Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

The Optimism Of Cats And Dogs

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Yesterday I Still Want More Puppies had a very cute video of a cat.

Honestly, I don’t know where some of you find the time to do all the things you do.  If I had about 8 more waking hours in a day, (and the energy to go with it) I might be able to do half of what some of you do.

But I digress.

I changed the comment I was going to leave on that particular post, because I realized the story would be quite lengthy and it would make a good post. “-)

The year was 2005 B. D. (Before Delilah.)

Sampson was about a year and a half at the time, my daughter and her husband had just gotten married, and they moved from FL to CT and were staying with us.  They brought their two cats with them, Percy and Knuckles.

Percy was a big boy, my boy. Even though he was my daughter’s cat, he was very attached to me and Hubby.  Before she moved to Florida she was in her early 20’s working part-time and going to school full-time.  Percy spent a lot of time with us.  Then she moved and took him to Florida and he hated it.

He was very happy to come back home, but not at all happy that Sampson was now living there. Percy spent a lot of time puffed up at this intruder in his home.

Knuckles was rescued from the mean streets of Lakeland, and was still a kitten.  He rode the entire trip from Florida in my son-in-law’s lap.

To accommodate the two cats, Hubby had installed a cat door in my daughter and SIL’s room.  We figured if the dog was antagonizing them, they would at least have a safe place to retreat to.

Knuckles was/is a pretty cool cat.  He had a little foil ball that you could throw and he would run after it, pick it up in his mouth and bring it back.  It was just about the cutest thing I’d ever seen. 🙂

He did like to tease Sampson though and would wait outside my daughter’s door to get Sampson’s attention and then when Sampson was almost upon him, he would dart inside the room via the cat door.

The house has three bedrooms.  Our bedroom was at one end of the hall facing the bathroom and Lisa and Steve’s room (with the cat door) is to the left of the bathroom door.

This was a time in his life when Sampson would eagerly wait at the door, because he knew Knuckles would be out and he would have an opportunity to meet him.   He did this every morning while Knuckles and Percy lived there.

Seriously you’ve got to love a dog’s optimism.

On this particular morning, Lisa was taking a shower when I opened the bedroom door. As usual Sampson tore down the hallway.  Knuckles (as usual) waited until the last possible minute and turned for the cat door.

Seriously, you’ve got to love a cat’s optimism.

Here’s the thing about cat doors.  In order for them to work, they need to be unlocked.  For some reason on this particular morning, it wasn’t.

God how I wish I had this on video.

Knuckles, the little antagonist, turned for the cat door and finding it closed, spun in the air, twisting and turning looking for escape.  He ended up against the bathroom door.

Sampson, sensing victory, charged forward, all 90 pounds of him.

Lisa screamed and tried to cover herself, as Sampson and Knuckles burst through the bathroom door.

Knuckles was air born at the time and spinning, twisting and snarling as only cats can do and in short fashion sought refuge…..under the tub.

Sampson had him pinned under the tub and he knew it.  He bent down in a play bow, tail wagging happily, only to be defeated once again because he was too big to follow Knuck.

After that day,  when Lisa took a shower, the bathroom door was always locked and the cat door was always unlocked.

The Trouble With Bobby

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Hubby and I own two houses.  We live in one and rent the other (a duplex) out.

This is definitely not the path we would have chosen for ourselves, but it is what it is and so we do the best we can.

The duplex was owned by my grandmother and her brother, then my mother and HER brother and then by Hubby and me.  I basically grew up there, I raised my three girls there, it is the place I think of when I say “Home.”

The neighborhood where the duplex is located is a really nice neighborhood.  The houses are old and many of the neighbors are too.  The trouble with this neighborhood is, it is slowly deteriorating and some trouble makers have been slowly creeping in.

I tell you all this to give you a simple background for the couple of stories I am about to share.  Both stories involve the tenant in the duplex next door to ours.

It was March 2009 when my tenant called me and told me the next door neighbor (Bobby) was dropping his puppies over the five foot fence into my yard so his puppies could run around.  Dropping puppies over a five foot fence.

I about lost my mind.

Of course I called the police.

This a-hole apparently was afraid of the police, so when they knocked at his door, he ran.  The police officer argued with Bobby’s girlfriend who steadfastly denied that he’d been there, insisting it was her son instead.

Eventually Bobby wandered back towards the house and had a conversation with the police officer.   Who told him way nicer than I would have that WE DON’T DROP PUPPIES.  PERIOD.

Nor should he be putting his puppies in our yard.

After asking me if I wanted to buy one of his puppies, it seemed like the conversation was over.

Just as Hubby and I were preparing to get back into our car, a mini-van pulled up and a very attractive black man strode across the street, sticking his finger in Bobby’s face and letting loose with a string of profanities and accusations.

The police officer tapped the transmitter on his shoulder and said, “Send back up.”

The duplex sits on the corner of a street that intersects with another, because of this there is street access from three different directions.  Police cars came in from all three directions.  There were at least seven cars with just as many officers.

Hubby and I looked at each other and each took a giant step backwards.

Apparently when the police had knocked on the door, Bobby had run out the basement and went to his ‘friends’ house.  He busted in and scared this man’s wife.  His ‘friend’ didn’t take kindly to it.

Eventually all of the police officers on the scene settled the situation down and Hubby and I went home.

Shortly after that my tenant reported that Bobby was high on something and creating a ruckus.  She called the police and he was taken out of the house stark naked.

After the naked incident, I heard Bobby went to rehab. We didn’t have anymore trouble with Bobby until last Friday.

Yes, I told you I had two stories about dogs while I was on vacation, but it’s rather lengthy so you’ll have to check back tomorrow…..

Reindeer Speak

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I’ve been thinking that even though my tagline says, “Life With Sampson And Delilah,” lately most of my posts are about Delilah.  Mostly because……well Delilah needs more work than Sampson does.

Which doesn’t mean that Sampson isn’t adorable in his own right.  So today I thought I’d share a story about something Sampson does that I think is absolutely adorable.

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you’ll know that there is nothing that is off-limits in terms of subject matter.

That being said, today’s topic is about pooping.

Dog pooping.

When we are out on the trails and the dogs have to poop, Delilah squats wherever she is and poops.

Sampson however likes a bit of privacy.  He will step off the trail, probably about 15 or 20 feet and do his business.   Many times I think he’s wandered off and I call him and look only to find him popping a squat.

Please give me some privacy while I find a nice place to poop.

While I think it’s very sweet that Sampson is so modest, it’s what he does AFTER he poops that causes the most amusement.

After Sampson does his business he gets his run on, like he’s just taken about 5 pounds off.  He zips past us, like he’s light as air, at which point Hubby or I will say, “I pooped, I pooped” in a Rudolph voice.

In Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, do you remember when all the little fawns first get together and Clarice takes a liking to Rudolph?  Rudolph gets all excited and shouts, “She thinks I’m cute, she thinks I’m cute,” and he flies through the air.

Ok, so this post worked in my head, but I’m not sure how it worked as a post.

What do you think was it funny or not?  And please be truthful.  🙂

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