Love For The Little Guys

I love Brutus. He seriously has no idea how big he is, and it just cracks me up. I haven't been walking him for the last several weeks because my back has been on the fritz. Don't worry, Don has stepped up to the plate and made sure that he's gotten plenty of walking in, and Andrew was staying with us for a couple weeks before he moved in to his new apartment, and Brutus got to go running with Andrew. The jury is still out on whether he actually enjoyed the "running" or not. He seemed to love the first half of the run, but Andrew said that he spent the second half trailing behind him with a look on his face that said "really dude?"! He always slept really really good on those nights though, so I was super sad to see Andrew go. That wasn't the only reason, but it was a biggy!

Anyway, today I took Brutus to the dog park to play. We are expecting a big snow storm, which probably won't happen, but just in case, I figured I better get him out for some good exercise. Often times when we go to the dog park, there are a bunch of big dogs there, and surprisingly, Brutus is a little fearful of big dogs. He prefers to play with the medium sized dogs. The small dogs kind of freak him out because they "yip" at him, and he doesn't like that either. We have three little Pomeranians that live next door, and Brutus won't even go outside to pee if they are outside, because they bark constantly. He hates it! When the big dogs are at the park, and they all come running to say "hello" to him, he lays down on his back and basically says "have at me". It's so pathetic. I mean seriously, Brutus weighs 90 lbs. His psyche obviously weighs about 45 lbs. He just gets overwhelmed.

Today there were only medium sized dogs at the dog park, and it was awesome! There were five dogs in total, and those five dogs ran and played like crazy. I threw a bunch of tennis balls one after the other, and after about forty minutes Brutus walked over to the gate and scratched at the door to leave. He had had a great time, no fear, no fights, lots of fresh air and fun.

I met a girl at the dog park that had two gorgeous dogs, both lovely mutts. I asked her about her dogs, which is always the polite thing to do, and she said that they weren't technically rescues, but she acquired them through the Guardian Angels for Soldier's Pets. The service itself sounds like a great idea, and something I hadn't really thought about. I always figured that when someone went in to the service, their family members would step up and care for their canine or feline family members, but I guess that not everyone can or will do that. I tend to think of my animals as my kids, which again, not everyone does. Anyway, in this particular case, the guy left for the service, and when he came back he no longer wanted his two dogs. Thankfully, the girl who had taken care of them had fallen in love with both of them, and was willing to keep them. Just imagine how terribly stressful it would be for those dogs to lose a second owner after all that. It melted my heart that this girl stepped up to the plate.

It's my personal opinion that if this guy would let his dogs go when he no longer had out of state commitments, she was the better choice as a parent for them anyway. I don't know his personal circumstances, so I am truly being judgmental as an animal lover. But, on a positive note, I did add a link to the program in case you know someone that needs help with a pet while they are gone.

So, that was our Tuesday. I hope everyone out there is having a great day.
Sheri....and Brutus

Kissing

Hello Hello Hello! I promise that I haven't forgotten about my Brutus Blog. I love this little blog, and all that it stands for. I will always remember my first few months with my Brutus boy, and how blogging about our experiences was the only thing that kept both of us alive some days. He is such a different boy from the dog that we picked up on that cold January day two years ago.

For instance....it used to be that if we took a treat out, he would practically take our hand off to get to it. These days he will wait patiently (well, kind of patiently) for us to give it to him, or to give him permission to eat it. He's learned all kinds of commands, like sit, stay (depending on the circumstance), come (if he wants to), and shake (he shakes with us if he wants a treat, not the other way around). Looking back on the last couple sentences, I'm kind of wondering who has trained who! I'm kind of kidding. He's an awesome boy.

Today I thought I would try to teach him to kiss my nose. He gives us kisses (with his nose only, thank goodness) which are very sweet, but I was going to try to get him to aim for the nose. I thought that holding a treat next to my nose and saying "kiss" and then letting him have the treat would work great. Well, it didn't work out exactly like I thought it would. To add to this story, I'm also doing a photo project this year, and this weeks project was taking a picture that included myself in the photo. I had no desire to do a self portrait, so I thought I would get a picture of me teaching Brutus his new trick. Well, here is how it went.....all six seconds of it!

Coming in for the "kiss" and snatching the treat instead.

Making sure the treat is safely in his mouth.

The very cute escape.

Thankfully, Brutus is very treat motivated, so he'll get it eventually. I think that next time I will be a little more cautious about protecting my nose instead of taking pictures!