see more dog and puppy pictures
Showing posts with label Dogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dogs. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
Winston in Triumph
The other day our library had its annual Pet Show out on the back lawn. I usually go to pet everyone else's pets, but this year I brought my own: Winston!
I felt bad leaving my other dog, Buster, home - he'd have loved to come too, but he's a little bigger and has a tendency to knock little children over and lick them when they're down. Winston is a bit more portable.
We had a fabulous time. Winston has never had so much love in one day. He met other dogs,
and was petted and had his ears skritched by child
after child
and if any noses got within his range, he kissed him. (Some of his victims regretted letting him do this: his breath could be better.) Whenever he seemed to get tired of being patted, I gave the next child a piece or two of kibble from a stash in my pocket. Pugs are very food-motivated; he perked right up again!
All of my fellow librarians who could, came out to meet him. We're a very dog-loving department.
No pet who comes to the Pet Show leaves without his just reward. Winston is now officially the Best Kisser!
All photos in this post courtesy of my friend Goldiebug, who usually gets stuck being our library photographer. Thanks so much!
I felt bad leaving my other dog, Buster, home - he'd have loved to come too, but he's a little bigger and has a tendency to knock little children over and lick them when they're down. Winston is a bit more portable.
We had a fabulous time. Winston has never had so much love in one day. He met other dogs,
and was petted and had his ears skritched by child
after child
and if any noses got within his range, he kissed him. (Some of his victims regretted letting him do this: his breath could be better.) Whenever he seemed to get tired of being patted, I gave the next child a piece or two of kibble from a stash in my pocket. Pugs are very food-motivated; he perked right up again!
All of my fellow librarians who could, came out to meet him. We're a very dog-loving department.
No pet who comes to the Pet Show leaves without his just reward. Winston is now officially the Best Kisser!
All photos in this post courtesy of my friend Goldiebug, who usually gets stuck being our library photographer. Thanks so much!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
The pitter patter of little feet...er...paws
It's high time I announced an addition to my family!
He's been seen before, briefly, but this post is entirely about my newest baby: Winston!
I've been looking for a new dog since I lost my beloved Stormy in 2008; some of you were with me during the Great Princess Debacle of 2009. Late last fall I applied to Ohio Pug Rescue and in late January I got Winston!
He had a sad story: Winston was in the pound, where he'd been taken after being picked up as a stray. I don't know if his original owners were feeding him caramels or what, but he had such advanced periodontal disease that the pound had classed him as "unadoptable". Pug Rescue pulled him out of the pound in September and spent the rest of the year getting his teeth back in shape - the remaining teeth, that is; his foster mom was calling him "Gumby"!
(I renamed him for obvious reasons.)
Of course, this sad story has ended happy. He's well embedded here.
Like most pugs, he likes it best on the sofa, and good luck keeping him off it, though he learned pretty quickly that he's not supposed to go on the love seat. He's a veteran snuggler, cuddling beside me while I watch TV and knit, helping me type on my laptop, and keeping me warm at night. (During the last cold snap he developed a new tendency to go under the covers, which I think is hilarious.) He snores and snorts, and when he sleeps with his head on my leg he sort of whistles through his nose. I also think this is hilarious. There may be something wrong with me.
Despite these respiratory issues, Winston is quite active, and likes to go on long brisk walks with me and Buster.
Of course, the first month or so there was easily 14" of snow on the ground. Winston has about an 8" ground clearance. That was fun.
He's also a big sweet kisser.
He's been seen before, briefly, but this post is entirely about my newest baby: Winston!
I've been looking for a new dog since I lost my beloved Stormy in 2008; some of you were with me during the Great Princess Debacle of 2009. Late last fall I applied to Ohio Pug Rescue and in late January I got Winston!
He had a sad story: Winston was in the pound, where he'd been taken after being picked up as a stray. I don't know if his original owners were feeding him caramels or what, but he had such advanced periodontal disease that the pound had classed him as "unadoptable". Pug Rescue pulled him out of the pound in September and spent the rest of the year getting his teeth back in shape - the remaining teeth, that is; his foster mom was calling him "Gumby"!
(I renamed him for obvious reasons.)
Of course, this sad story has ended happy. He's well embedded here.
