Puppy Playtime

There are a lot of things I've wanted to blog about. Some of them have happened so long ago that I doubt they'll ever make it on here - including some trips from almost a year ago. Sheesh.

Anyway, today my friend's one year old (or almost one year old) goldendoodle (same breed as my Max) came over and they played. For five hours. I think they were both pretty exhausted by the time Atlas went home. Belle was exhausted too, but only because she wore herself out barking at Atlas. She barked so much that I went hoarse from yelling at her. I mean - YELLING. I mean - I can't remember the last time I have yelled like this. Maybe at a BYU football game. Maybe. (She did eventually stop the incessant barking and brought it down to an occasional bark - just so I'd know she was still unhappy about the situation. Rotten little thing.)

Anyway, I decided to grab my nice camera for the first time since Christmas and take some better-than-iPhone pictures. Since they were moving so fast, my iPhone pictures would come out fuzzy a lot.

Belle pouted and tried to pretend Atlas wasn't there.

Cute dogs! Fun day.

Halloween - Dog Parade

2nd year in a row, I got to the dog parade in Park City.

Good times -

a granny...? not really sure, but it was so comfortable sitting there, and was really cute.

chia pet.

wonder woman.

over a year ago a friend sent me a picture of a labradoodle lion cut and told me i was obligated to give max one.

i may have to try it next year.

maybe i'll give belle one too.

mine.

loved this owl.

and this raven/crow mix.

after all the social anxiety caused by being around a ton of strange dogs, belle was exhausted.

after all the fun of meeting a million new friends, max was exhausted.

i came home and made butternut squash fries. so good!

and watched hocus pocus in honor of my youngest brother. (:

Bonus -

i was idina/elphaba for work, and i left the hat on my zombie mask when i had to leave early.

Side Note - I would have been green - using eyeshadow - but was reminded last week that I had a news interview to do on Halloween in the middle of the day. Nope, wasn't going to be green for that. I hate dressing up, and I hate being on TV; there was no way I was going to do both of them at the same time.

Meet Shadow

I'm housesitting for my boss for a few days. Well, almost a week. 

Yesterday was the first day. 

When I stopped by after work, the little guy pictured above kept barking at me. I went outside to see the two pugs that live downstairs (they belong to her son and his wife - who are also out of town), he followed and kept barking at me. Joined by one Lia. 

I sat down to pet Rosie ('sweet and unassuming' is how she was described) hoping that when I did, the other two would realize I'm a nice person. As soon as I did, the other two rushed over to get pet too. I sat with them for a while on the steps and then on the grass letting them get used to me. 

they shed - a ton -- especially Lia

As soon as I went back inside Shadow started barking again. I gave him a treat and he put it in his mouth and kept barking around the treat.

Apparently he wasn't going to let me buy his friendship. 

I went home, then came back later in the evening. 

And he barked some more. 

I decided to sleep on the couch (their bed was offered - with the warning that he would most likely sleep on it with me) so they wouldn't have to worry about changing sheets or anything. 

Turned off the lights. 

And he barked. 

And barked. 

And barked. 

For more than an hour. 

I already wasn't feeling well - my throat hurt which normally wouldn't concern me but strep had hit three of my co-workers (sharing is caring!) and I had a headache and his barking wasn't helping anything. 

I finally decided to move up to the bed and see if that would get him quiet for some reason. 

As soon as I got up, he started acting like he wanted to take me somewhere.

Up the stairs and into the master bedroom we went. 

As soon as I got on the bed he jumped up the other side, curled up right next to me, and went to sleep. 

Seriously?

That's all he wanted?

He seemed to progress rather quickly from yelling at me to get out of his house to curling up next to me in bed. 

Crazy cute pup. 

Or, as my friend said when I sent her that first picture - freakishly adorable. 

I do love the pretty constant grunting, snorting, and snoring that comes from these dogs. 

So cute!

Oh, and tonight he very firmly told me when it was time to go up to bed. I was watching 'Dave' on TV but Shadow wasn't appreciating it and thought it was bedtime. 

