I don’t really need a weather app on my phone to tell me a thunderstorm is coming. Here at DogDaz Storm Center, we have 2 main thunder warning systems – Louise and Sofie.
In the middle of the night last Monday, some how, Louise managed to unlock her kennel, by herself, and come upstairs and start breathing on my while I slept. Then Sofie, who rarely comes on my bed, pushed me away from my pillows and hunkered down in my spot. It sounded like a freight train coming through the house and the flash and clap were immediate. Amazingly, 15 minutes later an EF2 tornado touched down on the other shore of the Chesapeake Bay on Kent Island (I’m the Western Shore and that is called the Eastern Shore). It started as a waterspout and took full tornado strength (125 mph winds) quickly. Thankfully, though there was a lot of property damage, only 1 person was slightly hurt.
Who needs all those meteorologists when you have 2 dogs that can tell you at least 2 hours before something major happens that something is going to happen? Do you really need to know more than that? Get to cover!!!!
Lucky for me, Charlies seems fine through the storms and the cats don’t show me much anxiety. These 2 big babies take enough attention for the whole Zoo.
Foot note: They are both huddled under my desk as I type this because yet another storm is passing through. This is summer on the Chesapeake Bay. Oh, my!
A memorable moment from 2013 (above). Sofie was only 2 (Lu was 3) and it appears from this shot that her full coat had not come in yet (she looks adolescent from the back). Louise and Sofie always wait by the back door to go chase squirrels and birds.
And you can see that not a lot has changed at the back door in 4 years (Oh my, I just noticed that the curtains do look older). Louise and Sofie still wait to chase the squirrels and birds, except now Charles is with them. It is fun to compare how they looked then and now. Hope you have a wonderful, romping, Black and White Sunday!
I used to be part of the Black and White Sunday Blog Hop but Dachshund Nola has taken a break from blogging and Sugar jumped over the rainbow bridge and Golden Woofs, though still blogging, is no longer hosting the Hop. I can’t host Hops because of my infrastructure. Can you?
DogDaz friend, Jeanne Bellis, is doing outstanding work taking hard to place dogs and helping them socialize and reintegrate to new homes. Here is Part 2 of the Socializing Waylon series. Waylon, a catahoula-cattledog mix, was in a bind. His owner, a US Marine, was being deployed overseas and Waylon, a dog aggressive, fearful mess, had only one hope – Bellis Boot Camp. Follow Jeanne as she socializes Waylon with her pack. It’s amazing what patience, smarts, good training and love can do. This is part 2 of the series as Waylon learns how to make friends with other dogs.
At DogDaz Zoo, I try to control the amount of food that any animal eats in a day based on their size and energy level. I parse out all kibble in the morning into containers and then give a portion at each feeding, making sure that there is some left over for evening in-house play. The dogs have several toys to chose from (1) a large feeding cube (mostly used by Sofie), (2) a medium feed ball (which was too big for Charles, too little for Lulu, and Sofie doesn’t like it). So I got, (3) a little feed ball (for Charles, who can’t figure it out), (4) a big rope jug (that Louise LOVES), and (5) a spinner (currently only Sofie’s survived because Louise ate hers – bottom is rubber).
Everyone waits, impatiently, in the evening for play time. I used to wait until 8 PM or so to do this, but now they have started demanding play time earlier and earlier. Sometimes, I give in and they have playtime only 30 minutes after dinner. What’s the difference, it’s all their food anyway.
Charles gets a special treat in a puzzle bowl with some kibble, because he is either too lazy for the feed ball, or just doesn’t want to lower himself to work for it. He loves a teeny tiny Busy Bone (r) and will gobble it up as soon as he finds one under the kibble.
We have lots of food fun at the Zoo. What kind of mischief did you get into today?
Happy 9th birthday, little man. Though you’ve only been at the Zoo for 7 months, you have turned our world around. You have made us little dog lovers in a big dog world. Even the cats like you sometimes (especially Noel). Thank you for adopting us and letting us be your final forever home. I guess you had to bite your way through many homes (at least 5) until you found your perfect place with us. Here’s to the next 9.
When I am not home and there is a thunderstorm, Sofie tends to eat through the laundry room door. I have rebuilt the door 3X now. You would think I would just remember to leave it ajar when I go out so this doesn’t keep happening. But, No! I close the door because the cat litter is in there and I don’t want the dogs playing in it. That is why the laundry room door HAD a cat door; which is where I think this eating that particular door all started for Sofie. She first ate the cat door.
Anyway, I have gotten very expert at hollow core door repair, so I made you this video to share my fixing magic, including adding back a cat door. Hope it helps any of you that have to repair a similar chewed situation.
Turn on closed captions in video to read instructions.
You know the look. When your dog gives you that ‘side eye.’ Looking at you like ‘what could you be thinking, human?’ or ‘you want me to do what?’ Hahahahaha. Charles is the master of the look. Maybe it’s a PomChi thing.
Have a great Black and White Sunday.
This is part of the Black and White Sunday Blog Hop. Thanks to Dachshund Nola and Sugar for hosting.
The big dogs were away on a play date so Noel decided she was going to come into my offices and sleep on Louise’s dog bed. She has never done that before that I recall. When she is in the office, usually she hides in the supply closet and sleeps on the boxes of paper.
Louise was a bit confused when she returned from her date to find Queen Noel in her bed. But Louise, being Louise, did not roust her or do anything the other dogs around here would do (like chase her away or nibble on the pillow very close to her to scare her away).
The Honorable Princess Lulu, laid down quietly next to her bed, with Queen Noel in it, and went to sleep. Noel the Queen of the Zoo and her court.
Yesterday was 4th of July and you know what that means – FIREWORKS! Not only was it going to be a stressful evening but when Mom was walking us to get us tired before dinner THUNDER rolled in. Mom was not sure how we were going to do this evening with all the rumbles from Mother Nature and the crackers used to honor our Forefathers (a double whammy). It didn’t start well because Louise didn’t want to eat all her dinner because of the thunder (though Sofie decided it was OK to finish it for her before Mom caught her).
Mom played nice smooth jazz music for us during the storm. It always helps distract us from the noise. She thinks it is more soothing than classical (which can get quite raucous). And after the storm, we played our evening games. She tried to take us out to potty before it got dark, but as soon as we got in the yard we heard pop pop pop and ran back inside.
Once it got dark, everyone was watching TV and it drowned out most of the crackers and, as you can see from the pictures, Louise and Sofie were able to snooze right through the ‘1812 Overture.’ I was a little concerned but managed to see myself through until I could go ‘night night’ in my downstairs kennel, with the curtain down, and the music up, and some extra treats.
We hope your celebration was quiet and peaceful and full of treats. – Charles, the Mugwump
This is a Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop. Thanks to BlogPaws for the hop. Head over there and see what they are blogging about.
Fireworks are legal to buy and shoot off here in Maryland. People start celebrating at least a week before the 4th of July and for a week after. It is crazy noisy for hours every night after dark. Mom makes us stay inside with the curtains closed and the music on. We don’t even want to go pee before bed because every time we step out in the yard we hear another ‘boom boom!’ Why do human’s think this noise is fun? We just don’t get it.
To balance the evening noise, Mom gets us something special (we think it is deer antlers or bully sticks this year). This will keep us busy after dark. And we also take a nice long walk before dark so we are tired. All these things help us through the evening celebration.
Have a wonderful super duper day and stay safe at night. Hope you get a special treat too!
DogDaz Zoo 