No dog left behind

     Yes, Bullies are short bus dogs.  Patty proved it yesterday.  Not to be outdone by her brother’s ear hematoma, she came darned close to breaking her neck THREE  TIMES. 

     It began in the morning when The Curmudgeon had Gavin outside and Patty was left to her own devices.  The Curmudgeon came in and he found her poorly balanced on the radiator at the kitchen window.  She was so intent on her balancing act that she didn’t hear him open the door.  He asked her what she was doing.  She startled and he had to grab her in mid-air to keep her from taking a bad fall.

     Later, I took her outside and when she was ready to come in, she dashed for the door so fast that she missed a step.  Had she not had a leash on I think she would’ve fallen off the porch steps.  That was two.

     Around dinner time she decided to egg Gavin into playing.  She huckle butted around the living room, bounced up on the love seat, went to dive off and fell on her face.  I started to run over to her, she stood up, shook herself, and gave me that ‘I meant to do that’ look that they all have.  That was three.

     Yeah, my dogs ride on the short bus.

The pups are ready for Halloween…

     Okay, if the dog Halloween hats had not been only $1.47 and were at their regular price of $5.99, I wouldn’t have bought them. 

Patty wanted Gavin’s bed tonight

 

     Poor Patty, since the towel-eating incident she isn’t allowed to have any bedding in her crate.  That was a scare and a vet bill I’d rather not have again.  Since it was only a year or two ago we still don’t trust her to leave bedding alone.

     I put a fresh towel in Gavin’s crate tonight and then I was busy doing something in the kitchen.  DH went into the living room to give Patty a cookie but she wasn’t in her crate as he thought.  She was in Gavin’s crate checking out the new bedding.  She was having quite a good time in there too.  We half expected her to steal the towel and take it into her crate.  We are betting she had thought about it. 

We were in the doghouse last night

 

     A clear sky and a fabulous view of the full moon brought rise to high spirits last night.  I’m afraid I wasn’t the only one who had a bit of fun.  The pups were in on it too and we were in trouble with DH.

     I went out for two quick walks, one for Gavin and the other for Patty.  DH had gone to bed.  We can’t help it if we enjoyed a little exercise and still wanted to romp upon coming indoors. 

     It began with a tail tweak and a teensy bit of encouragement on my part.  Gavin decided that Patty needed a chase.  Patty thought it great fun and then she went a tad overboard with a bully run on the couch. 

     The next thing we knew a voice from above us asked, “What the hell are you guys up to?”  Two dogs sprinted for their crates.

     “Oops, my bad, we were having a little fun.  Sorry we woke you.”  I couldn’t help giggling at the pups that were hiding in the back of their crates.

     DH went back to bed.  A little while later two bull terriers stuck their heads out of their crate doors as if to say, “Is the coast clear?”

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

 

Patty and Gavin wrestling.

Snow, dogs, and a touch of insanity

 

     We had less snow than the weather reporter said we’d get.  I woke to the sound of shoveling and then Gavin barking at AJ who had just finished clearing our driveway.  He wanted her to pay attention to him.  It’s nice not to have to worry about clearing the MIL’s walks and ours.

     The pups don’t mind snow if it isn’t deep and they don’t have to be outside long.  The sissies.  They do tend to raise hell after they’ve been outside, chasing each other around the house.  Watching them is like watching the balls bounce around in the lottery drawings.  With one exception, the lottery balls don’t move the furniture and bounce off cupboard doors. 

     During their wrestling matches and mad dashes, I pray the furniture survives.  We can’t help but giggle at them when Patty gets the upper hand, grabs Gavin’s collar, and drags him around.  It’s a hoot.

     Twice today, DH had to remove Gavin’s collar and readjust it to the right size.  Patty can sure be a pistol when she wants to be one.

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.

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…

The psycho Target lady is back

 

     I hated those commercials last year and this year’s are worse.  In general, I’m not fond of Christmas commercials but psycho lady must go.  She completely creeps me out.  If she lived in my neighborhood, I’d probably suffer with nightmares or rather, in my case, daymares.  I’d lock my doors when she was active and never offer her coffee—she’s very hyperactive as it is.

     Other commercials that bug me are those car commercials.  Tell me, how often do people give each other cars for Christmas? 

     Gentlemen, the push is on to have you buy the little woman jewelry.  Hang on to those receipts so she can return whatever you bought.  DH doesn’t buy me jewelry unless I’m with him because he knows I am very fussy about it.

     Lest we forget, there are the little kiddies to remember.  All the commercials are screaming buy them expensive electronics.  They even have pricey electronics for toddlers.  Oh, come on!  Toddlers are happiest with the box the electronics come in or with a kitchen pot and a spoon to bang it.  Save yourselves some bucks people.

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.)