Gandalf the Dog
On sunday we took missy to the dog park so she could go for a swim and play with all the other dog park dogs. On our way back up to the parking lot we saw a dog come shooting over the hill, towards the water, as if to say “Out of my way, people, I have swimming to do.” The curious thing was that he didn’t seem to have people with him. Soon he too noticed his lack of people. He stopped and turned around, heading back up to the parking lot. By the time we got ot the parking lot he was already deep into his search for his people, walking behind backing up cars and such. I kept an eye on him as we made our way to our own car.
After a few minutes of roaming around the parking lot, finding no people, and then walking over to the grass near the parking lot, it became apparent that the dog was not where he was supposed to be. We put Missy in the car and borrowed her leash and I went out to the street (by this time he had left the park and stumbled onto the street) to retrieve him. Luckily he was friendly and responded, after a few tries, to “come here little doggy.”
We fed him some water and talked in the parking lot with another lady who was concerned for the dog. We waited around and hoped that someone would notice that they were a dog short and come back to look at the parking lot area. No one came. We called animal control, but since it was a holiday, they said that they didn’t have anyone that could help us. After waiting around a little while more, we decided to take the dog home and figure things out from there.
We tried to guess its name. We looked up common dog names on the internet and yelled them all out at the dog, but he laid there, unimpressed. So since he was long and flowy, and since Jim didn’t really like “pacey” or “dawson,” we settled on “gandalf.” After a few more calls to animal control, we learned that the license on the dog was not current. We decided that it might be easier to hunt down the dog’s parents ourselves and took some pictures of our new gassy friend. (He farted nonstop while he was here.) The last time we talked to animal control they said that they would call in the morning and have someone pick him up. There was no call today.
So we gave the dog kibble and a bath and planned to make up flyers and post them today. This morning when I woke up I remembered that Jim found a tattoo on the dog, so I spent some time looking up tattoo registries and attempting to find parents that way. No one had a listing for the number in his ear. What good is a tattoo if you can’t figure out where it’s registered? And why are there so many registries? There’s no reason to register your dog ten times, but if you only register it once, which one do you choose? In the end the tattoo didn’t help at all.
But the rabies tag did. Although it was almost worn off, I was able to make out the name of the vet that issued the rabies tag. I called that office and read them the number on the tag. They called their client (it’s a good thing the phone number they had worked!) and left him a message to call me about their dog. In the end Kahlua (no wonder he didn’t respond to all those generic dog names we tossed at it!) was thrilled to go home with his daddy. And I was thrilled to get rid of the spoiled fartbag who totally hogged the bed last night. He was such a great dog – I think even missy kind of liked him, even though she had to share her parents with him.
Today I didn’t even have to use my AK
No one actually remembers that song, do they?
We had a nice weekend here with the out of towner’s. They were only here for a couple of days, which is good. It didn’t turn into one of those “when are they going to leave” situations. In fact, since they showed up late Saturday night, it really didn’t seem like they were here very long at all.
We picked up a new tomato on Sunday. I’ll explain that in a couple of weeks I think.
After picking up the new tomato, Jim took the guests on a bike ride around the city. I stayed home because we initially didn’t have enough tomatoes to go around – we had enough for the guests, but mine would be loaned out. In the end we had enough if I wanted to go, but I decided to stay back and have some time to myself.
They were gone for a long long time. Sounds like they had lots of fun.
We cooked dinner, I made brownies, and we went to sleep. This morning our travelling friends packed up their stuff and drove off into the sunset. Except the sun wasn’t setting at 10:30 in the morning.
In other news, the dog is producing milk. She’s been “nesting” for a couple of weeks now, which, for whatever reason, we didn’t think was odd. But the milk production got us thinking… See, she recently decided that her new favorite spot was under the side table in the living room. It used to be under the dining room table, but I think that is too open for her. So she decides that the side table is where she wants to be and she starts to do the digging in the carpet thing there. Then we notice her digging all over the house. She digs before she lays down on her bed spot on the side of the bed. She digs when she lays down in front of the sliding door. We thought she just didn’t want to lay down on the floor mat. But now we see that it’s more than that.
She hasn’t been out of our sight. When she was in heat, we didn’t let her go anywhere unattended. We didn’t take her to the dog park until we knew she was finished being fertile.
But when we saw that there was actual milk involved, we became alarmed. Then jim remembered that growing up the farm, cows and horses have this thing they call a false pregnancy. And then I remembered my childhood dog, who wasn’t fixed for 1 or 2 heats, and her false pregnancies. Except we didn’t have a technical term for it, because I think I was like five. Tiffany would carry around a rubber squeaky toy. We called it her baby. Come to think of it, I think at one point she may have adopted my little farm fair teddy bear, baby boo. I so rock with the naming, no? New reports from mom say that she’d try to nurse the inanimate objects, just like the internet says. (I didn’t really believe that part until mom confirmed).
So my dog, missy. Jim and I are absolutely positive that she is still virginal and that no puppy miracles are taking place in this house. I think the udder (breast?) swelling may even be going down now.
Poor little girl.
Filed under all about me, things with fur, world travels | Comments OffWill I always forget the camera on important days like these?
We’ve been taking the dog to Edworthy nearly every day now, and it’s been established that she doesn’t know how to swim. Like I said before, we tried throwing sticks further and further into the water, but she wasn’t having it. She’d get deep enough to let the water touch her belly, and she’d stop and watch the stick swim away. Then she’d be cute enough to go look for another stick as a replacement.
Today we took her to Southland. I heard about it from some other dog people at edworthy. They raved about the place and said that there are LOTS of dogs there, even in the winter when it’s dark and snowy. They said that it was good for dog swimming too, because you can walk right up to the river, instead of hiking down and crossing the train tracks. Not to mention the fact that I don’t think you’re really supposed to let your dog run around off leash through the edworthy trails. Of course, everyone else does it, and Missy might grow to resent me if she realizes that she’s the only dog being forced to walk on a leash.
Anyhow. We went to southland and walked along the river. Last time we were there, I showed her how the big dogs were playing fetch, running down the hill, and jumping into the water, chasing after whatever their owners were throwing. She thought it was neat, but could only muster up the courage to dip her toes in at the water’s edge.
This time was different. Jim got her to slowly get deeper into the water. I think the current here was less intimidating, so she was willing to go farther in. When he got her to the point where she was swimming a little, he kept throwing the stick in that area, just to get her used to the swimming. She picked it up very quickly, and soon was running up and down the hill and jumping into the water, even swimming for long chunks of time, just like the big dogs! I think I even saw some of the other less swimmerly dogs looking enviously at her.
My dog is better than your dog.
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