Mutt Monday: Fences Make the Best Mutts

Oh those wiley mutts! Just when they think they've got the whole acre figured out, every smell accounted for, and every blade of grass counted, we go and throw a double whammy--rabbits! fence!--at them. Their world is upside down! Are they allowed inside the fenced garden? No. Can they please go in to eat...um...see the rabbits? No.

We finally finished securing the entire perimeter of the garden this past week by attaching trellising to the base of the shed, because the little dog from next door was easily coming and going from under the shed. With the trellis in place, we paid little attention to the world outside the fence...until this weekend.

Notice anything funny about the trellis under the shed? Take a closer look.

Here Hokie has become reptilian and slithered under the shed on her belly so she can be close to us as we work in the garden. Or does she have another motive? Hey, by the way, where is her partner in crime?

Aha! Boston not only slithered under the shed, she went all the way through to the other side. Why, pray tell, would an otherwise sensible dog do such a thing? Well, that wooden object on the other side of the fence that she is trained on is the rabbit hutch, of course.

I'm not sure if they're working as a team, with Hokie as lookout for humans and Boston looking out for rabbits. More likely, Hokie is hot and bored and wants to see what we're doing, and Boston is claustrophobic and rabbit-crazed.

"Here, bunny bunny. Come out and plaaaaayyy...."


*By the way, I keep forgetting to announce the results of our name-the-rabbits poll. With 44% of the vote, the winning names are: "Raleigh & Durham." It's no coincidence that several voting constituents are residents of the fair state of North Carolina. Since we believe the white bunny is a girl, she will be Raleigh and the boy will be Durham. I know you were all on the edge of your seats over this one.

Mutt Monday: Doldrums

We've reached the period in winter when it feels like spring will NEVER come, and we should just resign ourselves to mud and cold winds and call the whole thing off.

The dogs have the right idea. They spend approximately 40 hours per day sleeping. As we know, Boston's default position is the following:

 

Yes, she enjoys a little tv in the evenings. Especially when it's frigid outside--this dog can hold her pee until May if she has to.

 

In an attempt to curry favor with his older hostess, BD has been going for "the Boston" too.

 

"See? I can lie on my back and be calm, too! Can't we come inside and watch tv? We promise all of this dead grass sticking to our backs will only enhance your carpet."

I'm not buying it.

Mutt Monday: The Cleaning Crew

Where there is a baby in a highchair, there is a cleaning crew of mutts waiting like moat monsters beneath it to devour the castoffs. And where there is a 1-year-old's birthday, there is airborne cake.

These dogs are probably the most efficient vaccuums I've ever seen. I keep trying to convince Bill to let me get a Roomba, but he keeps pointing out that as long as the floor is soiled with food, we don't need one.



*Note, BD is still with us, though he was out having a romp while the girls remained vigilantly by the door. They know what it means when we take the baby's shirt off to eat...

Mutt Monday: The Saga Continues

So, as many of you know, we sent BD home with a friend on the Wednesday night before the big ice storm. She lives about three miles from us and has another brown lab that she thought BD could be a companion to.

Well, on Thursday morning, as I was running around trying to do as much as possible before we lost power, this is what I saw as I passed by my back door:

 

Yes, this crazy dog walked 3 miles in an ice storm to come back to his lady love. Have I mentioned that all parties are fixed? 

Anyway, there wasn't much we could do since everyone was scrambling for heat and generators, so we let him hang out for an extra week. None of the dogs really knew what to do with the thick layer of ice that covered the ground, but once it started to snow, they got down to business.

 

The kung fu fighting made them thirsty.

The dogs then spent the better part of the entire week stuck inside in the living room, since it appears that there are neighbors who are not fans of BD traipsing up to them expecting to be pet. Apparently the local animal control has received complaints, so we're trying to keep him contained until we can get him adopted. 

In the meantime, more doggie goodness:

Mutt Monday: Trash Crop

Hokie and Boyfriend Dog have moved past their mutual attraction and are developing a deeper relationship by exploring their joint interests. Which is mainly garbage.

Friday is trash collection day in our neighborhood, and it is always inevitably the windiest day of the week. Everyone sets out their cans and bags and then heads off to work. This is where Hokie and BD come in. This Friday they had dragged no less than THREE entire bags of trash to OUR FRONT LAWN and proceeded to delight in the contents as if it were Christmas morning. I do what I can to keep the front cleaned up, but the backyard...well....



I'm all for young love and all, but this plus the heavyweight wrestling matches in my veggie plot has me leaning towards sending Hokie and BD to boarding school and a military academy, respectively.

