Just Another Ray Day

Yesterday was an all Ray day, both directly and indirectly. We went to the dog park then came home and I cleaned my car. How does that relate to Ray? Well, every nanometer of my car was covered in dog park dust and dog slobber. It took me four hours to just clean the inside. It occurred to me last weekend when someone actually had to sit in the back seat, that my car was disgusting and I hadn't cleaned it since I adopted Ray last June. My car never really got dirty before. I mean, how much dirt does one person generate driving to-and-fro to work on an irregular basis.

So I left Ray in the house with the back door open and spent a large part of my day in the driveway. Occasionally, I would pop back in the house to throw in a load of laundry. I was washing dog bedding and dog blankets (the ones I use to throw over furniture and the back seat of my car), and dog towels. And I would check on Ray who was sleeping in Gregg's chair.

At the end of four hours, Ray was up. I walked into the house to see muddy footprints on the carpet in the front hall and clods of mud scattered around. Ray was standing in the living room with a giant pig ear in his mouth, a grin on his face, and his tail wagging like mad. It was freshly dug up and after being a good boy for so long, he was ready for a game of keepaway. It was obvious that the mud clods scattered in the front hall were from him trying to kill his pig ear (by madly slapping his face with it) after unearthing it. I chased him outside, "trying" to grab his pig ear (you couldn't pay me to actually touch the thing. Even when we were at the store, Ray shoplifted it and I bought it for him because I didn't want to touch it to take it away. We drove home from the pet store with Ray's head hanging out the window, the pig ear dangling out of his mouth and me hoping that he'd drop it on the road somewhere.) After a quick game of keepaway, I returned to the front hall to clean the muddy footprints and pick up clods of dirt before vacuuming.

By the time all that was done it was time for Ray's afternoon walk. We were half way 'round the block when we met up with Ray's youngest girlfriend, Roxie. Last summer, she had been a 4 pound puppy with a thing for older, blind dogs. Now she was a whopping 12 pounds and as tall as Ray's ankle, still carrying a torch for the coonhound. She jumped up, trying to give him kisses but Ray just turned his head away in embarrassment. He likes some age on his women.

When we got home, I fed Ray and the cats then started getting stuff ready for dinner. Ray finished eating then ran to the front door and started yelling. I looked out to see his friend, Ike, tearing down the street. I slipped on my flipflops and headed for the back gate, calling, "IKE! IKE!" Ike turned and dashed into the backyard. He and Ray were ripping around, Ike bodyslamming Ray and rolling him over, then both frantically wrestling. Mayhem ensued while I went to the gate to see if anyone was looking for Ike. I saw Ike's mom slowly cruising down the street, concernedly peering this way and that out the window. I called and waved to her. She pulled into the driveway and got out of the car carrying Ike's leash. We rounded up Ray's friend and he left with longing looks back at his boyfriend. Ray walked into the kitchen and collapsed on the floor, panting.

Attention Ray's Fans

We're approaching the anniversary of Ray's first year with us and I'm thinking of retiring the blog.

So IF you want the blog to continue, please let me know. Just leave a comment in the comment box. If enough people are interested I'll keep writing if I can find something to write about.

Thanks,

Jean

The Pavarotti of Hounds

At the dog park, today, was a Redbone Coonhound. I'd never seen one before, and it was beautiful. We've met Bluetick Coonhounds, Bloodhounds, Beagles, Foxhounds, Black and Tan Coonhounds, Basset Hounds, and now a Redbone. I've heard them all yell and I have to say, when it comes to yelling, Ray blows them all out of the water. I don't know if they were trying to breed a hound dog that could yell louder than any other dog on the face of the earth, but I think they did it with him. He has an AMAZING voice. He is the Pavarotti of hounds. He makes all other hounds seem like Justin Bieber. I found myself thinking that if I were a raccoon in a tree and had a pack of Ray's under me, no hunter would be necessary. I would die of a heart attack. Maybe that's what they were trying to do when they bred Ray, save money on bullets. There was just that one teeny, tiny problem....

