older dog loves to watch the deer out front and we always tell her when there's one across the street so she can watch it through the storm door
this morning, there was one on our sidewalk to the front door about 10 feet tops from the house. it froze when it saw me and just stood there. I opened the front door and told her there was a deer out front. she jumps off the couch and ambles over to the storm door. she realizes it's *right there* and punches the screen door open with her right front paw and takes off after the deer as fast as I've ever seen a dog with a repaired ACL run.
she chased it about 100 yards before it disappeared into the woods and she looped back to come back to the house. she was so proud of herself and immediately went back to the couch like "yeah, I did that."
what a goof
"We're not the smartest people in the world. We go down the straightaway and turn left. That's literally what we do." -- Clint Bowyer
The plan all along has been to get another dog. Probably two. But we were definitely going to be dog owners again, and maybe we'd figure it out this fall, after we spend the last two weeks of August away at the shore (in houses that are not dog friendly because we finalized everything after Gusto passed away), after the kids get settled at school, after I maybe have to take the rare work-related trip in September or October.
I think I've mentioned, not lamented, but mentioned, that my wife has gone full dog lady the last couple of years. Combination of pandemic-related work stress, the pandemic-related realization that most people suck, and the slow decline of Gus.
She saw some puppies on the feed of a rescue she follows. One of them was deaf. His rescue name was Loki. They were going to be available to meet a couple of Sundays ago. We fucking reiterated multiple times that we can't get a dog yet. Before I said yes (I said yes because see the previous paragraph). In the car on the way there. In the parking lot. In the lobby surrounded by puppies.
So yeah...
The words "foster to adopt" were barely out of the rescue representative's mouth before the paperwork was in my wife's hands. I either make a scene or give up.
So we went home with a four-month-old, non-house broken, non-leash trained, deaf puppy. With no notice and prep. Good thing we still had the crate that Gus refused to ever use. Good thing I work from home. I moved my workstation from the basement to the dining room table so I can keep an eye on him (easier than puppy-proofing the basement). I was pretty royally pissed at her that Sunday and Monday. It's receded to reserving the right to occasionally give her shit about how sleepy I am (he gets up at around 6AM).
His name is Biz (Markie). His eyes are blue. In the past 12 days he's learned to sit. He's learned to not be scared of the stairs off our back porch. He's learned to play fetch. I'm not sure if he's housebroken but if I'm diligent about getting him outside he goes outside (no accidents overnight). He likes laying on the floor next to me while I work. He's learned how to jump on the furniture. He chews everything. He's still scared of the leash.
Tonight we have to bring him back to his foster for two weeks while we're on vacation. She's going to handle his recovery from the most humane of sack tricks, and he'll be with his littermates (2 partially deaf sisters). I'm back to being sort of pissed because his well-being is something I'll legitimately worry about on my vacation.
Because it's not official yet, we haven't posted pictures anywhere. I'll do that when I get back. Worth the wait. I'm gonna miss him.
Had to head south on the dreaded Garden State Parkway on one of the last Fridays of summer. Left that highway for a smaller highway and then left the smaller highway for a small road and turned into a nice neighborhood. We were looking for house 8, on the right side of the road, and stopped where Waze seemed to indicate we should go, which was a house with a huge IMPEACH BIDEN sign and various “we back the blue” type signs.
We looked at each other, she looked at the dog, and then I pulled ahead to check the next house and they had a big white van in the driveway like you might use to transport dogs and what looked like an 8 over the door. Phew.
We put a hold on a pug we met yesterday, so we're going to scrounge up all we need and hopefully pick him up next weekend. His name is Adam and I won the battle to keep it.
well this is gonna be someone's new signature - bronto
Giff wrote: ↑Mon Aug 22, 2022 10:26 am
That's awesome, rass! Good luck!
We put a hold on a pug we met yesterday, so we're going to scrounge up all we need and hopefully pick him up next weekend. His name is Adam and I won the battle to keep it.
At one time we had four of our own. I sure miss those days. All dogs are great but pugs are at another level.
I would like expensive whiskey.
We only have beer & wine...
What am I, 12?
Our neighbors had a pug who habitually escaped their backyard and one Halloween I found him wandering around and they weren’t home so I took poor Gus back to the house and carried that little dude around under my arm all night.
I called him wheezie but his name was puggles.
He escaped once while we were on vacation and their pleas for help made it to FB where my wife saw them and I felt a little bad about not being around.
We got two as puppies and two as older rescues (one was three or four; the other about 10). The first puppy was the escape artist...we had a split rail fence with chicken wire and she found every gap she could. She never went far but it was nerve wracking each time.
I would like expensive whiskey.
We only have beer & wine...
What am I, 12?
mister d wrote: ↑Thu Aug 25, 2022 11:25 am
I have a very strong anti-small dog bias but pugs and puggles are exempted.
Same until I bonded with my sister's family's small mutt during our California stay. That's also when my daughters proved they would be responsible enough for us to finally agree.
well this is gonna be someone's new signature - bronto
Stopped to pick him up on the way back from the shore. His balls are gone and he packed on at least 5 or 6 pounds the past two weeks and looks bigger but he seems to remember us and picked up right where he left off in terms of behavior and mannerisms.
Still deaf. The foster demonstrated that she can get him to walk on a leash, so hopefully we have luck with that.
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Those of you who are friends on Facebook will have seen, and sorry to be a bummer, but...
Had to put our 14 year old chocolate Labradoodle to sleep today. She was simply out of gas this last week. Had been hand feeding her boiled chicken for about a month and we knew things were winding down, but... You guys know the deal. Nothing easy about saying goodbye to a companion who loved us all unconditionally.
Hug your family, hug your pets...
You can lead a horse to fish, but you can't fish out a horse.