The Pupdate

How to Give A Cat A Pill

2010-05-13T09:33:00.021-04:00

This was posted by an E-friend who lives outside of Philadelphia and writes a blog about her bichon, Chloe,in the blog, Chloe Honeygo Beasley.

How to Give a Cat a Pill

1. Pick up cat and cradle it in the crook of your left arm as if holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat's mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. As cat opens mouth, pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow.

2. Retrieve pill from floor and cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat in left arm and repeat process, closing its mouth and stroking throat.

3. Retrieve cat from bedroom and throw soggy pill away.

4. Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle cat in left arm, holding rear paws tightly with left hand.
Force jaws open and push pill to back of mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of ten.

5. Retrieve pill from goldfish bowl and cat from top of wardrobe. Call spouse in from the garden.

6. Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees, holding front and rear paws.

Ignore low growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth. Drop pill down ruler and rub cat's throat vigorously.

7. Retrieve cat from curtain rail. Get another pill from foil wrap. Make note to buy new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep shattered figurines and vases from hearth and set aside for gluing later.

8. Wrap cat in large towel and get spouse to lie on cat with head just visible from below armpit.
Put pill in end of drinking straw, force cat’s mouth open with pencil, and blow down drinking straw.

9. Check label to make sure pill is not harmful to humans and drink one beer to take taste away. Apply band-aid to spouse's forearm and remove blood from carpet with cold water and soap.

10. Retrieve cat from roof of neighbor's shed. Get another pill. Open another beer. Place cat in cupboard and close door onto neck, leaving head showing. Force mouth open with dessert spoon. Flick pill down throat with elastic band.

11. Fetch screwdriver from garage and put cupboard door back on hinges. Drink beer. Fetch bottle of scotch. Pour shot, drink. Apply cold compress to cheek and check records for date of last tetanus shot. Apply whiskey compress to cheek to disinfect. Toss back another shot. Throw tee-shirt away and fetch new one from bedroom.

12. Call fire department to retrieve the damn cat from the top of the tree across the road. Apologize to neighbor who crashed into fence while swerving to avoid cat. Take last pill from foil wrap.

13. Using heavy-duty pruning gloves from shed, tie the little *&#%^'s front paws to rear paws with garden twine and bind tightly to leg of dining table. Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of steak. Hold head vertically and pour two pints of water down throat to wash pill down.

14. Consume remainder of scotch. Get spouse to drive you to the emergency room. Sit quietly while doctor stitches fingers and forearm and removes pill remnants from right eye. Call furniture shop on way home to order new table.

15. Arrange for ASPCA to collect mutant cat from hell and call local pet shop to see if they have any hamsters.

How to Give a Dog a Pill

1. Wrap it in bacon.

2. Toss it in the air.

If I Can't See You, I Can't Hear You

2010-04-27T09:05:00.001-04:00

Emme is a very reluctant photo model. When she went to Obedience School, she learned that when I call her name, she should look at me. She almost always does that. Except when I am taking photographs. I call her name and she very purposely turns her head away from me. If she can't see me, she can't hear me. At least that is the puppy logic. She doesn't want to get her picture taken so she ignores me.

Sometimes when she does not want to obey a command she will very clearly turn her head away and not look at us. I guess this is the dog equivalent of ostriches putting their heads in the sand, if they actually do that. I can't see you. I can't hear you. I don't have to obey.

When They are Out, They Want to be In. When They are In, They Want to be Out.

2010-04-26T08:30:00.000-04:00

Emme and Rudy are like two little children. When they are inside, they want to be outside. When they are outside, they want to be inside. We have a wonderful deck at the lake house, with a gate to keep the dogs from wandering off. They could stay outside and smell all the Holmes County wild life smells for hours. But they only want to be out when Ken and I are outside. If we go back inside, both dogs want to come back inside too. They don't whine or bark. They just sit by the screen door and look pathetic. You would think that being outside would be good. But being with us is better.

I'll "Down Stay" for a Puppy Biscuit

2010-04-25T14:33:00.004-04:00

Both Emme and Rudy follow me into the kitchen every time I go there. They love to hang around and see if they will get tastes of the food I am preparing for a meal or snack. Usually when I am cutting up fruit or vegetables, I give each dog a small taste. I am careful what I give them and never give them much, but they both love the tastes of "people food." We have never given either dog food from the table, so they don't expect any handouts and don't beg at the table. (With the possible exception of Emme whining for oranges. She has never gotten any table treats, but she loves citrus fruit so much she sometimes tries anyhow.)

When we first got Rudy, he was excited to be in the kitchen and wanted to be under my feet. That seemed like a recipe for disaster. I could just picture me tripping over him or dropping hot food or liquid on him, so I taught him to "Down Stay" out of the way. When Emme came to live with us, she watched Rudy and pretty much taught herself to "Down stay" in the kitchen. When they are in the kitchen and I am preparing food or Ken and I are doing dishes, Rudy and Emme plop down on the floor and just wait. For their efforts they get occasional people food or a half of a puppy biscuit. Small price for keeping the dogs out of our way. They are good dogs.

A Cat is Not a Squirrel

2010-04-22T14:34:00.009-04:00

We have many, many squirrels in our yard and Emme pays no attention to them. They race over the grass, up and down the trees, make squirrel noises and generally are a nuisance. Emme could care less. She will often sit on the back of the couch and watch outside but she never makes a bark, a growl or any indication of attention to squirrels. Even when she is out on the porch with the glass doors open and only the screens between her and the squirrels, she pays them no mind.

That is not the case with cats. Although there are not many cats roaming our neighborhood, whenever Emme does see one, she watches it closely, begins her rolling growl, and sometimes barks. How does she know that a cat is not a squirrel? They are both about the same size, have four legs, one tail, and run around outside. Emme has never been up close to either animal. How can she tell the difference between a squirrel and a cat and why are squirrels okay in her yard, but cats are a different matter?

Barking at Ghosts

2010-04-21T16:53:00.004-04:00

Emme has a very specific understanding of what makes up her "family." Family consists of Emme, Rudy, Ken and me. And Emme expects that all the time, as does Rudy. Three is not a family. Family means four. Period.

Emme is happy at either the Wooster house or the lake house because the whole family is there. Being in a different location is not upsetting to her, as long as all four of us are there. What she is not so crazy about is when a family member is missing. When Ken is gone from home and only the three of us are left, the dogs become hypervigilant. They know that he is missing and he should be at home, so they listen for every sound that might mean his car is returning to the garage. Both of the dogs spend much of the time he is gone,listening for strange sounds and barking as soon as they identify any sound that might mean he is returning. They spend their time "Barking at ghosts" all the time one of us is missing.

This morning I volunteered at the National First Ladies Library and was gone until early afternoon. Emme spent the morning "Barking at ghosts." At least I know she misses me.

Welcome Sweet Spring Time ... Really!

2010-04-04T09:55:00.000-04:00

What a difference a few days make! Just a few days ago, we were buried in snow. Now spring has finally arrived. We spent a few days at the lake and there were daffodils and forsythia blooming in the yard.

We spent a lot of time on the deck and Emme and Rudy enjoyed that. They have two marrow bones that I keep in the freezer and when the weather is warm enough to sit on the deck, I thaw the bones and let the dogs chew on them outside. Once the bones were filled with marrow and had pieces of beef stuck to the outside. Now they are bare and almost completely hollow, but the dogs still love them. I go to the grocery store and buy a couple of beef femur bones from the butcher. I have him cut off the knuckles and cut the bones into six inch pieces. I take them home and boil them for 20 minutes. This will kill any bacteria in the raw meat and marrow. After the bones are cool, I put them in the freezer until the dogs can chew on them outside on the deck or the porch. This keeps any grease or meat residue off the rugs. Before we return from the lake, I put the bones back into the freezer to keep them for the next visit. They are inexpensive and long lasting chew toys.

"Welcome Sweet Springtime..."

2010-03-26T09:51:00.000-04:00

I guess I shouldn't be surprised when we get a March snow storm in Ohio. When we were married 45 years ago on March 20, we were married in a snow storm. I usually expect that we will have snow around our anniversary. This year, however, was a fooler. We had such warm weather and we were wearing light jackets on the 20th. No snow then or for days after. Until last night. A rain storm turned to ice and snow when the temperature dropped. So we had another spring time storm.

Emme is not crazy about going out in the rain or even when the ground is wet and soggy after a storm. In contrast, she loves snow. She has no difficulty going outside to take care of her business and eat a little snow a couple times a day.

The good thing about March snows is that they melt quickly. Our weather is predicted to go into the 60's by Wednesday. Welcome Sweet Springtime!

What is This Little Creature?

2010-03-22T10:12:00.000-04:00

When Eric, Katherine and Calvin came to visit you could almost hear Emme thinking, "What is this little creature? Is is a dog like me or is it a very small person?" Emme has had little experience with small children, just a few visits from the children of nieces and nephews. She has had no experience with infants.

You could almost see her processing the information. How does it smell? Why does the smell change from time to time? Where do these noises come from? Is it competition? All in all, Emme handled herself quite well. But I don't know what she decided about our visitor.

"For Those of You Who Have Pets..."

2010-03-15T06:06:00.001-04:00

The following was sent to me by a friend from my quilt guild. I thought it belonged in the Pupdate.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE PETS, THIS IS A TRUE STORY.
FOR THOSE THAT DON'T, IT IS A TRUE STORY.

The following was found posted very low on a refrigerator door.
Dear Dogs and Cats: The dishes with the paw prints are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food. Placing a paw print in the middle of my plate and food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.

The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Racing me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn't help because I fall faster than you can run.

I cannot buy anything bigger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort, however. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other, stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out on the other end to maximize space is nothing but sarcasm.

For the last time, there is no secret exit from the bathroom! If, by some miracle, I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, try to turn the knob or get your paw under the edge in an attempt to open the door. I must exit through the same door I entered. Also, I have been using the bathroom for years - canine/feline attendance is not required.

The proper order for kissing is: Kiss me first, then go smell the other dog's or cat's butt. I cannot stress this enough.

Finally, in fairness, dear pets, I have posted the following message on the front door:

TO ALL NON-PET OWNERS WHO VISIT AND LIKE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT OUR PETS:
(1) They live here. You don't.
(2) If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture. That's why they call it 'fur'-niture.
(3) I like my pets a lot better than I like most people.
(4) To you, they are animals.. To me, they are adopted sons/daughters who are short, hairy, walk on all fours and don't speak clearly.

Remember, dogs and cats are better than kids because they:
(1) eat less,
(2) don't ask for money all the time,
(3) are easier to train,
(4) normally come when called,
(5) never ask to drive the car,
(6) don't hang out with drug-using people;
(7) don't smoke or drink,
(8) don't want to wear your clothes,
(9) don't have to buy the latest fashions,
(10) don't need a gazillion dollars for college and
(11) if they get pregnant, you can sell their children .....

Emme Meets Calvin

2010-03-14T11:01:00.000-04:00

Eric, Katherine and our new grandson Calvin came fromWashington DC for a visit this weekend. They are traveling to Ohio and Indiana to introduce Calvin to his great-grandparents. Calvin has three great-grandparents who don't travel and so Eric and Katherine decided to make the "Great Grandparent Trek" to introduce Calvin to them.

This was the first time Emme and Rudy met Calvin as well. Emme and Rudy have had little experience with babies and we were not sure what to expect. It went pretty well. Rudy sniffed Calvin a few times and then decided that his lovie was more interesting. Emme loved to smell Calvin and was very interested in his toys. She did pretty well staying off the play mat when Calvin was on the floor. Some times the temptation was just too much and she had to step on the mat for a close up sniff so she needed periodic reminders to stay off the mat. But we all had a great visit.

Emme and Rudy Meet Calvin

2010-03-14T10:56:00.000-04:00

Playing with Grandpa and the Dogs from Eric Nuzum on Vimeo.

Here is a video of Ken, Emme and Rudy playing with Calvin.

