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.

Two weeks ago Kathy got the first step in her heart worm treatment: Heartguard an oral medication that kills the baby heart worms in her bloodstream. The Doc also put her on Prednisone at that time.

This morning HairyFace dropped Kathy off at the shelter to get her first Immiticide shot. She’ll get her second one tomorrow. These go deep into the lower back muscle, and they hurt. They make us stiff and sore too. How sore depends on the dog: we all have different thresholds for pain. And it depends on whether we sat still or jumped during the injection. Jumping causes extra tissue damage.

The poison that kills the heart worms also makes us sick. Some will be affected only a little, others will be hit hard. Again this depends some on the dog and some on how bad the infestation is.

HairyFace went back this afternoon to pick Kathy up. He ran into Samantha outside and they talked about Kathy for a while. It seems many people had been in the shelter today and all of them fell in love with Kathy. She could have been adopted several times over today — if she were available, but she’s not. A local couple have already laid claim to her. Sam said, “I put a bed in her crate for her, you can take that with you if you want.”

Inside, HairyFace found Kathy making herself right at home. Alicia (the Vet Tech) and a volunteer were standing nearby commenting on Kathy. They said she was sitting contentedly in her bed until she saw HairyFace, then she started ‘working it’. Kathy is good at that!

Since she will be coming back tomorrow, HairyFace left the bed in the crate and Alicia tucked the crate away in the med room.

They went for a little walk before they got into the truck to be sure Kathy didn’t need to go potty before they started the trek home.

Normally dogs ride in the extended cab part of our truck, behind the seats. Kathy does too when NiceLady is riding shotgun. When NiceLady gets out at her office, Kathy moves up front. So HairyFace brought her blanket to keep dog hair off the seat (and thus off NiceLady’s work clothes). Kathy started out on that blanket, but decided there was too much sun and it was hot, so she retreated to the basement.

She rode down there until they got headed a direction that kept most of the sunshine from beating down on her. She tried to get into HairyFace’s lap and insist that he scratch her, since he was sitting down (had a lap) and wasn’t doing much of anything. HairyFace explained that driving was important and he needed to focus on that right now. She went back to her seat and rode there the rest of the way home.

When they got home, Kathy milked her condition for all it was worth:

Kathy_Immiticide day 1 from HairyFace Bittinger on Vimeo.

I got really put out by these concessions: she’s breaking the rules AGAIN! How does she keep getting away with this when Blondie and I can’t? Blondie got up and left the room. I glared at her until she decided to get down and find a legal resting place. She tried my bed, she tried her snuggle pup, she eye-balled the sofa, but I told her “no way.” and she abandoned that thought. Finally she settled in to her most secure sleeping place.

She slept in there, snuggled up to her Snoopy doll, most of the afternoon.

She was having a hard time getting comfortable, so she’d come out and wander around now and then, but ended up splitting her time between the crate and Snuggle Pup in the bedroom.

I hate to tell her that it will be worse tomorrow night after the second shot. She may bounce back in days, like Bristol did, or she may be sick for a while. I was miserable for weeks. Or, it seemed like weeks. I hope she gets over the yuckies quickly. She will be on activity restriction for the next 4 weeks. That means no more rough-housing with Blondie or running in the yard with me until she is recovered. Then she can ease back into full activity and will be ready for adoption.

Cochise is a talkative fellow, he knows the routine, and is not timid about asking for things he feels he should get. On weekend evenings we all eat in the living room and watch a DVD. On Fridays is a classic Sci-Fi movie, Saturday an episode of The Waltons or The Andy Griffith Show, on Sunday it’s a NASCAR race. After dinner the dogs get a special chew treat. This evening, Cochise was especially hungry … and impatient.

This was not the first such discussion. On another occasion he was feeling entitled to a second treat and made a persuasive argument.

As you can see, he can be quite reasonable, even about a treat.

And when he gets his treat, it makes him very happy, especially when it’s one of his favorites.

Kathy is our latest arrival in foster dogs. She is unusual in that she is the smallest dog we’ve cared for. She’s a Jack Russell mix, so she’s smart. Maybe too smart: she thinks, because she’s cute, she’s above the rules.

Since I’ve been here, No Dogs On the People Furniture has always been one of the rules. But it wasn’t always that way. When I first got here Dolly was my mentor. Dolly told me that when they all lived in the old house — the one that is HairyFace’s workshop now — she had her very own sofa to sit on and watch TV! That’s amazing!

When they moved to the new house, which is smaller, they bought new furniture (and had less of it) and they instituted the dogs on the furniture ban. That never mattered to me: I was thrilled to be able to come into the house! And since they give us cushy blankets and doggie beds to lay on, I didn’t mind not being able to get up on the sofa or their bed.  Neither did Blondie.  Before being rescued she was kept chained in a yard.  This is heaven compared to that!

But Kathy thinks, because she’s little and adorable, she should be above our rules. And the Peoples are letting her get away with it! That’s causing some hard feelings among the dog populace of this home.

Kathy (the new little foster dog) wanted to go outside this morning, in the dark and in the rainy weather. With her it’s hard to say if she needs to go outside because she needs to “go” or because she wants to play around and hunt. She had been living the free-and-easy life for a while, just doing what she wanted when she wanted because no one was looking after her.

Marie let her out.

Kathy is the smallest dog we have fostered. I have been adamant about going out with her when she went, to keep an eye on her. I’m not at all certain she can’t squeeze out through gaps between gate and post in the fencing. Marie did not go out with her and I was contemplating whether I should put shoes on and go out after her — in my pajamas, in the rain. I decided since it was rainy, she probably would not stay out long.

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