and then upstairs for several hours. He is not a big Suki fan.

Mail call for the day was one e-bay check for $10.

I made a large hamburger for lunch in hopes that I would be able to share it with Suki. Mom said that Suki had declined breakfast in the morning. She's been eating once every 2 or 3 days lately, so I figured I'd just try to get her to nibble on something so she has some kind of nourishment. Suki liked that idea, and ate almost a 1/4# hamburger (cooked). Rowena was jealous and so I fed her a few tidbits of raw hamburger. I gave Suki a biscuit, which she took to eat on the Persian carpet in front of the fireplace, as usual.

Later in the afternoon, I planted the vegetable seeds I had purchased for the garden in seedling trays I put in front of the South windows in the TV room. I was a bit dismayed that Ned showed great interest in these trays, and since I know that in the past he has become a small lawnmower as soon as the seedlings sprout I exiled him from the room until I could get the trays covered up. He also seemed to think the trays could perhaps be a large cat box of some type, which I certainly didn't want to encourage.

Ned snuck into the room later in the afternoon, and I pulled him out from his hidey-hole behind the couch by one foot. He protested this treatment vehemently, and Suki and Rowena came to find out what all the kerfufle was. Ned is normally such a silent cat that it is a great event when he has something to say. Ned became noisier when he saw those two, since he doesn't like either one, so I tossed him out into the sunroom to regain some karma points in the cold. That experience normally makes him very mellow after three or four minutes. Meanwhile, Rowena had become concerned that Suki must be the one bothering Ned, and she growled and took a swipe at Suki. Suki was quite taken aback by this treasonous act by one of her old friends, and she ended up with a bleeding sore on her ear. I yelled at the cat and swatted her on the rear, and she retreated upstairs with a big tail. (Pictured above is the miniature terrorist in her "sleeper cell").

I then took Suki for a walk to help her forget this inhospitable treatment. Suki is very forgiving and when we came back in Rowena and Suki enjoyed their normal friendly interaction. However, I am still miffed at Rowena for such offensive behavior towards a guest.

I made some soup for supper. Suki was smacking her lips and showing interest in food again, and I offered her some seasoned ground beef crumbles from the freezer. She ate a couple of tablespoonfuls of that before losing interest in food entirely.

We took another walk to the library in the evening before bed. With Suki in the house, my library books get returned twice a day!

Test Post

2005-10-04T20:22:00.000-05:00

Test Post
This is a test post to see if I can publish directly to this blog from my word processor.

Independence Day celebrations - the scariest day ever!

2005-07-04T14:55:00.000-05:00

Poor Suki does not take to the fireworks AT ALL. Yesterday afternoon she starting her shaking and quaking routine when little popping firecrackers were being set off in the neighborhood. We cooked on the grill in the evening, a veggie burger for Avinash and a hamburger for me. Suki ate two nibbles of hamburger and two graham crackers, but was really too upset to eat anything else yesterday.

We left her in the basement when we went to see the fireworks (which were especially loud and noisy this year) and when we got home she was a quivering bowl of jelly. To add insult to injury, the neighbors set off lots of loud firecrackers and Roman candles in the street outside our house every year and they did that until from 11 pm until about 1 am. Suki tried to hide underneath our knees at the table, underneath the bed (where she does not fit), in the corner in the bedroom - anywhere at all. She was basically inconsolable. Then after that quieted down, we had an exceptionally loud thunderstorm come through in the middle of the night. I awoke to hear her panting loudly and I tried to convince her to come downstairs to the basement where it is quieter and she feels safer. She could not be budged, so I went back to bed again. Then another thunderstorm, even louder, came through about 4 am and I was able to coax her down to the basement. I hugged her and sat with her and talked to her, but she wouldn't stop shaking and eventually turned away from me towards the wall and sat there quivering and panting. I left her there and in the morning the thunder had passed and her tail was raised and almost wagging again.

Back in Reedsburg

2005-07-02T19:45:00.000-05:00

We're finally back from our trip to Door county. We left on Friday morning and reached Reedsburg a few minutes back. More later...

Suki serves as a guard dog!

2005-07-02T08:27:00.000-05:00

Suki showed her worth as a guard dog in the middle of the night. I awoke in the middle of the night - everything was very quiet, except for some persistant rustling of the plastic bags we had left on the picnic table. I could tell there was a big raccoon, or pehaps two, looking through our bags for a bun we had left out. I got up and yelled at them, but they wouldn't move away. I was a little scared to approach them more closely, because so many raccoons are rabid. Finally I went to the car and coaxed Suki outside and when she lumbered out of the car, she immediately sensed the presence of the raccoons. The raccoons fled into the dark woods when they realized she was there, and Suki accompanied me back and forth from the table to the trunk putting all the bags securely away. She seemed quite interested in the raccoons, and almost forgot that she was so scared of the strange campsite and the firecrackers. Even a cream puff like Suki has some ability to protect the family in times of crisis!

