Tag Archives: dogs

The Best Diet Plan Ever!

Posted on March 20, 2014 | 4 comments

Good morning Everyone!

Quite by accident, I have discovered the single greatest diet plan ever – even better than the 1 to 4 ratio imposed on anything that we eat around here that the dogs feel they should get a part of (one bite me, three bites dogs!).

Clip Art Illustration of a Silhouette of a Woman Holding Her Wai

The Best Diet Plan Ever!
PhotoCredit: http://www.clickartonline.com

You need two ingredients:

1) Food in the house;

2) A 12-year-old girl.

A Dill Pickle

Kayla started riding the bus to and from school a couple of weeks ago, which leaves her with a short period of time during which she is free to raid cupboards and the refrigerator to her heart’s content. While Mark had already reconciled himself to the fact that he will never have a pickle he can eat at the house until Kayla goes to college, and I was already checking whether we needed peanut butter at least twice as often as I used to, we didn’t really expect that everything sweet in the house (except for the box of HoneySmacks I have hidden on the top shelf of the pantry behind the bread maker so Mark will have something – shhhh!) would be gone each week by Tuesday. By Wednesday, fruit, apple sauce, peas, stew and vegetable beef soup have managed to disappear. I suspect by Friday, we will be down to bread and water.

Looking for Something to Eat!
Photo Credit: http://www.clickartonline.com

The start-up costs for this diet were pretty low, since we had all the ingredients to hand, but I suspect that the long-term costs may end up being astronomical. At least until Kayla graduates college and enters into a profession that will enable her to support Mark and I in the lifestyle to which we desire to become accustomed!

Have a great day!

Nancy

4 Comments

Posted in Child's Play, Just stuff..., working mom

Tagged daughter, Diet, dogs, food, humor, snacks, weight Loss

Da Dogs

Posted on March 13, 2014 | 1 comment

Good morning Everyone!

It’s been a while since I devoted a post exclusively to our three dogs, so today’s the day.

Regular readers to this blog will recall that we have three beautiful and unique dogs as pets: Tyra, who is now 14, Mandy, who is 8 – 9 in August – (which is very hard to believe!) and Darwin, who is 5 (that’s another one that’s hard to understand.) All three of them are pound puppies; we are forever grateful to the Montgomery Humane Society for Tyra and Mandy and to the Lake Martin Humane Shelter for Darwin.

Tyra is completely blind; we have suspicions that she might be losing some hearing also. (To get her to hear where you are going/want her to go, you have to stomp like a dinosaur tap dancing – that is known as a clue!) She is the sweetest dog we have ever had, although she has become a bit demanding when it comes to her nightly snuggle time with Mark. She has always viewed herself as Mark’s dog, although she loves the rest of us too. We suspect she is an Australian Shepherd mix.

Tyra

Mandy is a free and independent basset hound/husky mix with excellent self-esteem. She loves all of us, and she is particularly my dog (when we first got her, Woof was still alive. Woof was my kitchen dog, as I called her – she wouldn’t leave me to myself no matter how bad she wanted to be in a room with everyone else. She trained Mandy for the same position.) She is the only dog we’ve ever had whose response to being scolded and told “bad dog” is to stare at you thoughtfully, let you know that she feels your point of view is interesting but not particularly upsetting, and then walk away to plot how to continue whatever it was she was trying to do in the first place. While she is absolutely unique, I have been surprised at how many people are interested in or have basset hound/husky mixes. Over 400 of them have looked at my post about Mandy as a basset hound/husky mix, and I’ve had a good 8 to 10 people at least send me messages about the buskeys (a good handy nickname) that they own.

Mandy

Darwin is the biggest dog we have ever owned. He is either a black german short-haired pointer, in which case he is not recognized as a short-haired pointer in America although he is in Europe, or a Lab/Great Dane mix. He is incredibly eager to please his people and surprisingly affectionate for a male dog. He’s not entirely sold on the idea of being Kayla’s dog (he has an application in for the position of Mark’s dog which is never going to be granted while Tyra is alive), but is beginning to reconcile himself to that position now that we allow him to go to bed with her at night, which means he ends up sleeping on her bed with her during the night, a much better deal than he’d get in our room.

