The Old Bait and Switch At It's Very Best

See that man up there? That's my husband Don, and he is not a happy camper today. Brutus pulled a fast one on him this morning. I haven't been able to quit laughing about it, but Don is pretty tired and hasn't quite been able to find the incredible humor in the situation yet.

Brutus had a tough night last night. I'm not sure what his problem was, but he was just uncomfortable. He typically sleeps at the foot of our bed. There was a time when he liked to sleep in between us, but lately (since our mattress has been losing some of it's firmness), Don has been sleeping more toward the middle of the bed, and it's pushed Brutus to the bottom of the bed.

Anyway, after getting on and off of the bed a few times, and trying to sleep on the floor and the occasional deep sigh, around 4:30 Brutus shook his head which makes his collar make noise and wakes me up so I will take him outside to go to the bathroom. OK, that was one very bad grammatical sentence! Anyway, I took him outside, got him his treat and figured that he'd crawl in and go back to sleep. I was exhausted from him not sleeping good during the night, so I crashed. Around 5:30 he decided to jump off the bed and shake his head again to wake someone up to "go outside to go potty". The thing is, he didn't really need to go.

I heard Don sit up and say "OK Buddy, let's go". Don got up and grabbed his robe and headed in to the bathroom and toward the hallway. Brutus waited until he was just out of the bedroom door, jumped in to his spot on the bed, put his head on Don's pillow and instantly pretended to be asleep. Don came walking back in the bedroom and was like "what the heck is this?". Brutus WOULD NOT move. I swear he was even pretending to snore. I seriously think that he was uncomfortable for most of the night and just figured he'd get Dad out of bed and steal his spot.

I immediately got the giggles. Honestly, Don laughed too, probably because he just couldn't believe what Brutus had just done. What a little bugger!  Needless to say, Don didn't go back to bed. He had to be up in a half an hour for work anyway, so he headed off to the computer. Brutus slept for three more hours......very comfortably. So funny!

Foot Love

I saw these awesome Converse® tennies on Pinterest, and through a series of links I was able to locate them and buy them on Delias.com. And you know what? They make me happy. Every time I wear them I feel like I have an extra little bounce in my step, and some days a girl just needs that! Brutus loves it when I have a little extra bounce in my step, because it usually means that he gets to bounce along with me. :) Have a happy day today!

Update On Lily Girl

Lily shortly after arriving at her new forever home.

I was hanging out on my computer this morning, like I always seem to be doing, and a little notice came up that I had a new email. When I looked and saw that it was from my cousin Darla, I was SO excited. Darla is part of a friend couple that adopted Lily the Beagle. The other half of the friend couple is Roger. They have been life long friends, and share a duplex, so Lily gets double the loving. She looks so adorable and happy, and from the sound of it, all of her wrestling and barking and digging and chasing needs are being fulfilled and adored. I truly couldn't be happier.

Lily and Zep wrestling! Thank goodness it isn't the cats!

Just a few days after Roger came to pick Lily up from our house, I received an email from him that he had also committed to adopting a little 9 month old male Pomeranian named Zeppelin. I'm thinking that Zep may have a little rock and roll in him. Darla said that he is the pack leader, which cracks me up. In our house, Lily definitely ruled Brutus, and she was about 1/5th of his size! I think she maybe needed someone that could put her in her place. Brutus would just get sad and go outside and pout. Apparently her new brother Zep loves to play and run and wrestle, and they are becoming true siblings. My gratitude to Janice and Roger and Darla is just over flowing right now!

Tug of war

Ryan buddy, hopefully these will make you as happy as they made me. It's wonderful to know that if we all work together, animals can be loved, well taken care of and definitely find the right forever home. :)

Lily and Darla enjoying a beautiful day.

Where is she going?

Lily and Zeppelin stand at the window and watch Darla leave for work. Roger is retired from working outside of the home, and is currently remodeling the duplex, so the "kids" get to play all day with Dad. Roger put a fenced area in the back yard, and a doggy door in, so Lily and Zep are able to go in and out to play. How awesome is that?!












This has to be the most adorable picture ever. Apparently Lily claimed this end of the sofa as soon as this became her home, and I'm guessing that Zep just had to find his little bit of space to squeeze in to the snuggle pile.

The best Daddy ever.

                                    

Thoughts

I can't seem to get my brain to quit running in circles tonight, and the best way for me to get it to at least slow down is to write about what is troubling me, take a look at it, and see if I should throw it away or share. Since these thoughts involve "dogs", I'm putting them down in my Brutus Blog.

