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Ruff!

Ash Wednesday: Giving Up Barking

I've been such a good dog that dad came back from mass at 7AM to hang out with me for a bit on Ash Wednesday! He even put some of his ashes on my head--but you can barely see them. It also means I can't lick dad on the bald head today!

Today marks the start of Lent and I'm wondering if I should give up barking at other dogs for Lent. That's what Dad would really like. Our trainer friend Laura is coming over soon so I know that the warden is headed back to town soon--so that means I need to straighten up and fly right. And Lent is the perfect time to do that.

Mom and Dad are working hard with me. Dad even taught me to fetch (well OK, I did it twice). But I know a good series of commands now: Sit, Stay, Leave it, Come, Let's go, heel, and sometimes I do lay down.

So 40 days and no barking...let's see how well I do.

I killed your dog and then...

Dad's friend Michelle told him possibly the funniest (yet sad) story about a dog sitter today. This one may top the "My dog is not from Canada" story I blogged here from some time ago.

So a friend asked a another friend to dog sit and she agrees. But then proceeds to forget about the dog sitting for two days. She remembers and runs over the the house immediately and finds the dog in question acting weird and woozy. So she feeds the dog and he's still acting a bit weird. But she doesn't think that he's hurt or sick so she leaves.

She returns the next day and finds the dog dead. OK, now here's the part of the story where I take a moment to say that mom and dad would never have someone this irresponsible taking care of me. Yeesh.

So bad dog sitter lady takes the dog and places him in a box and begins to get on the subway...to cremate him at the humane society since there's no back yard or anything to bury him in. While on the subway a man approaches her and asks her:

"What do you have in that big box?"

Panic ensues: Lady thinks: Maybe I'm not supposed to have a dead animal on the train...I'd better lie.

"It's something electronic." she replies.

The man then proceeds to punch her in the face and steal the box as he runs off the train!

So let's review the course of the events here:

1) Woman forgets her responsibility to dog sit.
2) Dog dies.
3) Not only has this woman killed her friend's dog but NOW, she's lost the dog's body entirely!
4) She's gotten "mugged" and punched in the face.

Try explaining that to the pet's owners.

The moral of the story..if a dog dies and you have to take him to get cremated...take a cab.

Asserting My Dominance

So mom and dad have been ramping up the discipline lately because I've been a bit of a bad dog. I have been barking a lot and haven't been coming when I'm called.

So Mom and Dad escalated their dominance--working with me diligently for 15 minutes a day. Especially mom, whose voice isn't as strong as dad's so she's got a tougher time getting my attention.

So while I've been doing better at listening, I also feel out of sorts. I mean for awhile I was the top dog and now I'm back at the bottom of the pack. It's like when you graduate from 8th grade and then are a lowly high school Freshdog. Not fun.

So I thought I could get my dominance back by marking (that's peeing for you folks who don't speak dog) on the couch. Yeah, that'll show em! Fortunately, mom and dad keep the couch covered so I'm really just peeing on a blanket but they tell me it's still nasty.

Let's just say I'm not their favorite dog right now. I think Lassie and Rin-Tin-Tin might have usurped my popularity in the house alone! Oh well.

Dad's going to work with me until he goes away to Chicago on Monday. Maybe then I can start to have the run of the house again (HONK)! Yikes! That was mom's honking noise that makes me pay attention!

I guess the new sheriff means business!

Get a dog and quit smoking

I have asthma--so I already knew this but anyway..take note cancer stick freaks!
I'm glad dad doesn't smoke because that stuff just stanks and I wouldn't want to get this close to him if he were a smoker. Licking a smokers lips is like sticking your nose in a ashtray.

Anyway--the LA Times agrees with me but what's more is that they think I'm considered a cure for cancer.

Quitting smoking is tough. But if smokers won't do it for their own good, or the benefit of family members, some may do it for their pets, say the authors of a study published today in the journal Tobacco Control.

Secondhand smoke is as dangerous for pets as it is for the non-smoking people who live with smokers. Non-smokers who live with smokers have to worry about the risk of lung cancer and respiratory diseases. But even dogs and cats exposed to secondhand smoke have an increased risk of lung cancer, allergies, eye and skin diseases and respiratory problems. Few smokers realize the health impact on their pets, however, said the authors of the study.

The researchers, from the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, conducted an online survey of 3,300 people, 1 in 5 of whom were smokers and 1 in 4 of whom lived with a smoker. More than one-quarter of the smokers said that knowing that smoking was bad for their pets would motivate them to give it up.

Read more here

So now us dogs can help people quit smoking too--is there anything we can't do?

Also you should know that cigarettes are toxic for us dogs to eat--eating only one to five cigarettes could cause death--so smokers now have a second reason to quit for their pets.

Besides --cigarettes are smelly. When I have an oral fixation I just lick my balls.

Happy BIrthday Daddy!

Today is dad's birthday and I plan to give him a big lick on the nose! He's been so good to me! He's 39 today--the two minute warning of young adult life and doesn't seem depressed about it, but might have some moments of deep discernment about certain things in his life today. So pray for him--as I do today--that he may be happy with all that he has become and understand more clearly all that he is being called to be.

I hope he likes his cake!

Slumdog Millionaire is Awesome

Dad and I watched Slumdog Millionaire in a nice pet-friendly hotel recently and it was absolutely awesome. By far the best movie this dog has seen in some time.

I don't have much of a memory from before mom and dad adopted me, but I think I must've been a street dog at some point. I know intuitively where food is always on the street and I've never met a garbage can I didn't like. Dad too had some meager beginnings in his life, but nothing like folks in the third world do. Dad said the slums pictured in India reminded him of Nicaragua with it's corrugated tin roofs and children smiling and somehow happy. They were ingenious people who struggled but yet always found a way to get by. If any of us were in the situations they are in each day, we'd have a much harder time of it. We have so much to learn from the poor.

Here's Irish director, Danny Boyle with a nice take on the movie.



Go see it. I give it five kibble bowls!