Fur Kids
Some Day I’m Gonna Bust Outta Here
Every night we try to take the dogs on a walk, usually after dinner. It’s good for all of us, but mostly I insist on this daily exercise because the dogs sleep more soundly throughout the entire night and are less likely to wander around the house looking for something to do. Or at least that’s how I see it.
This is Sophie’s spot on the deck where she watches the world go by after our nightly walk. The animal psychic who was at the Steps For Pets charity event a few weekends ago told me that Sophie loves to sit like this and watch everything happening around her. I thought she always looked a bit sad staring out through the deck fencing, but the psychic said Sophie is an inside dog. Loves being inside. And she likes to look out at the rest of the world as if it was her TV.
OK. I feel so much better.
And in my own defense, let me declare that I am not a crazy dog lady because I spoke to a pet psychic….she happened to be there……and it was free………and it was raining so there weren’t a lot of pet owners for her to talk to…..so really I was just being nice giving her something to do.
Yeah, that’s it.
It’s Been A Year
Tough to believe it’s been a full year since Old School looked at me and said, “We can’t just leave her there.”
He was referring to our beautiful gray and white cat, Mia, who in October of 2008, was still living on the mean streets of Carthage where my father owns a storage garage. There had been a litter of kittens born in March of ‘08 in the parking lot of the garage, and by October, only Mia was left. She wasn’t named Mia yet, she was just the kitty I kept feeding once it was apparent she was on her own.
And then it got cold.
Fast forward one year and I think she’ doing just fine:
Sorry for the grainy photo — I grabbed my phone and took this picture without much available light. If I had gone to the wall to turn on the overhead light the photo would have been much better but Mia would have moved.
You gotta love a cat who feels comfortable enough to sleep in a dog bed even though the three dogs who normally sleep there are often looking at her and wondering when she’ll MOVE so they can have their bed back. Obviously, she has fit in nicely because the dogs let her sleep there and don’t mess with her.
Speaking of cute kitties, Leslie was out of town last week and I had the pleasure of feeding her two furry, little guys, Monty and Panther.
Panther has the longest tail I’ve ever seen on a cat:
And they’re messy eaters…just like their mother (Leslie) 
That’s Panther at the top of the photo, and you can’t really tell that his tail is ridiculously long. I think this shows it better:
Too bad this isn’t “kitty-vision” so you could reach out and touch his fur. It’s like cotton balls… incredibly soft.
Headrest
Nomar was barely six weeks old when my friend, Dee, found him in an unoccupied barn with his two puppies sisters — in January of ‘03 — during the coldest temperatures I can remember. Someone had abandoned the three puppies with an open bag of dog food. No water, no heat, no one around, just left them there.
I know, can you believe some people?
The vet agreed that he was very young and should still be with his mother. Nomar let us know as well. The first time we introduced him to Sophie, our yellow lab, he tried to nurse. It was sad and hilarious all at the same time. Sophie had NO idea what he was trying to do and Nomar couldn’t understand why he wasn’t getting what he was looking for. They were both confused. We still get a chuckle out of it.
So, Sophie has always been a mother figure to Nomar and I wasn’t surprised to see him rest his head on her back as we piled in the van to go to the dog park.
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Swoosh
Sophie had an exciting weekend — she signed an exclusive contract with Nike.
I like how the color of the visor matches the chew toy.
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Just Hanging Out
Does is get any better than this for a dog?
When I go on short shopping trips or need to run a quick errand in the neighborhood I usually take the dogs with me. It’s called a “bye-bye car ride.” Thank you to my friend Brooke who came up with that name for her dog’s frequent car trips. Yes, I KNOW it sounds goofy, but this is what happens when people talk to their dogs like they are children.
Anywho, Sophie has to hang her head out the window. For her, this is pure joy.
