Meet Harper, the newest member of the family!  I was having a very yucky day and remembered how much goldfish make me smile!  Really how can they not, they are bright orange and swimmingly funny!  Studies prove that having an aquarium will relieve stress so why not!  Charlie thinks she is the greatest!  He absolutely loves the fish flavored water!

So i have gone missing again.

I know that it seems like forever, at least it does to me.  Unfortunately we had two deaths in the family.  First the washing machine, then my dear old friend Dell in the same day.   He hadn’t felt well for some time, so   I was prepared in the backup department, but it is never easy to say good bye.  Since I have Store Dell, it only seemed fair to replace the washing machine first, as the stench that might have occurred would have been really bad for business.  So I want you to meet someone new!  Her name is Miss Vostro!  She seems amazingly bright and friendly!  I can’t wait to get to know her better!  So you will be seeing much more of us from now on!  So happy to be back and thanks for waiting for me!

Driving to work this morning I saw the strangest thing.  Cows in the Waffles ‘N’ more parking lot.  The whole scene made me what would cows eat for breakfast?

So Very CLOSE!

Look i'm like one of the Polar Bears at the zoo!

So,  I have moved every October for the past 4 years.  It is absolutely mind boggling how much junk one person can collect!  My dear Mumsy (a. k. a. Gammy to Spencer) was kind enough to come over and watch the store so I can finally unpack and get organized from the last move.  Yes it has taken me almost a year to recover from that move!  Every move I kept coming across this disposable waterproof camera.  The fact it was a disposable 35mm camera lets you know exactly how old it must be!  Since I have this unbelievable chance to get my life organized, I am making a serious effort to deal with EVERYTHING!  No more procrastination for me!  So off I go to finally develop this camera.  Much to my surprise this is what I found!  My dear Spencer learning to dive!  It was amazing how easy it was to get him to hold his breath!  Actually swimming while holding his breath underwater is another story, notice the stairs in the back ground!

This pretty much sums it up!

I just found this photo.  Here I am at Willow Lake with my favorite two Furry Little Monsters.  Bobby is fishing and Spencer is obsessing over his Katie’s Bumper the original.  Oh and me, I’m just soaking up the sun and enjoying every moment of time away from work!  Funny aren’t I.

My li'l buddy Bobby DeJager

Meet my dear friend Bobby DeJager a Spaniel Border Collie mix.  She loves looking in the water for things to hunt, just like me.  In this picture she is 15 and counting.  It is amazing to me although her ears don’t work as well as they used to, (she can still hear food being unwrapped, but her name, forget about it!) her zest for life is insatiable!  She really understands jump up and down excited, just like me.  Do you remember the last thing that made you so excited you actually jumped up and down?  I certainly do.  This is one of Bobby’s secrets to make it past 15 please do not tell her I told you.  Bobby loves to eat, just like me.  Though I would go out on a limb and say she loves it more than me.  She loves it so much she will dig through trash looking for any treasures that might have been left behind.  Last Monday Bobby’s little body couldn’t keep up with her insatiable zest, and did what old bodies do.  For those of us left behind we need to remember to take walks, stop and smell the roses, enjoy a good meal, give hugs and smile.  Live life today, and remember if something make you really happy it’s ok to jump up and down, Bobby says so!

The Comb!

I just got these new combs in for the store, and I have to tell you I am totally impressed.  Now I know you don’t know me well, yet but I’m tough on products.  I like everything to be good quality great price and work really well!!  I really don’t think that I am asking too much.  These combs pull out a ton of hair especially undercoats!  Now that you have met my dear Aussie, Spencer I will tell you he is capable of shedding a heard of dust Bison all on his own!   Just so you know dust bison are like dust bunnies only bigger, oh and they come in herds rater that keeping to themselves!  You know since I love these so much if you happen onto FurryLittleMonsters.com (or in the store!) and purchase 2 of any Spa items I would love to give you a comb for free through September 30^th!

Spencer all thawed out!

It all started on the Spencer Ranch. On April 26th 1998 fourteen little Aussies were born. Late one night five weeks into their fast growing little lives, one puppy fell into the water bucket and was unable to get out. The temperatures were chilly and being wet only made him colder. When the Spencer family woke the next morning they found a frozen stiff puppy. His eyes were fixed open, and it seemed he no longer had a life to be lived on this earth. Being the kind people the Spencer family is, they set out to dig a grave for the frozen puppy. While Mr. Spencer was digging they hear a soft grunting noise. Could it be? They quickly took the stiff lifeless body into the house, and directly into warm water. Eight hours later the puppy had been thawed back to life! Spencer’s amazing start had given him a true passion for life and for being alive, and I could not resist bringing him home.

Meet Charlie my soon to be 10 year old barn cat.  I have a confession to make.  I never really liked cats.  They can be so independent, and moody!  So this story begins nine years ago. It was August and I was visiting the Beckedahl family in Fort Collins Colorado.  Mackenzie, the oldest daughter had a wonderful little cat named Gracie.  (Yes, I actually liked this particular cat.)  On the second day we were visiting Gracie gave birth to a litter of kittens in the bottom drawer of her dresser. Gracie was so proud!  It took me the next two months I to decide if I was mature, and responsible enough to take on the life of another being.  The rest is history.

Charlie has been an indoor cat most of his life.  It wasn’t until the recent move that he has been able to be an indoor outdoor cat.  (The first fenced in yard with out coyotes, and fox dens within 100 ft.)  Needless to say he is adapting well!

A tast of what's to come!

Frustration and aggravation, the back end of the virtual shopping world

So the concept of a shopping cart is to be easy an easy way to pick items to purchase on a website right?  Seems like a simple enough concept.  I have to tell you that working the back end of a web store is a nightmare!  I have X-Cart as my shopping cart system.  I have been working with X-Cart (which I hear the web designers love, but as a shop owner I am less than enchanted with) for almost a year!  I recently went through an update with X-Cart and nothing has been the same since!   X-Cart keeps charging me for more and more work and nothing is resolved!  So for those of you who shop at Furry Little Monsters online I sincerely apologies for the stagnant state of the web store.  Because there has been custom work done to Furry Little Monsters to make it the stunning site that it is, X-Cart quoted me a price to recreate all the custom work.  I asked X-Cart on 2-3 different occasions if my site work EXACTLY how it started out.  I was trusting X-Cart to look over the existing Furry Little Monsters with a fine tooth come and give me a price of recreating EXACTLY what I started with except with all of the new bells and whistles of the newest edition of X-Cart. Now when you click for a detailed image you get a scrawny 260dpi image, instead of the 400dpi which was custom.  I have to say as a web shopper myself I like the larger images!  X-Cart does not seem to get the customer service that 400dpi provides.  I think I could have dealt with that little (literally) detail.  Recently I have been battling X-Cart with duplicate codes making it impossible for me to move, remove and update items.  I am lucky enough to have a wonderful friend and web designer Rich Charpentier to help me through such a frustrating situation.  Cross your fingers for me that tonight my letter to the complaint department will strike the heartstring of the X-Cart employee who has the power to fix all that is wrong and make it right.  Then I can finally dust off all the old and restore Furry Little Monsters to what it deserves to be!