Bye Bye Black Dog

We're going to Davidson tomorrow to watch some basketball and see some friends. Britten's never seen my alma mater, so I'm pretty pumped to show it to her. Too bad it's supposed to be raining.

Something I never had to deal with before Chili came into my life (and subsequently Britten and Cozby) was figuring out what to do with a dog when I went out of town. I would just leave when I wanted to and get back when I wanted to. I can understand that this is a good "easing in" to the responsibilities of parenting (minus the diapers, but plus lots of shedding hair and slobber).

A while ago, we were very blessed to find the Pet Nanny of Richmond. She absolutely rocks! Very affordable, she'll come let dogs out or board them if she's got room. Since Cozby is a bit of a high maintenance dog, our preference in these scenarios is to have Cozby stay with his grandparents and Chili go board with the Pet Nanny. They both love it, and come back played out.

So tonight, as part of the preparations, I had to go drop Chili off at her house. I put Cozby in his crate and got the leash out for Chili. Boy, was Cozby upset that he wasn't getting the leash treatment - he howled and barked as I put the leash on Black Dog. We got in the car, and of course Chili whined the whole way over. Thankfully, there was no vomit involved.

Upon our arrival, Chili ran around for a second, then promptly marked the dining room chair. Sweet. Nice houseguest. You can dress him up (and he tries to eat the outfit), but you can't take him anywhere. Once we got that out of the way, and I'd apologized profusely, he went in the backyard with the Nanny's dog and another one that was there, and he proceeded to get humped headfirst by the other dog. He's going to have a great weekend.

Now it's just me and Cozby here, waiting for Britten to get home from work - she's working late to get something done for Monday. He's a little more relazed than normal, probably because he doesn't have to worry about Chili nerding him.

It's going to be such a fun weekend for all four of us, I can't wait!

Daddy is a tease

Tonight, we went to get started with our wedding album. We figured that it's been a year and half, probably about time. After our appointment, Britten went to meet some friends for a drink (Diet Coke), and then came home so that we could get a late workout in at the gym. She was coming by to pick me up, so I had to be ready.

Here's the problem. Our dogs, while VERY not smart, recognize the clothes that we wear when we take them for a walk. Not surprisingly, these are the same clothes that I wear to the gym. So as I was getting ready, I developed a bad case of circling sharks. They were super excited to go for a walk, but they were about to be sorely disappointed. When I told them to get in their crates, they were as confused as a pair of not smart animals can get. Poor guys, I'm such a walk tease.

Nothing going on

I figured that since nothing is going on in the dog world these days, everyone might enjoy pics of New Years. Cozby, surprisingly, loves a party. Chili, not surprisingly, loves everywhere there's food, so naturally he also loves parties.


Hope everyone is having a party of a day!

Frisky

Tonight was bath night for the dogs. Tomorrow, our house is getting cleaned, so it makes sense to get as much dog hair scattered as we can. Plus, this weekend, Cozby will be going to Lia and Big D's house and Chili will be staying with the pet nanny, so it would be rude to send dirty dogs out to stay with other folks.

I love bath time. Cozby loves bath time. He gets very frisky and prances all around, marveling at his cleanliness. Chili doesn't love bath time, but he does love the post bath. That's the time (as I've said before) that he tries to eat the towels.

I'd write more, but I'm watching the Prez speak to a joint session of Congress. Lots of clapping and shouting, I think our Congress members think of this as a big party.

Where in tarnation have you been?

Well, the UNC interview went really well. Britten was the only spouse that tagged along, but we had a great time going on the tour and lunching it up. All in all, a good day.

For the pooches, not necessarily the greatest day/night they've ever had. Big D let them out last night, this morning, and this afternoon, for which we're very grateful. Funny thing, we came back and they both decided that they'd never had anything to drink before. They downed the 2 liter bottle (our makeshift automatic waterbowl since ours broke) very quickly and are pacing around looking for more. I think I need to get up and refill the bottle before Chili starts drinking out of the toilet. Or licking the wall. Cozby doesn't seem that desperate, but I think he's just happt that his mommy is home.

Off to fill the 2 liter. 1 interview down. Where are we going to end up? Hopefully, it will be somewhere with water.

