Meaggi-Angel

A to Z Mad About You

Titles: NAJ, NJP, OJP

March 8, 1998 – Sept. 24, 2012

It never gets any easier.  We love them so much and we feel so responsible.  When the time comes that our feelings of responsibility come into conflict with reality, we are faced with a decision that robs peace of mind.  Meaggi has been healthy most of her life, a blessing we both enjoyed.   My sweet girl was gracious enough to have two problems go critical at once, so I won't second guess my decision.  Either one alone would have taken her from me in just a few weeks.  Together she was in discomfort that could not be relieved and would soon escalate.  The only thing I could do for her was release her from this old failing body, the last kindness.

Meaggi was weak and didn't want to eat.  Clearly a last walk was out of the question.  On Saturday when she had a better day and was still interested in food, we spent a bit of time sitting in the grass - me tossing treats for her to find.  After awhile, even that was too much.  Today she didn't really want to eat, but would take special goodies if I hand fed them.  So McDonald's for breakfast was a natural place to start.

We arrived early at the vet's office and sat waiting in the car.  I fed her M&Ms... the first of her life.  She seemed to enjoy them and sucked the sugar coating off before biting down.  Still after half a package, she'd had enough.  All their lives together I referred to Meaggi and Michael as "M&M".  So it wasn't lost on me that when the last of M&M was leaving me, she spent time during her last day eating M&Ms.  

We spent the rest of the time waiting with me petting her while she fell asleep, for the first time today losing that shivering that dogs do when they are hurting.  When the time came to go in, it seemed so wrong to wake her up, but had to be done.  It can't be coincidence that this grand old spottie-dottie lady, at fourteen and a half years, according to the 7 year dog-to-human conversion, leaves me at the age of 101. 

Doc had the room ready for her.  It was a very peaceful passing... He gave her a sedative with a lot of narcotic in it, to ease her pain as she went to sleep.  Within a minute the shivering passed again and soon she drifted into a relaxed sleep.  When he gave her the final shot, my hand was resting on her heart and I swear it stopped beating before he'd even pushed the plunger all the way.  She was ready to go.  All good things come to an end.

Meaggi was always both a happy girl and a good girl.  She was clearly her mother's daughter.  Her biggest job in life was to be my couch buddy.  This is Meaggi on her fourteenth birthday, doing couch duty.  Do note, she was still wearing her heart on her sleeve. 

When she was young we did a lot of walks in the woods.  There was never a puddle that couldn't be mucked around in.  Sometimes she would roll and come up covered in mud.  She was happy to walk, no matter what the weather - even when the mud was frozen.

Early last year, at age 13, Meaggi was still getting around well enough to enjoy showing Gimme how to explore during walks.  I loved watching them, because everything Meaggi did, Gimme copied a few feet away, her little shadow.

We dabbled at agility and Meaggi earned three titles, despite all odds.  Although she was focused and responsive in training - at trials all that went out the window.  Somewhere she got the idea that speed was the most important thing at trials.  She would throw on the afterburners and warp through courses leaving me in her dust.  Although we weren't often successful, it was always a fast, fun and wild ride.  Clearly she had the same intense and serious look as Michael.  Unfortunately the pictures don't capture how fast her tail wagged.  It always seemed about to fling off into the farthest corner of the ring. 

Meaggi always had very involved false pregnancies.  When the time came she would find a toy and mother it for several weeks.  She'd carry the baby everywhere, even bringing it to bed.  Once while she was sleeping, I snuck in six more and she was very big eyed when she awoke to see how her brood had grown.  Within minutes, about half of them had been rolled off the couch.  Certain toys were not acceptable as substitute babies no matter how many times I tried to sneak them in.  I finally offered her a whole basket of toys to choose from - you'll see here that she has a certain theme about what was appropriate.

Meaggi was also known as the "Supreme Queen Duchess of the Universe".  So of course, it was only appropriate that her babies be celestial bodies - suns, moons and stars.  She was completely consistent about this throughout her several false pregnancies.

Even when she had a large brood of six to ten babies, Meaggi carried them everywhere.  She'd make many trips to move them from one couch to the other, or to my bed.  In the morning she'd carry one outside with her to pee and then drop it on the couch on the way back in - resuming her job, moving them one by one until they were all in one place again.

