Graffiti

OK, so I promised there were more stories to be told. I did not lie. There are ALWAYS stories to be told.....

A couple weeks ago we had a VERY active house. You've already read about the trespassing/ bloody muzzle incident, right? if not, scroll on down, read up on that one. Then imagine on the time line of events, 2-3 days prior to THAT, This happened:

On a Friday morning, I put the kiddos in their crate for the day before leaving for work. They have to still be crated because when they are left out, they get into trouble. Trouble of the ER vet office sort. So, crated they are, every day, together in a large crate, and they don't mind it one bit, I swear. When they get put away in their "house" they get a treat, or something fun to chew on. This particular Friday I knew they'd have a slightly longer day in front of them, so I gave them some rawhide style chews to occupy themselves with. We'd given them before, but the last couple had been sitting in a box in the cupboard for many weeks, so I gave those over and got myself out to work.

What I had forgotten about was WHY those had just been sitting there for weeks. Our delicate flower Piper tends to go through them way too fast, making her teeth and gums bloody and her stomach upset, which results in her either being horribly gassy or downright sick.

On this particular day, she must have been extra speedy because that girl got SICK. She literally shitted her way around that crate in what seemed like an explosive escape attempt. There was shit on the wall behind the crate (all the way to the floor boards) under their mat in the crate, all over the mat in the crate, all over Piper herself, and Odie got hit as well.

Poor, poor Odie- just sitting there, trying to nap when KABOOM! His sister's butt explodes and he gets hit with shrapnel.

For ONCE, I was not the one to discover this madness. These things usually happen when my hubby isn't home for some reason, so I was SHOCKED to hear of this occurring from him. Then I secretly did a happy dance that I wasn't the one stuck dealing with it right away- I had warning.

I got home to a VERY stinky house, and some truly messy dogs. The Hubby was partway through cleaning up the disaster area, having focused on things like the walls, floors and launderables first, shit covered dogs second.

There were Shitty footprints all over the rug in that room, as well as 2 rooms connected- he had missed the fact that it has worked its way through the hairs on Piper's paws, and she was walking around.

So. Freaking. Gross

I sent him to the showers with the dogs ( he was already a mess, so why not?) and I took to cleaning the floors and carpet. Fortunately, it was relatively confined and not huge amounts, so the cleaning process was straight- forward, if time consuming. Eventually everyone and everything was back to normal.... and the smell eventually faded too.

We were very proud of our youthful exciting Friday night......

The next day, we did our weekend things, in and out of the house/ crate, running errands, fulfilling obligations, etc. By late afternoon things had settled down a bit, and The Hubby and I were trying to figure out what we'd do with our night. As we sat on the office couch to discuss this, Odie did his favorite thing and jumped up with us to claim us as his.

"What's that smell?" Asks The Hubby

"I can't smell it... oh god, thats shit", is my reply.

We lock eyes and immediately look down at our innocent little Odie.

I lift him up and turn him to one side.

HUGE shit smear all down his side.

He has found SOMETHING in the yard and decided to go for a new look with it. Just rolled in it like it was finger paint and then come back inside like nothing happened.

We both start laughing, gagging, screaming, jumping up, laughing some more and gathering up everything he had touched to be thrown BACK in the laundry.

The upside was this time it wasn't on his feet, so it was only things that had touched his side..... awesome......

The Hubby took the hit again, and got BACK in the shower with the dog, once again scrubbing shit out of dog fur with his bare hands (don't worry there was appropriate sanitizing done after)

in an effort to put everything back to rights.

I took laundry duty this time, as well as sniffing things to make sure there wasn't lingering particles we couldn't see in the evening light.

Yes, I sniffed things purposely to see if they smelled like shit.

What has my life come to? Sigh.

Again, post bath and laundry- everything was fine. We had a good laugh, and discussed WHY does he keep doing this? Why must one of our kids be a Shit roller? and most importantly, WHY do we have these horribly gross creatures in our home again?

We took that night to sit at home and watch movies again. After struggling your way through shit clean up for the second time in 2 days, the idea of putting on decent clothes to go out... losses appeal to say the least. The dogs curled up and chilled out with us, redeeming themselves by being cute and sweet and CLEAN.

Charges were pressed for both incidents of shit smeared graffiti, both of the accused admitted guilt and accepted their sentence. Time served, they are now both out on probation.

Ugh, gross.

Trespassing

Ok, so we had a active couple of weeks not long ago. Now that the excitement has subsided, I can finally try and catch up with it all.... but where to begin? The shit smears? the bloody muzzle? the excited visitor?

See? I told you it was active.

Ok, I think the most concerning on that list is the bloody muzzle, so I'll start there, so as not to create a panic.

I think it's been made pretty clear on here that one of my pups is a bit of a social misfit. Thats right, our girl Piper! It's not her fault she doesn't know how to deal with the rest of her species, but it is something we have to work with her on constantly. Every walk is a training session, every encounter with an unfamiliar dog is a challenge.... you guys know the drill at this point.

