Wordless Wednesday 8/25 -- Onward Jeeves

Stop The Drama

Bunny here with a little story that I can hardly believe myself as I type it.

I may have mentioned on a few occasions that Morgan is a bit obsessed with teaching me to place this bitey face game.  It seems a bit barbaric to me, as I do not believe that my head belongs in anyone else's mouth.  I mean, I know Mom says I'm sweet and all, but I don't think that means I should be tasted by a certain dog of German heritage around here.

Well, tonight Morgan came up with a new idea to try to get me to play bitey face.  She tried putting her head in my mouth.  I swear that's what happened!  Dad tells some crazy story about how I just walked up and bit her ear, but he has a hidden agenda.  Trust me, she tried to force her head into my mouth!

In that moment, there was a bit of loud barking, by me, of course.  I shouted "Get your hairy head out of my mouth" but Dad thought I was attacking his princess and yelled to knock it off in a loud voice.  Mom was downstairs getting our food.  The moment passed and I thought that was the end of it.

Oh, no!  It turns out that Morgan has been to acting school!  She walked around with her ear half cocked and Dad came over on the couch with her, making a big deal out of it.  Morgan was acting all pathetic and sitting in Dad's lap part of the time.  I can't believe he fell for all that show! 

I mean, look at her just a few minutes after getting up on the couch.  Does that look like the face of an injured dog?  She was totally playing Dad, and the worst of it was that they were sitting in MY SPOT!  I gave Dad a certain look and then they both got up and moved. 

I had to sit up there and guard the couch and Mom's feet the rest of the night.  If anybody needs an actress for a movie, I know where you can find one.  We'll just have to get her out of Dad's lap first!

My Dogs Are Too Darned Popular

This is not a post about how Bunny now has more friends than I do on Facebook, although that has recently happened.  Today's post is about our visit to the dog park on Saturday night.  It was a problem that I haven't encountered before, and I'm still scratching my head over it a bit.

Saturday turned out to be a pretty toasty day, so we waited until after dinner to take the girls to the dog park to burn off some steam.  As we walked into the gate leading into the second gate, we saw that there was a young German Shepherd puppy and a Pit Bull puppy playing with some people inside the dog park.  Morgan was in heaven, barking and wagging her plume of a tail in anticipation of a rousing game of chase me and bitey face. 

However, as we were about to enter the park, two teenaged girls approached and grabbed the Pit Bull puppy.  That's not terribly unusual, a lot of people will pull back their dogs so others can enter.  The Shepherd's owner called her back, too.  As we walked in, though, the girls began gushing over Bunny and Blueberry.  We've gotten used to people fussing over them, too, and that's okay.  I know that people have questions about them and a certain fascination.  I let the girls both go and the two teens were both very insistent on petting them.  Usually the girls will just walk off, though, and ignore people when they've had enough of their attentions like the true little princesses they are.

The usual small talk ensued as the girls began to make their way around the park.  The teenagers were accompanied by their parents and the Shepherd had an older couple there with her.  We were asked their names and I told them.  No sooner had the girls learned their names then they began really pursuing all three of our dogs.  Calling their names and running around the park after them.

Certainly, they weren't hurting the dogs.  Their mother joked "I'm not sure if the girls are wearing the dogs out or the dogs are wearing the girls out."  I just thought, "We came here so the dogs could play with other dogs, not be pestered by annoying children."  Despite the fact that I thought that, I did not say that.  I wanted to, but I didn't.  I just felt like, the girls seemed like they were old enough that they ought to have known better and if they didn't, perhaps the parents should have put leashes on them. 

I'm still at a loss as to how to respond to the situation.  If someone had an aggressive dog that had bothered mine, I wouldn't have hesistated to tell them to call their dog off, and most likely would would have left.  It wasn't a situation where the dogs were in danger, it was just interfering with their and our enjoyment of the dog park experience.  I've met other kids there who were very pleasant and fun to be around, but these two were not. 

On a positive note, after they left I saw our best Bunny and Morgan moment to date.  Bunny walked through the trees and laid down under a tree like a crouching lion.  She stared at Morgan and Morgan stood staring back at her.  After a few minutes of stare down, Bunny leaped up in the air, ran straight at Morgan and then veered off, leading Morgan into a nice game of chase, and Morgan managed to play this round without putting any parts of Bunny in her mouth.  The game and the evening ended on a high note, with three tails wagging.  My only regret is that it was too dark to get a picture of the event!