If I Can't See, I Can't Go

2010-02-16T09:41:00.000-05:00

Emme has trouble finding the perfect spot to take care of business in the deep snow. Ken has shoveled a little "Princess Path" so Emme can go outside and not get buried in the snow. Emme has to sniff around to find the perfect spot to pee; finding the right spot for number 2 is a much more daunting chore. She gets down in the shoveled paths and can't see beyond the walls of snow. This seems to throw her off. I don't know if she feels especially vulnerable when she is in the position to take care of business or what the problem is. I just know that she hunkers down to begin and then pops up again to look around. Then she repeats this a few times until she just can't hold it any longer. I think she will be happy when this snow melts. If it ever does.

Two Treats

2010-02-11T09:05:00.000-05:00

Emme never licks my face. I often put my face right next to hers and she will sniff me but not lick. She loves to get close and sniff my eye lids or my mouth or ears, but she doesn't lick. That is not the case with Ken. As often as she can, Emme will lick his ears or face. He is always egging Emme on to lick me. "Lick her. Lick her. I'll give you two treats if you lick her." But Emme doesn't. I tell Ken that is because Emme knows that I don't want to be licked. I know where that tongue has been and I don't want it on my face.

That wasn't the case the last time we picked up the dogs from the kennel. After we returned from DC, I carried Emme in my arms out to the car and as soon as we got in the car, she licked my face. UGH! I know she was excited to see me and Ken owes her two treats. But she doesn't need to repeat the lick.

Introducing Calvin Atticus Nuzum - Off Topic

2010-02-09T12:14:00.001-05:00

Ken and I just got back from Washington DC to meet our new grandson, Calvin Atticus, who was born on Christmas Day. We had an easy ride to DC last week and then the snow storm they called "Snowmageddon" hit. DC had over two feet of snow and we were snowed in. It didn't really matter because we wanted to meet Calvin and visit with Eric and Katherine and we had plenty of time to do this. We never lost power so we were warm and dry. It was not the visit we expected to have, but it was a great one nevertheless. And Calvin is happy, healthy, and alert. What a great grandson! (and not bad parents, either) I think they are all keepers.

Oh, Those Smells!

2010-02-01T10:43:00.002-05:00

Emme and Rudy love to go out in the grass at the lake house to smell things. They love to sniff around in the grass, which makes taking care of business a lengthy process. I know that we probably get many more wild life visitors there than in Wooster which makes smelling grass way better in Holmes County.

We spent last weekend at the lake house and while we were there we were visited by five deer. Ken looked out the kitchen window and called to me to look out the side yard past the bird feeder. There were three deer in the woods just to the side of our property. As we watched, one of them walked across the lawn to the lake side of our house and stopped at the bird feeder there. That deer was joined by others and at one point we had five deer just feet away from the deck on the lake side of the house. They were fun to watch and I tried not to think how many of my hosta plants they ate last summer. But I am sure that they added to the "wonderful smells" that draw Emme and Rudy.

Canine Flu Vaccine

2010-01-29T08:47:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we got a call from the vet about canine flu vaccine. Since Jan. 1 our vet is requiring the shot before boarding dogs. It prevents a type of flu that dogs can get, which makes them very sick and does not respond to the normal antibiotics. Since Emme and Rudy have boarding reservations coming up, we made an appointment yesterday afternoon to get the shots for both of them. It is the first of two required shots. They need to return in two to four weeks for a booster and then they will be protected.

When we entered the vet's office, Rudy was calm and well behaved, but Emme was frightened. She began shaking as I went up the steps to the office and kept it up until we got back in the car. Neither dog responded negatively to the shot itself so we don't know what was in Emme's mind. She just did not want to be there. It's just like mothers saying to their kids "This hurts me more than it hurts you." She was unhappy and I was glad to get her out of there. She was not pleased to go to the vet. I am pleased that she will have the flu protection. All's well that ends well.

Feet

2010-01-28T09:38:00.000-05:00

Emme and Rudy have two very different responses to feet. Emme loves nothing more than to lie on her back and have me rub her belly with my feet. Rudy does not like being touched by feet, any one's, any time, any where.

Each evening we go upstairs to change into our pajamas and to play "Closet Ball." As we change our clothes, Emme entertains herself by playing the PM version of "Go Get." She runs back and forth between us from the bedroom to the closet as we take off our clothes and put on PJ's. Rudy brings in a squeaky toy and wants us to throw it for him. The game started out years ago as "Closet Ball" because Rudy always chose a ball to bring upstairs. Over the years it has changed and now his current toy preference is any stuffie that has a squeaker inside, usually one that he has liberated from my sewing room. The name of the game hasn't changed because "Closet Squeaky" just doesn't have the same ring.

As I am sitting on the chair in the closet, Emme comes into the closet and lies down so I can rub her belly with either my bare feet or my socks. Either one is fine as long as her belly gets rubbed. She repeats this turn her belly up to be rubbed in the morning when I get dressed. As soon as I sit on the chair, Emme runs into the closet and lies on the floor for her rub. If she is too far away, she will wiggle on her back to get closer. She knows a good thing when she sees it. Belly rubbing with feet is good for Emme.

Not so for Rudy. If he is under the dining room table with a lovie, which he always is at breakfast, and accidentally gets touched by a foot, he hops up like he was touched with fire. He grabs his lovie and moves over, out of foot range.

How can two dogs be so different?

Pretzel Thief

2010-01-27T06:53:00.002-05:00

Last night Ken and I each brought a snack into the living room. I had a dish of dried fruit and nuts and Ken had a dish of peanut butter filled pretzels. We put them on the table between our two chairs and returned to the kitchen for something to drink. I looked back into the living room and Emme had gotten up on Ken's chair and stolen a pretzel which she was chewing on the seat of the chair. We dashed back into the living room, confiscated the remains of the pretzel and cleaned the crumbs from the chair.

We should have been more careful with the food but stealing is not usually a problem. As big as Rudy is, he could reach any food on any surface in the house. With the exception of one time when temptation was too much, Rudy has never helped himself to any food. One time at the lake house, we had a house full of company and Rudy was not being supervised closely enough. There were left over chicken shish kabobs on the kitchen table. A few minutes later, one was missing and a shish kabob stick and one piece of vegetable was lying on the floor under the table. We never saw him steal and eat the shish kabob but we knew it was Rudy. Other than that, Rudy never takes food that is not his. We often will cool cookies or bread on the kitchen counter or have left overs on dinner plates before we wash dishes. Rudy would barely have to stretch to reach them on the counter top but he doesn't.

Emme, on the other hand, is less reliable. One time while we were loading Ken's car to go to the lake, Emme got in the front seat and helped herself to a tube of Burt's Bees Lip Balm. She couldn't get it open, but she put teeth marks all over the outside of the package. We are always careful not to leave anything in the console that she could grab and chew.

So last night Emme was a pretzel thief and Ken and I are more aware of the possibilities of Emme helping herself to our food. We will be more careful in the future.

Guard the House

2010-01-26T09:53:00.000-05:00

Emme and Rudy often spend time in their crates in the family room when both Ken and I leave house. They get the command "Go nighty-nite in your crate" and they dash into their crates and wait for a biscuit which they always get as a reward for going into their crate. Many times they anticipate our leaving by watching if we lock the back door, put on boots or get our coats from the closet. Then they run to their crates before they are told to do so.

Recently we have been leaving them up when we are only going to be gone for about an hour. Both dogs are well behaved and we have never had any damage or problems when they have been left alone unsupervised in the house. (Is this where I say "Knock on wood"?) The drawback to this is they don't get a biscuit. We just say "Guard the house" and leave. We mean "Keep the house safe from intruders." I think the dogs hear "Ha, ha, you don't get a biscuit this time." Maybe we should re-evaluate our leaving procedures and add a puppy biscuit when they are guarding the house. It seems only fair.

Not in the Mulch

2010-01-25T10:09:00.000-05:00

Both Emme and Rudy love to do their business in the mulch in the flower beds in the back yard. I don't know what the attraction is, but they are drawn to the flower beds like a moth to a flame. No matter how many times we pull them out of the mulch and redirect them to the grass, the next time they go outside, they head for the mulch.

I have flowers and plants in those flower beds. I have tea mint and chives that I use in cooking and I don't want them watered by Emme and Rudy. I have hostas, crocuses, and creeping Jenny that I don't want to turn yellow and gnarled from dog urine. I dig in that soil with my hands when I put in a new plant or weed the beds. I don't want the dogs to use the flower beds and their own personal toilets.

Ken thinks that there may be some varmints that have a home in the flower beds or who walk through the beds. I don't know what the attraction is. I just want it to stop.

My Own Personal Key West - Off Topic

2010-01-23T14:51:00.000-05:00

This entry has nothing to do with Emme or Rudy. It is only to show some of my plants that are flowering in the dining room.

I have four different orchids blooming at this time, two white ones and two pink ones.

I also have one purple African Violet in bloom.

A Christmas Cactus that must have its calendar confused is blooming and has more buds to open.

This is like having my own personal Key West. Beautiful flowers in the dead of winter. What a lucky woman I am!

Maybe It's Poison

2010-01-23T07:14:00.002-05:00

Every morning after breakfast, Emme comes upstairs with me to my sewing room when I check my email. I always give her a sweet potato treat after we enter the room. I buy the "Bichon Fries" which are cut like crinkle cut french fries. I break them in half so she gets a piece about two to three inches long. She has just recently finished breakfast so she doesn't need a huge chunk of sweet potato. Although I have been doing this for months, every time I give her a sweet potato treat, she backs up and smells it like it might be poison. You think she would remember from day to day that the treat is wholesome and that she likes it. Instead, she has to sniff it suspiciously each time before she take it from me.

An Opportunist

2010-01-22T08:50:00.001-05:00

Rudy is an opportunist. Every time Emme asks to go outside to do her business, Rudy "needs" to go outside too. Not sometimes, not occassionally, but every time. No two bladders could be this much in synch. He especially loves to wait until Emme has taken care of her business. Then he dashes over to put a tablespoon of urine on top of her spot.What's up with this?

Scratchy Feet

2010-01-21T09:11:00.001-05:00

Emme has a way of saying "Let's play" "Let's nap" or "I need this toy." She does the "Scratchy Feet." She stands on the floor or a piece of furniture and scratches her feet on the rug or the cushion to make a noise. This means "I need something."

Emme knows that after lunch she and I will often go into the family room and nap. Emme loves to nap on the couch with me. I go get a quilt and a magazine or book and Emme dashes for Big Mama Gorilla. She can't jump on the couch with Big Mama Gorilla in her mouth so she waits until I spread out the quilt on the couch and then pick up Big Mama Gorilla and place it in Emme's favorite nap spot at the end of the couch.

If Ken and I are eating lunch in the kitchen and are taking too long in Emme's estimation, she will begin the process of setting up for a nap. She jumps up on the couch and pushes the throw pillows around. She relocates the pillows to other places on the couch or down on the floor. If that doesn't get me into the family room, then she stands on the couch, stares me in the eye and does Scratchy Feet. That almost always works to get my attention.

The dogs' toy box is between the living room couch and my chair. If Rudy wants something, he just goes to the box, roots around and grabs something with his mouth. Emme doesn't usually get something herself from the toy box. The sides of the box are only a few inches high and she can easily reach most of the things in the box but she wants help. Instead, she stands next to the box and does Scratchy Feet so I will look down at her. If the Scratchy Feet doesn't do it, she will add a whine for good measure. Then I pick up each toy until I have the one she wants in my hand and she takes it from me.

Where did she come up with this as a means of communication? I wonder if other dogs scratch their feet to say "I need."

The Nuzum Dog Show

2010-01-20T08:55:00.000-05:00

Every morning we have a routine with the dogs. After Emme and Rudy have gone outside, we play "Go Get." Ken sits at the dining room table and I sit on the couch in the living room and we send Emme back and forth between us with the command "Go get Ken or Go get Mary Lou." She will keep it up long enough that by the end of the game she is panting with the exertion. Rudy usually just comes over and sits next to me beside the couch so I can rub his chest or his ears. He doesn't participate in the crazy "Go Get" game.

