Tucker Talks Back!

Analysis

2010-07-18T21:32:00.001-06:00

mr_ed writing.

I think I know now what happened to Tucker.

I asked my veterinarians to review the notes, lab results, and x-rays taken by the emergency vet.   One of them sat down with me last week, and we hashed out a theory that seems to explain all the medical signs and symptoms.

We think Tucker died from a perforated ulcer, which would have let the extremely toxic contents of his digestive tract out into his abdomen.   ("Acute peritonitis" is a possible diagnosis.)

There's no direct proof of an ulcer, but there's a hint of leakage on an x-ray.   And the sudden onset of acute symptoms, the extremely high fever, pain in the belly....

In a vet hospital modeled after a human hospital, maybe Tucker could have been saved.   It might have required a radiologist to give a better reading of the x-rays, an internist to endoscopically examine and treat the perforation, and a surgeon to open the abdomen and clean out and treat the poisoning.   In other words, a team working just on Tucker.

But this clinic had a single vet in charge of more than 30 overnight patients, emergency and not.   Her goal was just to stabilize Tucker and keep him alive until the specialists came in in the morning, and that wasn't possible.

Whether she thought of perforated ulcer, I don't know.   She didn't mention it, even when the high fever and belly pain led me to ask about something sharp causing a puncture and then peritonitis.

So why the perforation if there wasn't anything hard and sharp in there?

Steroids.   Specifically, 3½ years of near-daily doses of prednisolone to help his breathing.   Tucker's respiratory system was permanently crippled by the pneumonia and other lung problems that he had when I got him.

So that's the theory, and I'm grateful to my vets for coming up with it.   It might be wrong, but I'm still grateful and very comforted that there is an explanation to hold onto.

Logically - when I'm able to think about it logically - I expect my senior pets to die before me.  But if they suffer, dammit, I want to know why.

Laugh at the devil

2010-07-16T07:14:00.000-06:00

mr_ed here.

If you're at a funeral and everyone leaves but you - if you're the guest of honor, so to speak - well, that's a topic for another day.

But any funeral you can walk away from represents a death that becomes part of your story, one that may get woven into your philosophy, one in which you may even find some humor, eventually.   And so about my parents and myself....

We were all born in different places in Colorado.   My parents both died in the Denver area, but neither of them in one of the same counties we were born in.   And in Colorado you can get certified copies of things like birth and death certificates either from the county where they occurred (five different counties, in our case) or from the state.

In settling my mother's estate, I need copies of three of these documents.  Do I get them from three different county offices or all from the state office?   Hmmm.

Nevertheless, I took a look at the website for the City and County of Denver (my birthplace).   I need my birth certificate to prove that I'm entitled to my parents' death certificates.  Denver says:

Eligibility

You may obtain copies of birth and death certificates if you have proof of your relationship:

Self
Father
Mother
Grandparent
Sibling
[etc.]

The state of Colorado has separate eligibility lists for birth and death certificates. For example:

Birth certificates may issued to: [that's what it says, honest]

The registrant (person name on certificate) [ditto]
Current spouse
Ex-spouse
Parent/co-parent
[etc.]

For some reason, though, "The registrant (person name on certificate)" isn't on the eligibility list for death certificates.

So Denver will sell you a copy of your own death certificate, but Colorado won't. And that concerns me. If there were a death certificate on file for me, I'd really want to see it!

But that's just how I am.

The end of an era

2010-07-08T08:33:00.000-06:00

Human Assistant again --

It wasn't a very long era, it's true ... about 45 months.  Longer than JFK's presidency, shorter than Carter's, and even that wouldn't have been as long as I thought it would last.

But while Tucker was with me, it was definitely his era.

My buddy didn't make it through the night.  He became just conscious enough to whimper about the pain somewhere in his belly; his breathing was becoming more labored; and his blood pressure wouldn't come up - which would cause him to go into cardiac arrest before long, the veterinarian said.

I let him go.  I stroked the side of his face and the top of his head like he really liked.  If he could feel the pain, maybe he could feel that too.  And while I watched his face, everything else stopped.

Everything changes so fast.  Yesterday he slept next to my bed and woke me up in the morning and woood at me to hurry up with food and was in everydoggy's way all day.  And today, none of that.

No amusing thumpety-thumpety running from the kitchen to his crate in the living room for his Human's Leaving the House treat.  No liver-colored nose under my wrist to get my hand off the computer mouse and onto the food scoop.  No mostly-obedient poking around the front yard late at night while I take the trash barrel to the curb.

What was my life like before all that?  I can't remember, and it was such a short time ago.  So very few years stand between now and my life before Tucker.  But I can't see what occupied those years because Tucker's presence stands so tall that it blocks my view.

I cherish the playfulness you showed only to me, buddy.  The humor that you wouldn't share with other dogs.  Oh damn, Tucker.  I'll sure miss you.

   -- Ed

What's going on?

2010-07-08T05:04:00.001-06:00

Dear friends of Tucker --

Human Assistant here.

I apologize for not helping Tucker write anything for several months.  My mother died, I lost a litter of foster pups to distemper, and I had issues with the shelter.  So I've withdrawn a lot.

The exception has been Facebook.  If you're there and haven't seen me yet, give Ed Dahlgren a shout.  I've posted some photos on FB, some recent that haven't been here in the blog and some older that you may recognize.

          =//=//=//=//=//=//=//=//=//=

Tucker got realy sick last night, awfully fast.  At 3:30 p.m. he was eating and being his usual self, then at 3:30 a.m. he was unconscious in the emergency room with people trying to bring down his very high fever and bring up his very low blood pressure.

I have no idea what's wrong, and it will be a while before there's any possibility of me knowing.  For the next three hours the emergency doctor will just be trying to keep him going, and then the daytime internal medicine staff will take over and see what they can figure out.

Thank you for your kind thoughts for Tucker in the past.  If you have any left over, he could probably use them now and over the next few days.

   -- Ed

Dogmic Paw

2009-12-24T15:49:00.003-07:00

The Human Assistant says there's something called the Car-mic Wheel.

I don't know what that is.  But maybe there's also a thing called the Dog-mic Paw.

I don't know what that is, either.  But maybe it's, like, you put your paw on my back and somedoggy else will put their paw on your back.

Or you make me wear funny things, somebody else will make you wear funny things.

Remember two posts ago I showed pictures of poor, pathetic Huskies being forced to wear antler headbands?  Well, the Human Assistant got his turn to look dopey too:

Queen	Sam
Mambo	Cheyenne

(Did Cheyenne make a rude sound?  She's debarked.  So she makes strange sounds.  Or is Santa just surprised because he forgot his glasses?)

These are four of the dogs at the shelter.  The ones that the Human Assistant likes best, I guess.  The shelter had an open house. They wanted people to come and donate some money and have a picture taken of their pet with Santa.

Not very many people came.  I think they knew that this Santa is real stingy!  But he donated money to have his picture taken with his buddies.  Not his real buddies!  Which is me.  His shelter buddies.

Although I think he wants to foster Cheyenne.  Which would make her not a shelter buddy anymore.  She's at the house again today!  That makes three times he's brought her here!

She doesn't like being part of the pack.  So we'll see.

And YES, these are ...

EXCLUSIVE  PHOTOS  of  the  HUMAN  ASSISTANT !

WEARING  A  DISGUISE !

HIDING  BEHIND  DOGS !

Now, these documentary pictures of H.A. are more rare than any ever taken of the Loch Ness Monster, Sasquatch, or autopsies of aliens!

And only our lucky readers can get these priceless images here!

So call now!

Operators are standing by!

They have to stand by!

We don't give them any chairs!

HAPPY  HOWLIDAYS !

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Oh Cur Rences

2009-12-22T15:01:00.009-07:00

All summer there was nothing going on.  Except for dopey Mancha coming here.  I still don't understand why the Human Assistant brought her here.

She would jump the fence.  Fine!  Let her go!  But, no.  H.A. would go out front and open the car door.  Mancha would come running and jump in the car.  H.A. would walk her back in the house.

Sheesh.

Either H.A. should have let her go.  Or she shouldn't have come running back.  What sense does any of that make?

Anyway.  Things started happening in the fall.  But would H.A. help me write about them?  No.  So here are the ones I can remember.

October 31    My Gotchaversary

November 2    Mancha adopted !!!

November 2    Sally Violet (Lucy) died

November 10    Alizé's birthday

November 17    Human Assistant's birthday

November 28    Mystique's birthday

December 7 - 9    Cheyenne came for visit

December 12    I'll tell you next time

December 14-16    Cheyenne came for visit

December 17    Colorado seized 100 sled dogs

Here is something coming up. Be sure to mark your calendars!

December 25 Equation of Time is zero

Here are some notes about these oh-cur-rences:

10/31 - The H.A. says he doesn't quite remember what day my gotchaversary was.  So October 31 is the day he made a page for me at dogster.com.  He says it's also a day when scary things happen.  I don't know what he means by that.

11/2 - We GOT RID OF MANCHA !!!  What a relief!

H.A. says he thinks it will be a good home for her.  Fine, fine.  Whatever!

I mentioned Lucy (Sally Violet) a couple of times ago.  That was sad for people at the shelter, I guess.

11/10 - We know Alizé's birthday pretty close.  We know when she was bought at a pet store, anyway.  So H.A. did something like subtract 10 weeks from that.  Again.  Whatever.

11/28 - It was dopey to bring Mystique here.  But she had fun with Jägermeister, that's for sure.  I think she was born at the Colorado Humane Society.  Or anyway, they knew her birthday.

12/7-9 and 12/14-16 - I'll tell more about Cheyenne later.

12/17 - The Human Assistant will tell me why he put this here sometime.  He says.

12/25 - He also says this is one of the days of the year when your clocks tell the right time.  Which is the time that your sundial says.  At noon your clocks could be wrong by a half-hour.  It depends on where in your time zone you live.  But sometime during the day they'll be right.  Probably.  Says the H.A.

I don't know what that all means.  But we don't have any clocks in the house anyway.  Or sundials.  Maybe we should get a sundial, whatever that is.  It's bound to be better than getting another dog!

The Human Assistant and I hope you feel caught up now.  Which is better than feeling caught.  He says we'll write again soon!

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Klingons in tights

2009-12-20T13:45:00.003-07:00

Some things just shouldn't happen.

According to the Human Assistant, one of those things is Klingons in tights. I haven't seen this. But you might have. If you were a fan of the TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation.

One time (says H.A.) Captain Picard wound up as Robin Hood. And the rest of the gang were Robin Hood's cohort(s).

Worf, which is a Klingon, says "I am not a Merry Man!" Well, DUH!

Klingons
man

And neither am I! Look at this! Something else that just shouldn't happen!

"Big Happy Family"	Is this really necessary?
Can you believe this?	Forget it!
I'm blind. I can't look at the camera!	What a thing to do to a guest!

No further comment is necessary. I hope.

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Oh. That last picture shows Cheyenne. I'll talk about her another time.

-- photos of Klingons and man from Wikipedia

R.I.P. Sally Violet

2009-11-22T02:53:00.004-07:00

Sally Violet (Lucy)

You probably remember Lucy. She arrived almost two years ago and was the most-okay of all the dogs that the Human Assistant has ever brought here.

Lucy was always checking things out in the yard. She found really interesting stuff sometimes! I just had to follow her around and see what she got her nose into. And she never ever annoyed me. Wow!

