Dogs

Ack! Jenny’s post from yesterday was a good reminder to me that Barktober Fest is only 11 days away! Since we adopted Murphy from Lollypop Farm we like to participate in this annual walk. It wasn’t a whole lot of fun pushing the stroller around the gravely course last year, but Carrie and I have walked most of the route (stopping to pick up many rocks of course) a few times this summer, so she’s going to walk with us as well.

So, if you have a spare $5 and would like to donate to this worthy cause, please check out our sponsor page. Thank you!

Molly and Murphy have been tagged by Oscar. Here are the rules:

List 5 weird things about yourself, your children^* or your pets. Tag 5 friends and list them. Then, those people need to write on their blogs about 5 weird things, and state the rules, and tag 5 more people. Don

January 12, 1994 – April 18, 2006
My parents had their dog Shadow put to sleep last night. He had cancer and had been rapidly declining over the past few weeks. It took a long time to get used to visiting their house and not seeing Sylvan…and now, just 14 months later, we have to get used to living without another wonderful dog in our lives. I unintentionally named Shadow when my family brought him home. Sylvan was a month younger and considerably smaller, and when Shadow started getting a little rough while they were playing I asked Sylvan if that big black Shadow was bothering him. The name just sort of stuck. I’m sure Shadow and Sylvan are running around playing at the rainbow bridge, waiting for their people to join them. It does help to think of them there, together again.

I would not say that this was a stroller-friendly event, though. Before we even got out of the parking “lot” – a newly flattened field – I had serious doubts about the whole stroller thing…and by the time we got to the registration tent I realized that it was a huge mistake. If I had known how awful the terrain would be I would definitely have used one of my slings to carry Carrie around in! And the park had no changing facilities in the restrooms. I think I shocked the people walking by when I changed Carrie’s diaper on the grass under a tree, but what was I supposed to do? I guess the “bring your family” part of the invitation really only applied to children old enough to walk who were not in diapers. All I know is, we won’t be doing this event again with a stroller – if we do it next year, when Carrie’s not really old enough to walk so far, maybe one of us will walk with the dogs and the other will wait with Carrie on the playground.

D’oh! I just realized that the link on the sidebar to our Barktober Fest sponsor page was wrong! And there are only 4 days left before the walk.

If anyone tried to sponsor us and couldn’t get to the page, sorry…and please try again. Thanks!

It’s time for Barktober Fest again! If anyone is interested in sponsoring Molly and Murphy on their walk, there’s a donation page set up. We’re walking as a family this year, and we can’t wait to see how Carrie reacts to all the dogs. Dogs are her favorite creatures on this earth, and so many dogs in one place…I hope it doesn’t rain this year, because the camera will have to be very accessible!

There’s been a (new?) cat hanging around our place lately. Personally, I don’t care – I generally like cats. However. The dogs – well, mainly Molly – think that cats are an extreme threat to our general well-being, and will not hesitate to loudly inform us that there is yet another C.A.T. threat outside. Aside from the fact that they do this at inconvenient times, like when Carrie is sleeping, it doesn’t bother me so much. In fact, I’ve always wondered what Molly would actually do if she met a cat face-to-face, and figured she’d run away in terror. Hah!

So, this morning, this strange cat was loitering in the street at the end of our driveway. I nearly lost an arm trying to keep Molly under control. She’s never really gone that berserk when she’s outside and sees a cat, but this one in particular was obviously especially threatening.

And then this evening happened. My mom had walked home with me, and when she walked in the door the dogs started going nuts, so I let Murphy out the front door leash-less because he has a tendency to piddle when very excited. Only, instead of just Murphy going out, peeing, and coming right back in, both dogs tore out of the door. The C.A.T. was standing in our driveway – I think he was smirking, too!

I have never seen my dogs go that insane before. They actually managed to reach the cat before he had the good sense to take off, and Molly knocked him onto his back. Luckily, the cat escaped and streaked across the road to hide under a truck in the driveway across the street. Equally luckily, there were no cars coming when he did this, or when my idiot dogs followed him. Since he had the good sense to stay put, the dogs did too and we were able to retrieve them easily enough. When the dogs were well under control, the cat sauntered away, apparently unhurt.

I kind of figure one of two things will happen now. The C.A.T. will be afraid enough of our dogs that he won’t come and taunt them anymore, or he will be out for revenge and this will be the start of an all-out war. All I know is, no more letting any dogs out leash-less, no matter how many swiffer mop heads I have to go through!

February 13, 1994 – February 17, 2005
Today my parents had to put down one of their two dogs, Sylvan. He had just turned 11, and was diagnosed with inoperable stomach cancer a couple of months ago. My family adopted him the first year I was away at college, so although I didn’t really grow up with him, he was a constant presence whenever I would go home for school vacations and later whenever I would visit. He was a gentle, loving yellow lab, and I will miss him.