Every Day I'm Snorkelin'

I received an email from my dad about K9 Navy SEALs. These dogs are highly trained; they can parachute out of a plane and repel out of a helicopter. He ended the email asking if this was something Tiny could do.

My response: Are you kidding?! Tiny Dog is afraid of the doorbell. And after seeing how spastic she was when she fell off of the sofa, I don't think parachuting is in her future. 

My mother’s response: Yes, just think about her face-planting from 30,000 feet.

It’s true, she sometimes forgets she has legs. Like the other night when she jumped off the sofa to grab a toy I was holding, forgot she had legs, and landed on her face. In hindsight, funny, at the time, scary.

The ironic part is that just the other day I made the comment to my brother that I think she was in the Navy in a past life. Here’s why: she loves small spaces, so she would do really well on a submarine, and she loves to snorkel for ice in the baby pool. I know, 2 reasons, not a ton of evidence. You’re right, she probably wanted to be in the Navy but wasn’t coordinated enough to pass the physical. 

I tried to capture her on video snorkeling, but by the time she realized that there was ice in the pool it had melted for the most part. 

June Bugs

I’ve discovered the ultimate dog toy, but it only comes out at night, in the summer. June Bugs. Unfortunately June bug hunting time only lasted about a week. It appears that Tiny Dog as eradicated the entire June bug population in the back yard. Sorry, Tiny Dog, there is always next year. 

I want to hear the crowd chant my name!

House breaking is hard. You think you are doing everything right until you realize that you dog fake pees just to hear you chant her name.

We were doing so well – about 1 accident a day in the house and none at night. This seemed pretty good, then all of a sudden it’s Tiny -5, House- 0. How is it possible that she just peed outside 20 minutes ago and yet had what looks like an entire gallon to empty on the floor? Where does she store all of that?!

There is one of two things going on here:

• She has self-esteem issues which are resulting in her fake peeing, just to hear me say, “Good girl, Tiny!” Maybe she was traumatized after being the last in the litter picked and needs the ego boost.
• She is too smart for her own good. Tiny Dog loves paper towels. Whenever I clean up her mess, I have to fend her off in the process. All she wants to do is attacked the wad of paper towels and rip it to shreds. Maybe she has figured out that one of her favorite “toys” only comes out when she pees in the house.

Either way, this is going to be a long process. At least it’s hardwood, right? 

The Princess and the Pea

I don’t know what breeds like to nest, but Tiny Dog is a nester. It’s rare that she sleeps on a soft surface without first fluffing it to her liking. She will sometimes fluff for several minutes until it is perfect. She might actually be a little OCD now that I think about it. 

Damn it feels good to be a gangsta!

I adopted a truly spastic dog, which means we took our first “non-check-up” trip to the vet yesterday. Tiny Dog started limping a little on Friday evening and then it grew worse over the weekend. It did not, however, slow her down enough to prevent her from batdogging Lil Dog.

I figured it was just a pulled muscle or something of that nature, but wanted to be sure. So off to the vet we went. Tiny’s vet is wonderful. The entire staff at VCA Airline Animal Hospital is wonderful. Tiny loves on everyone there, eats delicious treats, and gets to meet new dogs. She loves the vet. Maybe this is why she forgot she was injured.

Sure enough, the vet started loving on her and that limp she acquired over the weekend vanished. The vet gently manhandled the leg in question and not a single yelp, whine, or wiggle appeared.

There is only one explanation for the limp, my dog thought it would give her street cred in her pursuit of becoming a gangsta. And after she smashed a potted plant this morning, Office Space style, she earned herself the new street name, T-Dog. 

All You Need is Love

Sometimes we all need a good hug or a good snuggle. I like to give hugs and I like to receive hugs. I think this has rubbed off on my dog. Aimee does not like to give hugs nor does she like to receive them, I think this has rubbed off on her dog.

Every afternoon, around doggy naptime, Tiny tries to curl-up either in bed with Lil Dog or next to Lil Dog. It’s cute and sweet but it’s also heart breaking. Lil Dog wants nothing to do with Tiny Dog. I guess I can’t blame her considering every night and morning Tiny Dog goes into Bat Dog mode and launches herself, mouth open, at Lil Dog. I guess I wouldn’t want to curl-up with someone who spent more time chewing on me than anything else.

So Tiny slowly steps in the bed and sits down. Lil Dog then bolts. Tiny looks sad. Tiny gets over it and stretches out in the big bed that she now has all to herself. Come to think of it, maybe this is all just an evil plot to take over Lil Dog’s bed…

Trapped in a Net

Remember that time that Tiny Dog got trapped in a net? No? I wish you could have seen it, it was hilarious.

Tiny Dog loves to chew on plants, well really, she loves to put everything in her mouth. We have a little song about her and it goes like this: my name is Tiny and I am special, I like to put everything in my mouth that comes in contact with my face.

We have a small veggie and berry garden in the backyard and had noticed that the strawberry bush was no longer producing strawberries, or so we thought. That was until I one day busted Tiny Dog rolling in the strawberry bush eating the new strawberries that were coming out.

So we put a few stakes in the ground and strung some wild life netting over it. Problem solved, right? Oh, we were so naïve. It worked for a few days, until TD saw me lift the net up to pick some strawberries. Clearly this dog is smarter than I give her credit for. It was like a light bulb went off in her head, “I can’t go over it, I can’t go through it, I can’t go around it, but I can go UNDER it!”

She started small by sticking her nose under it and reaching for the leaves. Then she got a bit braver and took a running start and dove under it. Now she was inside but she was trapped. The look of sheer panic was comical. And before you get all, “that is so cruel, I can’t believe you left your dog trapped in a net” on me. Don’t worry, this whole thing happened too fast for me to grab my camera help her out of there.

She started bucking like a bronco until she bucked herself right out there, only to be smacked on the butt by one of the stakes holding it in the ground. Boy did she look surprised! She turned around, bit the net for good measure and then took off across the yard!

Sometimes you have to learn a lesson the hard way, and sometimes the hard way is getting trapped in a net. I figured this would finally be the lesson she needed to leave the plants alone. Wrong, I just dragged her out of there a few minutes ago.