What A Week

Wow, it's been a while since I've had time to sit down and catch up on the good old Brutus Blog. The last time that I blogged, Don was in Wisconsin deer hunting, and was supposed to be that way for a few more days. As it turned out, he ended up with a molar that needed a root canal, and came home four days early. As any of you women know, it's never fair when men come home during your "alone time" week, no matter how much we love them. Thankfully, he was on vicodin for most of the week, and I really did feel pretty bad for him, so he was forgiven this time. He just better not make a habit of it.

Needless to say, Brutus was more than thrilled to have dad back. He was so pouty and sad the whole time Don was gone. I have said many times that Brutus is definitely a two parent dog. If one of us is gone, he sits and waits for the other one to come home. He is probably worse about that if I am gone, but he really misses his dad too. The difference there is that he knows dad leaves every day and comes home every night. When that routine is goofed up, he just doesn't understand. He usually starts sitting in the entryway around 4:00-4:30 so he's sure to be able to greet Don with a big hug when he comes in the door. When he did that after Don left to go hunting, and Don didn't come home, it was pretty pathetic. He was like a big mopey child.

On Wednesday evening, we had to drop Brutus off at doggy daycare. It really broke my heart, because Don had just gotten home and made Brutus all happy again, and then we had to turn around and take him to the kennel. He technically didn't need to be there until Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) when we went to my Mom's in Wisconsin, but the PetSmart that houses the daycare where we take Brutus was going to be closed on Thanksgiving Day, so we had to drop him off a day early, which meant staying there for two nights. We took his bed, blanket, two of his favorite toys and his food. He has always had a great time at their doggy daycare, but this was a little different because he was staying overnight. I felt SO guilty. Don actually took him there to drop him off because I was too much of a wimp, and he said that Brutus just looked at the door as he left, like "don't leave without me!!!". I would have died. Side note: the kennel was fully staffed during the holiday. There just wasn't a way for people to get in and out being it's a facility within a facility.

Andrew and Karri came on Wednesday night so that we could head to my mom's early on Thursday morning. We weren't going to spend the night at mom's, but we wanted to be able to spend the whole day with her, and my brother and sister-in-law and nephew. We had kind of a bad snowstorm on Wednesday, so I was really worried about the kids making it, but they did, and everything went as planned. We had a great day at my mom's. Plenty of food and beverages were had by all. Don was our sober driver for the day, which made him our hero. Not only was his mouth sore from having a big time root canal, but he was spending the day with my fun loving silly side of the family, and NOT drinking! He's a really good sport!

Friday morning we didn't wake up until 9:30 in the morning. I couldn't believe it! Don never sleeps past 6:00, so this was a real shocker. I'm guessing his happy pills had something to do with it! I was supposed to pick up Brutus between 7:00-9:00 because they need the kennels for the next days dogs that are coming in unless you are booked for that day too, and they were completely booked because of the holidays. Needless to say, I had to pay a little extra. Ugh!! When we got home, I put Brutus's dog bed back in the bedroom on the floor. Pretty soon he comes walking out to the living room with his bed in his mouth, tearing it apart, and humping it. He was definitely trying to show that bed who was boss. I was laughing pretty hard, but at the same time, it was pretty sad. He was so upset. He didn't act like this when he just went to the daycare that was during the day, and I really didn't understand what the problem was with his bed.

He finally settled down and had been OK for about an hour when Sophie, one of our cats, walked in to his bed. He jumped up and growled at her, which he never does. He has always been really gentle with the cats. That time he got scolded. Andrew was sitting the closest to him, and a few minutes after Brutus had his tantrum, Andrew reached over toward him, but also had his hand toward the bed, and Brutus did the same thing to Andrew. The really bad thing was that Brutus actually bit Andrew and broke the skin on the back of one of his fingers. NOT cool. We got Andrew's finger cleaned up, and being Andrew is amazing with animals, the first thing he did was go right back to Brutus to make friends with him. He knew Brutus was upset, and not necessarily with him. Later that afternoon Andrew took Brutus out for a run, and after that they were best buds for the rest of the weekend, but it was scary there for a while. This just wasn't my gentle Brutus boy.

On Friday night Ashley flew in from Kansas. We were all so excited to see her. I thought Brutus was going to knock her over. The funny thing is, when we went to Joan's (Brutus's foster mom's) to pick Brutus up when we adopted him, Brutus saw Ashley's face, and that was it. It was love at first sight, and no matter how long they are apart, that love just comes rolling back full force. He adores that girl, almost too much. Ashley has always been a "kitty" girl, and the three cats were also quite happy to see her, but Brutus would get really jealous. There was a little grumbling, head butting and pushing done by Brutus if the cats just happened to be getting more attention than he was. It was kind of embarrassing. He was acting like an undisciplined child.

