DOGS V. CATS

Most people are either Dog People or Cat People. I am a Dog Person, although I also have a cat. Her name is Sophie. I did not want her. Actually, neither did my husband. But we found her under a bush when she was only a few weeks old, and she was so dang cute, we all fell in love with her. Then she grew up into a cat, and that pretty much ended the love affair. Now we all just pretty much tolerate one another.

Here are Sophie and Bismark:

See the size difference? Guess who’s afraid of who? Ha! Yep, my 100 pound dog is terrified of my (maybe) 12 pound cat. If she’s laying in a doorway, or on the steps, he’ll just stand there and wait for her to move rather than go around her. If she’s drinking water, he’ll wait until she’s done. But I can tell she deliberately takes her time, just to annoy him.

This video beautifully illustrates the difference between cats and dogs. It’s hilarious!

Hope you enjoyed that as much as I did!

Oh, and by the way, I do love Sophie, just in a different, cat-like way!

Karen

MY DOG IS GROWING UP?

Last night, it stormed all night. So naturally, if you’ve read prior posts about Bizmark, my 100 pound furry “baby,” you’d expect, as I did, that he’d be crawling over my head to get into bed with me. But much to my surprise, there was no fur in my face last night!

So I can attribute this change of behavior to one of four things.

1. Maybe he’s maturing. But usually with dogs, they get more neurotic as they get older, so I’m not so sure about this one.
2. He’s losing his hearing. Hmmm. He sure hears food dropping on the floor pretty well.
3. He’s decided I’m a bad mommy since I wasn’t giving him any sympathy and I was pushing him off of me as hard as I could. Me? A bad mommy? I think not. Scratch that one off the list!
4. He heard Bad Daddy calling him a “Sissy Dog” and “Girlie Dog” and decided to prove him wrong. Yeah! That’s it! Blame it on Bad Daddy!

Okay, mystery solved! As long as it’s working and IT’S NOT MY FAULT, I’m good with it!

 

Karen

MY 96 POUND VICIOUS “BABY”

How is it that my 96 pound dog can be such a big baby? He really can be a menacing, vicious dog at times. He growls, barks, and has even been known to be very unfriendly towards other dogs and some people. But bring on a thunderstorm or a few fireworks, and he turns into a sniffling, shaking weenie!

And the other night I found out, it could be much, much less than obvious, loud noises that freak him out. Let me tell you about it.

I was abruptly woken up at about 2 in the morning to my dog climbing in bed with me. But when he gets in bed with me because he’s scared, he climbs on top of my head. Have you ever had 96 furry pounds on top of your head? Not great for breathing! After I finally get out from under him, and my hubby finally gets him out of bed, we realize that it’s not even storming outside, so we can’t figure out what the heck is wrong with him. But at 2 in the morning, who cares, right? By this time, I had gone to the bathroom, and of course he had followed me and hunkered down underneath the sink. Fine. Stay there, you big wuss!

Next thing I hear is a smoke detector chirping that the battery is low. Aha! So that’s what’s freaking him out. Our plan is to ignore it until morning. Yeah, right! Fine, we’ll change the battery. But in these newer houses, there’s a smoke detector in EVERY room, so we have to stand very still, waiting for the chirp, to try to figure out which one it is. We think it’s the hall detector, so we change it. CHIRP! Nope, let’s try the office. CHIRP! Crap, maybe it’s the sewing room. CHIRP! OMG, really? At this point, we’re both getting REALLY pissed! So imagine how stupid we felt when we realized that it wasn’t a smoke detector at all, it was the Carbon Monoxide detector in, of course, THE HALL!!!

I totally blame the dog for all of this. If it hadn’t been for him, I would have slept right through all of that chirping.

Damn weenie dog!

Karen

HUSBAND VS. DOG

So I read this short article someplace, maybe Reader’s Digest, about how we should try to treat our spouses like our dogs. In a good way. And I started thinking about this. Yes, I give my dog more affection than I give my husband. Yes, I excuse more bad behavior from my dog. No, I don’t mind cleaning up after my dog.