Michael used to drive her crazy during these times.  He would watch her and wait for her to fall asleep.  Then very stealthily, he would kidnap a "baby", laying in front of her, waiting for her to awaken and notice.  As soon as she did, he'd begin tossing the baby in the air to either catch it or pounce on it, while emitting his high pitched goofy-boy bark.  I always pictured him saying, "I'm socializing, I'm socializing..."  There was no mistaking the meaning of the wail that came from mother Meaggi, "Mommmmmmmmmm!"  That wail wouldn't stop until I took the baby away from Michael and returned it to her.  Some things are universal, no matter what the species -- brothers tormenting sisters seems to be one of those.

Following her last season, I wasn't expecting a false pregnancy, since the season only lasted a few days.  Thus the celestial bodies weren't available when Meaggi was ready to mother a baby.  Then what should happen, but that she brings an apple in the house.  She carried it around for days, everywhere she went.  She slept with it, always being sure that it was tucked up safely next to her.  I got the basket of toys out, but she was not interested in them.

On the tenth day of motherhood, Meaggi woke from a nap and must have been a bit hungry.  Finding an apple close by, she started munching away.  Suddenly she realized, in horror, what she had done!  She was distraught, spitting out the piece in her mouth and pushing the pieces all together in a pile.  She was so upset and really didn't know what to do and wouldn't settle down.  I had no choice but to find another apple of the same size, and distract her with one hand, while using the other hand to sweep the baby-remnants into the trash and replace them with a new apple baby.  She still seemed upset and uncertain.  However, after another nap, she woke and was apparently happy and content again; obviously having concluded that the cannibalism episode was all just a very bad dream. 



I miss you already Meaggi girl.  For all the joy you brought me, I thank you.  Until we meet again, run free and be happy.  Wait for me.   Love, Mom

Meaggi NW (#2)

Meaggi did just as well on her second session as on her first.  I think she was more excited and thus, a bit less focused, but overall she did nicely and found all the food.  She thinks this is a whole bunch of fun.  Meaggi tends to gravitate to where I am standing and searches the boxes nearest to me, so that is useful information. 

I notice she has a hard time knowing when to stop searching, since she really can't see me putting the boxes away and so keeps looking for them.  Soon I will start putting her in a little harness, so that will become the cue of when to search and when she is done.  I also see that if a box has a closed lid, it takes her a lot more effort to get into it, since she can't really see how to open the flap.  Of course, that only slows her down, doesn't stop her.  She is certainly persistent.  After we are done, I do find her more settled for a few hours. 

Interesting and possibly unrelated, last time for the first time in over a year,  I noticed that evening she actually wanted to drink water.  I didn't see that last night, but its possible she went to the bowl outside.  Getting her to take in enough fluids is a struggle since she doesn't drink water anymore.  I have to add water to her meals and I float treats in the water or add flavors to it to get her to drink up.  Once she gets started she does well, just tends to sniff water and then walk away.  Now that its summer, I'm going to make her up some tuna-water ice cubes. 

Gimme has been meeting with Grafton for nosework field trips and is doing well.  There have been some really hard hides for her to deal with and she's being challenged with drifting or pooling odor and having a hard time following it back to source.  I just let her work through it.  Another challenge that is an issue is that the hides aren't out for very long before she is searching for them, so there hasn't been time for the odor to spread out.  This weekend we have a match, so it'll be interesting to watch the video's of that afterward and see how it compares to the last match.

Gimme and Grafton also went out to the fort to run and play on Saturday and had a great time.  On Sunday we walked on leash around Capitol Lake.  Gimme does well on that, but Grafton doesn't quite understand that you can't wrestle-play with your girlfriend while you are both on leash.  So they get their leashes tangled a lot.  Silly kids.

Gimme and I are still working on all the behaviors we'd been working on before.  She is so smart that most things are going really well.  We did a session on the 2x2 weave poles for the first time in many months.  Our last session hit a snag and I couldn't get us past it.  So I just put it away until now.  Suddenly she pops right past that as if it was never there. 

That is often how it works with her.  Any behavior that was presenting a problem or stump, if I leave it alone for awhile, when I come back to it, suddenly its as if the stump was never there.

Our schedule for the last four weeks of Ursula's classes is 2 days a week of the Targeting & Shaping class.  Ursula has plans to add a CGC class to her offerings and I hope she gets it ready to go in the next month.  If she does, I'll sign us up for another ten weeks, otherwise we'll have to wait until next year.  Once the holiday season starts (late October) I really don't have the ability to get to classes with any regularity and just getting to nosework every Wednesday will be enough of a struggle.