Well, on a lovely Monday night a couple of weeks ago, my ambitious Hubby geared up the dogs to take them on a little run- really make everyone good and tired. Now, this initofitself is a bit of a moment of insanity. To run with a tiny dog and a mid-sized one who work at very different speeds is a questionable proposition. Then factor in that the mid-sized one reacts like a crazy person to other dogs in the neighborhood and increased speed of a run.... Yes, I question the sanity of this decision.

They made it about 6 blocks from the house, then turned down a side road, and came to a yard the Hubby knew had the occasional canine resident- he looked ahead and didn't see said dog in the yard so proceeded forward as if he was good to go past it.

It seems he just didn't see the silent unmoving dog standing at the fence. Piper did though. She bolted across the Hubby's path, cutting him off, and jamming her face between the planks of the fence of this dog's yard. He reacted to the invasion by quietly biting the end of her muzzle- which she pulled back instantly.

The end result was not a hard bite, but some deep scrapes under her nose and on her muzzle in the front. Right in the whisker area. There was a decent amount of blood pretty quickly. The Hubby checked Piper out, saw it wasn't horribly serious, but definitely needed some tending and took everyone home as quickly as possible. He called the vet, which was closed already, and found out that she could probably wait until morning to be seen. Then he called me..... I stayed calm, but was of course concerned. He wanted me to come home right away and check her to see if we needed the ER vet.

I got home about 25 minutes later, and loved on my girl while checking her injuries. She was clearly hurt, but since it was essentially surface wounds, I agreed we could wait until morning. I DID clean it out with hydrogen peroxide though.

If you have not had the opportunity to clean out a facial wound on a dog with hydrogen peroxide.... You have not wrestled with a dog.

She was NOT thrilled with this situation one bit.

I literally sat on her stomach, grabbed her face as gently, but firmly as I could, and had the hubby hand me wet Q-tips one at a time like a nurse in surgery. It took what felt like an hour but was probably only about one minute. I was sweating, she was shocked, we were both DONE at that point.

Good times.

The vet the next morning shaved down the injured area so they could get a good look at it and make sure the damage was as estimated (it was) and some antibiotics. The shaved area looked really silly, and Piper did NOT enjoy being taken in back for that process. She came back out and ran to me, jumped into my lap (hello 36 lbs of dog) as if she had survived a house fire or something. She has literally never been so happy to see me in her entire life.

I was also concerned about the ramifications of the incident- she was already a handful around other dogs, would a bite make it worse? I even wrote our trainer an email to ask for advice on how to handle it to try and head off any behavior backslides. She told me to just steer clear of that house and keep an eye on it.

After a few days of keeping an eye on it, we realized with clarity- Piper don't give a shit.

Seriously, NOTHING changed in her behavior. I mean for a few days she didn't like me rubbing her muzzle- ok, fine, it hurts, no problem; but her reactions to other dogs on the walks- not a lick of difference. It's like it never happened at all.

Um. ok, really?

I mean, good, but..... I was all geared up for emotional warfare..... and nothing?

Right.

Good. No, thats good. Just unexpected. Good though.

At this point, her meds are complete, and scars are healing, but she will probably always have funny skin right there. The only lingering impact seems to be the hair on her muzzle is all cockeyed now. In due time that section of face will be as puppet like as the rest of her is- all shaggy and messy.

So, her assault charges have been dropped with a warning- Do NOT Trespass.

murder.....?

Have I mentioned our small dog is a bit of a hunter? I think I have.

Well, even the worst hunter's bag something once in a while.

Even the worst ones......

here's what happened that made my dog equal to one of the worst ones.

A few days back, I came home from an after work class, and let the dogs back out. They were due for dinner, but they needed to go outside, so I let them out, encouraging that they get down to business, and then came in to prep dinner.

Big Girl Piper came in, as she is always following a human rather then be by herself anywhere. Odie stayed outside - which is not terribly unusual.

I set out dinner, called Odie, and he came barreling in. They sat and waited for dinner, I put bowls down, and Piper dug in. Odie, in an act of true bizarre-ness, took off and went back outside. I was stunned, but figured he was on the trail of something and picked his food back up for later.

When he came back in, I gave him dinner, he ate, and then once again, took off like his butt was on fire. At this point, Piper and I had moved on to the TV portion of the evening.

Eventually Odie came back inside, hung out for a little while, then disappeared into the office, which is normal. What wasn't normal was a few minutes later when I heard him being very active in there. Normally he just curls up on the couch and chills. The movement and jumping noises are odd. After a couple of minutes of this, I got up and went to check out what he was doing.

As I leaned towards the office, I flicked a light on, and for some reason, looked at the floor. Thats when I saw it

A dead bird.

Which had clearly been tossed around the room for the past few minutes.

And Odie

Standing, proud of himself for having killed the (hopefully!) already dead thing.

I used some words. I won't repeat them. You can draw your own conclusions.

