Heart Like a Dog

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

I Should Have Named Her

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When Sampson was born to a litter of ten puppies, we seriously considered taking two, a male and a female.

Sampson Stone, three weeks old.

Can you just imagine this cuteness times 2?

We talked about all the cute names we could choose, “Jack and Jill,” “Bonnie and Clyde” and of course “Sampson and Delilah.”

As it turns out we only took Sampson, but it was a name we both loved and so it stuck.  And truthfully, I can’t imagine him with any other name.

When Sampson was almost three I broached the subject of getting him a companion, to help keep him company when we were at work.  Hubby agreed as long as we named her Delilah.

She came to us as “Ginny” (a Harry Potter name I was perfectly content to keep, but a deal is a deal) since she didn’t seem to answer to Ginny anymore than she answered to Delilah, we changed her name.

Whenever people ask us the dog’s names inevitably we get the knowing nod or the “Awe” moment when they hear both dogs names. This is Sampson (they smile) and this is Delilah.  

Everybody say it with me, “AWE!”

All that being said, I can’t tell you how many times I thought…I should have named her:

Padfoot – This is due to the way she pads along behind me or in front of me anytime she thinks she might be getting food. You’d think a dog intent on stealing food would be stealth.  Not this dog.

Alice – as in, “One of these days Alice, Pow, right to the moon!” This is usually after I’ve told her countless times to GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN! Typically it’s accompanied by a bunch of swear words.  Oh who am I kidding, it’s usually the “F” word.  GET OUT OF THE FUCKING KITCHEN.  SIRIUSLY!

Delilah Stone

It’s skillz Mama, this girl has skillz.

Hoover – This is due to the fact she is like a vacuum.  She inhales her food, even when we invert her bowl to make it more challenging and she sucks food off the floor faster and cleaner than any vacuum I’ve ever had.

Lucy – as in, “Luuuuuuucyyyyy, you got some ‘splainin to do!”  This is usually when I find something shredded that wasn’t meant to be shredded.  Like the napkin I left on the couch table when I zipped into the kitchen to get some salt.  I swear I was only gone 10 seconds.

Sirius – (one of my favorite Harry Potter characters) used like, “Are you sirius?”  This is after I’ve tripped on her five times and am trying to get somewhere but she keeps walking in front of me. And it doesn’t matter if you change directions, no.  This dog has cat like skills.  The kind that can trip someone and send them tumbling down the stairs or into a wall.

Harm – as in, “Let me move these brownies to the top of the refrigerator and out of Harm’s way.” Because if you leave them anywhere within her tongue’s reach, she’s going for it. And she’s quick, like a vacuum.

What kind of thoughts did you put into naming your pets?  Do you ever think you may have chosen the wrong name?

If My Dogs Could Understand Me

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Most days I’m quite grateful for the communication system I have with my dogs.  They know a decent number of words.  Enough words so on a typical day, I get my point across.  For the most part, I get what I want and they’ve found a way to communicate what they want.

I’m very glad that Delilah cannot speak.  I imagine her to have a fast-paced, snappy, sassy way of talking.  

Not to mention nagging.  

“It’s 9 o’clock, you know that right?  9 o’clock is snack time, you know that right?  Snack time, that’s when you get up off the couch and get us our Kongs.  You remember our Kongs, don’t you?  I’m sure you do, I sat in the kitchen and watched you stuff them.  You stuffed them and put them in the freezer for 9 o’clock snack.  It’s 9 o’clock, you know that right? 9 o’clock is snack time.”

I imagine I’d get tired of that pretty damn quick.

Mostly I’m quite satisfied with our communicating technique.  But there are times, when I really wish my dogs could understand exactly what I’m saying. If my dogs could understand what I was saying for just one day, I imagine I’d have some things to tell them.

Things like:

Delilah don’t eat dog shit.  Number one, it’s disgusting and it makes your breath stink and number two, well it’s just disgusting.

Sampson, the boots are not to make your life miserable, they are to protect your feet from the cold and snow, so please do me a solid and stop trying to kick the freaking things off.

It goes for you too Delilah, the boots will not bite you when you squat to potty, so you can stop walking like there’s a stick up your ass.

Dog hates her boots.

I might have to wear these ‘boots’ but I don’t have to pose for the camera.

Sampson, I would pet and hold you all night long, if you’d only lie next to me, instead of at the bottom of the bed.

Delilah, I would love to let you run off leash all through the park, if only you’d stop eating dog shit, and going into people’s yards to see what kind of food you can scrounge.