But recently Ken has added "The Nuzum Dog Show" to the morning games. At the end of "Go Get" Ken calls "Rudy come" and Rudy and Emme both run over to him. He then gives the command for sit or down and stay. He opens the pantry door to get a bag of dog treats. Rudy usually stays but Emme is so full of excitement and expectation that she pops up and moves closer. Ken again gets both dogs down and after they have stayed down for a while, he gives each of them a half of a dog treat. Sometimes they do quite well. Other days, Ken has to sit them down two or three times before they stay. Either way, it is a fun way to start our day. "Go Get" and "The Nuzum Dog Show."

Blanket Buddy

2010-01-19T08:47:00.004-05:00

Both Emme and Rudy love when we change the sheets on our bed. One or the other always runs to the end of the bed and lies down on the blanket. It must smell like Ken and me and the dogs love to sneak a few minutes on the blanket. They don't do anything bad to the blanket. They don't lick or chew. They just lie there as we remove and replace the sheets and reluctantly get up when we are ready to put the blanket back on the bed. It is funny that our dogs have some things they always do. Lying down on the blanket is an "always."

Pup on a Spring

2010-01-18T08:14:00.004-05:00

Emme has a unique way of getting our attention. She pops up and down like she is on a spring. She doesn't jump up on us, rather she pops up and down next to us. She keeps her back feet planted on the floor and bounces the front half of her body up and down in one spot. She usually does this to get us to get up and move. If she thinks it is time for bed and we are not making any move to get up, she will come up next to one of our chairs and do her "Pup on a Spring." She will keep it up until one of us responds to her. Sometimes it is time to get up and go to bed; other times her clock is off and we tell her it is only 8:15 and even we don't go to bed that early.

Emme will sometimes do the popping up when she thinks it should be time for breakfast or dinner. She has an internal clock and is not hesitant to tell us that it is time to do something. We are well trained.

Strangers in Hats

2009-12-19T08:12:00.003-05:00

Emme has always been strange around men in ball caps. Even if she knows the person and has seen them many times, if they put on a hat, Emme doesn't recognize them. She barks and growls and keeps it up until the hat comes off. Then she is fine. She goes up to the person with no hesitation.

I seldom wear hats so that hasn't been a problem for me but recently I decided that I needed to buy a winter hat to wear instead of the hood on my winter coat. So I went to the outlet mall and bought a winter hat (with ear flaps!) at Eddie Bauer. When I put on the hat in the kitchen, Emme was very unsure. She did not bark or growl and she didn't back away, but she came only hesitantly to me. She could hear my voice and smell that it was me, but with a hat on, I was a suspicious person. As soon as I took off the hat, Emme was fine. How can something as small as a hat cause such a reaction in a dog?

Permission to Go

2009-11-15T09:24:00.005-05:00

Emme has decided recently that she is big enough to take herself outside to do her business. When one dog has to go outside, usually both dogs need to go. It is like they have a physic connection between their bladders. Ken sometimes will put both dogs on their leashes and take both outside at the same time. This feels to me like driving the eight horse hitch Anheuser Busch beer wagon. I usually take the dogs out one at a time. I put a collar on the most needy dog (usually Rudy) and let him go outside while I stand on the back steps or just inside the porch door. With a 26 foot retractable leash, the dogs can sniff around to find the perfect blade of grass and take care of business. If it is cold or rainy, I can stay dry and relatively warm by standing inside the porch.

Usually which ever dog is second waits until the first is done and then it is their turn. Emme has decided that this waiting is a waste of her time and that she is much too grown up to need a collar and leash to go outside. Although she sometimes will sneak out while Rudy is taking care of business, usually she waits patiently on the porch until I bring Rudy inside and take off his collar. As soon as I pick up Emme's collar and leash, she dashes outside. She is really good. She finds her spot, takes care of business, and comes immediately back inside. But she usually waits until I have the collar and leash in my hand. It is like a signal that she has permission to go. Race cars have a starting flag. Emme has her collar and leash.

The Leaf Game

2009-11-13T07:29:00.003-05:00

Although autumn in Ohio is always beautiful, it is a mixed blessing. The beautifully colored leaves are lovely to look at but they make a lot of work to clean up. Ken and I sometimes look at the leaves and instead of thinking "Look how beautiful those leaves are," we think, "Every one of these leaves will need to be raked up."

Emme on the other hand has discovered that fallen leaves make a wonderful game. She loves to take her little tennis ball outside and bury it in the leaves. Then she pounces on it, just like Rudy pounces on his ball in the snow. Emme grabs the ball in her mouth and then drops it again in another pile of leaves just so she can pounce again. Emme loves fallen autumn leaves. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Two in One

2009-11-10T08:45:00.003-05:00

Last weekend Ken and I went to Washington, DC, to visit our son and very pregnant daughter-in-law. Our grandson, TBD (To Be Determined) Nuzum, is due December 22 and we wanted to make a visit to them before he arrived.

We only went for a long weekend so we decided to try something different with Emme and Rudy. Usually when we board the dogs, we put them in separate crates/runs at the kennel. Emme gets a small one and, because of his size, Rudy gets a much larger one. The techs keep telling us that Emme is so unhappy being separated from Rudy. They take both dogs out to walk at the same time so they can spend time together, but when it is time to go back to their spaces, Emme runs into Rudy's crate and doesn't want to leave. We have been reluctant to board them together because we thought that Emme might make Rudy crazy. But we tried it this time, knowing that they had an available run they could move Emme to if things didn't work out. So we put both dogs in one space for the weekend. When we picked the dogs up yesterday afternoon, the report was glowing. Both dogs did fine. I guess we will do this again in the future.

Hide the Ball

2009-09-13T06:13:00.000-04:00

Emme has a tiny tennis ball that she uses to play "Fetch" in the yard. Although it is an outside toy and is stored on the porch, Emme loves to sneak it into the house. As soon as she gets it in the house, she usually runs to the living room and carefully pushes it under the couch. This is a game she likes to play with Ken so she pushes her nose under the couch and makes little "Help me" noises to entice Ken to come play. He will get down on the rug and look under the couch with Emme. He talks to her about the ball and then slides his arm under the couch to get the ball. He pulls the ball out to the edge of the couch and then Emme pushes it back under again. She could play this game over and over again. This goes on for a while, Emme pushing the ball under the couch, Ken pulling it out again. If Ken didn't end the game, they could play for hours. Who knew "Hide the Ball" could be such a fascinating game.

They Just Listen

2009-09-12T10:06:00.004-04:00

The question of the day has been "What will the dogs do when you are playing your dulcimer?" Opinions included howling and hiding among others. Actually what they do is listen. As soon as I go into the family room to play the hammered dulcimer, both Emme and Rudy come in with me. It is almost like they have assigned seats. Emme goes to the end of the couch to lie down. Rudy gets as close to me as he can. When he lies down, he usually bumps either the music stand or the dulcimer stand. It is almost like he wants to get near enough to feel the vibrations from the instrument. Then they settle down to listen. It doesn't seem to matter if I stay for 10 minutes or 45 minutes. They stay in their places while I practice. I have no idea what they think of the music but at least they don't howl along.

With a Song in my Heart

2009-09-06T15:47:00.005-04:00

I haven't written a blog entry for a long time. Ken and I have just returned from a week's vacation at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina. Emme and Rudy have been to Puppy Sleep Away Camp. We all got home yesterday, unpacked, sorted mail, and did laundry. Today we went grocery shopping and continued to get back to real life. Soon things will be back to normal.

We had a wonderful learning vacation. Ken took a woodworking class and made a musical instrument called a Campbellin. This looks something like a banjo but has three strings and is made with a dulcimer fret board. Not only did he make the instrument in a week, he can play Ode to Joy on it.

I took a class in hammered dulcimer. I didn't make my instrument, but purchased it so I had more time to learn tunes. I can play Home Sweet Home, When You and I Were Young Maggie, Oh Them Golden Slippers, Mississippi Sawyer, Amazing Grace and a couple rounds. I love the sound of this instrument and am eager to learn more.

As life settles back to normal, I will write more about Emme and Rudy for the blog. For now, all is well and I have a song in my heart. I fall asleep humming tunes and wake up humming others. Life is good.

Nitey-night in your Crate

2009-08-20T14:38:00.005-04:00

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Yesterday afternoon Ken and I had to go out to run some errands. The day was warm so we didn't take the dogs but rather left them at home. Both Emme and Rudy are wonderful about going to their crates. They need no persuasion, only the command to go "Nitey-night in your crate." Both dogs stop what they are doing and run into the family room and get into their crates. We are so lucky. They never give us any trouble about getting into their crates. They just go on command. Good dogs.

Just a Dog

2009-08-20T09:05:00.004-04:00

I loved this sticker and bought it when I was on vacation at Long Beach Island. What more can I say?

Goal Posts

2009-08-19T08:27:00.002-04:00

When Emme first goes downstairs in the morning, she wants to play "Go Get." She sits by my feet and I say, "Go get Ken" and she dashes across the room to Ken. She sits at his feet to be petted and then he says "Go get Mary Lou." Back across the room she dashes with a doggie smile on her face. She loves the game so much, but I think she likes the running part best.

Ken says we are just human goal posts that Emme dashes between. Sometimes she is so excited to run back and forth that she barely sits to get petted. Occasionally she is so caught up in the game, she doesn't get all the way across the room before she changes directions to go back where she came from. After may runs across the room, Emme is panting and begins to slow down. Finally when the coffee is finished, we end the game so we can sit down and read the paper. Some things never change. "Go Get" never gets old.

Emme Likes Her Feet Dry

2009-08-18T07:16:00.001-04:00

Emme does not like to get her feet wet. She does not like to go out in the rain to do her business. Sometimes she absolutely refuses to go outside when it is raining. If she does go outside in the rain, she holds up one front paw to keep her feet as dry as possible. When the grass is dewy, she does the same thing. We have purchased a child's swimming pool to use as a doggie pool. We put it on a slope so there are some areas with shallow water and some other dry areas. Emme will go into the pool, stand on the dry areas and drink the water. But she doesn't want to get her feet wet.

When we are at the lake, she is fascinated with the water. She will stand up at the railing of the boat and watch the water the whole time we are riding. On the dock, she gets as close to the water as she can and watches and smells.

We have never taken her swimming. The water by our dock is deep. At the front end of the dock, the water is over my head. This doesn't bother Rudy who jumps right in but it doesn't make for an easy transition from dry land to water for a Bichon. We have planned to take Emme to one of the swimming beaches sometime when no one is there to see if she will go into the water. I have no idea how she will respond. One part of me wants her to get in the water and swim and enjoy herself. The other part of me is concerned that she will like the water too much and will jump off the dock or off the boat and get herself into trouble in the water.

Rudy Loves to Swim

2009-08-17T09:26:00.003-04:00

Rudy loves the water. As soon as we get to the lake house, he is ready to go down to the dock and jump in the water. We have never taken a boat ride with a dry Labrador Retriever aboard because as soon as Rudy gets near the lake he goes in for a quick swim.

Rudy's favorite activity at the lake is retrieving his throw toy. He has an orange toy that Ken bought him as a souvenir from the Labrador store on Long Beach Island one summer. (I wonder if we are the only ones who buy souvenirs for our dogs?) He jumps from the dock and swims out to get the toy. He then comes around the side of the dock to the rocks to climb back on dry land. He would do this a hundred times. It is a game that never grows old.

Beginning last summer, we realized that he would keep it up so long that he could hurt himself. He will swim to the point of exhaustion. We started limiting the number of times that he retrieved the toy from the lake. Rudy doesn't understand this and hates the forced rest times when he has to rest on the dock while his toy sits on the roof of the boat house. That is to prevent Rudy picking up the toy, dropping it off the end of the dock and then diving in to retrieve it. Even limiting the number of jumps and swims, Rudy is sometimes sore and tired at the end of the day and is reluctant to jump into and out of Ken's car when we go back to Wooster. It is a sort of balancing act: how much fun can you have before it becomes too much fun?

