In our house the peoples have a rule about no dogs on the people furniture. It’s not much to ask since they only have a sofa, an easy chair and their bed (and some hard chairs that are too small for us to curl up on even if we wanted to – which we don’t). We each have a snuggly dog bed. In fact we have more furniture than they do.

First are a pair of thick pads in the living room in front of the fireplace. These used to be in HairyFace’s office over in the workshop, and that was nice when we spent most of our days over there with him. When he stopped spending his days there, he brought them home for use in the “heavy traffic” area.

We also have snuggle beds in the bedroom. These are nicer and when the weather is sloppy, Hairy closes the door to keep dirty feet off the carpet and the good beds. NiceLady recently bought us new dog beds: super-cush beds with memory foam pads. Hairy took one of the old beds into the den where his desk is. I like to lay on the carpet in front of the space heater, Blondie wanted a snuggle bed to lay in. Now we’re both happy. The other dog bed got put away in a closet.

Volt has been spending most of his time indoors with us. He has a polar fleece blanket folded up so it’s thick and soft. That’s in his crate. Volt has been exceptionally gentle with his blanket: he doesn’t even wad it up like Roger did. Roger liked to wrestle with it. He wasn’t being destructive, just amusing himself.

When all three dogs are in the living area there are only the two futon pads for us to lie on. Hairyface would pull Volts blanket out, but that’s still sub-par with our pads. And since no attempt is made to keep Volt from lounging on a futon, sometimes Blondie or I would get stuck on Volt’s blanket. So Hairy started bringing Blondie’s bed out of the spare room.

But when Volt decided he wanted the snazzier bed, Blondie got bent out of shape! So did I for that matter. Here it is just three days since he arrived and not only is he in the house but he’s claiming our beds!

Because Volt is so gentle on his bedding, the Peoples decided to put the other older bed in his crate instead of the blanket — and it could be pulled out for use when he’s not being crated. Blondie thought that was pretty cush!

But Volt wasn’t ready to retire yet so Hairy pulled the bed out and Lady added a small blanket. When Volt gets to where he can resist invading other dogs dishes at meal time, this blue blanket will be put around the table with Blondie’s pink one and my brown one as our place markers for dining. By sleeping on it now, he will come to know it as his.

It was late by this time and Volt was ready for bed — once he had a chance to go outside for a potty break. Before that he was in his crate but barking and making SUCH a fuss! He knew he needed to go out. Once he got his request attended to he was fine and slept soundly all night.

In the morning Hairy pulled the bed out for Volt to rest on — but Blondie claimed it:

This was resolved once breakfast was ready and HairyFace put Volt back in his crate to eat.

After breakfast we all saw NiceLady off to work and Hairy took Volts bed to the spare room where Blondie’s day bed is and he brought my night time bed in from the bedroom so we all had a snuggle bed to rest on while he wrote and made videos.

We spent the whole day either here with Hairy, in the living room playing with chewies, or outside enjoying the sunshine (when it came out). Volt has not been crated ALL DAY LONG! He’s being a very good boy.

It is Sunday. On Sundays NiceLady fixes a special breakfast that we all get to share in. Something yummy. Then HairyFace and NiceLady go to church and we dogs take a nap. When they get back we get to spend the rest of the day with both of them. That’s a treat because most days Lady goes away to work for nearly all of the day. That’s life as a People, she says. We are excited to see her again, and we miss her while she’s away. Not on weekends. Life is great on weekends. Saturdays tend to busy with chores, but HairyFace takes us on a truck ride. Blondie and I love truck rides! On Sundays Lady and Hairy rest up and spend extra time with us.

It’s getting chilly today. Earlier the wind was blowing hard, not so much now, but rain (maybe snow) is moving toward us. I can tell.

When HairyFace and NiceLady got home from church, they let Blondie and me out in the yard, then Roger, then Hairy brought in a big pile of firewood and built us a crackling fire. It’s nice and warm in here now.

I have a cushy, warm bed to lie on. HairyFace gave us a brand new hoofie to break in. I got first crack at it this week …

Earlier this morning, HairyFace was talking with a friend about pets, and freedom, and trade-offs. His friend took in a feral tom cat who turned out to have feline leukemia. Mike is providing hospice service for “Buddy” by allowing him to live in their basement (away from their other cats) but in some mighty cushy digs of his own. It’s been 13 months now and Buddy is still going strong. He and Mike have developed a close bond too. Mike’s workshop is in the basement and he spends a lot of time down there. They go out for walks in the yard (sometimes Mike has to carry Buddy), but Buddy has not made any attempt to run off. Mike was wondering if Buddy missed his feral life style: if he ever felt imprisoned.

Most of the foster dogs we take care of were picked up as strays. Some were (judging by their condition) living wild for quite some time (and not doing very well at it). When we take them in, most have no idea of “house manners”, so they have to learn from us everything they need to know to be adoptable.

Do they (we – for I was a stray once myself) miss running wild? Yes, some do. But most of us come to recognize that having a home where we have proper shelter, regular meals, toys, and someone who genuinely loves us (and who we can love in return) is much better than running wild and alone.

Some, including Blondie (aka Houdini), will sometimes slip away for an adventure, but they come back home when they get tired or thirsty or hungry. We know when we have it good. Life is much better in a home, with good peoples, than out in the wild. Even Roger agrees with that, he just wants to write his own rules!

It is Saturday. This is the one day NiceLady gets to sleep late — if she wants to. She can get up when she’s good and ready. Blondie and I know this and we usually oblige by sleeping in too. Or at least being quiet, if we want to get up and hang out with HairyFace.

