Enough with the rain, already! - by Mom

My poor kids!

After nearly a month in quarantine for kennel cough, they're now dying to get outside - but not in this weather!!  Haley pooped in the sun room for the first time EVER this week.  She took one look at the incessant torrential downpour, and said, "Mom...I give up.  I'm NOT going out in that.  And I can't hold it anymore.  Sorry."

On the few occasions when I have physically forced her out into the yard, she picks a high spot, like a little pitcher's mound, and stands with all four feet practically touching each other while the waters of life swirl around her.  Doesn't like to get her feet wet.  It's pathetic.  But cute.  She's such a girl. 

Pilgrim is actually braver than his sister when it comes to the rain.  But... I'm not.  So housebreaking is tough.  I guess I'm a girl too.

I guess I'm lucky to have a dog-friendly sun room, which is more of a "mud room" at this time of year.  They have this funny habit of running from one door to the other.  I think they're hoping that maybe even though it's raining out one door, it will still be sunny out the other one.  But in the end, when they have energy to spare, they have no problem just chasing each other in circles in Mom's living room.  I try to avoid that.

Two dog jog! - By Haley

I taught my little brother how to go jogging!  He's pretty good at it, but he is too slow.  I wanted to run but I had to wait for my brother.  BORING!

My mom says, "don't worry Haley, we will still go by ourselves until he gets bigger."

I have a sneaking suspicion that my mom might be the crazy lady on the block.  People always look at us when I take my mom jogging while she rides her bike.  When we had my brother too, people were looking even more!  I have to admit, Mom does look a little funny riding along with the handlebars in one hand and two dogs in the other. 

I told everyone, "don't worry - I've got it all under control".  It's a lot of responsibility being the alpha female.

Kennel cough stinks! - by Pilgrim

My mom has been calling me a coughy-head.  Or sometimes a coughy-coughy-head.  I admit, I have been coughing a lot.  I don't know why, because I feel fine.  But my mom keeps putting me in jail!  Every time I cough - jail!  Every time I want to play with my sister - jail!  Every time I see a new toy I want to play with - especially if I want to run around the house with it - jail!  No fair!  My sister never has to go to jail!

There are a lot of fun toys around the house, too!  I love reading my mom's books.  And I really love stealing the remote control to watch TV.  But... my all time favorite toy: the dish towels.  My mom leaves them hanging off the stove and I'm sure they are there just because they're so fun to take!  It's like having my own personal toy rack and I get to choose which one I'm in the mood to play with!

And my mom totally can't catch me.  I just do figure eights around the kitchen table, then the coffee table, kitchen table, coffee table.  It's hilarious watching my mom try to catch up.  The only way she ever catches me is when she gets my sister to cut me off.  Together they can corner me.  But I still fit under the couch, so I can usually get around that move too!  Woohoo!

My mom is home schooling me since I am a coughy-head and I can't go to puppy class yet.  So far I'm getting really good at "look", "sit", "stay", "heel" and "down".  I'm really smart!  I'll totally do tricks for my mom as long as she keeps the treats coming.  And I just pretend I don't understand "no", so that part is covered.  I'm so much smarter than Mom!

The good news is, I haven't coughed for a couple of days, so now mom lets me out of jail a lot more.  My sister and I wrestle and wrestle until we are both covered in slobber.  Good times, good times!

Pilgrim has kennel cough and "down syndrome" - By Mom

About a week after Pilgrim came home, he started coughing.  We're talking the hacking kind of cough that results in gagging.  Poor kid!  So I took him to the vet and she said, "yep, that's kennel cough."  It's usually nothing - just like a cold.  But in a young pup who hasn't had all his vaccinations, it can turn into pnemonia, which is very serious.

So he's on antibiotics and cough suppressant and I'm supposed to keep him quiet.  The first two parts are no problem.  The third...

Trouble with kennel cough is, the dog feels fine.  Try keeping an 8 week old puppy who feels fine, quiet.  The only option is to confine the little dude.  This works to calm him down, but it's a lot like shaking up a can of Coke.  Or pulling the pin on a grenade.  You better hope you don't take the next step.  But...a pup can't stay in a crate forever.  So when you finally open the gate...look out!

