Dogsitting

Dogsitting Johan and Cubby. (And catsitting Alexis, Reggie, and Shenanigans).

Johan has a slight limp, he hurt his leg somehow. Gimpy dog (yet still distinguished and handsome). So he got a very short walk up the sidewalk and back.

Cubby appears to be well and was jumping around, so he got more than an hour worth of walking, which took some of the starch out of him.

All five animals gathered round when I had a cheeseburger for dinner. Bunch of vultures. I didn't let them have any.

Is this dog still under warranty?

Dogsitting. Brady has started a weird behavior where he'll decide he's had enough with walking, pick a spot on the grass wherever he wants, and lay down. Sometimes he rolls around in the grass, but in any case it's very hard to cajole him into finishing the walk.

I'm not sure whether there's something wrong with him (I doubt it -- he happily bounds and otherwise seems to enjoy the walk in between wayward lying down), whether he's confused about when it's appropriate to lie down (we've been working on "lay down" as a follow on to his pretty reliably "sitting" on command), whether this is his idea of a game ("Andrew sure is funny when he's trying to get me to get up, I want to see that look on his face again"), or whether it's a response to being over-walked. I try to walk him twice a day and we go for forty minutes or so each walk, but he's a big fellow and I figure he needs the exercise.

I switched to long walk in the morning and a shorter walk in the evening, but he's still doing the lie down thing. Not sure what my next move is. I don't have him lying down reliably in the house, so it's hard to drill getting up again after having lain down.

A big beautful dog, full of bugs and stuff

Continued dogsitting today. Woke around 6 to take Brady out. We had a good run, made it out to Hanger and back, refilling the canine at the doggie drinking fountain.

Then I went back to sleep and woke noonish. Not feeling so good - I hope it's just odd allergy symptoms from being around the dog and cats. Must get some more Claritin. Though that probably won't help with the drowsiness.

Went to Taqueria Mi Casita last night and had leftovers from there for "breakfast" this "morning". Washed down with some prune flavored Activia.

I've been working through The Amazing Dog Trick Kit with Brady. So far we're still working on mastering sitting on command. I think we're just getting back to the maybe 50% effectiveness of the command we were at before I started in with the kit. The clicker is a lot of fun, though. He's tired out and naps between play sessions, so I must be doing something right.

A Saturday Well Spent

Today I had a brie and turkey sandwich lunch at the Desert Botanical Gardens and again took some time to walk through the Childhood Dreams sculptures, explored the Hall of Flame fire museum, called relatives, bought too many books at Changing Hands, visited my favorite canine Brady and took him for a long run, borrowed a friend's cable television to catch the end of a Psych episode and all of a Burn Notice, and met up with friends to see Stardust.

A truly excellent day.

However, no day is perfect. Today I confirmed that grabbing onto a cactus, while the natural and reflexive thing to do, is not a good way to break one's fall. (No, this didn't happen at the DBG, so you need send no garden police after me.)

Hall of Flame reminded me of home, it having so many Wisconsin artifacts and roots.



Stardust Trailer

Salubrious Canine

Katie was generous enough to let me borrow Brady this evening for a run. We had a good time. Brady's a pretty good listener.

Chompies for brunch

I had the strawberry stuffed French toast today at Chompie's. It was pretty tasty, but I think next time I'll seek to eat something more nutritive. Taking a bag of day-old bagels to work tomorrow.

Went to Costco to buy water and stamps.

This evening I got to visit the St. Bernard and borrow him for a run in the park. We had a blast.

Saturday

Today I bought a plane ticket to my sister's wedding, filed the associated PTO request, paid bills, visited a friend and her dog (and enjoyed excellent fresh Snickerdoodle cookies!), watched a Poirot episode, and ate take-out General Tso chicken for dinner. The latter wasn't all that good and just as soon as I find them on Yelp I'll probably feel the need to ding them.

I turn in with especial resolve to hit the day early to make it to at least one church service.

Breakfast and a Dog

Breakfast at Arizona Bread Company with a friend, and I get to dog-sit her St. Bernard for a few days, and borrow the use of her washer and dryer whilst my washer is still on the fritz. Shaping up to be a good day already.

kittens

Today's Tribune front page includes:

Swamped with hundreds of kittens that need new homes, the Arizona Humane Society is facing a feline overload and worries some may have to be euthanized.

Tempting. Having a cat would be kind of fun, and there's a tiny bit of pleasure in doing my little part to care for all these needy kitties. But I'm not sure I care to be responsible enough to care for a cat, and I'd have to litter box train it, and I'm miserably allergic to them, as are some relatives that I like having visit once in a while...

Would be fun in a nerdy kind of way to toilet-train one.

Dogsitting concludes

Rightful owner returns, dogsitting concludes.

It was fun. My apartment situation isn't amenable to pets, and I don't want to afford the commitment into my life at this point, but renting a couple dogs and a couple cats for a long weekend was a good time.

In some ways it was pretending to be someone else for a few days. With the pets came a house, a neighborhood, a quickly adopted routine involving the oh-so-cool Fry's around the corner, waving hi to the neighbors during the canine-accompanied peregrinations.

Fast forward fifteen years, and I could envision having a life something like all this.

But now I pop the stack and return to my regular life.

Dogsitting

Dogsitting for a friend of mine. She thinks I'm doing her a favor, looking after the beasts while she's away. What I'm not sure she fully appreciates is that she's doing me a favor -- it's a blast getting to walk and run with these guys, and Brady (the St. Bernard) doesn't seem to get bored no matter how much I hug him. He's much more huggable post-washing.

Dogsitting

A friend of mine stepped out of town and so I get the opportunity to borrow a couple of dogs off and on for a couple of days. It's awesome! It's like at the Unicon Halloween holiday party, where I could run the extinguish-the-candle-via-squirt-gun activity for the zillions of kids (I suspect it's a sign of a good company that so many of the staff have families) and then, when they get bored with squirting inanimate objects and instead start squirting one another, I could give them back to their respective parental units.






What do books, dogs, DVDs, and Hummers have in common? They're all fun to borrow.