Abandonment

So, we're going to visit a school tomorrow and are leaving the dogs here tonight while we stay at the lake. I don't think they have any idea what's coming. Except Cozby. He's got a sixth or seventh sense like that.

They'll be well cared for. Big D is going to let them out tonight and tomorrow morning. Let's all hope that Chili doesn't do what he did the first time Big D came over - he jumped up and head butted Big D in the crotch. As I've said many times before, Chili has the IQ of a potato.

Wish me luck tomorrow!

Epic struggle

We did indeed go for a walk today, it was awesome. I know I worked up a sweat, and Cozby's tongue was definitely dragging. Unfortunately, the walk was preceded by watching Davidson lose to Butler in basketball and was followed by watching UNC lose to Maryland (who was sporting yellow jerseys - fear the yellow turtle?). I was able to have a good run this morning, so I'd say that the day is still ahead on points.

Britten is working (at her third job...) right now, so it's me and the dogs once again. A little while ago, I gave them both rawhides. Chili devoured his, of course. Cozby didn't touch his, of course. But he is being very strategic and lying with his head on the bones. In this manner, he's preventing Chili from stealing them. Black Dog has made a few laps around the house, pondering how to get the bones from Cozby. Every time he even looks in Cozby's direction, Cozby growls. It's a chess match. Seeing as the combined IQ of the dogs is probably less than that of an inanimate chess piece, I don't see the game ending anytime soon.

I'm half tempted to get up and take the bones and give them to Chili, because with nothing to chew on, he's opted to lick his genitals. Very noisily. There are grunts involved. I wish I was kidding.

Taken

We went to see "Taken" tonight. It was awesome. Liam Neeson is great. But not much happened with the dogs today, so I'm going to have to go to a fallback plan. Here's what it looks like when you really meet Chili.



He's crazy. But tomorrow, they're getting walks and baths, so that's awesome!

EDIT - I just realized that I'd already posted that video. Shame on me. That cold must have really kicked my butt, because I don't remember that post at all. I apologize to you, blogosphere.

Motivated

We had only a little time between work and going out to dinner with our friends tonight. The dogs were outside for a bit, and we were going to put them straight into their crates, but I elected to let them in for a quick second.

Their reactions showed their true motivations in life. Cozby ran in and attached himself to Britten. Chili ran in and sprinted to Britten until he realized that she had no food, then he sprinted back to me (I was near the food). I swear, they're nothing if not predictable and idiotic. Except Cozby, he's smart enough to want to stay with Britten.

And by the by, Virginia and Millie are super cute!

Thiever!

Normally, when we give the dogs their rawhides, there's a 50% chance that Chili will take one of Cozby's, even though he has 2 for himself. He'll usually do it while Cozby is eating his first bone, and Cozby looks around for a second like...well, like someone stole his bone. Of course, he quickly resumes chomping away and things wind up fine. Sometimes we'll take a bone back From Chili and give it to Cozby.

Tonight, things got kicked up a notch. Chili stole the bone out of Cozby's mouth. The audacity, it's amazing. Plus, Cozby is a bit of a wimp. He did growl, but after he lost the bone, he gave the same old look. We gave it back to him, and the world returned to normal.

Patient

I think we'll call this the great cold of 2009. I thought I was well enough to go to work today, but found found that I had to come home around 10:00. Bummer, I was planning on getting back on the exercise kick again today, I guess it will have to wait until tomorrow.

So here we are again, with me having been hanging with the dogs all day, and they've been slugging it out on their beds. Of course, now Chili is patiently waiting by the front door (he might even know that Britten is coming home). Cozby is giving me the normal, "What did you do with my mommy?" stare, although he knows that she's on her way home. He's got that sixth sense, you know.

Lovely thunder

My cold did not get better overnight. If anything, it got worse. As such, no work for me today. That meant the dogs were hanging out all day. Since it was very cold (or at least cold for Richmond), I didn't feel like I could leave them outside for hours at a time, so for the most part they were inside while I was semi-comatose on the couch. Thankfully for me, there was a How It's Made marathon on TV. Unfortunately, the dogs aren't very interested in how things are put together, so they were restless all day.

Finally, after the entire day (and after the marathon ended and began to repeat), things picked up. I had put the dogs outside before dinner, and was settling back into the couch when I heard the sound of thunder. Not thunder as in rain, but thunder as in pounding paws on the deck. The dogs were finally getting out some energy. About time.

