when I started this blog five years ago, I was a pet sitter and the name animal-crackers made sense. now I'm a stay-at-home-dad and freelance writer, but rather than confuse everyone by getting a different blog, it's just easier to keep posting things here.

Hope everyone is having a nice Fourth of July weekend.

I've been working all weekend. Seven pet sits on Saturday, 10 yesterday, six this morning and two more tonight. Except for a Plush three-peat, it's been okay.

Saturday I was caring for an overstuffed beagle named Roxie and an ancient shar-pei named Tootsie. (I love shar-peis. We had one named Toby for about four years. Best dog ever. Then she died from a mysterious and horrific infection.)

So I'm done feeding a caring for Tootsie and Roxie and see that their owner left a note. "Here's pictures of the plants in the backyard that need to be watered every day." Okay, so I grab the six pics and go outside.

It's 150 freakin degrees out again.

I fumble around with the hose, but get it working. Find the first set of plants, water them. Find the next, water them. So forth. I finish watering everything shown in the pitures, look around and realize -- THAT WAS ALL THE PLANTS IN THE BACKYARD!!!

WTF? Why not just say "please water the all of the plants in the backyard"? Then, as I'm thinking this I hear some music blaring over a PA system. It's something by John Philip Sousa. And there's a car horn honking.

I climb up to look over the fence and there's a pick-up truck being followed by five people waiving American flags. Five people? That's all they could find?

It seemed really retarded at first. But after thinking about it I decided I'd rather be part of the five-man dork parade then be one of the uptight pricks in this uptight neighborhood. (Oh, did I fail to mention the street is Plantation Drive? Yeeah.)

Stats
• Sits: 25
• Dogs: 10
• Cats: 11
• Fish: one catfish, three koi
• Cups of coffee: six
• Miles: 293
• Number of times I had to perform animal CPR: zero