Like most pugs, he likes it best on the sofa, and good luck keeping him off it, though he learned pretty quickly that he's not supposed to go on the love seat. He's a veteran snuggler, cuddling beside me while I watch TV and knit, helping me type on my laptop, and keeping me warm at night. (During the last cold snap he developed a new tendency to go under the covers, which I think is hilarious.) He snores and snorts, and when he sleeps with his head on my leg he sort of whistles through his nose. I also think this is hilarious. There may be something wrong with me.
Despite these respiratory issues, Winston is quite active, and likes to go on long brisk walks with me and Buster.
Of course, the first month or so there was easily 14" of snow on the ground. Winston has about an 8" ground clearance. That was fun.
He's also a big sweet kisser.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Life with Conehead
My poor Buster had some surgery last week. To be specific, he suffered the "most unkindest cut of all." (My male readers have just crossed their legs unconsciously...) [No, he wasn't neutered before. I adopted him as an adult, so it wasn't going to change his behavior which was fine anyway, and since he never goes outside off his leash I knew he wasn't fathering any puppies. I just never got around to it. But he has these little tumors that the vet thinks are testosterone sensitive, so removing the testosterone may make them shrink. I hope it works!]
Anyway, the silver lining here is Buster's increased entertainment value. Or as I now call him, "Conehead". Here he is in his Henry XIII outfit:
It wasn't so funny the first night though. He wasn't very good at maneuvering with the collar on yet, so the whole night went like this:
Soft sleeping sounds from the bed.
*THUD* from Buster ramming his collar into the door frame.
"Buster! Shut up and lie down!" from the bed.
More sleep sounds.
*THUD* - this time he's whacked into the wall itself.
Wailing. "Buster! Settle!" Sound of pillow and blanket being pulled over head.
Repeat until dawn.
What I find impressive is his ingenuity - he managed to come down with the Cone of Silence directly over his food bowl so he could eat!
Anyway, the silver lining here is Buster's increased entertainment value. Or as I now call him, "Conehead". Here he is in his Henry XIII outfit:
It wasn't so funny the first night though. He wasn't very good at maneuvering with the collar on yet, so the whole night went like this:
Soft sleeping sounds from the bed.
*THUD* from Buster ramming his collar into the door frame.
"Buster! Shut up and lie down!" from the bed.
More sleep sounds.
*THUD* - this time he's whacked into the wall itself.
Wailing. "Buster! Settle!" Sound of pillow and blanket being pulled over head.
Repeat until dawn.
What I find impressive is his ingenuity - he managed to come down with the Cone of Silence directly over his food bowl so he could eat!
Monday, March 30, 2009
The Perils of Princess, or, "Well, THAT didn't work..."
Remember how I adopted a dog? Remember how she seemed awfully smart? Remember how she was sick and I took her to the vet? Well, the vet gave her some nice antibiotics. And she started feeling a lot better. And her energy level spiked.
From the day she started to feel well, Princess got to be too much for me. It didn't bother me that she suddenly owned all the chew toys, but it did bother me a little when Buster turned into one of them: she chewed Buster's neck ruff till it was soggy. She, um, imposed upon his goodwill until he crammed his entire body into a nook behind some furniture to get away from her. She wouldn't let him on the bed. She filched things off tabletops to chew. I started crating her in the daytime, which worked fine but left her with energy undimmed when I came home.
None of this is to say Princess is a bad dog - she isn't. She just has a lot of bounce, and needs more exercise and running room than I can offer in a condo. We did take a lot of very long walks together. I succeeded in tiring her out - she'd nap after a walk. The only problem is, by then I needed a nap too! Actually Princess's sleeping behaviors were my favorite parts - she happily snuggled with me from the first night, and was a good girl all night long. I tried, but in the end I decided she wasn't a good fit for my household, so she's back with the good people of Paws and Prayers. Princess needs a Timmy!
Saturday, March 21, 2009
The Horrible Truth
Ever since Princess came to live with me, I've been puzzled. The rescue folks said she was a Sheltie mix. I didn't see it, and so I kept wondering what the other half was. Some kind of terrier? Dachshund? No, it can't be that - her proportions are normal. Definitely not a hound...What could it be?