We Love to Ride in the Boat

2009-08-17T09:08:00.005-04:00

Emme and Rudy both love to ride in the pontoon boat. If we say the words, "Ride in the boat" both dogs know what it means. They love to go down to the dock and can't wait to get into the boat. While we are riding in the boat I keep Emme on her leash because I am never certain that she won't go over the side of the boat to follow a water skier, Canada goose, tuber or other boat. I am not sure that she could jump out, but I never take a chance. She loves to stand on her hind legs with her font paws on the wall and look out at the water, other boats, and what ever catches her fancy. You can see her little nose wiggling so I know that she is smelling things also: water, fish, fuel, other people, etc. Throughout the ride, she goes from side to side and front to back to look and smell.

Rudy on the other hand rides in the boat without a leash. He usually lies down somewhere on the boat and just enjoys the ride. He is usually the first one on the boat and is eager to get under way. He loves being in the water or on the water. Both are good.

YouTube Puppy

2009-08-13T09:05:00.006-04:00

Emme is fascinated with Ken's computer screen. She will sit on his lap and watch as Ken plays video games or wood turning or woodworking videos on Youtube. Sometimes she watches the screen. Mostly she just wants to be held in Ken's arms as he sits at his computer. She will stay there until Ken's arms fall asleep and he is forced to put her down.

I thought this was a special activity with Ken. When Emme is in my sewing room, usually she just naps on the rug or sleeps under my desk. I use my computer more for word processing, email, and embroidery designs. I don't watch many YouTube clips. I sometimes will play DVD's while I sew (favorites: Rocky Horror Picture Show, Phantom of the Opera, Mamma Mia, A Fish Called Wanda, or Monty Python and the Holy Grail). While these are playing, I am usually at my sewing machine and Emme has never acted as if she wanted to sit on my lap.

But yesterday, I wanted to watch an instructional video about a machine quilting technique called McTavishing. The CD/DVD drive in my computer is not working and I am waiting for a replacement from Dell. So I asked Ken if I could borrow his laptop to watch the video. We set the laptop up on the kitchen table. No sooner had I started the DVD than Emme was by my side whining to be picked up. So I watched my DVD with Emme in my arms. Maybe she isn't interested in musicals or comedies, Maybe she is just into instruction. She is my YouTube puppy.

Bichon "Fries"

2009-08-12T08:47:00.003-04:00

Emme loves sweet potato chews and I have had a hard time finding them. I have gone to the company's web site and I could order them from the Internet, but I hate to pay shipping if I can find them locally.

I first purchased the larger sized Sam's Yams chews at a kennel in town. After they stopped carrying them, I located a holistic veterinarian in North Canton and bought two bags of chews there. We now buy the ones shaped like a French fry. The big ones are just too big for Emme to chew up and are too hard for me to snap into smaller pieces. The French fry ones are just right.

Yesterday when we went to the local pet store, Pet Supplies Plus, I found both the large sized chews and the Bichon Fries. And they were on sale for a dollar off, to boot! I am delighted that I can buy them now in town. Emme goes through a bag very slowly. Each "fry" is about six inches long and I usually snap them into three pieces so it takes a long time for her to finish a bag. But when she does, I know where to go to buy a replacement.

A Visit with Maggie

2009-08-11T08:22:00.004-04:00

Last weekend was our family reunion and we had relatives come from all over. My brother-in-law, sister-in-law and niece drove from Texas and brought Maggie with them. My brother-in-law found Maggie when she was about two years old and she has been a member of their family ever since. She is a lovely, even tempered lab and a great house guest. When she comes up to you, she wags her tail and wiggles all over. She loves to be petted and talked to.

The Texas Nuzums arrived late Tuesday night and on Wednesday morning, when I had another commitment, Ken went to the lake with Emme and Rudy. According to him, the dogs spent the day smelling each other's butts. If one dog was not being sniffed, it was doing the sniffing of another dog. They seemed to work that all out of their systems by the time I went to the lake house a day later. I didn't see much butt sniffing, but I did see the three dogs getting along like they had know each other all their lives.

The dogs got along wonderfully. Maggie and Rudy are both about the same size. Emme is much smaller. That didn't seem to make any difference to the dogs. They all spend a fair amount of time napping on the deck, napping on the rug, napping on the garage floor, taking boat rides, running, eating, and hanging out together. They all stayed at the house when we went out to dinner and all seemed to do well.

I guess family reunions are all about getting together. This goes for the four legged family members as well as the two legged ones.

Tired Puppies

2009-08-10T10:10:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was the Nuzum-Sycks reunion and we all had a wonderful time. We were short seven family members: the North Carolina Nuzums were all sick and the DC Kendall/Nuzums are pregnant and not able to travel long distances. Everyone else was here. Maryland, Atalanta, Texas, Dover, Findley, Canton, Brimfield and Wooster relatives were all in attendance.

The good news is that the sun was shining. The bad news was it was HOT and humid. It didn't really matter. After we ate, we went on many boat rides and finally, late in the day, five of us were so hot and tired we decided to go swimming. It was hot on the dock but the water was cool. Ken kept saying that after we were in the water for 30 seconds, we would warm up. That didn't happen, but it was very refreshing.

Rudy and Maggie, my brother-in-law's dog, went swimming and Rudy over did it. He is stiff and sore today and he is taking a much needed rest. Going from a rather sedate life style to running up and down the hill from the house to the dock and jumping in the water many, many times wore him out.

Emme spent much of yesterday on her leash. She was spooked by men in ball caps and babies. She can know someone without a hat, but when they put on a hat, they must look like space aliens to her. She barks and carries on. Emme was also interested in but very barky around my one-year old great niece. I think that Rudy wanted to lick Taylor, but I don't know what Emme thought of her: toy, meal, interloper, enemy, friend? It just seemed a better idea to keep Emme by my side.

After a full day of food, conversation, boat rides, swimming, and hanging out, everyone was tired. By the end of the day Emme wasn't the only tired puppy. I think we all were.

I'm Bigger

2009-08-07T09:20:00.003-04:00

Sometimes when it is time to go outside to take care of business, Emme chooses not to go outside. This is particularly true when it is raining or the grass is wet. She will go out to the porch and then hide on her shelf under the wicker table so I can't put her collar on. Then I call "Come" and she chooses not to come. I go to the table and wiggle her out from the shelf. I tell her, "You may be stubborn, but I'm stubborn too and I'm bigger." I always win.

I'll Eat After You Eat

2009-08-06T08:15:00.004-04:00

Today was another chapter in the Breakfast Wars. Today neither dog wanted to eat first. After we have a cup or two of coffee in the dining room and read the paper, Ken and I go to the kitchen to feed the dogs. I prepare the medicine and Ken goes to the garage to fill the bowls. Then we put the bowls on the floor for the dogs to eat. This morning, both Emme and Rudy just sat there waiting. Waiting for what, I have no idea. Waiting for the other to eat. Waiting for the kibble to turn into T bone steaks. Waiting for Christmas. In the photo, you can see Rudy lying down behind the cabinets with his head in the lower left corner of the picture. Emme is sitting on the rug in the family room. Both bowls of kibble are sitting on the floor waiting. Ken is convinced that the dogs decide that they hate their food only when he has just opened a thirty-some pound bag of food from the vet.

We tried ignoring the dogs. Nothing. We tried picking up a piece of kibble in our hand. Nothing. I gave up and went upstairs to get dressed and Ken continued to try to entice the dogs to eat. He threw pieces of kibble toward each dog. Finally Rudy began to eat. When he finished, he went to lie down next to Emme's dish. Then she came over to her bowl and ate about half of her food and that was it. Breakfast was done. I want that "Up Collar."

Back from the Lake

2009-08-03T20:48:00.004-04:00

We just got back from the lake house. We are preparing for an upcoming family reunion and we have been working hard getting the lake house and property in good shape for next weekend. We have been cleaning, mulching, doing laundry, mowing, clipping bushes, straightening, painting, planting and all the things you do when you are expecting company.

The best thing is that the boat has been fixed and is working well and we were able to take a couple rides around the lake yesterday and today. This afternoon before dinner we took out the boat and then came back to the dock and swam for the first time this season. Although it is August, the water was cool. It was nice however. Today when we went for a boat ride we didn't take the dogs. They were not happy about that but they will get their chance when we return to the lake house next weekend.

Everyone is tired. Ken just came upstairs to change into his pajamas and Emme came upstairs with him and took the opportunity to get into her crate and crawl under her pillow. I think it will be an early bed for all of us tonight.

Take Me for a Ride in Your Car

2009-08-01T17:31:00.003-04:00

Both Emme and Rudy love to ride in the car. Both know the word "Ride" and get excited when we say it. If we say nothing but put on Rudy's collar, he starts jumping up and down in excitement. He is more like a kangaroo than a Labrador Retriever in his actions. As soon as she realizes a ride is coming up, Emme wants to be picked up and carried to the car as she was when she was a little puppy. She is perfectly capable of running out to the garage and jumping up into the car herself, but she prefers to be picked up and carried to the car.

Once we get started, both dogs lie down and nap. I am not sure why napping in the car is so much more exciting than napping on the rug in the living room. But it is. They will stay lying down quietly until Ken puts on the turn signal. As soon as the sound of the clicking begins, both dogs are up, on alert, waiting for good things to happen. We haven't figured out what good things they are expecting, but they love the clicker.

Then when we return home the excitement increases. It is like hitting yourself with a hammer because it feels so good when you stop. They love to leave home to ride because the ride ends with returning home. Go figure.

We LOVE Pill Pockets

2009-08-01T08:10:00.003-04:00

Emme and Rudy both LOVE Pill Pockets. We began using them a few days ago when Rudy decided that he didn't want to take his morning capsule wrapped in peanut butter and white bread. We had seen the Pill Pockets in the pet store but had not used them before so we purchased a pouch of them to give them a try. We started giving Rudy his capsule in a pocket each morning and he is so excited to get it he begins to drool as soon as I get the pouch out of the closet. Emme couldn't stand seeing Rudy get something so wonderful so we tear off a small part of another pocket and give it to her. They act like it is doggie Ben and Jerry's or doggie Godiva chocolate or maybe doggie drugs. They love pill pockets.

When I posted that we were using Pill Pockets, my son, who uses them with his dog, Lolly, suggested that we give Rudy an empty Pill Pocket occasionally so he sees them as a treat. A friend emailed that she uses liverwurst to give pills, an excellent suggestion. But we didn't have to convince Rudy that the Pill Pockets were treats and we didn't have to try liverwurst as a backup for pill delivery. Rudy and Emme are happy with Pill Pockets. Another small success!

Emme and Big Mama Gorilla, the First Video

2009-07-30T16:07:00.003-04:00

This is my first attempt to add video to Emme's blog. It is, of course, of Emme and her best toy, Big Mama Gorilla. I used my new Nikon Coolpix S560 camera to take the video. I pulled it into Picassa and was able to edit the start and end point with that program. I also tried to use Windows Movie Maker and did not understand at all what I was doing. I will try this again tomorrow to see if I can figure it out. I wish I had a ten year old living with me to teach me all this technology.

How Many Words Does She Know?

2009-07-30T08:23:00.003-04:00

Yesterday Ken and I were sitting in the living room and I offered to get a banana and yogurt for each of us for an afternoon snack. The minute I uttered the word "banana" Emme jumped up and ran for the kitchen. She must know that word. I know she knows the sound of me tearing one banana off of the bunch. If I go to the kitchen to make a breakfast of eggs and toast, she could care less. She stays in the dining room or living room and just lets me work. If I make oatmeal, however, and pull off a banana to cut up on top, Emme runs to the kitchen so she can have a slice. She loves bananas and I was not surprised that she figured out the sound of a banana being part of a meal preparation, but I didn't know she knew the word, banana.

Emme is sometimes so smart, it is scary. I know that she understands many words: ride, bed, walk, snack, eat, come (sometimes), sit, down, get Big Mama Gorilla, nap. I wonder how many words she actually knows.

"Come" Sometimes

2009-07-28T14:08:00.003-04:00

Emme has decided that the command "Come" only applies sometimes. If I am preparing a meal and call "Emme, Come" she dashes to the kitchen. If I am in the closet and call her from the bedroom, she runs to me as fast as she can. So I know that she knows what the command means and is perfectly able to do it. When she wants.