To Door County

2005-07-01T19:47:00.000-05:00

We left for Door county at around 10 in the morning. Suki started the trip on a positive note, as she usually does (In fact, she even had her breakfast!). After her morning walk, she hopped into the car with much enthusiasm. Friday started out being cold and sunny. The weather turned really cold (for July) later on in the day(~15 C). To make matters worse, it was quite windy also. Suki, of course, thought it was a tad warm that day, and was panting inside the car.

We'd reserved a camp site close to Bailey's Harbor, which is located by the joint of the thumb that is Door county. Suki behaved very well throughout the journey. She sat in the back, occupying almost the entire back seat. She got out of the car and walked in a couple of rest stops (duniawalon, read: toilets) where they had pet areas (duniawalon, ek baar phir, read: a veritable minefield of dog you-know-what). Suki, of course, was most interested in the heavily mined areas. Yuk!

We reached our camp ground at around 5 pm. We unpacked and started pitching our tent. Suki was a little interested in the place but seemed a little apprehensive at the same time. After putting the tent up, we left for Sturgeon Bay to buy some lighter fluid and wood. By the time we returned, the sun had almost set.

As soon as Suki got out of the car, she heard some crackers go off elsewhere in the camp ground. That pretty much ended Suki's camping joy. She started her shaking-pacing-freezing routine and was soon quite distressed. Eventually she went inside the car and stayed there all night, quite scared to even look up.

Need I Say More?!?

2005-06-30T21:14:00.000-05:00

Suki and Badger

Shakin' Suki

2005-06-30T20:27:00.000-05:00

Suki is shaking like a leaf even as I write this. We were sitting outside when somebody started bursting firecrackers in anticipation of the US independance day. I was sitting in a chair and Suki tried to bury her head under my thigh. She started shaking as soon as the first cracker went off; the shaking changed to nervous pacing after the second cracker; by the time the third cracker went off, she was frozen with fear, with her head under my thigh.

Fatty, meanwhile, almost won the Paramveer Chakra for bravery. She was not in the least bothered by the crackers. She came up to Suki and nuzzled Suki's feet, almost like she was trying to reassure the dog that everything was ok (not that it made any difference to Suki). Fatty and Suki both came inside after that. Suki followed me upstairs where she is sitting as close to me as possible. It looks like she's going to have a very difficult 4th of July this year. I wish they made ear plugs for dogs....

When Suki Met Badger

2005-06-30T18:21:00.000-05:00

Suki made friends with Badger today. Badger is the Golden Retriever that lives across the street in the big, old Victorian house. For many days the Mr. Golden had been howling at Suki. Linda and I weren't sure if the howls were friendly or angry. We thought the howls bordered on aggression, so we made sure Suki didn't go very close to Mr. Golden.

However, this afternoon Linda took Suki across the road to introduce herself to the new neighbours. They said that they have just moved in from Indiana and Mr. Golden's formal name was Badger. Hmm..Badger moved to the right state, then. Anyway, they said Badger was actually completely harmless. Suki was then introduced to Badger. Even though dogs are colourblind, Suki can spot a Golden Retriever a mile away. She definitely has a weakness for handsome young Goldens. And Badger is as handsome and young as they come! I wasn't witness to the historic first meeting. However, I did see an encore later on.

Linda took Suki again to meet Badger. Both dogs bowed at each other like respectful Victorian (or Japanese) humans. They then jumped up, very unVictorian-like. Finally, they completed the introduction process with a good old, time trusted sniff of the you-know-what. Both dogs wanted to play with each other. But they were both hindered by their leashes. They sniffed each other and goofed around for a while. We took Suki for a short walk after that.

Suki after the cookie break

2005-06-28T21:44:00.001-05:00

2005-06-28T21:44:00.000-05:00

A cooler day

2005-06-28T21:15:00.000-05:00

Suki was much more comfortable today as the temperature and humidity have dropped a bit. This morning she had an early walk before 6:30 and stayed outside until 7:00. She would not consider breakfast. She spent the day indoors in the cool house, and met me at the door at 3:15. We went for a long walk around Brittingham and Hixon lumberyard. She started out as the lead dog, as usual, and ended up trailing behind me.

After that, she rested on the back terrace until the fire station sirens went off for a fire. After about 5 minutes, she started to howl and I went downstairs and howled with her for a few minutes. It's a funny sight, because she has to think about it pretty hard before she will howl - but finds it to be quite an irresistable urge. She gets a goofy expression on her face and howls very softly (looking up at the moon) as if it is a bit of an embarassment.

The wireless router arrived today. Avinash was busy installing that, so I made dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, eating it in front of her until she was really in the mood to try and eat something. She went to the basement without her leash and ate half a bowl of dog food with cheese on top (like a good Wisconsin dog). That was followed up with several doggie treats and a cookie I made specially for her without any chocolate chips in it. She especially liked the cookie.

she ATE!

