Welcome to this week’s edition of Follow-Up Friday, the post where I highlight reader’s comments, answer questions and generally just wrap up my week.

You Make Me Smile – June 19, 2016

Meagan Maher said, “Merlin likes to sniff grills and tyres too. He doesn’t pee on the tyres, just squats next to it. He also backs into trees and then squats.”

Does he pee when he squats? Or does he just squat? Delilah sometimes LIFTS her leg to pee on trees. LOL

Emma said, “Oh you guys read my mind! My first thought when I saw the photo was a nose work dog.”

You’d think she was looking for a hide, wouldn’t you? 😉

Sue said, “Interesting where she’s sniffing! My crew always sniff the tires … probably hoping for the scent of roadkill?”

She sniffs tires too. And the wheel wells. But this time, it was all the front.

Cupcake said, “I sniff an occasional car, mostly near the driver’s door (NOT professionally like Emma). Mom suspects it’s McDonald’s-related.”

Alexa88 said, “lily is a ground sniffer mostly. at the park she sniffs bushes and trees for messages from other dogs. leaves a few of her own in reply…jodi, have thought of you and your family often through out this week.”

Both my guys are ground sniffers as well. Thanks for thinking of us Alexa, we appreciate it.

Jan K said, “No car sniffers here. Delilah is just figuring out where those cars have been – she knows which ones came from nice places like New Hampshire!”

Well your comment gave me an idea, so I started watching WHICH cars she was sniffing. Like are they all from out of state, but no. There doesn’t seem to be a method to this, although who knows what goes on in that chocolate brain of hers.

Monika and Sam said, “Sam will sniff tires on ocassion-maybe it’s actually ‘special’ pee-mail and Twitter feeds showing up in unexpected spots. The OES’s however remembered every. single. cat. that went under cars in the ‘hood and therefore had to be NCIS’ed every. time. we. passed. They were true detectives, Sam however is just a pee-graffiti artist. 😉”

Hahaha, Sampson remembers where he saw people or animals too and always gets excited as we approach them. Silly dogs.

Jen Gabbard said, “I wonder if there’s some rodents camping out. Laika gets obsessed with certain cars as well, and one time as she was sniffing around the tail pipe we saw a mouse scatter away. Scared the shit out of me & of course made Laika even more determined to inspect every damn car for for weeks.

Holy crap. I never thought of that. Gah, whatever it is, I hope it’s small. Two weeks ago there was a chipmunk in the road. In. the. road. Just sitting there as still as could be. (I’ll have to post that photo because Delilah really wanted an up close and personal.) Any time something moves at me, no matter how small, I WILL scream like a girl. One time at our old house I opened the cabinet at like 5:00 am, (with only a night light on, mind you) to get a cup for coffee and a teeny, tiny spider smaller than the head of a pin charged me. At eye level. I won’t even tell you how long I screamed for or how long the hair on my body stood on end. 😉

Close Encounters of the Feline Kind

Monika and Sam said, “You know, I thought I was the only person who thought that cats seem to flip off dogs that aren’t all that keen on them with their little paws. I mean, they sashay around just out of reach and flip their tails like some sort of Burlesque routine all the while giving some poor upright heart failure (or worse) trying to corral what seems like 300 lbs. of sheer power and force trying to get at said cat.”

RIGHT?!?! It’s not just the cats in my neighborhood either! The squirrels and chipmunks are just as bad. I think they’ve all lost their little critter minds.

2 Brown Dawgs said, “Luckily we do not have any kitties in our neighborhood. We have bunnies. They are trouble too.”

Ah yes, we’ve run across one or two of those as well. Most of the time if they are super still my dogs don’t see them, but I do. We even had a groundhog run across our path once. That was a first.

Mary Hone said, “Cats, the bane of every dog and dog owner. I think they KNOW, they are causing trouble and act all innocent.”

