A blue-eyed, red-furred view of the world!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

I'm baaaack!

Hey!  It's Alizé!  I get to blog this time!  Shazam! 

Guess what mr_ed got on his birthday on Monday

ME coming home!

Alizé sees mr_ed come in the clinic
Are you here to rescue me?
Alizé sniffs at bottom of door
Okay!  Let's go!
Alizé looks at clinic staff person
Could you let us out, please?
Alizé is eager for the door to open
Open!  Open!  Open!


Tucker, it wasn't a vacation at a spa! It was bad! I had to stay in a crate all day with needles sticking in me! And I didn't feel so good lots of the time. I lost 7 pounds!

When mr_ed showed up, they gave him cans and bags of the food we have at home. That's okay. You can't have enough food! And some different medicine and needles from what we have at home.

Then they brought me out. Sure, I gave him some kisses. But I rolled on my back and showed him my tummy a bunch of times! He wanted more kisses, but I wanted to show him where they gave me a big owie. I think they took some stuff out of me. Maybe that was the 7 pounds.

Then mr_ed tied me to a bench ... and he left!

I screamed and screamed and made him come right back. Oh. He got a camera out of the car! I couldn't see the camera, of course, but I saw the flash of light. That's when he took that first picture up there.

Then instead of leaving he stood around and talked to one of my doctors because of the different medicine. The good thing was that they told him not to stick me so often to get drops of blood!

The bad thing was that we didn't leave! He stopped talking a bunch of times and took pictures of me trying to get out the door.

Let's go let's go let's go!  Finally we did. Then we stopped at my vet's place to let give them medical records and weigh me. Then we went home!

The first thing I did when I got in the house was to get a big drink of water and stick my paw in the bowl.

Home at last!

lizé

Sunday, November 16, 2008

First snow

Happy Dagur íslenskrar tungu!
In particular it may be mentioned that Icelandic possesses quite a few instances of oblique cases without any governing word, much like Latin (e.g., many of the various Latin ablatives have a corresponding Icelandic dative).
Yeah, that explains it, huh?

We got a little snow on Friday. First snow of the season! The Human Assistant was having trouble sleeping. So he herded us outside to take some photos that turned out pretty crummy in the dark.

Sinjin walking in nighttime snowfall
Sinjin's not quite awake
Tucker walking in nighttime snowfall
Balancing the moon on my tail!
Sinjin and Tucker walking in nighttime snowfall
Bug Sinjin or check the fence?
Tucker standing in daytime snow
Neighborcat?


That's not really the moon. I'm actually balancing a snowflake on my tail!  Heh heh!

Then we all went back to sleep. Then we all got up later. When the sun was up. That picture turned out better.

You can see we didn't get much snow. By afternoon it was all melted in the back yard. Which is a hill that faces south. Which the H.A. says gets more sun than the part that's in the shadow in the front yard.

Ok lýkr þar Hænsa-Þóris sögu.  (And there ends the saga of Hønsa-Thóri.)

Or as H.A. says so strangely, "An' dat's da name a' dat tune."

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Friday, November 14, 2008

Happy Diabetes Day!

Remember when Sinjin thought we had orange puppies? I don't know why he thought that.

But here's a field of orange puppies. By some guy named Claude Money. Or something like that. And some puppies that are more red. By somebody else.

Monet's 'Poppies Blooming'
"Puppies Blooming"
The Cowardly Lion, Dorothy, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow in the poppy field
Save Toto!


Anyway. Happy Birthday Claude whoever!

So, things have been kinda slow without Alizé around to chew stuff up. The Human Assistant has been on the computer looking for more dogs! I have to claw him. Which he doesn't like too much. But it gets his attention.

Then I jump around and woooo. That makes him laugh and think I want a treat. (Why, sure! Thanks!) And he forgets about getting more dogs for a while.

I think he's also been happy to not be getting up every two hours to check Alizé's blood sugar. And all that other stuff.

But. Today was World Diabetes Day. Was everyone supposed to go out and get diabetes? Sounds kinda dumb to me. Which makes it sound like something humans would think up.

Also Happy Birthday to some guy who invented jackets.

Okay. That's it for now.

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Monday, November 10, 2008

Why don't you just shut up?

I get to do a post too!  Me me me!  (That's me me me, Sinjin!)

A year ago today one famous important guy said to another famous important guy,  "¿Por qué no te callas?"

