Saw this online but have not yet seen it in the stores. I think it is a great idea for little dogs! My dogs are not that little to need it, but if I had a miniature breed or a Chihuahua, this would be great for them to be able to see where we are going on short trips around town.

On the trip to my local pet store, I noticed a travel trailer parked on the side of the store. So when I entered the store I was not surprised to see an adoption event going on. What did surprise me, though, was that the event was to find new homes for rescued greyhounds.

The greyhounds are magnificent dogs. I was very impressed with how sociable they were. They are beautiful dogs, with a variety of markings and coat colors. I sure wish I had a fenced yard to bring one home. It would not be fair to a large dog to not have a fenced yard for them to run.

My spades partner tonight was from Georgia and he had a funny saying on his profile:

You can put a cat in the oven, but that doesn’t make it a biscuit.

We saw a parade of ants marching across the side of my garage. There were hundreds of them Maybe even thousands of them. I followed the trail of ants all the way across the wall and around the corner to my front steps, and then they disappeared under my front steps.

So out came the bug spray, although I know it is just a temporary measure.

At least they were small black ants and not those awful fire ants. I have heard stories from friends in Texas about fire ant attacks on people, dogs, and even livestock with their poisonous, stinging bites.

My clothes are starting to feel a little tight around the middle. Yes, I am guilty of too many indulgences these past couple of weeks. I’ve been a freak for comfort foods.

I am going to end up buying clothes the next size up if I don’t change my evil ways. Starting . . .tomorrow. LOL!

My grandson is a big fan of the Comcast “On Demand.” He does not have cable at home, so when he comes to visit he can fire up the “On Demand” and watch a huge inventory of cartoons and shows.

One of his favorite shows is called, “Kipper.” This is a short cartoon about two British dogs and some of their animal friends, like Pig. They are darling characters and a good influence on children. The stories are cute and have good morals like sharing and telling the truth.

I like the Kipper cartoon because of their delightful British accents and good manners. They remind me very much of my dear grandparents, who came to America from London back in the 1920′s and never lost their accents. They say things like, “Well done, Kipper,” and “You have a go.”

Back in May when the weather started getting very warm, I noticed that my dogs were coming in from our short daily walks with ticks on them. It was not every day, but it was disturbing to find a tick every two or three days on one of the dogs.

Then I started finding ticks on me. That was icky, too.

I gave each dog a bath with shampoo for repelling fleas and ticks, and resolved that if I continued to find ticks on them the following week that I would go to the vet and ask for Frontline for each of the dogs. But for me, all I could do was take a shower each day and check for them.

I got three ticks off me and ended up getting really sick for over a week. I mean REALLY sick. The internet sites said to check the tick bite site for any signs of a red rash, but that never showed. You can get rocky mountain spotted fever and lyme disease from tick bites. Turns out that you can also get something called anaplasmosis. David Letterman got it from a tick bite and talked about that on his show, and I’m sure that I had the same thing.

Next spring I will know to get to the doctor for an antibiotic if I find any ticks on me.

There are so many different areas of L. A. that I’m terrified I will end up renting a house in the wrong part of town. Obviously, I know enough about crime statistics and bad neighborhoods to stay away from those.

What I mean is, what is the commute going to be like? Will I live close enough to where I’ll be working to be able to get back and forth in under 30 minutes? I hear horror stories of people stuck in two hour long commutes because of clogged freeways. I can’t bear the thought of sitting in my car for two hours in the morning and again two hours each evening just to get back and forth from work.

I don’t want to leave my dogs alone in the house that long, either. I’m not sure this is going to work out well for us.

Planning a drive from Nashville to L. A. is hard to do. I have driven to California several times, but never in a big hurry and never with dogs in the car that need special dog-friendly motels and stops for walking and exercise.

I think I can probably get from Nashville and totally across Arkansas in One day’s driving. But there are no cities close to the Arkansas/Oklahoma border with a good selection of motels and services. I might have to cross into Oklahoma and drive a little longer. Then I can probably make it across Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle in a day.

Another stop somewhere near the New Mexico and Arizona border, then the last day driving across southern California. That seems a little too aggressive for me to handle alone. From Nashville to L. A. in 5 days or less – not sure I can handle that by myself.

Moving from Nashville to L. A. is going to pose a lot of logistical problems. I have a house full of furniture and stuff, two vehicles, and 5 dogs. Just the idea of packing up everything into boxes and having to throw away a lot of stuff not worth moving and handling makes me very depressed.

A long distance move is very different from a local move. I’ve moved around town a few times and it is nice to be able to make multiple trips back and forth between the new place and the old house. When you have to move long distance, you lose that luxury and the stress gets much more intense.

The idea of renting a huge self service truck and having to drive across Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and then across southern California into the big city of L. A. is pretty intimidating to me. But I don’t think I can afford the luxury of a full service moving van company. So finding an affordable alternative is going to be the only way.

Looks like ABF’s truck rental might work for me. I do all the packing and they provide the truck and driver. They can trailer one of my cars and I can drive the other one with the fragile items like my beautiful houseplants and my dogs.