Sampson, not every car we pass has a person in it and not every person we see is a person who likes dogs. Please stop yanking my arm out of its socket, they don’t make shirts that fit  one long and one short arm.

Delilah, there is something not right with your liver, I’m doing everything possible to keep you alive, please stop eating shit that you shouldn’t.  I assure you, you really are getting enough food.

Do you ever wish you could REALLY communicate with your dogs?  If your dogs could understand you for just one day, what would you tell them? 

Do Dogs Have Feelings?-Barks and Bytes

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Monday I asked my Facebook followers, “Do you believe dogs experience feelings of love, jealousy, shame, humiliation?“

I had seven responses.  Five said YES!  One said yes to the first three for sure.  The last one said a new book she was reading had her questioning what she knew.

I admit, I had an ulterior motive.

Sunday we posted a photo on Instagram (you can follow us HeartLikeADog) of Delilah wearing her new boots and staring out the window.  I captioned it, “Delilah contemplating if the walk is worth the humiliation of wearing boots.”

Dog-hates-boots

It’s not, it’s definitely not.

You may remember a few weeks back I picked up some of those disposable rubber balloon like ‘boots.’  While I can see their value (you want to protect a paw that has a sore on it) they aren’t the boots for us.  We went through that $20 pack of boots in about 2 weeks.

I needed to find something a little more durable.  My friend Mary had a review on boots, but Mary is in the desert and I wasn’t sure exactly how well those boots would stand up to the snowy, salty, chemically Connecticut winter.

Chemical crap on roads

Whoops, someone took a dump.

Luckily my friend Tanya who lives in New York put up a photo of her dog wearing boots.  I hopped right on the message chat and got the specifics.

I ordered the boots from Chewy and they came in two days.

How hard can this be? I asked myself.  They’ve been wearing booties for weeks, I thought.

I put one boot on each of the dogs.

Typical Delilah she tried to bite it off.

Ah, it's velcro, all I have to do is grab it right here...

Ah, it’s velcro, all I have to do is grab it right here…

Sampson just laid there and pouted.

Dog hates boots

This isn’t cute, this is cruel.

I left the boot on for a few minutes, then put another one and left that one on for a few minutes, then took them off.

Come walk time I put the boots on the dogs and headed out the door.

Dogs with boots

Do you see anyone watching us in that direction? I don’t see anyone this way either.

Sampson the little jackass kept kicking his feet and trying to throw the boot.  Eventually he won and tossed one of the offending boots into the snow.  I picked it up and put it in my pocket.  After that, he was fine.  I guess it’s like when you get the spins from drinking, as long as one foot touches the floor…

Delilah was a totally different story.  She walked sedately beside me.  She did not sniff, she did not look around, she did not potty.  If I had to say what her mood was, I’d say pissed off.

I figured she either hated the boots or the sound of my giggling voice as I watched them goose-stepping up the street.

When we first started with the balloon boots, Delilah had a similar response.  The first day she only walked, the second day she tinkled on the walk and by the third day she was back to her normal, silly self.

I shared this with my mom on Sunday evening as we discussed the dog’s progress with the boots.  “Today she tinkled on our walk, she’ll be back to doing her pooping business tomorrow,” I said confidently.

Monday she filed a formal protest and staged a lie in.   She allowed me to put the boots on her, but she refused to get off the bed and walk.

Dog hates boots

I refuse to take one step with these ridiculous things on.

Sampson and I walked alone.

Monday afternoon we still had lots of snow and no real chemicals on the road, so I let them walk without shoes.  Tuesday I started her with the boots on her back feet only and she did okay.  She walked with a nice loose leash, but she still wouldn’t poop.

Yesterday morning neither one of them wanted to get up for their walk.  Hubby said, “Maybe it’s too cold, why not just skip it?”

Dogs in boots

Why don’t you just head out without us?

Because I got up at 5:45 to walk those stinking dogs and dammit, they’re going to walk! So beginning yesterday morning, they’re both walking with boots only on the back feet.  

So given all of that, I’ll ask you.  Do you think dogs have feelings?

Heart Like a Dog
Welcome to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. The Barks and Bytes hop is for anything at all and all bloggers are welcome. You don’t have to be a dog blog to join. For new blog hoppers, a blog hop is list of links that is shared on multiple blogs. In order to be fair to all participants Linda and I ask you to please use the linky list. If your blog does not support a linky list, please link back to either Linda or I.

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