2005-06-27T21:56:00.000-05:00

Suki surprised us both today by eating her supper. She refused it at breakfast and again at suppertime, but we had left the dish in the basement in case she might feel inclined to nibble on it later. So that's a total fasting time of 2.5 days - not at all bad for an out-of-town visit. The real challenge will come later this week, when we try camping for the first time. We are going to be making a short trip to Door County on a camping trip complete with campfire and tent.

More updates later!

Suki starts the great fast

2005-06-26T19:46:00.000-05:00

Today Suki did not eat breakfast, although she did accept two small treats due to the fact that we made chocolate chip cookies and ate them in front of her. She did not eat dinner the night before, although she "helped" us eat a few nibbles of French toast Saturday morning. She took them to the living room, very discreetly, instead of eating them in the kitchen like us common folk. We found out later that she had spit most of them out (in the most ladylike fashion, of course) on the red Sarouk rug in front of the fireplace.

Suki went for many walks today and irritated the neighborhood black lab, the golden retriever, the Lhasa Apso, and other local mutts. She has been spending much of her time on the basement floor where it is cooler, even though we have the a/c on in the house. She is very white, fluffy, and huggable now.

Suki in the backyard

2005-06-26T08:22:00.000-05:00

Sunday morning I got up at 5 and walked Suki. I put her in the backyard to enjoy the day before it got too hot and made two trays of cookies before leaving for work at 7.

Checking on the rest of the Baraboo flora and fauna

2005-06-25T20:04:00.000-05:00

We went to see the Great Circus Parade on Saturday. It was quite hot and muggy and we thought that Suki would be better off staying home, so she rested in the basement while we took a jaunt to Baraboo. We stopped at Mom and Dad's house to check on the plants and the kitties. Darwin was his usual unresponsive self but appreciated a scratch under the chin. Fermi whined as he always does, but Jenny was very glad for a pat and she rolled around appreciatively in the driveway. Winston also made an appearance and I gave him some food. I also took two of the hanging baskets back to Reedsburg with us so that they could be frequently watered.

After the bath

2005-06-24T22:54:00.000-05:00

Suki is verrrrrry glad to be out of the bathtub!

D-Day, B-Day!

2005-06-24T21:54:00.000-05:00

Suki just finished her bath, her first in 2005. She's never ever happy to hear the B word, we don't know why. Most dogs I've met have liked bathing, even though never without drenching their owner as well.

The process began by bringing Suki upstairs. She did that quite cheerfully. She started to suspect something was wrong as soon as Linda started filling the bathtub. Her worst fears were confirmed when she got called to the bathroom. She took the farthest corner of the bathroom to sit and watch us fill the bathtub. The next step was to coax her to get into the bathtub. Each step is time consuming and makes you say Rama, Rama (reminds me of my grandmother and her life-threatening experience of giving Ricky his semi-annual bath)! Linda grabbed Suki by her front legs, while I lifted her hind legs. We put the much shivering Suki in the bathtub, finally. Now began the smelly part.

We wet her down and put shampoo all over her dirty coat. This process consumed about fifty litres of water. Another fifty went down the drain when we rinsed off the soap. Suki was quite dirty.

Suki emerged from the bathtub half an hour later, still shaking from the experience. She needed three huge beach towels to dry. Linda spent another half an hour brushing her and drying her some more. She'll start looking very fluffy and rabbit-like tomorrow. More tomorrow.....

Suki hiding in the farthest corner of the bathroom from the bathtub

2005-06-24T20:59:00.000-05:00

D-DAY!

2005-06-24T20:43:00.000-05:00

Today is dog day! Suki's here again. Her parents left for Alaska this morning, leaving Suki in our hands. Of course, like every time they've gone on trips, Suki was never let in on the secret. She thought she was going to Reedsburg for a ride, until the ride ended and didn't restart back to Baraboo.

D-Day Minus One!

2005-06-23T20:39:00.000-05:00

Dog Days Minus Two

2005-06-22T20:31:00.000-05:00

Two days before dog time starts......

The Distress Call

2005-03-31T17:17:00.000-06:00

I was awakened this morning by a loud and persistant meowing. Rowena was standing outside the bedroom door and uttering an urgent distress call. I got out of bed and talked to her, but she did not indicate the source of her distress. I heard Ned trying to get out of the closet, where he had gotten himself stuck inside - but she kept meowing even after he got out. It was not until Ani went downstairs for breakfast that we realized what her agitation was about. Suki had left a large wet mess on the kitchen floor just next to the cat's food dishes. We had walked her just before bed, but aparently morning was a bit too long to wait after drinking one-too-many bowls of milk last evening. Suki was a bit ashamed and requested to go outside right away this morning, even though the weather was cold and clammy after the storm of last night.