Mutt Monday: Oklahoma Animal Planet

Friday afternoon was a bit exciting around these parts with some entertainment provided by our local herd of mutts. Yes, Boyfriend Dog is still around. Don't act so shocked.

Around 90% of the time, Boston practices her life passion of being a speed bump, but every once in a while there will be an occasion (ahem, rodent) that catches her attention and gets her moving. Boyfriend Dog shares her passion for rooting out critters, and I was lucky enough to catch much of their bonding session on video.
(The narration is provided by me, our babysitter, and Joe. You'll see background shots of our under-construction garden shed, but I'm waiting for Bill to guest-blog about that.)



Don't worry, the lawnmower made it. As for the critter, it remains a mystery.

Mutt Monday: Boyfriend Dog

Around here we get a lot of doggie visitors because of our split-rail fence. Our dogs are pretty good hostesses, but this week, they fell in love. Well, Hokie fell in love anyway; Boston is pretty much a cynic when it comes to canine relationships.

ANYWAYS, we were joined by a very sweet young Lab that we called "BD" for "Boyfriend Dog," "Brown Dog," and "Big Dog" because they all apply.


We've seen him here and there for the last several weeks, and every once in a while he'd raid a can on trash day and share some of his scraps with our girls. This week, I guess, he decided to take the relationship to the next level by breaking out the big guns...or big bones, as it were:


Only the best, giantest bones for BD's lady loves. We found out later that he'd pilfered them from the One Acre Homestead. I guess all's fair in love and bone theft, but we'll do our best to replace them somehow. This one reminds me of a married couple sharing the remote:


As I've mentioned several times lately, the weather in our neck of the woods has been ridiculously cold. Like, in the single and negative digits with the wind chill. So being the giant pushover that I am, I couldn't help but let BD stay over night with us when he made it clear that he wasn't leaving his women, despite the weather. Some women are destined to be crazy cat ladies; I'll be the woman with 40 dogs. Besides, he was quite the charmer, what with his advanced ability to sit, stay, and infectious tail-wagging whenever he saw me coming.

Over the course of his 3-day stay, there was lots of lover's turmoil out in the yard. At first Boston turned a cold shoulder to the flirtfest.


But in the end, she couldn't refuse a man bearing cattle-bone shards, even if it meant sharing him with a younger woman. So scandalous.


We were content to let BD stick around until warmer temps prevailed and we could start the search for his people in earnest (because it was very clear that he was a beloved pet) but he struck out on the morning of the 4th day and we haven't seen him since. I guess he was born a rambling man. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of him.

EDIT: Sure enough, he was back first thing this morning to play. I'm sure he came right over as soon as his people left for work.

Mutt Monday: Double Post

To make up for missing last week's Mutt Monday post, you're getting a double feature this week. We wouldn't want you think that the dogs weren't busy over the holidays, because they DEFINITELY were.

Last week, on the day before much of our holiday company was to arrive, the mutts decided to spend their evening making friends with the locals. Especially the black-and-white striped locals. It turns out the locals didn't want to be friends. In fact, the locals, being of the skunk variety, decided to make it clear that they wanted to be left alone. Did I mention that all of this happened at 9pm on a freezing cold night? The good news is that we have a foolproof recipe for skunk shampoo, but the bad news is that we had to run to the store for more peroxide and the hose water was just barely above freezing. Usually we'd let the girls sleep under the stars after a skunk tango, but it seemed a bit cruel to leave them soaking wet in below freezing temps.

This kept them warm. Nothing like bunking in the garage for the night while they dried off. Actually, I think Hokie quite enjoyed the cuddle time.

Boston, not so much.

It's a good thing we already had the kennel set up, because we ended up using it a few days later when we had to rescue a neighbor's dog from the blizzard. His poor family had been caught unexpectedly by the storm and couldn't make it home, so he spent a few days with us. It was pretty chaotic so we didn't get a picture of our guest, but he made sure to wake us up early on Christmas morning to let us know that Santa had come, and that he had to pee.

And now for the past week. In normal weather, this is the view from my kitchen at about 5pm every night:

The dinner stare. No matter what I happen to be doing, I can feel 4 mutty eyes burning into me, until they hear the inevitable crash of kibble hitting bowl. Then tails wag, bodies are thrown against the glass...I'll be sure to catch it on video one of these days.

In snowy weather, however, everything changes.

While sleet nor snow nor nuclear holocaust will distract Hokie from a meal, Boston on the other hand was too busy frolicking and snow-bunnying around to be bothered with dinner. She tends to live up to her name and truly comes alive in the snow. If we are blessed with the THIRD SNOWSTORM OF THE SEASON this week as predicted, I'll try to get pictures of this rare event.