Lucy was a happy little girl. She made the H.A. smile every single day we took care of her for the shelter. And she almost never annoyed him! (Sometimes it's like humans just look for things to get annoyed about!)

When Lucy got adopted her new mom changed her name to Sally Violet. And her mom is the only one who's written to the H.A. a few times after adopting one of our fosters.

Well, it seemed like all she ever said was that Sally Violet was the most perfect dog ever! But still. We knew that ~~Lucy~~ Sally V. was going places and meeting people and dogs and living a good life!

Sally Violet got cancer and died three weeks ago. It's hard to imagine! She had so much life and energy! When the H.A. would come home, Sally V. would run to the bedroom and jump on the bed and roll around and check to make sure he was paying attention and having as much fun as she was.

I could do that. But why? H.A. doesn't keep treats in the bedroom. And that would be the only reason for a Siberian Husky to act silly like that. But Sally Violet did it because she was happy and it was fun.

She made a big impression around here. She got mentioned in 64 blog postings plus she wrote one herself.

There are pictures in 41 of those postings. (I'm counting on the H.A. to tell me the right numbers, here.) H.A. took lots of pictures back then.

In fact, he went through the computer looking for all his snapshots of Sally V. He said we have 321 of them! Most are no good. Crummy angle or too dark or something. But he'll give copies of them all to Sally V.'s mom so she can do something with them if she wants.

The picture on this posting is one he's never used before. So it took him hours to get it from looking blah to being sorta okay. He had the camera tipped, for one thing.

So he's looked for 321 snapshots, and looked for a few of the better ones, and worked on them, and worked on another project or two.

Also there was lots of sad time. And so three weeks have gone by since we heard from Sally Violet's mom about her dying.

People and dogs all liked Sally Violet. She sure is going to be missed!

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Stupid human tricks

2009-08-21T08:55:00.004-06:00

Saturday me and the Human Assistant went for a ride. Which is always fun.

And we left Alizé and that stupid puppy Mancha at home. Which is the way it should be.

While we were driving, the H.A. told me Alizé was at the shelter and we had to go get her. Wow! I don't know how she got out of her crate and out of the house so fast ... she's good! Maybe that stupid little escape puppy showed her a trick or two.

Alizé?

WAIT  A  MINUTE  !!!

That's not Alizé!  H.A. was trying to pull my legs!  Which I don't like. This was another of his stupid human tricks!

Sure, to a stupid human this Tasha might look like Alizé. But anydoggy could smell that she isn't Alizé!

But we brought her home anyway. Like I need another dog crowding me out of my own house!  ARRGH!!!

You don't smell like Alizé!

Huh‽‽‽

Where's the tour start?

What's that box thing?

Surf counters, right, ....

Anyway. Tasha's about 8 or so. In the pictures it looks like she and Alizé are good buddies, but that was just Tasha's first day here. They were kinda checking each other out. Alizé doesn't do buddies.

So at least they're not ganging up on me or anything. That wouldn't be good.

I'll have the H.A. write more when there's more to tell.

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

A visitor

2009-07-19T14:01:00.000-06:00

Who are you?

Who are you?

I didn't mind meeting this pup. As you can see. But she is so annoying to live with!

Even Alizé growls at her. When Alizé's trying to nap and the puppy keeps licking her ear and smelling her mouth and stuff.

Me, she growls at and barks at and.... I guess the runt wants to play. I don't want to play. I don't want her hanging around me either.

I chase her off. Oh, her name's Mancha, I guess. I chase her off but she keeps coming back. I bit her ear a good one. But she keeps coming back.

Grrr...!

She's ticking off the Human Assistant, too. She likes to wrestle our big pads and drag them around. Which is okay. But one of them she's torn holes in. Which by itself is okay, I suppose. But she pulls the stuffing out.

Mancha is a brat! That's just all there is to it. H.A. told me she won't be here long. But he doesn't know how long. Well. She has another ear I can bite. If she stays here too long!

No, wait a minute. It's already been too long. But you know what I mean.

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Here's another thing

2009-07-09T14:45:00.003-06:00

Yeah, I remember something. I've been bugging the Human Assistant to write another post for just days now! But actually it's not that big of a deal. It's about that other dog I have to put up with.

Alizé came here on June 21, 2008. H.A. says it doesn't seem like it's been that long. But it sure feels like it to me! So she had a fosterversary last month.

Thank dog she's almost ready to put up for adoption! H.A. says as soon as he knows her thigh-roid levels are good, then it will be time tell the shelter that she's as adoptable as she'll ever be.

(What's a thigh-roid? An android leg bone? I didn't know Alizé had one of those!)

I'm willing to help with a description! Here's what I've come up with so far:

OLD DOG NEEDS NEW HOME
Bad hips, no thigh-roid function, some history of skin problems. All but blind but easily gets food from countertops when nobody's home and can open bags and bins of dog food. Diabetic, must check blood sugar at least twice a day and give shots. Checking three or four times is better (middle of the day, middle of the night). Cataracts requiring eye drops. Stops screaming at being left home after a few minutes. Very loving at times. Looking forward to a home where she doesn't annoy the other dogs.

H.A. helped me with it. He made some suggestions. He says it's pretty good and describes her very well! Accuracy is important so adopters don't get ¡surprised! when they get home with their new dog.

I like the part where the human has to get off his backside to check Alizé's blood sugar so much. The human feels bad so it's a great time to beg for treats!

Let me know if you have any suggestions about the description so she'll get outta here faster!

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

I'm back, sorta

2009-07-01T16:03:00.001-06:00

I'm back. More or less. I don't know how much the Human Assistant will feel like helping me blog. But there's today, anyway.

I know it's been six months! But not much has happened. Really. Today I found a new roll of toilet paper and chewed up about half of it.

But that's no big deal. Except that it's about the third time that the Human Assistant has left one in reach lately when I've been bored.

He was outside playing with one of his little computers. Dumb. Because it's hot out there. So I had to find something to do inside.

H.A. hasn't wanted to write about the more important stuff. Like Sinjin being gone.

One weekend his spondylosis just got too bad. First he couldn't stand up but he could walk if H.A. helped him up. Then he couldn't stay standing up by himself. And he was in lots of pain.

So that Monday he took one last trip to the vet.

Sinjin's spine was already hurting when he first came here. But he hung in there and annoyed me for a year and a week. Of course, I got to annoy him for a year and a week too.

And you remember our friend Minky? She left notes here a couple of times. And she let me interview her a while back.

But Minky didn't make it through the winter. She had had new-monia way back, too. Like I did, I guess. I think she got sick because of breathing trouble again. I heard her humans were giving her oxygen, anyway.

So, well, it's hot and I can't think of any more to say. I'll have H.A. write again when I think of some stuff.

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Ho ho ho!

2008-12-25T03:29:00.012-07:00

Just walk in front of me, fat man ... just walk in front...!

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

I'm baaaack ... again!

2008-12-12T01:08:00.000-07:00

Hey! It's Alizé!

Dad and I wrote most of this on Monday, but he's been so tired that we couldn't finish it up and get it posted. He may be a little sick, I don't know. But here ya go!

I went to "the spa" again Sunday. I had to go because of Tucker, who snapped at me and hurt my eye.

Is someone here to rescue me?

Okay! Let's go!

Fortunately I didn't have to stay three weeks this time, only three or four hours. That gave dad time to go buy food and treats for us doggies! And to eat some supper, and then get his camera, and then come get me.

Of course I found the treats in the front seat!  Dried tripe!  Yum!  But he wouldn't let me take the bag into the back seat with me.

So I grabbed the bag of food, but it was too heavy for me to pull. But I thought maybe I could tear a hole in it! It was Sinjin's food. The poor guy has to eat regular old stuff while Tucker and I get special prescription food because dad likes us better.

That's what Tucker says, anyway. But this time Sinjin's food smelled like all kinds of birds like ducks and chickens and quail and turkeys!  Wow!  Dad says the bag has a picture of wolves chasing ducks.

I wanted some of that! But dad wouldn't let me tear a hole in the bag while we were in the car. But he opened the bag of chicken jerkey and gave me some of that.

You know what? It's kinda hard to eat crumbly stuff when you have some kind of weird thing around your head.

In fact, it's kinda hard to do most things with this weird thing around my head. So I make sure to follow dad real close and bang into his legs a lot!  tee hee!

Once I t-boned Sinjin and pinned him against the kitchen cabinets. He didn't know what to do to get out of it, so dad helped him.

Tucker's really annoyed with my head thingie. Well, so am I! It seems like everything in our house and yard has moved a little bit, and I keep running into things that I didn't used to.

And dad puts goop in my eye. I shut my eyes really tight, but that just makes him poke his finger in my eye. Which makes me close it really really tight! Then he pokes two fingers in my eye, it seems like.

So everybody be good so this doesn't happen to you!

⨇lizé

Ummm - excuse me?

2008-12-04T20:52:00.002-07:00

It's bad enough that the Human Assistant hasn't posted anything for me for a long time. (Oh, he started about three different ones but didn't finish them.)

But last night he went to bed and forgot me!  As in, shut the door and left me outside! Abandoned me! And it was 16° F last night!  And even colder in centigrade!  -9° C !!!

[mr_ed:  Yeah, but it was 264 K.]

And it was snowing!  Did I mention it was snowing ‽‽‽

[mr_ed:  Not inside the garage, it wasn't.]

H.A. took some pictures today. He said this is probably what I looked like last night. Except it was dark, so he didn't see me to tell me to come in.

My eyelids are getting heavy.

I am getting sleepy....

sleepy....

I don't care. That's gotta be abuse or something. I didn't have a nice carpet, kitchen floor, or doggy bed to sleep on. (I need all three during the course of a night.)

Anyway. It was only about five hours. And I found a frozen poop that I brought in the garage and chewed on. So it wasn't real boring.

Here are some pictures from last Friday night. That was our second snow of the season. So this post actually started out being called Second snow. Which was because there was another post before called First snow. Which, believe it or else, was after our first snow of the season.

Not too much red in this photo.	LOTS of red in this photo!
It was a dark and stormy night ...	with ghosts!
Alizé‽ Where are you‽	Coming!
Outside - no snow on Sinjin.	Inside - snow on Sinjin!

H.A. tried using a "night" setting on his dopey little camera. Most of the pictures turned red. Also, the flash would go off three times. So some of the pictures have ghosts!

I thought they were too dopey to show. But I will anyway. It's what we have. I gotta use what we got if H.A. is only going to help me write a post once every ninety-eleven days.

I made the H.A. take most of the red out of most of the photos. But not that second one. So you could see how dopey the camera made the pictures.

Anyway. That's all for now.

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Oh! Happy birthday to Burger King!

I'm baaaack!

2008-11-20T16:26:00.000-07:00

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

Guess what mr_ed got on his birthday on Monday‽

ME coming home!

Are you here to rescue me?	Okay! Let's go!
Could you let us out, please?	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

First snow

2008-11-16T04:01:00.001-07:00

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's not quite awake	Balancing the moon on my tail!
Bug Sinjin or check the fence?	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."

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Happy Diabetes Day!

2008-11-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

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.

"Puppies Blooming"

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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Why don't you just shut up?

2008-11-10T16:54:00.001-07:00

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 tú no te callas?
- No, tú.
- No, ¡tú!

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 tú no te callas?
- No, tú.
- No, ¡tú!

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!

⅀ⅈℕⅉⅈℕ

Happy birthday and all that

2008-11-10T13:36:00.001-07:00

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.

