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.

Why, June Gloom? Why?!

Hello out there!  I've been pretty busy these past few weeks, so sorry or the lack of updates.  Just because I don't post, doesn't mean the dogs stop existing, right?

June gloom has been pretty bad here in SoCal.  I remember that brief period of time where I attended summer school and volleyball camp during high school, June gloom usually burned off around 10:00 am.  But lately it lasts well past noon.  Even as I type up this post, it's still pretty gloomy.

But I didn't start this post to reminisce about my summer school days and how I hated them.  Though it is reminding me and with this damn gloom, kind of depressing me...

I started this post to write about Lilah, who, because of the gloom, is still sleeping like it's early morning.  I'm constantly mentioning Lilah's SAD or how she's like Superman and draws her power from the sun, but I'm telling you now, Lilah would not be my companion of choice for a nuclear winter.  The two of us together in that situation, completely depressing.  I mean, depressing on top of the fact that the world will be dying too.  And you won't be able to read updates about Lilah and Ritter.  So depressing.



June gloom, what are you doing hanging around in July anyway!

Phenylpropanalowhat?!

Lilah probably sees the doctor more frequently than me.

About a month ago, she went in to see the vet due to leaking.  More specifically, she was suffering from incontinence. The vet diagnosed her with a weak bladder sphincter, which is more common in older female dogs (humans too, so I hear).

What followed for the next few days was a nightmare. They shaved the area around her delicate parts because she had some acid burn from the urine. That more than anything irritated her. Lilah was constantly squatting down and twisting to lick herself. That was the first problem.

What compounded the issue was the medicine doctor prescribed, phenylpropanalomine. I think I spelled that correctly. It's supposed to help keep the muscle contracted so urine doesn't leak out. But the dose was probably just too much because Lilah was only peeing once a day.

So we'd take Lilah out and she'd immediately sit down and lick herself. She was suffering from the acid burn, razor burn, and constant irritation from her licking along with her muscle being tightened. She was suffering and I was going crazy trying to get her to pee and worrying about her doing serious damage to herself by not peeing.

She also refused to leave the comfort of her rugs. She only drank if we brought her the water bowl. And she only ate from her rug while I hand fed her. My mom said she was able to feed her from Lilah's bowl, but not for me. Hand feeding only.

The next day was more of the same. At least she took the pills easily. Oh, and she wouldn't let us near to wipe her in order to help keep the inflammation and burning to a minimum.

Finally we smartened up (not as much as possible though, because we didn't call the vet), ceased the medicine, washed her back end, and put an e-collar on her. Luckily the one I had leftover from her spay surgery still fit.  

Thankfully things got a little easier after that.  The vet called to check in with us, pretty much called a spade a spade, and told us we were foolish for not calling him with our concerns.  But still, it was pretty stressful week for all of us.  

Oh, and she's still on the medication, though a greatly reduced dosage.  I'm hoping that if we can just trim down her weight, her incontinence will magically go away.  Otherwise it's phenylpropanalomine for life.

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?

In Real Time

I'm sitting here watching Lilah and Ritter lazily wrestling on their rug and it's disgustingly cute. I don't have my camera nearby so you'll just have to make do with my live blogging. Okay, let's go!

They're both just lying on their rug next to each other. Aww, Lilah's licking Ritter's ear and face, which she sometimes does but more often than not Ritter doesn't allow. I don't know why but she really likes to lick his ears.

Oh, he's started trying to gnaw on her leg and she's swatting at his wedge-shaped head with her front paw. I don't know if he knows that Lilah doesn't like it when her paws are grabbed or if that's just his approach to play-fighting in general, but that's what he does.

Okay, now they both have their mouths open super wide like they're going to eat each others' head. But really they're just shoving their open mouths against each other. Man they remind me of hippos right about now. Also, I know from previous open mouth wrestling that Ritter can get his jaws around Lilah's noggin. And I'm pretty sure that Lilah's head could fit within Ritter's head, his is just that big and hers is just that small.

Interesting, both Lilah and Ritter haven't escalated the rough housing yet. They seem content to just lie about and shove their open maws at one another. By this point Ritter either gets completely annoyed and hops into the safety of his bed or Lilah stands up so she can get a better angle for slapping him with her paws.

Well, looks like they finished. Both still lying next to the other on their rug looking pleased with themselves. How peaceful.

Yes, I had nothing better to do than report this to you while it was happening.

Falling Off the Wagon

The other day I was carrying Lilah around the house for fun, like I do, and noticed that my arms were getting fatigued real fast. Now I know what you might be thinking, that the holidays were just a couple weeks ago and maybe I let myself enjoy all the celebratory food a bit too much. I bet you think that I also gave up on that typical "get in shape" resolution after only trying for a week.

All I have to say to you is how dare you! I weigh the same as always and I'm still regularly exercising. I think you need to point those beady, judging eyes towards another!

After a few minutes rest, I picked Lilah up again, climbed the stairs to the upstairs bathroom and stepped onto the scale. FORTY POUNDS!!! Lilah's normal weight should be closer to lower-mid thirties. When did that happen?! I mean, I did notice that Lilah's head looked smaller than usual in comparison to her body, but I thought it was just her fluffy winter coat.

I just had to share my new discovery with my mom. Immediately she looked away guiltily. Apparently she had been over-generous when feeding Lilah and very liberal with treats from the table. "They need the extra weight for winter," she tried to justify, which would be true if we lived in a harsher winter climate and the dogs lived in sheds out back...neither of which is true.

Whatever, it's easy enough to control Lilah's weight. Just revert back to her normal amount of food and cut back on the human food treats. Not a big deal, really. And of course, Ritter has to join along on the diet, because although I didn't weigh him, I'm sure he's in the same situation.