Tucker and I say that to each other all the time!
- ¿Por qué no te callas?
- ¿Por qué no te callas?
- No, .
- No, ¡!
And sometimes, actually a lot of times, I say to him,  "Do you want me to pee on you?"  because he's always lying in the way and won't let me out.
- Look, I have to go.
- ¿Por qué no te callas?
- For a while now, I have needed to go to the bathroom, and I am going to pee ... Do you want me to pee on you?
- ¿Por qué no te callas?
- ¿Por qué no te callas?
- No, .
- No, ¡!
Sinjin gives his views
Bark bark bark bark bark!
Then the Big Guy finally gets up and gets Tucker to move.

Or else he walks with me to get around Tucker.

It's good to know that famous important guys have these same problems and have worked out how to deal with them!

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Happy birthday and all that

So now the Human Assistant says today is Alizé's birthday. She's 9.

Alizé's kinda weird for a stray. Lots of times there's no information about them. Like with Poo-Poo. And Sally. And especially Timber.

But Alizé's first people had her micrcochipped right away. Not actually her first people, who were probably a puppy mill. Or her second people, who were clerks in a pet store.

But her first real people. They got her microchipped. And when H.A. called the microchip company, they had lots of information. About the chip, anyway. He didn't write down everything. But it was like, the day the chip was made, when it went to a distributor, when it went to the vet's office ... lots of stuff.

He's squinting at his notes now. He wrote down that it was shipped in February, 1990. He thinks that means shipped to the vet's office. And the vet put the chip in Alizé in March, 2000. The chip sat around, wearing out, for 10 whole years!

Anyway. The microchip company also said that Alizé was born 11/10/99. So there you go.

It's also the birthday of the Continental Marines. They started up in 1775 and shut down in 1785 after the war was over.

Then there was a U.S. Marine Corps. They kinda cheat and use the Continental Marines' birthday as their birthday too.

Wanna know something strange? Today's also the birthday of two airplane designers. And I don't mean Wilbur and Orville Redenbacher!

Anyway. There you go.

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For what it's worth, today's also the birthday of the father of the AK-47. So there you go again.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Same ol' same ol'

Nothing new is actually happening. All us guys are having breathing problems. But it's the same old stuff.

I started snorking a few days ago. Breathing in real hard through my nose. To make it easier to breathe. But I guess the new monia I had when I got here made it so that doesn't work.

So the Human Assistant is giving me my usual medicine for it. And it's making me my usual hungrier. So I claw H.A. more while he's at the computer. But it's working! Sinjin and I are getting more treats!

I guess Sinjin's stuffed head is draining down his throat. He's doing throat clearing again. Every once in a while. He goes,  GAAAAAAAACK!  He sounds like a human when he starts out. It freaks out H.A. 'cause there aren't supposed to be any other humans in the house.

And the H.A.'s head fills up when he lies down. I don't understand how that works. But it makes it hard for him to breathe through his nose. It wakes him up sometimes.

But that's just the same old stuff. Like I said.

He called MaxFund today to find out about Alizé. They called her spa and called him back.

Everything's pretty much the same. Her blood is still too sweet. And they haven't spadeded her yet. Or whatever it is they're going to do to her. It's been more than a week and a half! What's wrong with that girl  Let's get with the program!

So the news is that there's no news. Boooooring!

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Friday, November 7, 2008

How NOT to walk a dog


Dumb people can get a doggy in trouble!

Don't let your humans do this to you!  Someone will say it's your fault!
MP4 version


Dumb Person #1 (DP1): Barney's dog walker
Dumb Person #2 (DP2): White House reporter
Barney: Presidential family's 8-year-old Scottish Terrier
- DP1 stops so DP2 can say hi to Barney.
- DP2 tries to get Barney to be friendly.
- Barney doesn't want to be friendly.  (Turning half-way around to keep an eye on a human getting too close to you is not how dogs show "being friendly.")
- DP2 reaches to pat Barney's head, his hand visible only in Barney's peripheral vision.
- DP1 does nothing to stop the brewing incident.
Barney biting reporter
- Barney bites DP2.
- DP1 fails to handle incident.
- DP1 says, "See, you can't put your hands in his face" just a litttttle too late to be helpful.
- DP1 expresses no interest in skin-penetrating wound.
- DP1 seems disinclined to report the bite and walks away.
- DP2 reports he got wound care anyway.  Thank dog!  He doesn't mention suing Barney's family or sending Animal Control to take Barney away.
I hope that didn't happen!  But it could happen to you!  Do everything you can to avoid it!

