A Doggy Bedtime Story

Katie reading Dr. Seuss to Star

It is getting a little crowded in my bed at night, but we all seem pretty content with our bedtime routine. When I head to the bathroom for teeth brushing, Star immediately vaults herself onto the bed and plops down dead center. As you can see from the picture with Katie, it's not a huge bed. With Network and Lily, I eventually got us a California King, after waking up every morning in the crack between the two mattresses of the Ikea bed that moved with us from Germany. But I'm not getting this gang a new bed anytime soon, and definitely not bigger than a Queen when I do.

After my teeth are brushed and Sunny's eyes have been treated with the dreaded drops (he is cooperating much better now that we are down to twice a day), I assume my position in the bed - traditional north/south orientation along the western edge. Then I pull back the top of the covers so Sunny can assume his position - non-traditional east/west alignment. His head is either on my shoulder or maybe head-butting me in the rib cage.

When Star sees the cuddling start, she angles in at about 30% to my legs, and plants her head on my stomach. Sorry - haven't managed to photograph the layout yet. Suffice to say - it IS cozy.

Fortunately, it's not usually permanent, although Sunny has stayed in his slot the past 2 nights, rotating 180 degrees at times, so I might wake up with my face close to his tail, which fortunately is down, protecting my face from worse awakenings. But sometimes Sunny moves off and spends the night on the padded blanket chest next to the bed, curled up in a tight ball.

And Miss Star often retreats to the far south east corner and curls up in a little ball over yonder. So there is room for me to breathe and move in the night.

Then comes the morning! At my first wiggle, Star is back wedged against me for some lovin'. She lies on her back and starts bicycling those front legs such that I fear once again for the safety of my face. She just wants her belly rubbed, but she's pretty excited about it all, so I often pretend to be asleep for a while with an arm thrown over her, delivering an occasional scritch to the head or belly.

Now Mr. Sunny in the morning is another story. He's a sleepy head like me. If he's still on the bed laying horizontally across the pillows, or at least against them, he might also get pummeled by the flying hooves of the Mrs. But he snoozes on. Eventually he and I start losing the veil of drowsiness, and they start wrestling and now I fear for my life as those jaws start clacking in close proximity to my defenseless posture. Oh yeah - forgot to mention - Star also likes to step right on my belly, right down low there on top of the full morning bladder. Yikes.

Before signing off for the week, I'll paint one more cute scene which I have yet to photograph, in the absence of a water camera.

Sunny has always taken up his post on the bath mat while I shower. When Star first joined us, she stood guard, or laid guard, outside the open bathroom door. I felt so safe - ain't no psycho killer gonna sneak into my shower with my double layer of furry guard.

Just in the last week, when I've stuck my wet nose out around the shower curtain to spy on Sunny all curled up in his spot, I noticed that our little girl has joined us, in the middle of the bathroom floor, keeping guard a little closer in. And the next day I think she was even closer. One by one, she is overcoming fears and settling in. Although the bed routine was settled in her mind from Night 1.

I am just overjoyed with this pair. I compare them often to my last pair - in fact Star is often mistakenly called Lily or Silly. My biggest joy is that they interact with each, something Network and Lily just never did. Sure makes for some fun photography.

Sunny is truly my sweet boy, very connected to me, but Star is so completely attached to me that I couldn't even sneak away and leave her at the dog park if I tried - most dogs would gladly be left there. I know Sunny wouldn't know I was missing if I left while he was attached to someone wielding a Chuck-It. Have I written about his CII disease yet? Hmmmm. A story for another day. Or another month - he has 3 more weeks of recovery before he gets to go crazy at the dog park.

Wow! My list of followers has grown. I am honored. Thank you, friends. I will try to keep you entertained.

This week all I can say is - I have the cutest and sweetest dogs, and on the eve of my leave, I can summarize my time in Colorado as letting go of old dogs and rebuilding my pack from scratch, with the reciprocal help of Safe Harbor.

And thanks to all who have voted or will vote for Sunny for Dog of the Week on adogspurpose.com. His specific link is http://bit.ly/duVXWF. He had 88 votes before I even told anyone he was on there - thank you strangers! Then with my promotion he went from 15th place up to 8th place overnight. My only regret is that he doesn't look very "sunny" in the photo - I should have used one of him smiling. But, alas, I hope to see him make it to #1 so that Safe Harbor will receive a donation in his honor.

Don't worry Miss Star, you will get your chance at a later date.

Go Sunny Go!

Definition of Dog Eared

I was never quite sure what "dog-eared" meant, but now I am.

