Daycare Encounter

Today when I picked up Ray at daycare, a woman I had never seen before walked in, looked at Ray, looked me in the eye and said, "I love that dog." She was very serious and it was obvious that she had met Ray before. "He's a good dog," I replied, but I was really thinking, "Yeah. Me too."

Attention Ray's Columbia Fans

JACK

There's a bit of a dog emergency today. Ray's foster mother, Amber, in Columbia, contacted me yesterday to ask if I would post a blog that might be read by dog lovers in S.C. For the past few months she has been fostering a Jack Russell Terrier (ironically named Jack), that she absolutely looovvves. Unfortunately, Amber has three other dogs, two that live with her permanently and a third, Josie, that had been residing with Amber's ex husband while he hunted with the dog. Josie is being retired and has returned home to be with Amber permanently. Even more unfortunately, Jack has taken a severe dislike to the returning hunter. The rescue is full of dogs and can't take Jack back right now but is planning on sending him to Martha's Vineyard along with several other dogs in an attempt to find him a home. Amber has made temporary arrangements for her dog while she is desperately trying to find a foster home or a permanent home for Jack in Columbia. She would love to keep him but as she told me "Jean, I just can't have four dogs," especially since she can't trust two of them home alone together.

SO, if anyone in Columbia can take a Jack Russell Terrier that Amber says is cute as a button, full of personality, and loving as heck, (and, as she told me "a fine example of the breed") let me know. We have a week to find Jack a home.

Here are some photos of Jack and Amber's email address for anyone thats wants more information. I also have her phone number, so if you want to call her, just leave a comment for me and I can send it to you. liparifam@gmail.com

Thanks,

Jean

Ray Amazes Me Again

Maddie's dad (photos of Maddie at http://www.raytheblinddog.com/2009/07/pullet-has-limp.html ) asked me to feed her while he was at a ball game. I told him that I would also take her for a walk with Ray. So when the time came, I hooked Ray to his leash and said "OK, let's go get Maddie." Ray looked at me and tilted his head like he usually does when he knows what I'm saying to him (walk, hungry, dinner, and treat usually get the same reaction). I grabbed the keys to Maddie's house and walked him out the front door. Ray took off down the driveway and dragged me across the street to Maddie's front door. Darned if he didn't know exactly what I had said to him and where we were going.

First Year Retrospective - Part II

Well, I added a few things to Part I, Things that are Better, then started to think about all the stuff that we've all learned in the past year. So here is Part II - Things We've Learned.

Things We've Learned:

• Don't leave food on the counter, or anywhere else that Ray can reach it, unless you WANT it to disappear into thin air.
• Don't leave kitchen cabinets open.
• Don't leave things in the back yard in places that they weren't before.
• Don't leave shoes with tassels lying around (so far the count is 2 pair of Gregg's shoes de-tasseled, 2 pair of my shoes de-tasseled).
• Always let Ray out to pee before you go anywhere.
• Never, ever, ever leave the door to the cat room open. Ray hears the hook come out of the eye and sneaks in Ninja style every time.
• Never leave a cup of coffee anywhere. Even if you think Ray can't reach it, he can.
• Ray's neck is long enough to stretch to the bottom of the sink.
• Ray is always taller than you think. I think he may have two pair of high heels hidden somewhere that he can slip on at a moments notice.
• Ray can smell a baby a mile away.
• As far as dogs go, Ray is as stubborn as they come but sweet, sweet, sweet.
• When going out to the backyard to cut asparagus, never carry a knife in your back pocket and ALWAYS keep an eye on the spastic cannonball.
• You can't trust a blind dog with yarn or wool of any kind.
• You cannot force a friendship between a dog and a cat.

Things Ray has Learned:

• How to walk without tripping over curbs.
• How to jump into and out of cars (it's harder to get him out once he gets comfortable in the back seat).
• How to climb stairs.
• How to open the gate to the stairs.
• How to sit.
• How to stay (temporarily).
• How to flop (he is pretty good at doing this when kids are around - but only after he realizes he is not allowed to jump on them).
• How to shake hands.
• How to Go (leave the room - - and come in a different door).
• That there really is no chance that he will be allowed to help cook or be offered food that is being cooked.
• Cat food tastes better than dog food.
• There is nothing more fun than the dog park.
• If you just bide your time, the humans will slip up eventually and you can get what you want.

Things Moonie has Learned

• Ray can be avoided pretty easily but you can't trust him to not sneak up on you.
• Dehydrated chicken livers taste pretty good.
• Once the dog is asleep you can sniff his feet and he doesn't know.
• If you wait until after dinner, the dog doesn't bother you.
• Things will never be the same.

Things Hugo has Learned

• Dehydrated chicken livers taste pretty good.
• Dog food isn't too bad either.
• If you sit on the stair landing, you are invisible.
• If you wait until after dinner, the dog doesn't bother you but he steals your seat next to mom.
• Things will never be the same.

Dog Park Tales

Yesterday, Annie's mom, one of the regulars (Annie is a policeman's dream dog, a Bloodhound/German shepherd mix) brought her dad to the dog park with her. We were all standing around chatting when her dad said, "Let me get your opinion of something. Last night my daughter was going to make us ice cream cones, so she reaches into the dish washer, grabs the ice cream scoop, rinses it off, scoops out our ice cream, gives the scoop to the dog to lick clean, then puts it back in the dishwasher." He was kind of smiling as he said this and was ruefully shaking his head. I laughed and looked at Annie's mom, "No," I said incredulously, "You didn't!" "It was clean," she replied with a Mona Lisa smile on her face.