Same ol' same ol'

2008-11-09T23:35:00.000-07:00

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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How NOT to walk a dog

2008-11-07T02:39:00.005-07:00

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 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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We now return to our regularly scheduled....

2008-11-05T17:01:00.001-07:00

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

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?

Bullet and Roy Rogers

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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Alizé's on vacation

2008-11-03T15:05:00.003-07:00

Nope - no food left

What's in the fridge?

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!

⅀ⅈℕⅉⅈℕ

YAWN!

2008-10-26T19:06:00.000-06:00

The Human Assistant has been getting up every two hours. The last two nights. It wakes everydoggy up 'cause we think something's going to happen! But nothing happens.

Except he sticks Alizé with a pin to see how sweet her blood is. It's been too sugary since she went into heat at the beginning of the month. And her pee started having keytones again.

She had them when she first got here. I still don't understand why it's bad. But I guess it is. So some of the times he sticks a needle into Alizé too. Then he drains this fancy bag of water through the needle under her skin.

Is that weird or what? She drinks lots and lots of water. Then H.A. pours more of it under her skin. Yucko!

Anyway. H.A. gets up. Which wakes me up. Which makes me hungry. Every two hours! But he doesn't feed us every two hours. He should! Then maybe Alizé wouldn't steal food.

Except it's not really stealing. Our house, our food!

A few days ago she scored a couple of bagels off the stove. H.A. has never had to worry about leaving food on counters before. We're good doggies! Usually.

Now, Zot is famous for eating bread from counters. Back at her own house. H.A. didn't leave any out for her when she lived here.

So because of Alizé he put all the human food in cupboards.

Then she chewed into Sinjin's plastic food bin. A big hole in the side! It's on wheels, and while she was snarfing out of it, she pushed it out the back door and down the steps into the garage.

BONUS! Food everywhere!

Last night Alizé swiped a notepad and some papers off a stand in the kitchen. Hey! That's my job! Actually she's done it a couple of times. Except usually she's smart enough to do it while H.A. is out of the house.

So last night she only waited until he went to lie down in his bedroom. Alizé was actually walking toward the bedroom with the booty! I made some noises in the kitchen and H.A. got up and he saw Alizé with the stuff in her mouth.

BUSTED !!!

Anyway. Talking about being sick, today is the anniversary of the last case of smallpox in the world! Everybody getting shots (bleah!) actually wiped out a disease! It almost makes you want to go get all kinds of shots, huh?

No, probably not.

Then there's this. Military dogs now have their own hospital! That's pretty neat! And a good place to end this blog entry.

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Happy Apple Day!

2008-10-21T20:01:00.001-06:00

Alizé is a copydog!

=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/=

Thanks to michael j pastor for his comment!

So it couldn't be the Briggs-Briggs-Myers test. But it could be the Briggs-Myers-Briggs. Or just the MBTI. Which sounds kinda like a transportation agency.

Today is Apple Day! Someplace. No apples here, yet. But I'm watching for them!

And happy birthday to Alfred Nobel. He's a famous Swede. Because his father invented the modern way to make plywood. Which can be used to make dog houses.

Also happy birthday to Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He explored near Antacrtica!

And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold:
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.

And through the drifts the snowy clifts
Did send a dismal sheen:
Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken--
The ice was all between.

Speaking of ships. Happy Float Day to the grand old lady of the seas! The USS Constitution! She had a difficult birth and got stuck. But on October 21 she glided (glode?) into Boston Harbor.

Anyway. I was going to talk about Alizé's eating disorder. But I don't really have time now. Not if the Human Assistant is going to get this posted today.

If he doesn't get it posted today then we'll have to change stuff. Like

Happy birthday, Dizzy Gillespie!

So I'll just save it for next time.

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Happy Alaska Day!

2008-10-18T04:41:00.002-06:00

Alizé was supposed to write this time. She has stuff she wants to talk about. Maybe one of Sinjin's "wEirD tHiNgS." I dunno.

But she's kinda busy tonight. She got into food she wasn't supposed to eat. So her blood sugar went up. Which made her real thirsty. I don't know why it works that way, but the Human Assistant says it does.

So she's been drinking, I dunno, gallons of water tonight. And then guess what she has to do?

So I'll dictate this one to H.A.

Which is only right.

To quote a big blond doofus who happens to be right once in a while, it's Tucker's blog!

Alaska is really lucky. It must get three or four birthdays every year!

There's one in March to celebrate when the Russians signed the papers to sell Alaska to America. Then there's one today for when the Russians actually let America have the Alaskan territory.

I'll bet they have another one for when it became a state. And maybe even another day for when one of the mining camps burned down. To celebrate the invention of Baked Alaska.

Maybe. I dunno.

I hope that got you into the mood to celebrate. Because I'm just gonna mention a bunch of birthdays, is all. Pick one or two and have yourselves a pawty!

Happy birthday, D.T. Suzuki. Apparently he didn't sell motorcycles. Unless there was one called the Zen. Which is something he made popular in America.

Also happy birthday to Isabel Briggs Myers. She was the Myers in Myers-Briggs. Her mother was the Briggs. Isabel was a Briggs too, until she married Myers. Why wasn't the Myers-Briggs called the Briggs-Myers-Briggs? I guess so it wouldn't sound like a double play in baseball. Or maybe the Myers-Briggs-Briggs.

Happy birthday Charles Edward Anderson Berry. If you don't know who I'm talkin' about, I just got one thing to say - Johnny B. Goode!

Happy birthday, General Turgidson and General Patton

Gilligan's Mary Ann.

Mork's Mindy.

The transistor radio.

Animal-rights advocate Martina Navrátilová.

Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg, also known as Mussels and Brussel Sprouts.

Or something like that. I dunno. Read the article.

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-- images gratefully linked to at http://www.digital-artz.com/images/UserFiles/drsl1.jpg and http://photos23.flickr.com/26170096_383b6358db_o.jpg

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The real #300

2008-10-16T02:58:00.000-06:00

This is the real post #300. That's because it's Tucker's blog! And Tucker's blog started with post #2! (To paraphrase Tucker.)

Hey-o! Sinjin here! A couple of weird things happened today.

Some kind of car or truck zipped past our house with its siren going. No, that's not very weird. But out in the garage, somedoggy started howling with the siren! And somedoggy else woood just a little.

Now according to the Big Guy, he's never had a doggy sing with sirens, so I don't know who was out in our garage! I do know that Tucker and Alizé weren't in the house with me!

Sometimes at night you can hear sirens go down the highway that's about a mile down the hill from our house. Then you can hear Yip! yip! yip! from the creek that's next to the highway and also from across the hill about a mile away.

BG says that they're coyotes, which are like wolves, which are like dogs. He says wolves howl, so why don't coyotes howl? Maybe they're not so much like dogs as he thinks.

Hey! Maybe there were coyotes in our garage and they really howled! You think? Or maybe it was a couple of visiting wolves! Oooh!

Let's see. What was the other weird thing? Siren, howl, woo, yip, coyotes, wolves.... I dunno, I can't remember.

Maybe next time, huh? Bye for now!

⅀ⅈℕⅉⅈℕ

Oh yeah. Happy birthday to the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, which eventually made the movies White Fang, Snow Dogs, Eight Below, and other stuff.

#300

2008-10-15T03:20:00.002-06:00

Yes, ladles and jellyspoons and dogs of every type! It's post #300! The Human Assistant said we should do group photos. So we did. With a little turkey for encouragement.

United we stand.

Divided we nap.

(That's Meeshka and Loki on the computer screen. Reinhusky on top. He's been sitting there since last Christmas. He's getting very tired!)

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You may already be a wiener (dog)!

2008-10-12T10:46:00.001-06:00

The wieners have been announced in the Denver's Luckiest Mutt calendar contest!!! Like our friend Minky!!!

And, uh, Alizé and Sinjin. So big whoopdeedo to those two, too.

We voted for seven of the 15 winning dogs. No, we didn't vote for Alizé or Sinjin! (We weren't allowed to.) I suppose we would have if we could have. Them being Siberian Huskies and all.

Unfortunately, the genuine wiener dog wasn't a winner this year. Neither were the other Siberian Huskies in the contest.

Neither was Minky's brother, Moey. Even though we voted for him. I guess the rest of Minky's family didn't enter the contest. But you can see them on dogster on Minky's page or Moey's page or Benny's page, or.... You get the idea. Hope to see them in next year's contest!

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Calendar contest

2008-10-11T14:35:00.001-06:00

This was supposed to get posted yesterday. But. You know how that goes.

Who's a lucky mutt?

Me! Me!

Here's another example of no important news. No news about me. It's time again for the Denver's Luckiest Mutts calendar contest. Guess who the Human Assistant didn't put in the contest? Again?

But Alizé and Sinjin get to compete. Phooey.

Now H.A. says he's sorry he didn't enter me. But it's too late. Voting's even supposed to be over by now. So I have to wait another whole year.

You can see last year's Siberian Husky calendar boy in a post from a few months ago.

Two of H.A.'s pictures don't show up anymore in that post. There's just a rectangle with some words. They were on zootoo and now they're not. I think H.A. still has them on his computer, so I'll get him to make them show up again.

Anyway.

Happy birthday one day late to Fridtjof Nansen. He was an arctic explorer. With sleds and dogs and stuff. He was also a real smart guy who observed weird stuff with the ocean and nerve cells. Nansen was also a diplomat. So three cheers for another Scandihoovian!

-- photos by Nicole Howard

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I'm back, sorta

2008-10-09T15:45:00.001-06:00

There wasn't much news this summer. Except about Alizé. But I mean important news. News about me!

Here's an example of what I mean. Notice who's in two photos, and notice who's in only one!

Me in a relaxed mood

Alizé outside the doggy den

The biggest important news this summer was when the Human Assistant left me in my crate too long one day. Then he put me in the tub and washed my legs and tummy and stuff. That really wasn't a fun day.

The Human Assistant wouldn't help with the blog even by making up stuff because for a couple of months he wasn't feeling all that great. He said he was Le Thargíc. Is that French? He thinks changing his medicine might have been a problem.

Then he felt better. But instead of helping with the blog he's been paying too much attention to stupid human news. Grrr!

Well, here's one thing. Today is Leif Ericson Day. Again. H.A. says it snuck up on him. Again. No, Leif Ericson didn't have Siberian Huskies on his boats. So who cares?

Well, the H.A. is half Swedish. He says there wouldn't be Russians if it weren't for Scandihoovians. And if there weren't Russians, there wouldn't be a Russia. And if there weren't a Russia, then Americans wouldn't have had anywhere to go for sled dogs to bring to Alaska and call Siberian Huskies.

Or something like that. If he doesn't come up with something better, I may be too disgusted to write another post. So we'll see.

But thanks everydoggy who stopped by to say hello! It was nice! It made H.A. feel guilty! I got to post again!

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Sad news

2008-08-01T04:01:00.000-06:00

We're very sad that our friend Kelsey Ann is gone.

K.A. visited the blog often and left nice notes. It was great to have her encouragement! She gave the Human Assistant the idea of feeding me green beans, too. (Be patient. There's a picture in there somewhere of Kelsey Ann with a green bean!)

We'll miss K.A. very, very much!

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Making solar energy go farther

2008-07-04T20:11:00.001-06:00

Was last night the coldest night of the year?

I ask not because it felt like last night was the coldest night of the year. But because otherwise the Human Assistant was gonna name this post The Three Stooges on parade.

