December 3, 2007
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Baron and the Pillow Fight, another stray is found and other insignificant news
Baron continues to be a source of both frustrations and amusement. He has been very bad about jumping up on people so we have taken another tack since the most frequently used methods by trainers have not worked (block with knee, rolled up paper, etc.). We decided it’s time to grab his collar when he starts it and make him sit and calm down. We know he only jumps up when he’s excited but he has to learn that this is NOT acceptable to us. We had to do it three or four times yesterday (Sunday) afternoon but it seems to be working much better than any other method. We shall see.
Another funny thing that happened was that Baron apparantly has decided that pillow fights are acceptable play here. He saw the Beast and I throwing pillows at each other the other day and knew by our laughter that this was OUR play. He decided he was going to do the same thing when he wanted to play and we had not reacted to it. He seems to want to play just when you get busy doing other things.
When we did not react and I went into the bedroom to make our bed, he grabbed a pillow and really tried to hit me with it (as he had seen me do to the Beast). I swear, I could see him winding up. I had told him *No, Baron* when he went to *throw* it at me and I heard a *riiiiiiiip* and suddenly there were feathers flying in the air. It figures that he would grab the oldest feather pillow we own and I had noticed the fabric was getting a bit thin. That will show me that I should get a new pillow or a zip cover when I first see it.
As the feathers flew, Baron’s mouth actually dropped open and he acted like this was a fascinating new toy. He had feathers on him and started bouncing on the bed and trying to catch the feathers in his mouth. I heard the *click, click* of his teeth while I was trying to grab his collar and get him off the bed so the feathers could settle. It’s a bit hard when you are laughing and angry at the same time but what did he know? I brushed off the feathers and kenneled him so I could let the feathers settle, gather them up and put them into the pillowcase then remove the offending pillow to a safe place until I could deal with it. He is not allowed in the bedroom any more while I am changing linens and making the bed for obvious reasons. We have a LOT of feather pillows in this house and I do not want to go through THAT again!
My sister says it’s our karma but another stray/lost/abandoned dog found it’s way to us a couple days ago. We found out later than she and another litter mate had been dropped off and abandoned a day or two before the Beast found her. She was laying in the field nearby, crying and shaking. She was so pitiful. We think she is only 8-9 weeks old and she’s a gorgeous little thing. This time, since we know she was abandoned (her litter mate was taken home by a neighbor), we found a local shelter that doesn’t euthanize animals unless they have been there for months. She is adorable and looks like a purebred terrier of some kind. It’s familiar to both the Beast and me but we can’t put our fingers on the breed. We think someone will see her and adopt her. She is too young to be around Baron who plays too rough for her (and is too darn big to play with her so we keep them separated). Today she will make the trip with the Beast to the shelter in Arab and we have some dog food, paper towels and a few other things on their *wish list* to donate to them. They said that they would notify us if no one adopted her in a reasonable amount of time. My niece, Tara, said she thought she was adorable and would love to take her home but her lease says no animals. I told her she had enough on her plate keeping body and soul together and feeding her four kids and we all laughed at that since she often complains about how expensive it is with having to buy pull-ups for one child and disposable diapers for the baby. The baby will be 1 year old shortly. Hard to believe it. Time really DOES fly and it seems to fly faster the older you get.
It looks like we will be making the trip to Port Charlotte for the closing on our house. It means spending a week (Baron and me) at the Beast’s aunt’s house there. THAT makes me nervous because her house is more like a knick knack shop than a house, if you know what I mean. I am hoping that she will be home by then so I don’t have to stock up her fridge and freezer for while I am there BEFORE the Beast makes his trip over to Ft Lauderdale to do some consulting work for a long-time client of his from when we owned our AC business. He figures it will more than pay for our trip down there.
Ordinarily, I would go with him and stay at Sister C’s house for the time he was doing his consulting. They supply a place for him to stay so he doesn’t have to do much driving there (and the traffic is just horrible but especially bad for him with some of his afteraffects of the strokes). But…with having Baron with us, it’s impossible for me this time. He’s too big and still too much of a puppy. With her hubby still recovering from major back surgery and not being steady on his feet at times, I wouldn’t even think of taking the chance. And Baron is now close to 60 lbs but still looks thin. I think he’s just growing so fast, we can’t bulk him up. He burns up a lot of energy at the parks we take him to so that he can run and play. He loves one park in particular because of the ducks there. He just loves to chase them and, I swear, the ducks know that he’s really not trying to catch them because they don’t fly far and they seem to take turns enticing him. Maybe they like the exercise too.
You can tell this area is not used to snow during the winter because the weatherman was discussing how a half-inch of snow shuts the cities down (schools close, more accidents from the people not knowing how to deal with driving in the stuff, etc.). Then he asks the other news people if they know the record snowfall for this area. I almost died to hear it was 17-and-a-half inches!!!! It was, however, in the 1950′s (phew) and hasn’t been more than a half-inch since then. With our luck, this is the season that will see that record matched or exceeded. Just watch this space for that information later on this winter.
Baron has also started to realize that my computer/craft room if off limits to him unless I invite him in here. In fact, he actually resisted coming in the first time I invited him. It was really funny. I had to take his collar and tug it to make him realize that it WAS an invitation to come in. The Beast needed him kept out of the rest of the house when he removed the little female puppy from the kennel she was in so he could put her in the garage temporarily.
We had the smaller kennel out there, complete with blanket and an oversized pillow. We had also covered it to protect her from drafts although she seems to have a good, thick coat on her. We suffer from empathy and hate the cold so we didn’t want to take any chances. The Beast put the heat on out there set at 65 degrees so that it wouldn’t be TOO cold for her. The covering over the kennel was to protect her from drafts. *sigh* Maybe it is our karma.
God sends the helpless to people like us says my sister. She might just be right. I guess I should get used to it. There might be another couple of strays/lost/abandoned animals in our future because we have a lot of puppy food in this separate bag that we used for Patches. If the amount still in it is any indication, we definitely have a few more in our future. *sigh*Well, I have to get dressed and make a trip to the post office before the Beast takes the puppy to the shelter. I am out of stamps and have a few bills to mail out plus my Christmas cards. Yes, I actually got those done over the weekend. *grin*
Have a great week and a wonderful day today. May your weather be mild and your life happy. Love you all.
