Photographing pets: I feel your pain!

How adorable is this?

A true depiction of the phrase “herding cats”

 

Speaking of herding, check out this beaver herding cattle:

If you live with animal companions then you know they couldn’t care less about personal space. I have two Australian Shepherds (Ranger and Bear) staying with me now who follow me EVERYWHERE, even if it’s just across the room. And they absolutely insist on laying at my feet when I’m on the toilet. Really? I can’t even have 5 minutes?? Oh Lord! Anyway, here’s a cute Dodo video showing how invasive our precious babies can be into our personal space:

 

Ah, life is so much better with animals in it!

Have a great day everybody…

It’s Cray-Cray Over Here … and it’s not even noon yet!

Ay-yi-yi, it’s going to be one of those days. First the day started out scary because one of my guest dogs, sweet Nikita, was having a hard time walking when I took everyone out for their morning potties. She couldn’t stand and kept sitting down, biting at her leg. She’d take a half a step and then go down again. She finally made it into the house and up onto the couch. She refused to eat breakfast, which isn’t like her. I thought I’d have to take her in to see the vet but soon afterward, she made a complete recovery and was walking fine. Maybe her foot or leg fell asleep and that’s why she was having a hard time walking? I’m just grateful that she’s okay.

brindle greyhound on couch

Sweet Nikita

Then at 8:00, a new dog arrived. Cortez. She’s just as her mom described her: a Lab in a Greyhound body. This girl is into everything! She’s very curious and loves toys. I have a whole big basket full of toys here in the living room so she’s in heaven. She settles in nicely and I’m off to take a shower.

I get out of the shower and hear some noise that didn’t sound familiar so I hurry and dry off and come out to see what’s going on. Well, Miss Cortez has broken into the treat-bin and she and my Luca are having a high ol’ time going to town on the snacks. I turned the treat bin upright and see just how much they have eaten and freak out. Of course they ate almost two entire bags of treats, not the crunchy kind, which wouldn’t have been bad, but the greasy kind, the kind that I only give one or two max because they have a relatively high fat content (in comparison to crunchy biscuits). These weren’t tiny bags either. Both had been purchased at Costco so you know how big they are, right?

Then I turn around and look into the living room and what do I see: a puddle of pee sprawling through the grout lines in the tile. I think Cortez did this one too. So I shoo everyone outside and clean up the pee and mop the floor.

Then I get everybody back in the house except the two knuckleheads who devoured the chicken and bison jerkeys. I grab a bottle of peroxide and walk them out to the dog run where I proceed to make them throw up. I had to make them vomit all those treats up. All that fat could’ve caused an attack of pancreatitis and that’s really bad! Not to mention a really expensive trip to the vet.

So both of them vomit up all they ate. And it was a lot! I could tell who ate what: Cortez ate all the chicken jerkeys and Luca got the bison jerkeys. They each threw up about four to five times before it was all out of them. Now they’re just sacked out in the living room, probably dreaming about jerkey…

Luca

Luca

Cortez

Cortez

Ah, just another day at The Grey Zone. I wonder what the afternoon will bring?…

The Dog Did What?????

I had a few crazy days this last week, both ending with me saying “The dog did WHAT??!!”

First was Holly, a gorgeous white greyhound who I was sitting for the week. We were outside and I was watering my trees. I looked over and saw Holly going to town rubbing her face in the grass. She was really rubbing like crazy, and looked to be in heaven. I smiled thinking how cute that she’s enjoying her grass rub so much. She stood up and, horror, she was covered with grime.

What the hell? I called her over and her face, ears, neck and shoulders were covered in brown grime. What the heck was it? One sniff and I knew: she had been rubbing herself in dog poop! Why on earth would a dog do that??

Needless to say, she got a long luxurious bath pronto!

Then the next day, one of the dogs had gotten the pack of pork chops that was thawing out in the sink and consumed the entire package, leaving just shreds of styrofoam and plastic wrap on a dog bed in the living room. “Oh. My. God!!!” I said as I walked into the room, along with a few f-bombs. I went into panic mode, calling the vet right away to see if eating raw pork or ingesting pieces of styrofoam would have any ill effects. “Be on the lookout for diarrhea” was about all they could say. I guess the barbecue spice rub was just too tempting to resist. Thankfully none of the dogs experienced any adverse effects. I still don’t know which of the five dogs did it but I have a feeling it was my Luca…

bed buddy2

So it been a few days of me finding myself saying, “The dog did WHAT????”

I think anyone who has dogs has inevitably found themselves saying that at one time or another…or probably many times over.

What has your dog done that made you say that?