But last night was when the earth was farthest away from the sun. It's called appeal eon for some stupid reason. It happens every year. But I guess not always on quite the same day. You can get a calendar to remind of you these "important" events of the human world.

(Shouldn't being farther away from the sun make it colder? Hmmm.)

Another "important" human event was celebrated today. With fireworks, beer, barbecue. All that stuff. It's the anniversary of the day that a British officer named George Washington surrendered Fort Necessity to the French. It's celebrated because it was the only time Washington surrendered.

That humans remember, anyway. Sibes know how that works! Do something good later, and they forget about the earlier stuff!

Washington also started the French and Indian War. It lasted 9 years. So they called it the Seven Years War.

This made France give Louisiana to Mexico. Which gave it back to France. Which sold it to the United States. Which turned it into Arizona, New Mexico, and two-thirds of Texas and Colorado.

Here's an idea in case you ever decide to figure out humans. Take a nap instead!

A couple of days ago the H.A. tried to walk all three of us together. Two big Sibe dudes and little blind Alizé. And his walking stick and camera. This may have been more than he was capable of.

Huh‽‽‽	Alizé! This way!
Ooof!	Not. With. The. Program.
Am too!	Ooof!

ABM. Always Blame Management.

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Alizé does new stuff

2008-07-02T00:16:00.000-06:00

Last Friday I said nothing much was going on. But it got more interesting. The Human Assistant decided to take some laundry downstairs to the washing machine. He sorta forgot about a blind dog that lives with us for now.

He got down a few steps and then heard a dog come down two steps and stop. Ruh-roh!

Decision time. Push Alizé back up the steps? Or see what she can do? At the risk of bumpety-whumpety down the rest of the 13 steps? And then BONK on the concrete floor at the bottom?

She had mastered the three steps down from the kitchen to the garage in a day or two. But then she'd forget about the 1½ inches down from the garage to the back-yard sidewalk.

H.A. decided to go down the basement stairs a couple of steps ahead of Alizé. She went down two steps at a time. She made it fine. And back up again fine. Of course. So hooray for the blind dog.

-- Don't yawn! -- Don't stare!

I wanna go meet a doggy!

Saturday H.A. took Alizé to a MaxFund adoption event. H.A. thinks that that's Tink in the first photo. The little squirt is Henri.

Alizé got attention. Of course. It's that Snow Dogs thing. I'd thank Disney for advertising our handsomeness. But it makes people want Sibes who don't have clue ➀ about us.

::POUNCE::

::SHAKE–SHAKE–SHAKE::

Henri put both his front paws on top of one of the other dogs. Not Alizé. He couldn't have reached her. But on Dusty or Tink.

Then when she wanted to put her paws on him...! Oh, no no no no no! He scooted away. No fair when somedoggy three times your size wants to annoy you back!

So then Henri picked on his bandana. Did he ever whip that thing back and forth! Get it, killer!

Anyway. That's what Alizé did for excitement last weekend.

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O Canada!

2008-07-01T11:36:00.000-06:00

Happy Fête du Canada to our friends up north! (Except to any separatists who hate the idea.)

And happy birthday to Canadian Dan Aykroyd! He's the patron comedian of Siberian Huskies because his eyes are different colors!

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The Big Muddy

2008-06-27T16:13:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was kinda interesting.

The Human Assistant has the same disease/problem/whatever as Alizé. He says they're too sweet. ::GAG:: Sure. Whatever.

H.A. started a new medicine Wednesday night. Thursday morning he was not sweet enough. More so than usual. So he was stumbling around being too slow getting our breakfast.

While waiting for the "pink grapefruit slices in light syrup" to kick in.

But first he had to stick things in Alizé's pee. While watching a clock on the computer because it's the only one in the house that shows seconds as well as firsts.

While trying hard not to spill pee on the keyboard.

Though I don't know what that would hurt. He has to make sure that the pee doesn't have keytones in it anymore. If it did, and it got spilled into the keyboard, I guess it would make music while he typed.

But it doesn't. So what's the big deal?

So that was the morning's excitement.

Must. Dry. Fur.

Mmmmphff

In the afternoon the H.A. decided to give Alizé a bath in the bathtub.

She didn't scream or try to jump out. But she stood sideways as far from the sprayer as she could. H.A. had to bend all this way and that. And soap her twice and rinse her off twice. His muscles hurt today! Heh.

The tub wasn't draining very fast. So it looked like Alizé was standing in a shallow pool of the Misi-ziibi. Ol' Man River. The Big Greasy.

What?

white, white, white, black tips

Alizé got fairly clean on her top and sides. But her tummy and back end need more cleaning. But not today. H.A. wants to buy more tub laxative first.

He says the faster the water leaves the tub, the more dirt it takes with it. It's like rivers. Mountain streams run run run and take dirt away.

By the time they get to the ocean, they're big and tired and lazy. They can't carry the dirt anymore. So they just drop it. Like in the bottom of our tub now.

So that was the afternoon's excitement.

You're new!

Me me me go!

Then Zot came for a quick visit. She was actually pretty happy. Zot really hates living with other dogs. She's lots happier living with just her mom.

So of course Zot was happy yesterday! Her mom got home from work and took her for a drive and came to see us. What doggy wouldn't be happy with all that?

When her mom headed for the door, Zot figured she was going too. So did Alizé! For a blind little lady, she sure knows where the front door is! And how to push open the screen door! (H.A. says that one of these days he'll fix that.)

Zot's polite when she's not all stressed out. So she stood back to see what her mom would do. Eventually Zot and her mom were in their car and Alizé was in the house.

And that was the evening's excitement.

Nothing much is going on today. Oh well.

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Now who?

2008-06-26T03:05:00.001-06:00

Sorry for no posts in a while! The Human Assistant has been busy. As I'll explain.

Here's a cozy domestic scene. According to the H.A. He took these Sunday night.

Sinjin in his den.

Me 'n' some other dog.

Like I said before, the Human Assistant must've started missing Sally Violet pretty fast. He only got rid of her Friday afternoon. Then just a day and a nap later, he brought home some other dog.

I could smell that she came from someplace with lots of dogs. But not the H.A.'s usual shelter. And she looked and smelled like she hadn't lived with humans in a while! Not that I minded that, of course. It made her more interesting. But even her pee smelled funny.

The H.A. thought that since I  ☮ didn't mind ☮  the senior female ~~Lucy~~ Sally Violet, then I was bound to positively  ♥ like ♥  a senior female Sibe!

I wish I could make that human sound where they stick out their tongue and make it flap against their lips! Try bringing me a female friend that doesn't walk into me when I'm sprawled out! If you're going to bring me a female friend.

Then the next day he took this dog to the usual shelter and brought her back wearing a MaxFund tag.

Then the next day he took her someplace else and came back without her. He smelled like the place where I go to get weighed and shots and stuff. He said they wanted to keep her overnight.

Hey, I'm not greedy! Keep her forever!

Then nothing happened the next day. Which was Tuesday. Okay, H.A. says he spent a lot of time on the phone trying to find this dog's humans. From a chip she has on her shoulder. That's a strange thing for him to say! She's actually a pretty relaxed dog.

The phone calls convinced H.A. that her name really was Alizé. Like the shelter told him. He just kinda had trouble believing someone would name a Sibe a French word for wind. Or some French booze. Or a French singer. Or one of her French songs.

Wouldn't it make more sense to name a dog after French fries? (French french fries are pommes frites. Isn't that the breed of our friend Minky? )

Anyway. Then H.A. brought Alizé back on Wednesday. She had these places on her front legs with no fur. She said they scraped it off one leg and stuck a needle in her.  Ouch!

Then they left the needle in her leg the rest of the day!  Owooowooowooo!

She said at least she wasn't starving for a drink while this hose was connected to her. But she got tired of it and pulled the hose off that night. She couldn't get the needle out. But she licked it and chewed it and goobered it up so they couldn't use it.

So then they scraped fur off her other leg. And stuck a needle in that one! And left it there all day !  I thought there were humans who stopped animal torture like that!

Well. She got tired of that hose too. Pulled it off that night. They didn't hook it up again. Thank dog!

But they were sticking her with other needles. And bothering her while she peed. Which was pretty often. They kept catching her pee in jars. Humans are so weird!

I guess Alizé can barely see. When she first got here she ran into steps that go up. And tripped down steps that go down. Now she does fine on the steps. And actually, she doesn't step on me anymore. But she still gets too close! So I have to bark at her.

The Human Assistant gives her shots twice a day. She acts like she can't even feel them! And he catches her pee. And sticks a skinny piece of paper in it. Weird!

And puts drops in her eyes. Now that she doesn't especially like.

And she won't eat kibble now. She did before she went away for a couple of days. But I guess they spoiled her. And her second meal isn't at the same time as ours.

So me and Sinjin will be getting some stinky canned food at night! I hope that's in addition to medi-treats!

And that's the story on this other dog. We'll see what happens. Or smell and hear what happens. You know what I mean.

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Red Wubba red Wubba web Wudda

2008-06-21T23:20:00.000-06:00

No, I don't miss Lucy. I mean, Sally Violet. (That's her new name.)

She was okay. She hardly ever bothered me. But last week she barked at me! Just because I was eating her food! So I gave her a bite on her muzzle.

That's why the Human Assistant was mad at me. He doesn't like for the ~~merchandise~~ fosters to get damaged. Oh, and I gave Sinjin a second bite on the muzzle. So much for his "handsome face"!

Anyway. Here's the second part of the pictures from last time. The more important part. Especially since What's-her-name isn't here anymore.

Thank you.
Now, don't take my Wubba!	I mean it!

My Wubba!

Yup.

Mine.

Doo be do be chooo....	You're not taking it, are you?
Dang it!	Why'd you throw it?
Double dang it!	Not again! Forget it! Game over!

Yeah, so I guess the Human Assistant misses Sally Violet already. Last night he was looking at other dogs on the computer.

Another dog? Already ‽‽‽

He made notes about one dog in a notepad. So this morning while he was still asleep I took the notepad off the computer desk. In the back yard I pulled all the pages out. Then I came back in for a flyer he had for the Lucky Mutt Strut for the MaxFund shelter.

Shoot! That only had his notes for Vasha's blurb! So I only tore one corner off.

Then I came back in and dug around in a bag of stuff H.A. got at REI. There was some kind of doofussy pen from outer space or something. Still on its little card from the store. So I unwrapped that and gave it a good chew.

I happen to know that it's not the pen he wanted. But the store didn't have any of those. And they're not on the outer space website now, either.

So I'm sure he didn't mind. And I just dented the cap real good. Metal's sure harder to chew than plastic! He got the red one, by the way.

Anyway. I guess I didn't foil the H.A.'s plans. More about that another time.

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Blue Wubba blue Wubba boo Blubba

2008-06-20T23:29:00.004-06:00

I wanted to write "Woo Bubba"! But the Human Assistant wouldn't say it that way.

One time he let us play with these really neat toys. I can't link you to the exact page. But go to products then NEW PRODUCTS. Check out the dog in the picture! Then go to KONG Wubba.

I loved chewing the red one! But H.A. said they weren't chew toys. He took them away! ☹

Then a few days ago he got them out again to take pictures. Just to show that I'm destructive. How rude!

Gremlin's interested.

But Lucy takes it.

The other doggies gathered 'round. But H.A. shooed me away. Then very carefully and politely Lucy took the blue one. She had played with that one before.

So H.A. figured, what the hay. He didn't have pictures from the other time.

Hey! Come back here, Wubba!

Hmmmph!

