Fly Trap

Don't let the good looks fool you. This dog is full of mischief. This shot just caught him in innocence mode contemplating the warmth of his sunbeam on the deck.

Aside from some normal Seth harassment, today's victims included a box of tissues, the usual assortment of sticks and some socks. To Rory's apparent glee, the scat mat is out of commission. The biggest item today would not have been protected by the scat mat in any event and I have no idea how I'm going to replace it. A little more than a year ago we came across a terrific dog bed in the Petsmart up in Edmonton. Huge rectangular stuffed thing covered in some sort of breathable naugahyde (is there such a thing??). Seth loved it - cool in the summer, throw it out on the deck for comfie canine snoozing, put a blanket on it in the winter, wipe it down and disinfect whenever you need to. It has seen better days - the cover was beginning to tear a bit so we turned it over fresh side up. Today Rory ate the middle of it. Seriously, a big hole all the way through to the other side. It was a couple of months ago that I noticed the cracks in the cover and since then we have been looking for a replacement to no avail. Oh well, I had counted on a couple of years of puppyhood. No doubt this is just a sampling.


Here he is a couple of seconds after the first picture, fancying himself a bug catcher.

Eureka!

One day I'm hoping to be able to write about something besides dog pee. And poo. In the meantime, we do seem to be avoiding short circuiting the scat mat. We've moved it out of the hall entirely and now use it to block exit from just the kitchen. Smaller area leaves Rory not so inclined to pee. Hooray! Keep your fingers crossed. And your legs. ....Kathryn

Fun 'n Games

No pictures today. The only recent ones I have are from last weekend in Vancouver and Comox (no dogs with us anyway) and I’m not posting those yet because SOMEONE may just decide to hop her broken fence and come storming over to my place for telling stories about sunny spots and greenery when she spent that same weekend on the highway to hell in the snow. So, uh, yah, I’ll save those pictures for a different day.

Dog stories though – I have those in abundance. I moved the scat mat to the bottom of the two steps that lead out of the kitchen (this is to keep Rory from peeing on the step, see April 17th post). Not so easily swayed, Rory continues to pee in front of the scat mat. Said pee then travels underneath the scat mat via handy aqueducts (a.k.a grout lines). It’s a wonder he hasn’t electrocuted himself, though I suspect that a 9-volt battery won’t do much damage. Or maybe that’s what he is trying to do – short circuit the mat so he can gain access to the rest of the house. In any event, I ended up having to give the scat mat a shower in the bathtub the other night when I came home. Don’t get me wrong – Rory is as good as gold if somebody is home to hear the bell on the door ring – he’ll ring and ring till you let him out to do his business, but somehow holding his bladder for four hours in the absence of people is beyond him right now. Except at night, when he’ll go for at least eight hours without any trouble. He has also discovered that WHENEVER he rings the bells in the presence of a human he gets to go outside, even if he doesn’t have to pee. He now rings just to go out and play. He also has a new form of outdoor amusement to engage in once he has tired Seth out: he chases snowballs. Our back yard is all hill sloping down to the house. Rory whips up to the top of the hill, finds an area of virgin snow, sticks his head in and uses his muzzle to lift and toss some snow down the hill. In the right conditions, the snow bits become little snow balls and roll down the slope getting bigger as they go. Rory chases and eats them chomp chomp chomp, then goes back to the top of the hill to do it again. We watched him do this for a whole ten minutes the other day before I finally made him come inside. We don’t leave him unattended in the yard and my attention span is obviously not as long as his when it comes to snowballs. Seth is content to watch Rory and his outdoor antics from the comfort of his bed inside the French doors. It’s nice to see that Rory doesn’t rely quite as much on Seth’s presence as he did when he first came home with us. The Chewbacca sessions continue though. It’s mainly Seth, but I think Rory is adding his two cents now. The noises they make when they wrestle make me wonder if there is a Wookiee convention going on in my kitchen. A quick look at YouTube reveals that they are not alone among dogs (and even cats) in their chosen language.

Sticks and Stones

Nice weather = return to stick hunting. Though we have managed to minimize the sticks being brought into the house, the deck is littered with good-sized chunks. Nice clean logs, bark chewed right off and spit out. Maybe Rory is planning on building a log doghouse? Norm refuses to move the woodpile. Makes no difference. Much to our chagrin, even during the inclement weather a couple of days ago Rory managed to make do with what he could find indoors. What he found was our golf clubs. Actually, he found Norm’s golf clubs and luckily we found Rory before he found mine. He pulled the cartbag over, pulled out the clubs and proceeded to strip off the brand new grips. Yes folks, for those of you thinking about getting a puppy, ask yourself if you have a good golf store nearby. You might also think about engaging a carpenter. Just in case your puppy decides it’s a fantastic idea to pee right on the tile/laminate step leading up from the kitchen. Pee leaks. Through cracks, grout and into the plywood underneath. It also drips down onto unsuspecting heads passing below into the laundry room in the basement. Oh, funny days. Good thing I’m a sucker for soulful, dark brown, kohl-lined eyes. (oh, and FYI, Norm’s eyes are blue.)

Storm Watcher

Poor Rory. He's had two days of gorgeous weather with the doors open, free to come and go. Free to bring a forest's worth of twigs and sticks and logs into the kitchen. My house smells like wet wood. The temperature is dropping this evening and rain is coming, so I closed the doors. The trail of playthings leading from the toybox to the door is just an indicator of boredom. NOTHING competes with chewing wood into itsy bitsy pieces. Except maybe chewing the charging cord for the laptop.

Saturday in the Park

The saying “If you don’t like the weather wait a couple of minutes” was an accurate sentiment last week. Thursday’s record dump of snow meant that Saturday’s 20C walk in the park was actually a walk in the muck. Fun anyway, if you don’t mind muddy dogs flinging their wares all over your clothes. Seth is really coming along, actually chasing Rory around and working up a pant. It has been years since he has done anything more than walk placidly along beside me. Rory is hilarious to watch because he wants nothing more than for Seth to give chase, which Seth does, for about 10 feet. Rory is now much more certain of his footing and is running circles around Seth, ducking and faking. A few good pictures and a lot of potentially good pictures except for the fact they include Seth’s butt. I don’t know what it is about Seth and cameras, but he is forever putting his ass in the picture.



Okay, these ears always get me laughing!


Again with the 'mini-me' activity. It's eerie.


Handsome boys.


Gettin' it together for a treat.


Hey! Hey! Any for me???