The time with the kids always goes too fast, but it was so much fun. Saturday we just hung out at the house and talked and relaxed. It was wonderful! Ashley stayed up the night before with Karri and Andrew until 4:30 in the morning, which meant that she had been awake for twenty-three hours straight, so she was in bed by 8:00 that night, but she needed it. She rarely gets to sleep in in the morning, so the more sleep she could get, the better. I was just so glad that the kids had some time to "catch up" the night before.

On Sunday, my mom and her friend Carsten drove out to see the kids for a couple hours, and then Karri and Andrew had to pack up and head back to St. Cloud. Leaving is such a bummer. Just the whole packing and driving and saying "good-bye". After all of the "trauma" from having been in the kennel for two nights, and then having all of the company show up, Brutus was very unhappy when Andrew and Karri left. It was just one more change in his life that he didn't like. He tore through the house throwing his toys around, and nipping at us. His behavior was off the charts naughty, but I could only attribute it to all of the chaos in his doggy life. Getting mad at him wasn't going to do any good. All we could do was try to bring some normalcy and calm in to his life. It wasn't going to happen yet, but we would get working on it!!

Monday was "girl day" for Ashley and I, which meant crate time for Brutus. We didn't leave for lunch until 1:00 in the afternoon, but he wasn't happy. When we walked out to the garage after crating him, he was crying terribly. I can only hope that he settled down after a few minutes. By the time that we got home at 5:00, Don was already home. Ash and I crawled in to bed and watched movies all night and snuggled up with Brutus, and a couple of the cats that aren't too afraid to put him in his place. He still wasn't even close to "himself", but he seemed to calm down a little bit.

Today Brutus and I took Ashley to the airport. He loves to go for car rides, and he rode in the back seat the whole way there, and when Ashley got out to leave, he stepped to the front seat to give her a kiss. Since we have been home, he has been snoozing on the bed. I can only think that this past week was just too much for him. Thankfully, during the Christmas holiday he won't have to be kenneled at all. Maybe that will help him to adjust to the addition of each person that comes to stay. This will be our first Christmas with Brutus, and I'm going to end today's post on this note. It occurred to me today that we probably shouldn't put up a Christmas tree until the day before the kids come home. To Brutus, it would be the equivalent of bringing a great big potty chair in to the house. How do you explain to a dog that he can pee on the pine tree in the back yard, but not the one you just put in the family room?? If we would have trained him from puppyhood, this maybe wouldn't even be an issue, but since we trained him from God knows what hood, I think it would be a big issue, and one that we would be better off just avoiding until I am in the right mind set to watch his every move for a couple days.

And on that note, I wish you all a wonderful week. :)

Craigslist.....Mouser Available

This morning it was literally freezing rain when I let Brutus outside to go potty. He did his "business" jumped around a little bit to get the cobwebs off his fur from sleeping, ran under the steps of the deck and came back with this:

I'm going to be nice today and not give you the FULL visual. This guy can get a mouse anywhere!! It's just unbelievable. What I really don't understand is why he can't do it when my husband is home. Ugh!!

Sweet Ride

For the last eleven months (since Brutus turned our lives right side up side down), whenever we have traveled any where with Brutus we have had to put sheets or blankets over the seats in the car to keep the fur down to a minimum. They are fine, other than they tend to slide all over the place, and by the time we would get to our destination they were usually either in a bundle on the seat, or on the floor, and the seat was a mess anyway.

Dog seat cover to the rescue. I was so excited to find this. It hooks behind the head rests, behind the seat and under the seat, so it should stay in place, it's nice and soft, washable and even has a little bump in the front for Brute to grip in case "someone" other than mom is driving and happens to stop a little sudden.

Brutus apparently likes it, as he's been out in the car since I put it in there. It could also be that dad's out of town deer hunting, and Brutus is pouting big time that dad left without him, and he thinks that if he sits there long enough the car just might leave and take him to the lake. But, I'm thinking that eventually he will get chilly and knock on the door to come in, and mom will do in a pinch. :)

Just Hand It To Him On A Platter

Brutus and I went for a walk this afternoon, and all in all things were going pretty well. It was only 28 degrees outside, so we were walking pretty fast, but that helped to keep me warm!

So, I'm always talking about how Brutus has this great nose for critters, and how nothing gets past him. Well today he wasn't exactly on his toes. Part of our walk goes through a wooded area, and he has his nose to the ground tracking something. I look up and there's a deer standing about ten feet to the left of us. He never did see it, and it didn't move a muscle other than turning it's head to follow us. I was waiting for an exorcist moment! I didn't realize that deer could turn their heads so far around.