Turns out he was right. (:

~published with blogger for iPhone ~

Jax

Tomorrow I'll be driving to Grand Junction to meet my sister who will be driving there from Denver. When we leave Grand Junction this guy will be in my sister's van.

 

We've only had him here since Friday evening but that's been long enough for me to be sad that he's leaving. He's such a sweet, friendly, happy, nice, sweet... (you get the idea) dog. And I think he'll be a great dog for their family. I'm trying to convince her that it'll be worth bringing him with them whenever they come to visit Utah. He and Max would just pick up from where they left off - lots of playing. (:

Overheard*

When I was holding Belle (she's one of these) -

Jimmy: 'Iris, Eden doesn't have to carry Max around anymore because he's trained now.'

(did I mention that Max is 60+ lbs?)


*inspired by my sister's 'overheard' posts (which are some of my favorite)

I Really Like These Two

Worst Night EVER*

*includes all nights that don't include a human life form separate from your own who has bodily fluids exploding out one end or the other... (I almost titled this 'My Worst Night EVER' but doing that wouldn't have allowed me to create that disclaimer. Which I really wanted to do.)

Last night I met up with some out-of-town friends who I haven't seen in a few years. That wasn't the 'worst night EVER' part of the night. That was actually a really, really nice visit and it was great to see them. I stayed visiting with them until midnight (much later than I had planned, but it was a really enjoyable visit!), and then made the 45-minute trek home. The drive wasn't the 'worst night EVER' part either. The roads were pretty empty and it was smooth sailing all the way home.

I got home a little before one o'clock. The three animals currently living in my home all found me within minutes of my return.

It was quick work getting myself ready for bed.

It was not quite-as-quick work getting the animals ready for bed. I got them outside, walked out onto the grass with one of them, encouraging him to go to the bathroom so he wouldn't wake me up in an hour (which, as it turned out, wouldn't have been an issue - that's a teaser...).

I came up with a genius (literally, in my opinion) idea... And it worked.

Success, and I was ready for bed.

I got in to bed, opened up the window just a little bit (I love fresh, cold air while I'm sleeping) and curled up ready to crash.

My back started itching.

A lot.

For the next hour I'd settle in, and then have an itching fit where I'd be rubbing my back on the bed trying to scratch it.

Repeat.

Multiple times.

During that hour, the visiting cat started meowing at my door. She knew I was inside my room and she wouldn't go away. I ignored her for a while but didn't want her to wake anyone else up so I let her in.

I curled up again and she started circling me on the bed. Purring.

I wasn't sure if this was some cat ritual that meant she was planning on eating me or something, but at that moment I didn't really care. I was too itchy to care.

After the hour of resting, twitching, and rubbing my back on my bed I got up and filled up the bathtub with really warm water. I climbed in and fell asleep.

For about an hour and a half.

It wasn't comfortable sleep, but it was sleep. I woke up because the water had gotten cold. I turned on the water as hot as it would go just to warm up, climbed out, and got ready for bed again - slathering lotion all over so I wouldn't stay dried out from the water I had just soaked in.

I climbed in to bed.

And couldn't fall asleep.

I was itchy again.

I remembered this back-scratcher that my mom had gotten all of us for Christmas last year or the year before. I kept it by my bed but hadn't used it a ton.

Now I will say -

Best. Invention. Ever.

That thing saved my life.

And my sanity.

I scratched that thing up and down my back for a long time. I rolled onto my stomach and started dozing with the scratcher sticking out of the top of my shirt. I wanted it close by in case I had another itching emergency.

At one point I rolled onto my side and the top of the scratcher was resting against my head.

I still wasn't ready to release it to as far away as the floor.

I finally moved it but kept it rightbymybed. Just in case.

Around this time I started feeling hungry. I had gone out to dinner but hadn't eaten a lot because my stomach was still a bit unsettled. And I hadn't planned on being awake for this many hours after dinner.

I started feeling really hungry.

I remembered that a friend had given me some Reese's Christmas trees.

I remembered those Reese's Christmas trees were in my shoulder bag... which was rightbymybed.