Something happened that has left me feeling just awful. I'm sure it's a story that has been repeated over and over again, and I don't know what the right answer to this problem would have been. There are so many scenarios, and no winners. As most of you out there that have followed my blog for a while now know, I have such a soft spot for animals, and not so much for (adult) humans. When you look at the "chosen" relationship between humans and animals, humans have the control. We have the choice to be kind or cruel. I don't see a lot of grey area there.

So, the story, keeping in mind that this is a very abbreviated version:

My friend went to one of his friend's homes for dinner. His friends have an American Bull Dog that they are very comfortable with, but my friend who went there for dinner is not. When my friend was greeting the hostess and giving her a hug, the dog let out a growl. Shortly after that my friend was bent over doing something with his shoe, and the dog went for his face, biting his cheek, leaving a puncture wound and a very sore cheek. The host, I'm sure being mortified and embarrassed, beat the crap out of the dog as punishment. Before you start to panic, the friend and dog are currently both fine. I'm sure both are somewhat emotionally scarred from being a part of that experience though. Dog bites are incredibly scary, and being beaten up isn't much better. (I know, I know, I'm putting human feelings in the animal, but c'mon).

So here are my thoughts. First, the couple is aware that the friend is fearful of the dog, so the dog should have been put in her kennel. If not, when it was obvious that the dog was being protective of her owner from this person, the hug should have been stopped immediately, the dog should have been introduced to said friend.....and then kenneled.

My friend did nothing wrong. Yes, dogs can feel a person's fear, there is no doubt in my mind. She may have felt his fear and feared for her owner, but I also feel like her people failed her in this situation. I feel like everybody lost, and the whole thing just has me feeling so sad.

When we first got Brutus, he had no training, had been hurt and was very protective of his toys. Don's brother tested him a little too far, and Brutus broke skin on his hand. I had warned him to stop, so honestly, I didn't feel too bad for the human in that situation, other than the fact that he was hurt, and it was my dog's teeth that hurt him (as he was trying to take the stuffed duck out of his mouth). Feel that mama bear defensiveness there? As humans, we have the ability to look ahead as to what might happen in certain situations. Not all, but some. In Don's brother's defense, he felt bad too. I thought he should have had antibiotics, and I absolutely would have covered all expenses to see that he got them, but he wouldn't do it. I think he may have after he left our house. He came back the next summer for a visit at the lake, and he and Brutus were new friends.

Brutus's teeth also broke skin on Andrew's hand during the first couple months we had him. Andrew came over the top of a box in the living room and it startled Brutus. It wasn't a hard "bite", but I'm sure it didn't feel good either. We didn't scold Brutus either time. We calmed him down and assured him everything was OK. That was our job. He was new to our home, scared, and didn't have a clue what life held for him after coming from a terrible situation. My hands would never land on that dog. There isn't a vicious bone in his body, and now that he is comfortable in his surroundings and feels safe, as long as you don't tease him or try to kill me, I'm pretty sure you'll be fine. He and Andrew are great friends now, thank goodness.

So what's the answer? I don't see a clear one. I don't think that this dog has a biting history. It may have been completely out of the blue and unexpected. I know and adore the man who owns the dog, and he is a dog lover. He does have a different view of dog training than I do and tends to use more physical force, but he also raises dogs that have reputations for being vicious. I have absolutely no animal expertise other than my gut, a few books I read on "Positive Reinforcement" training (Brutes' is obviously chicken treats...just ask me how many times the vet has mentioned that he's just a few pounds overweight) and a heart that can't bare to mistreat an animal, which includes the need to train them. If we don't train them, how can we make them responsible for not having acceptable behavior. With that said, how do you train to "not bite". If I was afraid that Brutus would actually go after someone, I'm not sure what choice I would make. The liability would be too high to let him live the life that he does now, but I wouldn't put him in a shelter. The death he would suffer in a shelter as a dog with a biting history could be cruel and cold, and I took on the responsibility to be his caretaker. Would the humane thing to do be to euthanize him? I'm trying to not even go there, but it's hard.

So yeah, those are the things that have been zooming around in my mind. Like I said, I'm sure that people have to face those decisions every day.

I have no answers. I'm just sad, and needed to write.

The Hardest Decision I Have Ever Made

I had to make a decision this past week that literally shredded me. I have been an animal lover for as long as I can remember. I often say that I am perfectly content to just hang out with my cats and Brutus for company. Their love is so unconditional, they have never hurt me, and honestly, throw them a little food and they are there. There is just such a cozy love about an animal.

