Thank goodness for doors and windows. This happens several times a day. Fortunately Guppy does not bark at squirrels, instead staring them down.
Basketball!
My favorite thing about winter has started. (actually started a few weeks ago but without cable we don’t see as many games until the regular season starts) This is one of the bonuses of moving back to the US. Watching ACC basketball.
Of course I was more than upset that the first game I could see, UNC and U of K, UNC lost. Really!. But it is early in the season….
Fortunately, you know who, could care less about basketball so I was able to watch without being distracted. Ben learned a long time ago that unless on the verge of death, needing anything during a basketball game was a bad idea.
Scaldaletto
Guest Post: By Guppy, The Lucky Dog 3
I don’t know what that word Scaldaletto means. I’m hopin’ it’s nice since She has taken to callin me her little Scaldaletto. She says She used to have one in Italy and She misses those. Her bed, which She only lets me use when She doesn’t want it, is right next to the windows. It’s usually kind cold up there so I’m guessin’ that She likes it when I get it all warm and toasty for her. Always happy to be of service.
Today, she forgot to feed me. It was almost 11:00 before I got breakfast. I almost had to call Saving Grace to come get me. And She and Ben went out at night this past week! I should get double bones for having to work over time. I mean! Really! I spend all day protectin’ the house from squirrels and then they go out and I have to sit up and protect. That cuts right into my quality nappin’ time. They went to see a movie at the library, Crazy Rich Asians. Came back all happy and laughin’. I guess they had fun so I suppose it’s okay. Long as they don’t make a habit of it.
It snowed here last week. Boy was that fun. She didn’t let me play in it though. But I walked around in it enough. Had to stick my nose in to tell where those pesky squirrels had been. And I sat on the deck a little bit but it sure was nice to come inside.
I’m seein’ lots of Chewy boxes on porches but not one on our porch. I’m thinkin’ I might not be gettin’ any new toys for Christmas. She says I really might not need any.
I keep toys in my bed rather than hers
I don’t know how She figures that. Those red ones always end up under her bed so I only see them about once a week and then BOOM they escape under the bed again. Or maybe I throw them under there.
Well, She says I’m being too whiny. And that I am a Lucky Dog and should be grateful. So, I guessin’ I am.
Shew, it was a busy month
Guest Post: by Guppy, The Lucky Dog 3
I don’t like it when the month starts with all those little yellow notes stuck on the calendar. Every one of those notes is some sort of appoinment. That means She and Ben could be wandering off. I don’t like that you know.
When they wander off I have to sit up here and guard.
That’s not easy you know. That old piece of furniture is hard. And I can’t take a nap. Oh my! It just upsets my chi.
But now the month is almost over. I hope November is better. They did get me a comfy new chair that I sleep in every night.
And I didn’t have to use my allowance to buy it.
Such a sweet dog
Yes, that is our dog lounging on a piece of furniture, like a lioness hunting big game or squirrels.
Before we leave the house, I move things off the wire racks to the left of where she is sitting, so that she can climb up there and look out the front window. Just minutes before I took this picture, she had just climbed up there and was facing in the opposite direction and wagging her tail looking out at the rest of the room. I could just see the thought train going through her mind. “I could jump on the table, then Ben’s chair, then the bed! I could go from the front to the back without touching the floor!!!!!!” Yes, that is our sweet dog…..
What I did last summer
Guest Post by Guppy, the Lucky Dog 3
She says that I will be going back to school in October. So I thought I would get ahead and write some thoughts for that back to school tradition, the ‘What I did last summer’ essay.
I was still under my doctor’s care until mid-August. So I had to be real quiet. I have watched a whole lot of dog TV
I have invented a new game. I throw my toys up in the air. They land all kinds of fun places. It makes her laugh when She sees them.
See the pink and yellow thing on top of papers? That is the end of one of my knotty bones. It tosses real well. I like to see how long it will take for her to see it.
A different day I got it up here on the cabinet next to her bed.
She played a real trick on me. During the day, when I’m not watching dog TV, I lounge on her bed. One day, the bed DISAPPEARED!!!!!!!
Man Alive! I was soooo confused. But She found a bunch of my toys under there so it wasn’t too bad.
It used to be that when they went away (which I don’t like, you know. But I am gettin better about that.) She would lock the glass door that is part of ‘dog TV’, so I could sit and look out and wait for them to come back. But She is all worried about it gettin cold. She says that’s gonna happen. (Not too soon for me.) So She rearranged her metal shelves.
