Happy Holidays everyone! I hope it was as relaxing and refreshing for you as it was for Andy and me. We drove the Turtle and spent Christmas day with two of my three sisters in Battle Ground, playing games and eating (and eating and eating, oof!) and playing with all 8 nieces and nephews who were present. We missed you others! We then urban camped in Portland so we could spend the rest of the weekend with friends, playing games and bowling. It was great.

I was so thrilled to receive a few requests for this next post—not only because it’s exciting that the blog is really keeping us connected to our family and friends, as we’d hoped—but also because the request was to highlight Scout and Gracie! I love to talk about these two; they’re the very best animals of all time. Aside from yours, of course.

If you find it absurd that we have a dog and a cat in a little 21′ Class C RV, you’re in the majority. Especially considering Scout is a Border Collie with all the sheep-herding energy that entails, and Gracie is what you get when you cross a panther with a circus clown. But we knew that sacrificing their beloved back yard would pay off when they realized that every time we open the door, they get a new back yard with exciting new smells and lots more time in the day to play!

We’ll start with the bigger success story. Scout has been loving the new life. I’ve been working from the Turtle most days, which means I’m available to take him out for more frisbee time and walks. Gracie, on the other hand, has had a harder time. While we’re on the island, she’s confined to the Turtle since we’re right next to a road where some people drive by at 45 mph. Better safe than sorry for now. Their very different personalities have dictated much of how we have dealt with their needs in this transition.

So this is Scout in his natural state—begging for frisbee time.

He absolutely hates having his picture taken, so it’s really difficult to capture his sweetly relaxed moments. The moment he sees you raising the camera up toward him, he darts away! We’re not sure why this is, though we think it has something to do with clicker training, as he has a panic reaction to snaps, beeps, and clicks. Every now and then, he’ll bolt into his den, cowering and fearful, and after some detective work we’ll realize it was because we were clipping our nails, or chewing gum. . . you never know with this guy!

We got Scout when he was 2 years old (he’s 4 now), and he’d already had three owners, so we have a lot of unanswered behavior questions. Consequently, we are just happy when we can sneak up on him and grab a half-blurry photo as he exits the room! The only exception is when we hold the frisbee in front of him. Frisbee trumps all fear for Scout. So you can guarantee that in any picture of him where he looks like a proper dog, there is a frisbee being held behind the camera.

When we have no Bribe Frisbee, we end up with far more photos that look like this one:

Or they’re like this one, where he is slinking out of the shot like a feral African wolf:

Or just the back of his head.

But when he’s not avoiding photos, he’s just a loving, hilarious, playful, awkward, sensitive, strange dog. He’s the best adventure companion, and is up for anything!

 

And then we have Gracie. I call Gracie the Gateway Cat, because even people who insist they have no positive feelings about cats have to admit that they love this weird girl. She is curious, and lovey, and adventuresome, and bizarre, and is essentially the Dennis the Menace of the animal kingdom.

She’s always getting herself into trouble! The world is her playground. She’s also earned herself the nickname “The Anti-Project.” Any time we begin a project, Gracie is there to interfere in some way.

When you’re trying to change a lightbulb:

When you’re trying to do the dishes:

When you’re trying to change the bobbin:

When you’re trying to carefully measure and cut fabric:

You can imagine that with this much energy, we’ve had to work out a few modifications to make indoor life tolerable for Gracie. I bought a number of toys to keep her active, and we play much more together than we did when she played outside all day at the old house. I will also admit here that we bought her a tiny harness! I agree that it looks absurd to take a cat out on a leash, but on those days when she sits at the door and yells and yells about it, we’ve just got to let her out. We connect her leash to a thin length of paracord, and it seems to tide her over until we travel somewhere she can run off leash.

Gracie is either operating at 100% or 1%, and when she’s done causing trouble, she sleeps like a log! The adorable positions she finds herself in are so sweet.

 

We just love our strange pack. Enjoy the new year with yours! Ok, got to go to take Scout out for a frisbee break now! 🙂