I have always known that I am not capable of fostering. My heart isn't strong enough, in the sense that I would feel the need to keep every single animal, especially the cats. It wouldn't be good for my current pets, or my family. And quite honestly, I'm not sure that I would have a husband! Don and I differ on our views of how many pets a household needs, and he has been very patient with my love of animals.

So, when I saw little Lily's face on my cousin Janice's animal rescue website P.A.W.S., my heart jumped. It stated that she wasn't a barker, and she was bell trained to go outside to go potty. After rescuing Brutus and going through months and months of training to get him to a point where we could leave him in the house for any period of time if we were gone, I knew that I couldn't go through potty training again, and I'm not tolerant of barking, so if those two biggies weren't an issue, I could certainly give this little sweetie a home. Any other issues that she might have could be dealt with with a lot of love and patience, which Don and I both have in endless supply.

Heading to Her New Home

I picked her up on a Tuesday, and immediately fell in love with her tiny little face. She has a forehead that has wrinkles in it that give her the look of always having an inquisitive expression on her face, and quite honestly, I think it fit what she was probably thinking. This little girl was busy and curious about everything. We had a three hour ride home, and even though I had stopped and walked her twice, she did have an accident in the car, but I didn't think a thing of it. This was a big day for this little girl. It was a new car, a new human and a great big new furry brother riding in the car with her. I might have wet myself too! There wasn't any barking, and I was thrilled!

When we got home, she was just an absolute love. We already had Poochie Bells hanging on the door handles, because we had trained Brutus to be bell trained to go outside to go potty. I took Lily around the house and showed her around, showed her each strand of bells, helped her ring them and took her out each door. It took her no time to ring the front door bells, and my heart just burst. I was so excited. Then I went downstairs, and there were two big piles of poop in the middle of the family room. Well, it's day one, and I wasn't about to hold anything against her yet.

Lily continued to be the love that I knew she was, but the potty training really didn't improve. She was peeing several times a day on the carpet, even though I was taking her outside OFTEN, and for long periods of time. Also, it never seemed to fail, as soon as she came in, she would run to a room and poop. I just couldn't understand what I was doing wrong. I never yelled at her, since I learned before we adopted Brutus that yelling at a dog for having an accident often does more damage than good. If I was lucky enough to actually catch her in the act, I would just scoop her up and take her outside while saying "potty".

For the first two days, our cat Sophie took a real interest in Lily, and they seemed to be getting along pretty good. Then things changed, and Sophie became a great thing to bark and chase. My thought on this one was that Lily became comfortable enough to be her little self. In some ways this made me happy because I was glad that she was acclimating so quickly, and in other ways it broke my heart. I knew that if the cats were becoming prey, or even play toys, this relationship wasn't going to work. Plus, I had some new, deep scratches across the top of my wooden furniture that I wasn't too happy about where Sophie had been running and gone for a skid.

On day three of Lily being with us, I needed to leash her to me. I was hoping that if I leashed her to my side, not only would I prevent her from having "accidents" in the house, but it would also diminish her "leader of the pack" roll, and she may leave the cats alone. Neither worked. In her defense, we were only at it for a few days. Lily was only with us for a week, and that is barely time to say "hello". It takes a really really long time to get a rescue animal trained, or even retrained when they come to be a member of your home. It wasn't my impatience with these issues that was telling me we weren't the right family for Lily, it was my gut. It was screaming at me, and at this point I just didn't know what to do. There was no place for this little punkin to go, and I absolutely will not take an animal to a regular shelter. The thought of her going from our home, where she was loved up bigtime 24/7,  to a cage where she might have a little cot or a blanket, and be surrounded by sad, scared dogs, just wasn't going to happen. With every ounce of shame that I had, I contacted my cousin Janice from P.A.W.S.. and cried for help.

Lily helping me make the bed. :)

I am so thankful that Janice and I have gotten reacquainted through the wonderful invention of social media. We come from an enormous family, and even though we saw each other as children, as adults we had lost touch. Thanks to Face book, we had reconnected. We both love animals, only she can do what I can't! Plus, she has contacts that I don't. Thanks to this lovely lady and her sister Darla, Lily now has a wonderful home with Darla's life long friend Roger. Roger grew up with Beagles, and knows much more about training dogs then I do. He is retired, so Lily doesn't have to be in a crate during the day on a regular basis. When Roger showed up at my door, the man that I opened the door to was soft spoken, had a very gentle and sweet demeanor, and Lily took to him immediately.

We had been outside a lot that morning, and had just come in when Roger arrived. Lily was wound up big time. She practically bowled Roger over! Thankfully she did settle down long enough so he could actually get a look at her, and we had a little bit of a chance to talk about her history, behavior, and what I had observed while I had her. When it came time to go, Lily practically pulled him to his car, and she jumped right in. There was no looking back.

