Thinks By Me

14 months ago, we adopted our sweet DogSpot from a humane society in Pennsylvania. She is beautiful, though admittedly unique-looking. While we were in Florida, our neighbors adopted a 4-1/2 month old puppy from a litter at a New York humane society. We could not believe our eyes when we saw a virtual twin of our own dog. Neither they, nor we could believe the similarity in our dogs! We were told, at adoption, that our dog was Jack Russell/Boxer mix (or possibly Jack Russell/Pit bull). They were told that their puppy is Boxer/Pit bull/Labrador. We brought our dog over to meet her look-alike today, and they really hit it off--it was so strange to see the two of them looking so much the same! The main difference between the two is that Molly, the neighbor's puppy, has droopy ears and DogSpot has very pointy, upright ears. Who knows, we may have to take them on the road together!

In return for the many nights of sneaking under Little Chic's covers for a warm cuddle, DogSpot decided to pay back the favor and allow Little Chic a prime spot on her doggie cot in front of the fireplace.

With all our family living scattered near and far, it's a rare occurrence for us to spend the entire Christmas vacation at home. But this year we are, and we're actually excited about it. It was awesome to attend Christmas Eve service at church last night, come home and do the Christmas Eve traditions and then get up this morning with no place to go! After we attended our annual candlelight service at church (in which Little Chic sang), we came home, sipped a little Purity Egg Nog, read the Christmas Story from Luke 2, opened our new Christmas jammies and settled in for a traditional viewing of Little Lord Fauntleroy. When the movie was over, Little Chic was initiated into the world of "non-believer" since this is her first year of officially not believing in Santa. She has been on the fence for a while, but she was never really ready to admit it before this year. We live in a family of skeptics and realists, so it's amazing that she held out as long as she di...

We had another near-fatality during church yesterday. I discovered it when I got home and saw the insides of one very precious Ty Beanie Baby strewn all over the floor. DogSpot accomplished a near decapitation and I arrived in the nick of time to save the bear's life. This particular Beanie has been a constant companion to Brainy Boy since he was a baby and we call him Snowy. Snowy would also be precious to collectors if he hadn't been so well-loved since it he is actually a rare polar bear named Chilly. Snowy has a fraternal black brother that we call Soot, whose official Ty name is Blackie. Soot is not nearly as sweet to collectors as he is to us. Snowy has been through many traumas with Brainy Boy, even getting his own x-ray when Brainy Boy broke his arm when he was four years old. Luckily Brainy Boy rode to church with Muh Main Man in the truck so I had time to do a little damage control before he got home and saw the tragedy. I tucked the insides back as best I c...

It seems that our walking dilemma has resolved itself, thanks to a little doggie bridle that I found at Petsmart. The same day I bought it, Rochelle suggested it saying that it worked well for her dog. DogSpot did not love it at first and tried using her very gangly legs to pry it off her nose. After a treat or two though, she forgot she had it on. She's like me that way. With the treats. Anyway, she pitched no fits and lunged after zero dogs, compliments of the strap going over her nose, giving me full left and right turning control of her head. Don't worry, any activist friends out there. It's not a muzzle and her full treat-eating capacity was spared. And it has the word gentle in the name, so who can complain about a product named "gentle" anything?

In my Dog Whisperer enthusiasm, I've taken it upon myself to 'master the walk.' In the words of my man, Cesar Millan, it's important that I don't let DogSpot drag me along on our walks or she's gonna think she's the pack leader. And we can't be having that, now can we? But DogSpot doesn't see things that way. Each morning, she gleefully hops in to the back of my Explorer, enthusiastically hops out when we've gotten to our walking spot, and then she just takes off. The poor thing has about strangled herself and crippled me in her quest to lead us off into the wild blue yonder and she's just about yanked my arm out of socket a time or two. You'd think the little beast weighed more than 33 pounds. I've tried all the tips. I faithfully recored each and every episode of the show and pore over all the instructions. And I try to follow them, I really do. But my dog just doesn't turn into the little miracle that Cesar promises she...

YEAH, I'm pretty sure they'll notice...

