Heart Like a Dog

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

Pad-foot

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Delilah is pure Labrador. If you don’t have a Labrador in your life, I should tell you, they are excellent time keepers. Particularly when it comes to food.

Delilah is a shining example of Labrador time keeping skills. She knows exactly when she gets anything. Heart meds (in liverwurst) in at 6:30 am, breakfast at 7:00, banana chips at 7:30 when mom leaves for work, heart med liverwurst at 5:00 when mom comes home from work, dinner at 7:00, snack at 9:00, heart med liverwurst at 10:30.  If she were a Hobbit, she’d have names like breakfast, second breakfast, morning tea….etc. Thankfully, she’s not a Hobbit, but the best part is, she doesn’t talk, because God knows, I’d be drinking a lot more than whiskey in my coffee if she did.

Since she can’t talk (thank you, Jesus!) she does the next best thing. She sits in front of you and stares and if you get up, she’s right up your ass, making sure she doesn’t miss a thing. When she’s up your ass, she walks in such a way, that you can hear her walking. I call this sound, Pad-foot.

Sampson and Delilah get a stuffed, frozen Kong every night around 9:00 pm. It’s a simple concoction, stuffed with pineapple and frosted with canned pumpkin. I’ve had people ask me if it’s messy and to that I answer, “Yes, which is why we make the dogs eat the Kong on a throw rug.”

The rugs are old and discolored. I DO wash them every week, but the pumpkin stains, so they just look dirty. 🙂

Delilah is really good about putting her Kong on her rug. If for some reason she doesn’t use the rug, all you have to say is, “Put it on the rug,” and she will pick it up and move it.

Chocolate Lab with Kong

Do not disturb.

 

Delilah has a particular spot she typically has her Kong on, but there are nights where Sampson throws a wrench (figuratively, not literally. I mean, if I could teach a dog to throw a wrench, I’d be pretty rich) 🙂 in the works by laying too close to where Delilah would typically be, so I end up moving the rug.

Of course, there are always the nights where I’ve washed the rug that day, so it’s not in its normal place.

It is times like that, when I need to rearrange the rugs, that Delilah can be a real tax. Since she already KNOWS it’s snack time, she’s on high alert. When she sees me tidying or moving the treat rug, she can’t contain herself. She’s here, she’s there, she’s EVERYWHERE and I basically become a football player, trying to block her from standing on the rug while I’m trying to fix it.

I cannot laugh about it when it’s happening, in fact, I’m usually cussing, while Hubby’s usually laughing.

But hey, at least someone’s laughing.

What did your pet do to make you laugh this week?

Cabin Fever

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Can a dog have cabin fever?

I believe they can and I present my case below.

Within the last couple of weeks, a certain Labrador has been getting into some mischief.

Two weeks ago, she decided the dog couch is a giant stuffy that needs to be destroyed. More than once, I’ve come home to find bits of the couch on the floor. I’ve taken to wrapping the cushion in two towels, with hopes of stopping her destruction.

I’ve caught her checking in the sink to see if there were any goodies in there for her.

Hmmm….

Last week she casually pulled my empty paper plate off the table next to me. She’s ripped up an empty oyster cracker baggie (don’t look at me, Hubby left it on the floor). And one day, I found a little wooden apple on the floor. I’m not actually sure where she got that.

My final piece of evidence….Last night I’m pretty sure she ate some butter (including the wrapper) that Hubby left on the counter, while he popped out of the kitchen for a minute.

It’s not like she’s not getting walks, because she is. It’s not like her walks are shorter, because they aren’t.

I can only come to the conclusion that it’s cabin fever. Or maybe it’s the shorter days, and the fact that most of our walks take place in the dark.

What do you think? Have you been experiencing any unusual behavior in your house of late?

That Which Makes The Heart Happy

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How are you doing with the darkness of winter? Weekdays I get up okay, I say okay, because some days the struggle is real, ya’ know? On the weekends though, even if I’m awake, I have a hard time getting out of bed when it’s dark. Of course, it doesn’t help that I have heavy drapes that keep my bedroom…dark. 🙂

Yesterday, I had plans with my daughter to go into New York City to see the Harry Potter Exhibit at the New York Historical Society. My intention was to get up early, so I wasn’t rushed in the morning, but enter that pesky darkness and I got a late start walking the dogs.

Sampson usually only potties on his walks, so by the time I dragged my butt out of bed and started getting layering up (yes, it’s currently cold in the Northeast) he was standing at the door. I let him out thinking he could at least pee in the yard while I finished up, but instead, he simply stood on the deck outside the door.

I finished prepping myself, and I grabbed his harness to put on him. The minute I stepped out the door, the darn fool bolted for the gate. So there I went, chasing after him, trying to get HIM prepped for his walk. I caught him at the gate, put his harness on and turned around to go get his leash, and there was Hubby.

I said, “He just took off on me.”

Hubby said, “I know, I watched you chase him.”

And then that bastard laughed.

Naturally, I didn’t see the humor in the situation at the time, but I know how much Sampson loves the cold weather, so I said to Hubby, “Watch him go out the gate.”

Sure enough, I opened the gate and Sampson charged out like the cars taking the green flag at Daytona.

Since I was going into the city, I knew his evening walk was going to be short, (or as it turned out, not at all since I didn’t get home until 10:00 pm) I coaxed him to head to the woods.

Because of his bad legs, Sampson doesn’t run like MOST dogs, but he can still move when he wants to, which always makes my heart happy. I could tell by the way he was ‘hustling’ that he knew he was going to the woods, and the combination of woods and cold was making for a very happy dog.

When we hit the top of the street and were safely in the Cul-de-sac, I took him off leash and he made a beeline for the park. I honestly wish I’d had my phone ready to grab that video, because you can tell by the way he’s moving how happy he is.

It was a great start, to a great day, and I’m pretty sure I was smiling all the way home.

What did your pet do that made you smile or laugh this week?

(FYI, I walked 6.8 miles yesterday.) 🙂

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