Halloween Goes To The Dogs! And Cats! And One Monkey.

These last two days have been exhausting in my house.  Last night my daughter Violet got sick and very pukey and my husband was at work so I was left alone to take care of the situation, which is no big deal, but she was so upset and clingy my nerves where getting a little fried.  So, to calm myself I had one, two, three glasses of wine while watching many episodes of DVR'd 30 Rock while she slept.  I finally went to bed, with her next to me, and slept until my husband came home from work.  Once he settled in to bed I couldn't sleep (what felt like) a wink.  In all of Violet's clingy-ness I failed to eat dinner (I didn't forget.  I never forget to eat...) so three glasses of wine on top of an empty stomach and a nagging cold I've had about two weeks, gave me a rough night...which at one point resulted in me taking a bath at 2:30am to see if the warm water would lull me back to sleepy-ness.  It didn't.  I eventually went to sleep around 5am, only to wake back up at 7 to start my day.  Ugh.  I had a busy Saturday of running errands and a three-hour lunch with my cousins (actually, that was pretty sweet) but the second I got back home this evening, I have been a zombie.  I am now having some delicious Sleepytime tea while the dog sleeps next to me on the couch.

So, long story long, my blogging has been taking a backseat to life.  But, I did want to post tonight.  I present to you....Animals in Halloween Costumes:

Let me start by saying I have never put any of my pets in any sort of costume.  My cats would scratch my eyes out, and I've only had my dog since February so the opportunity has yet to present itself.  I did already decide on a costume for him in case I do want to be one of "those people" and dress-up my dog.  We adopted him from our local humane society but he is originally from the south, where stray animals are a huge problem there since they don't have enough shelters to accommodate all of them (hence them being brought up to Minnesota for the hopes of adoption.) Since he's a southern boy I have already imagined a very cute cowboy get-up complete with hat and kerchief stylishly tied around his neck.  Maybe I can get him to stick a piece of wheat in his mouth and chew on it thoughtfully.

This is my dog Phineas:

   "Please.  No costumes, please."  He says.

Here are some animals who do have "those people" for owners:

 This is not only a costume but an entire scene!  Impressive.  Good boy.

 As you can see, this dog is wearing a banana costume.  Banana costumes are funny on any mammal really.  I ran into a girl at a bar one Halloween weekend in downtown Anoka and she was wearing a banana costume.  She staggered up to our group to be, a friendly drunk person, I guess, and went off on a rant about all the sexy costumes she was seeing and how her banana costume was awesome because it was funny.  She was also a correct drunk person.  It was funny.

Now this is one of my favorite trends in animal costuming.  Dressing an animal up as a totally different animal.  Here, this monkey is an elephant.  I would never keep a pet monkey, let alone dress it up for Halloween but to each there own I guess.

This is incredibly impressive.  I have never met a cat that would tolerate any thing put on its body.  In fact, when my sister and I were growing up we had a cat, Big Kiddy, who we would try to dress in Barbie clothes, and we got the occasional shirt over his head, but if we were successful he would just go limp and it wasn't any fun anymore. Not only does this cat tolerate the costume on his head, he doesn't even mind posing for a photograph!

This is also funny.  On several levels.

I'm convinced this isn't even a costume, this dog just looks like this.

I do have a feeling Phineas might end up with some sort of costume come October, after all, it runs in the family to dress up the pets.  Example A.  My sister's Pappillion, Moya:

Halloween 2010.

Moya again, the same year.  What's that?  A sexy pirate costume?  Why yes, are friends at Leg Avenue also dabble in sultry costumes for your dog!  No joke.

If you do want to dress your dog or cat up for Halloween please be safe and respectful about it.  Don't force the poor animal to wear a costume that he hates just for your amusement.  That's just a jerky think to do.