Back when I first came, before they started leaving the door open, I was already climbing on those shelves even though there was all this stuff there. Why it took her so long to figure out that if she just rearranged a few things I could have a ‘viewing platform’ and I would be just as happy as a tick on a hound. So now, when they go out, She moves the garbage can and all the stuff on top of the shelves and the shade. So I use the stool, climb right on up, sit on the piece of furniture and look out the window. When She first did it, She thought that I would need to be shown how to do that. Well, my Momma didn’t raise no fool! I could figure out what to do but sincein She was handing out ham, I played DUMB and let her break it down to little steps, handing out that ham to encourage me. Anyway, I like my viewing platform.
So mid-August came. She had made my doctor’s appointment. Just to make sure I was okay. And that day the car DIED!. Really!!!!!! She was so upset she almost cried. Our sweet young neighbor, Liz, the woman who lives with my friends Emma and Riley, stopped what she was doing and drove us out to the doctor. She kept apologizing to me about not being able to take me to the dog park that day. I might have gotten a few extra bones that day. Anyway, now I go to the dog park. It’s fun when other dogs are there. But sometimes there aren’t any other dogs there. I almost cry when that happens. But still it is okay because I can walk all over by myself and sniff as long as I want. Honestly, She gets so impatient when She takes me on a walk and I want to stop and sniff. Doesn’t She know I’m conducting important DNA analysis on that blade of grass! I mean REALLY!
And of course we had a hurricane. I have been a little bit on edge about it all week. Barking at everyone I see. But I am going to be brave because I need to look after my Ben and She says that She won’t leave me alone, so that is okay.
I helped her clean up and get ready. Not a bad summer. I think I truly am a LUCKY DOG.
Guppy’s Summer Thoughts
Guest Post: By Guppy, the Lucky Dog 3
We are having a calm summer. I have to be pretty quiet for 60 DAYS after my last heartworm treatment. She explained that what happens is the heartworms are killed and are supposed to gradually pass out of my body as little bits. But if I get too excited a big clump might break off and that might make my heart stop. So even though it has been really hard I have done my best to not run around a lot. She says we only have to wait until August 14. Then we can start to go to the dog park and play with other dogs.
That is the new Asian man that I had to use my allowance to buy. (Remember a month or so ago those other Asian men were bothering me when She and Ben went somewhere and left me alone with them.) She is all mad about it because it was not what She ordered. But it would have been okay except for the green. She decided to live with it for a while. And just because I am dropping a few hairs, I had to use my allowance to buy a vacuum too. I don’t like it at all. It makes a noise that hurts my ears a lot. She doesn’t use it too much but when she does I try to bite it. I’ll never get any new toys…..
For my graduation they did buy me a piece of jewelry.
I wear it all the time. No one had ever bought me jewelry before. And I got
these great bowls and a new table cloth. She says this can be my china pattern. The ‘Sainted Siena’ had her own china pattern but I am not allowed to use it. It is best that I have one all my own. I think my ‘motif’ must be fish. What do you think?
Anyway, Ben and I have our own special time together every morning.
Well, I think that I am having a very good summer. Hope you are too.
A Big Week
Guest Post: By Guppy, The Lucky Dog 3
Well this second full week in June was certainly a busy one for me. On Tuesday I went to see my new vet, Dr. Melissa Hudson at Northwoods Animal Hospital in Cary. Link to Northwoods She said that She had known Dr. Hudson since she was a pup. Apparently, She used to come here all the time many years ago, bringing good dogs to see Melissa’s father, Dr. Dan Hudson. Going all the way back to Bailey, the cocker spaniel. That was a really long time ago and then there were the two Afghan hounds, Shamir and The Contessa, and then Hawthorn and even the Sainted Siena came here. I’m guessing that the only dog that She had, that never came here, was Nerone. (Sometimes Ben calls me Nerone. That’s okay because he was a pretty good looking dog so I don’t mind being mistaken for him) Anyway, my Dr. Hudson was pretty nice and didn’t do any thing really awful to me. So I guess I won’t mind going back to see her again.
That night after we finished at the vet, we went home and got Ben and then it was off to dog school for graduation. Link to Dream Dogs I think I did pretty well. I lost a few points on ‘recall, come and sit’. I got distracted by my friend Grace. (She’s just so cute and stylish. And petite. She reminded me of my puppies) Otherwise I did real well on all the exercises. She and Ben were so proud of me. She said that one of those Afghans, The Contessa, had flunked dog school. Can you imagine?
(Photo credit Robina Thornton)
Anyway, She said we are going to work all summer on exercises and then in the fall I can go back for ‘Distraction Dog’. I’ll learn how to ignore squirrels. I was going to work on that this summer since some group has opened a day camp for young squirrels in the big tree by the deck. (Sometimes there must be 15 or 20 of them up there!) but what happened to me next will keep me from doing that.
