A Bird In The House

Keith has been putting in a doggy door for a few days now. It's the kind meant for sliding glass doors that is like an insert that you put in the door frame and then the slider shuts against it. He is putting it in permanently which means lots of buying of metal pieces and stuff and lots of sawing of said metal pieces and lots of taking the doggy door insert in and out. He is at Home Depot right now buying more stuff.

Anyway, the dog learned how to use the door fairly quickly and it is nice not to have to open and shut the door multiple times a day so she can go in and out along with the cats. Most of the cats have sort of figured out the door, having one that goes into the garage that they've been using for years, but this one is a little different and it kind of threw them for a loop. Bear goes out but is afraid to come back in and I don't think Harri has used it at all yet.

This morning I was in the bedroom vacuuming and Keith came running in saying 'You've got to come see this!' and there was a little bird on top of the entertainment center. At first I thought he had flown in the door while Keith was busy messing with it again but then I saw lots of feathers by the kitchen so we figured one of the cats (Buddy) caught it and brought it in through the convenient doggy door.

The bird got scared when Keith tried to catch it and it flew against the side window, Buddy in hot pursuit, and then got under the couch, Buddy still in pursuit and trying to get under the couch to get the bird. I grabbed Buddy and shoved him into the bedroom, shutting the door, and then Keith lifted up the couch and the bird flew out the back door. Smart bird and I'm glad he found his way out.

Then since I was vacuuming anyway the feathers all over the living room got vacuumed up. Buddy was a little disappointed that his new toy got away.

The doggy door comes with a plastic door that slides down into it to close it at night or whenever you don't want animals going in and out, but we didn't put it in the last couple of nights since we don't care if the cats go out and the dog never seems to stir once she's snug in bed. Last night she did stir though, and I was woken up at 1am by her barking and barking and barking out there. I'm sure our neighbors were woken up too, and lesson learned, the doggy door gets shut at night.

Keith's vacation should be over with later today when he goes back to work, we really didn't do much but he says he enjoyed the time off and the time away from his phone ringing.

We took one little drive out to the desert the other day, figuring we could leave the dog home now with the doggy door in place. He had wanted to show me the not so lovely town of Mojave and the desert wildflowers that are in bloom right now. Mojave is awful, he sees it every day because the train tracks run through it, but I can't see anyone actually choosing to live there.

The wildflowers that he was talking about are really small, tiny little daisies and such that turn the ground around the scrub different colors, but the desert is still really bleak looking although the air is so clear that you can see a long long way.

We pulled off the road at Boron, the town by the borax mine, and as we pulled off we could see a ways up the road and saw that the traffic was almost at a standstill for miles and miles. We were thinking of going to Barstow but decided no Barstow for us that day, no reason to be stuck in traffic for hours, so we had lunch in Boron at one of the two restaurants we saw. The railroad tracks run right outside the town so he has seen the back side of it many times and has gotten food from the Mexican restaurant there. We went to the 20 Mule Team Cafe, which had both Mexican and American food. The food was cheap and we got a lot of it for our money so if we are ever in Boron again (doubtful) we will eat there.

We got home and the dog was fine, so I guess we don't have to worry about wanting to go somewhere and what do we do with her anymore or if we do take her somewhere with us will she get carsick or pee on me again.