If At First You Don't Succeed

Graffiti seen on a walk with Bailey

Well, we're trying again. At 9 a.m. I'm taking Bailey to the vet to be spayed. Let's hope they can do it this time. It's only been about two weeks since we made our last attempt, but she's more than four months past her last "season" at this point, and she's going to go into season again soon. So I kind of feel like it's now or never. We'll see what the vet says.

As much as I've been dreading this procedure, I looked back to see what it was like for Olga and it seemed to pass pretty effortlessly. I mentioned it on the blog the day it happened, but then said nothing in subsequent posts. I don't remember her suffering -- and in fact as I recall we took the "cone of shame" off pretty promptly because she just didn't need it.

Another unremarkable day yesterday. I spent the morning reading and editing video on my computer, and I took Bailey on two short walks. On the second walk, in the evening, I found a sad-looking Monstera sitting on the street, so of course I adopted it and brought it home. I need another Monstera like I need a hole in the head. But I couldn't just let a tropical plant sit outside in the chilly fall air, could I?

Here's Baileybird, as we often call her, sitting in our autumnal garden. After I took this picture I cut back several of those dahlias behind her and stuck them in the shed -- so they're pretty much put to bed for the winter. The ones with any green leaves at all I'm leaving a while longer, so they can keep photosynthesizing and feeding the tubers for next year. But they all look pretty terrible.

The zinnias, on the other hand, still look good. And they have buds for new flowers! It looks like they're going to keep cranking along until we get some frost.