Cross your fingers on the match.

Meaggi NW (#1)

Poor Meaggi, at 14 years and 4 months, she is getting older by the minute. She's really weak in the right rear and so loses her balance a lot. She's deaf now and almost blind. I think she only sees very large stuff and only in good light. Every day could be her last, but she persists. Fortunately she's not in any pain and God knows she still loves to eat.

I've tried to think of things to do with her for enrichment, but she seemed to have lost her ability to remember from day-to-day. The physical weakness is a limitation too. She gets several hours of cuddle time with me on the couch each evening, but that's really all there is for her. I used to have her sleeping with me, but was getting completely exhausted by her restlessness, waking me 20+ times each and every night. So now she sleeps in a crate.

Getting her to do things just as part of our daily routine was a real challenge too, since she can't hear and really can't see well enough to even follow my hand. Then I hit on the idea of luring her with food and putting food where I wanted her to go. That helped a lot and over time (about a month of consistency on my part) she relearned our routine and now goes where I want without the luring. I make sure the goods are there when she gets there.

So, I started tossing food out for her to find in the yard just for entertainment value. I broadcast it all over and she finds it all every time. I watched once and she managed to find a tiny fragment of popcorn that I could barely see and snarfed it up without any difficulty.

Last night I tried to sneak past her and get in the house for a training session with Gimme. Meaggi didn't see me and I know she can't hear me, but she knew I was there right away. I'm sure she caught my scent within five seconds of me getting out of the car, from about forty feet away.

It occurred to me - why not train her in nosework? Based on the results I got with food luring to re-teach our routine, she is still able to learn and make associations and obviously her nose works just fine. So I decided to start her tonight. It doesn't matter how far we get, only that she has fun and enjoys herself.

Tonight I laid out the boxes on the floor and put a bit of food in one. She tripped over a couple boxes before she caught the food scent and then she was all about finding it. It took her no time to figure out this new game and she had a great time with it. She is contented and sound asleep as we speak.

It was clear from watching her that she can tell the difference between source odor and lingering odor. She has no concern about pushing into and through the boxes, even though she quickly figured out to slow down so she didn’t trip on the boxes. Time will tell if she is able to make the association between birch odor and food. I’m just glad to have something we can do together.

Nosework is so cool.

Birthday Girl - Me

Yesterday was my birthday and I pretty much swore off the computer for the day, though I did check in to read all the birthday wishes.  Thank you to everyone who remembered the big event.  Having turned 29 once again - I'm sure that accomplishment constitutes "momentous".  <eg>

I started the day with another therapy dog class at 10 a.m.  Gimme did very well, much better than last time.  She even managed to ignore the young BC that fell in love with her and kept trying to come see her.  He unfortunately could barely function and his lack of focus was quite frustrating for his person.  Gimme just turned her nose up at him; she has her Lancelot and has no interest in the amorous intentions of anyone else.

Following class was the chiropractor, which was much needed after a weekend doing yard work at my parents'.  Met the glass repair guy there, who declared my windshield unrepairable.  Fortunately, over the weekend, the crack took a turn south, so at least I can put off a replacement for a good long time.

Two more errands - one to Cabela's to buy ultra loud whistles and the other to Costco.  I splurged on a rotisserie chicken.  Love those, but don't normally buy them.

Then home to goof off and watch TV, lounging on the couch and eating chicken.  Gimme helped me by laying beside me and drooling.

At 6:00 we met up with Mary and Grafton at a local elementary school for a nosework field trip.  Grafton hasn't done nosework anywhere, except home and class.  So when we had class at Home Depot, he found it very challenging.  So we are giving him some field trips in conjunction with our walks.  This is the second time and he did better, though he is finding the new setting and the carrying-on of his girlfriend in my car, quite a lot of distraction.  Next time we'll do Gimme first, so she'll be quiet when he's working. 

Gimme did well.  The hide in the rock wall she found in decent time.  The hide in the pipe proved challenging, since it was a small pipe and the other end was closed.  The one under a leaf near the portables she just rocketed to. 

After that we went to the Fort Lewis training areas for a 4 mile walk.  On Saturday I met a couple at area 22 and they said that recently when they were riding with their one dog (Gimme sized)... their dog was right behind the horses, when a coyote came out of the woods toward it.  Their dog cowered down and the coyote was standing over it and poised to attack when they were able to drive it away.  As they looked where it went they could see all the brush moving and what appeared to be as many as ten coyote in a pack.