Restless

I've got a cold. It's been coming on for a couple of days, but today it was in full swing. As such, I didn't go over to Britten's parents' house to celebrate her dad's birthday. Instead, I buried myself under some blankets and just felt terrible in between taking doses of stuff. It's been an awesome day.

Britten took Cozby with her, so it was just me and Chili here. Without Cozby here, Chili is a bit of a restless freak. He wanders around, lost, looking for something. It's kinda cute, Cozby is Chili's grounding agent - without Cozby, Chili is lost.

I really wish he'd settle down though.

Ugh

I've got a cold. It's not fun. It really didn't make the second day of the wrestling tournament very much fun.

I'm sure it wasn't a great day for the dogs either, as they were in their crates all day again. But on a good note, tonight, Britten finally came home just in time to briefly celebrate Valentine's Day. Hooray!!!

All that leads up to there not being any dog stories again today. I'm wiped (and apparently so are they, as they're flopped on their beds). For now, enjoy what it feels like to be greeted by Chili.

State tourney, day 1

Today, I was at the state wrestling tournament all day, so I didn't get to hang with my boys at all. Actually, that's not entirely true. I didn't need to leave until just before noon, so we went for a walk in the morning, which was awesome, but devoid of stories.

Since there was a lack of stuff to tell, I thought it would be good to show everyone just how much I love to torment Chili. Last night, after I had posted here and done everything else I needed to do, I just happened to have a hankering for watching the video of Chili howling at the cell phone. When I did so, even though he was mostly asleep, Chili reacted. Poor guy, he doesn't deserve the harassment I put him through. Or maybe he does, because it's funny.

Toga! Toga! Toga!

Britten is out of town for a couple of days at her coaching thing, so it's just us three bachelors hanging out here at the house. I figured there's no better way to take advantage of her absence than having a party worthy of being in Animal House. Toga!!!

Back here in reality, things are much more mellow when Britten is gone. The dogs and I all feel a bit empty when she's not around, so there's not much romping going on.

Since there isn't much action, I thought it might be time to tell about when we built our deck. The actual deck-building part was difficult and fun and involved lots of help from our families and friends, but that's not the story. The real story is the night that we let the dogs out onto the half finished deck for the first time. They had been inside watching the construction all day and were more than ready to rumble. This is one of those moments that I think really shows them at their finest. Well, either this or every night when Chili regurgitates his bone and Cozby gnaws his in pure joy. Maybe it's a close second.

Big news

This morning, we had some big happenings at our household. I let the dogs out as usual before getting in the shower. When I emerged and was getting dressed, a huge commotion erupted from the backyard. There's always some barking from back there - Chili letting the darkness know that he's got solidarity with it, or Cozby noticing that there's other things in the world making noise - but this was different, so I was compelled to take a look.

I stepped out on the deck half dressed and saw the dogs in the back corner of the yard barking at something. Figuring it was just someone in an adjacent yard, I called to them and in their agitated state, they came racing back to the sliding glass door. Because I'm a punk and like to mess with their minds, I closed the door and didn't let them in. They gave me a confused look, then tore off to the back corner again and resumed their barking. I repeated the process 3 more times, with the exact same results, before Britten intervened and I really went out to take a look.

It was not someone in an adjacent yard. It was a raccoon on a telephone pole. What's more, the raccoon probably challenged both our mutts in the weight department - I'd guess it was at least 30 pounds. After seeing that, and recalling vividly our experience with mandatory rabies vaccinations this summer, I quickly herded the dogs inside. Sadly, no pictures, but maybe the varmint will be back tomorrrow.

Average night

So, tonight was just another typical night at our house. Britten got her nails done, so I was home alone for a little bit. While the wait wasn't very interesting from a dog perspective, it did afford me the opportunity to take a video of what happens when Britten comes home. It wasn't the most active they've been, they're probably still tired from the hike the other day, but it was pretty exemplary of what happens every time.



After dinner, there were some other usual nightly activities. Britten's computer bag fell over and scared the crap out of Cozby. Not literally, thankfully, though sometimes when he gets scared his anal glands express and it smells like fish everywhere around him. It didn't seem to have any long lasting effects, though, as he's now slugged out.

