Happy Birthday Jet

Today is Jet's 3rd Birthday! Kristi made her a special doggy birthday cake, with candy bone sprinkles. We left off the candles, she'd only try to eat them. A lot of people thought she'd never make it to 3. Jet came to us with a ton of issues. Most people thought we were crazy. (Not that we aren't...normal is boring). With time, work, a lot of love and a little medication, she is slowly turning into a normal beast. Well, as normal as anyone is this household ever gets. Above is a picture of me showing her her cake. She was very excited.

Happy Birthday Jetsam!

Echo's Big Adventure

Around our house, Echo, our lab/pitt mix pup, is generally viewed as the "good dog", well by Kristi anyways. Some of that is his behaviors are caused by the fact he is still a puppy. Some of it is while he's not the brightest of dogs at times, is cute in a dopey sort of way. Today is an example of why.

Kristi took him out this morning. She is trying to train him to be off leash, so he had on the training collar. Normally, he'd do what he needed to and come in to go back to bed like any other Sunday. Except today there was another dog in the neighborhood. The black shepard mix obviously belongs to someone...he had a collar and tags. Apparently he left his owners at home . As he went through our yard, Echo decided to follow, trying to get him to play. And off they went. Out of the yard, down the street and away. One problem with an electric training collar...they have limited distance at which they are effective. (Though if it had been Jet, she wouldn't have even noticed being zapped, plus she would have tried to kick the other dog's butt for being in her yard - can you tell she's my dog?)

Kristi tried to catch him, but when that failed she came to wake me up to help. Have I ever mentioned, I don't wake up easily? Especially since you cannot shake me awake without risking getting punched? Once I was up, we both took our cars to see if we could spot the dogs anywhere in the area. We circled a couple of times, checked back at the house, got Tasha from next door looking, called the Animal Control folks, etc. At one point, I dropped the car back home and took to looking on foot, passing out business cards with my cell phone number on it to anyone who might come across the mutt.

This kept up for hours! I finally stopped to eat, took information on Echo to the police department, and took to looking again. Kristi finally flagged me down on one pass. Sitting happy as can be in the passenger seat was Echo. Apparently, he got lost a few streets up from us. Luckily for him, he is cute. Cute enough that someone let him into their house, gave him love and attention and shelter for most of the 4 plus hours he was missing. Kristi passed the house and saw him playing with his new human friend. As soon as she got out of the car, he ran over and jumped on her, all happy to have been found.

He was no worse the wear for his adventure. He didn't even have the decency to look ashamed of himself. I'm fairly certain he has no idea he did something wrong. He came home, ate and quickly laid down to take a nap. It seems adventures are very tiring. He and I had a talk about how he really isn't smart enough to be doing things like this. He is used to these conversations...they usually involve me reminding him it is a good thing he is cute, cause bright he isn't.

The one good thing out of all of this...other than we found the butthead? Jet, aka The Black Menace is officially the "good dog" of the house. Who would have ever thought that would happen?

Busy Sunday

It is almost time to go to bed...according to Jet at least. I'm not terribly tired. Over the past two days I've slept about 26 hours. I guess I was more tired than I realized. As a result, I missed the Gold Star Mother Memorial dedication this morning. I did make it to the lecture on Agent Orange. It was an amazing presentation. I'll go into another time for all my Vietnam Vet readers. I made some great contacts for work on my paper, plus I hooked up with another RT member going to the funeral tomorrow, so now I don't have to do four hours of driving. Plus, I found another route to RT meetings in Epping, which will save a little time.

I got home around 6:00 with groceries and a larger watercolor pad. I made dinner and vegged on the couch. The roomie wouldn't let me have tea. She's holding me to cutting back on caffeine. Why did I tell her again? I also got to watch Jet kiss the dog on the TV screen. Really. Like I've said, she's touched. The roomie has decided to help work Jet (since she is a working dog breed) that she's going to get her a dog back pack so she can carry her own stuff on walks. Of course, she'll act all sad and pathetic, sort of like she is right now (it's bedtime in her reality).