Coyote are known to send out a "scout" that will attempt to lure a dog to where the other coyote are waiting to attack.  Gimme would be likely to follow a single coyote.  I'm not sure if the presence of both Gimme and Grafton (50 pounds) would be enough to keep them away.  I read online a report of coyote attacking two large dogs in a suburban area (Illinois).  Right now mated pairs are raising young and they can have from 1 - 19 in a single litter. Further online research says that the WA coyote sightings this year are on a sharp rise compared to last year.

The whole reason for going out there has been so the dogs can run and play off leash and snoop and sniff like dogs.  Mary and I have revised our Ft Lewis walking habits with Gimme and Grafton, sticking to the open areas, especially during this time of year.  I'll only be using the training areas when Grafton and Mary are able to come, otherwise I'll walk with Gimme in other places. 

We'll only let the dogs off leash in the most open areas - especially now as coyote are raising their young and tend to maintain a pack structure and get bolder as they try to feed more mouths.  When we are walking on roads with trees on both sides, the dogs will be on leash for their safety, to keep them from following any scout coyote and because the coyote would be unlikely to come that close (within leash distance) to humans.  Mary is bringing her walking poles and I'll be making a walking stick.  We'll both have pepper spray and I picked up some very loud whistles at Cabelas.  The prevailing wisdom is that coyote look for easy prey and will back off if you act big and intimidating, making noise, etc.

Our walk was uneventful and enjoyable.  Gimme fortunately has never shown inclination to go into the woods.  Over the last month I noticed she is sticking closer to me (especially when we walk alone) and I just assumed I'd somehow conditioned that, but now am wondering if she has smelled the coyote and is thinking to stay away from the woods and closer to Mom for safety.  She and Grafton play a lot, but between bouts of play she sticks pretty close to Mary and me.  We called the dogs any time they went out of sight (Grafton kept snooping in the tall scotch broom).  We also called them in any time we were going over a rise or around a bend where we couldn't see what lay ahead.  We were on the pipeline, so the whole walk was pretty open.  We started accustoming the dogs to the whistles and also conditioning them as a recall cue. 

I got the whistles since we could easily make a lot of noise, even if panic took our voices away.  It certainly took nothing at all to turn us both into Mama Bears, ready to protect our kids.

After the walk I stopped at Albertsons and treated myself to a pint of Ben and Jerry's Vanilla Creme Broule' ice-cream.  Sadly I had to give up all my favorite B&J chocolate flavors, since they all have wheat in them.  The one I chose was pretty good.  Then spent the rest of the evening lounging on the couch eating my ice cream with Meaggi helping me by laying at my side and drooling.

Life is good with dogs who are so helpful.

Happy Fourteenth

Meaggi celebrated her 14th birthday with steak

and an evening snuggling on the couch.

At 14 she still wears her heart on her sleeve...

A Thing of Beauty

It occurs to me this blog entry could just as easily have been titled "Me And My Shadow".

In an on-going quest to set up successful interactions between the new puppy and my existing dogs, I've been taking Gimme and Meaggi to the Fort Lewis training areas for some light hiking (which actually means, puppy-speed roaming and snooping).  

Last Monday was the first time and it was a thing of beauty to behold.  Watching dogs interact naturally without interference by people, when both are socially appropriate - well its just cool to see.  Meaggi is clearly setting up the hierarchy and telling the stinker that she's got boss status.  Thus far Gimme is fine with that and showed due deference. 

It was really kinda cute watching her follow Meaggi around and copy what she did.  If Meaggi stopped and sniffed, Gimme sniffed too - about 6 feet away.  When Meaggi stopped to pee, Gimme would too. 

Today we did it again, with a longer "hike" and the interactions were great.  Everywhere Meaggi went, Gimme was pretty close behind, until Meaggi got outside the distance from me that Gimme is comfortable with.  Then she would stop and wait for her to return and then follow her some more, inside the comfort zone.

The sad thing is that I now have even more evidence that Meaggi's eyesight is getting bad.  For one thing, she doesn't travel as far from me as she used to when we hiked there.  She's always tended to stay where she could see me, and that is much closer than it used to me. 

Also, she was trotting toward me once and Gimme was in a bit of a play bow and pounced toward her from plain view - Meaggi yelped in surprise at something I would have thought would be hard not to see.  So it seems her clarity of vision has decreased.  It's sad when they get old...