On Wednesday, She and Ben took me back to Saving Grace, the rescue place that I came from. link to Saving Grace I know that She and Ben hugged me and told me that they would be back. I didn’t want to go. It took a whole lot for me to walk through that gate. I was real upset and depressed. I was there for a long time. She said it was only two nights but it felt like a really long time to me. Anyway, they gave me big ole shots that hurt. They are for my heartworm. So now I need to be quiet for 60 DAYS. The nasty heartworms die and break off. If I get too excited too many of them might break off at a time and that would be really bad.
I was moping around on Friday, really sad, napping in my little box when one of the nice volunteers came to get me. The volunteer walked me out and there was She waiting for me. I was soooooo happy. And Ben was in the car. She says that all the papers are signed and they are really my people now.
I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am.
Uh Oh
Guest Post by: Guppy, The Lucky Dog 3
She says I have a lot of ‘pastore’ in me. Whatever that is. I just know that my Momma told me that I had some Shepard blood in me. I like to be with my peeps and have them in my sight. Which is actually pretty easy with She and Ben. There is not much place to hide here. I mean, there is that upstairs, but those steps, kinda slippy and steep. It took me a few weeks before I would go up there. (There are real nice beds up there. I’m kinda hoping that will be my room….) Anyway, only She goes up there and never for too long. But they do both leave! Really!
Why leave? I’m here. What else do they need? I was okay the first few times they left. I mean I was takin’ drugs for the pain from my operation and still getting adjusted and all. So everything was fine. But then I started to feel better, the drugs stopped and a little bit of anxiety returned when they left. I could climb up on the bed at the back and see out to watch them leave but I couldn’t see out the front. It took me a while before I figured out that I could climb up a metal rack that She has all these pots and pans on, then pull down the shades and walk around on the big piece of furniture so that I could see out the window in the front. I pressed my nose up against the window and made all kinds of noise asking folks if they had seen my peeps. I mean, it had been at least 10 minutes since I saw them. I was so upset. I walked around again and my tail must have hit something so this bowl went flying off and broke. Well, that scared me so I jumped down and more things went flying off. (Bananas I think.) I ran off to hide on the bed. After a while, I stopped shaking so I came over to look. Had to bat those bananas around. Turn them from yellow to black. That was kinda fun. And then they came home! Oh, She was upset!
So the next time they went out they made me go in my crate.
I figured out how to get out of that pretty fast and climbed right back up on the furniture again. I knocked a bunch of stuff off again and got scared, but nothing broke this time. But I’ll be….there were those yellow bananas again. I played with them for a long time until they got all black.
The next time they went out, She put those cords on real tight and I couldn’t get out but I was still real scared. I think the dog training lady told her to cover up the crate so I couldn’t see as much and that I would feel better about things. That pretty much works but I don’t like it when they go out. The next time She decided to put my crate in Ben’s cubby hole. Every now and then I like to sit in there for a bit so I guess she decided that might be easier than covering my crate. WELL! There was this big ole Chinese man staring at me. I had to tell him what’s what.
I just ripped him up. That got rid of him. I was about to start on the other one when they came home. Ohhhhh, She was awful upset. She says that I have to buy a new Chinese man for Ben and a new rod and pay for them from my money. No new toys for me.
So, I’m trying to be better. She got me ‘hug shirt’ that I can put on whenever I have to do something scary. Probably wear it a lot this week. I have to go to the vet, then dog school graduation, then back to Saving Grace for my last treatment. I have to spend two nights there. Then when they come to get me She and Ben will sign my final papers. Even though I made her pretty mad I think She will come back to get me. I sure hope so.
Dog School
Guest Post: By Guppy, the Lucky Dog 3
Dog school, again tonight. Finally, She has caught on and we are doing things I enjoy. COME. I mean REALLY! How easy could it be. Run to the person calling you who loves you and/or gives you treats. There we were in the class room. That silly big lump Max was there but none of those other dogs, just the two of us. Max’s person clearly had not done his homework. She didn’t do much of it with me because it was so obvious that I knew this.
She, the nice lady with treats (She calls her the ‘teacher’) and Ben. They all stood in a triangle calling me, so I would run from one to the other and they gave me treats. (Silly People) Well, I aced that. Afterwards She hugged me and said I must have learned that from a certain black and white dog. I don’t know who She is talking about but there were little tears in her eyes. I gotta figure out who this black and white dog is….
Anyway, only one more class. I heard She talking about some other dog, an Afghan that She knew. That Afghan had flunked dog school. Oh my! Well that won’t happen with me. As long as some stupid squirrel doesn’t come through class.