DogSpot has completely an utterly gone back to her normal lifestyle, apparently not needing any recovery time from her ordeal on Tuesday. I could use the rest myself as I've vigilantly "watched and observed" as instructed by the vet and my eyes are tired. The only hint of limiting her activity is that I have not taken her on our daily 4 mile walk and I've kept her from jumping into the back of our Explorer for rides. That's about it. Also against orders, she has taken to licking and chewing at the stitches on her phantom back toes. I decided to put some vinegar on the stitches so that she wouldn't pull them out...kind of like when your mom put pepper polish on your nails to keep you from biting them. It didn't work. Apparently vinegar is like Hershey's syrup to dogs because she furiously licked it all off my hands before she started back in on her feet. That's just great--I've made the wound taste like food. She'll probably have her f...

DogSpot is back home where she belongs. It's clear that she is a different species from the human variety. One would never know that she had her female parts removed just 24 hours ago. She completely blew off the low activity advisory and began jumping and running around the minute I saw her. How nice it would be if human females bounced back this quickly. Another big difference between dog and man was the cost of the surgery(thankfully). Brainy Boy's recent double foot surgery cost over $20,000 when all was said & done and he didn't even have any extra toes removed! DogSpot cost me a mere $200 in comparison and that included the toes. MonsterPaw is back to her miffed self and has retreated once again to the comforts and safety of her loft apartment. She hasn't so much as poked her twisted whiskers over the balcony to check on the wicked step-sister. Fortunately for DogSpot the Short People were overjoyed to have her back, so she didn't even notice the c...

Poor DogSpot went in for her surgery and the house is now empty of her furriness and devoid of her activity. MonsterPaw would be in her glory if she would but come out from under my king-sized bed. It seems that all the activity of getting DogSpot's blankie and toys together made kittycat think that something was up. It was. But she hasn't yet realized that the activity was to her benefit. Generally when we take DogSpot out for the day, MonsterPaw prowls around the house sticking her feline tongue out at everything that DogSpot owns. Then when DogSpot comes back, MonsterPaw returns upstairs to the territory that she has claimed as her own. But today, it must be the eerie quiet that is freaking her out. Probably like two kids who fight constantly but then cry their eyes out when one of them goes on a sleepover. I wish. For four months I've had high hopes that MonsterPaw would eventually realize what a sweet one our DogSpot is. It seems not to be. I'm sure by th...

In my OCD style, I've been watching the Dog Whisperer on National Geographic TV like a maniac. I don't know why I do this to myself, as if I don't have enough psychoanalyzing to do on the Short People in my life. Now DogSpot is subjected to my regular experimentation in the practices of studying dog behavior. Since watching this new favorite show of mine, I've convinced myself that I need to take my proper place as the leader of my pack. DogSpot was vying for this position by jumping on the furniture, chewing on the kids and basically calling the shots around the homestead. In the last couple of weeks, I've been assertively claiming my territory. So far I have resisted peeing on the carpet but I am making her follow me in to and out of the house (rather than bolting in front to knock us all down) as well as taking her on walks with her heeling. Of course, she doesn't take to this at all since we have 2 acres where she to roams free. After the most recent...

I went to Target (the place of all things spiffy) and got MonsterPaw a new carrier. Did you know you can get wedding clothes for your pets there?! What is up with that? I just want to take my cat to the vet. Anyway, I bought the cheapest one I could find since I only use it for her once a year visits to the vet. She approves (please excuse the poor picture quality due to my unpreparedness. She is the gray blurry thing hopping inside). Apparently she just wanted something pink to ride in. So I called the vet and they squeezed me in for Thursday. Hopefully she'll like it just as much then. On other notes, poor DogSpot is "learning" not to sit on the couch. We made that mistake with HyperDog and we always looked like we were evolving into white wookies and I didn't like that. DogSpot isn't taking to it that well, but the squirts of water from the spray bottle are making the floor look much cushier. And just in case you're wondering, nothing has change...

MonsterPaw has never forgiven us for adopting DogSpot. Not at all. She has withdrawn to the top floor of our house (which is actually half a floor since our living room has a cathedral ceiling) and I've had to move all her gear like the litter box, food and toys upstairs. She does not venture nary an extra toe of hers downstairs since the frolicking white puppy came to live here. She does occasionally sneak down to peer around when the dog is outside, but at any sign or noise of the pup, kitty-cat jets back to her own zone. It's not that she's actually afraid of the dog. She just doesn't like her. On the occasions that the dog ventures into the cat's space, our sweet and quiet feline becomes a ferocious tiger all spitting and hissing. DogSpot is actually quite a-feared of the snooty one. To complicate matters, MonsterPaw needs a rabies booster shot because of the bat visit we had a few nights back. My brilliant mind needed yet another thing to worry about ...