We had a bit of a crazy week - must have been the full moon/April Fool's Day combination. On Wednesday, I came home to orange smears all over the living room carpet. Did you know that avocado pits are orange when cracked open and smeared all over the carpet?

I specifically pushed that avocado all the way back into the corner of the counter before leaving for my test that day. I'm sure a dog standing on the ground would not have been able to reach it. And more importantly, not been able to pull it down, without opposable thumbs. So I can only imagine that someone (and I'm going with my suspicions that it was the girl) must have jumped up on all 4s on the counter to retrieve my precious treasure that was going to be yummy guacamole for lunch the next day.

The next day, April Fool's Day, I came home to the site of a tornado touchdown. I should'a gotten the camera out before I proceeded to pick up the mess. A bag of recyclable papers (that I had ALMOST hidden away in a closed room) had been ripped open and spread around the room. I had already stripped my bed to wash the sheets, but a full-speed run down the hall followed by a leap onto the bed, and possibly a wrestling match on the bed (now I'm implicating both sweet and innocent pups) had pushed the mattress out at a 45 degree angle and pulled the mattress pad half off. The library book (shown above) that had been on the nightstand was out in the living room. Strangely, although the pages had been "dog-eared" none of the words had been eaten.

Sweet and Innocent Pups

"It wasn't us. We were just laying here holding hands all day."

We also had some fun with late March snow. Star got to "let 'er rip" at our favorite dog park, which we will sorely miss.

This is how big it is. Can you even see the perimeter fences? It feels like even when there are 20 cars in the lot, every pair of dogs has their own acre. And there are 2 good sized small dog areas that I have never seen in use. I used one in December when Sunny's leg was sore, so he could play ball within a limited space.

From the western edge, the photos are taken counter-clockwise sweeping from my right to my left.

Little dog park in the far corner.

(Light poles are a ballpark across the street.)

Parking lot way up on the hill.

Best angle to see most of the middle area.

Northwest quadrant.

With Sunny still on-leash, and a little cranky about it when surrounded by a handful of off-leash beasts, we like to steer away from the crowds and do a couple laps around the perimeter. Star usually sticks pretty close, although I encourage her to go make friends or just go for a run. Once in a while, she finds someone worthy of a good chase.

Also this week, while I was packing some boxes, Sunny snuck a tennis ball out of the closet where they have been sequestered since his surgery. I won't throw it for him yet, but he likes to carry it around (so does Star).

Napping in the sunny spot with our favorite toys.

Happy Easter!

You Should Hear The Noises They Make!

It all starts innocently enough - a little flirting, a little teasing ...

And then it heats up a little ...

Then Sunny grabs a leg and chomps, gently ... I think ... I hope ...

Then it escalates to the next level ...

(it looks worse than it is, but oh the noises they make)

Mom: "It's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye!"

Sunny: "Sorry, Mom."

Star: "He started it."

Smart Little Girl

I know I thought this a week ago, before all heck and uveitis broke loose, and I'll dare to say it again - I feel like we are settling into the new double-dog routine. Except during the morning walk when I really really wish we had a yard so they could take care of their business on their own time while I enjoy my breakfast. But alas - something to look forward to in 2011 or 2012. For now we are committed to apartment living until at least April 9th, 2011. Maybe a new house would make a nice happy birthday to me at that time. Hmmmmm.

It is amusing to watch the interplay. This morning, Star was chewing on the bone so I invited Sunny to "up" on the bed where he likes to lie in the morning sun while I shower. Star wanted to know what she was missing out on, so she abandoned the bone, jumped up on the bed, and just that quick, little Sunny Sunshine slipped off the bed and stole the bone.

Then he took the bone away out into the living room, while Star soaked up the belly rubs and ear scritches, and soon Sunny realized that he wasn't being envied or challenged. So he brought the bone back to where the rest of us were to show it off. Just like kids sometimes.

Now here's something really fun: After every meal, I ask Sunny to hand me his bowl. He picks it up and hands it to me, well - mouths it to me. This can be a simple one-shot process, or it can take a crazy long time depending on how buzzed up he is and how many times he throws it in the air and kicks it around on the ground trying to turn it back over so he can get a grip.

This morning we came back from the walk and I went to the bowl and asked him to pick it up. However, he had already grabbed the hollowed out carcass of the sheepskin ball (which you may remember from a previous post as the sacrificial lamb) and wanted to engage me in play with him and the, um, that thing. So, little Miss Star walked up, picked up the bowl and handed it up to me, just as pretty as you please! She had been observing this routine for the past 2 weeks and figured that she could do it too. Testing that it wasn't just an accident, I moved to the second bowl, gave the command and was rewarded again by her eager compliance. Of course Sunny jumped in and tried to make it a tug of war game.