This afternoon Suki is tired after having spent the day in the brisk wind. The sun is out now and our daffodils and tulips are 3-4 inches high today. Suki demonstrated her enjoyment of flowers by sitting on the flower bed in the back yard, but there was really no harm done this early in the spring season.

Tomorrow Mom and Dad are back. This is Suki's last night with us until Mom and Dad go to Alaska in June!

Another record!

2005-03-30T22:16:00.000-06:00

Suki surprised everyone today by going down to the basement, where she is normally fed, and actually requesting dinner! She dined on dog food, sage stuffing, and summer sausage. She followed that up with several crunchy treats, a piece of wheat toast, and half of my chimichanga. Rowena was jealous and demanded to lick the plate.

After dinner, we all sat on the couch and watched Bollywood music videos on American Desi. This was followed by a feature where they condensed a B-grade Hindi movie into 1 hour, with commentary on its shortcomings, somewhat like Mystery Science Theater 3000.

2005-03-29T20:26:00.000-06:00

A sign that spring is coming

A warm spring day

2005-03-29T20:09:00.000-06:00

Today Suki spent the day outside again. The weather has turned springlike, all of a sudden, and although there are still remnants of snowbanks on the north sides of the property, the blustery South wind has brought some fine warm temperatures. I sat outside with Suki and Rowena for the first time since October without my jacket on. We have some lovely crocuses and snowdrops in bloom in our yard to herald the beginning of spring, but there are no signs of buds on the trees or greening of the grass yet. Suki is not inclined to come in at all when we went to work, or in the afternoon. She is quite content to sit on a large pile of oak leaves near the brick wall of the garage and puts heavy brakes on if we ask her if she wants to come in after a walk.

The dinner update for this evening: dinner was politely refused. Suki did accept several crunchy treats, as well as a piece of stale French toast and a burnt waffle and some cold milk. She indicated that she would like more waffles and French toast, but she had already eaten all of my breakfast-food leftovers that I had. Rowena was jealous of the entire snacking proceedings and would not stop meowing until I had given her some of my dinner (hamburgers). She normally does not get table scraps, but it is hard to refuse in the face of such obvious donations to Suki. Ned, meanwhile, escaped out the door in a huff and did not come back for several hours. Ned has now forgotten that he was ever upset and is wondering why he did not get any dinner.

That's all for tonight. More updates tomorrow!

Linda

2005-03-28T20:26:00.000-06:00

Suki accepts 4 doggie treats after finishing her meal completely. She even came upstairs to the office to get the treat!

Another Earthquake!

2005-03-28T20:06:00.000-06:00

There was yet another earthquake near Indonesia today. In the other headline for today, Suki ate her second consecutive meal! She was taken down to the basement to eat in privacy, as usual. Against all our expectations she ate her entire meal. Of course, a few tempting pieces of chicken parmigiana helped Suki arrive at a decision much more easily and quickly than with dog food alone. Ned and Fatty, meanwhile, are feeling very jealous about the dog's special treatment. Ned thinks that if he camels enough maybe he'll get some of the dog's special food. Fatty thinks that if she buttered the dog enough she'd get some of the dog's premium food. To that end she nuzzled Suki's legs this morning. More tomorrow. Suki is now ready for her night walk.

2005-03-27T18:25:00.000-06:00

After her four course meal

Suki on Sunday

2005-03-27T18:23:00.000-06:00

Suki spent most of the day outside today. She had her morning walk a little bit later than usual because I was frantically trying to install software and drivers on my new hard drive. While I waited for the new hard drive to gather data from the backup, Suki got her walk. As expected, she didn't want to go inside the house after the walk, so I left her in the back yard. She was quite happy to spend most of her time there. It helped that it was a nice and sunny day.

This evening Suki created a record by eating a four-course meal (yes, FOUR course!). The meal included treats (before and after the main course), one and a half onion bagels with butter, and dog food laced with Polska kielbasa. The last item was specially heated in the microwave for her. Another record of sorts was the fact that she had her meal without the leash. Suki declined some linguini pasta from Linda. Ned, meanwhile, is still quite insecure. He's been on his second best behaviour all day today. Maybe he'll show us his BEST behaviour tomorrow. He's a little obnoxious on his BEST behaviour days, though.

More tomorrow. It's expected to be a very nice day tomorrow, with the temperatures in the mid-teen degree Celsius. Suki will probably want to spend most of the day outside tomorrow also.

2005-03-26T19:24:00.000-06:00

Ned was frightened of Suki, so he sought refuge in a grocery box.

Suki's Spring Break

2005-03-26T12:22:00.000-06:00

Suki is back for spring break, while her parents have gone south. She came to Reedsburg yesterday. Like most other times we'd taken care of her, she had no clue what she was in for when she hopped into the car. She was quite excited for about half an hour after she arrived in Reedsburg. THEN she politely but persistently told us that she wanted a ride back home. We then told her equally politely and persistently that she was at home. The conversation went on like this for a few more minutes until she decided to flop down on the couch for the night. More later...

