Saturday, May 26, 2012

The Dog Diaries: Totally Gross

That stupid dog, whom I love....

I think that is how I might start every dog post from now on.  I wonder if "whom" is grammatically correct.  I'm sure one of the grammar nazis that I count among my friends will be glad to chime in about that.

Today the kids and I took the dog on his daily walk.  At one point, Chevy stopped in the middle of the road and laid down.  I first thought he might just be enjoying the warm concrete under his back, but then he started wiggling his back around.  "Does he have an itch?" I wondered.  Unfortunately for me, no, it wasn't an itch.  Chevy had found a large splat of fresh bird poop and was rolling around in it.  Totally gross.  It turned his collar white with green smears. 

I've seen him do this several times before with deer poop and Sydney said he's also done it with dog feces.  What is that all about?  It is totally gross.  Did I mention that yet?  Totally gross.  What innate sense in dogs tells them to rub the feces from other animals into their fur?  And why on their backs?  I guess I could understand if he wanted to smell it, but roll in it?  That's just...(wait for it)...totally gross. 

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The Dog Diaries: Smart Dog, Groggy Mom

Chevy, at about 17 months old, is about as smart as I was when I was 15 years old.  I say this because the dog has figured out something that I figured out when I was 15.  That is, mom is not coherant at 6:30 in the morning and will likely allow anything that doesn't require her to get out of bed. 

Chevy knows that he cannot sleep with us on the bed.  He is allowed to take a snooze on our bed during the day, but when nighttime comes and Scott and I crawl in...he has to get off!  Lately, he has been crawling back on the bed about 6ish in the am.  As long as he stays at the bottom of the bed, I am okay with that.  But he doesn't stay.  He slowly inches up to be with us.  Yesterday he came on to the bottom of the bed and then moved up so he could lay his head on my body.  By the time 7 am rolled around, he was fully stretched out next to me with his head on my pillow.  Yes, his head was on my pillow next to mine and somehow my arm was around under his neck.  I was snuggled up to the dog like he was a person.  Sigh.

I'm sure it was such a funny sight that I thought about re-creating it for a picture, but that would only confirm for the dog that he belongs there.  That's probably not a good idea.  Chevy already has illusions of grandeur that we are going to have to train out of him.  His master plan is probably to take over my spot on the bed and make me sleep on the floor.  That will never happen (although I've said a lot of things would NEVER happen that he's managed to fanagle)!

Saturday, May 5, 2012

The Dog Diaries: again, dog????

The Dog Diaries: 

Its been months since I posted about Chevy.  I continue to love that stupid dog (yes, again with the "stupid" word) and he continues to respond by chewing up my house.  Mostly Cade gets the worst of this relationship. There is a larger porportion of Cade's things able to be chewed that are laying on the floor...legos, cars, truck, stuffed animals... than anyone elses.  I've been fairly accepting of this problem.  After all, it isn't my stuff that is getting chewed to bits. 

Except today, when he chewed up my favorite flats.  That ticked me off.  Admittedly, I've had these flats for years.  I loved them when I bought them.  I even blogged about them when I bought them.  Just this side of Crazy blog "Gotta go with the mood that strikes ya"  It was Friday, August 14th 2009.  Now I can put an end date to my tombstone of my shoes 9/2009 to 5/2012.  Sigh. 

Taking care of Chevy has gotten easier.  There are many possible reasons for this:
  1. a couple of weeks ago I had three dogs (I was pet sitting for my sister) and now one dog seems pretty easy in comparison
  2. I've really lowered my expectations
  3. I've finally bought most of the gear that I needed and so now I have enough options to care for my pooch
  4. He snuggles with me on the sofa most evenings, which makes up for a multitude of sins during the day
  5. I've stopped feeling guilty if I need to leave him in his crate for 4 hours.  I still feel guilty about more than that.
I still really need a fence in the backyard.  It will be really nice if I can send him out to play occasionally, especially when other people come over.  We are still not sure about a traditional fence or an invisible fence.  We've ruled out the other wireless fence that we were hoping for...apparently those don't work on sloped property. 

Well, I should probably go downstairs and clean up the chewed bits of my shoes all over the carpet.  I bought a new vacuum cleaner attachment to pick up all the dog hair on my upholstery.  Maybe I'll try that out.  Oh yeah...that's one more thing you can put on the "Chevy's an expensive dog" tab!