Tom and I have been house sitting at John and Jackie’s in Columbus while they are on vacation in North Carolina.  The house could take care of itself, but the two pets in it need a little more attention.

Sully is their dog, an adolescent soft-coated Wheaton Terrier.  Sully is a very sweet boy with a mischievous side and a mind of his own. Sometimes he loves to go for a walk and other times no amount of persuasion will get him to move out of the driveway.  He will play fetch if he feels like it.  But usually when I throw a ball or stick he looks at me as if he is thinking “Why did you throw that?  Have you lost your mind?  You want me to do what?”

Our strategy with Sully is to take him for long walks in the beautiful Columbus Metro Parks to wear him out. But, as I said before, sometimes he likes to walk and sometimes he doesn’t. So far we have been to one metro park – Highbanks – and to the neighborhood park twice.  And we’ve been here four days!

John and Jackie surprised us by getting a kitten shortly before we were coming to house sit.  This is not good for Tom because he is very allergic to cats so he has only seen it from a distance.  It is also not good for Sully because every time he sees the kitten his terrier instincts kick in and he thinks he needs to take it by the neck and shake it until it stops making those foreign high-pitched sounds.  So the kitten (he doesn’t have a name yet) stays in the basement away from Tom and Sully.  I spend plenty of time in the basement playing with the kitten.

The kitten has two speeds:  FAST and stop.  At fast speed, he is nearly impossible to catch, although he is very good at pouncing on my shoes if I stand still.  He loves to hide behind the sofa cushions and jump on my hands.  His other speed is stop because he is just a baby and when he is worn out he falls asleep wherever he is.  In the picture I was trying to take a selfie with him looking at the camera.  Not going to happen no matter how many times I try.

The only other thing we have done in the four days in Columbus is gone to the grocery store down the street – Anderson’s. It is a full-sized grocery with a great deli and wonderful fresh produce, meat and fish.  But it also has a fill-sized hardware store with a better tool section than Home Depot.  And a big lawn and garden section.  And a housewares section. It is really like a BIG old-fashioned general store.  A super-sized general store.

Tom and I spent most of our time in the deli section trying to decide what to buy.  We got some Anderson’s chicken salad (really good), some spicy jack cheese (best pepper cojack ever) and some Death by Chocolate dessert that Tom let me eat all by myself, even though we haven’t been for a good bike ride all week.  If you need to shop in Columbus, this is the place to go.

While house and pet sitting we get free laundry, cable tv (Go Tribe!), and free wifi!  Taking care of the pets seems like a fair exchange.