Haley is as big of a problem.  I'm also supposed to keep the two of them separated, as it's highly, highly contagious (hence, the name).  But it took me about 0.002 days to determine that 1) she's already been exposed to it for a week, and 2) it's not worth it.  She is an adult dog who has had all her shots, so...they are in fact allowed together.

Except that the worst possible way to calm down a puppy is to turn him loose with another puppy.  So I have been trying to at least shape the insanity into something productive.  Training.

Because we're now all quarantined, Pilgrim can't attend puppy class until he fully recovers.  So I'm dusting off my Petco lessons from when Haley was younger and home-schooling.  Pilgrim is doing very well, except for "down".  He just didn't get it using the Petco approach.  I remember another puppy in Haley's class having the same problem.  That puppy ended up dropping out of the class.

So I took a different approach, which entails getting him to sit, and then simultanously saying, "down", holding a treat on the ground with my right hand, and sweeping his front paws out from under him with my left.  It took some coordination on my part, but it seems to be working!  He's now "down"ing on his own.  Good boy!

I'm also working with Haley again, something I haven't done for a while.  But now that training is in the daily routine, it's there for both of them.  This week Haley has learned, "go to your place."  This will come in major handy.  Such a smart girl!  Next week, tax returns.  I need to call the Lissners.

I'm the queen of the castle - by Haley

It's about time my Mom got me a little brother!  I have been trying to tell her I need one.  I ate the couch.  I dug up the sprinkler system three times.  I broke the fence three times.  Come on, Mom!  Get with the program, already!

Don't get me wrong - I love my Mom,.  She gives me lots of treats and petting and takes me to the park a lot to play with other dogs.  She lets me sleep with her.  And she takes me for jogs twice a day (although, who are we kidding?  I do the jogging - my Mom sits her lazy butt on a bike and pretty much lets me pull her along!)  But my Mom also spends a lot of time doing boring grown-up stuff instead of playing with me, so I get bored.

Finally, she clued in.  We adopted my little brother just before Thanksgiving.  We went to the same shelter where I rescued my Mom a little more than a year ago.  I had to go into a little room to meet my new brother to make sure we got along.  We sniffed each other's butts, and I told him it was fine with me if he comes to live with us as long as he brings his own treats.

I have tons of fun with him.  He can't catch me so I like to run as fast as I can around the yard and make him run after me.  But I'm totally in charge.  I always get to eat first and I get the petting and the training first.  I don't let him near me when I'm eating or when I have a treat, and he doesn't get to sleep in the bed.  He has to sleep in a crate.  I laugh at him because I remember those days!   My Mom says I'm still her favorite baby pie head but he is her little man now.

It's a lot of responsibility being the alpha female.  I have to bark at the door and chase the bad guys out of the back yard.  There are lots of bad guys, so I have to watch out for them.  I also had to help my Mom teach my brother to walk on a leash.  He's pretty good at it, but he still tries to eat the leash.  Kids! 

But I'm much calmer now.  Instead of destroying my Mom's stuff, I just chase my brother.  It's much more fun.  But my Mom says we have to calm down and relax a lot because my brother is a coughy-head, whatever that means.  I don't know what it means, but good luck getting us to calm down.  My Mom and I still go for our (my) jogs, but now after we are done we have to come home and take Pilgrim for a walk.  He's way too slow.  One day I'll have to teach him how to jog with me.  Mom says then she will stop riding her bike and instead buy a chariot.

Home for the holiday - by Pilgrim

Hello, My name is Pilgrim.  At least, I think that's my name.  All these humans have been calling me a thousand different things, but the name I'm hearing most of the time now is Pilgrim.  Sometimes I think my name is, "Little Buddy,", "Little Cutie-Head," or "Little Dude."  Once in a while, it seems to be, "NO!" 

You wouldn't believe the week I have had!  They took me away from my doggie family, made me go to the doctor three times, stuck me with some needles, forced some stuff down my throat, planted a thing in my neck (they called it a microchip), drove me across state lines, and cut off two little parts of my body (I think they said I was being tutored, but I sure don't feel any smarter!)  On top of all that, I seem to have this weird cough now...

