Brutus Is Such A Two Parent Dog

When Don and I are together, even if it's during a normal schedule and Don is at work, Brutus does great. He is a creature of habit and really likes to have both of us around him. Yesterday and this morning Brutus got to play outside while Don did yard work, but he knew that I was around the whole time, and any time that he needed to say "hello", he just knocked on the door, came in and gave me some loving and went back out to play. Don had him off leash all weekend and he didn't run away once. Most of the time he was by the wood pile out back looking for.......wait for it.......chipmunks!

Don was heading back to the city shortly after lunch today to get the yard work done at that house, and I have to stay at the lake one more night. When Don got here on Friday, there was a slip in our mailbox that the post office had tried to deliver a package a week and a half ago, but we weren't here, so they're holding it (hopefully) so I have to go to the post office in the morning. I can't imagine what it would be. I'm very curious about that one!

Anyway, Don came in to say goodbye and was giving me a hug, and Brutus had to put his arms around us too. He's such a goof. But as soon as Don drove out of the driveway, the naughtiness started right up. First he was in and out of the door about twenty times. When I finally told him "enough!", as soon as I walked away, he went in to the bathroom and attacked the roll of toilet paper. When is it that children stop having tantrums?

No Way, No How!

I am back at the lake getting ready for our annual soup party, and I have spent the last hour trying to convince Brutus to drop the mouse in the mouse trap that he keeps bringing to the door. I would just ignore him, but every time I close the door, he knocks again, and I don't really need the door completely scratched to pieces.

Each time he would come to the door I would try to bribe him with something to get him to drop the mouse. I even tried a hot dog, which he will even get in the tub for, and it was a no go. You should have seen him battling that decision around in his head. He does a lot of talking with his eyebrows, and they were flying! When I would tell him "NO", he would take the trap (with the mouse in it) over to the garage and put it back in this little leaf pile to protect it. Once he had dropped the mouse, I would try to call him in to the house, and he would run right over and pick the mouse back out from the leaves and come buzzing up to the door. Gross gross gross!!

It literally took an hour, but he did finally hide it and come in. He had his teeth brushed, had a treat for finally being a good boy, and is now snuggled up at my feet. Oh Brutus..........

The Way To Ride

I have a down pillow that is so old that I can't even remember how long I have had it, but I would say that at least half the down has floated away over the years, making it extremely soft. I take this pillow with me every time I go anywhere that I'm going to be sleeping. It works perfectly for filling in that little space in my neck that doesn't get supported by hard pillows at a hotel, or it works great for putting between my knees if my back is sore. Somewhere along the road (well traveled) Brutus has gotten attached to this pillow too.

I will admit that his attachment is probably my fault. It started out that he seemed uncomfortable on our long car rides. He would do a lot of standing up and turning circles and plopping down, trying to get comfortable. At some point, I decided to put my pillow on his seat, and that was all it took. He melted his chin into the softness of that little cloud, and everything became right with the world (during his car ride). When we get home, I throw a clean pillow case on the pillow, and on we go. Chances are, he probably drools less than I do anyway. lol!

When we got home from the lake last night, the sky was clear and it was still pretty nice outside. We got unpacked, and I went to my usual spot on the bed with all of the animals and my laptop, and Don headed to the room across the hall where he has his office and his computer. I hadn't been sitting there any longer than a half an hour when I heard this long guttural rumble outside. It kind of gave me that sick feeling in my stomach, because the only thing I could think of that it could be was an airplane in trouble. It just kept rumbling. Then it stopped, and I didn't hear anything again for about fifteen minutes. All of a sudden there was another rumble, a huge bolt of lightning, and the skies opened. Brutus went flying off my bed and ran for the office and went right past Don's legs and under the desk. He was SO scared. I don't blame him. That storm came out of nowhere! From that point on, it never really stopped. The thunder let up, but the rain and winds have continued.

After about an hour we finally lured Brutus out from under the desk with some treats and got him to come back up on the bed, but that's where he stayed. When Don said goodnight, Brutus had his head on Don's pillow with his back snuggled right up next to Don's back, and he wasn't going anywhere. I guess he felt safe next to his Dad during the storm. The problem was, he was snoring like a bear. I finally got up and went out to the living room sofa until I knew I was so tired that even his snoring wouldn't keep me awake.