And of course, it wouldn't be an average night without Chili regurgitating a bone. Sorry, no video of that, I'll save that for some other time when I haven't talked about anal glands and need some material to gross you out. Funny thing about this time was that he had finished his bone about 15 minutes before regurgitating and didn't show any of the normal signs of needing to get anything up. Nothing. One minute, he's sitting on his bed and the next, up comes a bone. Happy Tuesday.

Upside down snuggler

I think the dogs are still tired tonight from the walk yesterday. I can relate, my legs are a bit sore as well.

So, rather than regale you with no real story about how they are slugged out and haven't really moved all night, I think it's time to show you all what a dog's impression of a crocodile looks like.






As I said, I'm in need of some gym time, but if you could read the shirt, you could see that I'm quite smart.

70 degrees in February

The weather was amazingly awesome today. (In case you didn't already know this, it should be evident from the last sentence that I didn't major in creative writing). 70 degrees and sunny, just the recipe for going to the parks in downtown Richmond and taking the bozos for a nice long walk. In trying to figure out a place to walk, we remembered a 10K that we ran back in October. The course was nice, and was well suited for a good dog adventure.

We were not the only ones who had this bright idea, so the route was a tad bit crowded. As a side note, if you're walking in a public place, please keep your dog on a leash. Not only is it a law in Virginia to leash all dogs, but to not do so is a pain to everyone around you. Regardless, the walk was awesome. Pics:











Starting off on Brown's Island, we crossed the Mayo Bridge (lots of glass here, the dogs wished they had shoes so we didn't have to take crazy detours). Then up along the western portion of the floodwall walk, past one of our favorite places, Legend Brewery,who was unfortunately having their anniversary party, so it was going to be too crowded for us to go tonight. Then up past the Manchester Wall, where I spent many an afternoon climbing. Down some stairs, and it was across to Belle Isle (more on that later). After dodging the leashless dogs, groups of uncomfortable looking emo folks, groups of visibly high folks, and crossing the swaying Lee Bridge, we were back where we started, and ready to go home.

As for Belle Isle, we did have an added adventure when we found out the a bridge that we needed to cross was closed, so we found ourselves in need of crossing the river via the rocks. This isn't really a problem when it's just us humans, but there were several points where the dogs forced us to take alternate routes. Still, we came away with a much greater appreciation for their athletic abilities. At one point, however, no amount of athleticism would suffice - there was a five foot high old concrete slab to scale (humans accomplished this via a ladder). Britten climbed up and I had to lift the disgraced dogs up onto the slab to her. I think they were taken down a notch...don't want their egos getting too big.

By far, the highlight of the day, though was Chili tring to mark his territory. Isn't not that funny of a thing in itself, but he managed to make it interesting. First, when we stopped for water (see photo above), he peed on the bench right where Britten was sitting. The next time we stopped for water, he tried to pee on the backpack. Crazy mutt.

Now we're in the backyard, enjoying the last minutes of nice weather (and the nice wireless that allows me to write this from the backyard). Happy times, this will be a good day to remember.

Weekend walks and mental breakfast

Today was indeed a big day, lots of activity. We worked out, had wrestling practice, a birthday party, walk at Lia & Big D's house, etc. What that meant for the dogs is that they were in and out of their crates a lot. Not too bad for them, because they wound up getting mental breakfast about four times. Mental breakfast is something we instituted as a compromise. First, we thought that they needed to have breakfast, so we were feeding them the same amount as their dinner, only in the morning. There were two effects from this, one positive and one negative. On the one hand, the mutts were much more eager to get in their crates in the morning, particularly Chili. On the other hand, they really started packing on the pounds. We wouldn't be good owners if we knowingly fattened our dogs up, but we wanted them to enjoy getting in their crates, so we decided on mental breakfast. This is about five kernels of dog food in their crates, just enough to keep them interested in getting in the crates. It's perfect. On days like today, though, they've had enough mental breakfast to add up to a meal.

We also went for a quick walk today, which was also great. They do love a weekend, because that's when we really have time to get out and pound the pavement with them. No matter how long or short the walk is, they still come back exercised and happy (probably because of that whole three second memory thing). I think tomorrow we're going to go downtown to some of the state parks and get a nice long walk. Very exciting, and the perfect way to spend time with our 12 legged family.