On the other hand, if she is playing "You'll Never Find Me," she hides somewhere in the house and gleefully waits silently as I call "Emme, Come" and search the house to locate her. I thought that was the only time that "Come" didn't count.

Recently she has decided that "Come" doesn't apply to her if I want her to go outside for a hurry up and it isn't her idea. Three or four times in the last few weeks, I have called her to come and her behavior is exactly the same. She turns her head away from me ("If I can't see you, I can't hear you.") and she walks slowly away in the other direction. She doesn't run; she just meanders like she is taking a stroll, so I won't get the idea that she is running away, just that she hasn't heard me. I only have to say "Emme, no" very quietly to call her on it. I don't have to yell. I just have to let her know that I know she has heard me and she can't ignore me.

What is this about? Come means come all the time. Except when it doesn't.

Big Mama Gorilla is a Multi-tasker

2009-07-27T16:27:00.003-04:00

Big Mama Gorilla is Emme's favorite toy. Rudy, on the other hand, has many favorites. Usually by the time we have finished breakfast, Rudy has gotten out three or four different stuffies and has spent some time loving each one of them. He spends a few minutes with each lovie and then moves on to the next one. Not Emme. It is Big Mama Gorilla or nothing.

Big Mama Gorilla is Emme's nap buddy. After lunch, if a nap is on the schedule, all I need to say to Emme is "Get your lovie for a nap" and she dashes around the house to see where she has left Big Mama Gorilla. She grabs hold of her and runs for the couch on the porch or the family room. Sometimes she needs a boost to get both of them up on the pillows or the arm of the couch and then she is ready to settle in for some quiet time.

Big Mama Gorilla is also useful for a game of tug-of-war. Emme loves to grab some part of Big Mama Gorilla and pull while Ken or I tug on the other end. Some how this is a great game.

Big Mama Gorilla is also Emme's solace. If Emme is reprimanded for anything, such as making a racket, barking at someone on the street, Emme has to rush to Big Mama Gorilla for comfort. This must make her feel better because she always does this if she is scolded or shot with the plant mister.

Another task for Big Mama Gorilla is just being there when Emme wants some quiet loving. Emme with lie down and grab Big Mama Gorilla with her mouth. She mouths the stuffie almost like she is nursing and pushes her feet alternately against the side of Big Mama Gorilla and begins to fall asleep.

I don't know what Emme would do without Big Mama Gorilla.

Who Eats First?

2009-07-26T09:50:00.003-04:00

There has been a change in mealtimes with Emme and Rudy. In the beginning and for a long time, Rudy ate first and often Emme would lie down on the waiting rug and watch until Rudy was finished eating. This never surprised us because we know how food-driven Rudy was and how Emme was a good eater, but not too enthusiastic. We were also told that often the "alpha dog" ate first and then the other dogs ate. Rudy was definitely older and much bigger, so we weren't surprised that he was the alpha dog of the pair.

Then we went through a period when they would eat simultaneously. Neither waited for the other to finish. We would put the kibble on the floor and both would eat. This went on for months.

Recently however the tables have been turned. Rudy will not eat his breakfast until Emme has completed her breakfast. He seems interested in his meal and even drools as he is waiting but he often lies down by Ken's side and waits for Emme to finish her breakfast. Only after she finished, does he begin his meal. This is much more pronounced at breakfast. Often at the dinner meal, he will begin to eat almost as soon as Emme does. But at breakfast, he waits. Have they decided that Emme is now the alpha dog and should eat first or is something else going on at the first meal of the day. I wish I know. I want that "Up collar." Now!

Pill Pockets

2009-07-24T07:49:00.000-04:00

Rudy takes a few pills each day and it is usually not a problem. We give him thyroid medicine twice a day by stuffing it inside a dice-sized cube of cheese. He eats it down with no problem. We use cheese for any small hard pill with great success. Rudy also takes Cyclosporine daily and it comes in a large capsule. We have been giving it to him wrapped inside a quarter of a piece of white bread spread with about a teaspoon of peanut butter. This has worked for a year or more. Until now.

Rudy is refusing to eat the peanut butter/white bread/ capsule. If we put it in his mouth, he either spits it out immediately or holds it in his mouth for a few minutes and then spits it out. He is absolutely refusing to take the capsule but is not objecting to his other pills in the cheese cube. The capsule is too large to insert into cheese so we went to the pet store and bought "Pill Pockets" made by Greenies. They cost about nine dollars for 30 pockets. They are made out of some sort of doughy product and you put the capsule inside and then mold the pill pocket up and around the capsule. So far these work. Rudy eats down the hidden capsule. We plan to use the pockets for a month, until we use up the package and we plan to go back to the peanut butter and white bread method. Maybe by then, Rudy won't object. Who knows?

Same Dogs, New Camera

2009-07-23T08:23:00.005-04:00

I went to the camera store yesterday to buy a new battery and photo storage card for my digital camera. It was taking too long to recharge the flash after I took a picture and I wanted the camera to be in top condition for the upcoming family reunion. When I showed them the camera, they told me that they did not stock batteries for that camera any more. They could order one but it would cost between 59 and 79 dollars. They can't get another storage card because the technology has changed and they no longer make the card that fits my camera. The camera was too old! I said that it was only four or five years old and they said "How old is that in dog years? It is the same for digital cameras." Manufacturers come out with new versions of cameras every nine to 12 months and my camera was eight or more versions back.

I asked to see new camera similar to my current camera and was told that they sold nothing like it. They said the new ones had ten times the features and capacity of my old camera and cost half of what I had paid for mine. So I bought a new camera. It is a little point and shoot camera made by Nikon. The model is called "Coolpix" and it is pink to my husband's chagrin. After charging the battery last night, I have been playing with the camera during breakfast. It is really nice and does have many features that I am sure I will use. It is easy to turn the flash off or turn it on all the time to use as a fill flash. It goes into macro mode for close ups with no problem. I can play back one picture or set the screen to show up to 16 thumbnail photos. It is easy to erase one or all the pictures. It has a five way zoom, both shorter and longer than my old camera. I really like this new camera and am eager to take more pictures with it.

Nap Buddies

2009-07-13T13:23:00.003-04:00

Today is one of those almost perfect summer days, extremely unusual in Ohio. The temperature is 75 degrees. The humidity is low. There is a gentle breeze and the sky is an incredible blue. Unbelievable! After puttering around all morning: making a crock-pot dish for tonight's quilt guild picnic, watering my house plants, finishing the last 20 pages of a novel, and preparing lunch it was time for an after lunch nap. Ken and I finished lunch, did the dishes and while we were busy with those tasks, the dogs got their lovies and dragged them out to the porch in case it was going to be nap time. They watch everything we do and try to anticipate our next activity. They want to be ready so they don't miss any opportunity.

In this case, they were spot on. The porch doors were opened wide and I had a new book to begin. It was cool enough for me to spread out a quilt and settle down for a nap. Rudy only stayed for a few minutes before he relocated into the living room to be with Ken. Emme stayed. After loving Big Mama Gorilla for a while, she jumped down on top of my legs to lie down as I read. Naps are good. Beautiful summer weather is better. Having two nap buddies is best.

I Want That "Up" Collar

2009-07-06T16:50:00.004-04:00

If you have seen the Pixar film "Up" you remember the collars that allow the dogs to talk. I want one of those.

Emme and Rudy are sometimes so strange and do such unusual things that Ken and I have always wanted to have a way to talk to them and just ask each of them "Why do you do that?" We have wished that we could have 15 minutes with each of them to ask about strange behaviors that we have seen. I am sure that 15 minutes would not be enough time to get the answers we want, so I want to switch to an "Up" collar. I could put one on Emme and Rudy and when they did something weird, I could ask why in the world they were doing that. And they could tell me. Maybe I will put an "Up" collar on my Christmas list.

More Than an "Power Chewer"

2009-07-03T16:39:00.003-04:00

For Emme's recent birthday, I purchased a chew toy labeled "for your power chewer" as a birthday present for her. Although Emme is very gentle with her stuffed toys, she is a powerful chewer. Because she loves to chew on marrow bones, I knew she would enjoy a chew toy of some kind for her birthday.

She has a Kong, but she never chews on that. She will lick peanut butter from the inside of it or figure how to get out little bits of kibble stuffed inside but she does not chew the Kong itself. She is so excited when she gets the Kong but as soon as it is empty, it could be invisible. She wants nothing more to do with it. I hesitate to give her rawhide to chew because I am just not sure about that. She does get sweet potato chews but they are consumed and gone. I wanted a toy she could chew when she wanted.

I read every label in the pet department of Target and selected two toys for Emme: a small pink stuffed rabbit and a blue chew toy labeled "for your power chewer." I also purchased a fetch stick for Rudy because I couldn't get a birthday present for Emme and leave Rudy out. After Emme played with the rabbit for a few minutes, she left it to pick up the chew toy. Rudy immediately picked up the little pink rabbit and has had it since. Emme didn't mind because she immediately started chewing on the blue chew toy. She chewed on it for only a few minutes before she chewed a chunk of the plastic right off. You can see the bitten off chunk in the upper right corner of the photo. If that toy was made for a "power chewer" Emme must be more than a "power chewer." She must be a "super power chewer."

So I took the chew toy away from Emme and will return it to the store. I will probably exchange it for another pink rabbit so she can have some time with it while Rudy monopolizes the first one. The blue chew toy she had is just too dangerous for her. She easily could chew off another chunk and swallow it. I wish I could find a good, non-lethal chew toy for Emme.

Happy Birthday, Emme

2009-07-02T16:43:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was Emme's third birthday. Although we did celebrate her first birthday, last year when she was two, we were preoccupied with health concerns and it passed us by. So Emme's third birthday was a "do-over." We wanted to give her a special treat for her birthday but were stymied in choosing something appropriate. We are very careful about what we give to both Emme and Rudy because many things upset their digestion. For Christmas one year, I purchased a doggie ice cream as a treat. Rudy handled it well, but it was too much for Emme. It gave her very loose stools and I don't want to repeat that.

Emme loves both yogurt and canned tuna and has eaten both of those items in the past with no difficulty. So we chose tuna as her treat. When we got up, I sang "Happy Birthday" to Emme and she was underwhelmed. When Ken got out her kibble, I opened a can of tuna. That caught Emme's attention. So both Emme and Rudy got spoonful of tuna and the water it comes in on top of their kibble. This was a real celebration. No songs, just tuna.

Wild Life in the Garage

2009-06-16T17:39:00.003-04:00

This morning Ken and I were working in the yard. The garage door was open for about an hour or so while we were planting some perennials that Ken got on a great end-of-the-season sale. He got 26 plants for $10.28 and we wanted to get them in the ground right away. While we were busy working, unknown to us, a little chipmunk ran into the garage and stayed inside. Ken discovered it on the window sill in the garage later in the day. We tried to chase it out of the garage by stomping our feet behind it but we were unsuccessful. We stomped and the chipmunk ran and hid. We left the garage door open when we went out to run errands and hopefully the little creature ran out of the garage and back into the yard while things were quiet.

I wouldn't want Emme or Rudy to go our into the garage and capture the chipmunk. Even worse, I wouldn't want it to run into the laundry room and hid in the house. So for now, I think the wild life is out of the garage and back outside. At lease I hope so.

Seed Collector

2009-06-15T10:04:00.004-04:00

Last evening after dinner Ken and I went on a walk around the yard to see what is blooming. We each took a dog on a leash. We looked at all the plants as the dogs sniffed, ate grass, and wandered along with us. When we came inside, Emme got up on my lap and I discovered that in addition to walking around the yard, Emme had been a seed collector. She had about 30 little black seeds sticking to her coat. I had to take her into the laundry room, wipe her off and comb the seeds out of her hair.

She usually spends her time in the house, on a sidewalk, or on the grass to take care of business or play her version of fetch. She seldom walks among the plants in the gardens. I don't think she will do that again. She collected every weed and flower seed that was available. The next time we check out the plants in the yard, I think I will leave Emme on porch to watch.