My heart goes out to everyone that has touched Lily's life in a positive way, from Amy, who saved Lily from her terrible situation in the first place, all the way down the line to Roger, who will hopefully be able to carry her through to being a really great little girl. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

And Ryan, if you are reading this, please know that if I ever hear any updates about Lily, I will put a little note up here. You are always welcome to check in on my blog to check on your Lily Bear.

Sheri

Busy Crazy Fun

Today was a much better day for Brutus and Lily. It kind of started last night in that Brutus hung out by the bed instead of going downstairs to pout on the sofa at bedtime. Definitely a good sign! This morning he came up on the bed and grabbed a few belly rubs before heading off to pout, so that was good too. Baby steps. :)

Don tried so hard to do me a huge favor this morning, and it went so terribly wrong. He gets up at 6:00 to get ready for work, and leaves at 6:30-6:40. That usually allows for some computer time. It helps when you don't wear makeup or have hair. Men have it so easy!

Anyway, he decided it would be a great idea to take Lily out to go potty before he went to work so I could sleep later. Truly an adorable thing to do. The problem was, Lily wasn't asking to go potty, and what ended up happening is that he woke her up.....big time. After she went potty, then Brutus, my normally "don't you dare wake me up until 9:30 boy" decided that he wanted to go outside too. Now it's 6:20, and Don hasn't had any computer time, or showered. He decided to skip the computer and head straight to the shower, but like I said, he had woke Lily up. Our bathroom has a door that opens to the bedroom and the hallway. Since Lily had already seen Dad, she wasn't happy about having either door closed off to her, even though I was laying right there, so each time he closed a door, she would paw at it and cry to get in the room with him. Problem was, as soon as he let her in, she would realize she was in a closed-in room and cry to get out. They played that game for a good five minutes. I finally intervened.

I heard Don head down to leave, but then he came back in the bedroom to grab a paper that he had forgotten. Lily perked right up again, and had to watch him leave. Then she cried at the front door because Dad had left for work. What a crazy morning. All I have to do is go back to the beginning of this blog to realize that we went through all of these things with Brutus, but I can honestly tell you that I feel like I have the new Mom tireds big time! I am not a morning person either, and I am never happy to see 6:00 in the morning permanently! Oy Vey!!

On a bright note, there was much more playing going on today. Brutus finally figured out that when Lily buzzed over and grabbed a toy out of his mouth, that she was actually trying to play with him. He just kept sitting there being patient, so I took the other side of the toy that Lily had grabbed and tried to get him to take it and pull back. Eventually they were playing tug of war. Every once in a while he would gently paw her away, and she would jump on him and bite his ears. She also likes to bite at something else that is just at her height, and as all you men know, I don't think that that is going to last very long. I gave Brutus full permission to put her in her place if that continues! Ouch!

During one of the times that we were outside today I shot off a bunch of pictures. There are almost 70 pictures, but it truly was done in about a three minute time period. Lily was being a little camera shy. I kept trying to get her to look at me or the camera, and she kept turning away. That's normally what Brutus does, but he was too busy paying attention to Lily today. For you dog owners out there, I know that it seems terribly unfair to have Lily on a tie, and Brutus off tie. There is supposedly a "rank" behavior that goes on when a leash is involved. Unfortunately, until we get to know Lily, we have to keep her safe. That's our number one priority. The day will come when she will get to play off leash too, but it's going to be a while. Right now there are just too many temptations, and she's just too young and unfamiliar with us and the neighborhood. And fortunately, it didn't seem to make a difference. She had no qualms about chasing Brutus around and jumping all over him. Leash or no leash, this little girl has no idea that she's little! She will do just fine.

Here is a link to the photo video for those of you that want to watch the play in motion. Don't worry, Brutus didn't ever actually attack her, even though it looks like he's going to. He would stop right before he got to her. Then she would jump on him. It was probably planned out that way. :) The photos get a little monotonous in the middle, because I swear that all they did was smell the ground for a good two minutes!! Sorry about that.

Til next time.....

VIDEO link

 

Along Came Lily.......And There Went Brutus

Yep, the title pretty much says it all. My sweet boy has his nose bent out of shape in a big way.