Appreciating Antiques

I've been doing some reflecting lately.  In one month, on September 20, Lilac will be fifteen years old.  That is rather aged for a Greyhound and she's definitely showing her age, but she's still humming merrily along.

It's hard to believe that we thought she was a senior dog when we adopted her seven years ago at the tender age of eight years old.  We weren't particularly looking to adopt a senior dog, but we had her as a foster after she arrived on a dog haul after having recently weaned her last litter of puppies.  After months with not one single person offering to adopt her, we decided that she should stay here with us.  Actually, she'd decided that she should stay here with us from the moment she laid eyes on me at the adoption group president's house where she'd come off the hauler.  It just took me a while to figure out that she'd made her decision.

We weren't adverse to adopting a senior, but we lead an active lifestyle and we thought when we added to our pack again, it would be a younger dog so that we could give Treat and Hawk a break.  Obviously, it didn't work out that way.  Later, we did keep Blueberry here, but that's a story for another day.  Aside from her penchant for garbage and candy theft, Lilac was actually very unassuming, just coming up to us when she wanted some love and wrapping her head around our necks. 

I had no idea that Lilac would end up outliving Treat and Hawk when we decided to keep her here.  I thought we'd be blessed with her company for a few golden years and that we'd make her life comfortable and pleasant.  Little did I know that a sassy, independent and opinionated old lady lurked inside that dark brindle fur coat.  I'm so excited that we're going to be celebrating her fifteenth year next month.  We want to do something really special for her, but we haven't decided what that will be yet. 

In spite of the middle of the night wake up calls and some of the other negative things that accompany old age, we wouldn't trade a minute of our time with our Grande Dame.  I realize now that every day we have together is a gift and it's one we need to make the most of.  There is something infinitely sweet about life with an old dog.

It makes me think about all the senior dogs out there, waiting for homes, who are passed over because someone wants more time together, or they think these dogs aren't as attractive, or a host of other reasons.  The dog I thought I'd have for the longest, who was always ready to go on an adventure, passed away much too soon at only ten years old.  You never know how things will end up working out.  If Lilac leaves any kind of legacy from her life, I hope that it's letting people know that you can't discount the joys of adopting an older dog.  The rewards that you will reap far outweigh the costs.  We have been unbelievably lucky that Lilac decided we were hers all those years ago!

We're participating in the Pet Blog Hop again today.  We're very thankful to Life With Dogs, Confessions of the Plume and Two Little Cavaliers for hosting the hop.  If you'd like to join in, it's pretty simple.  Add your link to the McLinky tool, copy the code and paste it into your html code editor, and follow the three hosts.

Sometimes Public Service Is Its Own Reward

Bunny here, finally able to type at the keyboard.

Well, I'm not going to lie.  I'm feeling a little left out lately.  Lilac and Blueberry both seem to have some kind of understanding with Morgan, but she keeps trying to put my whole head in her mouth and put her paws on my back and I don't like it.  Plus, I got in trouble with Dad when I told her off.   This is really not the way a Greyhound princess is meant to live.

I was really happy last night when Mom got out my perfume, a fancy collar and my harness and told Morgan to go in the crate.  It was time for me to go visit at the nursing home and since Dad had a meeting, that meant that I was the only one going.  My tail wagged for the first time this week. 

We arrived at the nursing home and I was ecstatic to see my civilized canine friends there.  It was just wonderful to do a little socializing.   I watched Vinny and Chip do some tricks to entertain the people down in the Alzheimer's wing and Lil had her special stool with her so she could get up high enough to visit with the residents who couldn't bend down to pet her.  Max and Journey were there, too, working the crowd and sharing tail wags.  Everybody, canine and human, was happy to see me and I was glad I went to bring good cheer, because it surely brought me some.   It's funny how that works!

By the time we left, I was feeling much better, until I started thinking about Morgan pouncing on me when we got home.  Then something amazing happened.  Mom turned into Dairy Queen and I got my own strawberry sundae.  It was such a wonderful night.  I wasn't expecting to get ice cream, but Mom said I'd done such a wonderful job visiting that I'd earned it. 

The best part was coming home smelling like strawberry sundae when nobody else got any!  I'm glad that Mom remembers that I'm special after all.   Now I just need to get Morgan to understand how one treats royalty.