Jerks

Tomorrow is Clarke's 5th birthday party, so we spent most of the night at Lia & Big D's house preparing for the festivities. I am quite certain that our "Bowling for Pygmies" activity will be a big hit, even though it doesn't have a ton to do with the Indiana Jones theme. The pygmies are all quite stylized, so they should provide enjoyable targets for the youngsters.

What that means is that we got home late and the dogs had been in their crates for a long time. While we might have been ready for bed, they were not at all. Tough, we have lots to do tomorrow. Sorry guys, we're jerks.

Worried

Today, I'm worrying about one of my wrestlers. He's been around for the entire time that I've been a coach - he's the younger brother of one of the guys on the wrestling team when I started coaching eight years ago. He's had a few concussions (I've had 13, unfortunately), and in his senior year he's had his 4th one a few weeks before the state tournament. He's got a difficult decision to make tonight about what he's going to do next week. I'm praying for him as he tries to figure it out.

There's not much to talk about regarding the dogs tonight, but I thought I'd show you all what they look like when they're slugged out. This is from a couple of nights ago, but it's exactly what they look like right now.


Robert, Chili is thinking of you. With all 3 of his brain cells.

I ain't got the words

There's really not much to say about this. I got home from my parents' house, where we got a plane ticket for me to go up to Chicago for my Kellogg interview, then this happened. He does this every once in a while, I think the last time was at my bachelor party - excellent timing. No idea what causes it, but he'll stop doing it by tomorrow.



I need to go wash myself. Twice.

Biggest loser

I'm trying to be discreet in writing this because we're watching the Biggest Loser right now, and Britten can't help but look at what I'm writing. Funny, because a little while ago, I asked if she'd read the blog, but she hadn't in a while. No biggie. However, I decided that her punishment should be to watch/hear the videos of Chili howling from this post.

What's great is that hearing the video freaked Chili out. It wasn't the first time he'd had a reaction to the video...



Today, a coworker gave me a hard time about this blog because I badmouth Chili so much. I don't think that's accurate, I just tell the funny stories about how loony both of our dogs are. And loony they are.

It reminds me of my heritage

We're having taco salad for dinner (cue the "Real Men of Genius" commercial). Upon hearing this, I told Britten that Cozby liked taco salad because it reminded him of his heritage. I don't think he actually has any kind of Latin heritage, not even the chihuahua bloodline that I used for explanation of my comment, but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't turn away from some taco salad.

We also realized that it appears that Cozby has a reverse mowhawk running down the middle of his back right now. If we went by the taco paradigm, I'd be prone to claiming that he has Rhodesian ridgeback in his ancestry perhaps. Not so, though. We unfortunately know that it's because he's carrying a bit of extra weight and his back is wider than normal. In fact, all the males in the household are carrying a bit of extra weight, so we're going to have to get back on the exercise wagon. No more slugs. And probably less taco salad. Poor Cozby, it will be like turning away his ancestry.

I should write a book

We made it down and back to Williamsburg with no car vomit, so that's a victory in itself. Chili made a name for himself (or really just lived up to one that he fully deserves) of being a good dog to have around to get up crumbs.

When we got back, we decided to avoid the folks that were in our neighborhood going door-to-door, and go for a walk. Hey, it's not often that it's over 60 degrees in the beginning of February in Richmond.

We have an awesome place to go walk, though it's not our neighborhood - it's the one we'd like to live in. We passed a pre-Super Bowl game of flag football in someone's yard (of course, the dogs were quite interested in this). It's just the kind of neighborhood where there's a good sense of community and fun, so it's a great place to go for a hard walk with our bunnies.

As we were going along, we had the sun at our backs at one point and the dogs shadows came out. Chili prances, so his ears flop up and down. Cozby waddles (and by this point was tired), so his tongue hangs almost to the ground. Britten said, "Look at those shadows! I should write a book about dog shadows." It's so true, they really show the dogs' personalities well.

On a side note, another aspect of Cozby being tired is his mouth froths. He managed to get a glob of spit on Chili, then really slime Britten's leg and jacket. He couldn't leave me out of the equation, so when we got back to the house, he shook his head and threw flecks of slobber everywhere. We had to towel both dogs off to save our new rug. Nice.