We're going to start with the positives. Brutus has been more gentle than I could possibly have imagined, and when we're all outside he actually seems a little protective. Yesterday we had to finish getting our son's last things moved out of his old apartment, and in to his new apartment. We were gone for about four hours, which I felt horrible about, but I put Lily in her crate with her special bone, put her by the patio doors so she could see outside and yet wasn't in the sun, and assured her I would be back SOON! When I was in the driveway with all of the windows shut, I could hear her crying. Brutus was looking out the front door window with a look on his face that basically said "where are you going, and seriously, you're leaving me here with HER????". I was so tired from the day before that I was actually in tears. The guilt was overwhelming! And as always, I digress.

After we were done loading up the last load and cleaning Andrew's apartment, I came home to be with the pups while the guys did the unloading. When I got home, the house was quiet. Brutus was sleeping in the entryway, and Lily wasn't making a sound. I went right upstairs to check on her, and she cowered to the back of her crate. Ugh. My heart just broke. Is this what happened when her original owner would come home from work? Did she cower in fear? I opened the door very slowly while I talked to her in a sweet voice, and let her come out on her own. Amazingly her little kennel was dry (more on that later). I took her and Brutus to go outside, and as soon as she was in the front yard, the little girls from the circle came running over. They are to die for cute. If I could sum up "miniature old hens" they would be it. They were gushing over Lily, and the whole time they were doing that, they were throwing questions at me. When did I get her? How far did I have to drive, because you know, they had to go four whole hours to get their dog Mia! Does she shed a lot? Does she bark a lot? What's on her tummy? That was a fun one to explain to first graders. I said that she had had a little surgery so she won't have any puppies. One of the girls immediately looked at me and said "why?" and the other little girl said "OH, I know why!". I quickly changed the subject by letting the leash a little looser so Lily could smother them with more kisses. So, at this point, Brutus had been over at their house saying "hello" to Yager, their Golden Lab. He saw the girls pawing all over Lily and actually came running home. It was a true Wednesday miracle! lol! I usually have to drag him away from Yager. Plus, for some reason, Yager's yard is so much more fun to pee in. Is it a guy thing?

Night number two of sleeping went great, other than Brutus was once again no where to be found. I miss him. As much as we try to coax him up to hang out on the bed with us, he's so exhausted from Lily playing on him, that he won't. I found him at 4:00 this morning sleeping downstairs on the sofa. Anyone who has followed this blog knows that Brutus HATES being downstairs, but I guess it was peaceful down there. Brutus is also not a morning person, so when I took Lily down to go potty, she right away had to jump on him and give him kisses, and he just got up and walked away and went in his crate. He slept until 9:30. My kind of guy! Lily went back to sleep until 8:30, so that was pretty cool too. She hasn't done any crying at all (other than crate time yesterday). At night she snuggles right in next to me (it was Don for a while last night too) and goes to sleep. It's kind of fun to watch her go from 100 mph and slowly start to breathe a little slower until she just crashes. She dreams and wiggles and snores, and definitely has the hiccups. It's adorable.

Surprisingly, the animal that has turned out to have a "thing" for Lily is our cat Sophie. Cat's aren't allowed outside in Bloomington, but I have a baby gate on the deck to keep Lily on it, and Sophie seems content to just lay out in the sun with her. She follows her everywhere.

Sophie Girl

So, that's our day two update. I have to figure out how to cheer Brutus up. We are giving him just as much love and attention as always, he just isn't enjoying it as much. I see it as typical childish behavior, and am hoping that it will pass. He has a pretty cushy life here, and there isn't any reason why that would need to change. He just needs to realize that we were trying to make his life better and more fun! I still can't get over how much he ISN'T a puppy compared to little Lily. We thought Brutus was very high energy, and some of that may come back as he quits pouting, but he is nothing compared to this little girl. :)

My back is killing me from all of the car rides, so I think that Lily and I will be staying home this weekend, getting used to all of the doors that she has to choose from to go outside, and Brutus and dad will be going to the lake to play and be boys. I think that because we have so many places to go outside, and because Lily is unfamiliar with our home, she's been having some accidents. She'll get it figured out. When Brutus came to us he was two years old, and we had to start from scratch with him and figure out his schedule. We're so spoiled now that we know he does his business at 9:30, goes potty at 4:30 and his business again at 10:00 before bed. Obviously, when we're outside or walking there is a whole lot of leg lifting that goes on in between those times, but I know that if we hit those marks, he's good to go. We'll get Lily figured out too. That girl poops more than her weight in poo every day. It's amazing! OK, too much information! But I am a little envious. ;)

Lily and Brutus watching something out the car window. :)

Thank you so much for all of the well wishes, and I promise I'll be keeping everyone updated. If anyone has any advice on getting Brutus's nose unbent, I'm open.

Sheri