Bigger and Better

After all my hard work and creative redesign and modification of my crate structure, E&A have given me an upgrade! It seems that they didn't like the modified style of disconnected welds and bent bars. I mean it was an Incredible Hulk type of statement, even if all that would fit through was my nose! But when I spread them enough that I stretched the latch housing and the latch fell out... Well, their confidence on my containment plummeted. I just miss them so much when they're gone!

Since I'm on the small side for a GSD, it was a bit of a debate if I should get a bigger size in addition to a stronger mesh grid. E really likes how my ears poke up through the top of the crate when I sit in there. But E and A debated about what the crate makers meant by ability to comfortably turn around. After some consideration, they went for the bigger size too! Yippee - it's like being in the penthouse suite!

So after some opportunites to test it out, those vertical barsa don't seem to bend. But my tongue still fits through! I don't want to divulge all my secrets, but I have a little something that I do during the day that leaves a bit of a slobber puddle beneath the latches. E came home early today - didn't tell me that he wasn't going to work. And when he went to let me out, he found that the latches were a bit slimy and didn't lilke that much. Shame!

But my new crate is shiny and bigger and stronger. What dog could ask for more? I hope we can find a happy home for my old crate...maybe my old friends at VGSR could use it? We'll see.

Hide and Seek

We play a high paced version of hide and seek at our place. It seems the E and A do all the hiding and I do all the seeking! But I enjoy it that way. E likes to exploit the fact that I don't see very well in the dark if nothing is moving. Sometimes he'll run upstairs and stand in the corner of a dark room while I run around all over trying to find him. Sometimes he hides behind doors or in the bathtub. I think the bathtub is one of us favorite hiding places. Last Saturday, he got a bit of a surprise in his favorite spot and wasn't able to wait for me to find him. He got a wet butt! Turns out that A had been hand washing some sweaters earlier in the day and there were still some puddles. HA HA!!

The Painting Saga

E&A have gradually been working on painting the house. It has been a slow and long process. The latest region of focus is the stairwell to the upstairs. A took a day off work and taped it all, then Saturday was spent painting. There are square grid details below the chair-rail that were quite the challenge to tape up.

Here is one in-process shot during the taping -

And once again, it seems that I got caught sleeping on the job again. And I'm sporting several of the leftover taping cast-offs while I dream -

And here's an attempt to capture the "after" state. (Sorry the flash washes out the ugly color that we are trying to get rid of, but you get the picture from the contrast shown at the bottom of the stairs)

The baseboards and wall color are next on the to-do list... I wonder when we'll finally get around to that?

He's Got No Feet!!!

Once we finally got to one of the Relaxing Rowdy Rover classes we had some great fun! I don't get to see the other dogs all that often, but I still get to work on all my fun tricks. And occasionally I get to take a peek at the other dogs. Little by little, I get to see more of them. They say it's because I'm becoming more comfortable. (Fooled them! I'll still bark at them all when I get the chance!)

At my first RRR class I had the unfortunate experience of sitting on my water bowl. I didn't think much of it, but Colleen sure thought it was a hoot! She pulled out a little PVC pipe ladder and laid it on the floor and asked me to walk over it. I did that for a while and then she put some loose sticks down to make it tougher for me. Her conclusion - I've got no feet! Or at least I'm not aware of where I'm putting my feet or what is under them. So my homework was to walk all over or better yet avoid walking on various things. E&A put all sorts of brooms and rakes and other long handled things on the floor for me to walk around. They would send me on food hunts among all the clutter. I eventually got the hang of it. But once it came time for clean up, I was all tuckered out. I guess they had some fun while I was resting...

Itchy

Not one of my more photogenic moments...but this was a common pose prior to the Itch-be-gone

Up a little...now to the right...and down...go left...ahhh! That's the spot!

R

That Annoying Itch

When I joined E&A, they already knew what some signs of stress were that I would probably exhibit. One common behavior is scratching as a stress relief. Every now and then I would just sit down and scratch at my ear to sooth or relax myself after a stressful moment. But after my stay at the kennel over Christmas I found myself scratching more and more. E&A started taking my collar off at night so the jingling wouldn't wake them. I started scratching more than just my ear, I was scratching my elbows and armpits and then I also started biting and licking a spot on my stomach too. I could tell that A was concerned and knew that I was in some discomfort. Eventually, we went to the vet to let them have a look at it. The vet said that the spot on my tummy was a bacterial infection, so she gave me an antibiotic to eat with my breakfast for 3 weeks. She wasn't positive exactly what was causing the irritation on my ears and forelegs, but she suspected that it was due to a particular type of mite. Ew! So she gave me a shot right between my shoulder blades. Grrr! Ow! I had to go back two more times to for the shots again. I did NOT like it the second time and E said I screamed like a girl! It hurt! But the good news is I don't itch anymore!

R

Christmas vacation

Another holiday, another family visit. This time E&A went to visit A's parents and I didn't get to go. :-( but I did get to stay at a really neat place. I met lots of other dogs and they taught me how much fun it is to bark bark bark! Hmm maybe that's why my obedience classes got so much more vocal after the holidays....

E&A drove the RAV halfway across the country in one day! They stayed the first night with P&Em and had a great time hanging and chatting it up. Then after that, they made the difficult decision of where to stay for the remainder of their visit. All day long E was joking about the presence of a Holiday Inn Express in town. A was sure that he had a preconceived diabolical plan to convince her to get a room. But in all actuality it just sort of happened, they went to the front desk and inquired about the availability of a room, and they checked in right then and there. They didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but they also didn't feel AOK with accepting hospitalities that were available with family. They have had some holiday adventures in the past and really wanted to avoid a repeat performance.

They enjoyed dinner with all the W side of the family on Christmas Eve and opened presents that night. Afterwards they all (E,A,P,C,R) piled in one car and headed out to enjoy an old Christmas Eve tradition, by celebrating at Aunt Alice's house! They didn't get to eat all of the yummy food of Christmases past (who needs two dinners?) But the company was fun. A was the master assembler of the knock 'em sock 'em gift that was a hit activity for the evening after Santa's visit.

Christmas day was even more fun. Em was able to come with everyone to S&J's house. Santa came just to visit her! But at one point Emma got wise, and she identified J under Santa's beard!

The rest of the vacation time was spent visiting other friends. They saw the Jensens briefly and had dinner at El Maguey's, got a grand tour B&A's new house and enjoyed lots of laughs and fun with them and their boys. And then one last dinner at Farmer's with all the W's wrapped up their vacation time in the mid-country.

The drive home had a few more adventures than the drive out. On the way out the fog was incredibly thick as they passed through the passes in WV, and all the FedEx planes in Indianapolis made for an fun distraction at a split in the road, but all roads still went the rihght way. Coming home there was a LOT of slow traffic. We're talking about crawling at a constant pace for over 2 hours! Then after that had eased, they came to a complete stop for 30 minutes. Turns out there was a very large truck of some sort that was going their way and had a police escort preventing all traffic from passing. That 30 minutes was entertaining as people ahead of them in the backup would make a U-turn, but they could also see the spot where a cop was pulling all the U-turners over at the next bend in the road.

Since they got home so late on Saturday night, and there wasn't pick-up time on Sunday, they had to wait until Monday morning to come pick me up. As soon as I saw E out there by the front desk, I took off as hard as I could and ran for him and showered him with all of my affection. Yippee!

R