Grateful for Responsible Owners

It's been a while, hasn't it?  Don't worry, all the doggies are doing well.  It's not a lack of excitement or entertainment generated from the dogs that's preventing me from posting.  Just, y'know, life...

But do I have a story for you.  I saved a dog!

The other night I was driving home from volleyball and turned onto my street.  It's night time, a little late, and I'm surprised to see people out walking their dogs.  I guess people think our neighborhood is safe enough to walk their dogs after 10 pm.  Though if you read the police blotter, you'd know better.

Anyway, I'm driving down the street and I see this white dog sitting in the street, pushed up tightly against a minivan.  Weird, I think to myself.  I slowly drive by to see if the van door is open and the owner is just sitting inside without the light on, for whatever reason.  Nope.  Okay, I gotta do something.

I pulled over, kind of blocking a driveway and probably alarming the couple that was walking their dog in the dark.  Maybe it was their dog also?  They give me a wary glance and walk on their way.  A look in the rear view mirror shows the dog still sitting in place.  Alright, time for action.

Luckily for me, it was a friendly if not a bit shy dog.  Something of a Poodle or Bichon Frise kind of fluffy, white dog.  I'm able to get a hand on it and pet it while I feel for a collar and look for a tag.  Success!  A name, address AND phone number!  Personally, I wouldn't put that much information as I'm a bit paranoid, but in this situation it totally worked.

Now, I'm aware of how creepy night time deals can be, and I don't want to be exposed in the middle of the road after 10 pm.  I read the police blotter.  I take Jojo Atlee and put him in the back seat of my car, so we at least have that protection while I call up the owner.  Audacious little guy climbs over the passenger seat and comfortably lays down with his eyes locked on me, waiting expectantly for me to call his owner.

"Sorry to be calling so late, but are you Jojo's owner?"

Turns out we were just a house over from his place.  I figure he must've recognized their minivan and stayed near it.  I know that one sure way to catch Lilah when she's broken out of the house is to call her over to my car and open the door.  Little girl jumps right in.

The owner comes out of the house, and I wave my arm to let her know where I am.  Jojo reluctantly hops out of the car and sits on the grass, not making the effort to close the gap between him and his owner.  Which when I think about it now as I write this, is kind of odd.  His owner scoops him up into her arms and extends her hand to thank me.  She hadn't realized he was missing.  I probably smell and I know my hands are dirty (I had just finished playing volleyball afterall), but I shake her hand as she thanks me once again.

I told this story to my mom, exclaiming that I saved a dog!  Her reply was, "I'm just glad the dog had an owner that wanted him back!"  She then turned to Jack who looked kind of glum and hurt by her comment.  "But I like you, Jack!"

I've since told this story to a few other people, leading with, "I saved a dog!"  I don't understand why, but most of them are not impressed...heartless jerks.

Personal Growth x3

Or alternatively: Lilah's Weakness Discovered!  Finally!

Okay, so maybe it's not so much a weakness, but a motivational...thing?  Oh, and I guess fair warning: this is a relatively long story.  Like 1,000 word essay long.

In order to help Ritter with whatever weird problems he has in his head, I've been taking him on walks.  Before, my mom had believed him to be impossible (actually just challenging) to walk with.  He'd constantly pull, zig-zag across your path and suddenly stop.  That was however, due mostly to the influence of Lilah.  

We had believed that a whole family walk would be more fun, so me, my mom, Lilah and Ritter would try going out for a walk.  It was always horrible.  Screaming and kicking, foaming at the mouth and crazy eyes, and me just wanting to cry while my mom fought to stay upright against Ritter's amazing pulling force.

So this week I tried taking Ritter out, just me and him.  It was one of the most pleasant walks I'd ever been on!  He took a little convincing to leave the house, but once we were walking on the sidewalk, he stayed with me.  He pulled a little, but would stop and sit once I stopped moving.  He waited patiently at the crossings.  He even let three loud and excited teenage girls pet him and feed him treats (albeit briefly).

Was it a fluke?  Was he just so overloaded that his body had no choice but to go with me at my pace?  Personally, I think he was just happy to have some time away from Lilah.  I mean, honestly, everyone needs time away from Lilah at some point every day.

When we got home, I lavished him with praise and proudly told my mom what a good boy he had been.  Ritter was happy he was praised.  Mom was happy with the thought of going places with Ritter.  I was happy to have experienced what a normal walk with a dog is supposed to be like.  Everyone was beaming with joy!

Well, everyone except Lilah.

We repeated this for the next few days, going out on our half hour walks and enjoying the peacefulness of a reduced-stress walk.  Ritter even met a small Yorkie the size of his head.

But every time Ritter and I left for our walk, something was growing within Lilah's heart.

Finally, on Thursday I had to go to the pet store to buy FJ some of his annoyingly expensive specialty dog food that might not even be helping his allergies.  What a great opportunity to spend some time with Lilah, I thought to myself.

