Blog Archives

Since it’s my birthday I’m going to be lazy…

 

Patty and Gavin wrestling.

Sometimes they are quiet…

 

Dogs and the theory of levitation

 

     Gavin and Patty will always try to mooch food.  DH was munching some cinnamon toast this morning and both dogs stood in front of him.  All the while he ate they never took their eyes off him.  Their concentration was so intense I swear they were trying to levitate the toast from the plate to their mouths.

     “Abracadabra!”  Said Gavin.  “To me, to me, come to me.”

     “No, no!  Alakazam, it’s mine.”  Patty moved in tighter.

     Each time DH lifted his toast to take a bite both tails would wag, more drool would drip, and four dark eyes never wavered.  If from my desk I called their names, I received no response.  The toast, oh, the marvelous toast, all slathered in butter and covered in cinnamon sugar drew their attention to the exclusion of all else.

     DH saved them each a small piece and they gulped them down with joy.  Let’s not tell them that they don’t know the theory of levitation. 

Almost toothless Chicken Dog

 

     No, I’m kidding.  Although Gavin did have three teeth removed, he is far from toothless.  Our vet was surprised since he only expected to remove one.  He removed the one we knew was bad and another next to it.  Then while he was cleaning the rest, he discovered a bad cavity on the other side and removed that tooth too.

     First thing Patty wanted to do was jump all over him.  It’s a good thing he was in his crate before we let her see he was home.  She drove him crazy for a while bowing and barking at him through the crate door.  However, he soon began to snore content to be home and in his own little den.

     Tonight I’ve been alternating between cuddling a still whiny dog (the sissy), taking him out, and putting him in his crate to continue to sleep off the anesthesia.  .

     Since I rarely go to bed before four in the morning, I stayed up to take him over at eight.  We made it in the door and easily weighed him.  Then the tech came out with the hospital lead to take him to the back.  I offered to do it but she said she could handle it and I could leave.  I know my Chicken Dog, so I chuckled as I walked outside.  I didn’t leave instead I stood where he couldn’t see me and peered in the window.

     A couple of minutes passed and I didn’t see the tech hauling him across the slippery floor.  Next thing I know another tech came to the door and asked me to come back in.  There was Chicken Dog Gavin backed under a chair and not coming out, no sirree not him, not for anyone.  He’d managed to back under the entire row of chairs like a rocket in reverse.  The techs were giggling about that. 

     As soon as my hand touched the lead, he obediently followed to the back room and the waiting cage.  I had him in the cage and locked down in mere seconds.  Oh, yeah that one is a Momma’s boy for sure.

The death of a theater?

 

     I finally had a chance to see the new Harry Potter movie.  The time went quickly G and I quite enjoyed it and can’t wait for the final one.

     Our favorite theater will likely close one of these days.  We practically had the place to ourselves.  We were two of six people at the show.  The attendance is bad enough that they canceled the early matinee, which we had arrived to see, and we had to go kill some time before the next show.

     That also meant we didn’t get home until after seven tonight so DH had a late dinner.  However, he did feed the dogs so Gavin got a meal before his seven p.m. no-food-after instructions for his tooth extraction kicked in.  The poor boy will shrivel up and die without his breakfast in the morning.  I wouldn’t want to be the techs at the vet’s when he wakes up hungry.  He will let them know all about it.

Meanwhile, back at the vet’s office…

 

     Chicken Dog willingly hopped into the car to go for a ride.  Getting him out when we got to the vet’s office was not as easy.  I went in to tell them Gavin was there. 

     “We’re ready for him, come to the side door.”

     I went back to the car to get him.

     Paws braced against the crate bars and head down Gavin as good as said, “Nope, not gonna come out of the crate.  I know where we are.” 

     “Come on let’s go.”  A few tugs on the leash and he relented.

     He had to stop and pee on a bush.  As soon as his nose passed the doorway, he tried to back up.  “Oh, no you don’t.”  I kept him moving.  Once we got into the exam room, he began to tremble and look for an exit.

     I decided to make a dash for the car and get the back massager.  Back in the exam room with Chicken Dog, I plugged the machine in and began to run it up and down his back.  He didn’t melt as usually does but he did stop shaking.

     Dr. O came in laughed and said, “I wondered what that noise was coming from this room.”

     “Back massager.  I was hoping to relax him enough for you to get a good look at his tooth.  DH can’t run this on his own back without giving Gavin some time under it.”

     I’m here to tell you that even though Gavin was not in melt mode, he did allow Dr. O to check his tooth and take a blood sample without a fuss.  Tuesday it’s back to the vet’s office at eight in the morning for a tooth extraction and he’s having the rest cleaned.

Another vet visit with Chicken Dog

 

     Gavin has a vet appointment on Thursday.  Oh, fun.  I get to take chicken dog in to the place he likes the least.  This time I have a plan on how to keep him relaxed.  I’m going to take the back massager along. 

     It will crack the staff up to see Gavin melt.  He’s normally so tense at the office that he loses enough hair to knit another dog.  He’ll still lose hair but he might not be his normal basket case self.

     He’s not going to be thrilled because I’m pretty sure they will keep him over night, remove a tooth, and clean the rest.  He hates sleepovers.  He’ll be even less happy when I tell them that while he’s out for the tooth I want them to trim back his claws. 