Hit Me On the Head

2009-06-11T14:15:00.000-04:00

We have some little kibble sized treats that we use to put inside the Kong toys with peanut butter. Ken decided that he would use those treats to teach the dogs a trick. He was trying to get Emme and Rudy to catch a treat when he tossed it to them. Both dogs sit about three feet in front of Ken. He tosses one treat to each of them so they can catch it. Rudy is pretty good. He catches the treat almost every time. Emme doesn't seem to understand the game. I think she thinks the game is: you toss a treat; it hits me on the head; it falls on the floor, and I bend over and eat it. She isn't any better at catching the treat than she is playing fetch. She has other talents. Like just being cute.

Like a Cat

2009-06-10T07:13:00.000-04:00

Emme is as agile as a cat. She loves to get up on the back of the couch and walk along the top of the cushions. She also loves to look out to monitor the activity in the neighborhood. She spends a good amount of time during the day watching, with an occasional rolling growl or bark to ward off intruders. This usually includes anyone walking on the sidewalk or the street. Anyone working in the yard across the street. Anyone in any yard she can see. And anyone on the golf course. This keeps her busy.

I usually draw the drapes after dinner and with these long summer days, it is still light when I do this. I think sunset tonight is at 8:59 PM so there is still plenty of light and lots of things still to see when I close the drapes. Emme is not deterred. She hops up on the back of the couch and knows just where to insert her head between the two sides of the drapes. Then she sits and watches the sidewalk and the street. She does stop after dark, but she is on duty again the next morning, early.

Private Bathroom

2009-06-09T07:04:00.001-04:00

I have three giant Sagae hostas growing at the corner of the back porch. They are lush and lovely and Emme has decided that they are her own private bathroom. When she goes outside, she loves to go down the steps and under the Sagae leaves to take care of business. She disappears under the leaves. It is kind of like having the key to the executive restroom. It is all hers and private.

Dirty Mouth

2009-06-08T07:15:00.001-04:00

I never knew it would be so hard to keep a white dog, white. Emme is like a little dirt magnet. She sniffs the deck and comes up with smudges of dirt, twigs, little pieces of leaf, and assorted messes all around her mouth. She picks up dirt, pollen and dust on her paws. She goes to the lake house white and within a few hours she is grey in places. I wouldn't trade her for the world but it is challenge keeping her clean.

First Swim of the Season

2009-06-07T07:58:00.003-04:00

This weekend Rudy went swimming for the first time of this season. He absolutely loves to dive off the dock and play fetch with his orange toss toy. On Friday, we went down to the dock for a first boat ride of the season and Rudy had to bring his toy and play a little fetch. Ken threw the toy a few times and Rudy was in heaven. You can see then that he is really a water dog. You wouldn't know it when it is time for a bath or to go outside in the rain. Then he can't stand water and will do anything to avoid getting wet. If he misbehaves, we spray him with the plant mister and he hates it. Only in the lake is water good and there it is very good.

His coat is so thick that it takes hours for him to dry. After our ride, we all stayed out on the deck for some time so Rudy could begin to dry in the sun. When he is wet and goes inside immediately he uses the rug and all the furniture to dry himself off. Drying in the sun is better.

Emme has never gone swimming. She is fascinated by the water and loves to be out on the boat. I keep her on the leash because I am not sure that she wouldn't just go over the side. She stands on her back legs and sniffs the water over the side of the boat. The water by our dock is deep and the only way to get in is to jump off the side or the end of the dock. We don't have a gradual slope so you can wade in. We just have deep water. Later this summer we are going to take Emme to one of the beaches at the lake some week day when no one else is there. We will let her get her feet wet and see what she does in the water. I wonder what she will think of that.

Wild Life at the Lake

2009-06-06T09:40:00.007-04:00

We just got back from a few days at the lake house. While we were there, a rather large deer strolled across the yard. Ken got out the camera and was able to get its picture before it disappeared into the woods next door. This is why I always want to have Emme and Rudy on the leash at the lake. I am never sure when we are going to have a visitor that they would like to chase. I am sure that if either dog were outside when the deer went through the yard, they would have taken after it in a heartbeat.

The house on the other side of ours had its own version of "Wild Life at the Lake" yesterday. In the afternoon cars began to pull in and a group of loud young men began a party. As we were sitting on the deck before dinner, we could hear them playing loud music, hanging out on their dock, getting into a boat, and yelling at the top of their lungs. We decided that if they got too loud, that we would play Steve Halpern or Yanni really loud to annoy them. Actually, they settled down early in the evening and didn't disturb us in the least. That was good. I am not sure you can play Yanni loud enough to even hear next door, let alone annoy a loud group of partiers. So much for Wild Life at the Lake.

Like a Fruit Bat

2009-06-02T09:14:00.000-04:00

Emme loves fruit. She and Rudy both come to the kitchen when I am preparing a meal or snack hoping for a handout. We never give them food from the table, but I often will give them a treat when I am cutting up fruit or vegetables. Rudy is a little pickier, but Emme will eat a bite of almost any fruit or vegetable I give her. She eats many vegetables: green peppers, cherry tomatoes, celery, and baby carrots but her favorites are fruit. I never give her grapes because they are toxic to dogs, but she gets bites of apple, peach, watermelon, cantaloupe, bananas, and her all time favorite: oranges. Who knew that dogs would love citrus fruit. When we peel an orange or Clementine, Emme actually whines to be given a bite. Maybe she is part fruit bat.

Doggy Day Care

2009-06-02T08:56:00.007-04:00

Yesterday morning, we took Emme and Rudy for a first time visit to Doggy Day Care here in town. My son and daughter-in-law take Lolly to a day care center in DC and they are very pleased with it. Ken and I decided to look into it with the idea that we would plan to leave the dogs there for day care and boarding when we went back to John Campbell at the end of the summer. We were planning to do a few short visits over the summer to assess how they handled being with other days.

I called the vet to schedule boarding for our New Jersey shore vacation and they were filled up. So we went to plan B: Doggy Day Care.

I called the day care center and scheduled Emme and Rudy to stay there for our vacation week and we took them on Monday morning to see how they would do. Neither Emme nor Rudy have had a lot of experience playing with other dogs. There are just the occasional visits from relatives with dogs.

On Monday, there were five other dogs when we went to the center at 9 AM. Every one of them started barking as soon as we brought our dogs through the door. Both Emme and Rudy seemed overwhelmed by the noise and confusion. The owner took Emme in her arms and walked into the middle of the dogs while we waited by the counter. They sniffed Emme and she seemed okay in the woman's arms. Then she put Emme on the floor. Emme started sniffing the other dogs. So far so good.

Next it was Rudy's turn. Holding on to Rudy's collar, she took him into the group. Every one barked and sniffed but seemed to get along. Then Ken and I went into the room to look around. There is one large room, a smaller area to separate small dogs if necessary, several small rooms about 6 feet by 8 feet that are used for boarding, a back hall, an always open door, and a small fenced in back yard where the dogs take care of business. Everything seemed clean and Rudy and Emme sniffed until I thought they would pass out. We watched the dogs for a few minutes and then left. As we backed out of the parking lot, Emme and Rudy were standing at the window watching us leave.

We came back to pick them up about noon. Both dogs seemed to be okay. The owner told us that Emme spent the morning glued to Rudy's side. Where ever he went, she followed. Rudy didn't play for a while but later in the morning picked up a blue ball and played fetch. I think he played fetch a lot. They both were worn out and plopped onto the back seat for the ride home. Emme was asleep before we hit our street and both dogs spent most of the afternoon napping. Later in the evening, Rudy was having a hard time getting up and moving around. He refused to climb the stairs to go to bed so Ken grabbed his pillow and slept on the family room couch with Rudy on the rug beside him. This morning, Rudy seems okay. I think he just over did at day care and next time, we will need to tell her to slow him down, not throw the ball too many times and to put him in a separate room to rest periodically.

We will try another short day before the actual boarding. I think we all survived our first experience with doggy day care.

Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed

2009-06-01T09:05:00.002-04:00

I love Emme's new hair cut. There is nothing different on her body or legs. The biggest difference is in her face. Her ears are much shorter than they have been and she is clipped more around her eyes. She looks so bright eyed. Actually I always think she looks cute but with the new do, she is cuter than ever.

Assigned Seat

2009-05-31T08:55:00.003-04:00

Sometimes it seems that we have assigned seats in the living room. Ken and I have our Lazy-Boy recliner chairs near a reading light and across the room from the television. Rudy has his quilt on the floor on the left side of Ken's chair. Emme loves the end of the couch. She sits there and watches everything that goes on in the neighborhood. In the evenings after the drapes are closed, she often abandons her perch and comes to lie on top of a quilt on my legs. But during the day, she is often in her assigned seat, watching. If I can't find her, I know where to look. That is her spot.

Plays Well With Others

2009-05-25T08:35:00.004-04:00

This weekend we had three visitors: my son, daughter-in-law, and my grand-dog, Lolly. Emme loves all three of them, but Lolly is a favorite and a mystery. Emme is not used to playing with other dogs. She and Rudy live in the same house, go on rides together, nap near one another, eat sided by side, but they don't "play" much together.

Lolly is a French bulldog and as cute as she can be. She is very used to playing with other dogs because she frequently goes to a doggy day care in Washington DC, her hometown, so she plays well with others. Emme on the other hand has few opportunities to play with anyone except Rudy. Rudy is older, slower and not really into playing. His thing is fetch. He'll fetch until he is warn out, but he doesn't really "play" with Emme. So having a dog her size who wants to play is a new experience for Emme.

Actually all three dogs did quite well. Emme and Lolly generally avoided Rudy except when Ken was playing fetch with Rudy. Rudy would chase the little red football; Lolly would chase Rudy, and Emme stayed on the porch and ignored them. She is not into fetch. In her estimation, if you are silly enough to throw a ball away, you can just go get it yourself.

Lolly wanted to initiate a game of "You chase me; I'll chase you" but Emme didn't seem to know the rules. Instead she would look expectantly at Lolly, scratch her back feet on the carpet, and bark. This must have meant something to her, but all of us, including Lolly, were not sure what it meant. It probably was "I really want to play, but I am not sure how to go about it."

So all three dogs spent the weekend together and had some variety of play with one another. If they had more time together, I am sure Emme would have figured out how to play more. But it was a fun weekend anyway.

New Do

2009-05-22T08:58:00.004-04:00

Emme has a new do. She went to the groomers yesterday for the first time since her surgery and I asked Kristie to cut Emme's coat short. I wanted to even out the growing in rectangle on the back of Emme's neck with the rest of her coat and I wanted to fix up her ears which I had trimmed myself when the hair was getting caught in the stitches. So Emme is much shorter but she looks so cute. I never have Emme cut in a "show coat" but I keep her in a puppy cut. It is much easier to care for.

Emme's parents are both beautiful show dogs and I have seen them all styled and blown out for dog shows. They are absolutely stunning. Emme never looks like her parents but she looks like herself. Which is great.

She Moans

2009-05-19T08:55:00.000-04:00

Emme has this habit of moaning quietly when she is being rubbed or petted. It is a soft and happy sound something like a cat purring. Rudy does a similar thing when he is being very still and being petted. He has a specific deep breathing sound that he makes, his version of purring. Last week when Emme was not feeling well, she didn't moan when we rubbed and patted her. Now that she is well again, she moans. What a good sound. The sound of a contented dog.

Back to Normal

2009-05-18T08:46:00.002-04:00

It has been a week since we took Emme to the vet and discovered that she had an ear infection. After days of salve in her ear and a few baby aspirins, she is well again and things are back to normal. It was disconcerting while she was not feeling well and she was isolating herself from us by hiding under pieces of furniture. Some "under" is okay. Being "under" all the time is not.

She is not shaking her head or showing any signs of distress. She is back to eating again. For a number of meals this past week, she refused to eat. Ken or I would give her kibble, one piece at a time, and she would eat part of her meal. That is past. She is eating well.

She is back to her early morning routine: playing "Go Get" and loving up Big Mama Gorilla. It is so nice having things back to normal.