Top Fives

When I'm out and about with Ray, I tend to get asked the same questions over and over again. I don't mind because, like everyone else, I love to talk about my dog. But I started thinking about some of the usual and unusual questions that I've had about him. So here are two lists, the top five questions that I get asked about Ray and the top five weirdest questions that I've had about Ray,

Top Five Questions People Ask About Ray

1. "What kind of dog is that?" or "What kind of hound is that?"
2. "Is he TOTALLY blind?" (in the interests of full disclosure, I always give the long answer. Fully detached retina in one eye, mostly detached retina in the other. The one that is still attached in one spot is deformed. Judging from what I've seen at home and at the dog park, Ray can see dark shapes best, especially if they are moving and if they don't get any farther than 4 or 5 feet from him. If they aren't moving or get too far away, he doesn't do so well.)
3. "Has he ALWAYS been blind?" (this one gets an "awwwww" or a "well, at least he doesn't know any better." I reply to the latter, "That's right, he doesn't know he's blind and we don't tell him."
4. "How old is he?" (the answer to this one always gets an "awwwww," when they find out that he's a young dog and not an old geez that has gone blind. In my estimation the old dog that's going blind is a sadder case because they don't know what's happening to them.)
5. "Does he make that noise at home?" (this one always gets asked with a look of horror on their faces. Thankfully, I am able to answer in the negative.)

Top Five Funniest/Weirdest Questions People have Asked About Ray

1. "Is he NORMAL?" I blogged about this one a couple weeks ago so it is still fresh in my mind and, I think, my favorite because it seemed so random at the time. (blog link http://www.raytheblinddog.com/2010/05/is-he-normal.html )
2. "Does he have brain damage?" (asked by someone at the dog park who had been watching Ray run randomly around. When I told them he was blind they said "That was my second guess.)
3. "How do you take him for a walk?" (answer: "I hook a leash to his collar, and he leads me outside and down the street." The reply, "He LEADS????? My response, "Well, I tried for the first 8 months to get him to heel but it didn't work out so well, so NOW he leads. I got tired."
4. "Does he skateboard?" (asked by someone who saw his lymph node impaired leg, noticed the swelling and thought maybe his muscles were bigger in that leg. I think they were joking.)
5. "Do you think he's faking it?" (asked about his blindness by my friend, Joanne, when I was complaining about him finding and stealing my yarn, no matter where I put it down. She was joking, of course, but it really got me thinking....)

Ray and JoJo

I haven't had much to blog about lately despite the fact that Ray was so bad one day last week that I was ready to sell him to gypsies. It was just one of those days when he wouldn't settle down even after two hours of running at the dog park and a one mile walk later in the afternoon. Every time I started to do anything, I would hear rummaging and have to check to see what he was into. The day culminated with him eating half a package of ground pork that was sitting on the counter defrosting (Ray was in the backyard playing with Sergio and William. I took the opportunity to run upstairs to feed the cats. I was gone about 10 seconds when I heard William say, "What are you DOING?" and then Sergio say, "Dude, why did you let him do that?" By the time I got downstairs, half the pork was gone. It did not agree with Ray's delicate constitution.)

But this weekend he was sweet and cute so I cancelled the gypsies and decided to keep him. Yesterday and today it was raining. But when the rain stopped this morning for a bit, I decided to run him to the dog park and see if anyone was there. None of the regulars were there but Ray had the opportunity to make a new friend named JoJo who was kind enough to let Ray maul him about.

Here are a few shots of Ray and JoJo playing and a couple of videos that were sent to me by JoJo's friend, Gail (thanks Gail!).

Oh, Ray

Ray must have slept with his mouth open last night and woke up with chapped lips because he ate my lip balm this morning. Good thing I have a backup.

Hmmm, what's THIS?

One thing about Ray that I just haven't been able to figure out is why he will ignore something for 9 months, then one day randomly decide that it is something to be chomped on or played with. It's hard to dog-proof a house when I can't anticipate.

For example, I have one of those foldy knitting things that are supposed to hold a current knitting project. Mine holds knitting needles (I have LOTS of knitting needles), including a pair of custom-made rosewood knitting needles that I bartered a scarf for. (I liked them because they weren't exactly the same size which made them unique.) Well, those knitting needles sat in exactly the same spot sticking out of that foldy thing for 6 months. One day, Ray ambles over and CHOMP. Takes the end clean off (thank God I know a kind wood-worker who made me a new one.) He did the same thing with a Niddy Noddy (look it up) that I had made out of PVC. One day, amble over, CHOMP.

Today, Ray found my beading supplies. I found him with a spool of wire and a plastic tube of beads. Maybe he was thinking of spiffing up his collar or making something for his girlfriend Halle. Then he started in on the sewing machine drawer again (as seen in the video Ray is Bored). He walked off with a tiny flashlight, a spool of thread, a small brush with a squeeze thing on the end to blow dirt and thread out of the bobbin case. He chomped a board that I use for my easel. All of this stuff has been around since day one. Today it is play-worthy.

Finally, he found his favorite toy of all, a swiffer duster that I had left lying around. He settled down to rip it to shreds. I settled down to blog...