Making solar energy go farther

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

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!

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

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.

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Now who?

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.

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