Then I started noticing how scary-smart she is. Buster, bless him, is apparently not the sharpest knife in the drawer. In an attempt to interest him in eating right after Stormy died I dug out Stormy's old food cube - you put kibble in it and the dog has to roll it around to get the kibble out again. Even with me showing him how about 100 times, he never connected the dots - he'd happily eat the kibble if I kicked the cube over, but never never never tipped it over himself with paw or nose. Well, it took Princess approximately 37 seconds to decode that thing.
Then I had to take them to the vet this morning (her flea dermatitis is slightly infected even though the fleas are gone, plus both she and Buster were a little under the weather - it seems she brought home Bordatella. Even though she got a vaccine, it was only a few days before she came home, and she was probably already contagious before she got the vaccine. So now she gave it to her new best buddy, Buster.) I grabbed her paperwork so I could tell the vets when she got her vaccines and show them her rabies tag. I noticed that the cover of her folder said "Collie" on it. I looked at her and said to myself, "She looks even less like a collie mix than she does like a Sheltie mix. What the heck were those fools thinking?"
I just realized the awful truth. She's a BORDER COLLIE MIX. Just look at her - I can totally see that.
(Not her best angle, but you get the idea.)
This is a disaster! They are so smart they get bored and destructive when they are alone, and I work full time! And I didn't figure it out till now - it's too late - we've bonded! Buster had just better devote his life to keeping her out of trouble, that's all I can say. Or it seems that I am the one in trouble! Aaagh!
Then I started noticing how scary-smart she is. Buster, bless him, is apparently not the sharpest knife in the drawer. In an attempt to interest him in eating right after Stormy died I dug out Stormy's old food cube - you put kibble in it and the dog has to roll it around to get the kibble out again. Even with me showing him how about 100 times, he never connected the dots - he'd happily eat the kibble if I kicked the cube over, but never never never tipped it over himself with paw or nose. Well, it took Princess approximately 37 seconds to decode that thing.
Then I had to take them to the vet this morning (her flea dermatitis is slightly infected even though the fleas are gone, plus both she and Buster were a little under the weather - it seems she brought home Bordatella. Even though she got a vaccine, it was only a few days before she came home, and she was probably already contagious before she got the vaccine. So now she gave it to her new best buddy, Buster.) I grabbed her paperwork so I could tell the vets when she got her vaccines and show them her rabies tag. I noticed that the cover of her folder said "Collie" on it. I looked at her and said to myself, "She looks even less like a collie mix than she does like a Sheltie mix. What the heck were those fools thinking?"
I just realized the awful truth. She's a BORDER COLLIE MIX. Just look at her - I can totally see that.
(Not her best angle, but you get the idea.)
This is a disaster! They are so smart they get bored and destructive when they are alone, and I work full time! And I didn't figure it out till now - it's too late - we've bonded! Buster had just better devote his life to keeping her out of trouble, that's all I can say. Or it seems that I am the one in trouble! Aaagh!
Friday, March 20, 2009
My New Baby
Diana Wishes to Announce the Adoption of
Princess
variously known as Princess Principessa, Miss Priss, Hey You, Good Girl, Bad Girl, and (when she's REALLY bad), Sheila [my ex's dog's name].
Princess
variously known as Princess Principessa, Miss Priss, Hey You, Good Girl, Bad Girl, and (when she's REALLY bad), Sheila [my ex's dog's name].
Ever since my beloved Stormy died, I have planned to get another dog, if only to keep Buster company. I combed Petfinder.com assiduously in search of the perfect dog: small (25-30 pounds), male, housebroken if possible, not a puppy. I set my sights on several, only to have them adopted out from under me (not that I mind them going to good homes, of course!) Every weekend I had a free day, I would be down at the Petsmart across from Chapel Hill Mall looking at the rescue dogs organizations like Paws and Prayers and Heaven Can Wait.
So last Saturday I brought Princess home. They describe her as a Sheltie mix, but I don't see it.
Note how she completely fails to match any of my criteria - she's a girl, just a year old, so practically a puppy, and although she weighed 30 pounds the day I adopted her, as of today she's up to 36.6 pounds and she's still sucking down the Dad's Trail Mix like she thinks it's her last bowl.
Oh wait - she does meet one criterion: she is housebroken. The house she's broken is mine.
No, that's a calumny (I just couldn't resist the joke). She's actually very well behaved and I couldn't be more pleased with that. She's had a couple of accidents in the house, but they were clearly the result of us not understanding each other's signals - Princess is definitely a lady and she doesn't want to do her business in the house.