Ever since the day we brought DogSpot home, we noticed what a good passenger she was in the car. She rode nicely, sitting still with the kids in the backseat so we decided to keep her used riding by taking her with us frequently for short errands around town. We did have one slight issue with the windshield wipers, but getting lots of treats while they whisk back and forth changed her mind to believe they are her friends after all. Since we've been camping twice and she's driven over three hours one way several times, she has gotten used to the idea that whenever we are going someplace, she IS going along. I am noticing since our return last Wednesday, that every time the keys jingle, DogSpot comes running. If she is inside the house, she sits under the doorknob so it is impossible to get past her. If she is outside, she runs and sits on the front doormat so you trip over her as you are going out. She dashes to the car so you can't catch her and she tries to maneuver h...

I haven't posted a status-check on the clicker training that I am doing with DogSpot and I'm sure you are waiting with baited breath, so I'll indulge you in a little update. DogSpot is doing brilliantly whenever she determines that we are "in session" as long as we are in session at home. If we are the doggie school...that's another story entirely. We won't be admitting in this post that I have had the urge more than once to be a drop-out because of the fact that I'm a basket case by the time the 2 hour session is over every Monday. It's just a wee bit overstimulating for DogSpot and let's just say her concentration level leaves a bit to be desired when her classmates are around. We have been able to determine that the ruckus she puts up is because she actually likes the other puppies and wants to play, so that's a relief. In spite of her Attention Deficit tendencies, she has successfully learned all sorts of things like sitting, lyin...

I have been anticipating today for weeks. It is Thursday. It is the first day of summer vacation. I had big plans. Sleep until noon if I wanted. Let the kids stay in their jammies all day if they wanted. Hang out and do nothing worthwhile if I wanted. The kids would certainly comply with all of this. But the "baby" would not. I made careful arrangements. I turned off the alarm. I forced an agreement from Muh Main Man to take the dog out when he woke for work. I put a pillow over my head so I wouldn't hear the phone ring before I was awake. Everything went as planned until Muh Main Man followed through with his promise to take DogSpot to pee. He came back in and hopped in the shower. And she started to whine. And whine. And whine some more. She whined because he didn't let her follow him upstairs. She whined because she wanted to terrorize the cat. She whined because she wanted to jump all over me in bed all of which she did when he finally gave in to...

DogSpot went to the vet today to get her second round of puppy shots. Not only did she gain 3 pounds in the last 2 weeks since we were there last, but she also developed a reaction to the combination vaccine she got. Who knew that could happen? This is more complicated than having another kid. I know what kind of medicine to give them. It took me a few minutes to realize she was having an issue as I initially thought she had gotten into an ants nest outside. I kept smoothing out a few ruffles in her fur which looked like burrs and I helped her reach an itch or two that she couldn't get herself. When she gave me a pitiful look full in the face, I realized that the poor little thing was completely covered in welts! A quick call to the vet confirmed that dogs do indeed sometimes react to their shots and dose of Benadryl should fix her up. Lucky for me she likes Red dye #33!

Who would you say is winning the mega-ear contest? And who would you say is losing the "no dogs on the beds" battle?!

Times have been good, but busy. I am revisiting a stage of life I thought I never would - the potty training stage. Although, I have to say that I appear to be much more successful in this endeavor with the canine species than I was with my own offspring. It's much less stressful too, being able to crate the peeing one when I'm not able to hover over in potty-watching state. The Short People have taken wildly to our new DogSpot, although MonsterPaw is thoroughly irritated at us all. We've had to move the cat food and litter box out of the prying paw-ness of the puppy and MonsterPaw is beginning to forgive the intrusion just a bit. We have found a few nice surprises along the way - DogSpot doesn't mind sleeping all night in her crate and waiting patiently to go outside in the morning. She is also a very polite passenger in the vehicle and rides nicely to school with the Short People every morning. DogSpot has only barked twice - once at first sight of the cat and o...

I think she's gonna like it here with us. I know we're gonna like it here with her.