It was a risk though.  The last time I tried to take her to the pet store, she refused to leave the parking lot.  She almost got stuck under the car.  In retrospect, I should've just picked her up and carried her in, no matter how ridiculous it might have looked.  But you know what they say about hindsight.

Getting her into the car wasn't that much of a struggle.  She's usually pretty good about getting into the car, she just has a tendency to scream when I need to get her to leave the property line.  I tried putting her in the front passenger seat, but she preferred the back.  I guess she felt the back driver's side seat was the best place to scratch the hell out of the carpeted floor mat.  Mostly because I can't reach her there.

After a ten minute drive, we faced the next challenge.  Getting her out of the car and into the store without it looking like I was kidnapping her.  She hopped out of the car and walked straight to the automatic doors as if she did this everyday.

What?!  So easily?!  I swear, had I stopped in shock, Lilah probably would've thrown me a casual look over her shoulder and asked, "You coming or not?"

All right, but the real test is how well she behaves in the store.  I remember a few times when we were in a pet store, she began to make the biggest fuss, barking, scrabbling and trying to get out, shying away from friendly people as if they'd hit her.

Except, she didn't do any of that.  The leash was slack and she walked comfortably at my side.  She stayed near when I stopped to look at things.  She even met a Pit Bull without being all weird.  I was even able to peacefully call my mom to ask about dog food, while a couple came near to purchase some food and say a brief hello to Lilah.  No obnoxious noises, no embarrassing tugging and labored breathing from Lilah.  For once, pushy dog trainers didn't come over and make me feel bad for my misbehaved dog, because she was everything perfect!  Even well groomed (which had taken me two weeks of constant grooming, no joke).

Of course, I played it cool like Lilah was always like this.  I sauntered down every aisle.  I had imbalanced stances as I stopped to inspect toys.  I let my arm dangle at my side, Lilah's leash attached to my wrist and lazily gripped in an open fist.  It was like a dream come true!

And when I had purchased FJ's pricey-ass 11 lbs. bag of food, Lilah and I left the store like nothing spectacular had just occurred for the past half hour.  But Lilah and I both knew that it had.

When we arrived home, she hopped out of the car, didn't freak out over the fact that our gardener was blowing the leaves on our lawn, briskly walked past him to the front door and waited for me to open it.

I excitedly told my mom what a good girl Lilah had been.  I gave Lilah a good scratching while lavishing her with praise for her wonderful behavior.  My mom smiled fondly at Lilah and told her how proud she had made me.  Even Ritter greeted Lilah with a happy, "welcome back".

For the first time in a long time, Lilah knew what it was truly like to bask in the praise of her family, and not her own self pride like she's used to when she happens to get the best of me.

So Lilah's weakness/motivation?  Jealousy!  Or maybe a sense of doubt in her heart?  Whatever it was, I'm pretty sure that my walks with Ritter had caused Lilah to look deep within herself, question her behavior and reflect on what she truly wanted in life.

So much personal growth all around.  It really broke all kinds of expectations.  In the amazingly fantastic kind of way.

1,110 words.  Bam.

What a Lovely Fragrance

Why do dogs love eau de ver de terre?  "Oh, you took French?" you might be thinking.  Why, yes, I did.  Yup, 'round 5 years worth and I have the vocabulary of a three year old and must only speak of current events.

So the stray, from now on referred to as FJ, was romping around the yard.  He stopped to inspect a weed (one of many).  I thought nothing of it, but then he just went to town rolling all over that spot.

"Ah," I thought, "dead worm."

I tried to pick it up to toss it somewhere where he couldn't roll on it, but it was stuck in the hard, caked dirt.  Which I guess might have been the cause of its death.  It wasn't the dry, dessicated kind of worm that resemble jerky.  It wasn't even really dead...

Later that evening, my mom and I took Lilah and Ritter outside.  Lilah stopped right at that spot and smelled the ground deeply for a minute, while I pointed out that that was where the FJ was rolling on the dead worm.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing Lilah doesn't roll around..." Lilah gracefully lowered her head and drove her cheek against the "dead worm."  She had a grand old time rolling all over that poor dead worm.

Of course it goes without saying that once Lilah had her fill, Ritter took his turn, happily snorting all the while.

Don't those dogs know that if you want to attract attention you have to choose a scent that stands out and plays off of your own natural fragrance?  Now they all smell like funky, damp earth.

Hi, Do I Look Familiar?

My brother came home the other day, only to come in the house and tell me that he was going back out to move his car.  It was windy that day and we all hate parking under the car-denting palm tree that's so iconic (but annoying) of Los Angeles.  Okay, didn't really make a difference to what I was doing, so I continued on drinking my coffee.