But … it is warm out (for January) and we are eager to get started on our day. Blondie and I have both been outside to take care of business. Hairy gave us a snack, but we are still hungry. It’s time to do something.

Blondie and I sat next to the bed and stared at Lady as she slept, using our Dogi powers to induce wakefulness. That did not work.

Blondie said, “You stay here.” and she started bumping against the bed. When a 90 pound Pit Bull/Lab mix starts whumping into a bed, it’s a little like an earthquake. I held station by Lady’s head so when her eyes fluttered open, she saw my face staring back at her from close range.

As soon as I saw eyeballs, I started talking softly to her in my deep, rumbly voice, “Rowr, rowr, time to get up, you, rowr, gruff.” And to seal the deal I finished with a piteous whine, “We’re SO hungry!”

That did the trick.

NiceLady got up and HairyFace started breakfast and we were all happy. Except maybe Lady.

On Saturday we go for a truck ride. That’s a rule.

Today Hairy said, “We don’t have enough trash to be worth making a run. Sorry Chief.” I was very disappointed and told him so. Hairy decided he could drive into town and make a bank deposit, and we could go along. That made Blondie and me both happy.

We rode on some different roads than when we do a trash run, part of the way was the same as when we go to the veterinarian. That didn’t bother me, I like my veterinarian. But when we got to the end of the road where we have to turn, instead of turning right we turned left and went into what the People’s calls “town”. There are a lot of cars in town!

We pulled in to a big fancy building, drove around back and came to a place where a couple of ladies were inside a big wide window. One of the ladies said, “Oh, my: your doggie is bigger than you are!” and a drawer slid out from the wall. It was all so strange! I was so excited I was VIBRATING! I talked to the lady too. Not barking: just talking nice. She smiled at me.

Blondie stuck her head up between the door and the side of Hairy’s seat so her head was beside his shoulder. The second lady inside laughed, pointed and said, “Oh, there’s ANOTHER one!”

When they were finished doing whatever they were doing, the drawer came out again and Hairy took some stuff out of it. The first lady said, “There is an envelope for you and another for them.”

HairyFace opened the fat envelope and it was full of little dog cookies. We all said, “Thank you!” and Hairy gave us each a couple of cookies. We were very careful not to bite his fingers because they were quite small cookies. The ladies laughed again and we drove slowly around the building to the street. Hairy doled out the rest of the cookies as we drove home. I like that drive-through cookie store!

Roger got fussy around 5:30 this morning. Hairyface and I were up, the girls were in bed. Hairy let Roger out of his crate and took him to the door. Roger ran down the steps and out of sight.

A short while later Roger was back at the door. Hairy opened the door to let him in, Roger bolted back down the steps. They repeated this 4 more times before Hairy put on his shoes and went out to see what was going on.

Roger ran to the water bowl in the yard and began licking … the ICE. It was 26° outside, the bowl was frozen over, and Roger was thirsty after being in his crate all night.

HairyFace brought out a bowl of fresh water for him, Roger drank most of it then went off to do his business in the dark.

The next time he came to the door Roger was ready to go back to his crate and get a cookie.

Then we all settled back into our early morning activities. The girls were sleeping, Roger remained awake but sat quietly, Hairy resumed studying, and I began a detailed inspection of the interior of my eyelids.

It rained this morning: hard. So, naturally everything got really wet. None of us wanted to go out until the rain stopped, and even then Blondie refused to go out in the grass and get her feet wet. Mostly that’s because when we get our feet wet HairyFace stops us on the way back in and wipes them off with a towel. Blondie hates getting her feet wiped. So do I, but … when you gotta go, you gotta GO. You know?

Blondie refused to go out in the yard, but she asked HairyFace to let her go out front. Out there it’s all porch, board-walk and gravel. She won’t get her feet wet, but because it’s not fenced she has to be on a tether. HairyFace said, “Okay” and hooked her up to the tether.

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Cogdill has spent almost all day out in the big play yard playing with Buster-Bob. HairyFace and Blondie were out there too. This morning HairyFace was rearranging dirt, this afternoon he was — get this — WASHING ROCKS!

Hairy has been doing a lot of work on the dog pens. Some of what he’s done I understand: like moving the doors, but some of it I just don’t get. Washing rocks?

Hairy scooped all this pea gravel out of the dog pens, then leveled out the floors and laid in something he calls “rock cloth”.  He says it will keep the pea gravel from being driven down into the mud again.  That will keep the pens cleaner.

Now he’s washing the mud out of the gravel and moving it back into the pens to spread on top of the cloth stuff.  Well, whatever makes him happy.

It got pretty warm this afternoon, so by the time HairyFace was done doing silly stuff, put B-Bob up, and brought Cogdill inside, Lil C was pretty tuckered out. So tuckered, in fact, that he was too tired to chew a favorite toy.

When he came in he snagged the toy out of his crate, started to chew it, dropped it, and flopped on the floor. “I’m SO tired, but I had such a great time!”

He really does like being outside running around and playing in the big yard. Blondie does too: she’s STILL outside.

NiceLady had to go to a meeting after work tonight. It is running long and she is very late. We are hungry.

HairyFace fed Buster-Bob on time because he’s not a house dog. House dogs have to wait until the Peoples eat … and we are hungry.

Blondie Bear and Cogdill have had their heads together conspiring to stage a coup: lock Hairy in a closet and storm the kibble room. Did I mention that we are very hungry?

I stayed out of that discussion. I won’t rat them out, but I won’t be in on it because I like my snuggle bed and don’t want to end up sleeping in the dog house — literally.

I don’t think Blondie would really go through with this, but if you don’t hear from HairyFace for a while, someone ought to come check the closets.