Such a spoiled boy. I promised him he would never be hurt or scared again, and I really did mean it. Some times when I look in to those deep eyes, my heart still breaks from whatever hurt he went through. It's something I don't now, and probably never will have the ability to comprehend. 

Pesticides and Leinies, Oh Yeah!

Oy Vey!! This one was my fault. Don had given Brutus a bath on Sunday, and I was going to wait until he was dried off on Sunday night to put his "flea and tick" medicine on the back of his neck. Typically, if he even sees the container he starts jumping around and runs away, so I have to assume that it burns a little or the smell bothers him or something. Basically, he hates it and has to be tricked in to laying still while it is applied.

I had broken one of the foil sealed tubes off of the row that held three and put it on top of my suitcase, not thinking that he would ever go near it. Big mistake on my part. Just before we were getting ready to leave to go to our friends house to watch the big Vikings/Packers football game, I find the tube of, basically pesticide, with big tooth marks in it, and it's three quarters empty. Now the big question is, did he ingest this, or did it spill some place. Ugh.

Don and I are both trying to read through the emergency warnings in the pamphlets that come in the package, and there are plenty of warnings for human consumption, but all it says about animals is "For External Use Only". OK, that's helpful. We headed to the human dangers and warning section, and it said to have the person sip some water, and call poison control if it was consumed. Well, we were doing the right hand left hand thing here. We weren't sure he consumed it. We knew he had punctured it, but this stuff is gross. I can't imagine he had consumed it, other than what maybe got on his tooth. We did think that at the very least he should have some water. Was he going to cooperate with that? Nope. I had a nice bowl of fresh cool water and he stuck his nose right up in the air, so I added a little sugar to the water since Brutus has a big sweet tooth, and even that didn't work. We're now ten minutes late for the party, when Don looks at me and says "I'll be right back". He runs downstairs and comes running back up with a Leinenkugel's in his hand. That's right. Our dog LOVES beer. He will do anything to steal your beer. Don cracked it open, and Brutus was going for the can before Don could even poor any in to the water bowl.

Don added some beer to the water, and Brutus drank all of the water down like a champ. He would have finished off the beer too, but we weren't sure that poisoning him and getting him drunk in the same night would be a good thing to explain to the veterinarian if that was where we ended up!

So, after he was well hydrated, we got him cozied up in the garage with his food and water and kennel with his favorite blankets and toys, and took our chances. He seemed perfectly normal (for Brutus), and there wasn't much more that we could do. We went to the football party, I with a somewhat heavy heart, but came home three hours later to our happy rambunctious Brutus. Thankfully, he must have only punctured the flea and tick poison and not ingested it. Lesson learned. From now on, I will keep it out of his reach until I am actually applying it to his skin. I will be so glad when it freezes hard and we are done with these darn ticks. Don pulled another tick off the back of his ear yesterday that had gotten tucked in there and was huge (for a deer tick). I don't know if the flea and tick stuff loses it's effectiveness toward the end of the month and no longer kills them off like it's supposed to, or if the ticks are getting immune, but I'm ready to be done with flea and tick season!! Yuck!!

Rainy Blecky (is that a word?) Weekend

After several weeks of absolutely gorgeous weather, we are getting some much needed rain, but unfortunately it had to come on the weekend and that makes for one very sad boy. Well, make that boys. Both Don and Brutus get pretty pouty when it rains on the weekends. No fishing, no big walks, no chasing chipmunks. Man, what is a boy supposed to do?? Pout, that's what.

Brutus has spent the majority of two days laying on Don's coat on the rug by the front door. There are two things that made today especially hard. The first is that Brutus still won't hang out downstairs in the family room. He just has this incredible uncomfortableness with basements, and this isn't a dark dreary basement. It's a well lit full windowed walk out. The other thing that made today especially horrible is that even though it's raining, Don and the neighbors all got on their four wheelers and pulled in the docks. Brutus's favorite thing to do is chase Don down the road or around the yard on the four wheeler, but he couldn't, and that was tough. When they were all at our house pulling in the dock, I did let him out on the deck to watch, but the last thing that the guys needed was a big dog trying to help (get in the way).