I then got a call from him telling me to grab gloves or put on pants and shoes or something and join him outside.  Not that I wander around the house barefoot and in my underwear, for some reason that privilege is reserved only for men I guess.  My first thought though was, "damn spiteful ass palm tree threw a frond onto one of our cars."  Except as I was grabbing my gloves what he really said to me over the phone finally registered in my head, so I grabbed a handful of dog treats and one of Lilah's old leashes.

Despite my brother being tired from his early call time that day and me midway thru recovering from a stress fracture in my foot after having completed a poorly trained for half-marathon, we proceeded to track down a small stray dog my brother had seen when moving his car.  I wish I had been more appropriately dressed, but at least I was wearing sweat pants, a shirt and shoes.

Fifteen minutes later we had the collar-less small dog successfully leashed.  We then walked all around the neighborhood with the frightened, but friendly little guy, trying to find his owner.  We posted hastily made flyers at high-traffic corners and spoke with several people walking about to see if they recognized him.  We also sat on the front porch with my mom and the little stray, hoping to catch sight of a distressed person holding a leash and calling out a name. 

But no suck luck.  It started to get dark and we were finally feeling the stress after the initial adrenaline rush wore off.  What to do, what to do...

Nothing else to do, but bring the little guy in and let him stay the night.  Thankfully he's pretty sweet, no signs of aggression or fear/nervousness.  So first thing first though, we made sure to give him a bath.  If that little sucker was going to spend the night in my room, I wanted to make sure he wasn't tracking in all sorts of unknown grime.  He took it like a champ, much better than Lilah had as a puppy.  Surprisingly, he wasn't that dirty either.  And he slept through the night without trouble.  And not even a single flea bite for me.

A couple trips to the pet hospital for a microchip check, brief exam and a few vaccinations, and he's still here, sleeping by my legs as I write this up.

We've posted on craigslist and posted more flyers, but no owner yet.  We're all still hoping that his owner will come looking for him, because honestly this little guy is so sweet that he must have gotten separated from a loving (though questionably irresponsible) owner.

Lilah and Ritter have not officially met Stray (I'm too embarrassed by what my brother tentatively named him to see it in print) as we weren't sure about vaccinations and whatnot.  They do however, bark at him every time I have to take him outside.  When they do meet, that'll for sure be a separate post.

Happy Birthday, Ritter!

Give or take a couple months.  I realize that his birthday is in December and it's now March, but if Lilah got a retroactive post on her birthday (that I wrote on the day, but didn't post), then Ritter deserves one too.

Ritter and Lilah, although they came from different parts of the country, were actually born within a month of each other.

While it was a big risk, committing to own an adult dog that we had never met and bringing him into a household with a dynamo like Lilah, I'm glad my mom got Ritter.  

I dont' think I'll ever forget seeing him for the first time and thinking, "oh my god, it's Snoopy!"  He was still in his shipping crate, looking all depressed and scared, having just flown in from Idaho.  He had these big dark eyes, a big white head with floppy blackish ears, and a big black nose meant for a much larger dog.

Man, he's come a long way in the past three years.  And I'm looking forward to watching him enjoy everything else that's still to come!  Happy birthday to you Ritter!  Just know that every time Lilah barks at you, she's yelling in your ear adoringly, "I love you, Ritter!" 

Happy Birthday, Lilah!

Today Lilah turned 4!

To celebrate, we really didn't do much.  We did just so happen to give the dogs baths, changed their beds and their rugs. 

It's been pretty cold this winter and we don't have central heating in our house.  It makes it a little more difficult to give them baths since we don't want damp dogs catching a chill.  Today was one of the warmer days we've had, so the dogs got a nice hot bath.  And given how calm they were, I'm sure they appreciated it.  Even though my back hurts from the bending, it's always worth it to see them happy and romping around once they're clean.

Of course after their baths they need their grooming done.  And boy does Lilah love her grooming.  No doubt about it that she knows it makes her look so damn gorgeous.  

Happy birthday, Lilah!  I hope you enjoyed my gift of standard hygiene and grooming!  And lots of my attention, which she (hopefully) values as much as a good round of soccer.

What TV Shows Does Your Dog Watch?

I'm sitting here watching a recording of Ancients Behaving Badly.  Quick description: historians and a psychiatrist discuss whether notable leaders of the ancient world were either psychopathic or goal driven killers.  It's sensationalized by violent animated snippets of atrocious acts committed by the leaders in question.

Now I have always had an interest in this type of thing.  My freshman year of college I took a class called "Masters of Power - 10 Ancient Lives" that studied the lives of several of the figures presented in the TV show.  And I loved every minute of it.  Such fascinating people with their grand ambitions and their determination to achieve them.

But I guess I'm not the only one in the room that's interested in powerful men, like Genghis Khan, that used violence and fear to rule their worlds.  Because Lilah is lying on the floor and fixated on the TV, as if she's taking mental notes on how to conquer and rule.  Or maybe she's just comparing her own mix of techniques that she uses to rule her domain...It's eerie.