The Book of Ramblings

Since it's so freaking cold outside, I took Dahlia over to Canines Unleashed this afternoon. For $5 you could let your dog play with other dogs. They're not open today, so this is just a special thing for fun. Thank God because walks when it's this cold are not fun! Later I'm going to HAVE to put Dahlia's booties on just to protect her feet from the cold!

So Dahlia was like she always was at the dog park: mostly a wall flower, and generally interested in meeting people and doing a bit of greeting with the other dogs. None of the dogs were really running around and chasing, so she mostly just chilled out. She did get a little bit of chase in. We met a woman who adopted her border collie a month ago. We were both thinking she had a tail injury at one point because it looks like her tail was partially amputated. It's far too short and where it ends it doesn't taper like a tail usually does. It just sort of ends. Sweetie is about 2 years old (and was in a foster home for a YEAR -- I cannot even understand how such a sweet, mellow dog was not adopted before now!) and her name fits her. She was SO SWEET. And so much like Dahlia in personality, even down to the belly rubs and putting a paw on you while you were rubbing her belly. Nice dog and her owner seemed like a cool person.

I brought my camera, but it was too dark in the room to get many photos. I took most of them in our very short stints to the outside for some pee breaks.

( Pics )

What IS it with my dog an the UPS truck? While on our walk last night we were passed by many cars and trucks. The FedEx truck went by. A least two full size buses went by. A bus for the disabled went by and that's about the same size as the damned UPS truck. But those? Ignored.

The UPS truck? Dahlia couldn't WAIT to get over to it. We saw the first UPS truck early in the walk. As soon as she saw the guy delivering packages and saw the truck, she rushed over and sat near it, leaning forward, ears alert. She just couldn't wait until he started the damned thing up. The guy looked at her and laughed. He's the one on our usual route and he's seen her do this before. So he started up the truck.

And what does Dahlia do? "BARK BARK BARK BARK!!!!!" And she raced after it like it was the best thing ever.

We saw the second UPS truck as we were heading back to our apartment. We ended up having to walk out of our way to go over to it.

Now Dahlia got close to it and she went into "creeping" mode as she came up along side it. She moved in slow motion, her body low, her eyes focused on the truck. She looked like these dogs in her movement. That's right...what makes my dog go into border collie herding/stalking posture? THE UPS TRUCK. OMG WTF????!!!

My dog is SO WEIRD.

So she slinks up near it and then lays down. She's waiting for it to start up. The UPS guy is still in the truck getting his packages out and he sees my stupid dog laying there staring intently at his truck and he gets out and offers her a biscuit. A plain old regular milk bone dog biscuit. Which Dahlia TAKES. She won't eat them if we offer them to her. But she takes it from this guy.

AND SHE IMMEDIATELY EATS IT OMG WTF???

She ate the biscuit. Right down. I think she was biding her time because soon he came back to the truck and when he saw her waiting and excited, he started it up and took off with great flair (as great of flair as one CAN in one of those lumbering vehicles).

And what did Dahlia do? "BARK BARK BARK BARK!!!!!" And she raced after it like it was the best thing ever. Again.

But best of all! THE TRUCK PULLED OVER! OMG EXCITEMENT FOR DAHLIA!!! He had more packages to deliver down the road. He rushed out and delivered them all and by the time he was back, Dahlia was ready to go. He took off flying again and...once more...

"BARK BARK BARK BARK!!!!!" And she raced after it like it was the best thing ever.

Sadly for Dahlia, he continued on his way and we had to turn toward home, but she had a huge spring in her step and raced all the way back to the apartment.

Just what IS it about those UPS trucks?

Every summer, David and I look at each other and say "I'm worried about Dahlia."  Why?  Because she's listless.  She lays around the apartment, looking sad and miserable.  She walks slowly, ploddingly.  We worry that she's getting older (we don't know her real age, though we're guessing she's somewhere between 4 and 5).  We worry that something is wrong with her.  She has little interest in exercise and would much rather just lay in the grass for a belly rub.  In fact, she usually looks a little like this.


( Cut for more, including a few pictures )

David and I decided to take both dogs around the pond this morning. Well, we decided to head around at least part of the pond. It wasn't horribly hot, but the dogs looked pretty hot and mostly wanted to lay down in the grass. So we packed up some bowls, some ice water, and a bit of chocolate for David and I and headed down.

We took Teri off leash at the spot we rested at and she did brilliantly again. We ended up walking back to the other end of the pond with her off leash and she did GREAT. I was seriously impressed. She ran around and checked things out but always came back to us when we called her name. Dahlia LOVED having her off leash. Teri would go running to us or to something and Dahlia would go racing after her. It wasn't really playing on Teri's part (I'm not even sure Teri noticed Dahlia running after her), but it was on Dahlia's end and it was fun to watch.

( Pictures galore! )

Just a bunch more pictures!