But things are looking up.  I have gained 2.2 pounds in seven days, and now I weigh 16.2!  I have a new human Mommy and a new big sister.  Her name is Haley.  I have a big, grassy back yard to play in, a play room with a comfy couch I'm totally allowed on, two dog beds for me and my sister, two crates I eat and sleep in (and I'm really good at both of these things) and lots of toys.  My Mom lets me run around the house a lot, but she doesn't seem to trust me very much on the carpet.  And I get to go for walks with my mom and my sister at least once or twice a day.  I'm really good at it!  My mom says I'm really smart.  I guess it's because I got tutored.

My mom says a shelter puppy is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get.  So when I grow up, I want to be a giraffe! 

I got to come home with my new family just in time for Thanksgiving, which means I got to play with my sister and my three cousins.  There were lots of people there too.  They look like my Mom.  They didn't give me any turkey, but they petted my belly a lot so that was fun.  I like petting.

My sister and I play ALL the time!  She teases me with a ball and I try my hardest to get it away from her, but she's too fast.  But usually, she gives it to me after a while.  I love my sister, even though she already broke all my legs at least once.  They healed in a few minutes though.

Mom said, "Pilgrim, now that you're tutored, you're smart enough to start writing your own blog entries!"  I hope I can do a good job.  It's hard to write when you're only eight weeks old and you don't have any thumbs.

She says I'm going to start puppy training soon.  I don't know what she means, because I already have everyone trained exactly the way I want them.  Grown-ups are so weird!

Welcome to a new adventure - by Kris (Mom)

I have to admit, one of the huge bummers about leaving Egypt was having to leave my blog behind.  Then I adopted a new puppy and quickly remembered that you don't have to travel across the world for adventure.

So far I have picked ten thousand exterior screws out of my lawn by hand, plucked the puppy out of the neighbor's back yard, awakened sweating from a nighmare involving Comet and Draino, sprained my ankle and called the 24 hour Animal ER to determine whether or not saffron is toxic to animals (it isn't - whew!)  I've only had him since Wednesday afternoon, and this is Sunday morning.

So I decided to start another blog.  With it I hope to amuse cat owners, trade war stories and seek advice from other dog owners (especially the Lissners with their Stepford Dogs.  When I'm not home, my dogs get into trouble.  The Lissner dogs clean the house and do the taxes).  Second, I thought I could offer some insight for rookies considering a new puppy or an older dog for the first time.  Here's the first hint: There's a reason why nature evolved puppies to be so cute.  It's so you don't kill them.  Third, this blog will offer a real-life scenario for anyone curious about adopting, and raising, a shelter dog.  This process and its consequences are a little different from getting a dog from a breeder.  I'm an advocate of shelter dogs, but I'll try to stay off the soap box for those who are not.

After much deliberation, I named the little guy Pilgrim.  He's all black and white and he came home just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.  With no history other than, "came from a shelter in Utah," I know neither his age nor his breed.  The shelter guessed him to be an Australian Shepherd mix about 8 weeks old.  My vet guesses more like a Border Collie mix about 12 weeks old.  I'm not picky, as long as he's healthy, but I'm crossing my fingers he doesn't grow into a Great Dane.  I doubt he will.  His feet are pretty small, but his ears are enormous.  He's currently 15 pounds. 

I adopted Pilgrim from the Helen Woodward Animal Shelter, and he's my second from there.  Pilgrim's big sister is Haley, a black and brown German Shepherd hound mix (I think) of about a year and a half.  We guessed she'd grow to about fifty pounds. She's currently sixty-five (and has finally stopped growing, thank God). 

Since we lost her 14 year old big brother Mischief in June, Haley has been lonely, bored and a bit destructive, especially when Mom isn't home (and Mom has a full time job).  So far, Haley seems thrilled to have a new little brother - most of the time.  My primary job is to be the pack leader, which naturally entails taking care of everyone and providing the exercise, structure, discipline and everything else they need.  My secondary job is to help Haley maintain her position as alpha female - which is sometimes tough, because babies need lots of attention and let's face it, are so darn cute.

You'll be hearing from Haley and Pilgrim directly.  In the interest of giving everyone fair representation, I will be allowing the two of them to post their own blog entries.  I'm sure you're thinking, "that's ridiculous."  But if you follow this blog, you'll come to realize what I have already humbly learned: both of these kids are smarter than I am.  Stay tuned.