White Boy Month

I usually try to update this blog about four times per month. Usually, that’s once a week. You may have noticed that this month, I am spectacularly not meeting that goal. That’s because Old Not-Faithful, my lap top, has finally bit the dust but good. Luckily for my, The Voice of Reason, my wonderful husband, bought me a new laptop this week. I’m so glad I married him for money. He’s so glad he married me for my cute butt, so I guess we’re even.

The Voice of Reason (don't worry, he's got a cute butt, too), the new lap top (GREEN!),
and the Little Squish (more about him in a minute).

I hate learning new technology, particularly when there was nothing wrong with the old technology. Except for, you know, the part where it wouldn't turn on anymore. I’m sure there’s a metaphor for dog training in their somewhere, but you’re going to have to find it yourself because I’m too busy swearing at my computer to figure out life metaphors. In the meantime, here’s the stuff we did this month that I should have written actually blog posts about but didn't because I was too busy trying to find the right combination of curses and violence to get my computers to work.

First, George came to stay with us for a long weekend. We *heart* George. He was adopted from ARLP a few years back, and we've always jumped at the chance to have him back in the house. He’s just one of those dogs who is fun to be around. One of the great things about ARLP is that dogs who pass through our program are always part of the family. In addition to continued training support, our program dogs often come back to us for other happy reasons like vacations and education programs and such. It’s such a wonderful feeling when you get to see dogs you helped save being successful in life. 

Jai, Rubi,and George.

In other news, Rubi shares toys. This is kind of a big deal because when I brought her home, Rubi thought walking by her when she had something good was a crime punishable by blood letting. She even lets Jai steal toys from her, which seems like a near miracle to me. Watching her try to steal them back, though, is hilarious. She’s figured out that I won’t let her take things from other dogs unless they give her permission. So she flirts, sending lusty sighs and play bows and butt wiggles to him. When that stopped working, she started making up stuff to be excited about – suddenly freezing, and then running to the door as if someone’s there, then stealing the toy back when Jai goes to see who it is. Jai’s figured this trick out, though, and I can’t wait to see how they try to out smart each other next. Who needs cable when you have dogs like these?

It's a *Goughnut*, people. Get your brains out of the gutter.

Speaking of which, since I have no computer and don’t watch TV, I’ve had to come up with other ways to entertain myself. This usually means training my dogs. So this week, I taught them all to lay in a box. At the same time. Except for Jai. I taught him how to lay in a box and look pathetic. That’s right: I could have done something useful like proofing Rubi’s mat work or doing impulse control with Jai. I chose to teach my dogs to hang out in a box. 

It was a huge success.

In other news, I have officially declared this to be Squishy Faced Dog Celebration Week. Squishy (seriously, that’s his name) is a behind-the-scenes ARLP foster dog, and he’s staying with us for a week while his foster family is on vacation. I’m all ready terribly jealous of whoever gets to adopt this little gem. Of course, that could be in part because he reminds me so much of Jai. Like Jai, Squishy comes from a fairly tragic background and as a result, has a few fear issues. And like Jai, Squishy intensely wants to be a normal dog and to believe that the world is a good, safe place to be. It’s heartbreaking and amazing and fun, and I totally don’t want to give him back when his foster family comes home this weekend. 

As our first official action of Squishy Dog Celebration Week, Big Squish, Little Squish, and I went for a run.
Little Squish thinks this was a Grand Adventure.
Big Squish thinks people who go running in Weather are morons.

While we’re passing by the subject of Fatty McCheesehead, Jai celebrated his first Alive Day on Friday. Alive Day celebrations are a military tradition – the celebrating of having a close brush with death and surviving – and it’s one that has carried across into rescue culture. In Jai’s case, it’s the anniversary of the day I picked him up from St Paul Animal Control. SPAC doesn’t get nearly the publicity of its neighboring shelter, Minneapolis Animal Care and Control, and if the right circumstances hadn’t met the right coincidences with the right karma, Jai would not be here with me today. And of course, I’m always happy for any excuse to celebrate my dogs.