I reached over, shuffled things around until I found one, opened it up and started eating it.

While still lying down.

That was the lowest point of the night.


Around 4ish, I ended up finally being able to fall asleep.

I woke up at 8.

I was supposed to be at work by 7.

Max is Weird

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Two Hours Later...

At 9:30 this morning - while at work - I see my phone light up with a phone call. I don't know the number, so I let it ring. Two minutes later it lights up again with the same number. Again, I didn't answer it, then I saw that I had two voice messages.

My dogs were out walking around the trail.

Fifteen minutes later I was out the door of my building and on my way to the car to drive the half hour back home. -- With my supervisor's blessing.

This was after I had called my mom who works at home to see if she happened to have any breaks in her morning appointments. -- No answer. Twice.

This was after I had called my neighbor to see if she, by any chance, was home and had time to drive around looking for my dogs. -- She answered (my phone call woke her up), but she had to be out the door in an hour. I told her not to worry about it.

This was after I had called my dad, who also works half an hour away from home but in the opposite direction, to see if he had any ideas on what else to do. -- No answer.

My neighbor sends a text message right as I'm leaving and I call her back. She says she can go look for them after she's gotten ready, but that she'd have to leave by 11 even if she hadn't found the dogs. I appreciated the offer, but told her I was on my way home to look for them.

I called the lady who had left the two messages earlier, asked if she had seen them again (she hadn't) and asked if she would call me again if she did.

My dad called, suggested I call my grandpa who lives next door and let him know in case the dogs decided to come wondering back home. I did.

The lady called when I was two minutes away from the trailhead by the park and said that she had just seen them and she tried to get them to stay with her but they were headed in the opposite direction and wouldn't come. They were headed home.

I looped around to where the trail breaks to cross a street, parked my car, and whistled for them. Nothing.

I drove home, grabbed their leashes, and started walking toward the trailhead where I knew they were last seen. I walk to that same break in the trail where it crosses the road. Nothing. Along the way I ask people if they've seen two rogue dogs. I get a few affirmatives, 'Yeah. A big white dog, and another one in a coat?' 'Yep.' They tell me when and where they saw them (unfortunately nothing more recent than 15 minutes) and I feel good about the direction I'm heading. At the break in the trail I see a lady on the street. I ask her the question, she gives me the same answer. But points in the opposite direction saying she saw them down there about 15 minutes prior.

During this information gathering stage, I hear from a couple of people that there's also a coyote out somewhere along the trail. Dingo kind of looks like a coyote, but I think the coat domesticates him a little bit. I also run into a lady who's looking for her mom's cocker spaniel. I get her number so I can call her if I see her dog. I never did.

By this point I'm wondering how the devil can the dogs be on one side of the trail 15 minutes earlier, and then 5 minutes later I ask someone else who saw them on the other side of the trail 15 minutes earlier.

I start to feel like I'm playing a real live version of 'Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.'

I don't like it.

When I'm almost back to my house I call my grandpa again who announces, 'They're here. They walked up to me outside about 3 minutes ago.'

Relieved, tired, frustrated, and with the beginnings of a headache, I go talk to my grandpa who said that after he got my call he went outside and saw that his gate had been pushed open by two rotten dogs (my words, not his). He fixed the gate then got in his car and drove around looking for them. After getting home he was standing outside for a minute and they came running up the street toward him. - Dingo sans coat.

While I do appreciate that they stay together (it was hard enough - and I was unsuccessful - at finding one moving target, it'd be that much harder to find two), I hate that they get out and take themselves on a walk. I'm also really, really grateful for people who call to let me know that the dogs are out. That's why I got the ID tags. And I try to do the same when I see a dog running around. Good karma and all that.


 And that's my story.

...I'm back at work.

With a headache.

Rotten dogs.

They're Not Bad Dogs, But They Do Bad Things...

On Monday I listened to a message on my phone from this guy who said he found my dogs and had them in his car and would like to bring them to me.

I was in Provo.

I called him back, left a message, and then called my mom at home.

She had the dogs back because he had called the home number too.