He threw the blue one for Lucy a couple of times. And he let her chew on it a little. And he threw the red one for me. You know, neither one of us wanted to go chase the danged things!

Nuh-uh. Mine!	Hey! Quit throwin' it!
Must. Hide. In. Den.	You called?

That was a few days ago. Today he put the blue Wubba in a sack. And some other toys that only Lucy plays with. And some food and treats. And Lucy's medical records.

I was a good boy! I didn't take the papers out and chew them! Or the food! Or even the treats! I just took the Wubba out. Then the H.A. distracted me with food. And took the Wubba again.

Then he took the sack and Lucy and got in the car. I know he went to the shelter cuz he came back smelling like Vasha and Caesar.

But H.A. came in the house with ... no Lucy! He got rid of Lucy!

WHAT HAPPENED TO LUCY‽‽‽

Goin' to my new home!

Bye!

Oh. Lucy got adopted! Finally!

Maybe you remember that H.A. first met her seven months ago! Then I met Lucy in the yard at the shelter. Then she came for a weekend visit!

Since then she's been in posts on my blog about 50 times! You can see them all if you click on the label Lucy underneath this post. Or just her photos if you click on photo: Lucy.

If you feel like it.

More on Wubbas later!

(Why did H.A. give her that blue one? She's just gonna chew it up!)

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Discs vs. balls

2008-06-16T23:25:00.003-06:00

The Human Assistant hasn't wanted to help me write my blog lately. He's kinda mad at me. Plus there's been other stuff....

Anyway. This time we'll have a guest presentation. Not by a Siberian Husky. And not for Sibes, either! This is by a dog that chases things that humans throw. For dogs that chase things that humans throw. Which is not Sibes.

Okay, except for Dave. ☺ It's for you too, buddy!

"Tennis" Balls vs. Plastic Aerodynamical Discs
Got it.	No, it's mine.
Treat?	Okay, got it again.
No more treats?	Oops.

Heh. This makes it look like Vasha broke the disc on purpose. She didn't. But isn't it great when other dogs get in trouble?

H.A. saw Vasha when he took hamburger to the shelter last week.

He wrote a blurb for her. And took pictures. Obviously. (But not the one on her MaxFund page.)

Part 2 of Vasha's presentation is at the dogster page the H.A. made for her. It's the first one he's done for a dog that's not living here.

And she won't be living here! But not just 'cause I say so. Four-foot fence? Huh! She'd be over that in a flash. Buh-byeee! So no risk of her coming here.

Anyway. H.A. thought somedoggies might like to see a young, athletic dog in action. Even if she's not a Sibe. Even if she's chasing things that a human threw.

Enjoy!

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

R.I.P. Gremlin

2008-06-11T00:58:00.002-06:00

Gremlin wasn't doing too well lately. Bad kidneys, bad liver. Spine very bad. But she'd been going out to do her business. And eating. That kinda dropped off the past week, though.

The Human Assistant had said we'd be celebrating her birthday tomorrow/today/Wednesday. He doesn't really remember even what month he got her! But she was an 8-week-old puppy. Fourteen years ago.

Our dokker's records say she was born July 11. H.A. thinks that might have been Gremlin's first visit to her first vet. So she was either 0 weeks old then or 8 weeks old. H.A. split the difference and said she was 4 weeks old on July 11.

Which would make her birthday June 11!

Today (Tuesday) Gremlin woke up feeling really, really bad. She couldn't move and wouldn't eat. H.A. told us he was taking Gremlin to the dokker. But she wouldn't be coming back anymore.

He carried her out to the car. They went for a ride. It's too bad she was feeling so bad. She and Mutzger used to love going on rides with H.A. But Tuesday was her last ride with him. Until they meet up again.

When that happens she might be waiting for him in the Siberian Husky area. H.A. says Gremlin was an honorary Sibe because she could wooo really well!

Besides woooing, Gremlin was an escape artist! And she liked to chew the covers on hardback books. (But only old ones.) So that's why the H.A. called her an honorary Siberian Husky.

I hope Gremlin finds Mutzger now! Mutzger was a month or two older than Gremlin. But H.A. got the two of them from the shelter at the same time. They were buddies. Even though Gremlin teased Mutzger and made her mad.

I'll bet Mutzger would like to see her buddy again. They escaped and ran off together a bunch of times when they were younger. But Mutzger was part Chow. She'd usually come back to H.A. Gremlin would just run on by him. Like a Sibe!

Run In Peace, Gremlin!

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Deconstructing snowballs

2008-06-05T00:55:00.001-06:00

There hasn't been much to write about. Not much has been going on.

Lucy meets somebody interested in adopting her tomorrow/today/Thursday. The Human Assistant acts like he doesn't want her adopted. Maybe it's just not to this person.

I wouldn't mind her leaving. But I'd rather get rid of Sinjin. He's getting rude! So a couple of times I've had to pin him down and bite his muzzle. H.A. thinks the owies don't look good on his "handsome face."

So Sinjin should shut up! He gets pushy when H.A. fixes our medi-treats. Squeezes in close and barks. I growl at him to stop it. So what does he do?

Sinjin is now snarling at me! Ooh, it's a good scary snarl, too! Good lip curl. Someday H.A. will have to get a picture of that! Before I chew his nose off. (Sinjin's.)

It's been getting pretty warm some days. And the house doesn't cool off very well at night. Like the outdoors does. So one evening I teased Sinjin. But it was too warm to put much effort into it.

Tucker:  Hot?
Sinjin:  Thirsty!
Tucker:  Eat a snowball.
Sinjin:  A what?
Tucker:  Snowball!
Sinjin:  Snow?
Tucker:  Now?  No.
Sinjin:  O.

Wednesday evening it rained. H.A. got kinda chilly. So he closed the windows and the door out to the garage. Which he usually leaves open so we can go outside when we want.

After a while there was some muffled barking. Gremlin doesn't like noise very much. H.A. says she never really has.

So she went to the room where H.A. was reading and told him somedoggy was barking. Like he couldn't hear it. And decide on his own whether he wanted to leave Mr. Barks-a-lot outside.

Heh heh heh. I guess H.A. didn't count noses when he closed the door!

Another good thing that happened was that H.A. cooked 15 pounds of hamburger for MaxFund. Sinjin and I made extra-double sure to bother him while he cooked. But of course Lucy and Gremlin did their share too.

H.A. hasn't felt up to taking the hamburger to the shelter. So we've already eaten two pounds of it! The girls haven't had much appetite for our kibble lately. So we've all been getting some burger mixed in with it. Thanks, ladies!

Well, that's all for tonight.

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

mr_ed: Happy birthday to the Apple II computer and to Elvis Presley's first public performance of Hound Dog!

Will blog for dopamine

2008-05-31T16:26:00.004-06:00

One thing about the Human Assistant. He may not know much. But he's willing to waste lots of time figuring things out. (Sometimes.)

Minky wrote another comment saying she thought the faux-to of "The Last Resort in a Blizzard" was also a picture of Moey in a snowstorm.

H.A. couldn't just laugh and agree. Heavens no! He didn't think a little white dog would completely disappear in the snow. Well, okay. We did have a little white foster dog for a while. In the winter.

It was after that huge-ola snowstorm two winters ago. H.A. took lots of pictures of Poo-Poo. Or tried to. So he sorta knows about what little white dogs look like in snow.

So here's the H.A.'s impression of Moey the Cheshire Dog. The first one may not look like he already added in some "snow." But you can check it against the original.

Starting to snow!

Going....

... going ...

... Snowy Moey!

Maybe the H.A. spends so much time on these things because they trigger a drug in his brain. Or because it's good for him. Or some such thing.

He saw an article that said blogging may be good for you. Which was a kind of summary of another article that tried to be all scientific about it. And even used the word "dopamine."

The Scientific American article really only says that cancer patients feel better when they do some writing before a treatment. Then it herds in some guesses about another kind of writing (blogging). And other health problems. And how it works.

This reminds me of watching a human pretend to throw a ball. For one of those other breeds of dogs. The human only throws it once when you get right down to it. But they fill up the time with other stuff. So to the human and that other breed of dog it seems like more than it is.

Just put it out there, humans! Then we can decide whether to run with it. ☺ As they say.

-- original photo of Moey on dogster and all derivatives posted here remain the property of the original rights holders ... probably Moey's humans.

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

mr_ed: Science can be strange. The Wikipedia article says dopamine was synthesized in 1910, but apparently it remained undiscovered until 1952. Dogs make more sense than that!

Fraudographs and books

2008-05-30T02:48:00.002-06:00

I like books okay. But I can never finish them. I chew off a corner or two and then tear them into big pieces. Then take out a page here and a page there.

But the Human Assistant really likes books!  He can spend hours with them!  But they never look like they've even been in his mouth.

(Actually, I've never seen H.A. with a book in his mouth. So I wonder what he gets out of them.)

His favorite books are mystery novels set in Colorado.  (Why?  Left field!)  He likes them so much that he says he wants to write a book!

But it wouldn't be a novel. It would be a tourist guide. Every page or two he'd list a place, like Aspen, Boulder, Colorado Springs, Denver ... and like that. Then he'd tell what mysteries were set in those places.

So why all this yakking about him?  Well, he also wants to put in a picture of each place.  The trouble is, some books are set in phony places.  So.  What to do?

Remember last time I mentioned that H.A. sometimes does a bit of phony-tography? Why not phony photos for phony places?

Here's a mountain trail in the "dead" of night and a ski resort in a blizzard:

Danger on Vampire Trail

The Last Resort

I think the first one is what Minky mentioned in a comment. She remembers a faux-to of Benny. And here it is!  Only this time it's a fraudo-graph of a fraudo-place (that's in a real book). Kinda slick of the old H.A., huh?

(Actually, he stole the idea from post cards you can get in the Colorado Springs area. "Pikes Peak at Night" and "Pikes Peak in a Snowstorm." But it's not like the publisher could claim H.A. swiped a protected image or anything.)

Did you notice who the detectives were in those two books? Other famous ones have come to Colorado too, like Jessica Fletcher and Mike Shayne. And one time, even Oscar Wilde!  Who was a character. But not as fictional of a character as the others.

Anyway. That's enough and then some about bogophotos and the like.

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

mr_ed:  For those who like (extra-)light romantic mysteries ... in The Last Resort, Frank Hardy kisses Nancy Drew!
Tucker:  ::SLURP!::

Innocent until photographed

2008-05-28T16:08:00.005-06:00

Yesterday the Human Assistant saw me with my nose in the kitchen sink.  There were things in there that smelled like bacon!  But I couldn't reach them.  That's a deep sink!

Anyway. H.A. didn't have his camera ready. So he didn't get a picture. So it didn't count.

And I saw Sinjin with his paws and nose on the stove!  I thought he was supposed to have bad hips!  I don't think H.A. saw him.  So Sinjin's still a goody-goody.  As far as H.A. knows.  No pictures of it, anyhow.

But do you know what?  Sometimes H.A. makes up photos!  It's true!

One summer he worked at the Northern Wyoming Daily News. This was during Woodward and Bernstein's time as huge celebreties at The Washington Post. So you'd think H.A. would be all ethical and everything.

Well! One day he was walking around town with his camera. He saw a fire in a dumpster. He claims he took some pictures of it and one of them was on the front page the next day. Here's his "photo" of a gas can in the fire:

Gas can in fire.

Jeep in sandstorm.

Steller's Jay at dusk.

mr_ed: Not true! They used a real photograph that I snapped and developed at the newspaper office!