Expanding Horizons - hers...

I'm happy to report that Gimme is doing so much better with crating and even allows me to be a few feet away in the house.  In fact I can leave the room to get something and return without her fussing.  When she does fuss, its short lived and relatively low intensity. 

Then again, maybe she is simply plotting her revenge...

I'm also happy to report that I am learning to read her fusses and can tell when its serious "I need to get out of this crate" vs "I want to get out of this crate."  An important distinction if her house training is going to continue its progress.

She has developed a somewhat alarming tendency to boss at her Auntie Meaggi and Uncle Michael and I'm working on getting them to ignore her, we call it "lead by example."  Mostly this happens when she has something special in her crate and they ware watching her, so she bark, bark, barks at them.  Which I interpret as "Nanner nanner, I've got ---- and you don't."  I suspect her bossy forward nature will get her in trouble from time to time.

She keeps me on my hands and knees with my butt in the air a good part of the time.  She is the funniest puppy I ever remember having.  She loves to rip snort around in the house, skidding around the corners and throwing in a tumbling act here and there.  Then she stops and looks back at me to make sure I was appropriately amused.  So, in addition to all her other wonderful qualities - she has a sense of humor.

Gimme stopped traffic on Monday with her beauty and joy d'vive... People were stopping and pointing at how cute she was walking along with me. One family actually pulled their car over and got out to come and meet the cutest puppy on the planet...  And this has happened twice more since then.  She is really a darling and everyone says so -- even without me prompting.

Part of what makes her so darn cute is that she walks so nice on a leash.  Because I take her to work and go out and walk her every 90 minutes or so, she is getting a lot of time on leash and is pretty good.  It only took her one day to learn not to walk between my legs.  Wish I could get a picture, she just trots along beside me with her head up so proud of herself - that's the thing that seems to stop traffic.  It's DAMN cute.

Took Michael to Rally class Monday night and naturally had to take Gimme in the building first (and again afterward).  Everyone thinks she is too cute for words.  And they were all going on and on about her conformation and her natural tuck sits.  No one had ever seen a puppy that did a tuck sit naturally.  She wasn't sure what to make of all the barking dogs as we got out of the car (its at a boarding kennel).  Then when we got in the building, she wasn't too sure about the strange dogs.  One Weim they had there is a real sweetie with puppies and even got on her belly and crawled to try to entice her to come close.  Gimme just did a couple play feints from a distance.  When we went back in after class, she paid no attention to all the barking kennel dogs.  She thinks Chip is wonderful cuz he has so much cheese to share.  And Karin was great cuz she had these BBQd hot dog bits to share.  Even when she's not perfectly enamored with something the first time around, she is always much better the second time.  She has the best bounce back I've ever seen, which I attribute to all the early life experiences Tana planned for these pups.  They just think new stuff is a normal daily occurrence.

On Tuesday Gimme and I visited my friend Laurie at the long term care facility.  I didn't get any pictures of her with Laurie - it was too hard to manage her and get a picture.  But did get a couple pictures with other residents that had to fall in love with her.  I was there almost an hour, only twenty minutes of which was with my friend.  She was completely unfazed by wheelchairs, walkers or canes; I don't think she even noticed them. 

 

Gimme likes attention, but really doesn't want to be handed to people.  She'll put up with it for about a minute, then wants to come back to me, though will stay if I'm right there with a hand on her.  She stayed in Laurie's lap for quite a while that way.  That may change when she is more confident that I'll never abandon her, then she may be more comfortable staying with others.  Of course, when she is larger, she won't really be handed off, per se. 

She got her first and second elevator rides and didn't seem bothered at all by the sensation.  The only thing that seemed to concern her was stepping over the crack to get on the elevator, but she did and got a reward for it.

And I just have to mention that she stopped traffic - yet again.  I was walking back to the car enjoying watching her go after the fall leaves in the grass and a lady pulled over to say what a shame it was that I didn't really enjoy being with my beautiful puppy.  Hah!  I then held her up so she could pet her through the open car window and she went on and on about how beautiful she is.  Clearly an astute grasp of the obvious.

