Keep Away

Yet another rainy day in Minneapolis. That makes two in a row. We'll probably get three if the weather stays around for Saturday. All the football fans are going to be miserable. An outdoor stadium is great, especially when it is all new and exciting... but I'm not sure I'd like being out there on a cold wet Saturday. Even if it is Gophers vs. Badgers.

Poor pups. They're also going to be miserable if this weather continues. Rain makes it very unpleasant for all of us to go on our walks, and the boys get uptight and bored when they can only get out two or three times a day. I've tried to take them out in the pouring rain but they will have none of that. If it is sprinkling they don't mind, but if it's coming down hard they refuse to leave the house. And it's been on and off raining hard for the better part of two days.

Gus must have known they were going to be stuck inside for a while because on Wednesday when I dropped them off at Grandma's house he already had a plan to keep himself entertained. We just didn't know about it...

Grandma spoils the dogs rotten, and that day she had been to Petsmart and bought a couple gigantic raw hides for them to play with. Charly doesn't seem at all interested in raw hides. He never really has been. But Gus, he loves them, and in general will have one all chewed up within 10 minutes. That day, Grandma gave Gus his raw hide, and promptly left the house for an appointment.

When she returned home, Gus and Charly were both waiting excitedly for her, and the raw hide was no where to be seen. So she assumed Gus had eaten it up right away, like so many other times in the past.

Wrong.

That evening, as she was getting ready for bed, she noticed Gus sitting at the foot of the bed, staring at it intently. Grandma brushed her teeth, poured a glass of water, and started walking towards the bed with the intention of getting into it for the night. But as she got closer and closer to her bed, Gus became more and more agitated, to the point that he was barking and jumping and stomping all around the room. When she backed away from the bed he would stop, and when she would move forward again he would continue to bark.It was so disturbing that Charly, who had been quietly waiting on the bed for Grandma to get in, immediately jumped off the bed, thinking Gus probably didn't want him there.

Eventually, Gus hopped up on the bed and began to wrestle with the blankets, burrowing himself in the comforters. Some people call this nesting, when dogs make a mess of their beds, your bed, or the sofa. Grandma finally got into bed, and Gus made such a fuss that she took off the covers thinking he might want to get inside too, what with it being so cold and all.

And that's when she saw it, the raw hide, tucked neatly between the covers and a crack between the bed and the wall. Gus hadn't eaten the toy, he'd deftly hid it in Grandma's bed for safe keeping, but Grandma found out and ruined the secret! And took all the fun out of the next two days stuck inside.

On days like today sometimes I wish I had a heat lamp, one of those that's supposed to be good for your mood. Wouldn't it be fun if this lamp from Pure Design wasn't just a lamp but a heat lamp that could make you feel better when your feeling rainy day blues or boredom?

Reuse and Recycle

A friend sent me this link and photo today and it made me laugh and think of the time when Gus chewed a hole into my mother's couch last fall. Thankfully we were out of the country in Germany when Gus decided to tear into it, so by the time we got back Mom's frustration with the situation had simmered and we were hardly scolded for our dog's misbehavior. Of course the couch still hasn't been fixed, she just strategically places a throw pillow in front of the torn section.

Oh, and yesterday Gus chewed a hole into his own dog bed here at home, but we've never had anything as bad as this photo happen at our house! This reminds me that I love this Bird On A Wire doggie duvet by Molly Mutt, a company based out of California that sells durable, stylish, and easy to clean duvets to cover your dog's doggie bed. You can cover an old dog bed with one of Molly Mutt's duvet covers, or you can stuff a duvet with old clothes, sheets, bedding, etc. that you might have lying around the house. Reuse and Recycle! These duvet covers are innovative, fresh, and fun and we love them.

Let's Play A Game

I realize that I haven't posted in quite a long time, long enough that many of my readers have probably thrown in the towel thinking the writer's block was too thick, or that maybe the wedding got the best of me and sucked out all of my creative juices.

But this story is too funny not to share. So we're back, and hopefully we'll be here for a while. There are no weddings or other life changing events in the forecast so we should be good to go. My energy can re-focus onto House & Hound and this blog.

So this afternoon I decided to finally break open the "Solid Gold" brand bagel treats we've had in the pantry for over 5 months. I'm not sure why we haven't treated the dogs to these before or why we waited so long for them to try these tasty snacks.

I pull two delicious bagel treats out of the bag and give one each to the boys. They each take a treat and go off to a separate corner of the room to supposedly enjoy. Except they don't even try them. They sit sniffing at their bagels, and then get up and walk away, apparently in disgust. (Remind me some day to tell you about the time Gus ate a dozen Bruegger's bagels!)

A half hour goes by and they've totally forgotten about the bagel treats, when all of a sudden they start playing with them again and I finally hear Gus munching on his bagel in the upstairs den, and Charly gnawing at his in the kitchen. Gus finishes his bagel in 2 minutes flat, and comes down to see if Charly has finished his yet.

