Painting the House

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

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

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

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.

I Don't Do Bandannas

Emme is not used to wearing anything around her neck when she is in the house. When she goes outside, we put on the collar and leash, but when she returns to the house they go in a basket on the porch. With her long hair, we avoid tangles and hair rubbing off by not keeping her collar on 24/7. We also read that you should never put a dog in a crate with a collar on to make sure they never could get caught and choke. So no collar in the house.

When she goes to the groomer, she always returns with a seasonal bandanna around her neck and she is usually insistent that it come off immediately. Today she came home with Valentine's hearts on her bandanna and so far isn't fussing about it. So I quickly took a few pictures. Usually, Emme is insistent that she doesn't do bandannas.

Back to Real Life

We have just returned from vacation. Ken and I spent a week at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina. I took a week-long class in quilting from Mary Lou Weidman from Spokane, Washington, and Ken took a week of Woodturning from Troy Bledsoe from Social Circle, Georgia. We had a wonderful time and I took many photos. This week of school was preceded by a weekend in Asheville, North Carolina, visiting the Biltmore Estate and was followed by a weekend visiting nieces and nephews in Georgia and North Carolina. While we were away, Emme and Rudy went to "Puppy Sleep-Away Camp" for eleven days. Now we are all trying to get back to real life.

The dogs are back at home. Many loads of laundry have been washed, dried, and returned to dressers and the closet. A trip to the grocery store will have to happen tomorrow or we are going to wind up eating canned soup, cereal without milk, or steamed vegetables. The cupboard is pretty much bare.

It didn't take the dogs long to remember all the routines. They remembered better than we did. We picked up the dogs at noon yesterday and by nine o'clock, everyone was ready for bed. So we went upstairs to our bedroom, forgetting about giving Rudy and Emme their "bedtime snack." Rudy has a sensitive stomach and sometimes throws up if his stomach is empty for too long, so we have started holding quarter cup of his evening kibble to give to him just before we go to bed. Well, we forgot last night. But Rudy didn't. We settled into bed and Rudy started whining, propping his chin on the mattress and generally being a nuisance. It took us a while, but we figured out that he was telling us we had forgotten the snack. So all four of us got up. The dogs got their snack. We couldn't give Rudy a snack and leave out Emme, so both dogs get kibble. Then we returned to bed. The dogs remember our routine better than Ken and I do. What does that mean?