The other good news, Noreen is in Saigon and there have been no new cirsis with the kiddos (knock wood). I'm off to bed so I'm rested for tomorrow.

Headless duckies and other highlights from today

It snowed, just not quite how I wished. Not enough to cancel classes, darn it all. I think a certain snow faery had something to do with it. (Just you wait, I'm calling up mud as we speak). I made my way slowly and carefully to Keene, no 180's on Route 12 this time. I attended my first class. I think I remember some of it, too tired to really be sure. And then I turned just the wrong way and *pop* went my back. I tried to ignore it but moving rapidly became difficult and painful. Any other afternoon I would have toughed it out, but we had a quiz in the field scheduled....three hours hiking in snow and slush. I decided to not be tough. I emailed my professor and headed home to rest.

Just as I started my car, I received a text message from one of my kids...who did have a snow day from school...humph. She'd just found the guy she's crazy about with another girl. She needed talk to her "Mom" so I took the long way home to see her. Very important, when your back hurts, sitting in a drafty, cold Dunkin Donuts is not advisable, but I digress. We talked. It's hard to explain to someone who has just had her heart broken that sometimes teenage guys are jerks (Sorry to all my male friends out there) and you can still love someone even after they've hurt you, etc, etc. I got to the importance of taking care of yourself, healthy boundaries, all that stuff. She finally went home to rest with a promise to text me if she needed to talk. Last I knew, she was hurting but with friends who are taking care of her. Note to self, get my phone plan changed to unlimited texts.

I finally got home. Jet was sleeping in her crate. I took a hot bath and laid down to rest. I was up again by the time the Roomie got home. I had had a phone call about the mother of another friend being ill so the candle was lit and the prayers said. (So far, doesn't seem to be as bad as we thought, but keep your fingers crossed) While I was vegging on the couch, Jet brought me her headless duckie.

Periodically, we bring Jet stuffies to play with. The latest was a little mallard duck toy for Easter.(Yes, the dog got Easter presents too!) Like all the other stuffies, Jet decapitated the poor thing. We have just noted the headless trend. It has been suggested to us that she rips off the head first so they don't stare at her while she chews on them. See how clever she is? She is very attached to her headless toys so we have to wait until she's not looking to dispatch them properly.

Other than that, not much going on. I have a ton of homework, I need some serious sleep before the events this weekend and I'm awaiting word Noreen has made it safely to Vietnam.

Jet

Jet has got to be one of the funniest (in both the ha ha and the just a little weird meanings of the word) dogs I've ever had. She is almost a year and a half years old. We've had her since August.
She came to us with very few manners and lots of issues. Now...well I'd say she's normal, but she's really not. I like to say she's a little more touched by God than other dogs.

For example, she insists on being with me in the kitchen while I cook. If the oven timer goes off and I don't get up right away...she'll run back and forth between the oven and me, wherever I happen to be. If it goes off twice, she is not above grabbing ahold of whatever is handy with her mouth. It might be a sweater, it might be a hand.

At this moment, she is pouting. She sleeps with my roommate in her room at night. Jet firmly believes her bedtime is 8:00pm. She will start pacing at 7:30 just so we'll notice her. At 8:00, she will sit and stare at Kristi in between pacing. This will continue until either a) Kristi takes her to bed or b) she proceeds to having a tantrum. Watching a dog beat up on her doggy pillow, her balls, etc. is pretty funny. Chasing the cats, not so much, the cats usually chase back. If that doesn't work, she pouts. She will lay down between my desk and Kristi's desks. And then, she sighs, quite loudly. From her prime vantage spot, she can do the whole sorrowful, woe is me eye roll at both of us. She's trying to guilt Kristi and trying to convince me to make Kristi go to bed. Guess that means I'm alpha?

Of course, during all of this, she could just lay down and sleep. Especially if I'm not sitting on "her" corner of the couch. But she won't. Sometimes she is just too smart for her own good. I don't know where she gets it from.