We make it past the deer without incident, get out of the woods and are heading past a house that has a big pine tree in front of it, and Brutus wants to stop and take a smell. At this point we've already put in a good two miles, so the rest of the walk is "his" walk. I let him exercise his senses too. So he sticks his head under the tree and pulls out a squirrel. Yep, a great big frozen solid squirrel. I have just spent the whole summer and fall taking mice and chipmunks out of his mouth, and really thought that now that we are back in the city I could be at least just about done with the rodents for a few months, and this one was already dead and just waiting for him. So of course he's got it locked in his jaws like he has just found the treasure chest filled with gold, and I'm trying to figure out how in the heck I'm going to get it away from him. There is no way in hell that he's going to carry it for the last half mile of our walk! I can just see the look on my neighbor's faces if they happen to drive by and I'm walking Brutus with a big squirrel in his mouth. Ugh! So, since it was frozen solid, I pulled on Brutus's leash so I had his head right down to the sidewalk, put my foot on the squirrel and pulled the two apart. It was absolutely disgusting. As soon as it was out of his mouth I ran so he wouldn't have a chance to pick it back up.

OK people out there, Brutus is good enough at catching and killing and bringing me rodents all by himself. There is no need to put them under the edge of a tree for him to pick up. I thank you from the bottom of my squirrel guts covered shoe. :)

Nap Time

This weather has thrown a big wrench in to our (my) routine. A week ago I was able to walk Brutus in sweats and a t-shirt, and didn't have to give much thought to him getting muddy or wet. This week I have to bundle up in a coat, scarf, gloves, shoes with a good grip on the bottom, and make sure I have a towel in the entry way for when we get home so I can clean the mud and slush off of Brutus. It's a bummer with a capital B!

The weatherman described today's precipitation as shnizzle. Clever huh?? A good old combination of snow and drizzle. It didn't matter to Brutus. If I went anywhere near the front door, he was right there in front of me with that pathetic look on his face that said, very simply, PLEEEEASE let's go! So off we went. I came back cold and miserable and wet, and Brutus came back happy, content and ready for a cozy nap. Oh to be Brutus. :)

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Last night we headed to the lake, and like we usually do, we met up with our friends for some cocktails and conversation at the local pub. The temperature had dropped down to just under forty degrees, so we were kind of debating if we should let Brutus be in the garage like he had been all spring and summer, or if the time had come to bring his crate in to the house. He has separation anxiety, so if his crate is in the house, he has to be in it with the door shut, compared to being in the garage where it can be his choice to go lay in it if he wants to. I absolutely hate the thought of crating him for hours, probably because he hates his crate so much. Some dogs are raised with their crate as their safe place, and I can pretty much guarantee that Brutus was not. About the only time that he actually wants to go in to his crate is during a bad thunderstorm, and then I assume that the closeness of the walls gives him some sense of security.

Anyway, we decided it was still probably warm enough for him to be in the garage, so Don found an old sleeping bag that wasn't really usable anymore and put it under his crate to get it off of the cement floor, and I had thrown a couple quilts over his crate to keep any breezes out. On the inside there is a foam mat and a blanket to lay on, so it's really pretty cozy. We usually put his outdoor tie on him and just leave the garage door cracked a couple feet so he can get in and out to go potty, but he had just gone to the bathroom, and we didn't plan on being gone real long, so we closed the door to keep him warmer and to let him be able to move around better. Well, he had some major separation anxiety, because this is what we came home to.

As you can see, there is literally no sleeping bag left under his crate. It was in pieces all over the garage, and his crate had been turned all the way around. I can't even imagine how crazed he was when he was tearing that thing apart. Not a happy boy.

This morning we woke up to a couple inches of thick slushy, icy snow. Brutus rang the poochy bells on the front door to go out and go potty, stuck his nose out the door, took two steps out and turned right around and came back in. He wasn't sure what had happened to his "world"! We had to laugh, because he was adamant that he was not going out "there". We thought that maybe if he went out through the garage and could get used to it gradually it wouldn't be so bad. I took him to the garage, and while I thought he was heading out the door, I went to the car to get his toy box out. He jumped in the back seat of the car and wouldn't move. It was almost as if he was saying "get me the hell out of here and take me back to where the weather is nice". What a baby!

 Finally Don put on his snow gear and asked Brutus if he wanted to go for a walk. That seemed to bring him out of his depressed mood. All you have to do is say "walk" and he'll get up from just about anything he's doing and start jumping around. Don said that he had a great time on his walk, and he even enjoyed jumping around in the snow, so hopefully he'll be a little broken in now.

And so the winter begins. If I remember correctly, Brutus's favorite thing about winter is going ice fishing, and knocking peoples beer over so he can drink them. Hmmm. Should be fun.

Brutus Has A New Favorite Toy

Yesterday Brutus decided that he was going with me when I left to go run errands. It's gotten so that if I so much as get dressed and act like I'm heading for my purse, he starts getting excited and jumping around and heading for the door. It makes crating him a little difficult! So, off we went.

