The Pet Section

Pippi Lumpkin (aka Pint-o-Pippi)I was right about lumping the pets together in the pet section so I wouldn’t cry when I had to “delete a section.” Pippi Lumpkin passed away January 2008. I hadn’t realized how sad I would be. It seemed harder than losing grandparents, possibly because she was stuck to my foot for almost 15 years. I would have thought it was weird if one of my grandparents did that.

I wasn’t really ready to part with her, plus it was the dead of winter, so there would be no digging until June. Our new euphemism for pet death is now, “She went camping” because Joe stored her in my travel trailer for the weekend. I finally decided to get her cremated so she didn’t have to go camping until the spring thaw. I was dying to know if her only 2009 nickname would be “Pint-O-Pippi,” but when I got her back from the vet’s it was more like, “Cup-O-Lumpkin.”

Jenny-Any-Dot (aka Mao)Jenny-Any-Dot is our new cat. I don’t know how Joe managed to sneak her into the house. All I know is that she was up for adoption from the vet when Pippi Lumpkin was in her decline. I must have been distracted. She is adorable, friendly, and let’s William abuse her. He’s in for a surprise when he finally meets a real cat.

▲Introducing Jenny-Any-Dot.

▲William and Jenny share some dog food.

Barney (aka Bustupaguticus, Hoover)Barney really enjoyed Pippi Lumpkin’s passing and immediately took up residency on my foot. He got diagnosed with a ginormous cancerous tumah in his tummy in May and was only expected to live a few weeks. (The kind the vet says, “Well, it doesn’t look so good, but you never know. Hey, can I bring my student in here to feel it? Check out this one Stacy!”) He’s still around, though, enjoying life.

▲Barney on William’s jacket

Popcorn (aka Pops, Poppity)Popcorn has been the usual perfect child: forgotten outside, left in the car in the driveway, left at Joe’s dad’s. Sigh. I sure hope I’m better with the children than that.

▲New definition for “Popcorn Balls”