Showing posts with label BBFOF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BBFOF. Show all posts
Live and Let Mud
Today at the park, Buzz lost his head
No not literally, but figuratively. You see, I have always let Buzz play in the mud pools on this particular hike because there is a lake where he can rinse off. He really likes to play in the mud and I like to see him happy, plus, a little mud isn’t going to hurt him.
Well today, Buzz did more than his typical stroll through the mud pool. He…well…just look…
Here’s a close up on that last image:
Can you see his collar there? Towards the bottom of the image? Yeah? Still need help figuring out what is going on? Well, he’s laying on his side in the mud and pushing his head under the mud. Let me repeat that: HE’S LYING ON HIS SIDE IN THE MUD AND PUSHING HIS HEAD UNDER THE MUD.
That mud is farm mud, by the way, so it smells like manure. And while I, as a good Wisconsin girl, think of manure as a good honest smell (vastly preferable to sewage or bacteria-riddled swamp water) it is not a very *nice* smell.
The beast emerges.
The beast shakes.
The beast looks about his beastly domain.
Seriously, he was like the Golem’s dog or something, created entirely of cow poo. I was ready to deny he was mine to anyone coming up the path “no, that’s not my dog, that’s a creature that emerged from the muck!”
I was worried that my “live and let mud” philosophy may have served me poorly. Being this dirty does present something of a problem because as you may recall, Buzz does not swim, he wades. Usually, this works out fine because he also only wades in the mud. But, today he snorkled in it. So, um, was he going to dip his head in the lake?
No.
How to solve this problem?
Plan A:
Since it looks like this…
when Buzz fetches sticks out of the lake, I did a lot of throwing sticks into the lake.
After five minutes, we still had this:
So, more fetching ensued (by the way, I LOVE that image, so happy and gross! see it larger by clicking *here*)
More fetching:
Then finally I put Plan B into effect:
I put down the camera, took off my socks & shoes, rolled up my pants, and waded in with him to splash some water on his head and top line.
In short order, we were ready to go! Have a great weekend everyone, and remember: live and let mud!
Worst case scenario: you've a wee golem to do your bidding!
No not literally, but figuratively. You see, I have always let Buzz play in the mud pools on this particular hike because there is a lake where he can rinse off. He really likes to play in the mud and I like to see him happy, plus, a little mud isn’t going to hurt him.
Well today, Buzz did more than his typical stroll through the mud pool. He…well…just look…
Here’s a close up on that last image:
Can you see his collar there? Towards the bottom of the image? Yeah? Still need help figuring out what is going on? Well, he’s laying on his side in the mud and pushing his head under the mud. Let me repeat that: HE’S LYING ON HIS SIDE IN THE MUD AND PUSHING HIS HEAD UNDER THE MUD.
That mud is farm mud, by the way, so it smells like manure. And while I, as a good Wisconsin girl, think of manure as a good honest smell (vastly preferable to sewage or bacteria-riddled swamp water) it is not a very *nice* smell.
The beast emerges.
The beast shakes.
The beast looks about his beastly domain.
Seriously, he was like the Golem’s dog or something, created entirely of cow poo. I was ready to deny he was mine to anyone coming up the path “no, that’s not my dog, that’s a creature that emerged from the muck!”
I was worried that my “live and let mud” philosophy may have served me poorly. Being this dirty does present something of a problem because as you may recall, Buzz does not swim, he wades. Usually, this works out fine because he also only wades in the mud. But, today he snorkled in it. So, um, was he going to dip his head in the lake?
No.
How to solve this problem?
Plan A:
Since it looks like this…
when Buzz fetches sticks out of the lake, I did a lot of throwing sticks into the lake.
After five minutes, we still had this:
So, more fetching ensued (by the way, I LOVE that image, so happy and gross! see it larger by clicking *here*)
More fetching:
Then finally I put Plan B into effect:
I put down the camera, took off my socks & shoes, rolled up my pants, and waded in with him to splash some water on his head and top line.
In short order, we were ready to go! Have a great weekend everyone, and remember: live and let mud!
Worst case scenario: you've a wee golem to do your bidding!
t h r e e
Buzz is three.
Yes he is!
My happy smiley boy.
My silly nutjob doggy.
I am going to get Buzz a kiddie pool for his birthday, but right now I cannot because the stores don't have them. Soon , soon, my boy. And then I will videotape you and the world will see the craziness!
"What craziness? I just lounge about all day thinking deep thoughts?"
Ha ha ha Buzz, you fool no one.
Also, I might make you a special treat to eat.
Does that sound good?
"Serve it up!"
And then, we go forward! Onward, into the future!
Happy birthday Buzz Buzz Full of Fuzz! I love you!
Yes he is!
My happy smiley boy.
My silly nutjob doggy.
I am going to get Buzz a kiddie pool for his birthday, but right now I cannot because the stores don't have them. Soon , soon, my boy. And then I will videotape you and the world will see the craziness!
"What craziness? I just lounge about all day thinking deep thoughts?"
Ha ha ha Buzz, you fool no one.
