I’m making some changes for 2025 with regards to reporting about my menagerie of animals. I’ve always had a mix of cats and dogs, and before the cats, it was two (and rarely, three) dogs in this household. So instead of writing about caturdays, I’m now just calling it an animal day, and writing about every little creature that has a story to tell for that particular day. In this case, it’s Zoë and Annie.

Zoë decided to claim yet another cardboard box as her own. I’m always dropping empty boxes on the floor for the cats to explore and play in, and almost always it’s Zoë who leaps in (yes, leaps) and starts to make a racket playing in “her” box. That, of course, is a siren call to all the other cats within earshot, and they come over to watch Zoë or, in the case of Danï, drive her out for their own amusement. Never a dull moment with cardboard boxes in this household.

Annie and I chauffeured mom to an orthopedic clinic on Friday. We waited in the car (they don’t allow Doodles in the premises). After a time I began to sense someone looking at me. I turned around to look and sure enough Annie was giving me that side-eyed look. After a few moments of silent communication, dumb dad finally figured out she needed to go outside of the car and do her business. So we both got out and walked around a bit, during which she sniffed and tinkled in a few spots to leave her calling card. After a time we moseyed on back to the car to climb back in and continued to wait. Eventually mom exited the facility and we all drove home to lunch. Annie loves going on car rides with her people, even if she sits and waits in the car when we stop at places. She knows she’ll eventually get to check out the surroundings.