The Teacher Becomes the Student

So, they call it "dog school" but it's really school for people that are not smarter than their dogs. Yes, D and I are part of this category. Tonight we completed our second of eight dog classes. Fortunately, the class is only for puppies so, though Felix was the first in the class to go to the bathroom on the floor, he will not be the last. (please, please, please) It's embarrassing when your dogs leaves little presents on the floor of the classroom, but when someone else's dog vomits everywhere, well that's really funny.

It turns out that D and I have not been making ALL the common dog training mistakes, but we're certainly making plenty of them. I mean, did you know that you have to take the dogs out every day to successfully house train them?!?!?! And since when did puppies eat things that aren't good for them? I mean now we have to clean up all those puddles of antifreeze and chocolate we've got all over the house! And WHAT am I going to do with my poisonous plant collection?

No, we're actually learning a lot and now have dogs that mostly come when we call them and can even sit down for a few seconds. It's really interesting to watch the dog trainer try to peg everyone in the class. She thought she knew D & I and the dogs right off the bat. I apparently came off as the one that babies the dogs and doesn't raise my voice. HA!! She also assumed that we each had our own dog, as if one was "mine" or "his". Neither one is mine when they've just peed on the floor. Those are D's dogs! Anyway, it's interesting and gets us off the ranch for something other than work or a trip to Austin. I guess we'll keep going.....if only so Felix can learn that he's not actually 150 pounds of pure muscle ready to devour another dog on the spot. Yes, he's one of those big dogs in a tiny body. Well, I've made you read long enough. Here's what you really came for:


This is a picture at the puppies first house. We took them back to play with their mom and uncle. Once the sniffing was over, all they wanted to do was go outside.




















Above is Cookie (mom) with Felix. He seemed to recognize her right away, though Oscar didn't ever really warm up.

Left is Oscar with Uncle Squirrel. They're almost the same size as each other. It's pretty funny since Squirrel is from the same litter as Cookie, who actually grew.




Another shot of them on the couch with me. There seem to be a lot of these. Maybe I should get outside more often.......Nah.

The Chihuahua-nator

Well, in our infinite wisdom, D and I decided to go our separate ways this past weekend. He went to San Antonio to help an old professor run for president of ALA and I went to Austin to spend one last weekend with my sis before she moves to Chicago. We decided not to just leave them in the yard with a thawing steak and hope for the best......so I took them with me. Yes Kelly, I came to town with puppies and didn't tell you. This trip was all about Mel. And housetraining. And making sure Charlie (family dog) didn't eat the pups for lunch. I mean if your dog could channel the Terminator, you would worry a little too. Can anyone say "deadlights"?




So we had to introduce them in neutral territory and keep a pretty close eye on them all weekend. Charlie did a decent job of ignoring them when he could, but when two furry balls of energy come running at you full speed, ignoring gets a little difficult. But he did well for his first time. Somewhere in the dog afterlife my Aunt's dog watched this all happen and laughed. Once Charlie was the eager puppy and she was the grouchy old dog not willing to play. How the tables have turned, Charlie.

After some initial sniffing in places and barking, they all seemed to settle down and just tolerate each other.




He still has those evil eyes.........

We also discovered that on cold days at home Oscar & Felix happily sit in front of our space heater for as long as we'll let them.





You've managed to avoid the dog sweaters so far boys, but look out! There will be many more winters in your futures.

Sweaters.....they'll be back.

Ahhh! We fed them after midnight!





But seriously, I have been wanting to try this out for a while and this first effort seemed to go fairly well. Next time I'll use a tripod. Enjoy!

Kindergarten Masters

Hi all. Guess I'll put in my little bit since my Glamour mag is not available at the moment. Well, this puppy thing has sealed the deal. NO KIDS, EVER! If two dogs are this much work, how does anyone raise a human being?!?

Nah, it's not all that bad. The pups are getting the hang of house training and we haven't had anything major destroyed by puppy teeth yet. I am going to take them to Austin soon. THAT should be interesting. My sis is moving to big Chicago so we have to hang out one last time, puppies or no puppies.

Never have D or I been greeted so warmly upon coming home from work or waking up in the morning. It's a bit of an ego boost to stumble out of bed at 6 am with dragon breath, oily hair and big bags under your eyes and still get such a warm reception right off the bat. Yes, they mostly have to pee, but I'll take what I can get.

We all start puppy kindergarten next week. Yes, as a matter of fact, I did tattoo "SUCKER" across my forehead recently. As D & I are both amateurs at this dog thing, we thought we'd take the pups to dog school just for kicks (and a small fee). It should be quite interesting to see whose dog pees on the floor first and if one attacks another puppy in the class. I must confess, as I read the description of the class, I said to D "We are so going to kick all those other dog's asses." That's right! We got this training thing down! Look out Petstar, here we come!

Ah, I do love delusions of grandeur. I'm sure we'll get what's coming to us. At least puppy kindergarten will be great fodder for future posts. Wish the little guys luck!