Anyway. He put these fraud-ographs on the forum for MaxFund volunteers and claimed they were real pictures.

mr_ed: I did have a beige Grand Wagoneer! You can ask Gremlin!

Yeah, well, I think that's enough of this for today.

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Lilac alley

2008-05-27T01:46:00.000-06:00

"Orange puppies"?

Doesn't ring a bell.

In case anydoggy thought we were through with all those lilac pictures. From after my grooming. We weren't.

Here's an alley. Gremlin used to explore along an alley when she got out. But that was before I was born, even! She thought alleys were more interesting than streets. I guess the Human Assistant thinks so too.

He could have taken me along when he got out of the car! It would've been a nice little walk. But nooo! He thought he needed both hands to take nice pictures.

He shoulda taken me. The pictures wouldn't have been any worse using just one hand. And with a little pulling on the leash. Occasionally.

Anyway. Here's one block of an alley. There's one bush that has two pictures. But other than that you can see that 7 houses had lilacs in their back yards. That you could see from the alley.

Who knows how many more houses had bushes that were hidden in the front yard? Or side yard? I guess Denver people love lilacs!

Oops! The H.A. just realized that there are two bushes that each got two pictures! So make it 6 houses in one block. That you can see from the alley. And so on.

Now, in case anydoggy thinks we're through with all those lilac pictures. From after my grooming. We are.

Now we can move on to something more interesting! Like what I'm doing! When I'm not trapped in the car!

I'm not sure what that will be, exactly. I'll have to take a nap on it.

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Orange puppies?

2008-05-26T03:43:00.006-06:00

♫♫ Doo be doo be doo.... ♩	Tucker said there were puppies.
Orange puppies!	Do you see any orange puppies?
Poppies, not puppies! Teeheehee!	Oh! Hahahahaha!

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Say good night, Dick!

Dick Martin, thank you for bringing your laughter into my home!

-- Ed

-- photo of Dan, Dick, and Dick (may they rest in peace) from Associated Press

Happy birthday, Seabiscuit!

2008-05-23T21:48:00.006-06:00

(referring to Friday, May 23)

Winners!
You got the Molson, eh?

People thought neither of them would race again. But a crippled jockey and a 7-year-old stallion that had had a ruptured ligament won the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap.

Their time would have won the same race last year! With a million-dollar purse! Old? Injured? Don't count us out!

Oh yeah. Also happy birthday to the North West Mounted Police!

On King! On you Huskies!

I may be the last dog on the internet to play the Japanese name game. But I was tagged by Thor. And by an entire Army of Four.

OOF! That's a lot of tagging!

If you don't know the game, tag yourself and then visit their blogs! ☺

Real Name Game Name Tease Name

Gremlin ji-shi-ku-rin-ta-ki-to Taquito Bandito

Lucy ta-do-mi-fu Lucy-fucy

Sinjin ari-ki-to-zu-ki-to Ricky Toe

me chi-do-mi-me-ku-shi Cushy, Yak-a-Story

Real Name	Game Name	Tease Name
Gremlin	ji-shi-ku-rin-ta-ki-to	Taquito Bandito
Lucy	ta-do-mi-fu	Lucy-fucy
Sinjin	ari-ki-to-zu-ki-to	Ricky Toe
me	chi-do-mi-me-ku-shi	Cushy, Yak-a-Story

-- photos from Wikipedia

ⓒⓗⓘ-ⓓⓞ ⓜⓞⓢⓠⓤⓘⓣⓞ

More uncooperation

2008-05-20T17:42:00.001-06:00

First of all, uncooperation from the Human Assistant! It's been almost a whole week since he helped me write anything here!

Okay, he was working on a boatload of photos. Not photos that I'd pick. (And it is my blog!) But since he took 'em, we might as well use 'em.

Here's a Beagle that lives two yards away. Two back yards. Things wouldn't be very pleasant if he only lived two yardsticks away!

Bark! Bark! Bark!

What's goin' on?

Hey!

The Beagle was rolling around in the grass. And it wasn't the happy-to-be-alive rolling that Lucy and Zot do. It was roll-in-stinkies rolling.

I know because it stood up and peed on that spot and then rolled some more! Now, the H.A. is an artiste in the fine art of photography. So he said,

mr_ed: Hoooee! I gotta get me a pitcher of that there doggie!

So he did. Whoop. Dee. Doodoo. But the Beagle wouldn't cooperate and roll around any more.

Then there was the uncooperation of our lilacs. All bent over. Probably from one of our rainstorms.

They're doing better now. But I'll bite the H.A. if he takes another picture before we get this posted. So no views of standing-up lilacs for now.

At least, not our standing-up lilacs.

I mentioned that I went to see Diane Doggroomer, right? On that trip H.A. took 75 pictures of lilacs and only 4 of me!!!

H.A. says if I knew military talk I could say it was definitely Whiskey Tango Foxtrot time. But I don't, so I guess I won't.

Lovely front yard ...

... and a closer look!

This is where our trip home started. It should've taken 15 minutes to get from here to MaxFund. Where we got some stuff. But it took much longer. Like a certain three-hour cruise.

These pictures embarrass me! The lilacs all look really crummy up close. H.A. says that's another uncooperation. His old digital camera.

Here's a house with two lilac bushes:

One in the side yard ...

... and one in the front yard!

H.A. wants to buy a camera that costs more than two years' worth of kibble‽‽‽

Here's another house with bushes in two places plus one peeking over from their neighbors:

At the back of the back yard ...

... and the front of the back yard!

Sometimes humans put bushes where there's not enough room for them. Not when the bushes are grown up, anyway.

Crowded against a side fence.

Room to grow.

But lilac bushes can look scraggly until then. And they're probably hard to groom.

Except for sitting still. Heh.

Here's a house with seven lilac bushes! If I counted them right. I'll bet they'll look great when they're all grown up. I don't know if you can tell from the pictures. But each one looks like it's a different color. To me.

Bushes # 1 & 2 ...	... # 3 ...
... #s 4, 5, 6 ...	... and bush # 7!

Lilacs tucked away:

Hidden away?

Peek-a-boo!

And lilacs you can't miss! Huge ones:

Big bush!

Bigger bush!

And lilacs in the front yard:

Lilacs right out front.

On show for everybody!

I told H.A. he needs to pick his photo subjects better. (More pictures of me would be good!) So he doesn't have to worry about a new camera.

But maybe he'll decide to stop buying me food. In which case I could use some help. And the rest of us, of course.

I'll let you know!

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Uncooperation

2008-05-14T21:22:00.000-06:00

Okay, yes.

I finally went to see Diane the Doggroomer last Friday.

Did you see how white my face was in that last post?

Except for the red at my mouth.

This picture has even more.

It comes and goes. It bothers the Human Assistant but not me. My dokker doesn't know what to say about it.

H.A. thinks it's like when a dog licks an uncomfortable spot. Then it turns brown. Does anydoggy else have this? Around their mouth?

Actually, it does bother me because H.A. tries to rub it off. And he says it works, a little bit.

Anyway. We have been studying hard for a class we're taking. Cooperating for Photos 1 at the Stormy Zoluschka Kryschtal School of Siberian Studies!

The first lesson about cooperating for photos was, Don't cooperate! The second was, Cooperate if you want to!

Of course Sinjin and I had an instinct about these ideas. But it's very good to have them stated. And to practice them!

Cooperate?

::giggle:: ::snork::

That's a good one!

Now, Lucy is a different matter. She's one (or two) of those breeds that likes to do what humans say.

But around here there are no ducks or geese for her to retrieve like a good little hunter's helper. (Too bad she didn't get that home by the lake!)

So instead she wants to sniff things. Especially under them. So it's hard for the H.A. to get her to pose. Or she wants to hang around him. Too close for his crummy camera to focus.

So Lucy doesn't have an instinct for uncooperation. But her other instincts make her uncooperative for photos! Which is just as good in this case.

Lucy, smell the lilacs!	Huh?
Good girl!	Huh?

Notice that somedoggy old ... I mean, experienced ... snuck into all four of those pictures of Lucy!

Stormy made another point today. Keep the bipeds working for it! It's like a game of Simon says. Only the human doesn't speak dog. And the Sibe has selective hearing. ☺

If they don't ask you to stay out of the way, well....

If they want a picture of you smelling a flower, you could maybe just look at it.

Smell the flowers?	I guess I could look....
Me too.	Me three!

Hey! You two don't have to put your nose on it just 'cause he said to!

::sigh:: Well, that works to keep the human guessing, anyway.

I can't wait for Stormy to give us another lesson!

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Paw, Ear, Tail ... PET!

MaxFund swag, 3

2008-05-12T03:05:00.001-06:00

Hello, this is Lucy. No Lucille Ball jokes, please! I'm not the redhead in this house!

I was upset when my peep took Tucker for a ride on Friday. I wanted to go too! But I had to stay and gnaw on the nummy chew bone treat that we get when he leaves the house. Oh well.

I know they went to MaxFund because they came back with more goodies with MaxFund's name and logo on them. And we had to pose with the things, of course.

Last time Gremmy posed, she was stuck with the crummy water bottles. So this time she got to model a really cool one! Except that the peep said it was a cup, or a mug, even though all the cups and mugs that I've seen have handles and no lids! But that's what he said it was.

Gremmy also got to model a bag of beans. Now, I don't care for beans. Tucky gets long green ones in his bowl instead of real food so he can lose weight. (It really worked for Holly Bolly Banana Boo!) And Gremmy and Sinjy ask for them too. (Sinjy asks for them really loud, like he does for everything.)

But these beans smelled different, and they're little and brown. Well, whatever. I still don't like beans.

BUT! Take a close look at the bag! There was a contest for naming the bag o' beans, and a contest for designing the label, and GUESS WHAT‽ My peep won the naming contest!

I'm so proud of him! I think MaxRoast is a strange name, but then I don't like beans even when they're roasted. (Peeps do strange things to food!)

Look at the cool cup!	And the smelly bag....
Doo be doo be choo....	What are these?

I was chewing on a stick that the peep made for me when he gave me these strange blue things he said were carabiner-flashlight-whistles. I didn't know what the heck they were for! But then he picked one up and made it whistle.

I cocked my head. How'd he do that? He showed me a bunch of times.

You whistled?	I heard you, I heard you.
Bark bark bark bark bark!	Yeah?

I don't know if my peep plans to get anything else from the MaxFund store soon. Hmmm. I could use a pretty new tag.... I hope I get to go with him next time!

£µ¢¥

MaxFund swag, 2

2008-05-10T23:38:00.006-06:00

Здесь Синджин. I mean, is Sinjin here! ☺ The rest of us doggies get to do a couple of posts because Tucker (Таккер) went on a long ride with the Big Guy yesterday.

He came back looking and smelling funny. Maybe he finally went to see Diane the Doggroomer! A friend came over today and said, "Oh, Tucker, aren't you byooteefull!" Heehee!

Awhile back, the Big Guy used a photo of Lucy counter surfing as his avatar on the online forum for MaxFund volunteers.

It looked like Lucy might have been washing dishes, so one silly volunteer asked whether Lucy does windows. Well. Remember when Lucy licked the piano?

Much later the B.G. got a couple of pictures of her licking door jam. It wasn't on the door, though. It was on the wall. So he posted one of those pictures and said that Lucky did walls.

Back to current events. After B.G. posted the first water bottle pictures to the MaxFund forum, the silly volunteer asked whether Tucker and I do windows.

