R.I.P. Gremlin

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!

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Deconstructing snowballs

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.

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

Innocent until photographed

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.

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Uncooperation

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!

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Paw, Ear, Tail ... PET!

MaxFund swag, 3

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, 1

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

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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