I saved the grocery store for the last stop, which is actually a very well thought out plan. There was one time that I didn't, and when I came back to the car there was much less food than I had originally purchased left in the bags! Being the big sap that I am, I decided I would look for a little toy to get him for being such a good boy. I came across a squeaky green ball, and figured he would love it. He literally hasn't let it out of his sight. He's so protective of this toy that if one of the cats jumps up on the bed, he'll grab his toy and tuck it right next to him so the cats can't have it, as if they could even get it in their mouths to begin with. Kind of shows his immaturity!! So, here are some photos of Brutus loving on his new toy. Enjoy. ;)

And My Heart Completely Melted

As anyone who has read this blog knows, Brutus can be a very enthusiastic "greeter" when it comes to meeting new people. Once you say your "hellos" to him, he typically goes about his own business and leaves you pretty much alone. If you ignore him, I can guarantee you are going to get a big juicy hug.

This morning I had Brutus out for his usual walk, and I could see that a very tiny woman was coming toward us about a block away. As we got closer to her, I could see that it was probably about an eighty something very tiny woman, maybe 80 lbs. soaking wet. I had this little feeling of panic, because I never want Brutus to try to buzz over and say "hello" to people that don't want to be said "hello" to. Mind you, I always have him leashed, and can put a stop to a greeting very quickly, but it can startle people to even have a dog turn their way. When the woman and I were just across the street from each other, I gathered Brutus's leash so he was right next to my leg, and we started to cross. She came toward us and stopped right in the middle of the road and put her hand out for Brutus to come over and smell it. I said "good morning" to her, and held on to Brutus for dear life, but he very gently walked over to her, smelled her hand, sat right next to her and put his head on her leg. He treated her like a butterfly. I was in utter shock.

She cooed at him for about a minute (thankfully it was a very quiet side street) and then went on to tell me that she had always had black labs, and how she still fights to get rid of those "darn" puppy mills. Brutus must have sensed a doggy love in her, and a gentleness, because I have never seen that boy so calm. I told her the story of how Brutus came to us, and I thought she was going to tear up. She touched his head, told me that he is very happy and feels safe, and she was gone. It was almost a surreal experience. <3

Boys Only!

Don is taking Brutus to the lake this weekend for a "Boys Only" weekend, and I am SO excited. I know that that makes me sound like a horrible dog owner, but I really need a break. I love that boy, but I feel like I am bruised from head to toe from his hugs and clumsiness, and I just need a nice long hot bath, and no doggy hugs!!

I thought I would get a nice break last night and Don would feel some of the "pain" of being at home with a toddler. I was invited to a great fund raising cocktail party for the Children's Miracle Network in Minneapolis, and I got to get all dressed up and be gone for the evening. When I headed out the door at 5:00, Don literally had to hold Brutus by the neck to keep him from flying out after me. He was so upset. I was riding with a neighbor, so I don't know if he thought I was going for a walk without him or what, but as soon as I picked up my purse and headed for the door he flipped out and started jumping around like "yippee, lets go, alright, woot woot". I was doing everything I could to keep the fur off of my black dress.

We pulled in to my neighbor's driveway at about 9:00, and I could see Brutus's little (big) head through the window of our front door. Don said that he had been sitting in the entryway the whole time I was gone. SO NOT FAIR!!!! Seriously, what the hell?? Don should have had to play catch with him, and load the dishwasher with him and clean up the big water puddles on the kitchen floor because his lips are too big for his face. Ugh.

So anyway, I am having a mom and kitties only weekend and spending Saturday shampooing carpet. I LOVE clean carpet, and if I get it all done early on Saturday morning, it should be pretty dry by the time that Brutus gets back here to tromp on it.

One last disclaimer here, in defense of my fussing about Brutus. He doesn't bruise me from being mean. He's just gotten so big, and he's like a bull in a china shop. If we go outside, it isn't like he can just calmly walk outside. Everything is done "enthusiastically" to the nth degree. My legs are always getting swiped as he goes running by, and when he jumps up on the bed he never fails to run in to me someplace. Today when he and Don left, I was sitting on the steps by the door, and Don leaned up the steps to give me a kiss. Brutus came tearing up the steps and put his arms around me from behind to be a part of the big goodbye. I now have two scratches on the back of my neck. There is an awesome commercial on T.V. right now, and I can't even remember what product it's for, but it has all of these huge dogs shown one at a time, and with each dog they zoom out and the dog is either sitting on a person's lap, or in a crushed bicycle basket or smashed purse. The line is "does your dog think he's a lap dog?". That would be a definitive YES!!

Have an awesome weekend everyone. I know I will!!