8.24.12 Leaving Day
Aunt Judi’s service dog, Socki
2005
Horse Camp
2006
Summer
2005
Squash Hug 2007
First Day of School
Leaving day is finally upon us.
I enter this day knowing that I did everything I could to love, teach and mentor a worldly aware citizen of the universe. Now it is up to her and to the ‘Great Powers’ to protect her and guide her on the next part of the journey. She told me I am not allowed to cry. I am not sure I can do that.
Louise Hug 2011
Nine Snuggle
2012
NOT Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤ 
8.23.12 “BOL?”
Acronyms are funny things, they could mean so many different things. Misaki (The Misadventures of Misaki) left me a comment the other day and wrote, “BOL.” I am thinking, “BOL, what the heck is that?” So, I type it into trusty Google and it comes back with:
BOL may refer to:
- Bill of Lading, a document acknowledging specified goods as cargo.
- BOL – to express a short burst of laughter
- Bol (film), a Pakistani film directed by Shoaib Mansoor
- bol (music), a feature of Indian rhythm
- Bol, Croatia, a town on the Croatian island Brač
- Manute Bol, Sudanese-born basketball player and activist
- Bol, Chad, a city in Chad
- Boľ, a village in eastern Slovakia.
- Bol Airport, an airport on the Croatian island of Brač.
- BOL, an Internet Slang term for Bahaha Out Loud, a substitute to LOL
- BOL, an Internet Slang term among dog owners/lovers for Bark (or Barking) Out Loud, a variant of LOL
- Bol, a derogatory term for people of Bolivian descent.
- BOL or BOLO in law enforcement parlance is the abbreviation for Be On the Lookout (see All-points bulletin)
- Bread of Life Ministries International, is an non-denominational Christian megachurch in the Philippines
- Buzz Out Loud, a “CNET’s podcast of indeterminate length”.
- 2-Bromo-LSD, a pharmacological agent.
- BUPERS Online, a single point of entry application for logging into numerous web-based applications maintained by the Naval Personnel Command in Millington, TN.
Well, I figured ‘Burst Of Laughter” was what the person meant. Ok, I like that. But, that was not what it was at all. It was “Bark Out Loud!” I love that even more. How cute is that? Dogs having their own internet slang. What does Google or Wikipedia know about anything when you really think about it? If I let them I am sure that Sofie and Lulu would text all day long (or eat the phone).
ROFLWMDHAGT = Rolling On The Floor With My Dogs Having A Great Time. (I just made that up). BOL.
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
8.22.12 Mourning Forward
I know it happens but I am not exactly sure why, but when cats get old, like really old, like 18 to 20, they waste away it seems. Muffin must be down to 5 lbs (2.2 kg) now, if that. I don’t like it. He was the king. The big Kahuna around here. He was the Alpha and kept everyone, even the humans and the dogs in line. 
The Muffin Man has become a little wisp of himself, and his front paws seem to have splayed out in a funny way that I never noticed before today. He is always hungry (especially at 4 AM) but never seems to eat much. He attacks everyone’s dinner and only wants people or dog food. “What ever you want, Muffy, we will get it for you.” Some nights he does not even come to my bed anymore. I think he starts to, but get tired on way so stops and just sleeps where he is. 
It is hard when your furry friends get so advanced in years. Everyday I check his breathing and kiss him and thank him for the one more day he has given me with him. Muffy’s time is coming – maybe tomorrow – next week – next month – one can not prepare – one can not ready themselves for the hole – the loss – the empty space on the couch. All I can do is try and cuddle his boney self and enjoy the moments of now. The togetherness of the present.
I am not sure if this blog is about Muffy or about my daughter, Peanut, leaving to college at the end of the week: difference is, she has her life ahead, he has his life behind. I am already missing them both in a weird way and they are not even gone yet.
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
8.21.12 Sofie’s Smile
Sofie’s Smile
Sofie’s smile can make you melt. Some dogs, no matter how much trouble they can get into, just have that energy and personality that you have to love. Miss Sofie Bear is lucky because she has this killer dog smile to back up her personality. She is one of those dogs that tends to have a smile on her face most of the time. It must be the way her muzzle and jaws are, but I don’t really care much about that: to me she is a ‘smiler.’ A lot of people think this picture of her is ‘photo shopped’ but it is not. It was taken by her puppy trainer last year. She is just a happy girl. I started to wonder if dogs smile for the same reason humans do? It does seem like they smile when they are happy. Or did we humans create that response in them? In my research over the years on wolf behavior, I have learned that pulling back the lips but not showing the teeth (canines) is a submissive gesture (showing the teeth on the other hand is an aggressive gesture). A lower wolf will ‘smile’ at the alpha to show deference to position. Alpha’s on the other hand very rarely ‘smile’ because they do not need to. So I have been watching when Sofie smiles: (1) When she has done something wrong and wants to make sure that I am not going to yell at her (which is also when she rolls on her back and shows me her belly – another submissive gesture). (2) When she is really calm and staring at me. (3) When she is on a mission looking for something or is really having fun in a game.
I wonder if I encouraged the smiling behavior because of the praise and pats on the heads that she receives when she does it? “Oh, how cute! (pat pat pat)” Did I condition the response? When does your dog smile?
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
8.20.12 Change Is In The Air
Squash E Bear
Fall 2007
This weekend I was missing Squash E Bear a great deal. He will be gone 2 years in February. Now you know I love my current dogs. Louise and Sofie, very much, and I have had many wonderful dogs and cats and guinea pigs over the years. But every couple of month I just really miss Squash. I think it is weird because Nikki, my Cocker Spaniel, who I adored, was with me for 18 years, but she does not come to mind with the ‘missing’ that I feel for Squashy. Squash was rescued already middle aged, he was with me only 5 years, and he was a medical handful because of the twice a day insulin shots he needed for his brittle Diabetes and the overall care when he went totally blind. However, I think Squash was so easy. He and I walked off lead most of the time (when he could still see) and he stayed within reach (in the woods he would walk in the trees and I would walk on the trail but we were always in cadence.) Squash never barked unless he had something urgent to say (which was not often) or he was telling a joke (which he liked to do while rolling on his back and laughing). He loved to travel with me and filled the backseat of my Prius with his 90 lbs of fluff and would just lay down and stay there for long rides anywhere. The only time I saw him angry was when my neighbor’s aggressive dog came running out of the house toward a member of the family while he was on leash. Oh yeah, he did like to be a little too dominant at the dog park. He would find one beautiful ‘bitch’ that he liked and then would not let any other dogs near her. Squash would proceed to place his paw over top of any male dog that might come to close. (We did not go to the dog park much for obvious reasons). Ok, so he did have a few quarks. I guess maybe it is the impending changes in my life this week, with Peanut leaving to college for the first time and K8 going back, which means V and I will be ’empty nesters’ for the first time ever – if you can call having 28 paws (7 animals multiplied by 4 paws) to take care of ’empty.’ Or is it just that Squash and I enjoyed our fall walks so much? Change is in the air.
Squash Fall 07
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