I’ve read many times that you are not supposed to let your dog ride like this because debris and bugs can fly into their face or eyes, so if I’m going over 30 mph, I close the window. She then typically slimes the glass with all the happy drool hanging from her half Bloodhound, half Labrador face.
You Dirty Dog
After three days of hard rain, it finally cleared up here in the midwest and I had the brilliant idea to take the two big dogs to the dog park since they have been cooped up for a few days. Let’s go run!
Oh, and stay out of the mud!
This is Diesel, whom we just met today. He was having a fabulous time chasing a huge rope toy that his owner kept throwing again and again and again. He must have gotten overheated because he decided to do this:
Ugh….what a mess. How was this dog’s owner going to get him home in a car?? Turns out Diesel rode in a truck and he would be riding home in the back of the pickup after getting hosed down on his way out of the dog park.
I thought it was hilarious. And adorable. I ran right over to take a picture. As soon as I took this photo I said the magic words that caused my morning to get all screwed up, “My dogs haven’t done that yet and I don’t think they will.”
Uh huh.
Nomar, Sophie and I took one more lap around the dog park and were headed toward the exit when Nomar did this:
We just had him shaved again three days ago. That would be $85 worth of dog grooming cooling off in that mud bath.
“Hey, Sophie! Come on in! This feels great!”
“NOOOoooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!”
It took me two hours to bathe them both, clean the inside of my van, take a shower and throw the dirty clothes and towels in the laundry.
Wouldn’t it be easier to just have kids?
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New Kitten!
Leslie has a new addition to her family.
While Leslie was out of town on business last week I had the pleasure of caring for her two feline friends, Montie and his new little kitty brother, Panther. As this is a new family member for Leslie, you would think she would be writing this blog post and putting up her own photo of this little guy, but Leslie can’t find her camera (one of the many reasons we all love her…things just disappear).
I’m sure she’ll find the camera sometime in the next year, but I happened to have my IPhone with me last week while feeding these guys. After taking about fifteen photos of the kitten, I finally got one that wasn’t a complete blur.
He’s only three pounds. Fragile looking. He has the longest legs and tail I’ve ever seen on a cat. A total purr-monster.
By the way, Leslie adopted Panther from a rescue after her beloved fifteen year-old cat, DeeDee, went to a better place. Panther is one of the lucky ones — he will have a great life.
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What am I supposed to do with this?
Somehow I’ve made a few mistakes with my dogs.
You know, how every well-intentioned parent screws up their kids, no matter how hard they try. For one, my dogs aren’t very interested in playing “fetch.” Throw a tennis ball or a stick and you’d think they would take off after it, pick it up with their slobbery mouths and drop it back at your feet. My dogs — not so much. They’d rather hang around and eat grass. Or worse.
Secondly, the dogs don’t know what to do with a swimming pool. Petsmart has these cheap, little pools for less than $9 so I thought I’d get one so the dogs could cool off when the midwestern heat/humidity gets unbearable. I’d seen Sophie and Nomar lounge around in similar pools at a doggie daycare they used to go to, so I thought this would be like Christmas. Yeah! A pool!
It didn’t happen like that. Nomar was the first to “test the waters.” He barely stuck his paw in before he decided this was the world’s largest bowl of water. And that’s what this pool has remained. A big waterbowl. No dog has gotten in it to cool off or play. But all of them drink out of it.
I’m so proud.
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Dog park fun
Old School and I finally got it together to take the dogs to a local dog park this weekend. We’d never taken them before because we have a nature preserve near our home where we could let them off leash. But, we haven’t been there in awhile — the grass gets so tall you can’t see others dogs and their owners coming down the trail and it’s gotten really popular.
This weekend was sunny and hot so we only stayed at the dog park for about 20 minutes, but we certainly called it a success, as you can see by these faces:
Lots of happy panting.
New toy
Mia attacked the plastic cover on this Aquafina case over and over and over, all morning. Like it was the enemy. After a couple of hours she finally jumped in the middle of it and made herself comfy.