Darwin

The three dogs care about each other, and their interactions are fun to watch. Darwin and Mandy play together a lot, which has kept Mandy young. They like to chase each other around the yard, and while you’d think the larger Darwin would have the advantage, he doesn’t – Mandy is the fastest dog I have ever seen, and can hold her own against him. Darwin wants to play with Tyra, but she can’t see him “play bow” to know that he is just playing, so things can get a little tense. I did get to see the two of them figure out how to play one day, and it was ingenious – neither one moved their legs, while they kept moving their heads around playing “tag” with their heads – apparently you somehow scored a point if you touched the other dog with your head. Tyra doesn’t believe that play is play unless barking is included, so the din was pretty astonishing.

Tyra Camping

Mandy Camping

Darwin Camping

The three dogs like to camping with us in our (gracefully aged) motor home, but they each have different attitudes about it. Boo is happy to be with us, but her level of happiness is the same as if she was going for a ride in the car or with us for a walk. Tyra has always loved camping, and the motor home is no exception. She likes to come to the front while we’re driving, flip up the arm rest on the driver and passenger seats and get her ears rubbed. Continually. For the entire duration of the trip, whether it is a five-minute drive to the nearby state park or a six to eight hour drive to the Smoky Mountains. Darwin is ecstatic to be camping, and shows it with all his might. Mandy and Darwin both like to sit on the dashboard of the motor home while we are gone and just watch the world go by until we come home. I have been astonished at how little they bark at anything outside, including other dogs, when they do that.

Boo and Darwin Together Camping

Tyra and Mandy Together

So there are our three canine family members. Each well-loved and loving well in return, each unique and each one indispensable to who we are as a family.

Tyra and Mandy Share a Bed

I hope your pets are every bit as interesting! Tell me about them in the comments section if you have time. I’d love to hear from you!

Have a great day and weekend everyone!

Nancy

1 Comment

Posted in Camping, dogs, Pets

Tagged Australian Shepherd, basset hound, camping, dogs, Great Dane, Husky, lab, motor home, pets, photographs

The Warranty, Please

Posted on March 4, 2014 | 1 comment

Good morning Everyone!

Photo Credit: http://www.clickartonline.com

Since all three of us need them, glasses are important objects in this house and a trip to purchase them a major event.

Our favorite place to purchase glasses is LensCrafters in Montgomery. It has an independent optometrist’s office on the premises, owned by Dr. Goodman, who has seen to Mark’s and my eye care for more years than I care to count and who added Kayla to his list of patients about three years ago. Mark and I once went to another company and optometrist to get our glasses, but we weren’t happy with the results – neither one of us felt like our eyeglasses were working the way they should that time – so the next visit saw us back at LensCrafters.

Photo Credit: Me!
Tyra never chewed glasses in her life; I just felt that she deserved to have her picture in the blog post.

One of the reasons we like LensCrafters is their extended warranty. The warranty provides coverage for everything that can happen to a pair of glasses except for being lost with only a $25 deductible. (Even those of us whose mental math abilities are hampered can recognize that $25 is much less then the cost of even one lens.) And in our family, if it can happen to a pair of glasses, it probably will.

Kayla's first set of glasses before the dogs ate them

Photo Credit: Me!
Kayla’s first set of glasses last year.

Kayla’s glasses lasted under a week before they needed to be replaced – she left them on the coffee table one day rather than wearing them. (To be fair, she left them in the same spot Mark leaves his when he is not wearing them; the only difference is that he never leaves his unattended.) When we got home that day, we found that Mandy or Darwin or both had thoughtfully tried to redesign the frames and the lens by chewing them.

Photo Credit: Me!
Darwin and Mandy rest from their labors.

This had happened to her first ever pair of glasses, too. One trip to Montgomery, $25 and four hours later, she was back up and running.

Photo Credit: Me!
Kayla’s Second Pair of Glasses

My glasses lasted through the middle of February until they slipped off my night table at night and hit the floor, lens down. When I picked them back up again, the floor had scored (pun intended) a fantastic scratch on the right lens. We went Saturday to get the replacement lens ordered (my prescription needs to be ordered and then shipped; most prescriptions can be made in the store’s own lab), tendered our $25, and in 8 to 10 day business days, my glasses will be blemish free yet again.

