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.

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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.

Introducing Guppy

Guppy has taken time from her busy schedule to write a

Guest Post:  By Guppy, the Third Lucky Dog

It has been a whirl wind spring for me.  One day I was down and out on my luck and then the next I was at Saving Grace, (link to Saving Grace web site).  They are just really nice folks there.  Then I was off for a little surgery and then on May 4,  I came to live with She Who Must Be Obeyed and Ben.  I have to be honest, I was kind of hoping for a home with some kids and a big comfy sofa.  These folks are old.  Ben is really old and uses a wheel chair.  It only took one time for me to catch on that wheel chairs run over toes! She is okay.  She takes me for nice walks and plays with me a lot.

I get to sit outside on the deck.  Which is really nice.

And I get to watch a lot of Dog TV.  Wow, it is really interesting, all kinds of action, lots of dogs and people.  It’s good!

So She has this BIG bed, but won’t let me share it with her!  But She does let me use when She isn’t using it.  So I guess that is okay.

This is my bed.  Between Ben’s chair and that BIG BED.  But that is okay.  I can keep track of both of them.

And She put me in Dog School.  Like I need it….. Really?  She needs it.  It took me TWO WHOLE DAYS of snubbing that awful food she bought me.  I was gettin’ a little faint before she finally went back to the store and bought the kind I like.  So I hope this school helps her.

Otherwise, I’m having a very good spring.  Thank you for asking.

 

We’ve been DOGGED!

Introducing Guppy

She came to us from  Saving Grace in early May.  We don’t know too much about her past.  She likes to remain mysterious and really does not like to have her picture taken.

It has been two years this month since Nerone died.  Ben and I had been talking about getting another dog.  The expense was one thing that was slowing us down.  But we were gifted with a small amount of money so that helped to cover her adoption costs.

I started looking a few months back for a ‘rescue’ dog.  Always the best kind.  There are a number of organizations here in Raleigh that handle adoptions.  Lots of paperwork to fill out for each of them.  References!  One wanted vet records for any dog we had owned in the past ten years.  I tactfully explained to the lady what it is like to pay for, pack and physically move (yourself) from the other side of the pond.  How, perhaps, I had not moved Nerone’s records which were in Italian….. Still she persisted.  ‘I’ll just call the vet.’ she said.  I pointed out that many Italian businesses did not use the internet the way Americans do and that there was only one person at the vet in Italy that had some command of the English language.  That wasn’t enough.  Finally, I listed the last vet we had here in Raleigh in the 1990s, the vet we had in Virginia until we moved to Italy and gave her a link to my blog, most particularly Nerone’s guest posts on my blog.  Something in that group must have worked.  We were approved.  By that time, we were 4th in line for the dog I picked out.   So no go there.

I had the idea to get a smaller dog.  Sort of a Jack Russel type (like Eddie on Frazier).  Didn’t bother to discuss this with Ben.  I’m looking at sites.  Most dogs seem to be Chihuahua types, Beagle types or Lab types.  No in between.  No mid-size.  No dogs with long fur!  Finally one appeared on the Saving Grace site that was a terrier type with some fur, not too big.  So with much appointment making Ben and I went out to see him.  He (the dog) could have cared less.  We were disappointed.  So the volunteers brought out some other smaller dogs, lap dog types.  One sat in Ben’s lap.  I walked it around.  Ben made a face.  “There’s hair on me.”  Ohhh, clearly Ben doesn’t want a small dog.  Who knew.  It is really busy there and volunteers have figured out that we really don’t have our act together.  So we leave.  Agreeing to keep looking at the web site.  As soon as I saw Guppy on the site I was emailing away.

When a dog comes to a rescue, they see a vet and have the appropriate ‘operation’ to stop producing more rescues.  We saw Guppy two days after her ‘operation’ and she came home with us that day.  She is very polite, well-mannered, curious, loving and is gradually trusting us more and more.  We are all going to dog school to polish up our behaviours.

So, we have all agreed not to worry about the past and focus on our bright future together.