Life with Dogs

Honey made the trip home fine, she chose to lay down in the backseat instead of her usual looking out the window position. It took us a few minutes to decide how to get out of the car. She did NOT want me to pick her up. So I cleared the way and let her choose when to get out. She was extremely happy to see her house.

I've made the kitchen into her recovery area. She has a pallet and is able to see what's going on in Charles' room as well as the rest of the downstairs.

I knew she was all right when she insisted that that she needed to patrol the fence line this morning. I told her that Jack would take care of it until she healed up.

My parents have decided to bring home Little Boy. The name on his papers will Hardison, but I think we will call him Sonny. They pick him up Monday. My father has bought a playpen for him.


On a sad note, Sonny lost his Aunt Daisy last weekend. The autopsy revealed a ruptured pancreas. This girl was so sweet and really tried hard to swim after those sticks.

Honey made it through this part of her stay with Doc. Caroline says that she made it through the surgery fine and is starting to wake up.

Jack misses her. He spent time looking for her and now is sleeping on the futon. Teddy has looked in Honey's kennel several times expecting her to be there.

I pick her up tomorrow morning.

Honey is going in for her surgery. I talked with her about what would be happening. Surprisingly she hasn't asked for her breakfast. I told her we both need to be brave. I'm glad that I will be working today, hopefully I will be preoccupied.

You can't tell me Honey doesn't know something is in the air. She insists on sitting with me in the papason chair when we watch TV, no matter how hot it is or how crowded we are. She weighs in at about 55 pounds.

And of course I let her. She needs lots of extra kisses and hugs.

Honey is going to Doc's on Tuesday morning. It's time for her spaying, poor baby. She's so sensitive that I know it will just freak her out to taken away from me and put in the cage to await surgery. The good thing is that Tuesday is also when Caroline will be working at the clinic. She will be assisting in the surgery and will go check on her throughout the day. She promised me that when Honey gets the knockout shot, she would make sure that Honey would fall into a comfortable position. OK, that's enough Caroline, I don't want to know any more.

I'm sure glad Caroline enjoys what she is doing, same for Charles. It gives me a sense of accomplishment to know that my children are doing what they are good at and heading in the right direction.

Here's the patient, inside

And outside

We traveled to Fredricksburg yesterday to see the bulldog pups. My parents are trying to decided between two of the males. One is smaller than the other but seems more thoughtful, more aware. The other is going to be a big boy, with lots of wrinkles. I'll let you know which one they choose.

Dogs and more dogs
It's so hot outside, we don't do much more than sleep.

Tomorrow we travel to another town to pick out the next member of our dog family. We will help my parents choose between two male bulldog puppies. There will be many photos to view so be sure and check back.

Early morning rescues
Around 2:30 am I hear Teddy barking her "ATTENTION" bark which is short evenly spaced barks. I am a sound sleeper so there's no telling how long she had been doing this. It takes me another 15 minutes to decide if it's worth it to go downstairs and see what she is barking about. I hate getting up and stumbling downstairs.

I turn on the kitchen light and immediately see that Teddy is stuck on top of the butcher block. I guess that she decided to investigate last night's dinner preparations which was steak. It's a good thing that I washed up the pans before going to bed.

I wonder how long she was stuck up there?

Dogs with Waffles
I made waffles this morning with our new spiffy waffle maker. It's called the flip and fluff. Anyway it makes great Belgium waffles and doggy treats, the dough that leaks out on the side.

As soon as they hear the first egg crack, the dogs are there to beg for waffle doggy treats. Today we made them catch the treats in mid-air. Honey soon caught on and is now a pro. Jack is still trying to find out where the pieces go when they leave our hands. Teddy is just frustrated because she can't jump that high to get them before Honey. Also it's a bit beneath her to be performing for food. She wants to be served and preferably on a silver platter.

Ok, so it's a easy going, free wheeling Sunday. Some of us are watching The Fifth Element for the nth time, some of us are working on our computers and some of us are doing both. Honey is sleeping on one side of the futon, Teddy in her wicker chair. Wait a minute...WHERE"S JACK? We couldn't remember the last time we had seen him. There's a mad dash around the yard, looking for holes. Flashlights have come out to see if he's hiding under the bed. We call and call and he's NOWHERE!

Suddenly the older sibling remembers that he shut the bathroom door on Jack as he had passed that way. Jack had spent the last few hours in the "powder room". He was extremely glad to be released. He had a "poor little me" look on his face and he made a wide detour around the bathroom the next time he passed that way.

Now why didn't he bark or something when we were frantically looking for him? I'll have to have a talk with him about that.