2004-08-14T22:29:00.000-05:00

Suki's silly position. She finds this position very, very comfortable and not in the slightest embarrassing.

The Accident

2004-08-14T22:17:00.000-05:00

Today Suki had a little accident in the morning. This time, fortunately, it wasn't on the carpet. She was clever enough to figure out that she should avoid the carpet. Judging by the appearance, colour and smell, the accident occurred sometime either in the wee hours of the morning or at night. Her backside was a mess too. Linda and I had to wash her with a hose later on.

We went to Baraboo later on in the afternoon. Suki stayed in her house while Linda and I went hiking to eastern bluff of Devil's Lake. We thought it would be too much for Suki, since she has a tough time in warm weather whenever there's a lot of climbing to do. The hike around the bluff was quite interesting. We met a LOT of dogs along the way. They were of all sizes, some smaller than Ned and others bigger than a calf. Suki gave Fermi and Darwin some company while we were gone. When we came back, Pete was there. He was there to check on the Fermi and Darwin. Both Fermi and Darwin were glad to see us. Fermi meowed at us from inside when we pulled into the driveway. This is a rare occurrance, I must add. Darwin was his usual plant-like self. Today he showed some movement around the house. He jumped up on the counter to have supper. Both cats looked a little bit lonely.

Suki and Linda are right now watching the Olympics. Suki is lying on the couch in silliest position you will ever see (we have photographic evidence to prove we're not bluffing!). Ned tried to match Suki silly position with one of his own. However, today Suki beat him paws down.

Ned's insecurity

2004-08-12T20:08:00.000-05:00

Suki refused both her meals today. I suppose she realised today that her parents had actually left. She didn't want anything to do with her dinner at night. She started looking away from her food bowl as soon as Linda left her in the basement. For the uninformed, Suki eats in the basement with as much privacy as possible. She doesn't like to eat in front of humans. It's just too shameful to EAT in front of people. Everybody knows that.

She spent quite a bit of time outside in the afternoon, I have been told. She and I had a long conversation when I got back from work. The conversation was mostly made up of squeaks of varying intensities. It was quite exhausting for the dog. She flopped down on the sofa after the squeakathon. The cats were quite perplexed by the entire exchange.

Speaking of cats, Ned did an encore today: he hugged me and purred very loudly in the presence of the dog! In other words, he created history again. Maybe he has started thinking that he has to put in more effort to beat the dog in the affection race. The problem is, Ned doesn't think he's in the race most of the time. Anyway, he purred until the dog started moving around on the sofa. That scared him quite a bit.

Suki took a walk with us to the library this afternoon. She was very happy, as usual. She wanted to go into the library with us and read some books. Everybody knows how much dogs like books. Ricky likes them so much that he swallows a few pages every time he can get his mouth on one. By the time he's done with the book, it's in a state where you think about giving it to him on a permanent loan. (He gives rubber and leather chappals equal attention, by the way.)

In other news, this one non-dog, somebody in India or the US is making a Hindi version of Spiderman. The horror of horrors is that Peter Parker will be called Pavitr Prabhakar. Mary Jane is going to be called Meera Jain! The creator of Indian Spiderman didn't stop digging even though the hole he was in was pretty deep by now. Pavitr Prabhakar is going to wear a half spider suit and a half dhoti complemented by curved maharaja-style Rajasthani jooti. Ayayaiai....I read this in Newsweek a couple of weeks back.

2004-08-11T20:15:00.000-05:00

Post ordeal rest with Ned and Fatty. Ned felt so insecure that he actually tolerated both the dog and Fatty and sat on Linda's chest and purred. By the way, this is a historic occasion.

2004-08-11T20:10:00.000-05:00

Post ordeal picture

Suki's back!

2004-08-11T19:42:00.000-05:00

When I came back from work yesterday there was a large white furry (and very SMELLY) friend waiting to greet me at the door. It was a very pleasant surprise after ten hours of work. Suki came back to stay with us yesterday, since her parents are off on another trip.

Linda got a call in the afternoon from her mother saying that they were leaving on a trip "west." Except for Linda's dad, nobody else knew where this trip was headed. He didn't tell anybody where they were going in their minivan. Anyway, Suki didn't care because she wasn't going with them.

Since she was so smelly yesterday, we decided to give her a bath at night. As always she was more than happy to avoid looking at the bathroom and pretend that it didn't exist. She got strong hints that something was amiss when we cajoled her upstairs and invited her to the bathroom. That is one room she has never liked. That is one room where she has had the previous two baths of her life. Obviously, Suki doesn't think it's good luck to get an invitation to step into the bathroom. She tried to avoid us by running away, but she couldn't resist getting a few pats in the bathroom. So in she walked to get a few pats but was soon getting dragged to the bathtub. I can't understand why she loves to sit in pools of dirty water by the road but hates bathing. I guess it goes by the dog code of conduct #1 which states "Thou shalt never be clean!"