I took Dahlia around the pond this morning. We first ran into some lady and her standard poodle (not Finnegan, the one we met before). She didn't have him on lead, but held onto his collar as Dahlia and I sat to let them pass. She asked if Dahlia was friendly and I said yes. She said "Oh good, some dogs are so unpredictable." So she lets go of her dog (Marley) and lets him come over to meet Dahlia and he INSTANTLY goes after her with teeth bared. WTF? Then she grabs him and yanks him away and said "Case in point" and walks off.

What the hell? Her dog attacks mine and MINE is the unpredictable one? I'm guessing this happens to her a lot, which means her dog is actually rather predictable. He doesn't care for most other dogs, lady. She was all snotty about it! And Dahlia was limping. Luckily it just seemed to be momentary shock and she was ok shortly thereafter.

We had a good walk around the pond, met a nice dog who looked like a Basenji/Smooth coated collie cross (no lie). She was really nice, but the woman had both a prong AND chain on the poor dog. She was using the chain to walk her. WEIRD.

I tried to set up an awesome shot of Dahlia chasing the ducks and geese today. I made her sit and wait, walked to the OTHER side of the ducks and geese, and then said "ok!" I guess I Should have said "go get 'em" so it was my OWN fault hat she ran to ME and didn't go after the birds. Oops. She did run down though and run INTO the pond. Good thing she's getting groomed on Tuesday.

When we crossed the road to head back to the car she suddenly got very interested in fetch and she ALMOST got it right (!!!!). I would throw the ball, she'd go get it, run back to me, past me around in a circle and drop the ball somewhere in my vicinity. It's better than her usual keep away. I got a lot of great fetching pictures.

( Pics! )

David and I decided to head up to the cottage on the lake. For those that don't know, we sort of watch his ex-wife's cottage. She moved away to Washington a couple years ago and hasn't been able to sell it. She let us borrow it when we first got Dahlia since we had nowhere else to take our new dog and we've been keeping an eye on it for her ever since. It's a nice place to get away for the weekend as it's in this little alcove right on Oneida Lake. It's dark and quiet and really peaceful up there.

Plus it has a washer AND dryer!

So this weekend we decided to go up there to get away and to tackle some of the laundry that needs to be done (we only have a washer at home).

We debated where to walk Dahlia as the railroad tracks will be teeming with snowmobiles. And then we discovered a super nice thing about central NY. The lake was frozen over. So solidly frozen over that snowmobiles were racing on the whole thing and people were ice fishing out in the middle of it. So David got out his cross country skis and Dahlia and I accompanied him out onto the lake. It was fun getting out away from shore in such a way!

( Some pics )

Dahlia's not a real dog. You guys know this. She looks like a dog but doesn't act like one. She doesn't show much interest in balls, doesn't bark (like ever -- even when someone knocks at the door), and when we first got her she didn't even play with toys, didn't understand a dog play bowing at her. It was like she was the confused wallflower who didn't quite know how to act around others of her own kind. She was dog friendly, but didn't GET IT for the most part.

She's getting it more and more, but she's still growing.

We took her on a walk together on Sunday. I love when we do this. We play a "run back and forth between Mommy and Daddy" game where we keep getting further and further apart and calling her to us. She runs from one to the other and back and forth. It tires her out and she seems to love it.

This time we found a stray tennis ball laying around and David threw it for her without trying to hype her up first.

SHE CHASED IT.

OMG really. She ran after it and grabbed it and brought it back near us. She tried chewing on it for a moment and then set it down in the snow and nosed it away from her. She still tried to grab it when we went for it (she likes this game; I'm happy to play it; she doesn't have to play fetch or tug or anything by anyone else's rules but her own and it's fun faking her out to get it away from her). We threw it multiple times. And each time she went after it.

We were interrupted at one point by the arrival of a German Shepherd named Max. Nice dog. He took off running and Dahlia was all too happy to give chase (chase is her favouritest game EVER). They played for a bit and then we parted ways. We found the tennis ball again and tossed it and once more she ran after it. She did several times but eventually stopped picking it up. She would try but then immediately drop it. I think it was too cold all covered in snow. She tried to pick it up by the fuzz but that didn't work, so eventually she'd run to it, pick it up, drop it, and then stand over it as we came to get it to throw it again.

But still. She played fetch. Real fetch. Not a half-hearted racing after a toy once or twice and then settling down to squeak it.

Maybe there's a real dog in there somewhere after all.

The day started off with taking Dahlia to the vet's (at 8:30am on a Saturday morning...argh!) for another lyme titer. Another $80 down the drain. I'll find out on Monday if the levels have come down far enough to not worry about it or if she needs more antibiotics. I hope this is the end of it. I know Dahlia would very much like to avoid another blood draw until her heartworm/lyme titer in April. And my purse would very much like to avoid it as well! We also found she had gained 1.4 pounds. I was afraid she had with the addition of the wet food so we're going to try to redo that a bit, give her a bit less in with the dry and see what that does. She's getting more active with the drop in temperature so she ought to be able to easily lose some weight this winter.