I'm so glad they both have ID tags on them. (I got Max one in December.)

They had dug a hole under the fence, gone a mile down to the park, wandered around the roundabout close by the park, then Max jumped out in front of this guy's car. The guy almost hit him (but didn't), followed them to the park, looked around for a frantic owner who lost two dogs, didn't see a frantic owner, called the numbers on the dog's tags and got them into his car.

Some people I've told the story to have been surprised that they got into his car.

I'm not.

They're nice dogs, and they like people.

While I'm not sure Dingo would have gone easily into his car had he been alone, I'm guessing that Max didn't hesitate (he's a genius. and loves everyone so I don't think he understands that everyone might not love him) and then Dingo followed.

It could have been a lot worse than that.

I'm so glad it wasn't.

Here's the inspiration for my title -
(I really wish they showed the lecture she gave them right before this)

Dog Park

Saturday I took Dingo and Max to the dog park. I had looked it up last year sometime (before we even got Max) and had been meaning to go for a while. I decided I had to take them soon, because Max has been destroying things in the backyard (digging holes to get under the fence - two of them, digging random holes in the grass, etc). I'm guessing that because I haven't taken them on any good walks (or any walks period) for quite a while, he was looking to release energy / get stimulation / something else that dogs are thinking / etc.

I really started thinking the dog park would be a good idea a few weeks ago when, just having come home from a walk, I saw two of my neighbors outside with their two dogs each. They called me over to join them, and for the next 20 minutes or so, the six dogs all played together. Max was the biggest by far (with Dingo being the second biggest) but Max loved it. He ran around the yard in circles while another dog chased him. Dingo kind of wandered around sniffing here and there, and two of the other dogs followed behind him.

So, Saturday, I went because I had wanted to get them out on a walk for a while, but after running 13.1 miles I didn't necessarily feel like taking them on a long walk - which is what they needed. I figured it was a perfect day to go to the dog park. The weather was a little cool, but not terrible. I got there, and there were about 7 other dogs running around. As soon as I pulled up to park, Max started whimpering and whining to get out of the car and go play. Then, when we were walking to the gate, he kept pulling on the leash, racing to get in there.

And he loved it.

There were a couple of other big dogs that he ran around with, and some smaller ones too. Dingo just kind of wandered around, interacting with a few other dogs here and there.

Yesterday, I took them again. Sunday is the time to go, because there were 20+ (maybe even 30+?) dogs there. Max loved it. Yesterday there was this little dachshund (Bentley) that he kept playing with. Max would do the start and stop thing with him where he'd be running around, pull up suddenly, and then dart in the other direction, sometimes jumping over Bentley. It was adorable. Bentley's owners loved Max because he didn't try to eat Bentley the way one of the three huskies did.

There was one great dane when we got there, and two more showed up while we were there. The first one was so tall. I couldn't believe how long his legs were. And he was fascinated with Dingo. It was so funny. He kept following Dingo around while Dingo just wandered randomly. Then the second dane to show up followed him around too. I wish I had gotten pictures, because the first one was more than twice the size of the Dink. One bad things about the danes were their drooling. They drooled on Dingo so much that you could feel it on his head and back when petting him. (don't worry, I've given him a rub down with soap and water since then)

Good times.

I'll be taking them more often now that it's (finally!) warming up. But we've had false-alarm-warm-days before... I hope they last this time!

Without My Shadows

this picture has nothing to do with my post, but I googled 'shadow' and it came up in the images. i really like it.
'shadows of the past' by lubomir bukov
found here

This morning I took Max and Dingo in to get groomed again.

Last time I took them in (separate visits that time), everything went easily and smoothly. They both walked in with the groomers just fine. No worries.

This time they remembered.

Last time Dingo didn't even look back when they took him to the cage.

This time he didn't look back, but he started barking once he was in the cage.

Last time they told me, 'Max was an angel.'

This time as soon as he got past the counter he started pulling back on the leash, refusing to go (maybe Dingo's barks were warning him?).

Last time I walked away feeling only a little bad.