Today is Sunday. As you can see below, I'm catching up on some reading. Who battled cancer, what kind of lip gloss won't glue my lips together, and how can I give the WWW the finger in a very very subtle way.

Its also mid-lame month and we still have yet to take down the holiday lights. M is currently running around the house trying to get the dogs to chase her. Sometimes they chase, and sometimes they do that ass-rubbing-the-floor run.

Anyway, without further .... blah blah...here are some more pictures:

Felix

The dogs doing their best Elizabeth Taylor

Oscar: Pooping, or climbing the couch?

Another action shot.

They get their 2nd round of shots on Wednesday, including meds to rid them of tapeworm, which they got by eating the fleas that they had when they lived with their mom. We'd leave the tapeworms in, but we aren't raising models.

In Archives news, there was a very good article in this quarter's American Archivist. In about 40 pages, it told me to stop living in a fantasy world and start putting whatever information I had on unprocessed collections on the website. The thesis being that I will never have enough time to completely process them all, as long as I am taking in new acquisitions. So with all of that out of the way, I can get new shelving. Yea for me. I never thought that shelving could excite me so. It would excite me more if it was that kind that is made of arched bars instead of solid metal.

So today is Friday the 13th, but its in the lamest month of the year, January. So how lame is January? Two holidays, New Year's and MLK Day. One obviously travels, the other is subject to non-observation depending on your job and your geographic locale. Here in Albany, MLK Day is sacrificed so that the school can shut down when the Stock Show comes to town. Why should they, there are no blacks here...is the reason one will get when asked why MLK Day is not observed. The true meaning of MLK Day seems to be completely lost here.

So again, January is lame. Its a cold, slow march from the drunken bliss of the holidays to the brief and commercial facade that is Valentines Day. Pass the marzipan! From then on, its gets better. There is the March of Easter (for my family, an excuse to get together and barbecue), the April Birthdays (about 12 of them), and on to the Friday of the months, May, usually marked by good weather and summer vacation planning. And then it will be summer again, with the blistering heat that I call normal. By then, the dogs will be fully grown and trained enough so that we can dump them off on my sister while we fly off to someplace for vacation. Likely California.

So when most of you are enjoying your Monday off (as I get every Monday, mofos), remember Megan as it will be business as usual.

BTW, I told you all that it would be hard to keep up with this and raise the puppies at the same time.

Hey Bloggers,

No pictuers at this juncture. The dogs are more or less the same. Since the last tiime, we have only had two incidence of fecal espionage. Unfortunately, we have had countless accidents with the number one, but luckily it doesn’t stain and the carpet is tan anyway. We do believe they are catching on though, but for them to catch on, I have say, in a very high voice, “Do you have to go potty?” I have to say this evertime I think they may have to go, and everytime we go out. This is easy for Megan, she has a high voice. I just sound like a chode.

I also found out that I am going to go to ALA midwinter in San Antonio, but just for the opening weekend. I’m going just to campaign for Dr. Roy, who as you all may or may not know is running for ALA president in March. I’m going to stay with my old firend Diego, who is a pharmacist, and we all know what kind of month he has been having. I always thought that sometimes he could be a bit callous, but callousness is a necessity now with angry seniors getting screwed by the transition from Medicaid to Medicare Plan D.

Despite the long drive, I have hope that it’ll be a good time, plus I’ll get to try my salesman skills on a different group of people. At the archives conference, I usually sell raffle tickets, now I’ll try my best at selling Dr. Roy. Who wants to come with me?

Happy New Year!

If you are wondering where we have been the answer is puppies. True "puppies" is not a real answer, or even gramatically correct, or sensical, but it is succinct. We got Felix and Oscar on Tuesday and they really are like children. They wake up at 7:20 a.m., take five naps a day and pee every hour or so.

Luckily, they haven't done much peeing inside, and only two sneaky logs in the bathroom. Megan is doing a great job training them this week while she is off. Megan is the alpha dog, which means I am of the status of Felix and Oscar. Well, not quite.

I scared the crap out of them last night while I, like the rest of Austin was jumping and yelling. I could barely contain my excitement. I have been waiting for 8 years (though some had to wait 36) for this win and for it to have been the greatest game i've seen all year was, like the booger, the icing on the cake. For those of you who missed the game or "don't care," even you would have to admit that the Rose Bowl was a great game...had you seen it.

Back to puppies. Felix is mellow, inquisitive, and smart. Oscar is active, needy, and an instigator. Together they form chode-dog. Like all children they are monkey-see, monkey-do(or funky-see, funky-do); if one is playing with a toy, the other immediately wants to play with it; they fight constantly...bite eachother's wiener thinking its a teet...

And now, here are the most recent pictures, 7 weeks.

Sleeping dogs lie (boo).

That is a carrot



This is Megan doing her best stiff arm.

Self explanatory

The End