Then we visited with my folks for a little while, gave my Dad his birthday presents and just relaxed with them for a little while. By about 9:30am Dahlia was getting antsy and ready to get on our way, so we headed off to the Erie Canal Park for a 2 mile walk/run.

She had a blast! She only met one dog (the rest were either too aggressive or just too busy running with their owners to get to meet). The dog she met was some little schnauzer/poodle/something or other named Boomer. He looked like a tiny fat little sheep. Dahlia was off leash when we saw them coming and so was Boomer, so I let her stay off leash. She did something she's mor and more doing. She remained calm but then dropped into a sort of border collie crouch and froze. Absolutely froze. And then took off running at the poor little creature. Stupid me didn't tell her to stop and she barreled up to him like a crazy dog. Luckily she immediately set to sniffing and all calmed down but phew! Boomer's people were really nice and just adored Dahlia. They were a little freaked out by her intensity at first, but then saw her come out of it and relax, so they were fine. We met them on the way back too and I kept Dahlia under better control the second time around.

Dahlia ran a LOT of the two-mile trail. At one point she was sniffing and I kept walking. I was a couple hundred feet away from her when I called her name. She came barreling after me, then whipped around me and spun to face me, laying down. Then she jumped up and rushed me, trying to get the leash I was holding. We played a lot. IT was great fun.

On our way out we ran into an old family friend and a woman who just thought Dahlia was an amazingly awesome dog.

After the park, we ran to Petsmart to get some canned food for the Vermont trip (well those Nutro toppers so she can just have the one topper and nothing that needs to be saved for the next day). We got chatting with the Blue Buffalo rep for awhile who was very impressed with Dahlia's soft shiny coat and her personality (we feed her Blue as her kibble). The Nutro rep was almost most impressed with her and both oo'ed and ahh'ed over her. It was nice to have her so appreciated. At one point while they were petting her she just laid down and they both thought it was cute.

We met a 6 month old Aussie mix puppy there whose person asked if she could meet Dahlia (she's in the puppy class there and trying to socialize her pup with adults too). They met and had a nice time. Dahlia also met a nice boxer and a Pomeranian who growled and snapped at the puppy and the boxer but who was fine with Dahlia since Dahlia approached and immediately laid down in front of her. Cute.

So overall an exhausting morning of running around, but a lot of fun.

This afternoon, not so much fun. I spent WAY too much time at Walmart getting my oil changed. Ugh they were SO unorganized! But now the oil is changed, I have new windshield wipers, and new floor mats. All set to leave for Vermont!

Tomorrow I transport two 3-month old Aussie puppies. Can I keep one?

Outside of the two crazy incidents, yesterday was a lot of fun. David and I took Dahlia up to the park in the morning. She got to play with a yellow lab for a short bit (and yay for the guy telling us his dog was harmless and that he was fixed!) and then chased after a ball for a bit. She actually got the zoomies and ran around us a few times with it before eventually coming near us and dropping it. She's no expert fetcher, but she's getting better at it!

Then David headed off to church with his parents, Dahlia and I took our ill-fated walk, and then spent some time just hanging out on the porch.

The afternoon was spent tromping around down by the Connecticut River in Bellows Falls, checking out some more mill foundations and getting some more pictures. We finally got a chance to relax some that evening and I finally finished the book I had been reading and started another. All in all, despite a couple bumps on the road due to crazy and arrogant people, we had a nice day.

David's mother, btw, drove by the house with me and she took down the information about the guy and his dog. She's going to go over to Town Hall this week to talk to them about it! Rock on Marta!

( Some pics from yesterday )


This morning we took Dahlia for a walk in one of the local cemeteries, had a nice lunch and then headed home. It was a pretty easy trip home though traffic was a bit much sometimes. We left about 1:30pm and with a 15-20 minute stop in Chester to check out the antique store, got home in about 5 hours. Not bad at all!

( Some pics from this morning )


On the way home, we stopped at this lovely church in Hoosick that we've always meant to stop at. It's just beautiful!

( A couple pics )

Some of you might remember my trip to the Dog Chapel back at the end of June. Shortly after I got back, they sent out a message to all the subscribers that they now had a facebook page. So I "became a fan" of the gallery. Well, when they reached 400 fans they randomly chose someone to win a dog toy and tote bag. And they chose me! Wow! I got them yesterday. The tote bag is gorgeous - it's large and heavy duty and has this image on it. The dog toy is a stuffed seagull that when squeezed makes a seagull-esque noise. The instant I squeezed it Dahlia got all excited and rushed over and wanted to take it. She loves it! It's like the most fascinating thing to her because it makes noise, but it's not the same as her other squeaky toys! I took a few pictures of her with it, of course. Try to ignore the dissertation papers she's laying in the middle of. lol



( A couple more )