Today is the real birthday of Clara, my QI who is 8 years old! She is my 46 pound mixed breed dog with the deformed leg, ankle, and foot who was born with all that and no hair on the leg. (She has hair on that leg now, thank goodness!) She doesn't seem to know she has a problem, gets around just fine, and enjoys napping on quilts. Her birthday presents -- for this evening -- are a new squeaky toy (a wooly sheep that baa's) and a real "bull stick" (steer pizzle).
We are also going to celebrate my other QI's "birthday" today. We really don't know when her birthday is, but the vet estimates she is probably about 2 years old. Adele is the beautiful and sweet tuxedo cat who showed up at my sister's house over a year ago and would not leave, trying desperately to claim that as her home. My sister is seriously allergic to all cats and couldn't keep her. However, nobody was looking for the cat, no area vet knew her, and she was not microchipped, so I brought her to live with me. The vet here found she found that Adele had already been spayed and was entirely healthy, so she was probably dumped -- what a wicked thing to do! She is now microchipped, seems very happy to live here, behaves beautifully, and is a treasure. She prefers to nap on newspapers during the day, but always sleeps on a quilt at night. As to her QI duties, she has assumed the responsibility of slowing me down, instinctively jumping up on my lap the minute I get a needle threaded. Anyhow, we are celebrating today as her birthday, and her gifts are some canned food mixed in with her usual dry food for dinner, and a new toy with feathers.