And this was his reply:

Sinjin - Do you do windows?
Tucker - Windows I don't. Doors.
Sinjin - You do doors well! Nodoggy can get through you!

Tucker - Is hard work. Must rest often. Drink often.
Sinjin - From your MaxFund water bottle?
Tucker - Yes. MaxFund.
Sinjin - I do windows!
Tucker - Doing how?

Sinjin - Breathe on, lick. Wipe with nose.

Tucker - Thirsty work.
Sinjin - I must drink often from my MaxFund bottles!
Tucker - Yes. MaxFund.
Sinjin - I'll trade you these two soft, chewy bottles for that hard one!
Tucker - Hmmm.

Sinjin - They're older. No telling what stinky stuff is inside!
Tucker - Yes. Stinky.

Tucker - I will keep shiny new bottle!

Come to think of it, Таккер the saber-claw has shorter tootsienails now, too!

⅀ⅈℕⅉⅈℕ

MaxFund swag, 1

2008-05-10T03:48:00.002-06:00

Hey all! This is Gremlin!

By pup-ular demand (thanks, Minky!) the Boss (whose name isn't Bruce) is helping me do a posting! I'm new at this, so I'm gonna start with an easy one. This post is adapted from one Boss did for the MaxFund volunteers forum.

He posted a note before this one saying that MaxFund's new water bottle (and you can have one too!) is made of polycarbonate, and Consumer Reports magazine has a safety warning about polycarbonate in the May issue. (See that article online and another one, too.)

So then Boss felt like he should be supportive of MaxFund. So he rounded up his new MaxFund bottle, his older MaxFund bottles, and two he got from the grocery store. And me and Sinjin and Tucker. I don't know how he got them to talk in that silly sorta-Slavic accent!

But here ya go:

Shiny!
Seasoned!
Store open 24/7!

Tucker - Is from Russia, Siberian Huskies.
Sinjin - Is home of Molotov cocktail.
Tucker - Yes. Molotov.
Sinjin - Do not buy glass bottles!
Tucker - Anarchist Trotskyite terrorists will steal!
Sinjin - Make Molotov cocktails!
Tucker - Blow things up!
Sinjin - Bad.
Tucker - Yes. Bad.
Sinjin - Very bad.
Tucker - Buy only plastic bottles.
Sinjin - From MaxFund!
Tucker - Yes! MaxFund!
Gremlin - Does King Soopers do refunds?

Nearly bomb-proof!
Lids might Popov.
Lids do pop off.

-- Gremskiy-Korsakov

Signs of spring

2008-05-08T00:39:00.000-06:00

Aries and Taurus are signs of spring. Thanks to everydoggy who helped me think about being a ram or a bull!

I'm not sure what to do about that. It doesn't help that Colorado State University has a ram as a mascot. And the University of Colorado has a buffalo. Or bison. Or whatever.

Suppose I pick ram. Will the Human Assistant think I'm disloyal? (He went to the other college.) Suppose I pick bull. Will H.A. be insulted? Think I'm dishonoring Ralphie? (Who is a creature of dignity and honor. Of course.) So I don't know.

Lilacs are another sign of spring. Our lilac blossoms are starting to open now. H.A. tried to take some pictures of them Tuesday. But the camera wouldn't focus on the flowers. He says, at least they smell good now.

Speaking of smells. Another sign of spring is the neighbors' first barbecue. Guess whether us doggies are more interested in lilacs or in barbecue‽‽‽

Hey! Smell that?	Bar-B-Que!
Forget about the lilacs!	What lilacs?
Hot dogs!	I'll pose with the flowers!

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Speaking of pugs

2008-05-07T16:47:00.001-06:00

Summer and smushnoses

2008-05-07T15:53:00.003-06:00

The Human Assistant spent lots of time lately writing long posts for the MaxFund volunteers forum.

Here's his latest one. I decided I should get some benefit from all that work! But he took a long time reformatting it for the blog. I thought it would take all the rest of the week!

Maybe you've already read it. (Like Mis Minky and her loyal subjects.) Don't worry! There will be a new post later!

Summer isn't here yet, but May is normally the month of Denver's first 90° weather of the year, and that means being careful about overheating animals with mushed-in faces.

As cute as brachycephaly is (and I had a beautiful blue Persian with copper eyes that, I'm pretty sure, was stolen), smushface breeds just can't handle the heat as well as animals with more normal snouts.

The classic breeds are Persians and Pugs:

Persian
Pug

But there are others, including Himalayans on the feline side, and Boston Terriers to Japanese Chins to Shar-Peis on the canine side. At the other end of the spectrum are dolichocephalic breeds such as Greyhounds and probably all of the sighthounds:

Borzoi
Pharoah Hound

Anyway, no long walks on hot days for the flat-faces. Here's the forecast:
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE 30-DAY OUTLOOK MODEL INDICATES THAT DENVER WILL HAVE AT OR SLIGHTLY BELOW NORMAL PRECIPITATION DURING MAY 2008 AND THE MODELS INDICATE THAT DENVER WILL HAVE NEAR NORMAL TEMPERATURES.
This seems consistent with predictions that we are coming out of a La Niña cycle (data on pages 26 - 30 of this pdf file) - which anyway seem to have less impact here in summer than in winter.

Now in case you were wondering how global warming will affect brachycephalic breeds....

(You were, weren't you? No? How about now? No? How about now?)

There's this story from Peter Munro at Australia's The Age:
You thought penguins were in gravest danger of extinction from global warming.

Now bulldogs, boxers, Pekinese, pugs and French mastiffs are among the breeds of dogs that may not see out many more Australian summers, experts say.

Rising temperatures could also cast aside Persian cats in favour of fuller-faced felines.

Citing Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, RSPCA chief veterinarian Chris Thurgood said forecasts of frequent 40 degree [104° F] days would gradually deplete local stocks of short-nosed dogs and cats, which typically suffer from respiratory problems and heat stress.

"Darwin's theory will take care of them," he said. "They won't be around in the future; they won't last."
This is probably the most ignorant thing I've ever heard a vet say! In the first place, theories aren't able to act on their own. But what's more important is that most breeds of domestic animals exist because of human design, not natural selection.

As long as humans want Persians and Pugs, there will be Persians and Pugs. Even in Australia! If heat-related deaths go up, I'm sure that breedings per year will go up, too. (Not that I'm saying that that's the right thing to do. I'm saying I think that's how humans will respond.)
The director of Melbourne University's veterinary teaching hospital, Mark Davis, said dog owners should act responsibly by opting for long-nosed or long-tongued breeds such as greyhounds or golden retrievers. Dogs cool themselves by panting, which makes summer more difficult for breeds like bulldogs and pugs, which typically have squashed airways.
Yes, let's all act responsibly, shall we? But could we start with chipping and neutering, please?
Boxer Association of Victoria president Lionel Bleakley owns 14 boxers and three French mastiffs, which are also counted among the Brachycephalic dog breeds, with shortened or squashed faces.

"My dogs have been lying quite comfortably on the concrete," Mr Bleakley said.

"Dogs adapt and people adapt to how to raise dogs correctly, such as not walking their dogs on a hot day."
Tucker loves lying on the concrete. We'll see how Sinjin responds to our summer. (He's from Indianapolis ... compare our climate with theirs.) Sibes are out in storms at -60° to -70° F at the Iditarod (when suitably conditioned, of course).

Well, anyway. For those who want to stay on top of all the changes global warming will bring about, I found a link to this story on a page with links to reports on a variety of topics from acne to yellow fever. Note the warning about dead links, and enjoy!

-- photos from Wikipedia

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Happy birthweek to me!

2008-05-04T19:01:00.004-06:00

Sometime in the last week or so it may have been my birthday. I don't remember when I was born. But Polaris Siberian Husky Rescue said I was 8½ or 9 when I came here.

That was a year and a half ago. At first the Human Assistant said I was 9 then. So I'd qualify as a senior. ☺ Then six months ago he decided I had been 8½. So I'd have a gotcha-versary and a birthday!

So H.A. thinks he remembers that I came here on October 28. Which would make my birthday April 28. More or less. Which was last Monday. But he forgot. So he hurried up to get a celebration in before he was a week late! ☹

He even went to my dogster page and changed the date to April 31. April 31 doesn't exist? That's his point! If there's no April 31 then it doesn't matter what day we celebrate my birthday! Is that cheating or what‽‽‽

Cervus elaphus	♈ Taurus	Bison bison
Ovis canadensis	♉ Aries	C. l. familiaris grumpus

So speaking of stars (Polaris). What's my sign? H.A. says that depends.

No, I won't let him change my birthday again! But he says I can pick which system I want to use. The old, worn-out astrology like most humans around here know about. Or the look-at-the-stars astrology. Where the sun really is in the constellation of your sign.

The first way I'm a Bull. The second way I'm a Ram.

Hmmm. That's a tough one! I don't know which I'd rather be!

So I asked H.A. for info about rams and bulls from around here. The Front Range. Not the Front Range where humans live. The Front Range where animals live.

And he came up with the ones in the pictures. Colorado tax money paid for them, he thinks. So H.A. doesn't feel bad about posting them at all.

But he found a bunch more rams from around the world! That he didn't want to steal the pictures of. So go look for yourself. (Warning! Some of them don't seem to be alive anymore. They're just kinda standing there. In case that bothers you.)

At least one of the international rams lives right where some of us Siberian Huskies originally came from!

So that's one point for being a ram. Another is that a ram is the official Colorado State Animal. Although there's also a Colorado State Seal. So I'm not sure about that.

Anyway. Can anydoggy help me decide whether to be a ram or a bull? I'd appreciate it!

-- photos of ungulates from articles by Prof. David M. Armstrong at the University of Colorado at Boulder (the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, the interdisciplinary Environmental Studies Program, and the Museum of Natural History) via the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

Why yes, the Human Assistant did graduate from ♪♩"dear old CU!"♩♩ Why do you ask?

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It's maybe May

2008-05-01T17:24:00.000-06:00

It may be May. It may be snowing. Actually, the snowing stopped. But it's still May.

I don't know what the Human Assistant has been doing instead of helping with my blog for so many days. Yesterday he didn't feel so good. But Monday and Tuesday he worked on lots of photos. Which he put on the MaxFund volunteers forum.

But the pictures are of us! Me and Gremlin and Sinjin! No pictures of foster Lucy at all! So why did he put the pictures there?

I'll claw him and get him to put them here, too.

Meanwhile, here are pictures of this afternoon.

Not enough for a fort.	But almost enough to eat!
Wow, look at the grass!	You're wet!

Oh, did I mention? Yesterday it was 82° again! And today it snowed again! Only this time it snowed in May!

So, "a double dumbass on you," Sinjin!

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Spotting the sun

2008-04-26T23:31:00.000-06:00

Have you spotted the sun lately? Because the sun needs more spots! Without enough spots to cover it, the sun gets cold. Then the earth gets cold. So the sun needs hot spots!

These aren't like doggy hot spots. The sun's supposed to have spots! Like a Dalmation, almost!

Otherwise we get snow in the summer. Like today! Okay, it's not quite summer yet. Because then I would have apples! Not just apple flowers. But we did get the tiniest snow storm today. Which is Saturday. Or was. Depending on when you read this!

The snow is almost invisible in these little pictures. Click on them to see bigger ones! Except for the apple flower. That was two days ago. It wasn't snowing then. But there's snow in the other pictures.

First apple blossom of spring.	But not all that's white is blooming!
I love the smell of snowfall!	Not enuff of it to eat today.
Eat grass!	Yeah, yeah.

