Kangaroo Dog

Emme is in love with life and without being too obnoxious about it, she is excited about every part of her day. She is so excited to get up in the morning. When she sees Ken, she is so happy, she wiggles every part of her body. When I pet her, she enjoys it so much she moans.

Rudy on the other hand is much more laid back. There are two times however that he gets so excited he hops up and down like a kangaroo: when he is about to get food and when we are getting ready for a ride in the car. When Ken brings in dinner, Rudy gets so excited that he hops up and down as Ken is putting his food on the floor. Rudy doesn't jump up on anyone, he just hops up and down in place. It is like an 80 pound Labrador retriever has discovered some kangaroo genes. When we are getting ready for a ride in the car, he is so excited, he hops up and down all the way from the kitchen, through the laundry to the garage door. Some things are just too exciting.

Darling Clementine

Emme never begs at the table because we have never given her food from the table, ever. That is she never begged at the table until a few days ago.

Neither Emme nor Rudy get tastes of human food from our table. But when I am preparing food in the kitchen I always have two buddies with me. Both Emme and Rudy lie on the floor, doing a good "Down Stay" and after I have finished preparing food, I often give them tastes of fruit and vegetables. I am careful to give them only small pieces of carrots, green peppers, apples, bananas, grape tomatoes, cucumber. I never give them grapes, raisins or chocolate or anything that could be a danger to them. They seem to have this all figured out: tastes in the kitchen before meals, nothing from the table when people are eating. Until lately.

Recently, Emme got a taste of a Clementine and fell in love with them. The next day when we were eating a snack of Clementines at the kitchen table, Emme came up to the table, took one whiff, and whined, loud and long. She never begged at the table before. Maybe she didn't realize how good people food could be. She didn't get any taste of Clementine from the table and she hasn't begged since. Even the best doggy manners have their limit and I think that limit was passed with the smell of Darling Clementines.

Sleeping in with the Girls

Usually Ken and Rudy get up about 6 o'clock and Emme and I sleep in until 6:30. When "the girls" get up, the house is warm and the coffee is made.

Yesterday morning, Rudy decided that he wanted to sleep in with the girls. Ken got up as usual and after he left the bathroom, he called Rudy to go downstairs. Still tired from all the Christmas festivities, Rudy decided to stay sleeping in the bedroom. Ken went downstairs by himself and Rudy waited and came downstairs a half hour later with Emme and me. Rudy is no fool. Sometimes it is better to sleep in with the girls than to get up early to a cold house.

Merry Christmas

Yesterday we had a wonderful Christmas day and the dogs were really good. It was a smaller group than usual, just eight of us: Ken and me, his parents, one of his sisters and her husband, and another brother and his girlfriend. The married children (son and nieces) all had other commitments and did not travel to Wooster this year.

As usual, when people came to the door, both dogs had to bark and act generally crazy. Ken put Rudy on a leash and I held Emme for the first few minutes. Then we let them go to say hello. Both dogs went from visitor to visitor to get petted and then they settled down quickly (the dogs, not the visitors). The rest of the day, Rudy and Emme were on their best behavior. There were presents and food all over the house. Neither dog got into anything they shouldn't. They visited, got played with, and most of all, got petted. They didn't steal any presents, eat any "people" food or knock over any drinks. They couldn't have been better behaved.

After the family left, the dogs both laid down on the rug and fell asleep. They were absolutely exhausted. Being good is a hard job and yesterday they did it well.

One Sick Puppy

Emme has been sick and although she is well now, the experience has been disconcerting. A little over a week ago, she just stopped eating. She spent almost all her time napping. She wanted to be held or to lie on our legs. She was not herself.

When meal time came, she stayed in the living room rather than running into the kitchen to watch meal preparation. She refused tastes of Rudy's cheese and she wouldn't touch her kibble. Finally, we got scared that she was eating nothing and both Ken and I took turns sitting on the floor, feeding her one kibble at a time. With that, she ate some, but not all of her food. Her behavior was so unusual, no playing, no chewing, no "blitzing." We knew something was going on, but could not put our finger on what it was. She smelled "sour," not at all like a normal Emme smell. Ken would look at her big black eyes and declare that Emme had "sad eyes."

On the third day, we took her to the vet who examined her all over and could find nothing wrong. Her mouth had no sores; her teeth were fine; her lymph nodes were good; her temperature was normal. We decided to just "watch and wait." Well, we watched her getting sicker. We added a quarter of a Pepcid tablet twice a day in case it was an acid stomach. We mixed a tiny amount of tuna with her kibble to make it more attractive. She began throwing up each afternoon and then she turned a corner. She started to eat again. She began to play and she seemed more normal. Now ten days later, she is well. She is eating and playing as if nothing was ever wrong.

So we don't know what was the matter. She was one sick puppy for a while and now she is well. I don't want to repeat this again.

Scary Smart

Both Emme and Rudy are smart dogs. They observe and pick up things that are uncanny.

They both have a sense of time that is amazing. They always know when it is time to eat or go to bed. It is a good thing that we are creatures of habit. They know the exact order of things at their meal time. They know which dogs gets which pills, before and after the meal.

When Ken and I are getting ready to leave the house, they know that we are leaving, because they recognize click the lock on the back door makes. They hear that sound and they both run to their crates with no command from us. Rudy knows that he is going for a ride in the car if we leave his collar on after he has gone outside to "hurry up." If we take them out in the car, both dogs know when we are arriving home. Rudy recognizes the bumps on Oak Hill before we even get to our street. He gets excited and stands up eager to get home. Emme recognizes the house as we enter the garage. She tries to stand on my lap and look into the garage. They both know the exact routine we follow before we go upstairs to bed.

But recently Rudy has outdone himself. When I am finished playing my Nintendo DS and shut down the machine, it plays the same ending music. Rudy has learned to recognize the music and knows that I am ending my game and will be going on to do other things. He jumps up and is eager to participate in whatever comes next. So I decided to get around this by turning the sound off. Now when I am ending the game there is no music to clue Rudy. Instead he has learned to listen for the sound of the stylus clicking in place in the side of my DS as I finish playing. So now he gets all excited when he hears the stylus click into place. Scary smart!

The Quilt Gene

Emme loves quilts. This weekend Ken wondered how God knew to give Emme a quilt gene so she would fit in this family so well. When Emme sees a quilt, she dashes to it to lie down on top of it. If one of us puts a quilt over our legs, Emme wants to be on top of our legs and the quilt. Emme loves to find a quilt abandoned on a couch or chair. She like nothing better than to snuggle down into it. And heaven is when someone walks over and covers her with part of the quilt. Life is good.

Emme, Come

Emme has a disconcerting habit. When I can't see her and call "Emme, come" she interprets this a command to freeze in place. She doesn't come. She doesn't make a sound. She just waits. She usually follows one of us everywhere and so over time we have shut her in our bedroom closet after getting dressed, left her out in the garage after we have taken out the garbage, and shut her out on the porch after we have taken the dogs outside. When we realize that she in not by one of us and we call, "Emme, come." She is absolutely quiet. So we have to do a search and find. We comb the house and she waits silently. She doesn't come; she doesn't make a sound; she just waits.

This morning we were clearing the dining room table, washing the breakfast dishes, taking out garbage and bringing the Christmas tree upstairs from the basement. I went upstairs to check my email and Ken remained on the first floor. Then we realized that Emme was not with either of us. Of course, I called "Emme, come." Sometimes I can be a slow learner. Of course, she froze in place and didn't make a sound. So Ken and I searched the house and garage. Finally we found Emme sitting on the seat of my chair at the dining room table just waiting for us to find her.

We need a new system.