The End of a Long Week

I should have known it was going to be a long day to mark a long week when we woke up to rain today. The rain smelled good, but it was that summer kind of rain that gets you wet 30 steps out the door. And we got wet. The house still kind of smells like wet dogs even though it’s no longer raining and Gretchen’s opened the windows to bring in some fresh air.

But today was uneventful, compared to yesterday, though it was still very long. It started with a walk with Captain and Argo. Captain is the dog we just finished boarding and Argo is next.  They got along fine, but I think Captain was really happy to go home. He seemed happy when his family arrived to pick him up.  We had fun, didn’t we Captain? Hope you come stay with us again, though next time, no ear biting!

Speaking of ear biting…how’s this for an ear-ristable picture?

Gemma looks like she has two ears, doesn’t she? Well, don’t be fooled. That’s her tail sticking up like an ear…what she really looks like is this…

I always knew Gemma was “fearless” but now she’s “earless”….though only temporarily. After Captain nipped at her yesterday, Gemma had to have some minor surgery with the vet stitching up her ear and then bandaging it like the Egyptians bandaged a mummy. Needless to say, I didn’t get to play with Gemma today. Gretchen met up with Gemma and her human dad and they walked through the park and then played some fetch and ran around a lot. Apparently, Gemma had lots of energy after her groggy Thursday afternoon and evening.

Speaking of fetch, I think Gemma looks kind of fetching in her orange bandage…it looks like a designer necklace!

Get well soon, Gemma. I can hardly wait to play with you again… and you can chew on my ears just like you always do!

But I’m retelling the day all out of order. After Captain went home, we fetched Monty for a short walk and then Gretchen played with Gemma while we all rested.  After Gemma, Gretchen took Argo to meet Oshi and Perrito. Talk about a hit. Gretchen told me all about it, but I think the photographs tell the best story!

As you can see, Argo and Perrito hit it off. They played like crazy, with Argo racing around the tennis courts and Perrito doing his best to catch him.  He only caught up to Argo when Argo took a rest after all the circling around at lightning speed.

Gretchen tells me that Argo is really fast. I’ve only had hints of his speed when he races around the house inviting me to chase him. We’re going to go out this afternoon to play so maybe I’ll get to see for myself just how fast he is.

Oh and Oshi you may wonder, was at the tennis courts, too, but he had no interesting in playing. Instead, he watched.

And hung out with Gretchen as close as he could get so he didn’t get run over by the crazed dogs…

And Argo and Perrito did a lot of wrestling, too. They got quite the workout!

Argo got to come back to the house and rest with Monty who was digesting his lunch before going out again.  I got to go visit Teabiscuit and she was very happy to see me!

We got to play fetch and though Teabiscuit was a little uncertain about playing fetch at the same time I did, she eventually warmed up to it!

After we walked and played with Teabiscuit, Monty, Argo and I went for a walk up to the pet store to pick up some food for me. Yummy!  We had to stop, of course, at the scary grate lookout where Argo showed how fearless he is.

We made our way along the ridge and then headed back home to be posed, one more time, on the back porch.

Do I look tired? Well, I am. I think Argo is, too. He had a full day. I had a full week. There’s a joke in here somewhere about a full Monty, but I’m to tired to tease it out (Gretchen said that would be “strip tease” it out! She must not be as tired as I am!).

Have a great weekend everyone. Argo and I get to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house!  Yippee!!!

Rubin

PS — And if that weren’t enough…we finished the day off with a game of fetch and a walk with Quillette and Teabiscuit!

Oh Crap!

Gretchen says not to worry. Some days are like this, but I’m still a bit upset. Everything started out normally. It always does, doesn’t it? Captain and I went for a walk through Volunteer Park early this morning where Gretchen posed us in front of one of her favorite spots…the resevoir.

Then Captain ate his breakfast. I passed.  I wasn’t hungry yet and so I didn’t force myself.  We rested as we are always required to do after eating, and then set out to pick up Ollie. He was happy to see us. He is always happy and we headed up over the hill to the park to play some fetch. That’s always fun and very much a normal part of our normal work.

Ollie tried to get Captain to play wrestling with him, but Captain was more interested in playing fetch…and so was I…for awhile…

And then I decided to play with Ollie…or should I say, he decided to play with me!

And then Luke showed up. I’ve met him before and he’s as focused on his orange and blue ball as I am…as Captain is…

We all had a great time…even Ollie, even Captain…even Luke!

We were all very exercised and as we walked back up the hill and through the wooded park, our tongues hung low in contentment and exhaustion.  At Ollie’s house we had some water fresh from the hose…best kind…and then headed down the street to pick up Gemma.

