Dogmic Paw

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

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!

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

R.I.P. Sally Violet

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!

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Here's another thing

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!

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

Alizé's on vacation

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

Blue Wubba blue Wubba boo Blubba

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

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!

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

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.

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

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.

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ

More uncooperation

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!

ⓣⓤⓒⓚⓔⓡ