And now they are settled into their morning naps, Star curled up on the dog bed to my left, Sunny soaking up the sun by the window. Oh how nice it is to have the sun moving north again so that it stays in our window longer in the mornings. Sunny and I are sun worshipers and love to soak up the rays.

12 Year Old Mystery Solved?

What a contrast between the bright-eyed Sunny in the picture from yesterday's post to the "blind" dog that greeted me when I came home last night. He was his usual happy and energetic self, but he couldn't or wouldn't open his eyes. After placing a call to the emergency vet, the 3 of us jumped in the car and headed out across town.

Suddenly this all felt too familiar. Flashback. 12 years ago. Network at a year or two old. I woke up one morning to find my young dog sitting up like an old blind man, eyes closed. The regular vet sent us to the eye specialist. My most acute memory of the incident is that she did not see what a handsome and wonderful dog he was. Of course, I have to give her a little slack - she was a shepherd lover and floppy eared dogs probably just didn't float her boat. But she did eventually, on a follow-up visit, acknowledge his beauty, once his big, expressive eyes were open again.

Eyes are the window to the soul.

I was reminded of that again this morning, driving my second "blind" dog to the eye specialist. The diagnosis on Network was never clear - possibly tetanus or strychnine was the most she gave us. But sometime between the 3 1/2 hour wait in emergency last night and the drive across town this morning, I started to wonder if this could be a stress-induced event, and if the introduction of an energetic new dog into the calm waters of a spoiled mama's boy's life wasn't possibly the culprit.

Why did I think this might be so? The exact situation accompanied Network's episode - I had brought home a kennel-stressed but very loving Border Collie mix named Yule, in honor of his Christmas arrival at the shelter some 6 months earlier. He was my first attempt at fostering, while volunteering at the shelter. Even without considering that he might be the cause, I had to take him back to the shelter because Network needed a more peaceful setting for his recuperation.

Shortly after all this took place, Yule was chosen by a family with a female just like him, and at last report, they were living happily ever after, romping together through the vineyards in Sonoma County. I hope by taking him out of the kennel for at least a few days, I was able to buy him the extra time needed for the right family to come along.

The nice but efficient vet today did NOT think my idea was crazy, and in fact noted that it is not at all uncommon for this to happen to cats when a new one is introduced into the household. Better yet, today's vet noticed immediately what a great boy our little Sunny is. In contrast to all the big scary possible diagnoses thrown out by the emergency vet last night, as she attempted to cover all the bases, this morning we were told that we would start with conservative treatment with eye drops and pills, and come back in 3 days and he will probably be looking much better. He does already with the eye drops.

And he snored all the way home . . . after I relocated him to the passenger seat.

New Girl End of Week 1

We survived the first week and made it to our official adoption day. On the record books, she was the first Safe Harbor adoption of March, 2010, exactly five months after Sunny was the first one in October, 2009. But we didn't get together with Anna for the official adoption family portrait until yesterday, a week after we brought her home.

Kara's Dog Family Version 2

Kara's Dog Family Version 1

In case it's not clear from the photos, the dogs in Dog Family 2 are about 2/3 the size of the dogs in Dog Family 1. The girl looks about 2/3 the size as well, but I guarantee you it's all coat in the "before" picture.

The first week with Star - oh, she has an official name now! I went with Star after all.

As I was saying, the first week would have been perfect, except for one little problem that became evident after the first 8 hours - the little girl wouldn't go potty, except for once every 24 hours, on the far end of a 20 foot leash, with me hiding under the hood of my coat with my head stuck in a tree. I'll spare you the details, and simply report that after a week, she is finally pottying like a normal dog on a six foot leash our walks. She still likes her privacy and prefers I let the leash go so she can put a little distance between us, but she is so eager to come over and claim her treats for a good potty that I don't have to worry about her taking off.

The kids are playing well together. Mouthies is the only game they are allowed to play so far, as Sunny is only 4 weeks past his knee surgery - 8 quiet weeks to go. I swear Sunny has a jaw that unhinges. He can put her whole head in his mouth, and does so frequently...

She retaliates by grabbing hold of his over-sized ear...

And then they go their separate ways...

And so we begin week 2, settled into our new routine. 8 weeks to go until Sunny can play ball, and 9 weeks from today the truck will be loaded and we will be pulling out for the 1000 mile drive to our next temporary home.

We've secured lodging, and this will be our new view...

It's not as stunning as this ....

But then not much is.