Dogs romping in fallen leaves

Angela's Eye View

Angela took several pictures of the dogs and forwarded a couple of them to me.

Here's what my dogs look like through Angela's cell phone.



Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Playing Dogs

My dogs like to wrestle with each other for exercise.  Sometimes it looks like they are going for the kill, but they never leave any blood on the floor.

The dog-play is usually followed by a round of Abby licking Buddy like she's his mama dog.

P.S.  John's visiting for a few days.  He laid down on the floor and fell asleep.  This is what I caught on film.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Anne's Short Visit

My sister Anne visited with me for a quick overnight.  I managed to get two quick pictures of her with Abby.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Abby's Perch

I caught Abby sitting in one of her favorite perches.  I just thought I'd share it with you.

She's managed to unzip two of the couch pillows from the back of the couch.  Oh, well.  It's pretty much the dogs' couch anyway.  lol

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Good Morning, Dogs

My two dogs hate it when I sleep too long.  They get concerned for me if I'm not up and at 'em shortly after sunrise.  In summer, that's much too early for my taste, but apparently dogs like first light as much as the birds do.

Buddy comes to the bed with two tennis balls stuffed in his big golden retriever mouth.  He will casually spit them out by my ear, by my armpit, by whichever body part he thinks might attract my attention.  He wants me to throw the balls so he can chase them.  Great fun first thing in the morning, right?  I, being a human and not thinking too clearly after being recently fast asleep, throw them to get rid of the slimey things.  But that just plays right into the paws of a golden who loves to retrieve as much as he loves to eat.  Boomerang balls.

Abby has several ways of "seeing to my welfare". I might suddenly have a cold, wet nose pasted to my own nose.  She might sneak onto the bed and curl up next to me, suddenly raising the temperature of my environs to something over a hundred degrees. Or, my personal favorite, and I mean that, is that Abby has mastered the word "mom".  She will simply hum the "m" if the situation isn't too critical.  I'll hear a low, quiet, growly "mmmmmm".  If I don't respond, she'll do it again until I do respond.

The more stressed she gets, the closer she comes to completely saying the whole word.  Abby's early abuse has led her to an abiding distrust of men in general and tall, thin men in particular.  One time, the postman came to the door with a good-sized package for me.  He knocked, and I went out on the porch to take the package.  Abby was inside the glass door watching in horror.  Suddenly she came out with, "momomomomom".  The postman and I looked at her, then looked at each other in surprise.  Neither of us laughed, because Abby was so obviously in distress.  But we both heard her say the word repeatedly.

And none of this has to do with feeding or going outside.  Les does that for them.  Then they come to get me up.  Sigh!

I haven't needed an alarm clock all summer.  So, how is YOUR morning going so far?

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Two Sad Stories with a Pretty Good Ending

Buddy and Abby are our third and fourth dogs. 

First, we got Chester, a 5-year-old golden from one of my college roommates. He was a well-trained dog and helped teach us dog novices how to keep an indoor pet.  Chester lived to be 12 1/2 years old - pretty good for a large-sized dog. 

Chester lived with us for about 2 years and did okay, but not what I would call thriving.  I decided that, since he came from a house with another dog and a cat and two growing children, that our house was too tame for him.  We thought we would give him a dog friend.  And that's how Chelsea came into our lives.

Buddy and Chelsea

I had never raised anyone or anything from the ground up, so this was a REAL learning experience for me.  Chelsea came with a bladder infection, so we were up every two hours every night for a couple of months.  She went through three courses of medicine before it cleared up.  I was nearly dead by then, but somehow that bonded the two of us for life.  Chelsea was with me through three moves from state to state.  When I didn't know anyone around me, Chelsea was there.  I wouldn't say she saved my life, but she certainly helped maintain my sanity.

Two summers ago, on July 7th, we had to put Chelsea down.  She was 10 3/4. I told Les that I hoped Buddy could manage to be an only dog, because it was too hard to put our pets to sleep.  Well, Buddy made it five months.  Then he went from sad to really sad.  We both spend good chunks of our week working, and he was alone in the house for hours at a time. 

