Heart Like a Dog

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

Can I Bring My Dog?

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We’re having a cookout on Saturday.  It’s actually our Easter dinner.  You may recall I was in Florida on Easter, so I decided our family gathering would be a cookout.

I got a text last night from my cousin who asked, “Can my boyfriend bring his dog?  He’s a good dog as cool as Sampson, you will love him.  You will want to blog about him.”

My immediate response was yes!  Of course, all dogs are welcome at my house.

Then I started to think of the logistics of it.

  • People will be coming and going. Some people can only make it early in the afternoon and some can’t make it til later.  I figure this will go down in two waves.  The early crew and the late crew.
  • Hubby and I will be busy, he will be cooking and I will be monitoring the food to make sure Delilah does not eat it.
  • We will not be able to watch the dogs or monitor their meeting as closely as we would like.
  • My friend’s dog is a 120 pound Bull Mastiff…..I picture him like this:

Photo courtesy of http://dogbreedinformations.com

  • Sampson can get snarky with male dogs, especially those that are bigger than he is.
  • Little children will be running about.

I started to get a feeling.  Not one I could put my finger on, just a feeling way down in the pit of my stomach.  I thought back to the party I was at where I was the only one sober enough to drive the hysterical mother and her sobbing son to the emergency room so he could get his ear sewn back on after being bitten by a dog.

I sent my cousin a text: “I’ve been thinking about the dogs.  I hope you understand, Sampson can get snarky with other dogs especially males that are bigger than he is.  I’m concerned that Hubby and I won’t be able to keep an eye on him like we would want to and with the little ones around it makes me a bit nervous.  Could we wait on this?  Hubby and I can have you, H and his dog over when it is just us and we can see how Sampson does.  Sorry to be such a nervous Nellie…..if the grand kids weren’t going to be there it would be entirely different.  I will tell you a story on Saturday that is weighing heavy on my heart and guiding me with this decision.”

She understood of course.  If she didn’t she wouldn’t be one of my oldest and dearest friends.  And I don’t mean I wouldn’t speak to her, what I mean is she knows me and she knows my heart and my love for animals and she knows I wouldn’t make this decision lightly.

She said her boyfriend won’t come without his dog, which makes me sad but I understand.

Just as I have to do what I feel is right for my dog so he succeeds, her boyfriend feels he must do what is right for his dog.

What do you think?  In a situation such as I just described, would you have someone bring their dog if your dog(s) had never met them before?

W.T.F. Wednesday

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Warning, you are about to enter……the Potty Mouth Zone.

If you know me, you should know I am prone to swearing.

Honestly, sometimes the ‘F’ word comes out of my mouth more often than not.  My husband was in the military, he’s finally (after 22 years of marriage) toned it down some, but in the beginning it wouldn’t be out of the norm for him to say, “Pass the f***ing” salt.  It was one of his bad habits that I picked up. 🙁

Oh I try, I really do but to me, the ‘F’ word can really make a statement much more powerful.

One of my favorite examples is Custer’s last stand. When you compare these two sayings, I think it’s very clear which one is more powerful.

Custer, “Where did all those Indians come from?”

OR

Custer, “Where did all those f***ing Indians come from?”

You get my point?

Sometimes I like to use the military terminology, “Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot” but most of the time “What the f***” is what comes out.  Of course if I’m texting, it’s WTF.

Basically I decided to take a play on Wordless Wednesday and change it to WTF Wednesday.  It may be a weekly post or it may just be an occasional one, I’m not sure yet.  But what inspired it was some news stories regarding animals I’ve seen in the last week.

Mitt Romney

Usually I don’t watch the news, I find it too disturbing, which is probably why I missed the Mitt Romney story when he ran for office in 2008.  If you haven’t heard about it (were you under the same rock as me?) you can read the whole article here.  The gist of it is, he put his dog in a crate and strapped it to the roof of his car and drove for 12 hours.

From what I can gather, he did this quite often and both he and his wife swear that the dog liked it.  Except for the time the dog was sick and messed all over the car.  According to Mrs. Romney it was because the dog got into some turkey on the counter and the dog had the ‘runs,’ and had absolutely nothing to do with cars and tractor-trailer trucks flying by them on the highway, while he was strapped in a crate to the luggage rack, and the  luggage rode comfortably inside the car.

The incident took place about 30 years ago, and I realize it was a different time and animals were treated differently but Mitt, WTF?  Really?

Then as if I wasn’t mad enough his response when asked if he’d do it again was, “Certainly not with the attention it’s received.”

Ok, so what you’re saying is if people didn’t know and react negatively, you’d do it again?

Again Mitt, WTF?

Then I started thinking (tongue in cheek) maybe this wouldn’t be such a bad trait to have in a president.  If terrorist were to say….take his wife or one of his children hostage and they let’s say…..shit their pants, well he certainly wouldn’t bend.

He would simply say, they liked being held hostage.  He could take all the emotion out of the situation.

Man Pulls Horse Behind Truck

Yes it happened in CT about 20 minutes from where I live.  I saw it on my facebook news feed and was totally disgusted.  After reading the article I could follow the old guy’s reasoning but still old guy, WTF?

You don’t drag ANY living thing behind a f***ing truck!!

That’s it for my WTF Wednesday.  What did you think?  Siriously, if you hate it, I won’t do it again.

Bold and Beautiful

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Delilah’s obsessed with food.  She is constantly in scavenger mode.  When I’m in the kitchen she is either under my feet or sitting guard in the doorway, prepared to dive head-first under the cabinet to catch a bread crumb.

You cannot leave food on the counter or table, if you do, it’s fair game for Delilah.  After we fix our dinner plates, we have to immediately put the food away, or put it in the oven or microwave to ensure Delilah won’t snag it as soon as we finish eating.

She’s not afraid to go into the sink and grab a dirty dish, or plastic bag so she can bring it out into the living room and lick it clean.

That also holds true for the stove and no, she doesn’t care if it’s on or not.  If memory serves me, she has taken a cooking hot dog out of the pan.

Once when I was at the sink, literally three feet behind her, she took a piece of chicken out of the pan.  Yes, she’s that bold.

When I put water on the stove for pasta I always add a little oil.  Delilah loves oil.  She will lick the oily pasta water and given the opportunity will lick strait oil right from the pan.   I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone into the kitchen to find water or oil flicked all over the stove and had to dump the entire pan and start over.  I finally got smart and put a lid on it.

As many times as I’ve caught her licking something out of the pan, I’ve never been able to get a picture of it.  Until recently.

Yes, my bold and beautiful dog trying to get a french fry.

Do you have a counter surfer in your house?  Have you found any creative ways to break this habit?

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