Our Dog Bed Collection

We've got several dog beds spread out around the house from all sorts of places.  Honestly, Annie and Paul are allowed to sit where ever they'd like because they're in the house more than we are (think about it, we go to work, they stay home)  So we've amassed a collection of dog beds that are everywhere for them to sleep on.

     Let's start in their room.  We have 3 different places for them to sleep.  On the far right edge, you can see the full sized mattress and box spring with a gray fitted sheet.  Then there's the supper thick dog bed that I re-covered and the thiner dog bed that was on sale.  Behind both of these and against the wall, there are 2 pillow cases that I stuffed with stuffing from a craft store and sewed them closed.  And that's just the beginning.

I know the quality of this picture is rotten, but you've got the idea.  The IKEA couch is fair game.  The slip covers come off and are easily washed.  Next time I choose slip covers however, I'm going for a more dog friendly color (thinking gray).  The black shows white and brown dog hair like crazy.  

Any time we're home and not sleeping, our bed is fair game.  Annie and Paul have spent a number of hours curled up sleeping, bugging me as I type, or just watching the world go by out the front window of our room from our bed.  We tried sleeping in the bed with them when we first adopted them, but after a week of me in bed with A&P and the Hubbs moving to the couch at 3 am, we nixed that idea.

When Annie joined our family, I crafted a huge pillow to sit in this window since she liked to sit in this window and look out.  Paul ate it the first week he lived with us.  Even though I don't craft as much as I'd like, any fabric, yarn, stuffing, or anything else I need to store is tossed into these large storage bins. I made the pillow on top of here for Annie and Paul to sit on when they look at the back yard and bark at the cats and squirrels.  

After several years of looking at Ms. M and Mr. B's Molly Mutt beds, we splurged this winter and bought one each for Annie and Paul.  Mr. Roboto is on the left and sits in the living room next to my desk.  Paul's other bed had been replaced in his cave by the title track.  

I love my Mommy! (life according to Paul)

    I love my Mommy!  She bakes me cookies, and picks up my poo, buys me squeaky toys, and walks me (and gives me CHEESE!!).  She gives me bully sticks, and snuggles with me.  I spent last night sleeping on her feet because I didn't have to sleep in my room.  She's been kind of nervous lately.  So I've gotten lots of pets.  And last week, Annie got a bath and I didn't!  So I'm still her big, slobbering, stinky teddy bear!  

On the Road

We didn't go far, just to the dog mall, but, as always, Annie and Paul watched where we were headed.  And took a few moments to just watch the world go by.

 

Dognomics: Comparative Advantage

The comparative advantage is when you use what you're good at to work.  "What do the dogs do better than any other pets?" is the basic question for comparative advantage.  And there's a pretty simple solution: give affection.  No matter what type of day I've had, no matter how much work I still have to do when I get home.  No matter how long I've been gone (taking out recycling v. school day v. trip) they're always happy to see me again.

Paul's "Cave"

 The Hubbs has a juicer and a rice cooker that have been sitting on the kitchen table for a while.

Everyone needs their own private island, right?

Last week, I bought a small kitchen island for the Hubbs from a friend of ours.  So the small appliances have been moved to their own island.

But now I'm realizing that I don't know where to put the kitchen table.  I pushed it into the corner of my  room, and it sits over Paul's bed in my room.  (Paul tends to hang out there when I'm cooking or doing laundry.)  It took me about 20 minutes to get Paul to go to his bed, and I did it by stretching out on his bed to snuggle with him and give him a bully stick.  But now, when I give him any treat, he goes right to his bed and seems to love his new cave.

My cave!  

Dognomics: Substitution Effect

     The substitution effect talks about what you do when you don't do the "normal" thing.  ( I heard a report on it on Friday morning on NPR about the NHL and the substation effect there)  For Annie and Paul, it tends to take effect when we leave them alone during the day. Most times, it's Kongs stuffed with peanut butter, but about once a month, I discover we're out of peanut butter.  Out come the bully sticks for them to chew on.
     Annie and Paul are fed 2 meals a day.  At each meal, they get at least half a cup of dry kibble and then something else mixed in.  (Yogurt, canned pumpkin, pureed green beans, rice, and chicken broth have all found their way into their diet.)  And depending on what the budget is for the week also kind of helps to dictate what else they'll be eating beyond kibble.