According to Paws and Prayers, her previous owners surrendered her to the pound because she had the effrontery to get fleas. And you know, once a dog has fleas there's nothing you can do about that. You just have to throw the dog back and fish for another one.
I was a bit concerned about how Buster would react to having another dog sharing his house and his human. At first this seemed justified; for the first day he did nothing but try to fornicate with her. Thankfully, this behavior gradually tapered off, and they are doing very well together:
The only problem is she shows signs of being too darn smart for me!
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Stormy the Dog, July 1993-November 15, 2009. RIP
Today I had to put to sleep one of the sweetest dogs ever made. He was a bucket of love in a fur wrapper (not too different from most dogs of my acquaintance), and he was my beloved baby boy.
Stormy was half Black Lab and half Passing Stranger. In later years I began to think the stranger was a Beagle because of his cute beagly face. My ex and I got him as a puppy when he was rescued from the side of the road by one of the guys where we worked, but rejected by the dog and wife this guy already had. So he came to live with us, where he settled to live with us and our other dog.
Stormy was an excellent cuddler and couch companion. You could even pose knitting on him for photography.
A couple of years ago he stopped being able to jump on the bed on his own, so for six months or so I hoisted him up there. After I threw my back out, I trained him to put his front feet up on the bed. I would then put my arm under his hips and sort of lever him up, which worked much better. He would stay all night most of the time, and if it was cold in the bedroom he would cuddle up closer and closer to my back. Sometimes I would wake up clinging to the side of the mattress!
By the way, when you throw your back out, they tell you to lie down on the floor with your behind up against a sofa and your legs up on the seat. When people with dogs lie down on the floor, the dogs are fascinated. "What's she doing down there? Does she have food? Maybe if we sniff really hard with our nose touching her face we can figure this out. If she's down there, she must have stopped knitting. That means she can pet us!"
Stormy started going gray early in life, at first just around his lips. A friend once called him the "Got Milk? dog.
He was a bit of a velcro dog. Not the really annoying kind who has to be touching you all the time, but whatever room I was in, Stormy wanted to be there too. If we were sitting on the sofa and I needed something from upstairs, I had to be really quick about it, because if I took more than sixty seconds Stormy would be halfway up the stairs when I was on my way down. Even when he got very old, he would still rather climb a staircase than let me be up there by myself. It's really flattering to have a creature just want to be near you that way! Makes me think of the joke about God creating Dog.
He was sweet and funny, and I miss him a lot. Fortunately, I still have Buster!
Stormy was half Black Lab and half Passing Stranger. In later years I began to think the stranger was a Beagle because of his cute beagly face. My ex and I got him as a puppy when he was rescued from the side of the road by one of the guys where we worked, but rejected by the dog and wife this guy already had. So he came to live with us, where he settled to live with us and our other dog.
Stormy was an excellent cuddler and couch companion. You could even pose knitting on him for photography.
A couple of years ago he stopped being able to jump on the bed on his own, so for six months or so I hoisted him up there. After I threw my back out, I trained him to put his front feet up on the bed. I would then put my arm under his hips and sort of lever him up, which worked much better. He would stay all night most of the time, and if it was cold in the bedroom he would cuddle up closer and closer to my back. Sometimes I would wake up clinging to the side of the mattress!
By the way, when you throw your back out, they tell you to lie down on the floor with your behind up against a sofa and your legs up on the seat. When people with dogs lie down on the floor, the dogs are fascinated. "What's she doing down there? Does she have food? Maybe if we sniff really hard with our nose touching her face we can figure this out. If she's down there, she must have stopped knitting. That means she can pet us!"
Stormy started going gray early in life, at first just around his lips. A friend once called him the "Got Milk? dog.
He was a bit of a velcro dog. Not the really annoying kind who has to be touching you all the time, but whatever room I was in, Stormy wanted to be there too. If we were sitting on the sofa and I needed something from upstairs, I had to be really quick about it, because if I took more than sixty seconds Stormy would be halfway up the stairs when I was on my way down. Even when he got very old, he would still rather climb a staircase than let me be up there by myself. It's really flattering to have a creature just want to be near you that way! Makes me think of the joke about God creating Dog.
He was sweet and funny, and I miss him a lot. Fortunately, I still have Buster!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)