Suki is an easy dog to bathe, unlike Ricky, my grandmother's dog. Ricky consumes at least two towels and countless units of mental health (if there is such a thing!) per bath. Linda and I had to lift her into the bath tub because she found it very threatening. [Suki thought: "This thing is actually going to clean me! Help!!" ]

The water in the bath tub was black with only she knows what from her coat. By the time we finished soaping her we could not see our toes through the water. Throughout her bath she had the most bemused expression on her face, even though she cooperated fully with us.

After the bath we dried her with THREE towels - one beach towel and two regular towels. Drying her body was like drying twenty human heads. This morning she looked all nice and fluffy. She now has a nice doggie smell and nice white fur.

Today Suki shocked us both by eating her breakfast and dinner. Maybe she thought she'd get another bath if she didn't eat. It's almost time for her night walk. More tomorrow.

2004-07-04T17:40:00.000-05:00

Suki at home in "her" couch

The Old Routine Restored

2004-07-04T17:29:00.000-05:00

Suki has started eating more or less regularly since she went back to Baraboo. According to reports received today, she had a FULL bowl of dog food, plus THREE Bonz as a reward, plus some toast. To burn off all those calories she went for a walk to Devil's Lake in the morning. Arf, arf...

2004-07-02T16:13:00.000-05:00

Linda and Suki at the Capitol for the Concerts on the Square

Last day

2004-07-02T15:42:00.000-05:00

Suki seems to have settled down in Reedsburg, finally. The funny thing is that her Mom and Dad arrived today. It is always like this: Suki starts eating well just one day before they arrive. She, however, refused breakfast today. Linda reported that Suki got some bagel tidbits this morning.

Ned will finally be very relieved tonight when Suki goes back to Baraboo (sob! sob!). I'm sure Suki will be verrry happy to see her long-lost parents. She might even go "Heowwww"!

(Dis)Concerts On the Square

2004-07-01T14:13:00.000-05:00

Suki went with us to the first concert yesterday. She and Linda picked me up from my workplace at around 5 pm. We drove down to Curry N' Hurry to get something for dinner and some water for Suki. It was a hot day for Suki and we figured that she would need water. We ordered aloo chat, bhel puri, and a naan from Curry N' Hurry. For Suki, we got a glass of ice water. She really enjoyed her water later on during the concert.

We couldn't get much farther away from the orchestra. We sat almost right behind the side of the capitol where they were playing. The capitol grounds were very crowded with humans and dogs. Almost everyone we passed looked admiringly at Suki. She got a lot of compliments from people age 0.5 to 85. Suki behaved very well during the concert, listening very patiently to something she doesn't care about. She seemed to be a little bemused that we were sitting in the grass, doing nothing. “These umans are strange. They brought me all the way here just to sit on the grass. They aren't even doing anything, just sitting and staring at nothing in particular.” [Suki thoughts]

The highlight of the concert for Suki was the meeting with a young, brown mixed lab/golden retriever. Even though The Brown One was about 83 human years younger than Suki [him – 7 months, her – 7 years], he managed to convince Suki that it was alright to play. Both of them seemed to like each other a lot. It was quite funny to see Suki jumping up and down with The Brown One. She was ready for a walk so they had to be separated. Suki makes dog friends just as easily as she makes uman friends.

The concert itself was quite..er..disconcerting for Suki. It started out with some loud bangs. (She dislikes loud noises.) After a while she settled down when there weren't any more bangs. Towards the end, however, there were a series of loud bangs (accompanied by loud clapping by umans). The loud bangs at the end made Suki tremble like a leaf. Even though I felt sorry for her, it was amusing to see such a big dog tremble with fright and hide behind my back. I hugged her and tried to make her feel better, but that didn't do much. After we left the capitol, Suki swore never to go back there again.

For the record, Suki had some naan from Linda. She seemed to like it quite a lot.

2004-06-30T16:18:00.000-05:00

SHE ATE!

Last night (6/29/04) Suki ate half her dinner, which is the best she has been able to do for many, many days. I am amazed how she manages to live on practically nothing. On top of that, she doesn't even beg like most other dogs. Suki definitely isn't in the "most-other-dogs" category.

As usual, we led her down to the basement and tied her there. Then we put her bowl of wet and dry dog food mixture between her paws. As usual, she refused to look at her food and pretended there wasn't anything in between her feet. We we checked about an hour later, she had eaten half the food. She looked very proud of herself. When she doesn't eat her meal, she looks very sheepish. Not that she isn't like a sheep with her fur and all, you know...

Anyway, Linda and I almost celebrated the fact that Suki ate last night. For eating her dinner she got a Bonz treat (she's out of Dogwiches, her other favourite treat). Has anybody EVER heard of a dog that got a treat for eating it's dinner!?!