But here’s the thing: If my husband ACTED like my dog, I wouldn’t have a problem treating him like my furry baby! For example, if he ran up to me with such excitement every time I came home, even if I’d only been in the back yard for 5 minutes, so, so happy to see me. Or if he looked at me with such gratitude and love in his eyes every single time I gave him any small amount of affection. Or if, when I asked him to do something, he just did it without uttering a word. Or when I put my cold feet under his belly to keep them warm, he didn’t even move or complain. Or if I do something wrong or a little mean, he instantly forgives me. Or how he somehow senses when I’m having a bad day and snuggles next to me as much as he can.

**Sigh** I love my dog!

Oh, maybe this is what the article meant. Maybe this is how I’m supposed to act toward my husband.  Hmmm, I’ll have to ponder that. But I’m definitely drawing the line at the cold feet under the belly!

Karen

I WISH I WAS A DOG!

Sometimes I wish I was a dog. No really, hear me out on this one! In fact, I’ll list my reasons:

1. It takes VERY little to make a dog happy. I mean VERY, VERY little!
2. Their memory last about 3 seconds, so even if they are upset or embarrassed about something, **poof** it’s gone almost immediately.
3. Daily schedule: eat, sleep, play, sleep, repeat.
4. Out of water? No problem, just drink from the toilet. (Although I will admit my dog won’t do this. My prissy cat, on the other hand, has no problem with it. Go figure!)
5. Sniffing somebody’s butt is totally acceptable.
6. Riding in the car is the Best. Time. Ever. And it doesn’t even matter if we’re going to the vet, as long as he gets to hang his head out the window with his ears and tongue flapping in the wind. (Yet, blow in his face and he gets crazy mad at you!)
7. They never have to worry about looking fat. In fact, they never worry about anything. Or get stressed about anything. Or feel guilty about anything. You get where I’m going with this!
8. No family issues to deal with. You never hear a dog whine about their mom abandoning them when they were a little pup, ‘cuz that happens to all of them!
9. When they lose their hair, it grows back.
10. It’s okay if you’re not the smartest or the best at something or in a great mood, they will love you unconditionally, and therefore get love back. So doesn’t that make them a bit smarter than all of us?

Karen

MY 100 POUND “BABY”

I know that most of you who read this blog have children. But what about your babies? You know, the furry faced, four legged babies? Here are my two:

This picture is actually a never-seen-before Kodak Moment! The cat only barely tolerates the dog, and Bismark (the black one!) is scared to death of Sophie (the gray one!). If she is on the steps, minding her own business just sitting there, he won’t pass her. He’ll stand there, waiting for her to move, or for me to move her, so he can go either up or down. (Of course, we all know that she isn’t just “minding her own business just sitting there,” don’t we? Cats can be SO mean spirited!)

But the fear of a 13 pound cat is only part of the story. Bismark is only 4 years old, and he is SCARED TO DEATH of thunder. He didn’t used to be, but over the past year or so he’s gotten worse and worse about it. So of course most thunderstorms occur at night, right? He used to just crawl into bed with us, but at our feet. Or he’d lay down next to my side of the bed, as close as he possibly could.

But that just wasn’t good enough for him. Now he climbs (and I am not making this up) ON MY HEAD! He’s somehow trying to get between the wall and my pillow, but of course there’s no space there at all. So I try to push him off, but not only is he almost 100 pounds, but he is super strong. And since it’s the middle of the night and I’ve just been woken up by a dog on my head, I don’t have a lot of strength!

So eventually I scoot my pillow down a couple of feet so he can climb up and curl around my head, so that his head is in between DH and I to get the MAXIMUM amount of comfort as possible.

Are all dogs this wussy? I seriously might have to get him some doggy downers!

Karen