In Hiding

2009-05-12T18:05:00.004-04:00

For the last two days, Emme has been hiding all over the house. She has been spending almost all her time under something. It started on Sunday at the lake house. When Emme wasn't under the living room couch, she was under the butcher block in the kitchen or under our bed. Her behavior was very strange. Although she does like to be under things occasionally, for the past two days it was constant. Instead of coming to sit beside one of us or on our laps, Emme was under something, hiding out. When we returned to Wooster, Emme spent her time under the cabinet in the dining room or under my desk in the sewing room. This morning as soon as she got up, she immediately ran to the sewing room to hide out under my desk instead of making a bee line for the back door to go out to the yard. She has not been interested in playing or running around. She was reluctant to eat although she did finally eat very slowly and finished all or most of her meals. But something was just not right.

So we made an appointment with the vet this morning. Emme has an ear infection. I guess I shouldn't be surprised because she just finished a round of antibiotics after her surgery and that is often when a yeast infection sets in. So the vet pulled some hair from her ears and we have a salve to put in her sore ear. For the next day or two she is to have a baby aspirin twice a day. We are already seeing a change. I hope she is back to her old self quickly. I miss the real Emme.

Rub My Belly

2009-05-05T08:05:00.004-04:00

Emme had her stitches taken out yesterday and it was no big deal. Her incision has healed nicely and the vet cut the stitches out without causing Emme any pain. Emme can now roll over on her back to have her belly rubbed.

When the incision was new, Emme would begin to roll over and as soon as her incision touched the rug, she would immediately hop back up. I know it was not comfortable for her. The last few days she did try to lie on her back to turn her belly up for rubbing. That still must have felt strange with the stitches in and she would hop up quickly. Now the incision is healed and the stitches removed. She can lie comfortably on her back. Belly rubs are now in order. Life is back to normal.

Sisterhood of the Seven Stitches

2009-05-04T14:41:00.004-04:00

After Emme had surgery last week to remove her cyst, her incision was closed with seven stitches. Last weekend I had an unfortunate accident with a broken glass on the kitchen counter. I went to the emergency room and come home with seven stitches in my right hand to close the cut. Both of us are healing nicely.

I love Emme all to pieces but I was not planning to bond so closely with her that we each would have seven stitches at the same time. Hers come out later this afternoon. Mine come out on Friday morning. But until then we are alike, each with seven stitches.

Some Time in the Crate

2009-05-02T09:49:00.003-04:00

Emme continues to heal and has spent some time this week on her own in her crate in the family room. On Wednesday, she was in her crate for two hours while Ken and I took a "Spring Walk" at the Secrest Arboretum. What a wonderful resource right in our community. It has the reputation of having the best crab apple collection in the world as well as some of the most respected scientists. The Arboretum is lovely in all seasons and was especially beautiful this week. Emme seemed to handle the crate time with no damage. She will sometimes scratch herself if she is not monitored but there were no scratch marks on her skin when we got home.

Then yesterday she was in the crate while we went to Akron to bottle our wine. A few weeks ago we went to a wine making place and mixed up two batches of wine, a White Cranberry and a red Mixed Berry. This week we bottled and corked the wine. It is actually quite good.

So things are almost back to normal. Emme has an appointment for Monday afternoon to have her stitches removed. Yeah!

Feeling Her Oats

2009-04-30T08:22:00.005-04:00

Emme is getting more like her real self each day. This morning, she was feeling her oats and decided to play a game of "You'll Never Find Me." After Ken and I took the dogs out first thing this morning, I went back upstairs to brush my teeth and wash my face. Emme, of course, came with me. When I was done, I went back downstairs into the living room and sat on the couch for my regular early morning visit with Emme. Every morning, we sit together quietly on the couch and I tell her what a good girl she is as I am slowly waking up. Then after checking his email, Ken comes into the dining room and sits at the table. We play a couple rounds of "Go Get..." and then the humans get some coffee.

Not this morning. When I went into the living room, Emme was no where to be seen. I called for Emme and then to Ken in his office to see if she had gone in to see him. Not there. I went back upstairs to make sure I hadn't shut Emme in the bathroom or the closet. Not there. I came back downstairs and now the two of us looked for Emme, calling her name all the while. Of course, Emme was no where and she didn't make a sound. This is the important part of "You'll Never Find Me." Emme refuses to respond to our calls. We call "Emme, come" and she remains totally silent. I got down on my hands and knees to check if she was in her hiding place under the dining room cabinet. Not there. Back upstairs to see if she had pushed open the door to the guest room and then could not get back out. Not there. Finally I went into my sewing room, kneeled down on the rug and found Emme tucked under the drawers of my desk, all the way back by the wall absolutely invisible.

Now that she was found, Emme could come out and go downstairs. We took puppy classes so that Emme would learn some important commands like "Come." She knows these commands, but when she plays "You'll Never Fine Me" she has different rules. She hides; I call; she remains silent. I HATE this game but I am glad that she is feeling enough better to play.

Better and Better

2009-04-28T09:20:00.003-04:00

Emme seems to get better and better. Her shaved rectangle on the back of her neck is growing more hair and now resembles a front lawn covered with snow. This makes things look much more normal. You can still easily see the incision and the stitches but not the raw, pink skin. This is an improvement.

Today she seems more itchy than the previous days. There is a lot of head shaking and attempts at scratching but she stops when told "No." She is handling taking care of her business without a collar and leash. She goes outside, takes care of business, and comes back to the porch quickly. Maybe I am worrying about nothing.

She is back to her noisy, protect-the-neighborhood-from-marauders self. She loves to be on the porch to keep an eye on things. The problem is, she thinks anything she can see is her business. She doesn't limit herself to her own backyard. The next door neighbors are getting a new roof so there are trucks and workers all over their yard. The fact that it is next door, doesn't deter Emme. She barks and growls to keep the invaders away. Needless to say, it was a long afternoon yesterday. Maybe they will be done this afternoon. Then Emme can lighten up. One can only hope.

Getting Better Each Day

2009-04-27T08:50:00.004-04:00

Emme seemed different this morning, a little more animated and spunky. I see her getting better each day. She finishes with the antibiotic and the pain pills this evening. Her shaved spot is growing fine little white hairs, kind of like an old man's cheek, and it doesn't look as raw and angry. She spent a quiet night last night with only one episode of scratching.

Yesterday Ken and I stayed home with her all day. We didn't go to church and didn't attend a concert we had tickets for because I didn't want to leave her at home alone. Today I am more confident in her ability to stay by herself without supervision. We have a crab apple walk through the Secrest Arboretum scheduled on Wednesday and I am sure she will be able to be crated and stay alone for two hours by then. Life is beginning to get back to normal.

Always on a Leash

2009-04-26T14:26:00.003-04:00

Today is Emme's third day after cyst removal surgery and she continues to heal. She was more restless last night than she has been. We had to talk to her two or three times during the night to get her to settle down and not scratch. Today she is still uncomfortable periodically and wants to be held frequently but otherwise is doing nicely on the pain medicine.

The biggest change is that she can't wear a collar and leash. I always have Emme on a leash when I take her outside. That way I know where she is and I know that she can't take off to chase a squirrel or a jogger. It just keeps her safe. Ken sometimes takes Emme out to play fetch without a collar and leash, but I never do. If she is outside with me, she has on a collar and leash.

Now, obviously, with a giant incision on the back of her neck, we can't put a collar on her. We have been taking her outside to do her business for the last few days without a problem. I was beginning to grow more comfortable with this until this afternoon. A black poodle was galloping around in our next door neighbor's year and I know they do not have a dog. This dog was obviously from somewhere else in the neighborhood and had gotten off the leash. If Emme had been outside, she would have run to the poodle to play and I am not sure what would have happened next. I don't like this. It will be a week or two before Emme can wear her collar and I think I will worry the entire time. Not that worrying will keep her safe. It is just what I do.

And a Hair Cut, Too

2009-04-25T10:15:00.003-04:00

Now we are in day two, post cyst surgery. To add insult to injury, I have had to clip some of Emme's hair to make her more comfortable. Yesterday she was flapping her ears in reaction to the feel of the incision and sutures or in an effort to make herself more comfortable. Each time she flapped her ears, some of the long ear hair caught on the sutures. Then she would move her head, pull on the stitches and cry. So Ken held her and I got out the scissors and cut all the hair that was long enough to get caught. So in addition to having a shaved spot the size of an index card on the back of her neck, Emme's ears look a little wonky. I don't care as long as she is more comfortable.

She seems to be tolerating the pain medication well. She is taking that in addition to an antibiotic. She is not nauseous and she is eating, drinking and eliminating without a problem. I know the pain medication is slowing her down. We say something like "Are you ready to eat?" or "Let's go outside and hurry up" and she seems to have to stop and consider what we are saying before she responds. I know the feeling; pain medicine makes me dumb.

Emme spent most of the day yesterday in one of our arms. She and I watched many shows on the "Sick Channel," HD Theatre. I discovered this channel last spring after my surgery and it was a wonderful diversion. Yesterday Emme and I watched a show on rogue crocodiles and hippopotamuses, the sunrise in a Cambodian village (where the sun rose VERY slowly), a show on souping up some one's SUV to make it "hot" and the beginning of a racing show. A rather eclectic mix but entertaining.

She sat in Ken's arms in front of his computer though a variety of Podcasts and many games of solitaire. By evening, she did begin to spend a little time on the floor or up on the couch or a chair seat by herself. We need to watch her constantly because if she begins to scratch, she will stop if she is told "No." Last night we all went to bed and slept through the night. She seems to have made it through the night with out scratching.

So today, we are taking turns on "Emme watch." She wants to be held sometimes but other times she can be more independent. We are still watching her to prevent her from scratching. We are all going to make it through this.

Obviously the photos I used yesterday and today are pre-surgery. I can't bring myself to take a picture of the incision. When it is over and done with, I don't want to be reminded of it in graphic detail.

A Big Deal

2009-04-23T12:38:00.006-04:00

Emme's little bump turned into a big deal. She came home with a shaved rectangle on the back of her neck about four inches wide by five inches long, a 2 1/2 inch incision and seven sutures. The skin around the incision is a raw looking and pink and she is miserable. Until her first pain pill kicked in about six o'clock last night she yipped and cried in pain every time she moved. Now she seems in less pain but she wants to scratch the incision and rub it on the rug or furniture. The only thing that stops her is one of us holding her in our arms. So we did, all night last night. Ken and I spent the night in the living room with one of us holding Emme in our arms in a recliner chair and the other trying to sleep on the couch. We traded positions every two hours so we had some relief, but it was a long night. Right now Ken is holding Emme while I shower, dress and check my email. Then it will be my turn again.

On a positive note, Emme came through yesterday's surgery just fine. The vet said that the bump was a sebaceous cyst and he was able to get all of it out. The incision is larger than we expected because the cyst was larger under the surface of the skin than at the surface. It was about the size of a quarter. The surgery was uneventful. The cyst was removed and Emme's teeth were cleaned while she was under.

The recovery is another matter. Emme is miserable and we are trying to keep her as comfortable as possible. This will mean a lot of holding her until things ease up. We had an appointment in Akron this afternoon that we will cancel to stay with her. Today's focus is just on helping Emme heal.

Last night Emme ate a few pieces of kibble from Ken's fingers and this morning he hand fed her again. She has gone outside to hurry up twice since she came home. So all systems are working.

I hope she never has another cyst. I never want to go through this again.

Three Drinks of Hot Water

2009-04-22T10:15:00.003-04:00

Rudy loves to drink hot water from the shower. Emme could care less. Her fun is to help us dry our legs after we get out of the shower. As soon as we step out on the bath mat, Emme begins licking our ankles and calves. She keeps it up until we are dry or we send her out of the bathroom. This is like her duty to help when we take a shower.

Rudy on the other hand loves to drink the hot shower water. As soon as Ken or I step into the shower if the door is unlatched Rudy pushes into the bathroom. Then he pushes his head through the shower curtain at the foot of the bath tub. He waits patiently until we fill our hands with hot shower water and hold them at the edge of the tub. He dips his mouth into our hand and laps up the water. We give him three drinks, our limit. I think he would stay there indefinitely and drink. After three drinks of hot water for Rudy, we go back to our shower and he either curls up on the bath mat or leaves the bathroom in search of other excitement.