But I guess it was just too much for the dogs to handle. We woke up this morning to find an empty plastic container of Costco cookies on the floor and Lilah chomping down on one and crumbs in Ritter's bed. If you've ever been to Costco, you know that it wasn't just a dozen cookies in that container. And I'll tell you now that it had at least four good sized cookies in it the night before.

A big set back in their diets. Lilah and Ritter spent most of the day sleeping off their cookie binge.

Pictures!

So many pictures to catch up on.

I took some pictures of Lilah on her birthday. I wish that I could do something similar to that German Shepherd video of the time lapsed pictures. But I can't get Lilah to stay still long enough to get consistent pictures.

Isn't she pretty though at 3 years old?

Though I don't know why she usually looks so disapproving.

Lilah after enjoying some soccer. Normally after playing soccer her feet are completely covered in dirt.

And as promised, the Land's End dog coats!

Lilah looks good in green.

And Ritter looks stunning in teal.
And yes, that is my mom's slipper-clad foot in the background.

Coats Arrived

After having returned the first set of coats for being too small (I couldn't even get Ritter's over his head), the new large sized coats arrived.

And I must say, they look pretty nice in terms of both color and design! Lilah agreed too because she let me put it on her without a fuss. Ritter on the other hand wasn't such a fan. He kept arching his back, took a few steps and then immediately sat down with his hunched back. Then he'd get up, take a few steps and sit back down again.

Even though we don't live in snow country, or wet country for that matter, I still liked the fact that these jackets/coats have a nice underbelly section for extra wetness protection and warmth. The fact that they have a water resistant outer shell is also a plus.

One issue though with the jacket is that the side straps that secure the belly panel are so long. I had to return the previous ones because I couldn't get the loop part of the velcro strap to reach the hook section. And now with these ones, the next size up, I find that there is a lot of excess loop section that just kind of dangles downwards. I wish there was a way to tuck them in so they wouldn't snag on anything.

Other than that, I think its a great coat for keeping a dog warm and/or dry.

Another Birthday!

Happy birthday to Lilah this time!

When I woke up this morning and went downstairs to wish her happy birthday, Lilah seemed to just know it was a special day. She was excited and extra affectionate (somewhat rare for her), which was nice.

We pretty much just spent the day relaxing, soaking up the sun and playing some soccer in the backyard.

Still waiting on their coats though.

I'm Gonna Do It

I don't know where Lilah gets it from, but she is so damn mischievous!

Seeing as how the weather in Los Angeles was delightfully warm, we took the opportunity to give the dogs a much needed bath. I swear, the water running off of them was grey... But that's not the focus of this story.

Because they were clean finally, I didn't want either of them rolling around in whatever weird scents they find outside or romping around in damp dirt. Lilah and Ritter were still drying off and therefore not wearing their collars, so I decided to make a slip leash using the loop handle of the leash.

Lilah, being the way that she is, always has to go first. So I took her out on the leash and left Ritter inside. Like a good girl, she immediately did her business. Unfortunately though, I wasn't paying attention and had a little too much slack on the leash. Yes, she slipped it.

And you know when a little kid is poised to do something naughty right in front of you, despite your backless threats of "don't do it" hanging ominously in the air between the two of you? Yeah, it was just like that. Lilah got into that front low crouch, readying herself to lunge to one side or another should I attempt to grab her. It's also the same posture she takes right before rolling around on the ground.

"Don't do it, Lilah. Don't you do it."

But I could read her exact thoughts from the look in her eyes. "I'm gonna do it! I'm gonna do it!"

We went back and forth for a good minute or two.

And right between "don't" and "do it," well, she did it, driving the side of her face and body against the ground. When I tried to pick her up, she rolled onto her back and twisted. Horrified, I jumped backwards, hoping it'd draw her out of the roll. She pranced around me immediately after. Lilah can be such a pain in the ass.

Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I'll get straight to it, there are no pictures or videos this year of the dogs with their gifts...

Yet.

Okay, so what happened was I purchased Lilah and Ritter coats from Land's End at a really good price! I chose the size that I thought would fit them according to their measurements, medium. It looked kind of small, but I couldn't put it on them yet to check the fit as it was their Christmas gift.

Christmas morning arrives and put Lilah's on first, because if it doesn't fit her then it definitely won't fit Ritter. Surprisingly, I could not get the chest side straps to attach. Apparently these dogs are larges. Hmm, I think my mom is being a little generous with their food lately...

So I'm waiting on the exchange order. Once they arrive, you can rest assured their will be enough photos from their private fashion show.

If you're feeling sorry for Lilah and Ritter though, do not fret. My brother spoiled them with lots of healthy, delicious treats and my mom showered them with new toys. And I know you're thinking it so I'll just preempt you and take some of the sting out of it. Yes, I'm the relative that gives you clothes, and on top of that, clothes that don't fit!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!

Happy Birthday!

Yes! Happy birthday to Ritter, who turned 3 today!

And boy, was he especially bold today. I don't know if he knew it was his birthday, but he was climbing up me and my mom and constantly wanting attention and affection. It was actually pretty cute. And for once Lilah didn't get too much on his case for getting so much attention.

Unfortunately his mom (my mom) has been sick the past week, so she couldn't really prepare anything for him. Plus there's been the typical craziness of the holidays topped with some other obligations. But we're thinking of doing a joint celebration when Lilah turns 3 in a couple weeks.

And no, we're not those people that throw elaborate birthday parties for animals, despite what you may think. It'll be nice dinners for both of them and some extra treats. See, not all dog owners are crazy! Now cat people...that's a totally different thing...