Today she's going with us to Madison for the first Concerts On the Square performance. Something tells me that Suki couldn't care less about the music.

More later...

2004-06-28T21:42:00.000-05:00

"I deny all charges.....I was misquoted...."

Suki's Statement

2004-06-28T20:54:00.000-05:00

Monday, June 28th
From My Staff Correspondent, Linda, and Agency Reports (Ned and Fatty)

It has been reported that Suki made a strong statement today. Linda served Suki breakfast after her morning walk. When Linda came back to take Suki for her afternoon walk, the bowl of food was turned upside down; Suki clearly did not even want to see kibble in front of her.

Agency reports say that she spend the rest of the day not eating anything. Eyewitnesses say they saw Suki eat two and a half hot dogs in the evening, courtesy Linda. She rejected the buns initially, but was forced to accept the terms of the eating agreement: eat everything or nothing. By the time this report was filed, Suki had had one human meal today, June 28th, 2004.

Meanwhile, agency reporters are finding it hard to digest the fact that they get plain old kibble for every meal, while The Big White One gets hot dogs and other special items for lunch and dinner.

2004-06-27T16:16:00.000-05:00

Here's Ned in one of his snuggly moods.

Strawberries, Handsome Black One, Etc.

2004-06-27T14:30:00.000-05:00

There isn’t much to report today. Suki hasn’t eaten anything at all. She’s taken two sips of water. She got her usual walk in the morning, courtesy Linda. Her afternoon walk was a bit late in coming because I was busy with other things around the house. Their forgiveness is one of the best things about dogs. No matter what you do they’ll never hold it against you. Suki was very happy to see me at 1 pm. She was verrry happy to take a walk with me, too. She wanted to run and I obliged. Being an old lady dog, she can’t run much, so she stops and starts sniffing after a few metres. However, she needs the exercise.

Ned was in fine form today. I think he was feeling quite lonely and neglected. He came up to me and meowed several times, which is a very unusual event. People that know Ned know very well what a silent cat he is [he believes more in action than in words]. Anyway, he wanted to come and snuggle with me and couldn't wait until I sat down. I was standing beside the bed when he had the uncontrollable urge to snuggle with me, so he leaped up from the bed straight on to my shoulders, just like Hanuman. I was caught off guard, to say the least. He then put on his purr-purr, nibble-nibble show, which is sometimes sincere. One never knows when exactly it is sincere. Such an outpouring of affection is usually followed by urgent requests [they're usually orders, not requests] for food. Today, however, he had already had his breakfast, so I thought he was being sincere. He was very happy to sit on my chest and rub the contents of his wet nose all across my face. It's difficult to say no to such outpourings of love and affection even when it's fake.

Linda and I took Suki to the Country Bumpkin in the afternoon. Strawberries are in season, I like strawberries and Linda likes picking them, so we thought it would be a nice afternoon to go pick some. It's hard to beat the price when you pick them yourself. Unfortunately, the sky started darkening when we left Reedsburg. By the time we reached there, a few drops had just started falling on the windscreen of the car. Since we'd already invested some much time into it, we went ahead and started picking strawberries, in spite of the weather.

Suki was delighted to meet a black Labrador in the parking lot of the berry farmer. She was in the car and the other dog came up to her. He was very well behaved and wasn't even on a leash. Suki and the Handsome Black One seemed to fall in love at first sniff. Suki was sitting in the car, sticking her head out the rear window, while the dog was standing outside looking up at her. She licked the Handsome Black One's snout and he wagged at her. They both wagged at each other and exchanged meaningful glances. It was all very cute! However, with the sky threatening to pour down on us any moment, we decided to start picking berries, even though Suki was BERRY much in love with the Handsome Black One.

We took Suki along with us to pick berries. She couldn't care less about the berries but she seemed to live the wild wheat growing around the strawberry plants. She snacked on a few of those while Linda and I picked as many berries as we could before the rain intensified. When it started raining hard, we stopped picking and paid for what we had. Suki was slightly wet and quite a bit smelly when she got in the car. The Handsome Black One, meanwhile, had abandoned his master and come running to the shelter of the farm "office" [good thinking]. We left the place just as it started storming. Suki had a good day, although, I think, she would have loved to spend more time with the Handsome Black One.

2004-06-26T21:25:00.000-05:00

Linda by Lake Mendota

Trip to Madison

2004-06-26T21:13:00.000-05:00

Today we went to Madison to renew my library card. We decided to leave Suki in her house in Baraboo since we weren't sure what we would do with her when we went to eat in Madison. Also, the weather was a little uncertain, since they had announced thunderstorms in the afternoon. We were also not sure how safe it would be to leave the car unlocked in a parking lot in Madison. For all of these reasons we decided that it was best for Suki to stay in Baraboo.