Why in the world would Rudy consider three drinks of hot water from the shower a treat?

Just a Little Bump

2009-04-21T08:44:00.005-04:00

Last fall we discovered a little bump on the back of Emme's neck. We pointed it out to the vet who said we should just take a "wait and see" position. So we waited and the little bump grew from the size of a lentil to the size of a marble, a pretty good sized marble. Over the weekend, it erupted and seeped some clear liquid and a little blood. We took Emme to the vet yesterday afternoon to have it looked at and they said that we should probably have it removed. It looks like a sebaceous cyst but because it grew so much over the winter, we probably shouldn't just leave it there to continue to grow. It is less of a problem to remove a little bump than a bigger one. So Emme is scheduled for surgery on Thursday. Although she will have general anesthesia, it is only a one day procedure. She will go to the vet's early in the morning and return to us before dinner. Just to be cautious, they will biopsy the cyst to make sure that nothing else is going on. I know that the surgery is not a big deal, but I still will be glad when Thursday has come and gone. Think good thoughts for our pup in the next few days.

It's All Right Now

2009-04-14T08:29:00.003-04:00

We picked up Emme and Rudy from the kennel yesterday morning and now everything is all right. It was so strange when Ken and I were home and the dogs were still away. Things were too quiet. The upside is that we slept in until 7:30 with no dogs to wake us up. The down side was we missed Emme and Rudy. I am glad they are home and life is back to normal.

Miss That Puppy

2009-04-12T13:02:00.002-04:00

Ken and I have just returned from a week at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina, and another visit to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville. While we were gone the dogs have been at "Puppy Sleep Away Camp" which is not open today for pickup. So Ken and I are home, doing some laundry, downloading digital photographs of our trip and putting things away. And missing Emme and Rudy. We will go tomorrow morning early to pick them up. I can hardly wait. The house is too quiet without them.

Attention to Details

2009-03-12T10:29:00.007-04:00

In addition to the wonderful coffee pot that Ken uses to make our breakfast coffee with whole beans, we have a Tassimo coffee machine that makes single cups of coffee. We use it for many kinds of hot beverages: regular coffee, decaf, lattes, tea, and hot chocolate. Every week we go to Canton to take groceries to Ken's parents and take them out to dinner. Almost every time we go, I make a cup of coffee for each of us to drink as we drive across Route 30. Both dogs know this.

They watch very closely everything we do and yesterday when I started the Tassimo, Rudy dashed to his crate. Making Tassimo in the afternoon must mean that we are getting ready to leave for Grandma's and Grandpa's and the dogs will have to go to their crates while we are gone. Some times it is scary how much the dogs notice and how they put these clues together.

I have just finished a fascinating book Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin . Dr. Grandin is a college professor who is autistic and she writes about both people with autism and about animals. In her book, she talks about animals being hyper sensitive to specific details in their environment. I think Rudy and the Tassimo is an excellent example of this.

Position A, Position B

2009-03-11T06:29:00.001-04:00

Every morning at this house we have the same routine. Ken and Rudy get up first. Ken takes Rudy out and then makes a pot of coffee. About a half hour later, Emme and I get up. As soon as we come downstairs, Emme has to play "Go Get." I sit on the living room couch so she can jump up next to me and I can pet her. After a few minutes, I say "Go get Ken." Ken sits at his place at the dining room table and Emme dashes over to him and sits down in front of him. She is so excited that she wiggles all around. Ken reaches down to pet her for a while and then says "Go get Mary Lou." Emme dashes back to me, jumps on the couch and gets petted. Then we repeat this over and over until Emme is panting and too tired to jump back up on the couch. Then she gets Big Mama Gorilla for some quiet morning loving.

All this time, Rudy is with one of his lovies. But always in the same location. When we begin, he brings his lovie over by the couch where I am sitting and settles into "Position A." He ignores all Emme's crazy running, even when she dashes right by his nose or occasionally jumps over him. After Emme is done playing "Go Get" I go to my chair at the dining room table for a cup of coffee, my DS, Sudoko and the newspaper and Rudy goes gets up to relocate to "Position B" right by Ken's chair at the table.

Every morning, the exact same routine. Who's in a rut?

Coffee Breath

2009-03-10T07:19:00.001-04:00

Emme often has doggy breath but for a while last weekend, she had coffee breath. I noticed one afternoon that she was chewing on something dark and hard. I thought that it was some mulch that she or Rudy had tracked in on their feet.

Both of them love to go into the flower beds and take care of business in the mulch. This makes me crazy because I think this spring I am going to have some deformed tulips or hosta from their deposits. But Emme and Rudy sneak into the flower beds as often as possible and often track little pieces of mulch into the house.

This time however the dark object was a coffee bean. We have a wonderful coffee machine that grinds coffee beans to make a pot of coffee. Every morning Ken makes a pot of this wonderful coffee and we really enjoy it. When we washed the coffee pot the last time, an unground bean must have dropped on to the floor. And Emme found it. I took it away from her, but she had already eaten about half of it. Her breath smelled like Starbucks. This was an improvement.

Two Treats

2009-03-09T06:45:00.001-04:00

Emme loves to be up close to my face. When we come downstairs, she stops on the landing and I sit on the second step so my face is even with hers. She smells all over my face, especially my eye lids. I close my eyes and she sniffs my eyes and her cold nose just barely touches my eye lids. I call these barely perceptible touches, Angel Kisses. She also loves to smell my breath when I talk to her. Toothpaste, coffee, garlic, morning breath, all are good for her. She is in love with my breath.

But she never licks my face. She will often lick Ken's face when she climbs up on his lap but she seems to know that although I love being close to her, I don't like her to lick me. So she doesn't. Ken is always egging her on. He says to Emme, "Lick her lips. If you do, I'll give you two treats." But she doesn't; she only sniffs. Until this weekend.

We spent the night at the lake house and on Saturday because I had a commitment in town I left the lake early in my car. Later that day, Ken came home with the two dogs. I was lying on the couch in the family room when Emme came home. She jumped on top of me and was so excited to see me she licked my face. UGH. Dog lips. And to make matters worse, even though he has promised "Two Treats" for months, Ken never came through. Emme finally worked up to licking my face and got nothing for it. So much for "Two Treats."

Emme's First (and Perhaps Last) Marrow Bone

2009-03-08T09:29:00.003-04:00

Over the weekend, I gave Emme her first marrow bone and it was a wonderful and an awful experience. We never give Emme and Rudy table scraps or bones. We have read that bones, especially chicken bones, shatter and can do major damage to a dog's throat and intestines. Years ago I read a dog book by Daniel Pinkwater and he said that the only safe bone to give a dog was a beef femur bone. If the bone is sturdy enough to hold up a cow, they are sturdy enough for a dog to chew. So occasionally I began to get marrow bones for Rudy. I would go to the grocery store and have the meat department cut up marrow bones about six inches long. I would take them home and following Pinkwater's instructions would boil them for 20 minutes to kill anything lurking in the raw meat and to make the bones even denser. Then I would wrap them individually in foil and place them in the freezer. Rudy loved these bones and after the initial chew, they would be a permanent addition to his toy box. They would be revisited and chewed again months and even years later.

When we got Emme as a little puppy, I stopped giving Rudy new marrow bones because I did not want Emme to get hold of one. I wanted to wait until she was all grown up. So two marrow bones waited in the freezer for the right time. Well, I decided this past weekend was the right time. Because the bones have a small amount of meat and fat clinging to the outside, I never give them to Rudy inside because of the carpets. I give them to him on the porch at Wooster or on the deck or out in the garage at the lake house. After he has chewed off the outside, they can come inside and they don't make a mess on the carpets.

So the weather was warm this weekend and we were going to the lake. I took these two old, long-frozen bones out of freezer and took them to the lake house. After they thawed, I took a table knife and scraped out the marrow because in the past, too much marrow has made Rudy's stool loose and I didn't want either dog to have a problem. There is still the taste of the marrow inside the bone, but a couple tablespoons of marrow which is essentially fat goes into the garbage.

Ken and I went outside on the deck with a bottle of wine for us and the two thawed, de-marrowed bones for the dogs. Both Emme and Rudy were delighted. They chewed for a long time and really enjoyed themselves. Emme didn't know about these treats and she was impressed with them. After about 45 minutes I picked up the bones, put them in a plastic bag and returned them to the freezer for a return trip when the weather was warm again and they could go out on the deck. Emme was distraught. While we were in the living room, she went to the counter in the kitchen, sat down and whined. She wanted the bone back. It took her a long time to realize that we were done with bones for the day.

As we were sleeping that night, I could hear Emme being very restless. She kept rearranging her blankets and pillow and couldn't settle down. I got up and took her outside to take care of business and then returned to bed. In just a few minutes, Emme got restless again and then went over by Ken's dresser and got sick three times. While I held Emme, Ken went for paper towels and stain remover. Even though I was cautious, the bones were too much of a good thing. Even with the marrow dug out, there must have been enough meat and fat to upset Emme's system. She is used to dry kibble, puppy biscuits, an occasional bite of fruit or vegetable when I am preparing meals and little else. The bone was not something her stomach was used to dealing with. After I cleaned up the bedroom rug, I took Emme to the love seat in the living room and we slept there for about two hours. After I got horribly uncomfortable and my legs were cramped and I was sure Emme was all right, we returned to the bedroom for the rest of the night.

I don't know if I will repeat the bones again. If I do, I will have the butcher cut pieces smaller, about three inches long for Emme, and hope for the best. Emme loved the bones, but I paid dearly for her enjoyment.

Painting the House

2009-02-17T07:14:00.001-05:00

Last week we had painters in the Wooster house to paint the downstairs rooms and our bed room and bath room. We knew that two dogs, three painters and many cans of paint was a disaster waiting to happen so we packed up and went to the lake house for a week while the work was being done.

The dogs never missed a beat. They are so flexible. Where ever Ken and I are, is home. They don't care where they are as long as they are with us. There are many differences for the dogs between the two houses: different food and water dishes, different dog beds, different smells, different yards, and different floor layouts. It doesn't matter to them. When they in Wooster, that is home. When they are in Holmes County, that is home. Truly a case of "Home is where the heart is."

New Lovies

2009-02-16T07:59:00.004-05:00

Last week when I went shopping, I found two Christmas bears marked down to $3.00 each at Marshall's. They are brown bears with wings, angel bears maybe? and each one holding a Christmas wreath. I couldn't pass them up at that price and they came home with me for the dogs. The bears are about the same size as Emme.

Although both dogs went wild with excitement when I brought the bears into the house, Emme quickly got bored with them. A real lovie to Emme is Big Mama Gorilla, nothing else. Rudy on the other hand is in love and he has one or the other with him most of the time. So we left one bear at the lake house and brought the other back with us to Wooster. Now Rudy has an angel bear in each house.

More Fun to Roll than to Stand

2009-02-07T08:15:00.000-05:00

Rudy had a lot of dead hair in his coat after staying at the kennel for a week and a half. Ken wanted to take Rudy to the back yard to brush out some of the hair. Rudy was delighted to go outside, but couldn't resist the snow. As soon as Rudy hit the back yard, he delighted in rolling in the snow. Ken tried valiantly to brush Rudy as he was rolling but it was difficult. It is easier to stand in place when you don't have inches of tempting snow under your paws.

The World is my Popsicle

2009-02-06T07:15:00.000-05:00

Emme loves to eat snow. She especially loves to eat crunchy pieces of ice/snow mix. I am not sure how good ice cold snow is for her stomach, so I try to limit her "natural Popsicles." When we take her outside to do her business, Emme has to spend a great deal of time eating snow before she produces. When she goes outside to play, eating snow takes precedence. Forget the ball; bring on the snow!

She is in heaven with last week's snow fall. It remains on the ground and has melted and frozen into hundreds of little chunks. The whole backyard is Emme's Popsicle.