(via oceansdream)
6.5.12 Who Wants To Be Boss, Anyway?
K8 took this picture and sent it to me on my phone. It was just one of those days I guess when everyone wanted to take a nap. If you look at the bottom of the picture you can see Muffin’s left ear. He has taken over the center of the coffee table lately and decided it is his bed. The dogs were waiting at the top of the stairs because I wasn’t home, and they want to be ready, just in case I walked in the door. Sometimes Sofie lies across the steps and refuses to move; all cats and humans have to jump over her when she does that, and… we do. A trainer told me that if you watch how dogs go up and down stairs with their humans, you can tell who is in charge. So for a minute I did actually have the dogs stay behind me on the stairs, but now I just let them go bounding down the stairs first and then I don’t have to deal with thinking about it. I guess we know who is in charge in this house.(ROFL).
Just another dogdaz morning at the zoo ❤ 
6.4.12 Mom’s Sick Day
Remember when you felt like ‘sunshowers’ should be legal grounds for cutting school. I wish, other than being ill, there was a way to just get a day off of the responsibility roller coaster.
Animal caretakers don’t get a day off. Animals still need to be feed and cared for, no matter how bad you feel. It is not their fault the human is sick; they still deserve to eat. Dogs need to be walked or at least let out. Cat boxes need to be scooped. Cages need to be cleaned. And even human children (up to the age of 30, I think) still want to know what Mom is making for dinner (even if you have not gotten out of bed since the morning).
The concept of Mom being sick is incommodious in this house: inconvenient and not given any space to exist. The animals, though non-comprehensive of why Mommy is asleep during the light hours, at least try to cuddle and make contact. The humans….. they just fall apart, In my house the world kind of comes to a weird slow down. Children, who were capable of making decisions yesterday, all of a sudden need input on things while you are sleeping and they need it now! Or there is the other ‘responsible adult,’ who is in total denial of the situation (maybe in fear that giving it credence might somehow make it last longer then desired), so the mailbox overflows, the newpapers pile up, etc. All in 36 hrs…. hahahahhahahaha.
When you are part of a pack, a zoo, a family wheel, with roles, tasks, and inter-dependencies, it is really hard when the linchpin slips. The wheel kind of woobles until it is reset. I am glad to say everyone survived my food poisoning episode (though I thought I would die), but just in case I do something stupid like that again, I will try to make sure there are dinners in the freezer and that the dogs are already walked and feed before I collapse. And I will try not to do it when family is coming in from out of town, one of the kids is graduating, and ……
Just another dogdaz morning at the zoo.
6.3.12 Sofie’s Blog
Mommy still does not feel well so she asked me to write the blog today. This is really hard because, though I have a lot to say when it comes to whining for food, a toy, to go somewhere, to get attention, I really do not have much to say to humans. I do not like when Mommy is sick in bed and yesterday, when I got home from doggie camp, I jumped up on the bed again and again to be with her, but she did not like that. Louise is big enough to just snuggle her nose up to Mommy but I am not. I want to be on the bed. The cats are on the bed. That is just no fair! But Mommy pats my head nice when I come to her side on the floor, so I guess that is where I should go, so I get a nice pat instead of yelled at, which happens a lot to me. No, Sofie. That’s Enough, Sofie! Sometimes you would think that they did not like my behavior. But that can not be possible, since I am the most perfect saggy blond thing you ever did see.
Feel better Mommy. I don’t like writing your blog, and I really really really do not like when you can not walk and play with us.
Love – Sofie Bear
Just another dogdaz morning at the zoo ❤
6.2.12 Doggie Alphabet
For some really strange reason the dogs have gotten into this head to head sleeping lately. It looks really uncomfortable. By what I have noticed is the 2 dogs together, depending on how they are laying, are starting to look like letters of the alphabet. Does your dog’s body position look like an English letter? I would like to create an alphabet of positions using dog pictures. If you have any could you send them to me at Dogdazcats2@aol.com. When I have all 26 letters, I will make a post out of them. Thanks.
Just another dogdaz morning at our house ❤
Friday’s 1959 Monkey Terrier
life:
Caption that accompanied this picture in the Feb. 2, 1959, issue of LIFE: “The ‘monkey terrier’ comes from Germany where it was bred 300 years ago as a rat catcher. Bushy-faced with an underslung chin, the toy sized dog has a fiery, excitable disposition.” (Nina Leen—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images)
See more photos here.
6.1.12 Celebrating Another Rite of Passage
Today my human baby graduates from High School. To some people graduation is not such a big deal (my step kids did not even chose to attend theirs). I however, think it is a huge life changing event, and feel it is important to acknowledge and attend. The way I see things, there are certain life events that are really really important markers and allow us to move into ‘a change,’ of life status, location, position, age, etc, I like to celebrate and acknowledge life’s events. One of the things I think that we have lost a lot of in our modern busy lives are rites.Transitions that change your life in a major way (a birth, a death, marriage, passing a certain age (like coming into puberty), graduation from a school, surviving an illness or injury, retirement, divorce) are important to honor. Transition is not easy, even when it is a positive one. During the early 20th century, the Belgian anthropologist, Arnold Van Gennep, observed that all cultures have prescribed ways for an individual and society to deal with these emotion charged situations. They have ritual ceremonies intended to mark the transition from one phase of life to another. Van Gennep called these ceremonies rites of passage.
Rites effect more than just the person going through them. It is actually very important for the family and friends to make the transition too. There have been several rites of passage in my daughter’s short life already, but to me this is a biggy. I, as her parent, take pride in her accomplishments and note that there will now be a movement in my parenting from HS teenager into a more adult stage of her life (after she survives senior week at the beach). This marks a time when she will physically separate from me, from the family and her home, and transition into a new role, growing, learning, and preparing to be an independent adult in the ‘real world.’
Happy Graduation. Peanut. Reach for the stars!
Check out 15 Rites of Passage from around the world
Just another DogDaz morning at the zoo ❤
DogDaz Zoo 