Just wanted to quickly share some shots from this morning’s trek into Central Park. Ella and I have found a little spot all to our own that, as you can see by these photos, also has a pretty nifty view of the city skyline in the background. Ella enjoys her tennis ball, I enjoy the view…tough to beat.

Enjoy.

(the images are kind of small here-click on any of the pictures or go here to view them in full screen)

Here’s a clip of Ella and Kasey continuing to take over the kitchen. Jenna’s had enough of their antics but isn’t quite up to getting in the middle of them (probably wise), so she hides under the table and barks instead. Apparently Jenna’s bark is at a pitch that only humans can hear because while we wanted to plug our ears, the 2 furkids were oblivious and lost in their play match…

On our recent trip to my parents’ house, Ella was lucky enough to have a special playmate for a few days (and I’m not talking about Jenna who I think we can all agree is not interested in being considered for the “playmate” role). My brother and sister-in-law brought their dog Kasey, a 3 year old chocolate lab who had no idea what she was in for.

Meet Kasey

Ella was sidling up to Kasey and relentlessly instigating play fights from the second poor Kasey set paw in the house. Although Kasey has calmed down a lot over the last year or two, she was just as devilish as Ella as a puppy and pretty quickly rediscovered the imp within.

Thank goodness my mom was so preoccupied with a busy last week of teaching and retirement parties that she wasn’t around for a lot of their mischief. In the end, nothing was broken and there were no carpet stains that couldn’t be treated, but I’m not going to say there weren’t some close calls. One of my mother’s friends who roasted her at a retirement gathering that week characterized my mom in this way: “She is not satisfied with the cleanliness of her house unless there are visible vacuum lines on the carpet”. That is the truest statement ever uttered. So you can imagine what my mom thought when she saw the vacuum lines replaced with paw prints.

Here they are in the dining room -- watch out for the crystal!

And here they are in the living room -- which shouldn’t be called a living room because ordinarily no one sets foot -- let alone lives - in it.

And finally, here’s “Ella and Kasey -- Round 1″. My favorite part is the butt sniff at the end of the round…Dogs will be dogs…

Ella and I recently came upon a lovely Ballerina Mime in Central Park. I have seen her once or twice before, but this was Ella’s first glimpse. The mime stands still as a statue until a passerby gives her money and then she performs some improvisational ballet moves. Always on the lookout for a good photo op, I must admit I wanted to give her some money in exchange for her agreeing to strike a pose or two with the pup for the camera. Do you think for 10 bucks she’d be agreeable to trying some sort of lift combo with Ella?

Anyway, I realized pretty quickly that I left the apartment without my wallet which is pretty typical. I usually forget something -- cell phone, Ella’s ball, etc -- and frankly I’d rather forget my wallet than poop bags which I have done before and was forced to come up with some very creative clean up solutions which won’t be discussed here. Anyway, priorities in line, I did remember my camera, so I decided to try to discreetly get a few pics of her from afar. The Ballerina Mime may have done a lift combo without the cash (how far does “pretty please” get you these days?), but my morals told me it was better to steal a photo from afar instead.

I found out when I got home that apparently the Ballerina Mime is pretty well known in these parts. Her name is Therisa Barber, and she’s a classically trained dancer who moved from England to New York City hoping to make it on Broadway. You can read a really nice bio of Therisa here, and here’s a short clip of her in action:

There’s a beautiful flower shop a block or so away from me, and Ella and I frequently pass it on our way to and from Central Park. While I like the shop for it’s exotic orchids, Ella likes it because of the cat who stands guard in the doorway.

While walking home today, Ella literally stumbled into kitty who had ventured further out onto the sidewalk than he usually does. Both stunned by the moment, they looked at each other and stared -- totally frozen for a good 10 seconds. I admit I was too. Then the blood rushed quickly back to my brain and I thought ” CAMERA CAMERA CAMERA CAMERA!”. See, I recently vowed to never leave my apartment without my camera. The marinara street pie incident was the last straw -- I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been out and some bizarre stuff went down and I didn’t have anything with me to capture the moment. And nobody will believe me without documentation. For example, there was the time we saw a woman wearing a shower cap bee-bopping along on her way to the subway as if it were totally normal…and just recently on the bench outside of Le Pain Quotidien there was a bra the size of texas laid out ever so delicately, again as if it were totally ordinary a) that a superhuman sized bra exists, and that b) it should be displayed on a public bench. Given Ella’s fetish for intimate garments, I was waiting for her to pick it up in her mouth and carry it for the remainder of our walk. Thank god she didn’t. Can you imagined if that happened and I was cameraless?? I would never have forgiven myself.

Anyway, back to Ella v Kitty. So, these photos and video aren’t the best because as I was hurriedly digging in my bag for my camera, some guy handing out flyers came over to solicit me (umm, hello -- dog v cat going on here -- screw your astrological readings). Then, NYC Prep came through with their snobby air and expensive clothes and forced me to cut the taping short as their entitled butts couldn’t be bothered to walk around us. Anyway, suffice it to say this was the first of what I hope will be many rounds between Ella and the flower shop cat.

Coy kitty acts like he’s up for a fight…but then again maybe not.

Kitty plays it cool and opts to walk away -- today, at least

Cool Kitty heads inside -- totally over it