Does this dog look crazy or what?

I’m starting to think that my purpose in life is to entertain Sammy. He certainly thinks so! When we get up in the morning, he immediately grabs whatever toy is laying close by and rushes up to me with it, sometimes throwing it at me while he wags his tail and looks expectant (or crazy – see photo). He follows me around the house just in case I suddenly do something fun. When I sit down to put my shoes on he and Molly go crazy. Molly just rushes up and bowls me over while I’m sitting on the stairs lacing my shoes. Sammy runs around throwing his toy or mock-killing it.

I’ve been taking the dogs out in the garden with me while I work and letting them roam free in the big garden complex. Sammy tried to escape a few times but he has settled down now and behaves pretty well. I’ve had to shoo him and Molly out of the beds a few times, and the other day Sammy snuck into the big veggie bed and stole a huge chunk of petrified cow poo compost. Good news is that kept him entertained with vigorous chewing for about an hour, while Molly looked on mournfully. Needless to say, kisses were out that day! Yesterday, after some random stick chewing and tug-of-war with Molly, he suddenly became crazed and ran around the garden like a maniac. Luckily I’ve trained him to stay out of the beds (mostly) so no damage was done.

A couple of times a day I take them out into the backyard for a vigorous came of fetch. Sammy may or may not play along, and Molly could usually not be bothered. She gets excited for a few minutes but quickly settles down to chew on a stick. They’ve been finding all sorts of interesting things to chew on since our roof has been under construction because our builders will throw things off the roof and clean up at the end of the day. I’m sure Sammy has had his fill of foam insulation.

I don’t really mind being a dog wrangler because I also get to be a dog cuddler. Molly will cuddle anywhere, anytime, probably because she’s knows what it’s like to be in dog prison (the shelter). Sammy takes a little more convincing. I’ll call him over to me and he walks over with his head hanging down like I’m going to beat him. I’ll never understand this since he’s been pampered by us since he was 3-1/2 months old. Sometimes he voluntarily comes over and put his paw up on my lap and lets me pick him up for a good cuddle. He just doesn’t like admitting he has a soft, gooey center!

The other funny thing that happened recently is that I found Sammy’s old leg bone Kong toy (the new one is pictured above) sitting on the other side of our road, across from our driveway. This thing has been MIA for months, and suddenly one day there it is, sitting there like he dropped it the day before. Too weird! It’s now a garden toy…

We’ve had some challenges with Molly lately, the first being that she had a sudden flare-up of an ear infection that required emergency care. Once we got that under control, she injured one of her legs jumping into the back of the truck. Luckily, one of our friends is a vet who does chiropractic, cranio-sacral work, acupuncture and homeopathy. Molly got an appointment with her yesterday, which helped a lot, and she’ll be getting a homeopathic work-up soon to deal with a deep-seated systemic infection that anti-biotics haven’t touched, and that she’s probably had since before we got her.

I think the hard part for me when an animal gets sick is they can’t actually tell you how they feel. It would be the same for a baby or toddler who can’t talk yet – how do you know what to do? I guess the key is to get the right kind of help and stay positive and never give up. My sister is my hero because she’s gone through some serious illnesses with two of her kids. They are doing great now and she never stopped projecting a positive attitude, no matter how scary it got. I’m in the minor leagues when it comes to that because I’ve only had pets, not kids.

With all the attention being on Molly lately, Sammy’s been a bit jealous and acting out. I took the dogs out in the pasture with me the other day while gardening and I had Sammy secured to a tree on a tie-out line. This was after he had already snapped his leather lead chasing the neighbor’s dogs. Once I got him tied up again I started doing my work, and my husband drove up in our big pickup after going to get a load of compost. Well, Molly took off to greet him and Sammy took off right after her, forgetting (or not caring) that he was still tied up. I saw it all happen from a distance and couldn’t stop it – Sammy reached the end of his line and jerked himself off his feet. He flipped in the air and slipped right out of his harness and ran up to greet his papa. I think this guy is going to need a chirpractic tune-up with the vet!

Sammy keeping an eye on the backyard.

Sammy’s big brother Charlie taught him a lot in the six months they were together. One of the things he taught Sammy was how to conduct a security patrol.

When we first moved here, Charlie was our only dog and we didn’t have a fenced backyard. We weren’t too worried about it because Charlie never roamed very far and always came back. When we would go out in the hot tub, Charlie used to sit at the corner of the house, on alert, at a spot where he could see the driveway approach and the whole back of the property, protecting us while we were tubbing. He was such a great dog….

Well, after we got Cowboy Joe the Great Escape Artist, we had to fence part of the back. Joe used to dig under the fence, find holes to go through and one “last straw” day he actually sailed over the top. From then on, my goal was to contain at least one dog (Charlie) so they wouldn’t run off together for hours. In any case, Charlie started to perimeter patrol every night, running around the whole fenced area before coming in for the night.