Also on Tuesday Gimme and Meaggi had their first interactions.  Overall it went well.  There were two little snarks and both times, they had just gotten around a corner from me.  The first time I think Gimme was probably being too persistent in her attentions and I suspect Meaggi was establishing boundaries.  The second time they were in the kitchen and I'm betting Meaggi had found (or thought she had found) a tiny morsel of something and Gimme stuck her nose in where it didn't belong.  There wasn't even any slobber on her and she didn't seem to be unduly upset, calming within moments of it being over.  Later on we went outside together and I noticed Gimme showed Meaggi more respect, being close to her but giving her space at the same time.  I'll continue to put them together with supervision from time to time and am sure they'll get along; fortunately Meaggi is measured and appropriate in her responses. 

Yesterday I finally found something that she definitely does NOT like -- big truck noises.  It was unfortunate timing that just as we went outside to get in the car, the dump truck came to take away our trash.  Between the backup horn (loud "booooo booooo booooo"), the rumbling and hissing brakes, Gimme was not happy.  We walked around to the far side of the house to give her some space, but it wasn't her usual bounce back.  Then at my store today, the back where I have to park is about a 100 yards from the freeway and during the day there is a lot of big truck traffic.  She was aware of that and showing she didn't like it.  So we walked all the way up front for our potty walk and took our time coming back and she was much less concerned with them then.  Since I'll be taking her with me on long work days, she will get other exposures to those trucks from a distance, so that should help.  I think the sounds are weird enough, but also you can feel them rumbling through the ground and that likely adds to the effect.  

Gimme got her first grapes the other day.  It was waaaay beyond funny.  She wasn't sure what to do with it and took it in the living room, batted it around the floor and pounced on it.  Bit it a few times and then finally concluded it was dead enough to eat.  She did the same thing with the second one.  Now she just bites through the juggler right away and then eats them.  Am missing the stalk and kill routine.  

Now, I ask you... is there anything more wonderful than living with a fresh new puppy?  Not!

Day 3 - Coming Home

Wednesday, 10/20/2010

It was certainly an interesting day.  I spent part of the morning packing and the rest playing with the pups. 

Without Grace to challenge Gimme and being more than a little possessive of her newly selected person, she was being quite the little twit.  While Tana cleaned up the puppy area in the sun room, I sat with the pups on the deck, entertaining them by being a human chew toy.  Gimme decided that no one should be allowed to sit in my lap.  Whenever she saw someone there, she'd come over and press in between us.  If they didn't move off voluntarily, she would drive them away.  One puppy made the mistake of coming back to my lap later (for the second time) and Gimme got quite mad about it, persisted in driving her off and wasn't accepting her submissive behaviors as a cue to cease the attack.  So I intervened and chastised my girl, which of course resulted in another pouting episode, but at least she got the hint and took it down a notch or two. 

I think she may not be impressed by her first 8 hours with her newly captured person.  She rode as carry-on luggage and was severely disappointed with that experience.  Never having been confined before, she made it very clear that it wasn't what she signed up for.  Often attacking her puppy buddy in frustration.  Peanut butter in her baby Kong was the only positive in that experience. She found the airport experience taxing, but bounced back after short breaks and did well on the flight, falling asleep after cleaning out her Kong one more time.

People were fascinated and captivated by her.  She gives cute a whole new dimension and EVERYONE wanted to touch her.  The flight crew loved her and were constantly checking on her - admiring her sleeping.  Gimme has her own agenda, so time spent in a Sherpa bag is not on her list.  She just knows she is the center of the universe and we hear reports that Colorado tipped when our plane took off.  Auntie Tana said it was pretty scary at first, but that things have settled down now.

Uncle Michael hates her and barked at her - she thinks he's aberrant, really aberrant.  Meaggi isn't sure what to think of her, and I think Meaggi is just reeeeeally hoping she's not going to be a pain in the heiney like someone else she knows.  Meaggi watches her a lot and so Gimme barks at her from her crate.

This puppy is scary-smart and will be everything I ever want for a performance dog, but I have no doubt she will challenge me along the way.  As I was eating lunch, she came over to beg her share, trying to climb into my lap.  I just waited and when she finally sat, I popped a goodie in her mouth.  It only took that one treat and after that she'd play for a minute, then run over and sit for another treat.  She even did one tuck sit.  She comes from a rawfed litter and has never had that gangly out-of-balance experience, so she's very coordinated.  Anyway, back to the scary smart - hours later in the airport, despite all the stress and distraction, whenever she wanted something (like getting picked up), she would come right up and sit in front of me.  That has already become her default and now she's learning that sometimes it doesn't work (can you say variable schedule of reinforcement).  For instance sitting as a demand to get out of a crate doesn't work (nor does barking, screaming, killing your puppy buddy or dozens of other behaviors).

