My first customer today

Well, I guess he wasn't really a customer, since the bastard didn't buy anything. Just ran around, scaring the shit outta me.

Need a better look? Here ya go -

I opened the store this morning and had made several trips back and forth down the front aisle. Never saw the sonuvabitch. Walked around the counter to pull a book from the new paperback rack and there he was. And then he RAN at me. Next thing I know, I've levitated 6 feet in the air and come down sitting on top of the counter with my feet tucked under me. First time I've prayed all friggin' year.
And, of course, no one else is there. NO ONE. Any other morning I'd have had 3 people waiting for me to get there, bitching and moaning and wearing boots. But not this morning. Oh no, my life doesn't work that way. I'm stuck sitting on a counter while Spidey there patrols the front aisle. Every time I tried to get down and sneak to the back he'd run at me again. Back on the counter I'd go. I finally was able to reach the phone and call BL to find out where the bug spray was. All we have is roach spray. "Does that work on spiders?" says I. She says she doesn't see why not. So I wait until he is at the far end of the aisle, jump down and do some running my ownself. Grab the big can of Bengal and walked veeeerrrrryyy slowly back. Spidey is sitting at the front, giving me the evil eye. Waiting...
I sprayed him with Bengal, he walked away. I sprayed again and again and again and... You get the picture. Not only is he an oversized arachnid from Hell, he's a fucking Bionic oversized arachnid from Hell! Damn thing wandered away from a half a can of Bengal like I was flicking raindrops at him.
I couldn't even stomp him, I was wearing flipflops. One of those obscenely long and disgusting legs would have touched me. Or, my luck being the way it is, I'd have missed and the creepy would have run up my leg and chewed out my throat. Not the way I want to spend my morning.
The funnest part? Spidey kept hiding under shelving and then running out as I walked by. Sadistic lil fucker!
Finally a customer wearing boots came in and stomped the disgusting thing. This wonderful man even took a broom and swept the remains out the door and into the parking lot. I wanted to kiss him (I didn't, since he was married and all, but I wanted to)

When BL finally showed, I shared the pic with her. She freaked just from that. I told her I didn't have anything better to do while sitting on the counter. Plus I thought she wouldn't believe how big the thing was unless I had proof. I sure hope this one's big brother isn't waiting for me when I open tomorrow. I just don't think my nerves will handle it.

So go ahead and laugh at me being a big fraidy-cat. Because I was.

And I've had the creepy-crawling wibblies all day. Guess what I'll dream about tonight?

My buddy

This is Ears, a red-nose pit bull who lives at the vet clinic where I worked. One of the sweetest, goofiest dogs I've ever met.
Ears is a Katrina refugee. I started working for Doc shortly after Katrina. She was already involved in the rescue/shelter operation, providing veterinary services and helping to locate owners for all the animals who ended up here. I don't know if anyone saw (or remembers) the story one of the news stations did about the animal shelter set up in a Louisiana prison with the inmates doing a lot of the daily care for the animals. That's the one Doc helped with and that's how I met Ears. We thought he'd had a home at some point since he was in pretty good shape and obviously accustomed to being handled. As a matter of fact, Ears insists on being handled, played with and loved on. He doesn't mind men, but he absolutely adores women. Needless to say, he enjoys living at Doc's clinic, since her staff is usually all female. After taking care of him for months, none of us wanted to let him go so Doc kept him. He's survived Katrina, living on the streets of New Orleans in the aftermath, lots of upheaval and a pretty bad case of heartworms.
Being around Ears is one of the things I miss about working at the clinic. He thinks he is a lap dog so he's constantly trying to climb up and sit on someone. Sometimes he would come and sit under my desk, resting his chin on my feet. He's quite an escape artist, he figured out how to get out of kennels pretty quick. There were several mornings I walked in to the clinic to find him sitting on my desk or laying in front of the door waiting for someone to arrive. He bounces around like a puppy if he sees a tennis ball and he's one of the few dogs I've seen who is happy to jump up on an exam table. To him it means lots of petting, a few pokes when he gets a shot, and then more loving and treats. He's a little spoiled now, but as sweet as ever. When I took Skye to the vet the other day, he ran right up to the fence to say hi and get some pets and scratches. He also wanted to see Skye, since the two of them got along pretty well. She doesn't much care for being licked head to tail in one swipe and he always looks as if he's laughing when he does it.
All of my life I've heard horror stories about pits. Ears is nothing like that. He's just a great dog, big hearted, loving, sweet, mischievious and funny. And a reminder (to me, anyway) that judging a book by its cover and living a life based on assumptions is a good way to miss out on too many wonderful things.

Princess, Pampered

I've already introduced my min-pin Skye. And I'm pretty sure I mentioned that she is incredibly spoiled and pampered. Somehow I get blamed for this. Dad brings her bags of Cheetos every time he stops by and T gives her cookies slathered with peanut butter. Sarge and Wench have been known to feed her steak. Everyone else babies her outrageously but it's my fault she's rotten. Yeah, right.
Skye is an indoor dog, has a nice little bed with a blanket on it, plus a blanket on the couch and another under my computer table. T insisted she needed a house. Why? Because she needed "her own little space". I said okay, figuring we'd get a carrier. Wrong. That wasn't big enough or good enough according to T. And carriers don't look like houses. (spoiled, remember?) So we looked for dog houses that looked like people houses. And found one at Hell-mart. I read the description on the box and tried to talk T out of it, since it was for dogs up to 70 lbs. Skye weighs 7 lbs. "That's going to be too big" I told him. Not to mention, it would take up a lot of room in our very small house. But he really, really wanted to get it and since I have a hard time saying no to him we bought it. (Okay, okay I'll admit I thought it would be kinda cute for Skye to have this huge house)Anyway, we bought it, brought it home and put it together. T stuck her bed in there then decided she wouldn't like walking on plastic. He took her blanket, folded it and used it to cover the floor. She now has wall-to-wall carpet. Since he'd used her blanket for the floor, he took one of my fleece throws and gave it to her for a blanket. Needless to say, Skye loves it.

The sight of this tiny dog lounging in this huge house makes me smile.Pretty darned cute, huh?

Things that made me smile today

This is Skye, my min pin. Doesn't she look sweet and innocent? On my pillow, in my reading chair. Like she owns the place of something. Gotta love a dog that's so convinced she is queen of the universe.

And this is the Tshirt I got. I collect shirts with slogans. I know, weird. But it's fun. Plus, I get to offend or amuse without ever opening my mouth. "Ascend Until Your Wings Catch Fire" Sounds great, but it also brings to mind Icarus. Maybe I should be cautious of large bodies of water.

Anyway, the best thing to make me smile all day was hearing from T. The Marion job is nearing completion and they may get some time off. Maybe, if everything works out. So I'm crossing my fingers and toes, hoping T's company decides to give him at least a week to come home. Also hoping T's time off doesn't coincide with Boss Lady's 10 days at the lake house. That would suck.