It all sounds normal, doesn’t it?  It was normal when Gretchen left Captain and me in the car while she went to retrieve Gemma. Gemma gets really excited when she sees us and Gretchen decided our meeting should take place outside the house, not inside. Gemma roared out the door, down the steps, and toward the car. She knew I was there, but she didn’t know that Captain was there. She also didn’t know that Captain looks a lot like me, so when he jumped out of the back of the car first, Gemma greeted him like she greets me.

She threw herself at him…awhole body slam down.

Captain is a gentle fellow and he, kind of like me, isn’t fond of dogs forcing themselves into his personal space. In human terms, his bubble was violated and Captain let Gemma know. Now when dogs say, “Back off!” they often say it loudly. There is more noise than anything else, so when Gretchen and all of us headed down the road, it took a moment for her to notice that Gemma was bleeding.

Yikes. This is not normal.

Ears, Gretchen tells me, have lots of blood veins right on the surface. When scraped or torn or as in this case, nipped, they bleed like crazy. Gretchen grabbed a towel from her backpack, gently grabbed Gemma’s ear and held tight trying to stop the flow of blood. After about 5 minutes, the compression seemed to have worked, but then Gemma shook her head. Oh my. Blood went every where again.

Gemma doesn’t live too far from us, so we headed over to our house to find hydrogen peroxide, sterile gauze and a wet towel (to clean up Gemma and also Gretchen..she was covered in blood). But it just wouldn’t stop bleeding.

That’s when Gretchen called the vet and that’s when I hid under the desk.

I hate the vet.

Gretchen piled Gemma and Captain…who were friends now (go figure)…into the car and headed to the dreaded hospital. I stayed home.

This is where we must give a Woof Out to Four Paws Animal Hospital because the doctor gave up her lunch to see little Ms. Gemma…the bloody girl.  Captain, if you can believe it, waited for Gemma in the clinic as well. I think he felt bad that his harsh words had turned into an injury.

In the end, Gemma got stitches. Her parents were incredibly gracious stating that “…these things happen…” but I’m still overwhelmed. These things happen?  Really?  Not to me. Not to us, usually. This is when our normal day went a little haywire.

And this is why we have no photographs of Gemma. We contemplated taking a photograph of Gretchen’s bloody shirt and shoes, of the bathtub where she tried to clean Gemma up and the hallway of the vet’s office splattered like a crime scene, but we decided to forgo the gore and just tell the tale…or is that tell the ear?

No matter. Once Gemma was in the safe hands of the doctor, Gretchen raced back to pick up me and then raced to  pick up Teabiscuit, fearing we’d be late. We were not and thankfully, a contrite Captain was on his best behavior with Teabiscuit…and she truly appreciated it!

Then we walked by one of our least favorite signs and Gretchen quietly posed us in front of it.  I ask you…in front of your beautiful house would you rather have an occasional pile of doo or this permanent signage? I think I’d choose the poo…

I sure hope tomorrow goes back to normal!

Until then,

Rubin

From My Lips to Dog’s Ears

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — We are all different. Today’s group of dogs provides me with perfect examples to support my point. Take a look at this series of photos. Pay close attention to each dogs’ expression.

Who is uncomfortable here?  Who is being forward and who is being relaxed and patient? Keep looking…

At this point, I’m trying to give Monty a hint, “Dude, he’s kind of shy. Give him some space.” But Monty thinks everyone is as friendly as he is and keeps persisting….until Captain decides to send a clearer signal…

Don’t worry. It all went well. Monty backed off and, in fact, said, “Whatever!” after this last encounter…

I did my best to reassure Captain that Monty was a friendly fellow, but often, as is the case with being the youngest in the crowd, both Monty and Captain didn’t listen to the advice from my lips.

Of course, for the rest of the day, Captain and Monty were perfectly fine with each other, so maybe they did listen.

My day started with Captain, of course, since he is staying with us for awhile. We had a leisurely morning with a short walk before breakfast after which we got a quick nap while Gretchen did some work. At 9, we picked up Monty and went on a really, really long walk along the lake and up through Leschi Park.  Captain wanted to play fetch for most of the walk, but eventually got tired out and gave up ever getting ball in Gretchen’s backpack. Gretchen didn’t take any pictures until we got back home whereupon Monty slammed me to the ground in hopes of a wrestling match!

You’re on, buddy!

Of course, it was only about a 30 second wrestling match as Gretchen broke us up in fear that Monty would leap off the deck and re-injure his front leg again.