Teddy really gets to me sometimes.
Being a Lhasa Apso, she's very vocal seeing as less than 70 years ago her ancestors were guarding the temple walls in Tibet. The lhasas alerted the mastiffs to intruders. So this latest vocalization happened under the table where I was eating dinner. She and Honey got under there and Teddy kept growling, barking, "talking" and provoking Honey all while I was trying to eat. I had to be louder than her. Honey wedged herself as far back under the table as she could go. Teddy pranced into the kitchen to see if she could climb the wood shelves to get onto the butcher block to steal some food. I heard her nails on the shelves and yelled again for her to leave things alone. She came back in here, jumped into the wicker chair to stare at me while I finished my meal.
Just another meal with dogs.

I'm playing with putting photos on the page.

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Here are some photos.

I'm so happy but not as happy as Honey. She's racing around the backyard again. Her leg is much better. She runs with the joy of life, a grin on her face, taking those corners and putting on the gas in the straight-aways.

Let me take some time to describe the dogs in my life. Honey and Jack are a year old. They are siblings. Their mama was a bulldog. Their daddy was a fence-jumper. No one knows what he looks like. Jack is typical red and white with a red saddle. Honey is red and white spotted, there's a big red spot around her left eye. Teddy is a Lhasa Apso. She's about 7 years. She is one feisty broad.

Now I'm staying with Desiree, a 10 year old rottweiller. She lost one of her back legs to cancer just recently. She's looking good but is understandably less active than she used to be. Desiree has digital cable and a large inground pool. We are having fun.
I am starting miss my own Honey, Jack and Teddy.

I went over to spend time with Maggie, my nephew's black lab. My nephew is out of town for the holidays. She's being taken care of at her home. She can get freaked out by the fireworks. I must say there were plenty of them going off all around her house. She lives in a subdivision placed on top of a hayfield. The idea being to get as many houses into that space as possible. The streets are incredibly small and the lots are too. So with the lights of the nearby city reflecting off the rain clouds and the gunsmoke floating along the housetops and the sounds of fireworks echoing off the houses, it seemed like we were in downtown Baghdad. However I was torn from the show going on outside to the show going on inside with the wall size tv and digital cable with 500 channels with surround sound. Maggie has an excellent media set-up. We watched About Schmitt. Maggie and I thought it was a nice little indie film. All the media hype was because of Jack Nicholson. We have definitely seen him in meatier roles.

Now Teddy is doing her backward breathing or asthma thing. She won't eat her breakfast. What a holiday!

I can't wait for this evening when the town's fireworks display starts. We live a mile from ground zero. I'm wondering what will happen when they start hearing the booms. Jack went crazy the other night when someone set off a string of firecrackers.

Honey's back leg is hurting her badly. It looks a bit swollen. All she wants to do is lay by me. We may have to go see Doc about it. Poor baby.

Jack and Honey have a game they like to play with each other. It's keep away with a rubber bone. One gets it and then tries to keep away from the other. Sometimes they both get it and run in tantem around the yard. The one that doesnt' have it can get frustrated and grabs for the other's back leg. I try and discourage this but when they are going at break neck speed around the yard it hard sometimes to do that. Anyway, Jack took a lunge at Honey's back leg and she pivoted around hard. The leg she pivoted around on is badly hurt. Could be a pulled muscle or more, I'm not sure yet. Wouldn 't you know that this would happen on a holiday.

Both Honey and Jack are thumb suckers. They like to mouth their dewclaws while going to sleep. I fear that they may bite the dew claw off but that never happens. It does make for a cute picture.

Here's the reason Teddy got trimmed. She and Honey like to chase each other in from the backyard. Well earlier today, Honey made it into the house, Teddy ran head on into the door jam.

Teddy got trimmed today. It's strange how her body odor is naturally perfumed. She smells good. Trimming just makes it stronger. Not only does she smell good to humans, her smell seems to be exciting to those of her species too. Jack and Honey follow her around constantly, taking it all in.

We have new next door neighbors. Jack, Honey and Teddy have yet to get used to their new noises and smells. This afternoon when we went out for a romp, Jack heard their gate close with a bang. He and Teddy started barking. Honey, who had not heard the bang had to make a guess as to what they were barking at. She guessed birds, she had seen birds over in the trees in that part of the yard before. So she runs over and starts barking at the birds, however with a bit of bewilderment because there were none.

Jack and I went for a walk this morning. It was early and not yet 90 degrees. At a certain point Jack started whining, then he started growling. It dawned on me that he had never been past this point on a walk before. I assured him that it was ok, that I knew where I was going and we weren't lost. He was surely glad to see his yard again. Maybe tomorrow will be easier for him.

Honey came sneaking into the study. I wonder why, just a minute ago she was wrestling with Jack on the futon. I look around the corner just in time to see Jack slowly pull some stuffing out of the quilt covering the futon. Honey has been punished enough for doing this to know it's bad. Of course she follows me back into the living room to watch Jack get screamed at and put in the kennel.