$0.02 [2011, A Year in Animals, Part I]

Happy New Year, Everyone!  

2011 was a big, expensive year in animals around here, so I thought I would share some photos and stories from the past year to welcome us into 2012.

January 2011

• We started 2011 with an animal clan count of three:  Lola, Kitty, and Betelgeuse.  
• Box Cat, the TNR feral cat who liked to hang out in our backyard, used the cat shelter that Kyler and I built out of a discarded kitchen cabinet to weather the cold January months.
• We met and fostered rescue pup Victor, a wonderful 20-lb. black dog (he looked like Kira's older brother), for two weeks until he went to his forever home in early January.
• Kyler, Betelgeuse, and I took a trip to Virginia Beach to visit Future Cat (+ his feline housemates, Caddie Wompus, Bear, and Boy Cat).  Betelgeuse got an unwelcome bath at Two Brothers Self Service Dog Wash.
• In late January, we started fostering postpartum Lulu, an 8-lb. black dog (she looked like Kira's little sister), pending her scheduled spay operation.
• We had so much snow in January. Three-legged Kitty helped me build a snow fort, and Betelgeuse played fetch on top of it.

February 2011

• Lulu, who we were just supposed to foster until her spay operation, dodged her second spay attempt, prolonging her time with us.  (She first went under the knife to be spayed in September 2010, and they discovered puppies. In February, a different vet knocked her out, saw the scar from the first attempt and thought she had already been spayed.  Oops.)
• We watched the Puppy Bowl.
• Lulu was finally spayed in late February (third time's the charm) and came back to our apartment to recover.  The vet gave her a small green tattoo next to the incision as the official stamp of the spay.

March 2011

• We dog sat Kira for a few weeks while her humans vacationed.  This meant three dogs and two cats in our tiny apartment.
• Betelgeuse turned two years old on March 12, 2011, the same day we had twenty-five strangers over to our apartment for the homebrew tour.  They sang Happy Birthday to her in the backyard.  Betel, Lulu, and Kira ate dog cake.
• Lulu started meeting potential adopters, blogged about here with photos of Lu by local stuffed celebrity, Baxter Bunny.
• Lulu was adopted. I cried. (Apparently, so did she. So much that her new owner was threatened with eviction by the landlord.)
• After Lulu's adoption, we spent some time in Pennsylvania with Kyler's parents and their dogs, Abby and Roxy. Roxy was on quarantine at the time following a scuffle with a rabid raccoon.
• Betelgeuse tweeted some crap for a few days [post here].

April 2011

• Lulu was returned to Dog Habitat Rescue by her new owner on account of all the crying, so we began fostering her again.
• We hung out in Williamsburg with cats, Duncan and (Other) Lola, pictured above.

May 2011

• Lulu did her first hike on Bear Mountain at Harriman State Park with dogs Betel and Bella.  Photos of the hike above feature human friends, Jess (our vet!) and Dan.
• On Cinco de Mayo, we officially adopted Lulu, bringing the animal clan count to four.
• In May, after we adopted Lulu, I started this blog to chronicle the expenses of living with four animals.  [This post is the 72nd post.]
• Kitty got sick(er) [post here].
• Betelgeuse got two teeth pulled [post here].
• The human and dog members of the Clan went on a hiking and camping trip to Ricketts Glen State Park.
• We dog sat Kira again.  The three pups constantly played in the backyard.  [By then, we had grass!]

June 2011

• In June, the year 2011 went from happy to sad very quickly.  Kitty passed away on June 6, 2011 [post here].  The last photo I took of her is above.  She was sleeping in bed with Kyler after a good cuddling session with me.
• The Clan thus decreased to three:  Lola, Betel, and Lulu.
• We all mourned Kitty in different ways.  Betel moped, Lola celebrated.  Betel and Lulu spent some time at doggie daycare.  Kyler took photos of feral cats and went to a homebrew conference.  I flew to Denver to hang out with several human buddies and two cat buddies, Theo and New Cat.  (New Cat is pictured to the left, digging in my bag).

And that's only the first six months of 2011.  We'll continue with the 2011 year in review in A Year in Animals, Part II.