Sleepover Syndrome

I just spent the past half hour sitting on the cold hardwood floor with Lilah in my lap. Yes, really, at 3am in the morning.

Apparently, the neighborhood dogs decided to do that thing that often happens at sleepovers.

"Psst, hey, are you awake?"

And then they start talking despite people trying to get some much needed sleep.

It was like that tonight, except with dogs. First one dog started it right after midnight. Lilah replied with that kind of howly-not-quite-baying-but-annoying-nonetheless bark. That went on for about a half hour before the conversation died. Ten minutes later the other neighbor's dog barked and started the conversation again. However because he only barked once, I think it was more of a, "thank god they shut up," comment. Not smart on his part because Lilah proceeded to bark the night away. This kept on for three hours...I don't really know if it's a good thing that Lilah was at least inside, whereas the other dogs were in their yards.

After discovering how ineffective it was to yell at her, I finally gave in, changed out of my pjs, and headed downstairs.

The only solution was to sit with Lilah to calm her down and ensure that she most certainly didn't respond when the neighbor's dog barked, "is anyone still awake?" And pray that the chatty dog would fall asleep.

Random Video Sharing

According to YouTube's statistics page, 60 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. Guess I better do my part and upload something as well.

So I present you with Lilah eating grass and Ritter not quite making his jump. They sound so exciting don't they!



I know it sounds dumb, but I'm transfixed by her chewing. I mean, just look at those pearly white teeth! Reminds me of a shark.



Ritter rarely makes mistakes when he jumps. Perhaps it was nerves from being filmed. But I do have to note that he did hurt his paw. He kind of scraped the back of the pad that's nearest the dewclaw. You can kind of see him holding it up at the end of the video. Aww, poor Ritter. We're sorry for laughing.

Planting Crops

Seeing as how the weather has been particularly nice, we decided to do some maintenance on the garden as well as plant some new crops.

Of course, Lilah and Ritter were right there beside us. Helping at times, though also hindering.

In terms of digging, Ritter is more likely to dig a hole than Lilah. His technique is to use his two front paws at the same time to achieve a big scooping motion. I believe he works like that due to the fact that he's so strong. While this means he can create a pretty big hole, he can only do so in relatively soft dirt.

Lilah, having a smaller frame or stringier muscles, however you want to phrase it, digs using alternating paws with more of a scratching action. She works well against hard, compacted dirt or if you need to break the dense surface soil. "Dig" is also a command that she follows decently.

Watch as she decimates that dirt block!



However, for every good thing Lilah does, she evens her account by being bad. Potting plants around her can be dangerous. She once bit my aspiring sunflower in half. I was quite pissed. It's okay though, we've learned to adapt and pot at an elevated height where she can't so easily attack the plants.

But not like that will stop Lilah's devilish drive for mischief. Oh, you want to use that 55 gallon bag of potting soil? I'll just bite and rip a hole in it while you try to maneuver it! Ah, I see, you've smartly planted an empty seedling pot with the planted bell peppers to leave space for another bell pepper plant that you haven't bought yet. I'll just daintily lift it out and run around the yard with it! I'm actually quite surprised that she never runs off with our tools.

Sometimes I wish she wasn't so interested in what I'm doing. Why can't she be like Ritter and chilling in the shade while the humans work?