I think Charlie saw it as his job to teach Sammy the basics, as Sammy now does the same thing.  Charlie also used to sit just where Sammy is sitting in the picture above, on the top step of the back deck, with his front legs on the step below. For me, having Sammy takes a little bit of the hurt out of losing Charlie.

Our big, beautiful Charlie on watch.

You’ve probably seen your dog do this…The Roll of Joy. I wish I had a picture or video to post but it’s an elusive moment that I haven’t been able to capture on camera yet. Usually it’s done on the grass, that wonderful, twisty dance on the back that dogs like to do. Charlie used to do it with a stick in his mouth, which we called The Roll of Joy With Stick. Sammy doesn’t do the roll very often for some reason. Maybe because his hair is really short and he doesn’t shed much. Molly, however, is a master at this.

In the winter, she’ll run outside (not on leash since she’s a good girl), grab a mouthful of snow and crunch it up, then roll on her back. Snow, ice, it doesn’t matter. In fact, I think she prefers ice. She’ll find an icy slope of snow that has built up around the house, roll on her back and slide down the slope head first! Someday I will get a video of this. Last year we got two feet of snow in one day, so we had a huge pile of snow in the front yard from all the snow that we shoveled off the walk and that came off the roof. For a few months, until it melted, Molly had the perfect icy slide for her unique Slide of Joy. It was about a five-foot long icy slope and when she landed at the bottom she’d squirm around for a few minutes looking very happy.

Horses also do the Roll of Joy, and the most amazing thing I ever saw was a giant Belgian draft horse doing it in our pasture. We had a logger guy here to take care of about 50 trees that blew down in a windstorm shortly after we moved in. Instead of letting a logging operation go in and tear up the forest, we hired this guy who used two draft horses to pull the logs through the woods to our driveway, where we had them milled. He left the horses in our pasture overnight so he wouldn’t have to keep carting them back and forth, and one day I looked out and saw this huge horse doing exactly what the dogs do. It was incredible!

Maybe when it thaws I’ll try the Roll of Joy for myself….

I love Kong dog toys. They’re red, so they’re easy to spot in the woods and in the snow. They’re rubber so they are fairly durable and you don’t have to keep buying them every week. But, they’re not indestructible. Case in point is the ball at right, which used to be round. Sammy has been working on it over the past two and a half years, taking it apart one chunk at a time. Most of the time I’m able to pick up the little chunks and throw them away so he doesn’t swallow them. Other times, I’m sure he’s had interesting-looking poops!

When we first got Sammy, I bought all kinds of toys that were supposed to be tough and indestructible. He tore all of them apart within hours. The Kong is the only thing that has given him pause. He used to have a bone-shaped Kong, but he ate the ends off of it and then it disappeared in the woods. There are actually 4 of the round Kong balls in the woods surrounding our house. Sammy and Charlie ran off with them and then dropped them out there. Someday maybe we’ll get them back. For the record, the woods in our neighborhood are also hiding: one frisbee, one dog vest, and one dog bootie.

Charlie was famous for losing his Kong balls. Once we took him to California and were playing on the beach. We had just bought him two new round Kong balls. He took one and dropped it at the water’s edge. The ocean came and took it. Stupid me, I threw him the other one. He dropped it at the water’s edge and the ocean came and took it. Oh well.

The only Kong that Sammy hasn’t been able to tear up is the large, bulbous one (I don’t know what that shape is called). It’s his favorite because it’s oddly shaped, and when you throw it it bounces in terribly interesting ways. Molly is only interested in the Kong when Sammy has it in his mouth, because then she can play tug-of-war with him. It’s pretty hilarious to see them lip-to-lip, their snouts mashed together while they try to get the other one to drop the ball!

You gotta love these faces!

After the first day of the two-dog cuddle, Sammy and Molly decided it should be like that every day. Gulp! After the second day, I had to nip that in the bud right away, and did I ever get the look from Molly! When I told her she couldn’t come up with Sammy, she looked at me like I hadn’t fed her in a week.

Speaking of which, these crazy dogs get really worried if they don’t get their breakfast on time. I try not to feed them at the same time each day just for that very reason, but if I go much past 11am, they start to follow me around looking mournful. Today, Sammy literally followed me everywhere and stood right next to me until the meat I was thawing for them was soft enough to feed to them. Have I ever not fed them? Sheesh!

The cats just sit in the kitchen and meow, because they know I can’t stand the noise, so they usually get their way. [Of course we get our way! I am the boss of you! ~ Boots] If I don’t feed Little Miss quickly enough, though, she just goes out and hunts. She’s pretty self-sufficient.