When we reached her house, Darwin and Fermi were on the counter by the front door to greet the three of us. Suki was glad to see her house, Fermi was glad to see Suki, while Darwin showed as much activity as a house plant. Suki was very eager to lie on "her" couch. She did that for while we patted Fermi and the White House Plant. Fermi actually PURRED again!! How's that for shocking news!?!

Linda and I prowled around Madison for most of the afternoon. We had masala dosa at Curry N' Hurry. It was huge and very tasty, even though it was a little too hot for Linda. She had an ice cream cone after that to soothe her tongue. It was such a wonderful day that we decided to take a walk by Lake Mendota. It was not as crowded as usual because the school wasn't in session.

After we came back from Madison, we gave Suki a walk along Old Lake Road, which she liked very much (There aren't a lot of things she DOESN'T like). We drove back on highway 136, through Hoot Owl Road, which was very beautiful. Suki liked the ride quite a lot. She had her entire
head out of the window throughout the ride.

Suki hasn't eaten much tonight. We gave her some dog food, which she nibbled on. We then gave her some baguette, which was gracefully accepted. Suki isn't doing all that badly with respect to food right now. She more tonight than any other day during the past week.

We hope she eats more tomorrow. I know she'll start eating normally by Friday when her "parents" are coming back. Stay tuned for more tomorrow...

2004-06-26T21:10:00.000-05:00

We're ready to leave for Baraboo/Madison. I took this photo myself with a timer!

2004-06-26T10:57:00.000-05:00

Suki ready for bed

2004-06-26T10:25:00.000-05:00

Suki navigating from the back seat

Spring Green continued...

2004-06-26T09:47:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Suki had a great time hanging her head out of the car window. She went with us to Spring Green and Baraboo. She was a very cooperative traveller, not complaining even when we stopped every five minutes and left her in the car.

We stopped at a nice little cafe in Spring Green. This place was recommended to us by the lady at the Bargain Nook when we asked if any place sold vegetarian food. We were surprised at the menu they had there. They had a lot of veggie food, in addition to the usual non-veggie fare. I had a hummus-veggie-baguette sandwich, which was pretty good. I think the hummus made a big difference. The baguette was quite Americanised - soft and white. Linda had some kind of cashewnut-chicken salad, while Suki had a bowl of water. Suki also had a small walk around the cafe.

From Spring Green we went to the Arts and Crafts World on Clyde Road, quite far from Spring Green and in the middle of nowhere. The woman that owned the place had been to Indian 27 times in the last 27 years! She knew a lot of places in India was spoke in glowingly positive terms about India. She seemed to really like India. She also said that - I don't know how far it is true - she went to the Indian consulate last year and asked for political asylum from the US! I'm pretty sure she wasn't serious even if she did ask for it. She'd even read "The Arrow of the Blue Skinned God" by Jonah Blank, which is one of the best books on India. Anyway, we looked at her collection of Indian, Indonesian and Thai artifacts. She had quite a big collection, although she didn't do a good job of marketing it. Suki waited in the car when we were there. She had another bowl of water before we left the "crafty" place.

We came back to Reedsburg via Baraboo. We said hi to Darwin and Fermi. Both of them seemed very glad to see us there, although it's very, very hard to tell with Darwin. Fermi purred very loudly either for me or for Suki, I couldn't tell since we were both sitting together. That was the first time I'd heard Fermi purr. Suki was so happy to go sit in her couch that she drooled.

Linda and I decided to go to a fancy Italian place in the Wisconsin Dells for dinner, so we left Suki at home. On coming back from dinner we had a surprise waiting for us. Both the cats were standing in the sun room looking quite panic-stricken. They seemed to say, "Hey, Chief! Come here and take a look at what the dog did today!!" They beckoned us to the dining room where on the carpet we found Suki had left us with generous amounts of black, smelly deposits in many places. All the donations were left on the carpet (of course) and they were quite smelly.

Thus ended Suki's day yesterday. She did not have any solid food yesterday. I think she wants to set a world record of some kind. We'll try again today.

Spring Green

2004-06-25T22:34:00.000-05:00

It's quite late now. We had quite an eventful day today. We took Suki along with us to Spring Green. I suppose I'll write more about it tomorrow when I have more time. Suki got a lot of time hanging her head out of the car today. More to follow tomorrow AM.......

2004-06-25T09:56:00.000-05:00

Suki and Avinash

Suki Eating Updates

2004-06-25T09:04:00.000-05:00

It has been almost a week since Suki came to stay with us, yet she's eaten only once. She finally ate HALF her dinner last night (6/24), after much persuasion from Linda. I suppose she'll slowly get used to the idea of staying here and eating her lunch and dinner. I have a feeling she'll not do better than one meal a day.

The day before yesterday she had some bread and little tidbits from Linda. She seems to like human foods quite a lot, not a surprising trait in a dog. She is especially fond of breakfast food, again not very surprising. She, however, gives a strong paws down to dog food. Whoever invented dog food must be given a small nip [Suki thought].