(The Human Assistant says there's also the original article about sunspots and a two-part argument against that ... and probably more. For those who like to read about these things.)

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Closing Pandora's box

2008-04-26T03:17:00.004-06:00

Sinjin here!

Okay, so Lucy won't be going to live with Wally the Corgi. His family's concerned about Wally getting into that pond, which would be not good at all!

The Big Guy suggested filling it with sand and a rock or two, à la karesansui (which Wikipedia's article says is "sometimes mistakenly called a Zen garden" ... by the Big Guy, for example! ☺).

But this is no good either because the family wants a moving-water pond, and they just installed it last year.

Even as I dictate this to BG, I can hear Sibe people clucking their tongues and even laughing. Gardens (and the landscaping in general) belong to dogs, and people are only occasionally allowed to work in them!

Wally-type dog

Badger Hound

I think maybe these low-slung dogs (and Wally is lower to the ground than the one in the picture) could be kept out by a low barrier. A Wally Wall! ☺ And unlike hounds that go digging into tunnels to chase badgers (which you can see cute pictures of here, here, and no doubt elsewhere), Wally probably wouldn't be a risk for digging under the wall.

So now comes the question: Will Wally stay out of the pond now that he's seen Lucy in there?

Hope so!

⅀ⅈℕⅉⅈℕ

Deskunkification

2008-04-24T14:00:00.000-06:00

How about if we call the blog, "Sinjin Gets Rolled by Tucker!"

The dog of a brother of a friend (and major volunteer for MaxFund) was skunked yesterday.

The Human Assistant has never dealt with this before. Please post or give us a link to your favorite deskunkification procedure!

He will also go searching through SIBERNET archives. Which he was supposed to do last night. Instead of spending all that time helping somedoggy else write on my blog!

Many thanks!

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Lucy's bad example

2008-04-24T01:46:00.002-06:00

Pembroke Welsh Corgi Sinjin here!

We need to change the name of this blog!

How about, "Sinjin Lets Tucker Talk Back!" ::Arr arr::

I'll admit that I went grazing in Lucy's and Gremlin's dinner bowls, and the Big Guy surprised me, and I swung around real fast, and Lucy got a bit excited about that.

Well, hey. It happens.

I'm not for-sure certain that Lucy bit Tucker, though. Maybe she snagged him with a claw. (Or, as Agent 86 would say, a craw.) But as Tucker would say, Anyway....

Hey ... does that dog in the picture up there look like a herding dog to you? The breed comes from Wales, and that's what it's supposed to be! Maybe the pre-Celtic Welsh had armadillo ranches, or something!

Okay. But! Does it look like a water dog? These are water dogs:

Duck-Tolling Retriever	Flat-Coated Retriever	Portuguese Water Dog
Irish Water Spaniel	Newfoundland	Labrador Retriever

Lucy went to visit a family that might be interested in adopting her. She and the Big Guy met Wally (like the Corgi up top) and his mom, and then they went to their house and met the dad and daughter.

What a great place! Too bad BG forgot he had his camera in the car!

The house is next to a lake, and Lucy watched ducks swimming around! Their fence is only 3 feet high, and Lucy stood up and put her paws on the top rail. She probably wouldn't jump over, but that's a bit of a question.

Then when she ran ran ran from the fence back to the house, she was so happy to be stretching her legs! And she rolled and rolled in the grass! It was like all those happy photos in her dogster portfolio!

And then...!

The family has an itty-bitty pond about 5 or 6 feet across. Lucy just waded right in! The scene looked just like that Flat-Coat in the picture just above here! (Except for not being as large a pond.) Water up to her tummy and everything!

And then...!

Lucy walked on out of the pond, and Wally started to walk right in! If they'd let him, he'd have looked like a submarine with legs! If you could've seen him, but you couldn't have because he would've been all the way under the water with no periscope. That wouldn't have been good! Although maybe, if he could keep his eyes above water, he'd look like a Corgidile!

Wally's mom said he had never tried to go into their pond before!

Was Lucy being a bad role model, or what? Later she waded through the pond again, and Wally tried to go again, and his mom stopped him again. Poor little guy! Led astray by a female!!!

The family wants a companion for Wally. They said he doesn't really pal around with other dogs, but they don't want him to feel lonely while they're away from the house. Well, I'd say he was kind of interested in palling around with Lucy. Not tons. Not like he wanted to play with her. But he did follow her around some and ran across the yard behind her.

Lucy was the Ice Maiden, like always. "Oh, hello little doggy. Nice to meet you." Then off she goes. So that may not be enough palling around to suit the family. Plus, there's the fence. And the dad doesn't really want another dog.

So, who knows what will happen? The BG was a little worried about the fence. He's not sure how Lucy will deal with ducks and geese once she gets used to the idea of them being there. Watch them? Chase them? Jump the fence? Dig under it or push through? It's not a super-sturdy setup.

We'll have to wait and see.

Speaking of MaxFund foster dogs ... and Tucker doesn't know yet and you didn't hear it from me ... Simon. Shhh!

-- photos from Wikipedia

⅀ⅈℕⅉⅈℕ

Wrapping up snow

2008-04-21T04:46:00.000-06:00

Okay. Thanks for interrupting, Sinjin! We need to wrap up this talk about the last snow. It's been three days. No use letting it linger. Like three-day-old fish.

Speaking of snarfing. Oh, yeah. We'll talk about snarfing, all right. After a few photos.

Question. What could Gremlin do Thursday morning that she couldn't do Thursday afternoon? Two words. Both start with "sn." And knowing Gremlin, there's an arf! in there too:

I love the smell of snowfall....	I love to eat it!
::snarf snarf snarf::	Yum!
8:59 a.m.	2:59 p.m.
♩♩♫ I walk alone, can't you see.... ♩♫♩♩	♩♪♩♪♪ Doo be doo be doo.... ♩♪♩♪♪
Dog, who called that conference?	There's no neighborcat there!

Anyway. Let me explain why Lucy bit my ear.

It's Sinjin's fault!

He and I usually finish eating first. Then sometimes I go edge Lucy away from her bowl. But not very often.

But that night Slim Jim beat me to it! He was munching Lucy's food! The Human Assistant pushed him away, and Lucy went back to eating.

Then he (Sinjin) went and got into Gremlin's bowl! H.A. snagged him from behind. Sinjin twisted around real fast and made a move for H.A.'s hand.

Not that Sinjin bit H.A. or anything. But Lucy goes Laura Croft when somedoggy does more than just back talk to H.A. He had to calm her down and tell her it was okay. She could go back to eating.

So then I came along to graze out of Lucy's bowl. And she hadn't got all the Rambones out of her system. So she took it out on me! Instead of on Sinjin like she should have.

And counter surfing. Give me a break! I almost never counter-surf! I leave the bread alone! I leave the potato chips alone! But meat? Those who can, do. Those with bad hips or spine, don't.

An' dat's da name of dat tune.

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Rambones: Rambo hormones

Counter-counter-surfing

2008-04-20T04:32:00.003-06:00

I notice that Tucker didn't tell what happened after the Big Guy put hamburger in our dinner bowls!

Well.

The Guy had to go to another room for a minute and leave out on the counter the rest of the 5 pounds of burger, which was for MaxFund dogs, plus the grease he poured into a bowl. When BG came back, guess who had his paws on the counter?

(Hint: His name starts with T and ends with ER and has UCK in the middle!)

The BG thought he was eating the MaxFund hamburger, so he swooped in and told that other dog to get down. But as it happens, he wasn't eating hamburger ... he was drinking grease!

BG said, "That's a different story. Okay. Go ahead and do it some more and let me take your picture." To give Tucker credit, he rarely rarely counter-surfs, so there aren't any pictures of him doing it. And BG has felt like a second-class Siberian person without any pictures of us counter-surfing!

That is, of Tucker counter-surfing. I, of course, am too mature for that sort of thing.

But would Tucker put his paws on the counter again? No-sir-ee-bob. He looked at BG. He looked at the counter. He looked at BG. He sat. He must have been thinking, "Look, I'm sitting! Give me some!" BG walked into the next room again to tempt Tucker. Tucker just sat there. See that big grin on his face?

I went in and sniffed at the counter. It smelled pretty good! But I didn't get up there into the other doggies' stuff. And I don't mean just the meat. BG was saving the grease to put on Lucy's kibble on days when she dilly-dallies around and doesn't get started on her food until we're already done. Even Gremlin's willing to eat Lucy's food for her. With a little added burger flavor on it, Lucy doesn't stand around and wait to dig in.

In fact, Lucy tried to get at the stuff on the counter. But I don't think she was q..u..i..t..e tall enough to get into it. But I'm not sure. But then! Who should come snuffling around like a roly poly bear stocking up for a long, lean winter?

I'd leave it to your imagination, but in fact there is photographic evidence:

Not while you're watching!	Smells good!
Yum!	He's out of the room, now....

BUSTED

!!!

By the way, Tucker, I noticed that you also didn't mention that bite on your ear. You sure showed Lucy who's the boss of her dinner bowl!

Nyuk nyuk nyuk!

⅀ⅈℕⅉⅈℕ

Snowpic-o-rama

2008-04-18T21:30:00.000-06:00

The Human Assistant took about ninety-eleven pictures of the snow yesterday and the day before. Which he then had to admire. And fiddle with. And choose. And upload. Which is why we didn't have a post ready this morning.

Yesterday the Big Blond (four-legged) Doofus had pictures of it snowing not very hard Wednesday afternoon. Here are some from Wednesday evening. After a few more hours of snow:

Aack! Snowflake … in ... eye!	Not nearly enough for a fort!
12/21/06: Watch, now.	12/21/06: There - a bowl!

(Those last two are from the ginormous snow storm we had a couple of months after I got here.)

Then the H.A. decided to go out for supper. Before he fed us!

And oh, by the way, he lollygagged around "on his way to the car" and took some pictures out front:

Our north-facing house.	Wait ... I saw something!
Great time for a supernova!	It's ... it's ... a cameo!

So then the H.A. stood out there taking pictures of Sinjin being doofy in the window. Which would be okay if we were doing something interesting at the time. Like eating!

But no. He hadn't eaten yet. And then some years later, we'd get to eat. Good grief!

Anyway. H.A. took these close-ups with the super-extendo-telephoto feature on his camera. It's pretty crummy. From the viewfinder you can't even tell what part of the scene you'll get.

I'm sure there are other reasons that the pictures are crummy. But that's the only one he'd admit to.

Look at that stuff come down!	Over there....
And over there....	And over there again....
And back over there....	I made myself dizzy!

We call it "snow," bub. So what's it like on Mars this time of year?

Anyway. Now we've covered Wednesday. Next time we'll finish up the snow. With pictures of Thursday. And maybe Sinjin will have some pictures from his home planet. Heh.

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

p.s. - H.A. fried up 5 pounds of hamburger when he got home! It was all supposed to be for MaxFund. But he put a bunch of it with kibble in our bowls. So we wouldn't remember to be annoyed about a late dinner!

So that worked out okay.

October 31	My Gotchaversary
November 2	Mancha adopted !!!
November 2	Sally Violet (Lucy) died
November 10	Alizé's birthday
November 17	Human Assistant's birthday
November 28	Mystique's birthday
December 7 - 9	Cheyenne came for visit
December 12	I'll tell you next time
December 14-16	Cheyenne came for visit
December 17	Colorado seized 100 sled dogs