     Maybe I should leave the back massager with him…

Our dogs sleep in weird positions

 

     A loud thumping came from Gavin’s crate.  I wondered what he was doing so I peeked.  All I saw was a white butt and four white feet in the air.  Can you say relaxed?  He loves to sleep upside down in his crate.  He’s done it since he was a puppy.  I’d try to snap a picture but that never works.  As soon as I get close to the crate, he springs to life and his feet.

     In the meantime, Patty had sacked out on the couch with her head buried under a pillow.  I have no idea how she can breathe like that but she often sleeps that way.  Then there’s her butt on the pillow position, which cracks me up.  Look on the Bullpen page and you’ll find a picture.

     Our old female, Sadie used to sleep next to DH on his chair.  She’d sleep so soundly that when DH went to bed and shifted her onto the entire seat cushion she never noticed.

     Our old male, Malcolm was another one who regularly slept on his back with all four feet in the air.  They look like bloated road kill when they do that in the middle of the floor.

Can a dog lick a hole into his stainless steel food dish?

 

     I dunno but Gavin is certainly making a daily effort to succeed in doing just that.  I can always tell when he’s bored because he goes to his empty food dish and licks it. 

     It’s as if he goes into a trance licking, licking, and licking some more.  When I can no longer stand the sound of his tags rattling against the bowl, I tell him, “Dinner isn’t for several hours.  Go lie down.”  You can almost see him shrug and grin a gotcha.

     I do know that dogs can bite holes into stainless steel dishes.  This was something I learned at my mentor’s BT kennel.  All of her stainless steel dog dishes had teeth marks and holes in them. 

     Fortunately, my two don’t chew on their dishes.  That could be because their dishes fit into stands and they can’t get hold of the edges.  I’m sure that both of them would make a game out of throwing the dishes about if they could. 

     I cringe at the thought of dodging flung dishes or having them crash into the glass of the curio cabinet.

      (Normally I mix the posts up a bit, but with more rain all day and night again, the dogs and I were bored.)

Ice cookies, a doggie treat

 

     I used to complain about our dogs trying to crawl into the old refrigerator when I opened the door.  It was a constant contest to see if I could get things out without the dogs getting in.

     Our present refrigerator has the freezer on the bottom.  It’s actually a great idea when you have dogs, except if you’ve introduced them to the joys of crunching ice cubes.  Now I can’t open my freezer without paying a fee. 

     They know there are ice cubes in there and they want them.  They will ignore dog cookies in favor of ice cubes.  Well, at least they will until they finish crunching the ice.

     Gavin will pick his up, take it over to the rug in front of the sink, and work on it there.  Patty, little miss dainty, will chew hers where you drop it.  Gavin crunches his quicker, and always checks to see if Patty has dropped any chips, he can help himself to, she’s getting faster at eating hers and not leaving anything for him.

     It would be easier if we had a working icemaker instead of ice cube trays but DH never installed it.  It’s still in the box.  When we bought the refrigerator, it didn’t have an icemaker and they were going to charge us sixty bucks to install it later.  I should’ve paid them the sixty bucks and not listened to DH when he said he could do it.  This reminds me, I’d better go fill the ice cube trays.

It’s one a.m.; do you know what your fur babies are doing?

 

     I know what mine are doing only because I am downstairs with them right now.

     Gavin bows in front of her crate.  “Come out and play with me.”

     Patty turns her back to him and covers her head with a paw.  “You are nuts.  It’s after one in the morning.  Let me sleep.”

     “Please, please, please come out of there.”

     “Zzzzzzzzzz.”

     “You’re no fun.”  Gavin goes and rings the go out bells.  “C’mon Mom take me out.  It’s chilly and I love it.”

     “Hold your horses, I’m writing my post for tonight.”

     In the kitchen, the bells ring again.  Gavin runs to my chair and barks.  “Didn’t you hear the bells?”

     A moan comes from Patty’s crate.  “Take him out so I can sleep will ya?”

     “Geez, it never fails does it?  I sit down to write and you guys start in.”

     “I didn’t do anything.  I’m trying to sleep here.”  Patty says.

     “I want to go out.”  Gavin runs to ring the bells again.

     “I get it, I get it.  I’m coming.”  I grab his leash and we go out. 

     Gavin sniffs over the entire yard, squats to pee a teensy bit, and drags me back to the door.  “Ready to go in now.”

     “Oh for heaven’s sake.”

Death by Cuddles

 

     “Henry went to the garden to chop down that old grape vine.  That was two hours ago.”

     “Yes, ma’am.”  Detective Hayes wrote in his notepad.  “Then what happened?”

     “I heard a commotion.  I came outside.  Cuddles had that bloody board in his mouth.  He was knocking over the potted plants.”

     “You mean that two-by-four the Bull Terrier is playing with?  You say it has blood on it?”

     “Yes.  I couldn’t get Cuddles to drop it.  He ran by and cracked me in the shins.  I went down hard.  He ran past again and hit my head.”  Victoria showed him the purple bruises on her shins and the knot on her forehead.

     “That must’ve been quite a shot.”

     “Oh, it was.”

     “Tell me about Henry.”

     “I was getting to that.  Once I could walk, I went to look for him.  I’m sure he killed Henry.”

     “The dog?”

     “Yes, Cuddles killed Henry.”

     “Where was the dog?”

     “I found him with Henry.  He was licking Henry’s face.  I ran back to the house to call for the ambulance.  When they got here they said Henry was dead and called you.”

     “I’m placing you under arrest.”

     “But Cuddles did it.”

     “Sure, lady”