Olive is officially a house dog - she figured out the couch

On Thurday Olive Oil made her visit to the Vet for her spey and vaccination. She was already microchipped as young greyhound pups are chipped here at 5 weeks old. The vet nurse said that her chip had moved and was right at the front of her neck. She told me that she once found a chip in a labrador's foot! If they can move around that far, it's no wonder that sometimes microchips aren't found sometimes! 

The nurse warned me that she was being a sook and that she would probably yelp when I lifted her into the car. Yelp she did, but she continued on for a little bit just to make sure I knew she was hurting.

When I got home it was a huge struggle to get her out of the car, but eventually she got down herself, with a lot more complaining. She yelped every time she went to lie down on her bed too, looking right at me and doing some good old open-mouth whinging. 

For some reason she decided the couch would be more comfortable. It must have been because she didn't yelp when she laid down. I expect she will be spending a lot of time on the couch for the next few days. 

The lounge room makeover is complete, what is the verdict?

I have mentioned that we were getting new carpet and a new couch, and we were trying kitty repellant to keep their claws out of the new couch. I also got catnip spray to attract the kitties to the scratching tower I bought for them.

The catnip spray has no effect on the cats. I think they are the kitties that aren't attracted to catnip at all. I had tried catnip leaf toys with Froufrou before and she showed no interest in them. I was hoping that Mittens would like it.

The No Scratch Spray is supposed to have an odour totally repellent to the cats. It certainly seems to work. We used it on the old couches which they were already in the habit of scratching and it kept them away. We sprayed it on the new couch and I have not seen either of them lay a claw on it.

They do like to sit on the couch now though. It's been a bit of a change from having three separate couches where everyone claimed their own space. Now that the couch is just one continuous U-shape, everyone has to share a bit more deliberately.

The dogs have also shown their appreciation for the new carpet by spending hours sprawled on it. It is so soft and really nice to walk, sit or lie on. The lounge room is finally done and I think we are happy with the result. Since we moved in we replaced all the light fittings, painted and got curtains.... and now finished with the couch and carpet. It makes the rest of the house look a bit shabby now. It is certainly not that nice to walk on the old carpet in the bedrooms and hallway after luxuriating on the new stuff!

It will probably be another year before any more big renovations or replacements happen around here, so we will all be hanging in the lounge room more than usual!

Mittens is unhappy

Mittens.

We are getting our new couch delivered on Saturday, and we gave away a couple of our couches on gumtree last weekend. As you can see the lounge room is quite empty. We dragged the bean bag out of the spare room to sit on. While the bean bag was in the spare room, Mittens sat on it for hours. Now that it is in the lounge room, nothing has changed, except that Mittens now has to share. Mittens doesn't like to share.