My Scratched Lens

So when next you decide to get glasses, let me humbly suggest that purchasing THIS extended warranty, unlike so many others, is well worth your money if you have 1) children, 2) dogs or 3) a mysterious wooden floor that shouldn’t scratch glass but did!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

P.S. I was NOT paid or requested to do this post by anyone.

1 Comment

Posted in Child's Play, dogs, working mom

Tagged dogs, eyeglasses, glasses, humor, LensCrafters, optometrist

And Then There Were Three….

Posted on December 13, 2012 | 12 comments

Good morning Everyone!

Some variation of the term “husky basset hound mix” has led people to this blog over 400 times since 2011. I have always found the popularity of that phrase interesting, since, for a long time, I thought our Mandy was absolutely unique.

Mandy and Mark in the Morning

Last January, when Sawyer’s owner e-mailed me, having read my post, “A Basset Hound/Siberian Husky Mix“, I learned for that first time that there was at least one other dog out there resembling our precious Mandy. Just to remind you, here’s a picture of Sawyer.

I was delighted! Sawyer had many of Mandy’s physical characteristics, but not all. Even more significantly, Sawyer shared Mandy’s joie d’vivre and laissez-faire attitudes.

I am happy to announce that now third basset hound/husky mix has made an appearance, and this owner has gone so far as to provide us with a name for the basset hound/husky cross – the “Busky.” Somehow it is fitting.

Meet “Bo” who was adopted by Ms. Hess.

He is the first busky we have found that is mostly black, with a white splash across his chest, but the body shape is there, and, Ms. Hess reports, so is the temperament!

Now, to me, Mark and Kayla, Bo is even more wondrous because of another resemblance he bears – to one of our two dearly departed dogs, Woof.

Woof, Back Yard, October 1, 2006

Can you see the resemblance?

Have a great day!

Nancy

P.S. Any other Basset-Husky mix owners, please let me know about your dog, too. Maybe we can make Busky’s as popular as Labradoodles!

12 Comments

Posted in dogs, working mom

Tagged basset hound, dog, dogs, husky basset hound, pet, pets, Siberian husky

Dog Wars

Posted on November 7, 2012 | Leave a comment

Good morning Everyone!

Having either fully recovered from my bronchitis, or being perfectly poised for a relapse, I’m not sure which, I am more than overdue in starting my posts back. It’s good to be back with you!

From Print Shop Professional 3.0
Used under license; protected by copyright

The dogs have entered into a bed war at night. It really got serious once we started letting Darwin join Mandy and Tyra in the bedroom at night. We bought a new dog bed so each of them would have one, so now we have a small older bed, a rectangular dog bed with fake fur/fleece on the top and another brand new rectangular dog bed with a flannel top in the bedroom.

Boo in the Preferred Dog Bed

Mandy and Tyra have been politely warring over the fake fur bed for quite a while; Tyra in particular keeps trying to go to bed earlier and earlier so that she will have (and keep) possession of the fake fur bed over the other one, forcing Mandy into one of the two other beds. Last night, I caught Tyra entering the bedroom at 6:30 so she could lay claim to it. When Mandy misses out on the fake fur bed because she has stayed up later than Tyra, you can tell from the expression on her face that she really is quite miffed, which sends me into hysterical giggles. (Mandy is so unflappable about most things it really is funny to see her nose out of joint!)

Darwin’s Preferred Sleeping Spot – Our Bed!

When Darwin entered the bedroom ranks, we supposed that he would take over the brand new dog bed, but that is not how things worked out. Darwin infinitely prefers to sleep on our bed, but since we don’t allow that (he’s just too big), he has had to settle for his second choice. For example, last week, Tyra got the fake fur bed, and Darwin managed to curl all of himself (I still don’t know how he does it) into the small old bed, leaving Mandy with the big, new bed. She stared at the other two for a while, hoping to stare one of them off of the other two beds, but that didn’t work – especially since the other two dogs had their eyes closed already – so after I turned the light out she started trotting back and forth in the bedroom.