Yes, it's normal to bite annoying people.  No, it doesn't make you a bad dog.  But yes, that's how they'll treat you anyway.  Don't do it!

Tell your humans to watch this video and learn from DB1's mistakes!

-- video by April D. Ryan, American Urban Radio Networks, via YouTube

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Wednesday, November 5, 2008

We now return to our regularly scheduled....

Whew!

All that human election doo-doo is done! The Human Assistant spent a lot of time obsessing over it! More than the last nine elections put together!

(Eighteen-year-olds got the vote in 1972. H.A. turned 18 in 1972. Two weeks after the election! But he still wasted time on it.)

Now he can stop reading all those politics blogs. And start reading dog blogs again. And helping me with my blog again!

xkcd
campaign 2008 is over ... time to start obsessing about 2012!

We got a call about Alizé today. She's still on vacation.

H.A. did something almost as smart as a Siberian Husky. The MaxFund shelter won't let anyone else call the spa where Alizé's staying. I guess it gets too distracting for the activity directors.

So H.A. got our vets to call. Since they've been the ones doing almost all her stuff. H.A. figured the spa couldn't really complain about getting a call from Alizé's own dokkers.

They could. (Of course!) But it would just be like what's in our back yard now. Sour gripes. (H.A. thought up that one. He says it will let Amber know that we're thinking about her!)

But all our vets' office found out was that Alizé's still getting lots of insulin. And her blood's still too sweet. They didn't find out whether she's been sprayed spayed yet.

So that's all we know about Alizé for now.

Does anybody remember the doggy Bullet?

Roy Rogers and his faithful German Shepherd Dog Bullet
Bullet and Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers waving while his beautiful Palomino, Trigger, rears high
Roy Rogers and Trigger


This would be the birthday of Bullet's human, Roy Rogers. Happy Trails, pardner!

-- xkcd comic by Randall Munroe, who graciously grants usage under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License
-- Roy Rogers photos from the The Official Roy Rogers Museum Website


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Monday, November 3, 2008

Alizé's on vacation

Alizé looks for dropped food
Nope - no food left
Alizé sniffs at the fridge
What's in the fridge?
Alizé gives up
Sigh....
Last week the Big Guy took Alizé for a ride ... and didn't bring her back!

Heyo!  Sinjin here with the news!

I thought Alizé got into so much trouble that B.G. got really mad and got rid of her. Tucker told about some of the problems she caused. But he forgot to mention that Alizé got into a tub of our joint-supplement chewies and ate about 50 of them.

At least, we think she did. B.G. thought the tubs were indestructible, but Alizé chewed off the lid. There was no sign of the chewies that were inside. He gave her stuff that made her barf a couple of times, but only her supper came out, which was kinda weird.

So he gave me the same stuff, three times! But I refused to barf. Nope, just didn't wanna do it. Besides, I didn't eat the stupid chewies!

Then a couple of days later Alizé chewed the covers off of a paperback book about jazz. Now, I know that B.G. was unhappy about that! But wait, there's more! The next day she found his postcard collection in the garage!

She made a lot of noise getting to them because the garage is full of junk and it's almost like everything is booby-trapped. So B.G. got up to see what she was doing, and he saw her with postcards in her mouth, and he took them from her. Next day, repeat.

So he loaded her into the Jeep and off they went!

But the Big Guy said that he just took her to a place where she'll get attention all 24 hours a day without him having to wake up every two hours. They'll make her diabetes better, so I guess she's on vacation! And then they'll spray her so she's not a girl anymore. That must be a pretty powerful spray!

Oh ... they'll spay her. Well I don't know what that means, but it doesn't sound like as fun a vacation as it could be.

We haven't heard how she's doing, but the dog lady at the MaxFund shelter says no news is good news. B.G. says that's a  He-​pissed-​'em-​all  Ojji-​cal  fallacy. I say, gimme a treat!

Oh ... those pictures at the beginning. Alizé was snarfing her food and then coming over to snag what I spilled while I was eating. I told her to stop, I'd get to it when I was done with what was in my bowl, but she was ducking down and getting under me and just being really disruptive.

So she got a special bowl that slows her down. It works, too! Then the Big Guy bought one for Tucker, who is more than disruptive when he inhales his food and comes over to my bowl. He just pushes me aside. Poor widdle me!

But now everything's good. Everything about keeping Alizé and Tucker out of my bowl is good, anyway. And that's a good start!

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