I am a very bad blogger, but, YAY, updates

For being a lousy blogger, I am sorry.

Problem being that, recently, I've had some stories to tell but I didn't think I wanted to jump into telling them without making a 'returning/announcement' post--which I haven't had time to make (so I'm hacking it out while on a lunch break)

That and I said I'd not post until I finished writing thank-you notes. (No, I haven't finished. I happen to have a BORING meeting for work this weekend that I plan to finish them during. Sorry Aunt Gertrude, the interwebz have spoken).

So, on to the announcement.
YES, the pets have a human sibling. She was born Sept. 2 and is wonderful. Everything went well and we're thrilled. (and online, her handle remains 'Buffy')

Dawg is in love. Absolute love. This new 'puppy' is her main concern in life. I worried the first few weeks about her level of exhaustion because she was guarding the baby and if I was awake w/ the baby (which was most of the time), she was awake and watching me be awake w/ the baby.
Heck, when the baby was on the floor, Dawg made an effort to nurse her (yes, really). There is no doubt that this child will be very spoiled with dog affection--the only 'problem' we have is excessive affection ("Dawg, leave her alone, the baby is clean", etc)--the sort of problem that I know other pet owners would pay good money to have.

The cats are wary but interested and no longer scared. El Gato and the baby have 'conversations' that go like this:
Meow
coo-gurgle-eh
meow
eh ugh, grunt
meow
coo
me...I'm done.

So, the story of Buffy meeting the pets.
Once we found out I was being induced, things happened fast. We got home and Mr. G called 'Uncle D'--a friend of his who is our pet-sitter and home-looker-after-er (who all the pets adore), to ask if he could pet-sit. We got the answer of 'er, uhm. No. You see, I'll be down the hall where my sister is having her c-section. I can let them out at some point but, no, not really".
Best laid plans and all that--we got Uncle D and the grandparents to take shifts so that the pets weren't locked away for extended periods of time.
Then there was labor that looked remarkably unlike TV shows. Then there was Buffy and much rejoycing.

A nurse reminded us to send home the wee-hat-that-makes-her-look-like-a-gnome for the pets to sniff; the Mr. took it home and then realized that, since labor looks remarkably unlike TV shows, the excessive interest Dawg had in the hat was focused on the area where there was blood. ew.

But we got ready to go home and decided to spread out the attentions--I kept the pets with me whie the Mr. went into the nursery and closed the screen door (the screen door was put up to control the pet entrances/exits while we get things sorted out--we still use it because La Doof Kitton likes ot reach between crib bars and pat at the mattress and if he wakes her at 4 am, so help me Cuthulu, I will call down curses on him)...

I walked to the screened doorway to see what was happening, Buffy made a small cry...and in that instant El Gato removed herself into some sort of hiding, which is where she spent the next 24ish hours. La Doof Kitton CLIMBED the screen door to the top to try to get in and see--I turned my head and was looking, eye level, at cat-butt. Dawg tried to claw through the door and successfully made an impressive gash in the screen.

We decided keeping pets and baby separated was causing more trouble than it saved us, so I gave up and opened the door.
La Doof Kitton approached the crying bundle, sniffed and then the baby moved and La Doof Kitton lost his bravery and joined El Gato in hiding.
Dawg? well, Dawg put a paw on the side of the crib, climbed up and looked in.  THen she decided to stand guard and for the next 45 minutes, it looked like this:

That's the best picture we have because Dawg's tail is an absolute BLUR in the rest of them.

So the stories of the G household will now have an extra person.  And I fully expect Dawg to continue being confused about her role with the 'puppy'.
But La Doof Kitton and El Gato have gotten braver and they're willing to sniff Buffy and to be in the same room with her (La Doof Kitton will even try to get into the same lap).
ANd we can now return to regularly scheduled blogging :)