DogDaz Zoo

So Santa came on top of the neighborhood fire engine last night (like he does every year), with flashing lights and sirens and loud speaker ‘Ho, ho, ho,’ which is great for all the little children (and big one’s too), but really really upsetting to many of the dogs.  Sophie never heard something like that before and was so upset she cried and tried to get away from it. I had to hold her close and finally got her to lie down with me on the floor.  But then it came back around the block and she started all over again.  Lulu was OK it seemed, but she stayed close too.  C was across the street dog sitting Mojo and said he wanted to eat Santa.  I remember it used to really bother Squash too when he was alive.  He would howl.  There must be a certain db that the sirens put out that is really painful to the dogs ears.  I wonder if they can control the siren levels and change them so that dogs don’t get hurt like this?  Sofie has incredible hearing.  She can hear animals outside and trucks way before Lulu can (or so it seems).  A dogs hearing is such an incredible thing.  I know about there smell ability being 25X ours, but I wonder about there hearing.  I recently met a deaf puppy at the store, and then another, and started to realize how hard that would be for them.  I don’t know what is worse for a dog, losing sight (Squash was blind) or losing hearing (Nikki was ultimately both deaf and blind).  Do they lose scent with age too?   Well next year on Fire Truck Santa night I think I will take the dogs on an outing somewhere away from the sirens.  2 days until Hanukkah and 7 until Christmas, so there are many sites and sounds of the season that we encounter.  Wishing everyone a happy whatever you celebrate and a merry new year!  Just another dogdaz morning. ❤

Waiting for Santa.

Visited cousin Pickles this afternoon.  Pickles is a Boxer-Mastiff; does that make her a Boxstiff or a Maxer?  She is 90lbs of pure muscle with this incredible sweet disposition.  Pickles is 2 now and all she wants to do is play, play, play.  It’s a little hard to play with a dog when you think she might bite your hand off, not intentionally of course, just because she is still a baby and so excited to be playing.  When I came home Louise went crazy because she smelled another dog on me. Both Sofie and Lulu followed me all around and would not stop licking my pants until I put on my PJs.  I tried to convince Lulu that I was not 2 timing her with another dog, but she really did not believe me.  Just another dogdaz afternoon.

Sofie and Lulu helped me all morning fill in the holes all over the yard that mostly Sofie had dug.  Actually, there were not as many as I thought, but still makes a mess.  I think I need to go get straw or something since most of the yard is sand/dirt and I am really having trouble making any grass grow with these years of drought in the mid-Atlantic.  Maybe next year I will try to landscape for all the erosion.  Have to research that one.  Also need to research dog friendly gardening.  Just another dogdaz morning. ❤

Wish I could say that I was done with work and ready for my 2 week holiday, but I am not.  Sometimes I wish that I could just play with the dogs all day, it would be so much less stressful.  Sofie, Louise, and I went next door to play with Mojo (Lulu’s boyfriend, the 3 year old champion lab).  He has had a canine tooth infection so he has not been wanting to play much lately.  Well, he almost jumped through the front window when he saw the girls coming across the street.  And for about 1/2 hour they ran and ran and ran.  It is really funny to see little Sofie, with her soft herding mouth, trying to get in the middle of of these 2 lab iron jaw dogs.  She barks and tries to herd them around the yard and get them to do what she wants.  Good luck with that.  Just another dogdaz afternoon. ❤

Lulu wants to be a lap dog.  But she does not know how to even sit in my lap.  She takes those unbendable boney legs and she kinda stands on me.  She drapes her front legs over my lap with her back legs on the floor and then goes to sleep.  It is sad.  I do not know how to show her how to relax.  I do not think relax is really part of this dog.  She is always ‘on.’  Neither of my dogs are snugglers, though Sofie could be, maybe.  I lift all 40 lbs of her onto my lap but she is pretty awkward about it and tends to jump down pretty quickly.  When either dog is on me, the other will come and start a biting match and then I have to make them get off.  It’s raining so I have to find indoor things to keep them busy.  I guess my lap isn’t one of them.  Just another dogdaz afternoon. ❤

So I am really upset because this little 8 lb Corgi/Papilon mix that V wanted to Xmas was all set to be ours, except when the Rescue called the vet, some person, who obviously was new and did not even know who we were, told them that they had no idea if our animals had their shots or if they were even spayed.  They even said they did not know if the dogs were on heartworm meds.  Ahhhhh!!!!!!  Not only should the vet have records on all 5 of the current pack, but we buy the silly meds from them.  I do not understand why everything lately is such a battle.  It seems like people are stupidder and stupidder (is that such a word?).  Well of course I will be calling the vet in the morning, but we have already lost this little dog, so why bother.  That seems to be the way it is for almost everything.  If you try to do a simple transaction, you end up having to escalate to a supervisor, and then you are transferred to Outer Mongolia, and then back to Colorado, and then they disconnect you.  The more I deal with people – the more I like my DOGs!!!!!!!!!!

Waiting for BoBo to move.

You would think after 16 hours of sitting at this idiot box I call a computer I would want to go lie down or something, but nooooo, here I am typing.  The Muffin cat is licking the milk from my late dinner cereal bowl of Cherioos and Chex Mix that I just finished.  The dogs are sacked out, Sofie on the dog bed in my office and Lulu on the den coach.  It is nice that they both are trained to go to sleep by 21:15 every nite.  They are especially tired because they were in Doggie Daycare today. It is a great thing, this Doggie care; they get to spend the day with their frienddogs; I get to not walk them, and; they come home really happy and tired.  They both jump in the car and can’t wait to tell me all about their adventures. You may wonder how I know this.  Lulu has to stand on the console between the seats and nuzzle up to my ear, and Sofie, well she can not contain herself and jumps into the passenger seat (a big no no but hard to resist) and talks, and talks, the whole way home.  I am really lucky that I have this option right around the corner from my house at a local vet’s office. When Lulu was a puppy I used to put her in 2X a week to give old Squash a break from her and also to get some work done.  Since Sofie came, I don’t use it as much because it is of course twice the cost, but also because they have each other to play with.  They really do love it and also seem to really benefit from a full day of running.  I find that I miss them tremendously during the day when they are not here.  But it is nice to have a break from the walk and the constant up and down the stairs to go out.  Well, just another dogdaz evening. ❤