When we got home, it took her less than 2 minutes to climb to the top and perch on the wire edge of the expen in the living room, ready to leap to freedom.  Gimme is having a little difficulty accepting the concept of confinement and separation.  Mostly she just screams her objections for a really long time.  Her persistence will one day be an attractive behavior, but not the way she is using it now.  I'm really having to work to stand my ground, since its an absolute necessity.  Not to mention that with her personality, if I give in now, she'll rule my life for the next 15 years. 

LAUGH OF THE DAY - All seven of the people in the airport who asked me how long it takes for the spots to turn black.  I told them I hoped NEVER, since I'd waited a long time to get another liver spotted Dalmatian.

BUMMER OF THE DAY - The idiot woman who was in line behind me to get on the plane and had to share with me her stupid opinions that I was being cruel and abusive to keep Gimme in the Sherpa bag, since she couldn't stretch out both back and front legs at the same time.  I explained to her that while I understand everyone has their opinions about things, I was personally inclined to take my advice about short term crating from the AVMA, rather than someone who was just plain wrong.  I'm thinking I didn't win a convert... 

She is quite the little girl and already has me in the pad of her paw - but don't tell her (I'm hoping she doesn't find out).

Closing in on the Big Day

Just two days and a couple of hours until baby and me get to meet in person.  I'm so nervous, I can hardly sleep at night.  Naturally I'm coming down with a cold - can you spell massive doses of vitamin C and eating lots of protein.  Also in the last twenty-four hours have cracked my shin on a metal grate (dang that hurts) and have slammed a door shut on my thumb (the nail is turning a lovely shade of bluish-purplish-black).  Right now I'm trying to concentrate on taking my time and focusing on the task at hand (or shin, as the case may be).

Things are coming along.  I'm at that place in my 'puppy preparation to do' list where I'm down to just a million and twelve little tasks.  For me larger projects are easier to do and the little ones just annoy me, so I avoid them.  I don't know if that is part of the Adult ADD thing or what.  But clearly am down to the wire, so I'll have to bite the bullet and get them done anyway.

Meanwhile a tale about living with old dogs.  Recently Michael has been very snarky with sister Meaggi and mostly in situations where I thought it was inappropriate for him to behave that way.  Its been escalating as I've been trying to sort it out.  Then, quite by accident I discovered the cause - Meaggi's eyesight is becoming a problem for her in dim lighting. 

Since her hearing is less than normal, she can't really detect when he's giving verbal warning of impending snark and has to rely on being able to see him and read his face.  And he's just a real pain about not liking her to even bump him.  Think of a pair of 5 and 6 year olds in the back seat of the car, screaming, "Mom Timmy is looking at me", "But, she looked at me first," and you'll get the drift. 

I started by placing a divider in the under-the-computer-desk space, so they each have their own share of the space (which, c'mon, is really big enough for four dogs).  But Meaggi was very uncertain about going in there with that "thing" in there.  So I bought her a tap light and placed it within reach of my foot.  When I sit down to the computer, I tap the light on and when they settle in, I tap it off.  One problem solved.  Meanwhile I'm making a conscious effort to turn lights on and off in a sequence that doesn't leave her trying to move about and potentially bumping into you-know-who. 

Once again I'm learning the lesson of watching the old kids and making accommodations for their senior citizen problems as they crop up.  Usually it comes on so gradually, then one day you think, "Oh dear, how did I not notice before..." 

M & M Update

Tuesday, 8/31/10

For those who are following Michael's swollen face.  Our appointment today was very good.  Michael got an A+ on his follow-up visit. I haven't been able to feel any residue from his swelling for four days and even doc's educated fingers couldn't find anything. So the surgery is off and we'll just see if it reoccurs - hope not.  Also, doc used this opportunity to give Michael a full examination and pronounced him the healthiest ten year old dog he's seen. Pretty cool, given that Michael is 12 years 5 months old... Not that I'm bragging or anything...

Then we got in the car for a 2 hour drive (each way) to Vancouver to get Meaggi a tune up on her neck and loin area pain.  We'd been down last week and got good results, but they didn't last as long as usual.  Right now she seems comfortable and content -- so hopefully that will be resolved.

Cross your paws for the both of them...