This time I felt really bad (for the dogs and the groomers), hoping that as soon as I left they'd calm down. I figured that the faster I was gone, the faster they'd get over it. So I high-tailed it out of there as soon as I could (like a bandaid, one motion, right off!*).

I'm sure they'll be fine. If I didn't think so, I wouldn't have left them there.

While I was apologizing for their behavior, one of the groomers reminded (and reassured me), 'If we didn't like this job, we wouldn't be doing it.'

ps - happy st. pat's day! someday, sometime, someyear, i'm going to make it to Chicago for st. patrick's day. and i'll see this. and it will be awesome.

*quote from possibly one of the funniest shows ever to be on television

You Know You Have a Good Friend When...

... you can send a text completely out of the blue that says, 'I just threw up in my mouth.' - and you get a response that shows she knows exactly what you were talking about. (:

in other news - Max grabbed food off the table tonight which caused me to chase him toward the door, grab his collar, wallop him on the nose, then throw him out the door. All of these exertions left me with a wounded left shoulder. Seriously, it's been about an hour and my shoulder is killing me.

Bad dog.

Beautiful Day!

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures. But I did go on an hour-long walk with my pups to and around the park. It's almost a crime to be inside on a day like this.

Oh, and I'm working on teaching Max to speak. Perhaps there will be a video of that in the near future...

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Photo Catch-Up

some random pictures:

the first (and only) time the dogs have shared a bed
it happened in the middle of the night after Dingo woke me up to go out
they both misbehaved (somehow) and after I got mad at both of them,
they decided they needed comfort against their common enemy

a triple-cab truck
never seen one of those before.

my nephew at my 2nd annual 'we don't hate valentine's day party'

three of the beautifully decorated cookies by haley - a culinary genius & artist

Meet Max

Isn't he cute? He's been a member of our household for the last week. Other than a couple of scuffles with Dingo (one of which drew blood), things have been going well. He's a sweetheart.

Stats:
age - 2
breed - golden retriever & poodle
feet - huge (as is his cute head)
active - very, loves playing fetch, we're hoping to convert from balls to frisbees

Because it Snowed Yesterday...

... I listened to Christmas music this morning! And I sang Christmas songs yesterday while on a walk with the pups (they don't mind me singing - another reason why they are excellent walking companions!).

For your listening pleasure -

if you skip ahead to about 2 min. into it you'll skip all of their talking

don't worry, I'll post it again when it's closer to Christmas

ps - while listening to the music in the car today, I realized that I had never put together a great Christmas play list. that's one project I'll be working on. I love Christmas music!

I Swear They Somehow Know What I'm Doing

I think the pups get kind of offended every time they see me using a lint-roller. They kind of look at me with this, "i can't believe you're doing that... i thought you loved me..." expression.

Maybe it's just guilt.

But I also feel that way after I've given them a good petting session then go to the sink and wash my hands. They follow me to the sink (they follow me everywhere), and look at me like I just hurt their feelings.

Blast.

I have a really hard time sleeping when there's a moth in my bedroom. It's something about the possibility of their fluttery wings flapping on my face that kind of freaks me out.

I mention this because I just saw a moth flying around.

It's going to be a long night.

update: apparently there's a name for what i'm feeling.

Just Me and My Shadow

As soon as I came home for the Christmas break I got from work Dingo has been behind me almost 24/7. He'll follow me from one side of the house to the other. If he's not in the room with me, he's normally waiting for me in a room that he knows I have to walk past in order to get to any other part of the house. He's slept in my room every night. On the floor most nights but decided he wanted to climb up on the bed (which he hasn't done forever) twice. Once was last night after I had been away for four days (more on that later). Right now he's lying down next to my feet.

I'll admit - I like it. It's nice to have some"one" who finds me as soon as I walk in the door and wants to stay with me.

Here are a couple of pictures. It took a little while to get him to look up at me for the first one. I think he's pretty camera shy.


In this one he was looking up at me, but then before I could get the picture he put his head down and refused to look up at me again. (this was after hiding his face at my knees while I was crouched down trying to get a picture of him.

Cute, isn't he?