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Animals

Holes

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We took an afternoon walk and the boys found a hole and took turns digging it up some more. Upon reflection, I’m not sure if it is appropriate to allow them to be digging on someone else’s property but they are SO freakin cute when they dig.

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Animals

Dobie Selfie

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On the left is Drake, and I am in love. Drake is a 112 pound Doberman who is tall, lean, and gorgeous. Drake’s nuclear family consists of two dads who seem equally as sweet and interesting as he is.

When it comes to bigger dogs, Labrador and Golden Retrievers are one of my favorites but I really like Doberman Pinschers. In general, they are smart and sweet. Despite their seemingly intimidating stature, they are usually good with people and pets.

On the right is Gar’s dad’s former Dobie, Daisy, with Loki and Rowan at our home. She was a lot of fun to be around and was so cute with our dogs.

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Animals

Nobody Here But Us Cushions

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Rowan likes to snuggle down deep into the cushions.

Categories
Animals

Naughty Row Row Tricks

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A couple of days ago, while I was working from home, Rowan pulled paper towels out of the trash that had I used to soak up beef fat and began eating them. I’ve had my new trash can for four months and thought it was impenetrable. It is tall and has a lid heavy enough to keep Rowan out, or so I thought. What pissed me off most about this is that Rowan jeopardized the kitten. Stitch Murphy was sitting right next to him trying to join in on the fun. By now I know that Rowan has a stomach of steel and is in no way prone to pancreatitis but he could’ve made the kitten really sick. I yelled at him and he ran to the bed and did this pose. I really can’t stay mad at him for long, he is uncommonly cute.

I’ve been thinking that, when you have a little dog who is as food motivated and hyper as Rowan, it is like being the parent of a toddler who never grows older and is hell-bent on eating anything that remotely resembles food. Part of my relationship with Rowan involves discovering and putting an end to his food retrieval techniques. For the longest time, I kept bread, rice, and tortillas (since I use these items pretty often) on a waist-high rack that is in my woodblock island in the kitchen.

Well, one night while I was sleeping (this is before I began locking Rowan in the bedroom at night) Row Row perfected the method of standing in the lowest rack of the island while nudging food items through the space between the wood slats to the end of the rack and, finally, getting out of the island and standing on his tip-toes to retrieve the food items from the edge of the rack. I woke up in the middle of that night to find Rowan just finishing off a bag of corn tortillas. He had already eaten an entire loaf of onion dill rye bread and half a bag of uncooked rice. FYI, uncooked rice just goes right through them pretty much unchanged. Before this incident, Rowan got some uncooked rice but I couldn’t figure out how and I didn’t know that he ate the rice until I saw his rice poop the next day.

Anyhow, I took Rowan to the emergency clinic that night to induce vomiting and he ended up being just fine. I called them when I was leaving to find out the cost of these things and to tell them what my dog had done. When I walked in the door the receptionist said, “That little guy ate all that? I thought you were going to bring a lab in.” No, my lab was still sleeping like an angel at home. Then, and I’m really not making this up, Rowan shit on their welcome mat.

Categories
Animals

Rowan

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Rowan (aka RowRow, Rogan Bear, psycho pants, chi-coo, door-stop, turkey) spent his childhood living with drug lords on a coca farm in Colombia. This fact is completely reflected in his personality. Rowan has two modes at home, he is either acting like he just hit a crack pipe or he is sleeping. I cannot even begin to tell you all the mischief he has caused in our household. However, Rowan is extremely cute, so it’s impossible be angry with him for more than a second.

Categories
Animals Life

Going Camping!

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The time finally came for Gar and I to go on a camping vacation! We went to a creek-side, woodsy area in the Los Padres National Forest and this time we took all three dogs. To prepare for the trip I decided that I should organize everything I could and put it in small plastic bins. This would make loading and unloading extremely easy. I realized how crazy I am and how crazy about the dogs I am when I began to pack their things. I made a bin that was devoted to bandaging and also contained clotting gauze packs. This bin is separate from the bin that includes the general, human first aid. I made a dog medication bin.

When I put together a doggie first-aid kit for camping, it got me thinking about what a basic kit for dogs should be. Each kit would vary depending upon the individual needs of your dog and your destination. However, I think there a few things that are essential for any kit.

Categories
Animals

Peed On Again

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Every time Loki pees Rowan either pees on Loki’s pee after he’s done or pees on Loki while he’s peeing. There’s really not much more to say except that Rowan is a crazy little dog. If you’ve seen Despicable Me 2, Rowan reminds me of the minions when they’re injected with that weird shit and they turn purple and act all crazy. If you don’t get that reference, Rowan is just a very hyper, happy little dog with attention deficit disorder who makes weird gremlin noises a lot.