After heading off Piper from getting involved, and getting Odie out of the room, I cleaned up the dead bird. It was really gross, and I felt bad for the poor thing. All I could hope for was the bird had been dead before Odie found it, and it wasn't him killing it outside before he brought it in that was keeping him occupied instead of eating dinner.

So, basically, his desert was Dead bird with a side of FLING! YAY!

gross.

gone AWOL

So, time has passed, but one thing remains the same- my dogs are crazy people.

They are both very sweet, very loving, and very charming when they want to be. They are also totally and completely mental.

Case in point- when we go on walks and encounter other dogs, they both go kind of deaf, dumb and blind to anything else- including the human attached to the other end of the leash.

Odie gets over it pretty quickly when we restrict him from getting to the other dog. Just keep walking, and drag him along behind and in a couple of minutes he stops struggling, and moves onto the next thing. One of the joys of having a dog who weighs 15 lbs- there's not much he can do if you don't want him to. Piper on the other hand.... Once that girl focuses on something, breaking her of it is a test for anyone. She locks on and will NOT be distracted for anything.

This has made walking a true challenge. We got our phenominal trainer out to help us, and she gave us exercises to use to help Piper learn that other dogs weren't something that needed to be attacked, just things to be walked past. It's going to be an ongoing process for the next few... YEARS.... sigh.... but she is getting better. Tiny, miniscule bit by bit.

Things we still deal with on our walks are the neighborhood dogs that Piper knows about. She anticipates them, and starts to do a routine I like to call "suiting up" for her encounter. Which is ridiculous 'cause she never actually comes in contact with any of them, but whatever.

She starts walking taller, ears forward, shoulders tense, and breathing like she's about to jump into a cold lake. She starts this about 4 houses away from whichever dog house she's about to come up on. Then as we get even closer, we start the distraction techniques we've worked with the trainer on. That usually gets us through the pass by section relatively well. After that, she will still breathe heavily and occasionally get a good foaming at the mouth going.

We'll go through this several times over the course of a walk some days. Meanwhile, little Odie is attached to my hip, and he just keeps motoring like none of this is interesting anymore. He's been through it so many times that he is now completely unimpressed and unmoved by the excitment. I think part of him is over Piper's outbursts too. If he could talk he'd probably just be telling her to cut it out so he could get to the rest of his walk already.

The worst of all the encounters we have to face is this one particular house. They have 2 small, and yet overweight, chihuahuas in a chain link fenced in yard. They live on a corner, so we get to face them in the side and the front of the house. I call them the Monsters.

The Monsters are not only not discouraged from bum rushing the fence and challenging all comers, but are even let out of the front door specifically to do it. They charge, bark, shriek, challenge, growl, bare teeth, you name it, they do it, and they will continue to do it until you're about 3 houses away. Needlessto say this makes Piper totally lose her mind. It presses all of her buttons several times over. There have been days where The Monsters get so aggressive, and Piper reacts so strongly, that Odie gets going and growling too, and they are both wrapped around my legs that I get really unsettled that someone is gonna get hurt, and there's a very good chance it'll be me.

I've learned to prepare myself better as we approach this house, and to always be hopeful the Monsters will be locked away and not even know we're passing by. I try not to anticipate the madness too much, because I know Piper can feel that tension. I try to project Odie's calm, "whatever, we're walking its all good" demeanor into every step.

Doesn't always work.

I have to admit I've come to hate those Little Monsters a lot.

Not overly fond of the owners who let them out to terrorize any and all passerby either.

I mean, I've been out running by myself and those Monsters do the same thing to me through the fence. It's just insanity.

I will say, every time we make it past that house without incident I am thrilled. Every time we have to pass by the Monsters temper tantrums I send them mental wishes of going mute or suddenly losing the ability to comprehend us. Some days I avoid the house altogether because I'm just too damn tired to deal with it. In my book that is a completely valid way to deal.

All told, the walks get a little better all the time, but they are still something that tries my patience and some days fill me with dread. It reminds me of how socially stunted my big criminal is, no matter HOW sweet she is when she wants us to love her. She was damaged by a family of people who had no idea what to do with her, and now we're trying to tell a stubborn, opinionated teenager to do things our way......

It's a miracle we're all still standing... and walking.

time lapse

Well, there has been quite the time lapse since a blog entry, hasn't there?

I can explain!

Ok, not really, beyond things got busy and the dogs mostly settled into a routine, and the trainer came and helped us, and things got busy.

I didn't even get to the shelter very much over the past couple of months- its been a challenge to get my usual amount of time there. Poor pups barely had time to get to know me, and my hand feeding them treats before I disappeared again.

After the next couple of things, things will settle down, life will loosen its strangle hold on me, and I will get back to having time to getting super frustrated by four legged creatures while simultaneously wanting to take all of them home and cuddle on the couch with them. Yes, even my own personal criminals. I even want to let them on the couch sometimes.

And then Piper Farts.

and I remember why we don't do that anymore.

So, chins up folks, I'm working on it, I swear. Hopefully new content VERY soon. Don't give up on me yet.

thanks

-Seaweed