I think you might be right. Cats are a unique breed…

Beth said, “Barley is usually pretty good about cats, but when she does show interest, I just remind her, “You have one of those at home. Leave it” and she trots right back along with me. There’s one bold kitten in our new neighborhood, though, that charged across the street and started going down the sidewalk straight towards us. I thought for sure it would turn around or veer off into a yard, but it just kept coming. Barley was so surprised for a cat to run at her like that that she had no idea what to do and just kind of yipped–and then the cat went into the yard.”

Sometimes I talk to them. “Have you lost your mind? You DO realize this dog is ginormous, don’t you? Run, run away you stupid cat.” My favorite is the squirrels, “You better run squirrel.” Bonus points to anyone that can tell me what movie that quote is from.

Emma said, “We would like to chase cats outside too, but cats are fairly boring and we prefer squirrels and wabbits. That being said, Bailie is trained to chase down and capture cat bro Bert. If he is in our dog food bowls, she may get him, and if he runs out the back door into the yard Mom says “get the kitty”. Bailie then races out after him, tackles him, and hold him down until Mom gets there. Bert is fine with it all. Those two are buddies.”

A ha ha, I love that Bailie can catch Bert, that’s some skill to have!

Jan said, “There is a cat that once chased the five of us away from their house. I have never returned to that neighborhood. I was tempted to drop the leashes and let the dogs have their way with the cat, but was more afraid that the cat would beat them up.”

Ugh, so tempted too! I’m also concerned that one of them would get hit by a car too. But I am tempted some days, sorely tempted.

Callie, Shadow and Ducky’s Mom said, “The only cat in our ‘hood belongs next door. Occasionally, when the girls are inside, I’ll see him in our backyard. As long as he’s not bothering the nesting boxes, I’ll leave him alone. But if he disturbs “my” birdies, I go out and chase him out of the yard myself.”

As long as you’re not running and barking at the cat. 😉

Blueberry’s Human said, “It’s a funny thing…ever since I have had Pistachio (since March I think) – Blueberry has had almost zero cat encounters in the backyard. Although, Blueberry did manage to catch and kill a bird yesterday…but not before it had a chance to peck her and draw blood within a quarter inch of her eye ball. I’d hate to think of the damage that would be inflicted on her if she caught a cat. (PS – I didn’t sit there watching her murder a bird. She came into the house with blood near her eye and later on, I found the dead bird and put two and two together. I’m crazy, not cruel.)”

Oh Lord. Blueberry, whatever will your mom do with you? Glad she wasn’t siriusly injured and yes, I do know you aren’t cruel, just crazy. 😉

Jen Gabbard said, “Dude some cats are assholes and like to mess with dogs, I swear. We have this idiotic black & white cat whose favorite place to lounge is outside our sliding glass door in front of Laika. And yes it’s pure chaos the entire time. I’m pretty sure that cat is going to give my dog a heart attack one of these days when she wakes up from napping herself just to see a big old cat that close by.”

Right? What the hell is wrong with that cat? The chippies do that to Delilah, stand right outside her window. One of these days she’s going to get the drop on one and then I have no idea how that will shake out. You need an air horn. 😉

Delilah’s Annual Check-Up

Emma said, “I now get the senior panel done.”

I’m not sure I know what a senior panel is Emma.

Rebekah said, “It’s good to know about grass being sweet this time of year, because I have noticed two of mine munching on grass as well, when they don’t normally do so.”

I wondered about it, because she is very particular about which grass she eats, so there must be something to that theory.

Taryn said, “At their ages, I no longer do vaccinations other than the legally required Rabies.”

Exactly. Except because where we live with all the raccoons and stuff, our vet recommends the Leptospirosis, if we lived in a differed area, maybe we wouldn’t get that either.

Well that’s it for me folks, but before I close I’d like to know if anyone is having trouble commenting? One of my out of the states friends is having trouble and I’m wondering if it’s WP or something else. 

That being said, if you CANNOT comment, please use the form on the contact page to let me know, or send me a message on Facebook. Thanks Meagan for hanging in there!!

Have a great weekend everyone!