Oh well, he will live, and in the mean little corner in the back of my mind, I'm thinking it might be pay back for bringing that mouse in the house to play with last week. ;)

Crap Crap Crap!

Brutus came in from going potty this morning, and went right to the living room to (I thought) play with his toys. He was out there for a few minutes, and being he's a dog who does not prefer to play alone, I went out there to check on him. THIS IS NOT A TOY!!!!!! I will be spending the rest of my day shampooing my carpet, bathing Brutus and brushing his teeth. What is it with boys------damn it!

Mom Is Back!

Whew, it feels like I haven't been to my blog in forever. I left Minnesota (and Brutus) on the 14th to go to Kansas to visit my daughter Ashley for a few days. It was a bitter/sweet visit. Sweet because I got to spend five days with my girl, and bitter because I had to leave her there. It just seems impossible to me that she's so grown up and on her own. She's working full-time at a bank, and taking classes. Here's a picture that I took of her in front of the bank drive-thru where she is working. It was kind of funny because the bank was closed when we took this picture, so in that sense it was no big deal, but there were two police cars in the parking lot that had pulled over a car, so we were kind of waiting for them to come over and ask us why we were taking pictures in front of the bank window! Thankfully, no arrests were made.

While I was in Kansas playing with Ashley, Don was in charge of Brutus and the girls (the three cats). Brutus was scheduled to go to daycare on Thursday, Don was going to put him in his crate on Friday morning and take Friday afternoon off, and then he was scheduled to go to daycare again on Monday. Thursday went as planned, but on Friday around 1:00 I'm trying to find a place to park in Kansas so Ashley and my mom and I can grab some lunch, and my phone rings. It's Don, and he's wondering about Brutus's heart worm pill, which he needed to give him last weekend. After about a minute it hit me that it was 1:00, and if he was asking about Brutus's heart worm pills, he would have to be at the lake, which is in Wisconsin, which means he wasn't currently at work, and hadn't been for at least two and a half hours. Yep, the big softy took the day off instead of putting Brutus in his crate for half the day. My heart was a little fuller after I heard that. I was really worried about Brute being in his little (it's actually an extra large) crate for five or six hours. He is currently so spoiled that he would be completely miserable. Would he die? No. He would be safe, but certainly not happy. Plus, we always meet up with friends on Friday nights, so Brutus has to spend some time alone then too. He made a great decision.

It sounds like the rest of the "boys" weekend was filled with playing outside (Don picking up leaves), walks and fishing. It was gorgeous outside, so they really had a good time. Monday it was back to doggy daycare.

Brutus has gotten in the BAD habit of needing to hug the girls at the counter when he checks in. A lot of the girls that work at that particular PetSmart are considerably smaller than Brutus, and he practically knocks them over. Then, by the time Don goes to pick him up, he's so excited that it never fails, you always see one of these poor girls literally being pulled down the hallway by Brutus on his leash. It's actually kind of funny to look at, but I'm sure they get a little frustrated with him!

I came home on Monday night, and was greeted with lots of kisses, and of course a big hug, and Brutus is right back in to his daily routine. He went out this morning, and of course, Sophie perched herself right up on the ledge to "let him have it". She is so bossy!

The other thing that Brutus does EVERY TIME that he goes outside is get tangled around the tree. I can't even begin to tell you how many times the neighbors have seen me in my jammies because I have to go out and get him untangled. You would think that after playing "let's go around the tree" six hundred thousand times, he would get it, but nope, he just stands there "talking", and if I leave him there for too long, he will bark once and Sophie will come running in to yell at me to let me know that there's a problem. I would love to know how those two communicate, because I am sure that they have developed some kind of animal language. Sometimes they just give each other these "looks", and things seem to happen. Other times, it's verbal. Sometimes it involves sniffing and then yelling. Who knows!

Below is a picture of the tree that's about twenty feet straight outside of the porch door that Brutus is in the process of wrapping himself around this morning.

 The next picture is Brutus tooling around on the side of the yard before he comes back to the house, wrapping himself around the tree. Goofy boy!

