Spaghetti Western

I was reading the latest blog for Rolling Dog Ranch and it was called "Excuse Me I Want this Chair." If you don't read it, the gist of it is, one of the blind dogs, when he wants to sit in his favorite chair and it is occupied by another dog, will climb up onto the chair and "loom" over the occupant until the dog gets freaked out and vacates the spot. In our house the same thing happens between Ray and Gregg.

For whatever reason, Gregg's chair is Ray's favorite also, despite the fact that we have two chairs that are EXACTLY the same. Usually Ray will play a waiting game. He waits until Gregg either gets up to get his breakfast, put his breakfast dishes in the kitchen, or leave for work in the morning, then Ray steals his chair. He's pretty quick about it too. One minute he is curled up "asleep" in the other chair that is exactly like Gregg's chair, the next minute he is climbing onto Gregg's chair while Gregg is at the kitchen sink. Gregg comes back to sit down and Ray is in his spot.

So lately Gregg has taken to looming over Ray (Ray does it to Gregg too when he feels that Gregg isn't leaving the chair fast enough). Gregg comes back to sit down and there is Ray all curled up pretending to be asleep except that his eyes are open and his eyebrows are doing the eyebrow dance on his forehead. So Gregg will sit on the chair and try to intimidate Ray into leaving.

Well, the other day, Ray didn't even have time to curl up (Gregg is on to him and tries to get back to his chair before the chair thief takes over). Ray had just climbed onto the chair when Gregg returned to sit back down. Gregg sat. Ray looked uncomfortable but wasn't giving up easily. A standoff (sitoff?) ensued. "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" was playing in my head.

Ray, Patriot.

Last evening when I was taking Ray for a walk with Todd and Sasha, we passed a woman who lives at the end of our block but to whom I had never spoken. We exchanged greetings and she asked "What kind of dog is that?" At the first sound of her voice Ray had started in her direction. I told him to sit, which he did (!), then, without me asking, lifted a paw for her to shake(!!) Todd and I looked at each other dumfounded. I then looked at Ray in disbelief wondering what the heck had gotten in to him now. He was sitting quietly, raising his paw once again to be shook.

Upon returning home, I told Gregg about the encounter and described the location of the house where the woman lived. "Oh," he said, "She's a former Air Force officer."

Oh, I thought to myself, that explains it. Ray was just showing his respect for our military. It was probably his way of saluting.

What a good dog.

Just One more photo

Rachel and Josh had morning carpool duty. This was the photo Rachel snapped on the way to "school."

If there are better friends in this world, I've never seen them.

BFFs (Best Friends Forever)

Ray was bored. I knew this because he came into my office and started chewing on things. Ray finds this a fairly effective way to get my attention. He will walk in, pick something up, and either walk out with it so that he can chew on it in the hallway, or just rip into it right in front of me. Either way, it works. I am trained to get his leash and take him out for a walk.

Now that Murphy has moved in down the street, Ray always tries to take me to her house first. Technically, it's not really Murphy's house, it's Saint Marva's house. Murphy's mom, Rachel, recently moved in with Marva, which is nice, because Marva is Rachel's grandma. Good for Marva to have her wonderful granddaughter with her for awhile. Good for Rachel to get to spend time with her equally wonderful grandma. The "Saint" part of Saint Marva comes into play because when Rachel moved in she brought along with her a husband (a truly terrific guy named Josh), Murphy (the Australian Shepherd), Turkish (a Turkish Van cat), and Izzy (a regular ole' cat). They all live in Marva's basement and Ray finds every single person and animal in that house totally fascinating and heads that direction every time we step outside. So, as usual, Ray has acted as a deus ex machina to introduce me to a whole new set of friends. Rachel and Josh come over on the weekends with Murphy so that she can play with Ray (and Rachel, Josh and I get to chat and have a good time) and I have had a good time going out to lunch and shopping with Murphy's Great Grandma, Marva. (Although I did get a laughing reaction from my eye doctor when I told her to hurry up with my eye exam because I was going to lunch with my dog's best friend's Great Grandmother.)

So anyway, on Saturday, as usual, we headed to Marva's to visit Murphy and

Rachel and Josh and Marva and Izzy and Turkish. And as usual we stayed way too long and had way too much fun.

Rachel snapped a few pix to record for posterity, Murphy and Ray in the pachysandra.

Cool Stats

Every once-in-awhile I check the stats on youtube to see how many people have viewed Ray's videos. (It's a hobby of mine - seeing how popular my dog is.) Well, recently I found out that there is a way to check the stats by country. The video of Ray and William has gone viral (well, for a Ray video anyway - it has about 300 views...). Here is a list of countries where my blind hound is "famous" (at least one person in the following countries has watched Ray giving a licking to William):

1. Sweden
2. Argentina
3. India
4. Japan
5. Canada
6. Italy
7. Croatia
8. Guatemala
9. Paraguay
10. Norway
11. Brazil
12. Finland
13. Venezuela
14. Algeria
15. Poland
16. Germany
17. France
18. Egypt
19. United Kingdom
20. Spain
21. Saudi Arabia
22. Turkey

and of course here.

If he could have just ONE thing...

Every time I see Ray with a boy I think of how life is so unfair to some creatures. I'm not talking about Ray's blindness, because, quite frankly, Ray doesn't know he's any different than anyone else in the sight department. I'm talking about how, in all the world, the one thing that Ray would like to have more than anything is a boy. Ray loves boys (he loves girls too but he is gaga over boys). Barring that, Ray would like to have his own dog (preferably Murphy). So what does Ray get stuck with? He gets stuck with an old woman, a man who is totally bemused by dogs, and not one, but TWO cats who hate him. I mean, how unfair can life get for a blind dog?

It is a testament to Ray's great personality that he accepts his life with good grace and makes do with the cards he has been dealt. He loves life. He loves people. He loves dogs. He even loves cats. But most of all, Ray loves boys and he wishes he could have his own.

At the Dog Park

I just liked this photo of Nikki, one of Ray's girlfriends (as seen in the video http://www.raytheblinddog.com/2010/03/video-alert-ray-at-dog-park.html) and thought I would share it. Nikki doesn't like to share toys; she likes to torment other dogs by taking their toys and keeping them from them. This photo exemplifies total Nikki-ness.