First Year Retrospective - Part I

We've had Ray a year now, and I've been thinking for awhile of writing a year-in-review kind of thing but have had no clear idea of how to proceed or what I wanted to cover. Since things haven't gotten any clearer to me, I thought I'd just start writing and see where it goes.

Things that have Changed for the Better

• I have a great dog that makes me laugh at least once a day and makes me feel good (most of the time).
• I get more exercise.
• I have met tons and tons of people and I have a lot more fun than I used to. I love going to the dog park. I like walking dogs with the people that I have met in the neighborhood. I like playing with my dog. I enjoy watching him navigate and get into things and roll around and just have fun.
• Ray actually likes to come home from daycare and seems happy to see me. Much better than having people think that I beat my dog on a regular basis because he was so loathe to leave his friends at daycare.
• Ray mostly leaves us alone during dinner and breakfast now unless we are having something that he really wants, like fish or sausage or ribs or chicken...
• Ray doesn't regularly rip the screen off of the door anymore or try to tunnel through doors.
• Ray doesn't spend lots of time running around the back yard yelling like he did when we first brought him home. I think now that maybe he was trying to locate his pack. He usually only yells when he is excited that we are out in the backyard with him or when we've come home after being out for awhile, or he smells something that he was bred to hunt. Or sometimes he yells at 4:00 in the morning to tell people that all is well (at least that's my take on it).

Things that have Changed for the Worse

• My cats are prisoners in their own room. Well, not really, but kinda. Now that it's summer, Hugo spends a lot of time outdoors. Moonie comes down only at night when Ray is asleep. I still miss my cats and I don't see this changing. Whenever I pull Ray up onto my lap, I feel a twinge of regret that my cats don't sit on my lap anymore. But I guess we all made some sacrifices to give a home to a dog that really, really needed one.
• We live in a tent city. All the furniture in the living room is covered with bedspreads and tablecloths that I have picked up at estate sales. At this point, I'm thinking maybe slip covers might be a good idea.
• The kitchen trash permanently resides in the bathroom next to it. It's a pain but this is one problem I haven't been able to solve (yet). I'm fairly confident that Ray could figure out how to get into a trashcan with a foot pedal opener and I don't want to spend the money to find out that I'm right.
• The grass is not greener on our side of the fence.

Things that are Different but not Good or Bad

• My garden is different. Some plants have died but if I didn't know that they were there before, I wouldn't really miss them. Honestly, I thought the garden looked great this spring. Maybe it's the extra fertilizer, or that the soil is nicely aerated from all the excavation that goes on, or maybe rawhide bones add some missing nutrient to the soil, but really some of the plants are thriving. Others, not so much.
• We still live in a gated community. We have a gate across the bottom of the stairs that is attractive but useless. It only took Ray about a month to figure out how to open it and I never took it down because it is pretty. And we have a gate across the door to the laundry room where the cat boxes reside. It's not really a problem, it's easy to use, and it keeps the dog out.

This is it for now. I think there will be a Part II and maybe a Part III. I'm not sure yet.

Ray's New Friend

Ray stuck pretty close to me all weekend. Whenever I would sit still for more than a minute, he'd be there to sit next to me. I was flattered. After his greeting, I wondered if he missed me at all.

We quickly settled back into his routine of dog park in the morning and walk in the afternoon. On Saturday the "beagle pointer mix," Kinsey, was back (as seen in the video, Ray at the Dogpark http://www.raytheblinddog.com/2010/03/video-alert-ray-at-dog-park.html. Now that Kinsey is older, he looks even more like Ray than he did before. His owner said that they had run into another Redtick Coonhound at another dog park and had accepted the conclusion that Kinsey was, indeed, a Redtick. I grabbed a quick shot of them together (because they were just too cute).

Now on to Ray's new friend. As an introduction, I need to mention that Ray is an extremely good guard dog. Whenever someone walks by with a dog that he doesn't know, Ray goes into guard dog mode. Growls, deep menacing barks, hair up on his back. We are well protected from any marauding dogs in the neighborhood. Ray's new friend, Murphy, an Australian Shepherd, moved in across the street a few weeks ago. Every time her owner walked by with Murphy, Ray would scare the crap out of us by bounding off of whatever piece of furniture he happened to be lounging on and letting out on of his barks (totally different from his yell). We never hear the dogs coming, but Ray with his bat ears, hears them coming a few houses away.

So after a week or so of this, I finally grabbed Ray and his leash and chased down Murphy's owner so that Ray could meet this dog and stop barking at her. It worked like a charm. Murphy's owner, Rachel, wanted to know if there were dog parks in the area because she was used to bringing Murphy to one at their previous address. Just before I left for Vegas, we all went to the dog park together and I invited them over for a play date.

Today when Ray was bored I walked him down the street to see if Murphy could come out and play. She could, and they did.

It's a match made in heaven. Murphy is one year old (today) and full of energy. Ray is almost two and full of energy. They had a great time in the back yard. Murphy is a master at finding Ray's bones. She found a marrow bone in the yard and spent some time trying to keep it away from Ray. Then she found one of his rawhide chews in the house and another game of tease the blind dog ensued. They had a great time.

Hey, is that my bone?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's my bone.

Yep, that's my bone alright.

Here, I'll just take that bone.

Hey, Is that my Rawhide?

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's my Rawhide.Yep, that's my Rawhide alright.

Here, I'll just take that Rawhide.