ANTS!

Ants, ugh. I fight them in my yard every summer, but occasionally fight them in my house as well. Ron went down to retrieve Nikon's food bowl last night and came back to announce that there were ants all over the newspaper around her bowl. UGH. Always amazes me how they can find food. We had an ant attack in the basement two years ago when I was thawing a 40# box of chicken backs over the floor drain. That was nasty, but easily resolved. Hope it is this time too. I dashed off to Walgreens to pick up ant bait to stash in odd corners of the basement, where dogs wouldn't find it. Have to remember to collect these before the pups are out and about and put the baits in super safe spots. I noticed that a lot of the ant products were on sale, a few of the selections were sold out, and the clerk noted that the ants must be "hungry" as they had sure sold a lot of ant products this week. Because I have fish, and bits of dried fish food inevitably get spilled, I normally keep ant baits in the basement, but when I cleaned over the winter I collected and disposed of them. Note to Sue, "Always replace ant bait".

One year I had a colony of flying ants get in to the basement. THAT was nasty, and I found hundreds/thousands (seemed like millions) of them everywhere. I kept lots of Bettas at that time and they were in open topped jars. Every morning for a week I had to scoop drowning ants out of the Betta jars. I couldn't spray because of the fish, and had to manually collect and destroy the little #@%&. Figured out where they came in, thru a small crack behind my front steps, and have not had that happen again. So far. Mother Nature is always in charge though.

Speaking of Mother Nature, Argus met one of her disciples last night when he treed a raccoon - yes, in the city, while on a flexi. Thank goodness the thing went up the tree instead of standing his ground. As Argus was leaping and dancing at the base of the tree, the racoon was standing in a crotch of the tree looking down at us. Big sucker, larger than the neighbor's Beagle. Josie might be able to stand up to such a critter (probably not) but Argus is not nearly as varminty as my girls. If Tess was still here she probably would have climbed the tree and dragged him down! We see racoons from time to time - caught one in a squirrel trap and had to call animal control, and confronted another on the front porch where he was eating dog food from the dog food barrels we used to keep there back in Kibble Days.

"The procedure" went well and I survived. A couple of minor polyps removed and sent off to be analysed. No reason to suspect they are anything but benign, but always good to know. Kind of a weird experience to lay on your side and observe the inside of your colon on a nice big screen! They don't let you drive home, so Ron waited with me, and we stopped at White Castle on the way home (please, no gagging, I like them) and each had a couple of cheeseburgers, hot and fresh. Delcious. God, I was hungry! Had a glass of milk at home and later picked up my mother and went out for Mexican food. Low fiber for a couple of days because the polyps were cut out, but seafood enchiladas filled the bill nicely. No chips and salsa though . . . No alcohol either they said as it might react with the medication, but I do love Margeritas!

Used my time at home to work on DCA business and some housecleaning. Ron cleans a bit, but spring shedding requires a lot more serious attack on dog hair! Someday I would like to take a day off and do nothing - but that's not likely as there are always things that need to be done around here.

Ron making plans to replace some of the wooden lattices with the nice sturdy plastic privacy lattice that is on sale at Menards. That will make the back yard look nicer for the neighbor who likes to spy on us from her upstairs bedroom window.

Nikon is all settled in and today is day 58. I once had a litter born on day 58, but normally do not see puppies until at least day 61. Before I leave for work I will take her temperature for the first time. She'll hate it but will have to get used to it being taken 3 to 4 times a day. A normal temperature is supposed to mean that whelping will not begin within the next 24 hours. Of course once the temperature drops you don't really know how soon whelping will start, but you better keep an eye on things. Because I am entered at dog shows this weekend, I need to keep an eye on things here. Jess volunteered to sit in with Nikon if need be, and because Nikon knows her, and Jess enjoys whelping pups, I took her up on her offer. We shall see how this plays out.

Good news on Gem's brother Jax who Jess and friends purchased from the Argus/Lilly litter. When I saw the litter at Jody's I suggested that Jess take Jax as I thought the boys were better over all than the bitches and Jax was just a doll, with a wonderful personality. Jess had not seen Jax for several months and was delighted with how he is developing, and says that his co-owners are doing a fantastic job of raising him. He probably won't be ready to show until later in the summer, but she will borrow him from time to time and start his show training. One more dandy Argus kid.