Finally, I relented.  I went on http://www.petfinder.com/ and tried to pick out the perfect dog to be Buddy's new friend.  What I found was a smallish female which looked like a black lab.  The article about her described her as a very laid back dog.

We visited with the family who had her (the lady works in our vet's office and we all knew each other) and learned this puppy's story - as much of it as anyone can know.

When I saw her, I immediately knew that her name had to be Abby, so that's what I'll use in this story.

Abby and her brother (who now lives in Michigan) were found wandering in the woods behind this family's place.  They happen to be dog rescuers.  The two puppies were about four months old, abandoned in the woods in November.  We don't know how long they were on their own, but it took a while to stop Abby from being a garbage eater.  We know they had been abused.  Abby had a spot under her chin that was caused by neither fungus nor bacteria.  Should we guess that it was a cigarette burn?  She also has a scar along the inside of her thigh.  Don't know when that happened.  She barks at all tall thin men - especially ones with lightish hair.  My brother John has to sit down before she'll crawl up to him for a timid petting.

The point of this story - tonight's point anyway - is this.  Abby was about 4 months old when she was found in November.  Backtrack that and you get July.  We choose to say that Abby was born on the same day that Chelsea died.  It is sort of poetic and gives me a small sense of continuity.  I am aware that they are not the same dog, not the same personality of dog.  Chelsea was all golden retriever down to her toe nails.  She was the consummate companion dog.  Abby, for all that she looks like a black lab, is 100% Jack Russell terrier.  We call her our terrier-ist.  She barks at everything.  She dances on her hind legs when we come home. She stands on her hind legs to look into bushes for birds.  She likes to climb. She runs rings around Buddy, who just stands and watches her with an Odie-like grin on his face.  She was a digger before we started feeding her better food.  She has caught and killed a couple of birds.  The girl is FAST! 

No, she isn't Chelsea, but she can share a significant day with her predecessor without any stretch of the imagination.  And she does like to curl up next to me just like her predecessor did.  She just doesn't take up as much space on the bed.

Buddy and Abby

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Tasty to Dogs

Les visited with a friend this weekend and came away with a shofar - a short ram's-horn type.  When he brought it in the house and tried to blow it, the dogs went nuts!  Since Les hadn't so much as put his lips to the mouthpiece end yet, it couldn't have been because of the sound.

I figure that, since the dogs have had pig ears, cow hooves (Wow, do they smell bad!! We only bought them once!), and bones of various sorts to nosh on, that they thought it was a new kind of treat.  Les figured a good place to put it that would be out of dog reach,  and Buddy took the stairs two at a time trying to head him off.  Buddy REALLY wanted that horn.

The only other time our dogs have been as eager to "borrow" a gift from Les was when my mother gave Les a hat lined with rabbit fur, just like the one her father used to wear to conduct funerals in South Dakota.  We have to keep that one on a high shelf in a closed closet or it wouldn't be safe for a minute.

I swear we should have named Buddy "Isaac".  He makes us laugh so hard sometimes.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi

Friday "Off" and Dog Food

Today started early and kept right on going. 

I wear a pedometer.  There are times (like every day) when I question its results, but I keep wearing it.  Today, I did some Father's Day shopping, hit the post office, mowed the lawn, spent an hour at the library, made two loaves of dog bread, washed dishes, etc, etc.  My pedometer puts me at 3 miles.  Honestly, it was more than that.

Dog bread, you ask?  It's a long story.

Basically, Buddy the golden was getting skin rashes and ear infections.  Abby wouldn't eat dog food until late at night by which time she must have been starving to death.  We tried different food brands.  I added yogurt to the food.  They'd eat the yogurt and ignore the kibble.

I did some research and talked to our vet.  He told me which vitamins must be included.  I invented two recipes - one for bread made in a bread machine and stew made in a crock pot.  They take no time to make as I can throw everything in the machine and walk away to do something else.  These dogs are healthy, free of rashes and infections, agile, happy, calm, and have very soft fur.  I love petting them now.

I'll list my ingredients if anyone wants to know my recipes.

Thanks for visiting with me.

Kathi