Oh man…she spoils all the fun. Instead of playing hard, we had to take a nap. Imagine. A nap. She took Captain out for a spin with Oshi and Perrito…which again provides some interesting evidence to my “We Are All Different” study.

Captain is all about fetch. Oshi is not. Perrito, on the other hand, has all the sudden taken an interest in fetch, but even in their play (or not play in the case of Oshi) WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT.

Captain DEMANDS for the ball to be thrown…

And Oshi continues to watch and wait…

And finally, everyone gets tired…finally!

The day isn’t over nor is our work, really, but for now Captain is under the desk sound asleep, Monty is in the kitchen on the bed sound asleep, and my eyes are getting droopy. I’ll finish today’s blog with some swimming photos from yesterday. There are rumors that, if the sun shows up this afternoon, there might be more swimming in store for Monty, Captain, and me. “From my lips…”

Later,

Rubin zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Focus

Every dog has an ability to focus though some are able to do it a little more successfully than others. I focus on my moms (Gretchen and Ann) and pay close attention to what we are doing next — be it a nap, a meal, a walk, a game, a cuddle. I also focus on play and can be motivated to do just about anything if we are playing fetch or swimming or practicing agility. I can also focus on food, but only special kinds of food.

Captain, my half brother, is staying with us the next few days. His focus appears to be limited to tennis balls. When he came into our house, he searched out all of them and one by one Gretchen put them away in the cupboard so he could focus on getting comfortable in the new space. By the time he’d sniffed out every tennis ball, there were 13 of them in the cupboard.

13.

Lucy, too, is ball focused and has always shown a preference for tennis balls. But today, both Captain and Lucy showed their foci-versati (Latin for flexible thinking)…and it posed a bit of a problem.  Gretchen carries tennis balls with her in the dog walking backpack. We find a lot of them on our walks and she picks them up (or I do) and stuffs them into the side pockets. But she also carries my favorite blue and orange ball because I like it the best. We happen to have a number of those blue and orange balls, but usually Gretchen only carries two, sometimes 3 of them with her.

Today we only had two and that, my friends posed a foci-versati problemo! As of late, Lucy has shown more interest in my blue and orange ball than in any tennis ball. It’s been okay because again, we usually have two. Only when the three of us — Lucy, Captain, and I — went out to play this morning, two blue and orange balls was one too few.

Captain wanted the blue and orange ball, too.

Oh boy. It was a dance of who will get to chase the ball now.

Lucy has it…

Captain wants it but for now, he’s content with a tennis ball…

But then Captain gives a pleading look at the orange and blue ball…

Captain gets it…

Lucy wants it…but this time it’s MINE!

Lucy got it back…

But now I have it and am teasing Lucy with it…

Oh boy, it went on like this for a long, long time…back and forth, back and forth. Needless to say, we got lots and lots of exercise!

Eventually, we all got tired…even Lucy though she wasn’t as tired as Captain and me. Still even in our exhaustion, we kept our six eyes focused on the two balls.

We took Lucy back to her mom, good and tired, and picked up Ollie along the way. We went for a long walk and Captain looked at me and said, “You have the best job in the world, little brother!”

“Focus,” I said, “It’s really important to focus.”

Because Captain and I were tired, our walk with Ollie ended at our house so Captain and I could get some water.  Ollie was happy to be at the house.  He could hardly contain himself and once I had some cool water, I focused on playing with him. He liked that very much!

Ollie felt bad for Captain since he wasn’t involved in our wrestling match so he invited Captain to play. Captain was focused on a tennis ball he found in the bushes. “Wow,” commented Ollie, “He’s totally focused on only one thing!”

“Yep,” I said. “I guess we should just let him be.”

So Ollie and I continued our games of wrestle and leaping off the deck…

Again, Ollie tried to engage Captain in a game of chase, but Ollie only ended up chasing Captain…not the other way around.

Captain kept looking for more tennis balls since he knew the orange and blue ones were tucked away in the backpack. Though he liked playing with the orange and blue ball, his focus returned to tennis balls once at home. He was disappointed to find out that all the tennis balls were in the cupboard.

Eventually, we all got tired…

Gretchen leashed us up again and we headed the long way through the park and back to Ollie’s house. He did what he always does and raced up his porch steps and through his dog door to get a drink of water. Captain and I headed back to the house where we had a really long nap before we headed out again for a swim in the lake. We have photos, but I’ll save those for another time.

We ended our long day with a walk and a game of fetch at the park with Monty. No pictures of that, but Monty comes tomorrow and I’m sure we’ll have lots and lots of fun and lots and lots of photographs of our fun focus!

Until tomorrow,

Rubin