It's a Dog's Life

Today is Halloween. In honor of that, I post the photos of my only trick-or-treaters, as of 7:52 PM. We get so few trick-or-treaters on Halloween that I always buy BIG bars of candy, which was noted and appreciated by one of the kids this year. He tried to get his mother to take one! ("Mom, she has big candy bars! What kind do you want?") His mother, my friend Denise, refused. I don't know why. Maybe because she wasn't in costume and also because she had Rocky (one BIG dog) in tow.

I have a complete life-cycle of photos for these three kids on Halloween. They keep growing! And I always love it when they visit!

Now, apart from it being Halloween, today is also the day of my painting class. Everyone in the class has at least one dog, so they are reasonably cool with Anya and Tango joining us. However, they are less comfortable with me training the dogs. ;-) Apparently I make too much noise.

Tango was determined to eat his pop-up crate today, and I had to add a clip to keep the zippers locked together so he couldn't escape. (He proved, of course, that he was capable of it!)

Anya has agreed to pose for gestural drawing practice next week!

After class, we went to get my car inspected. The last day, 3 PM... and while we waited, I took the beasts over to the canal by Talbots & Forsythe Jewelers. We ate lunch -- they helped me with my minestrone, which I kept spilling -- and they ran around a lot!

Look at those ears fly!

We saw a train, up close. Then, when I was trying to socialize Tango by introducing him to a fountain, Anya made an executive decision: clearly I meant her to go into the business that owned the fountain. So this middle-sized black dog wandered into Forsythe Jewelers.

Fortunately everybody was enchanted with her and no one was afraid. Then her person showed up with yet another poodle in her arms, and tried to shepherd the bigger one out of the store. Of course, I didn't really get much help from the salespeople and the customers. Anya is way too cute and well-behaved for that; they wanted to pet her.

My car failed inspection. Bummer.

On the way home, I had to pull over once to tell Tango that the seat belt was not a chew toy. I gave him one of the chew toys Al & Lynn gave us last week. That helped. Chew toys everywhere!

I bought gasoline and the candy bars.

Since then, all three of us have been really tired and have taken naps. Tango is so tired that he doesn't care that he's captive in the kiddie play fence.

And Chuck arrives home in an hour... to a tired family, and a lot of mail and filing that I'm trying to sort out, but realistically not doing too well at.

Well, the kitchen timer tells me that it's time to take Tango outside again. "Do your stuff, Tango! Do your stuff!"

Never say 'never'

Well, just about the first thing I saw this morning was proof that I was wrong yesterday when I said that Tango had mastered the location of his peeing and pooping area. Apparently the pooping area is between the sewing machine and the piano! I'm puzzled: when did he have a chance (actually, several chances) to visit there without my knowing?

Zipper pulls

In my earlier post about Tango, I forgot the all-important zipper pulls! He really likes zipper pulls.

For one thing, they have lots of hand oils etc. There is one especially enticing zipper pull, on my bathrobe. It is pewter-colored and shaped like a snowflake, about 1.25" in diameter. I have a hard time convincing Tango that the designer didn't put it there especially for his licking and chewing pleasure. Licking I don't mind, but chewing it is verboten.

And puppy makes 4

If you are a puppy, everything is an opportunity, everything is potentially a toy.

Take, for example, the leaves on the back deck that litter Tango's path as he comes in from outdoors. Every outing brings another leaf into the house.

Or maybe you think a hemlock is just a tree, but NO! it's a den, it's a merry-go-round, it's 'pop goes the weasel!' Today Tango figured out that he fits under the hemlock and Anya doesn't. In their play, he used it both to rest and to tease Anya.

Then there are shoelaces, socks, sandals: all obviously great toys, and comforting, to boot, since they smell like the humans in the family. But off limits. I now have a considerable number of acceptable-for-chewing dog toys spread throughout the house so I can follow the advice of the Monks of New Skete and substitute an acceptable object for dealing with those itchy teeth!

Kathy thinks we got a dog in a designer color; Chuck thinks we got a doggy canvas and threatens to go to the 6Ts shop and buy bright hair dyes -- purple first! -- to make Tango more colorful.

I took them on a fairly long walk just now. We walked down to Nam's house and then came back through the woods. I'm tired, Tango is tired, and Anya isn't giving any reports. The hills let me know that I am out of condition.

Tango came in and immediately drank and ate (that order) and now is using his favorite 'cave' to rest. He gets under my desk, between my feet and the desk, and lies there for hours. I must remember not to step on him or roll over him with the wheels of the chair.



In the kitchen, Tango matches the white floor rather too well, so I have given him a bright blue kerchief as a flag that says, "Don't tread on me." It almost works.

We have a cute video of small puppy (12 lb) coming downstairs in a very puppy fashion. Also one of two dogs playing merry-go-round with Chuck. (Desk chair dog exercise.) When I figure out where to post them, I shall.

He is warm and soft and trusting. When I wake him up to go outside to 'do his stuff,' he makes sweet little sounds that make me imagine a baby looking for a place to nurse. I call them 'sweet milk-sounds,' which amuses Chuck. Surprisingly (to me) he has already mastered the concept of his peeing and pooping place. Not to say that we haven't had accidents in the house. We have. But when he is outdoors and needs to go, he heads there, and when I put him down there and say, "Do your stuff!" he squats and does it!

Right now I am using the kitchen timer to keep myself on a regular schedule: every two hours I get a reminder that it's time to take Tango out. It works pretty well.

So far -- 10 days -- we're doing well and enjoying the new puppy and he seems to be enjoying us!