Ta Da! It's Brutus's Halloween Costume....T-hee!

OK, I thought this was to die for funny, but all Don could say was "oh Buddy, what did mom do to you?". I actually had a hard time holding still while I was taking these pictures because I was laughing so hard, and yes, a few treats and one naughty miniature chocolate treat were given in the filming of this modeling job, but I promise that no harm came to this lovely creature. Not even a good case of gas. That was caused from the chicken scraps that I cooked up for him yesterday. It was so bad that I had to get my little fan out to clear the room. Note to self, no more fatty protein for the dog!!

Anyway, here is Brutus modeling his Halloween costume. Enjoy, and I hope you get a good laugh out of it. I know that I sure did!

Be Excited!

My laptop is still in my Mom's car in Wisconsin, and my photo card doesn't work in the printer at our house, but Brutus has a big surprise coming for everyone when I get my laptop back on Wednesday night when my Mom gets here. Mom and I are leaving early on Thursday morning to go spend five days with Ashley in Kansas, so my Mom needs to make the drive to Minnesota to get to me before we go, so I can finally have my phone and computer back!! Woot woot!!

For those of you who don't know the goofy story, I had spent a couple days with my mom, and didn't have my own car at her house. I needed to go back to the cities to take care of Brutus and the girls because Don had to go to Colorado, so I drove my Mom's car to my house. On Friday evening, Don followed me back to my Mom's, I got out of her car, grabbed my purse, shut the door and then said "Oh S**t". We closed the garage door, and I had forgotten my phone and laptop in her car, and I don't have her house key. I have been absolutely LOST without my technology!! It's made my blog difficult, and my photo club impossible.

So, until tomorrow night, keep your "hats" on. There, that was a little hint. T-hee

Tucking In Autumn

Even though the temperature still says summer, those of us who live in Wisconsin know that the snow flakes could start to fly any day now, so it's time to start picking up the leaves, cleaning out the gardens, and God forbid, putting the boats away.

I would have to say that fishing, swimming and riding in the boat were definitely on Brutus's favorites list this summer, along with chasing chipmunks, obviously, so when Don started covering up the boat, he decided that he wasn't moving. Truth be told, the boat isn't coming out of the water until next weekend, so there's still a chance he might get one more ride, but it was pretty funny to watch him "resist" getting off the pontoon. Don is a man of average patience, so when I was watching this all go down, my heart did swell a little at the better than average patience he was showing Brutus by constantly stepping over and around him while he was trying to put the pontoon cover on. It was sweet. :)

Sad Brutus. Thankfully it wasn't too long after this that he was able to go chippy chasing again.

What? I Didn't Do It!

See this face, with that look of sweetness and innocence?? Yep, that's the face that did..................

THIS. While I was downstairs cleaning, Brutus was upstairs "playing" with the cat toys. Guess I start over! Ugh!!

Scaredy Dog :(

I'm going to start this post by saying that our next door neighbor has three Pomeranians. I shouldn't have to say more, but I will, they bark and bark and bark. They are little fur balls with barkers built in to their bodies. Every time Brutus is in the back yard, they stand at their fence and bark at him. Brutus usually stands there and looks at them like "what do you want you silly little puff balls?" Today he was doing his usual standing there looking at them like they were nuts when he got a big surprise. The crabby guy who lives next door came running out onto his deck in his bathrobe with a newspaper in his hand and yelled at them to stop barking, while slapping the newspaper against his hand.

Brutus turned on his heels and bolted for the door. I let him off of his tie, and he ran in to his crate for safety. I had to laugh. He was absolutely scared to death. It's been thirty minutes, and he is still pouting. I did manage to get him out of his crate and upstairs on to our bed, but he is still really upset. Maybe I should have hired the neighbor to train him. Lol!!

