Fancy is perched on my foot, preening herself after her bath. Kashi is curled up in a ball beside the couch with many of his babies circled around them.

I know I have written of this before, but I just spent the last two and a half hours performing surgery upon his babies. One victory was that I did so without snipping myself with scissors or poking myself with the needle. I also remembered to reinsert the two squeakers that I had been saving in basket for this very purpose. And all are safely re-stuffed and repaired.

My beloved Petunia cracks me up whilst I am working on his babies. He cracks me up because he waits so nervously, crowding my field of vision to ensure his babies are not being harmed. As I finish a surgery, I will hand his baby back to him. Kashi will give it a loving squeak and then place it across the room, far away from me. Once he is satisfied it is safe, he returns to sit beside the next baby being repaired. Often he will put a paw on my thigh, as if to remind me of the gravity of my work, of the preciousness of that which is within my hands.

In thirteen and a half years, my Buttercup has acquired many a baby. The joy with which he receives new ones into his family is fun to watch. So, I continue to bring them home from time to time. The unfailing love he showers upon them makes it hard for me to even think about throwing them away even when they have been disemboweled by his atavistic attitude toward prey that crops up from time to time.

I constantly pick them up and he constantly spreads them out and about the house again. It is a never ending dance between us. The kitchen. Beneath the dining table. The rug. My bed. The bathroom. The basement. The front door. The back door. His bed. Nary a space in this house can be without at least one, if not more, of his babies. Sometimes, he will place them in a circle and curl up amongst them for a nap.

I take such joy in my puppy dog!

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NOTE: Aside from surgery, I was most productive this day, despite three more nebulizing treatments and much rapidity of heartbeat. I picked up the makings of a gourmet picnic and took the tasty components and attractive supplies to my vet's office as a thank you to her and her staff. I picked up my beloved Celebrex at Target, where I also found a small dish rack and thought that perhaps it would be better for me to use it than my stove for drying dishes. I brought it home, but determined that I would only keep it if I could fit it beneath my sink. After much cleaning, some reducing, and two carefully placed screws, I have hung it up on one side of the lower cabinet.

Spurred by my accomplishment, I decided to tackle the rear floor mat from my car. A long while ago, a child spilled orange soda, which stained despite the stain protection I had purchased. The dirty mat (and spot on the carpet in the center of the floor back there) has bothered me muchly. Whilst I was cleaning out beneath the sink, I discovered the bottle of carpet cleaner that came with my much appreciated Dyson two years ago. I thought it might do something about that dirty soda stain. Copious amounts of scrubbing later, I have a clean carpet, clean floor mat, and clean front passenger seat. I had not the energy to tackle the front passenger floor mat. Mostly, I'm okay with that being slightly dirty because my driver one is. After all, the ground is covered with dirt. Dirty orange soda stains, however, should not be in cars.

That success spurred me on to further productivity. I cleaned out a few items from the closet at the bottom of the stairs and made space for my computer backpack that normally rests beside the couch beneath the side table. My place is rather small and I have been trying to reduce things for a while to enlarge it (changing the visual view is cheaper than construction). In the process of clearing out, I also organized the basket of Kashi's supplies in that closet and remembered to give him the next dose of heart worm medicine.

I cleared some space out of the small cabinet near the kitchen doorway and was able to put up all my series TV DVDs (I just finished watching all ten season of Star Gate SG1). I was able to do so because I found a place to donate my old nebulizer now that I have new technology at my disposal.

I cleaned off the plethora of stuff hanging on the coat rack by the front door that should have been placed otherwise. I cleaned off the piles of stuff on the stairs that has been waiting for transport to the next floor. I carted all the stuff on the counter beside the refrigerator that belonged back in the basement downstairs and put it away.

I carefully pruned and re-potted Gertrude (long ago either B or W and I got matching plants; either B or W has long since killed Guinevere, but I have kept her sister alive for the last decade as a symbol of friendship). The pruning clippings are in a glass jar that I plan to take to my office, despite the fact that it saddens me I can remember she was once a pair of plants but not with whom I was celebrating friendship. A spot of greenery always does a body good.

I balanced my Quicken checkbook register.

Glancing about at the ubiquitous tufts of stuffing on the floor, I then decided the rest of the day would be spent on surgery.