Today's substation is Chicken Broth!

You know you're a dog's mom when......

     You get all the way into school and hang up your coat before you realize the poop bag dispenser is still attached to you.   Instead of wearing a poop bag dispenser all day, I took a picture of it on my counter top and tossed it into my purse.  The key for my classroom we clipped onto my hip and the day began.

Exhausted: Wordless Wednesday

 

I've had a crazy long day with at least an hour extra of driving.    So you have 2 pics of Annie and Paul stretched out chilling.  Which is what I'm doing at the moment.  Happy Wednesday!

Dognomics: Resource Scarcity

There is only so much sauce in the spaghetti container that either Annie or Paul can eat so there are 3 ways that sauce can be rationed out for them. 

1) First come, first serve: We finish the spaghetti, and whistle and who ever come running gets to eat the spaghetti sauce.  Since Paul is so nervous about coming up to the hubs, Annie usually gets the most food that way.

2) Second is by lottery.  We get a coin and assign heads to Paul and tails to Ms. Butt (get it: butt, tails?  Anyhow) We flip the coin and whatever side the coin lands on, we award the spaghetti sauce to them?

3) Third is by auction.  We can call over both Annie and Paul and say, who ever gives the most kisses to the mom gets this spaghetti sauce.  So Annie would offer 4 sniffles and a kiss.  Paul, since he’s much more loving, would offer a million kisses to the Mom!  Since obviously, a million is more than 1, Paul would get the spaghetti sauce that way.  

Walking the Pups

     While we're lucky enough to have a yard, we don't have it fenced in.  Next to our house is a 4 lane road that is quite busy all times of the day and night, so letting Annie and Paul off leash in our yard is out of the question.

     Each morning and evening, on go the leashes and our fall gear and we go walking.  It's not too bad right now, the highs are in the 50's and it's still sunny out.  Annie and Paul get to walk about 4 miles a day.  They get out of the house, and stretch their legs, and the Hubbs and I get happier pups as a result.

     

Annie Says: Mean, Evil Mom

     The Annie would like to inform everyone that her Mom is Mean and Evil.  Why does she say this?  Mom is Mean because she made The Annie put on a Coat!

     The Annie would like to state that mom is Evil because she didn't bring any Cheese with her on the walk this evening when she made The Annie put on a coat!


     And to prove once and for all that Mom is really Mean and Evil to The Annie, Look at the coat my brother is wearing!  It's the same one!  And he's happy about it!!!!!

Look what Mommy put on me!  Aren't I handsome?

*Annie's mom would like to state just for the record that I'm also Evil and Mean to the kids at school.  I make them put on their coats when we're waiting for their busses to show up in the cold rain.*

Dognomics: The Law of unintended consequences

      I've mentioned before that I've started using cheese as the treat of training for Annie and Paul.  In the evenings, when the hubbs is at class, I cut up some cheese before I take them out for their evening walks and work on training.  (sit, stay, leave it, come)  Annie now knows the word "Cheese" and will stop whatever it is she's doing and run to me when she hears me say it.  As soon as she gets to me, she sits and looks at me while I'm holding the piece of cheese.

     Here's the Dognomics: the "Law of Unintended Consequences."  After a few weeks of sit and look at me, Annie has decided that any time her butt hits the cold concrete and she looks at me, she deserves cheese for doing this.  It suddenly doesn't matter if I've asked her to sit, or leave something else that's appetizing alone.  This is no longer just the reward for going through grass (something Annie hates to do for reasons I don't understand).  She has gotten to the point, she's now an anchor when we're walking.  I've tried tugging gently, staring off into space not looking at her, and picking her up to get her to move.  (70 pounds of dog mean I'm getting more of a workout than I bargained for.)
     I intended the cheese to be enough of a reward to encourage her to do what I wanted her to do, but now I find i'm being slightly trained by my own dog...........oie vey!
     

