Now, I like birds as much as the next person. Truly I do. But I swear the gene pool for our birds must be getting really small — all the stupid ones seem to roost in our back yard.

On numerous occasions in the last few months I’ve seen birds either on top of, inside, or flying into the boys’ kennel. I mean, hello!, two strapping big cats like to hang out there. Two strapping big cats that can take down a bird.

Once I actually saw three of them in there . . .

Today I chased away the one that was inside when Simba decided to go into the kennel, and for some reason seemed to think it was okay to stay inside when a fourteen pound cat ambles into your cage.

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Well, darn near, anyway. A little over a year ago I just dreamed of being able to walk Lola around ther dogs. I dreamed of her calmly walking past other dogs, without my having to watch her every step of the way.

Well, we’re still not quite there. But our walk today at the hike & bike trail was darn close. I didn’t have to treat her once for walking past other dogs without reacting, although I still treated her for some particularly good passes. like walking past the barking Pomeranian.

And I wouldn’t exactly say she walks past other dogs calmly all the time. Sometimes she does. Sometimes she takes herself off to sniff some grass. And sometimes she whines and looks at me — but that’s okay with me.

We’ve still got a long way to go, but it’s good to stop and smell the roses soemtimes, because she’s really come a long way.

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Occasionally I take the dogs to our local chihuahua meetups. We’ve got a pretty thriving one here. Since my husband accompanied me this time, I was able to actually take some video for a change. It’s not all that exciting, mostly just following Chester around (he’s trying to find some treats, I’m sure of it).

We weren’t able to get a whole lot of photographs. They’re in almost constant motion! Here’s a dog that looked quite a bit like Chester.

Ironically enough, the home next doors had a whole pack of big dogs.

At one point, all the little dogs started to gang up on the big dogs. The video would have been funny, but I wanted to get Lola out of the pack, which I did. The last thing she needs is to be around a pack of dogs getting aggressive.

I have desperately wanted to get a photo of Lola with her mini-me, as I call the little chi named Coco (I wanted to rename Lola Coco, ironically enough, but was voted down) who is her exact coloring. It’s what Lola should have looked like! Below is Coco & friend.

There were about 30 - 50 chihuahuas at this meetup. The weather just happened to be perfect. It’s amazing that that many can get together with no serious injuries, but somehow it works. Yes, there are little tiffs at times. But most of them are pretty well behaved.

Here’s a little video of Lola wandering around with some pint-sized chihuahuas

And here’s a last one of Chester on the prowl for treats. Notice how his tail is just gently wagging the whole time.

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Some time ago I bought a Sherpa bag for the boys, thinking they might prefer the soft carrier. Even though they love their crates, they didn’t want to set foot in the Sherpa bag. It gathered dust for years. I did some training with Chester and the bag, and he accepted it fairly readily.

Fast forward to now. Now there’s a very real possibility that I’ll have to fly somewhere with the boys in the near future. If I don’t want them to be in with the checked baggage, they have to come to accept a smaller, soft-sided bag.

I started tonight. I’ve done some playing with them and “101 Things to Do With a Box”, as I mentioned in “Getting Animals to Think“. So tonight, I worked with both of them one-on-one. I simply put the carrier down, and clicked and treated them — making sure to put the treats in the carrier — for any interaction with the carrier.

And they responded beautifully, both going into the carrier (with the top unzipped, mind you) to get their treats. And the second they were in there, I’d start raining treats down, in the carrier, so that they’d remain there for a few seconds.

Of course, I’m going to have to very, very gradually work on getting them comfortable with the carrier with the top zipped shut. I’ll also have to work on getting them to go and come out of it on command. I’m not sure I have enough time!

But the morale is that you should train your cat/kitten to be comfortable wiht a crate, and going into and out of the crate, from the moment you get them home. I can’t begin to tell you the number of posters I’ve seen write in saying they have to move, only have a week, and their cat hates the crate. You never know when you may have to move your cat using a carrier.

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