Boston frolicking, not the snow. Contrary to what I was told when we moved to this state, snow hasn't exactly been rare this winter.

Mutt Monday: Deck the Dogs

Hokie is all about some Christmas decorations.


Boston, not so much.


It doesn't help that Hokie got dibs on the pretty tree skirt and stuck Boston with the ugly garland.


Come on Boston, give us a smile. Don't you want to make it on the Christmas card this year?

The Feline Overlord even got in on the act...a little.

Mutt Monday! Reunited and It Feels So Good.

Though they were in excellent care, our pups were pretty happy to see us come home on Monday. I know it's hard to make out, but this is a rapidly wagging tail:

I sat down on the floor to take pictures of the girls, and Boston make darn sure I didn't go anywhere.

Hokie was so happy to see her little snack wagon again. I'm fairly certain that if Hokie was a gardener and had to plant her own food, she'd plant baby humans.

It's good to be loved.

Even our Feline Overlord allowed petting (or in Joe's case, pulling and smacking--lovingly, of course).

Mutt Monday

In the tradition of some of my favorite blogs, like Dooce.com and MiltonADay.com, I've decided to post a dog blog once a week, called Mutt Mondays. You know. Because sometimes people get sick of reading about vegetables or babies or my thoughts about grass. But everyone likes pictures of cute dogs.

Let's kick off our first Mutt Monday by introducing our own dear doggies, Boston and Hokie.

Boston came to us in late October, 2004. Anyone remember anything interesting in the world of sports from that year? No? Well it just so happened that after 80-some-odd years of not winning the World Series, the Boston Red Sox finally broke their curse. The very next day, while working on a construction site in southern Virginia, Bill saw a hungry little puppy wandering just outside of a pack of stray dogs. The puppy started following him around, and later that night I got a phone call from him after work. "I've done something bad..."

He brought the puppy home. I mean, how could he not. I think when the term "puppy-dog eyes" was coined, the speaker was looking into those. Caught up as we were in the exuberant baseball-y-ness of the night before, we called her Boston and she became our first baby.

We're not sure what her breed mixture is, but we think it's a mix of Rottweiler-German Shephard-New Zealand Sloth-Bulgarian Brick Wall or something like that. She enjoys laying on the floor, laying in the grass, laying in the shade, laying in the sun, laying on your foot, and laying just behind you in the kitchen or anywhere else that you make sudden movements and don't expect a dog to be laying. She is persistent in demanding to be petted. On the occasions that she has gotten out of the yard, she is quite adept at getting lost, distracted, forgetful of where her house is, and in general, a pain to bring home. She is always happy to see her people, though, and despite her bad (selective) memory when it comes to coming home, she never forgets a person and literally cries with joy whenever my mother-in-law comes to visit.

She also, regrettably, LOVES killing small rodents and treating them like stuffed animals. In the winter when the lake near our house recedes from it's shores, we take the dogs and let them run around and hunt. It does a doggie good:


Our second canine baby is a bit younger, and we estimate her birthday to be somewhere around Feb. 2008. When we moved to Oklahoma in May, I decided that we needed to get a companion for Boston since we were no longer all crammed into a one-bedroom apartment. I didn't waste much time in finding the local animal shelter and going to see if any of the puppies called my name. This one did:

We called her Hokie (Bird), an homage to Bill's alma mater, Virginia Tech. We think she is a mixture of Australian Shephard-Labrador Retreiver-Texas Garbage Disposal-SubSaharan Water Buffalo-General Punk. She loves to fetch thrown objects, bark if said objects are not thrown fast enough, work herself into a heat stroke obsessively chasing after thrown objects, scavange the neighborhood for potential objects to be thrown (especially on trash day), steal the Boston's food, steal the cat's food, and join Boston in the general laying around.

She is usually too smart for her own good, and has successfully trained the baby to feed her on demand from his tray. She was quick to learn to stay inside the electric fence we have around our backyard, but after several months decided that slight shocks really weren't that bad, and managed to convince us to remove her buzz collar because she would always return to the yard before we knew she was gone (I think she and Boston have a lookout situation set up somehow). She also excels at soccer. No joke, I can literally play soccer with her for hours.

I think we ought to call the Disney company and get them to cast her in the next live-action-dog-joins-sports-team movie that will inevitably have straight-to-DVD sequels.

So there you have it. The Wat dogs. And just so you don't think they have free reign from the doorknobs down, they both answer to a higher authority:


Their feline overlord is a 10-lb domestic short hair named Stella. But hers is a tale that will be revealed in time, when she is ready for me to tell it.

Happy First Mutt Monday, everyone!