Friday Shopping

Nope, Annie and Paul didn't come shopping with me today (not a dog friendly store this time), but they woke up to come see what I was eating at 2 am before I headed out for a bit of shopping.

 

 


And for anyone who is wondering why I went out at 2 and not 12:

A couple of extra hours of sleep, not nearly the number of crazy people, and I could park within 100 yards of the store I wanted (instead of walking from a quarter mile away).
  Happy Friday All!

No Baths!

     Thanksgiving is an interesting holiday for the Hubbs and I.  It's the holiday when most people look at us like we're nuts because we're not up to our eyes in travel and family.  Last year, we repainted and rewired the electrical sockets in the living room.  This year: retiling the bathtub!

    See that large rectangle of duct tape behind Paul in the bath tub?  It's going away!  As we bring all of the tile down, put up new board behind the tub, and retile.  Thanksgiving dinner will be Moussaka from the Greek food festival a few weeks ago (they were selling it frozen to store and bake at Thanksgiving Day, sounds like a plan to me!).
     If Annie and Paul understood me singing to them, "No baths, no baths, no baths soon!" I'm sure they'd be spinning in circles of shear joy!  Part of the reason we're doing this over Thanksgiving break is because we both have 4 days off from school and not really anywhere to be.  So if we don't shower for a day or 2 as we retile, whose going to know (it's not like you can smell me out there in Blog land!)
   So Blog land, the next time you hear from us, hopefully we'll have a little less duct tape in our lives!

Talking to the Dogs: Economic theory

     When I saw the post the other day from 2 Pitties in the City, I realized how much the Hubbs and I talk to Annie and Paul.  The Hubbs is in a graduate program for Economics, what I understand about Economics, you could fit on the back of a postage stamp (if you could find a postage stamp, but that's another conversation for another day.)  So, often, Economic theroy is discussed with Annie.
     Annie and the Hubbs walk together (she is such a Daddy's Girl) and when she decides to do something, the Hubbs starts in with Economic theory.
Annie: *Sniffs at old bone on ground*
Hubbs: "Annie, are the marginal benefits greater than the marginal costs?"
Annie: *Starts to pick up bone off of ground.*
Hubbs: "Annie, No!"  *Reaches into Annie's mouth and pulls out the bone*
Annie: *Gives sad puppy eyes to Daddy*
Hubbs: "Annie, the marginal cost is my hand in your mouth pulling out the bone.  The marginal benefit is the bone in your mouth for 3 seconds.  The marginal benefit isn't worth the marginal cost!"
Annie: *Gives sad puppy eyes to Daddy*
Hubbs: *in high pitched voice meant to be Annie speaking* "But you didn't let me taste it long enough to know if it was worth it."
Hubbs: *In normal voice* Annie, but the bone is old and doesn't have any meat on it, plus it will make you throw up at home.
Thus ends a lesson of Dognomics.......

The Cat (Purple)

     Our neighbors have been feeding a stray cat in our neighborhood for several months now, and their granddaughter has named the cat Purple.  (She's a pre-school aged kiddo, so I'm not about to argue the name.)  On their "best days" Paul has never liked Purple, despite Purple meowing at Paul as if to say, "Friends?"

     A few days ago, I heard Paul going nuts at the window.  Not the usual, "I'm the dog in charge here, so keep moving!" bark he sends to people walking past, but an all out "Get out of my yard, NOW!!!" bark.   I listened to it for a moment, thinking he'd stop in a moment as soon as whatever he was barking at moved on.  When he got more insistent in barking, I jumped up to see, "what the heck is happening?"