Darwin in the Small Dog Bed

In the old house, that didn’t matter too much, but in our rental house, where there is only wooden floor and no carpet, there is only so much tap-tapping of a dog’s paws one can take at night. Eventually it sounds like the entire cast of Riverdance is pacing around the bedroom in taps desperately trying to find the stage entrance. I got up, frustrated, but then Mark suggested that I bring the second small old dog bed from the den into the bedroom and put the new dog bed in the den. I did so, expecting that Mandy then would get into that bed and everyone would be still where I could go to sleep.

Tyra in the “New” Round Bed from the Den

I had to go into the other room for just a minute, and when I came back, everyone was settled in nice and comfortably, but not as I expected. Tyra stayed on the fake fur bed, but Darwin had co-opted the old small dog bed from the den, leaving Mandy with the old, small dog bed that was in the bedroom originally. I’m not sure what the difference was, but it mattered to Darwin. Mandy, at least, was mollified.

Last weekend, I decided to move the old, small dog bed from the den back to the den, and to replace it bought a bigger round bed that had more room. It’s probably not much of a surprise that Darwin co-opted that bed. Mandy is now beginning to regularly lay claim to the new, rectangular dog bed that she formerly rejected. She’s managed to get it squished up into just the right shape.

Go figure!

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

The Sound….

Posted on October 11, 2012 | 3 comments

Good Morning Everyone!

Picture, if you will, the following scene:

I am at the breakfast table, huddling over my breakfast and trying to wake up. In the rooms in the back, which include my bedroom, I hear the normal tap-tapping, shuffle, shuffle sounds of the dogs playing. I hear the scuffle, snarl that means that they are playing with some kind of fabric, and then there is silence. (I should have started worrying then, but I am a slow starter in the a.m.) Suddenly, out of the blue, I hear “CLINK, Clink, clink.”

Only one thing could make that sound – my wedding ring bouncing onto the floor from my bedside table, and, earthquakes being in short supply this morning, there is only one way it could get there – being pulled down by a dog interested in chewing.

(To make matters worse, I have already lost my wedding ring twice in the last five years, and although Mark has been very sweet about it both times, the second time replacement was accompanied with the very reasonable request that I try to hold on to this one for a while!)

Fortunately, I rescued it in time, but it was a close call! I never thought the day would come when I wanted them to chew socks….

Have a great day!

Nancy

3 Comments

Posted in dogs, Pets, working mom

Tagged dogs, family, humor, pets, the dog ate my...., wedding ring

Things that make me go hmmm….

Posted on September 10, 2012 | 6 comments

Good morning Everyone!

Here are a few things that make me go “hmmmm….” :

1) “Mom, where is the screwdriver?”

2) Plates clinking mysteriously in the kitchen when Mark, Kayla and I are together in the den.

3) Squirrels hopping aimlessly in the center of the road after I screech my car to a full stop to keep from hitting them.

4) My dogs playing the “barking” game every time I pick up the phone.

5) The following dialogue:

From the other room: Bang, squeak, Bang, BANG!

Me: What are you doing?

Kayla: Nothing!

6) Watching the Gecko, Flo and the Allstate mayhem guy and wondering exactly how far can each insurance company spin the campaign out?

7) The AFLAC Duck’s mysterious absence from the airwaves.

8) For the past three months, the cashier announcing at the drive-thru at the local Burger King that the frozen coke machine is broken. (I don’t know if I am more bemused by the fact that the thing has been broken for three months now and they are not fixing it or the fact that I am stupid enough to keep asking about it after three months.)

8) A local fast food burger joint running out of hamburger!

9) An Auburn University football season starting at 0-2.

10) The chewed, now toeless sock sitting in the middle of the living room floor when I know for certain I safely locked all the socks away from the dogs only thirty minutes ago.

11) Political commercials. Any of them.

12) Political commentary. All of it.

13) The fact that I can’t make a comment about the Chick-Fil-A cows good or bad without the possibility that it will be construed as a political statement, good or bad.

14) The mysterious return of my soft pastels (a chalk-like type of painting substance) to my bedroom when they are supposed to be safely in the craft-room unused.

Have a great day!

Nancy

6 Comments

Posted in Pets, working mom

Tagged Chick-Fil-A, cows, daughter, dogs, family, humor, pastels