Charly always takes forever to finish up his treats, so of course he is just hanging out, with the bagel under his nose, sniffing it, munching on it a little, but mostly just guarding it. Evidently he knows his brother Gus all too well, because Gus begins to stare intently at Charly and his bagel for the better part of 45 minutes, obviously trying to find some way to get that bagel away from Charly and into his own jaws.

So the dogs continue to stare at each other, and as the minutes go by Gus gets closer and closer to Charly and his loot. Finally he tries for it, but of course I'm there to make sure life is fair for these two. Since Gus already finished his own treat, I end up putting myself between the two dogs, and scold Gus for trying to steal away Charly's treat. I mean, I know he's your little brother, I know he's your subordinate, but come on! Can't you just be a little generous to a fellow member of your family!

I give the treat back to Charly, who promptly sits back down with it, and continues to just guard it. He doesn't take a bite out of it, or lick it or anything, he just sits there with it. How infuriating for Gus! Of course Gus is back at the staring game, trying to manage someway of distracting me this time so he can grab the treat and make a run for it.

After a while of this back and forth staring game, Charly gets up and leaves his treat behind. Apparently it wasn't good enough for him. This time I let Gus get it and he eats it as fast as he possibly can.

Does this story remind you of when you were a kid and your big brother or sister wouldn't let you near his candy bar, even though he or she hated Baby Ruth's?

Cookoo

I realize it has been over a month since my last post. Who knew planning a wedding would be so all consuming? It's like every ounce of my time and creativity is being sucked right up by planning this big day. I'm hoping when it's all said and done I'll be able to get back into writing regularly and covering a wider array of dog inspired design topics.

By the way, only eight weeks left until Gus gets to try his hand (or should I say paw) at being a ring bearer! I've been searching for a collar for him to wear on our special day, and though I haven't found the perfect one yet, I did come across this absolutely lovely Birdie collar from Wonderdog NYC. Every collar they sell is unique and beautiful, but this particular one is just so special. I love the bird motif and chic silver buckle.

What A Mess

It's definitely Monday cause I've having a terrible time getting back into the swing of things. First off I had to take the dogs back to my mom's house last night for their weekly three day sleep over at her house. Of course the minute I drop them off I start missing them.

Second, I was up late on Saturday night watching movies with my brother at his house, and didn't get home until 2 in the morning (not typical for me, way past my bed time). I slept until 11 a.m. on Sunday so then of course last night I wasn't a bit tired and didn't end up falling asleep until, gasp, midnight. So then getting up on time this morning was a real nightmare.

Third, I had to drive all over the city this morning to meet a delivery truck and coordinate the installation of furniture and chairs for several of our City properties. Well communications first thing Monday morning never go all that smoothly, and I missed the delivery truck like three times at three separate sites. A delivery and install that should have taken an hour and a half ended up taking three, with a lot of aggrevation and wasted gas to boot.

The only thing keeping me from calling it a day is the fact that I spotted a dog themed dish towel in the window display of the Bibelot on my way back to the office from that horrendous delivery. So I stopped in and bought the towel, and I can be proud of at least one thing I did today. Sorry but I can't find an image of the dishcloth online. Yet another disappointment in my string of disappointments...... Oh well, it is a Monday.

Baby Mania

We've welcomed three babies to the world this week. None of them ours, all of them brand new and beautiful. No, I'm not pregnant, first we've got to get married in August. But three of our good friends all gave birth within a week of each other. Two of the babies in fact were born yesterday. 

Imagine our surprise when we received the second call yesterday, from our friends Alix and Holly. We'd already heard about the first brand new baby earlier that day, and so the news of Jasper's early arrival blew us away. 

In fact, we had just been over to Alix and Holly's for a dinner party on Sunday, a last hurrah before baby. Jasper wasn't due until this coming Sunday, but I think the cheese cake I brought for desert(which Alix had been craving for months) did the trick. And so out he came, five days earlier than expected. Yey!

Love, Love, Love this travel diaper changing pad from My Retro Baby. Makes me almost want to change a diaper. 

What's Up Doc?

We brought Charly to the vet yesterday. He's been acting normal, except for he's been limping on his back hind leg for the past three weeks. The thing is, he's been going on all his walks, he's continued to run around and play with his brother Gus, and he's has had no problems jumping up onto our bed and back down again. Despite everything looking relatively fine, (except for his gate of course) we took him in.

A half hour later and the vet couldn't find anything wrong with him. She told us his muscles, his bones, his ligaments, everything was looking really healthy. So has Charly recently acquired a bad walking habit? Is this his new strutting style? His new runway walk? What the ???

By the way if you saw Charly today he'd look like the dog in this Doodle Dog painting! Seriously, you can't tell anything is wrong with him he's so energetic and exuberant.... except he's got kind of a funny walk...