Also, I might make you a special treat to eat.
Does that sound good?
"Serve it up!"
And then, we go forward! Onward, into the future!
Happy birthday Buzz Buzz Full of Fuzz! I love you!
Ha Ha Ho Ho & Hee Hee
A few weeks ago, Mary at The Dogfathers blog tagged us to participate in "Five Things I Laugh At, But Shouldn't."
Now, this assignment presents something of a challenge. It's not that Buzz is perfect, no flaws to speak of...its that his flaws are serious. Buzz is 99% a good, steady boy, but that outside 1% bit of bad, anxious dog-ness is directed at people, has teeth, and I have never found it funny. It something to work on, think about, help him with, not something to laugh at or dismiss.
Then of course, there are all the laughs I get out of harmless things...the way Buzz loves his rainbow ball, the way he and Tessa lick each other's tongues, the way his butt wiggles when the neighbor's girls circle him and pet him and call him a pretty boy. I laugh at these and I should!
Well, I finally think I cracked it. A list of things I laugh at that I probably shouldn't.
1. Lauren and Buzz.
Buzz loves her. He kisses her. He jumps on her. He runs across the yard, leaps in the air, and licks her face as he sails by. He doesn't listen to her. He knocks into her. He invades her space totally and completely. According to Buzz, Lauren has no boundaries. We've tried to sort out why Lauren gets treated this way...it is probably partly her size (she's 5'1" with an itty bitty build), partly that she loves him back and is almost sort of okay with this treatment, partly that I have no idea how to effectively intercede. It's really unfair. And funny.
2. Buzz raids the trash bin.
Why is this funny? Because he's just looking for Puffs Plus to eat. They are like some kind of delicacy to him. Gross. And funny.
3. Booty-ful greeting of other dogs.
Do you see what is happening here? Buzz's butt is as high as he can get it and his shoulder is on the ground. He greets most dogs either this way or by laying down. It's really pathetic, and also misleading, since Buzz's play-style is not submissive.
4. Is this new? Let me smell it.
Buzz loves to smell the groceries, the mail, anything new that comes in the house. I think he thinks he's the inspector general of the household, needing to approve of all additions.
5. You give Buzz an inch, he takes a yard.
So, Buzz knows he's not allowed on this bench.
But I invited him up there for a photograph.
He then decided that all forbidden surfaces were okay and jumped onto the kitchen table.
So naughty. So funny.
Alright, so I'm going to tag The Big Red Dog Blog with this meme. She's got one fabulous dog (with a Buzz Lightyear costume!) and six sassy cats, so I bet she'll be able to think of five things more quickly than I did!
Oh, and my Buzz is not named after Buzz Lightyear, but rather for how he's always buzzing about and also for the astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Though I'm told Buzz Lightyear is also named after Buzz Aldrin. Still, the hegemonic masculinity of that toy plus his imperialistic catchphrase...not what I was going for. Speed, smarts, that's what.
Now, this assignment presents something of a challenge. It's not that Buzz is perfect, no flaws to speak of...its that his flaws are serious. Buzz is 99% a good, steady boy, but that outside 1% bit of bad, anxious dog-ness is directed at people, has teeth, and I have never found it funny. It something to work on, think about, help him with, not something to laugh at or dismiss.
Then of course, there are all the laughs I get out of harmless things...the way Buzz loves his rainbow ball, the way he and Tessa lick each other's tongues, the way his butt wiggles when the neighbor's girls circle him and pet him and call him a pretty boy. I laugh at these and I should!
Well, I finally think I cracked it. A list of things I laugh at that I probably shouldn't.
1. Lauren and Buzz.
Buzz loves her. He kisses her. He jumps on her. He runs across the yard, leaps in the air, and licks her face as he sails by. He doesn't listen to her. He knocks into her. He invades her space totally and completely. According to Buzz, Lauren has no boundaries. We've tried to sort out why Lauren gets treated this way...it is probably partly her size (she's 5'1" with an itty bitty build), partly that she loves him back and is almost sort of okay with this treatment, partly that I have no idea how to effectively intercede. It's really unfair. And funny.
2. Buzz raids the trash bin.
Why is this funny? Because he's just looking for Puffs Plus to eat. They are like some kind of delicacy to him. Gross. And funny.
3. Booty-ful greeting of other dogs.
Do you see what is happening here? Buzz's butt is as high as he can get it and his shoulder is on the ground. He greets most dogs either this way or by laying down. It's really pathetic, and also misleading, since Buzz's play-style is not submissive.
4. Is this new? Let me smell it.
Buzz loves to smell the groceries, the mail, anything new that comes in the house. I think he thinks he's the inspector general of the household, needing to approve of all additions.
5. You give Buzz an inch, he takes a yard.
So, Buzz knows he's not allowed on this bench.
But I invited him up there for a photograph.
He then decided that all forbidden surfaces were okay and jumped onto the kitchen table.
So naughty. So funny.
Alright, so I'm going to tag The Big Red Dog Blog with this meme. She's got one fabulous dog (with a Buzz Lightyear costume!) and six sassy cats, so I bet she'll be able to think of five things more quickly than I did!