   If you look about a 1/3 of the way down the picture, you'll see an orange and white cat in the tree.  Purple seems to enjoy chasing the birds in the tree and trying to get his dinner the old fashioned way.  Check out Paul's nose prints, slobber marks, and steam marks on the bottom 1/3 of the window!  This makes me quite happy we bought the triple ply glass  when we replaced the windows in the house.  

The Looks

     The looks I get when I eat are horrible.  The Hubbs right now has night classes 3 days a week.  So that means 3 days a week, I'm sitting at home eating dinner and getting these looks.

     Never mind that there's water in their water dishes, food in their food bowls, as well as some canned pumpkin, and white rice.  The home made macaroni and cheese in my bowl is much more appealing.  

Pills (How Annie and Paul take them)

     Neither Annie nor Paul is good at taking pills, but I seem to have found a fun way to eat them.  I made home made macaroni and cheese and put the 1 Benadryl into each pill.  

Farewell sweet Cooper

     Among our many friends when we visit the Dog Mall, are Cooper, Foster, and Snowball.  We met their Vrouwtje (Mom Jeanine) and Baasje (Dad Chris) at Stoney Point Fashion Park a few years ago.  Jeanine and Chris would have a table with the computers out.  Cooper and Foster would chill out and greet each person and dog that past; Snowball sitting in her red wagon.  

Photo by Chris and Jeanine

     Last year, they said good by to Snowball after her long battle with cancer.  A few short months later, Cooper was diagnosed with cancer.  They've battled it for over a year with chemo.

     Tonight, Jeanine and Chris said farewell to Cooper.  Have a safe trip to the Rainbow Bridge Cooper, find Snowball and enjoy playing with her.  And always remember, you're a good, sweet boy.

    

Annie Eats her Veggies (sort of)

      Annie and Paul both eat their fair share of grass.  They don't go for the "nicely taken care of" lawns with chemicals added, but the scraggly looking grass on the poorly taken care of lawns (we fit into the 2nd category for a reason.).  Annie was bugging The Hubbs for some of his salad the other night.

    Annie takes the lettuce and carrots, licks the spicy dressing off, and spits the veggies out......onto the Hubbs blue jeans.  *Sigh*

The Dance of the Puppies

     The Hubbs and I spent over an hour yesterday standing in line to vote.  When I got home (tele-comute day, yea!), and the dance the pups did is pictured below.

New Dog Bed Cover: why I don't craft as much as I'd like

     Don't ask me why, but I love making stuff from scratch and figuring it out.  I may not do the same project more than once (because, lets face it, for some of them, once is enough) but I love looking at something and trying to figure out how to make it.
     Someone along the line posted on a blog a no sew tie cover for their dog bed.  I know how to make the no sew blankets, so I thought, "this'll be an easy craft one evening."  I bought the fleece one night on the drive home and arrived home ready to cover Paul's favorite dog bed.

   After I pushed the coffee table out of the way, Paul made himself comfortable on the first layer of the no sew blanket.  I think he thought that was all I was doing this evening: just putting down a blanket for him to sit on.  Then came his dog bed.

     Can anyone else hear him saying, "But Mommy, what are you doing?  It's my bed!" in a winy puppy voice?  I can't help but laugh at how sad and pouty he looks in this picture.

But it's mine Mommy!

Photo by The Hubbs.

     Paul even tried to sit on his bed while I was putting straight pins into the fabric.  Somewhere along the line, Paul got the hint that I wasn't giving up/stopping just because he was sitting on his bed and he left me alone long enough to tie up the sides of his bed.

 

     Paul seems to enjoy the new cover on his bed and has decorated it with slobber already.  You don't have to straight pin this for it to work, but I find it's a bit easier when Paul's "helping" me craft to pin things into place.   Over all, it wasn't a bad project for an evening.

Wordless Wednesday

 We spent most of Sandy just hanging around the house.  Annie and Paul weren't too impressed by the fact that I couldn't turn off the rain or that they had to do their business in the yard in the rain.  (They, like Melvin, kept giving me a look saying they could hold it or go to the bathroom in the house.)  The lights only flickered for a moment, but it was no where near what was being called for in our area.