Back To Doggy Daycare

It's been a crazy few days in Brutus land. We went back to the lake on Friday, but Friday night we went out for dinner with Don's best buddy Bennie (say that really fast a few times) and his wife Catherine, and got home pretty late. Bennie is leaving the states to work with a drug sniffing dog for a year, so it was a very bittersweet evening. It's hard to say goodbye to a best friend when you so desperately don't want them to go, but you still want to be supportive of something that they really want to do. Anyway, that meant that Brutus was on his tie and alone from about 7:00 to 12:00, and when we got home he was raring to go. From what I have heard from various witnesses, Brutus lays in a big time "pout" position when we are gone, and he must sleep most of the time, because when we get home he wants to play, and play hard. Of course, we were tired, and Don was especially tired after working all day, so I finally had to get up with Brutus and let Don sleep until Brutus had some of his energy burned up so we could go to bed. That was fun. :(

Saturday he had a great day outside with Don, getting to go for a walk and playing in the leaves while Don was trying to do yard work, but again, we had plans on Saturday night. We were invited to a wedding reception, so Brutus was back on his tie. We can't leave him in the house yet, because with his separation anxiety, I'm afraid we would come home to some chewed up walls or scratched down doors. If he's on his tie outside, and we leave the garage door part way up and put his kennel in the garage with his blanket and toys, at least he can be warm and cozy, and still go to the bathroom while we're gone. Anyway, Saturday night was a super late night, and this time he was CRAZY when we got home. I felt so bad. He greeted us like he was afraid that he was never going to see us again. I hadn't taken my cell phone with me to the wedding reception, and when I got home, I found a message on there that Brutus had been barking for a while. I felt so bad. When Don and I pulled in to the circle where our home is, two deer came walking out. If they were there, and we weren't, I'm sure Brutus was going crazy. The bad part would be that the neighbors were probably trying to sleep at the time. Not cool. On the other hand, it maybe paid back the one neighbor for his early morning yard work nonsense. There's nothing like being woke up at 7:00 on a Saturday morning by the sound of a chain saw. Ugh!! OK. Now I'm not feeling quite so bad.

Sunday I found out that my Mom wasn't feeling well, and it was enough not well that I thought a trip to the emergency room was in order. In order for me to do that, Don and Brutus would have to drop me off at her house and go home to the city without me. When we got to my Mom's, Don tied Brutus's leash to the light post in her front yard while he went in to say "hello". Brutus barked and barked, so my Mom went out to say "hi" to him. He's such a sap. He laid right down and rolled over on his back. I don't know if he gets in to this submissive position so we won't hurt him, or if he just wants a belly rub, or what the deal is. It kind of makes me sad, but I guess I would rather have him be submissive than jumping all over the place like crazy. Don only stayed for a few minutes and then left for the cities. Brutus seemed a little confused, but he loves car rides, so getting him in the car wasn't that big of a deal.

Now the big guy is back in PetSmart Doggy Daycare, and apparently he's having a great time. You can tell that he literally plays all day! Don said he brought him home, and he barely moved an inch after that. On a normal day, even with a couple good walks in, he would still be going up and down the stairs trying to figure out if he wanted to be in the house or outside, or on the bed or on the floor, or which one of the many toys he could throw around to get our attention. I'm a little jealous that Don gets "tired Brutus", and I never get to see that dog. I always get the toddler version of Brutus.

Hmmm. Maybe someday when Don is gone on a business trip, I'll take Brutus to daycare just for the fun of it. I can just picture a nice quiet evening snuggling up with my cats!! I only say that because if Brutus is in his normal mode, they have to stay out of his way or they might get stepped on. They only sneak up to snuggle when he's sleeping, and I love it. Our oldest cat Princess is the only one brave enough to stay on the bed when Brutus is jumping around, and that's mostly because she hits him and hisses at him. She really hurts his feelings, and probably scares the hell out of him, but he's never tried to retaliate. Sophie is the one who will yell at him if she's out of his reach. He will mess around with her. They will play "tag" every now and then, but when he gets close to catching her, he always veers off and lets her go. My littlest girl, Bernice, is still scared to death of him, but she's scared to death of everything. I see her in the middle of the night when she crawls up on my tummy and sleeps. She's always gone by morning, but Don says that she is typically downstairs waiting for breakfast by her dish, so she must have a routine.

They will always be my girls, and Brutus will always be my big goofy boy, and some day, they just might all get along and be able to share Don and I. If that ever does happen, we are going to have to get one heck of a big bed! :)