Oh, and my Buzz is not named after Buzz Lightyear, but rather for how he's always buzzing about and also for the astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Though I'm told Buzz Lightyear is also named after Buzz Aldrin. Still, the hegemonic masculinity of that toy plus his imperialistic catchphrase...not what I was going for. Speed, smarts, that's what.
I think we won.
I have a friend who says "I think we won" as a sort of general expression of approvingness for things that have just happened. As in, we went to the dollar theater and watched Coraline and ate grapes and as we left he said "I think we won." Because it was a good movie and they were tasty grapes and we only paid 1 dollar each.
This week, Buzz and I won because the fence was fixed.
The fence along the back of the yard was only about 30" high and over the last month Buzz had figured out that he could jump it. Now, Buzz has no interest in running away, so he just jumped the fence to get a closer look at a squirrel. Or, like street-crossing chickens of lore, to see what was on the other side. He would zoom about the four adjacent yards then come to the gate to be let in within a minute. The problem, of course, is that Buzz jumps on people, wants to kill cats, and thinks all bicycles should be stopped. So, if people, cats, or bikes were to appear while he was loose...that would be trouble. For a few weeks now, I've had to leash Buzz while he's in the yard. Which is lame.
This week, with a lot of help from Tessa's food guy (he drove in posts and such), I zip-tied a 4' fence to the back of the 30" fence and now Buzz is contained. It is awesome.
By the way, the worker at Lowe's that helped me find the zip ties told me that what I should do was put a shock collar on my dog and that would teach him to stay in the yard. Yikes! Turns out this guy doesn't have a dog, has never had a dog, has never read a book on dog training, or have a real conversation with a dog trainer. Yet, he feels that he should advise me (a stranger) to use violence to keep my dog (who he knows nothing about) in the yard. I ended up having a somewhat long conversation with him about dogs and training so maybe I changed his thinking a bit. Because really, why solve a problem with pain when you can solve it with $26 of plastic?
Every morning since the fence was fixed, when Buzz and I go out back and I get to sit with my coffee and he gets to run about with his ball, I feel triumphant. I want to pump my fists. Yes, I think we won.
Giving back
You know what? Buzz and I really use the heck out of the public parks in our city. We are in a park almost every day. So, a few weeks ago, I finally volunteered my time helping to maintain one of the local parks. It felt so great to go in there and remove the invasive species and put wood chips down on the trails!
That little taste of do-gooding wasn't enough for me, so I made this quilt for a fundraiser (a silent auction for Ann Arbor's Ecology Center.)
The info is here for you locals
But folks, even that wasn't enough. I have decided to donate 10% of the proceeds from my etsy store to a dog rescue. Specifically, to That'll do Border Collie Rescue which is a rescue in Vancouver, Canada. I've chosen this rescue because
(1) They save border collies and Buzz is a border collie and border collies rule!
(2) Sheena, the founder and director of the rescue writes my favorite dog blog Three Woofs and a Woo.
(3) While I have never met her in person, Sheena has often taken the time to help me understand Buzz's behavior (recalls!) and needs (raw feeding!)
(4) Because the shelter I got Buzz from is...how to say...sketchy. In fact I never name it because they gave me Buzz without looking at my ID, calling my vet, or checking my lease. I gave them $40, they gave me Buzz. I'm glad of it, but that's not modern rescue; they could have been putting Buzz into a worse situation than the one from which he came.
(5) When you are British and American...from Wisconsin but living in Michigan...and Seattle is your heart's city...well, then, Vancouver seems local.
(6) The Canine Mafioso are a crime syndicate, not a charity!
So, more bags are in the shop (link is in the sidebar). And some quilts, too. And 10% of the purchase price will be forwarded to That'll Do Border Collie Rescue. You could also, of course, just donate to the rescue directly, if you want to do some unadulterated good. Just go to their website, and click on the "donate!" button on the left-hand side.
If you are in the market for a bag, though, here's some more information:
This is my bag, full of the usual stuff.
All of that stuff fits into a gallon-sized Ziploc bag.
I don't think you'd want to jam much more than this into the bag or you'd end up not being able to use the front pocket.
Here's what I usually carry around (the bag below is pictured inside out).
(1) using the clip (included!) I have a set of keys attached to the bag.
(2) In one of the inside pockets, I keep a roll of plastic bags for picking up after Buzz.
(3) In the other inside pocket, I keep a photocopy of my driver's license and health insurance card (I don't carry my wallet to walk the dog).
(4) In the main pocket, I have two balls, an extra leash, a bag of treats, a pair of gloves, and a small cloth bag which holds more pick-up bags.
I don't have any plans to make these bags bigger because that would involve adding side panels and at least an hour's more work for each bag; basically, the extra cost in materials and labor would make the bag too pricey. If you need something bigger, I recommend checking out the men's section in Target for their messenger bags; they tend to be a good size and have pockets and places to clip things.
And I hope you are having weather as nice as ours! Buzz is way too hot in his winter coat; I keep telling him to shed!
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