A New Do

Today we took the dogs to get their nails trimmed and to get a little grooming done. Okay, a sanitary cut because my mom insists on wiping them and it's easier to find the target when there's less hair...I know you're thinking about it and making a 'gross' face. Don't.

Normally, for Lilah's nails I try to trim them myself. It involves me following her around the breakfast room for an hour and trying to clip a single nail. She's one of those fussy dogs that doesn't really like her feet being touched, squeezed or gripped. But if I keep at it long enough, she gives up and resigns herself to getting her nails clipped. It's not like I clip it so close it bleeds, so I don't know what her problem is.

I've never had to clip Ritter's nails because for some reason they just don't seem to get that long. Which kind of doesn't make sense when you compare him to Lilah. Lilah runs around a lot, so you would think her nails would wear down from all the activity. Ritter doesn't move nearly as much as Lilah, and yet his are usually short while Lilah's are long like claws. But my mom likes it when the fur between the dogs' pads is clipped short, so she pretty much gets his nails trimmed for that extra service.

For the sanitary trim, I don't mind doing it myself with some scissors. However I'm pretty sure my mom calls it a hack job behind my back. We did take Lilah to PetSmart once to get her nails clipped, pads trimmed, and sanitary cut. It was a disaster that left everyone exasperated and very annoyed.

Strangely though, the dogs seem relatively calm and easier to handle at the vet's. I have a sneaking suspicion that they drugged Lilah because she wasn't nearly as restless throughout the day and there was a suspicious "assistant technician fee"...perhaps the fee required for the guy administering her shot?

For what it costs though, I'd rather spend two hours following Lilah around the house trying to clip her nails and trim her fur. Ritter, well that's my mom's responsibility...

After months, we're free!

For the past few months, we've had to coordinate letting our dogs into the backyard with our neighbor. Our old, dilapidated, rustic-looking fence finally collapsed under the weight of the neighbor's dog, an enthusiastic pit bull-mix puppy. W (for the sake of anonymity) liked to jump on the fence and try to get over to our side, either driven by the desire for new human acquaintances or by the allure of both Lilah and Ritter. Just for the record, W succeeded a couple times in crossing over to our yard.

Well, Ritter would have nothing of the sort and the two would have at it (Lilah doesn't really notice the presence of other dogs). At first we all tried to mend the fence with wooden planks, particle board, metal grates, and poles to prop up the fence. All it did was offer W more purchase when trying to jump up the fence. So, in order to keep the peace and what little hope we had of preserving the fence, we had to call our neighbor and make sure that her dogs (W and B, a friendly, but older black lab) were in when ours were to go out.

It was inconvenient, tiring, annoying and sometimes not well coordinated. It created a lot of stress for dogs and humans alike.

So my mom and our neighbor finally came to an agreement. After this past week of workmen chopping down five huge trees and putting in a brand new fence, the dogs were finally able to run free in a much wider yard without worry of an unexpected puppy visitor.

Ditch Digger

Remember last summer, how I was clearing out some dead birch trees, and the dogs were both helpful and unhelpful? So after all that, there's about 4.5 square feet of open dirt. When I had just removed the stumps, I had tried to clear out the debris in order to ready the ground for another tree.

Well, six months later and there's still no tree planted, but that does not mean, however, that I have given up. With all the rain from last month, the clay-like dirt was easy to work with. So I got out the pick axe and started once again to remove some residual roots.

And every time, the dogs are right there, wanting in on the action. Ritter cares about gnawing on the roots, whereas Lilah is more interested in freeing the root from the ground. However this time, since the dirt was so soft from the rains, Ritter couldn't resist.

I wasn't able to catch video of them digging, but I do have evidence from a previous event where we dumped fresh dirt into a hole.



If there's soft dirt nearby, give Ritter a good five foot radius because that dog likes to dig in all directions.

I have a picture of him lying in the ditch he dug out, but I'll have to upload that later.

Guess Who Turned 2!

Happy Birthday Lilah!

That's right, Lilah turned two today. Using the old method of converting a dog's age to a human equivalent, Lilah would be 14. However, there has been a greater effort in the past ten years to more accurately study the human-dog-age conversion. So according to the more updated versions, Lilah is the equivalent of anywhere between 21 and 24 years old (just google "calculating a dog's age").

More important than the updated dog-years conversion method is the fact that Lilah and I are the same age and pretty much at the same point in life. We're both unemployed, living at home with our guardians and still, luckily, rent-free. *sigh* such a depressing life.

Maybe I really should get Lilah into agility training. That way she'll have the title of being a professional athlete, something I always thought would be pretty cool. And she'll also be able to start covering some of her own costs, Miss I-can-eat-whatever-I-want-and-not-have-to-worry-about-paying-expensive-vet-bills!

They're Clean!

There's just something about Lilah's fur that just captures and holds onto any little dust particles. Her white bib transforms to a grungy yellowish hue. Her butt-toupee gets crunchy from a buildup of spit and dirt. All in all it just looks not good.

Ritter on the other hand must be coated in Teflon. His fur isn't as fluffy as Lilah's so my mom and I figure the dirt just slips right off of him. His white, when dirty, just goes a little dull if anything. You don't even really feel the dirt on him when he's dirty.

Either way, they both appreciate a good bath and brushing. I've said it before, but after getting clean, Lilah's fur just sparkles. So beautiful. And Ritter's clean coat makes him resemble Richard Gere. So handsome.

This is how they act after their baths, but before their dry-off walks.

Stay on the Bed II

My mom purchased a large dog bed for Lilah and Ritter. Okay, and also for me and my mom. Due to bad knees, my mom can't get as close to the dogs as I can, and do things like sit on the floor with them. But with this cushioned and slightly elevated new dog mattress, she'd be able to sit with Ritter and Lilah to get the full bonding experience. Also I'd be able to sleep on a mattress on the ground instead of across the breakfast chairs.

Anyway, like most new things meant for the dogs to lie on, Lilah has to scratch the hell out of it. That is then followed by a battle between Lilah and Ritter as to who can claim it as their own. This is apparently decided by playing 'stay on the bed'.

Stay on the Bed

I don't know if this is such a common game, but when I was little, I played this silly game with my brothers. The concept was simple, stay on the bed. It's kind of like a variant of 'the floor is made of lava'. My brothers and I would get on my mom's California King bed, and wrestle around, trying to shove one another off the bed. Whoever managed to stay on the bed won the game. It was really fun.

Throughout the day, my mom or I have to readjust Ritter's bed, which consists of a crate pad wrapped in a towel. It usually ends up scrunched in a corner because Ritter is constantly jumping into his bed in order to get away from Lilah. He also does it when he's excited too.

"Well if it's just going to get messed up again so soon, why even bother fixing it?" you might ask. Are you so heartless that you can withstand the image of 40 lbs. dog jamming himself into a third of his bed, just to stay on his bedding? Because I am not, my friends. I am not.

Ritter no doubt has his heart set on winning the 'stay on the bed' game.