International Law

I just took my first, real, grown up trip to Europe.

We went to Italy for a week, hitting Rome and Naples/ Pompeii (which is spelled Pompei in Italy, BTW- and yet Spell check keeps saying NO YOU'RE WRONG).

Of course, because The Hubs and I are both unapologetic dog people, we spent much of the trip pointing out local dogs to each other.

Yes, it went as you imagine. We're standing next to ruins of buildings that were built in like 4000 BC and going "babe- chihuahua in a jacket!" "Aw, So cute!"

Because that is how we vacation.

yeah, I know.

Anyway, it was interesting to see how italians treat their dogs differently. It was different even between the 2 cities. Being a foreigner I was able to seperate myself and take note of it all, and try to take away something as well.

The only time we saw dogs in jackets, was in Rome. There are dogs who live and are cared for in Pompeii's ruins- they have been there for generations and continue to be part of the local lore. Naples was a more gritty relationship to dogs, no jackets, but still a part of the fabric of the city.

Overall the breeds we saw most commonly were Jack russell/ Fox terriers and german Shephards. I was SHOCKED as they are both demanding breeds who require a good bit of exercise to be happy, and we were in areas that are most definitely CITY. There were also some chihuahuas and mutts and retriever mixes.

I wondered how these folks do it, cause there's not a lot of green space available, and the apartments have to be pretty tiny. Then I realized something- these people take their dogs EVERYWHERE with them. I saw dogs enter grocery stores, pharmacies and restaurants. One night as we ate dinner outside, we looked into the interior of the restaurant to see a bichon sitting at a table, waiting for her mother to finish dinner. Like, sitting up on the chair, face table height (when she wasn't lying down) off leash like a person waiting. NO one flinched. No one even minded when said dog got down and walked around the restaurant. They just stepped over her, or shooed her out of the way, and she moved, and it was no big deal.

If that happened in the US, the place would be closed down for health violations and the owner would never open a food establishment again.

Now, this dog never used the place as a toilet, she never licked anything, she never blocked a doorway or tripped anyone. She knew her place and was never demanding attention from anyone. She was just living in the space with her mom, each doing their own thing.

I never saw people bending down to pet other peoples dogs, but I did see folks respecting the space a dog was in. It was almost as if the dogs were as much a part of society as the people around them. You don't stare at passerby, you just know they are there, and take note of them soas to not walk into them. The leashes were always long enough for the dog to walk comfortably, but not so long as to be very far away from the human on the other end. They never had more then a foot or 2 of leeway.

The only bouncy jumpy dog I saw on leash was a puppy. Like 4 months old most likely puppy. They can't help being bouncy, it's part of puppy-ness. Everyone else would just walk politely and stop and start according to the person they were with. They were treated as DOGS, and they reacted in kind.

We even walked the Dog park in Rome ('cause I am such a nerd I wanted to see a roman dog park.... Yes, I know.) and saw them all running around and playing. There were no real fights, and only one dog acted a fool that we saw, and ironically he was owned by an American expat. They all came when called.... within the first few calls anyway. They all played well and never left the vague boundaries of the park.

In Naples, there were more homeless folks with their dogs, and a more urban attitude overall. A couple of strays walking around and such. Again, the dogs were just there, a part of life that everyone saw and acknowledged, but didn't fuss over. Again the dogs were calm, well behaved and pretty healthy.

What I took away from it (and hopefully its not too late to apply this to my kids) is that if you state the expectation, set them up to achieve it and then just let them be dogs- chances are you will end up with a well balanced animal in your life. Take them out into the world, let them be part of the every day life, don't fuss, don't bother, just have them there.

Here is the US we tend to make sure a deal about our BABIES and their needs.... which we've put onto them the majority of the time. They mainly need food, play, affection, warmth, room to roam and guidelines for behavior. Once they have that, everything else is what we decide for them. No dog NEEDS to eat organic steak and carrots every night... trust me, wait long enough with the kibble out, and eventually they'll eat it. We've fussed over them so much that we've lost sight of the dogness of it all.

So, the italian lifestyle taught me things, not only about myself, but about dogs. La Dolca Vita is really just being a part of your loved ones world, but still retaining what makes you unique- be you dog or human. When you have that, everything else falls into place.

Also, the food was amazing.

Which has nothing to do with dogs but is totally true.

A Smell by Any Other Name

It's been a while since I've updated here. I have no excuses beyond being uncertain of anyone reading this AND just life in general.

Recently, one of our in home criminals added a new crime to her list. It was an Assault on the senses caused by her own misdeeds.

Basically, Piper's habit of getting into and eating really inappropriate things (the latest additions to this are a sharpie, a highlighter and sticks!) have caused her system to get junked up, and her anal glands have reacted in due course.

A couple of months ago, we noticed she was getting extra stinky in a way we hadn't experienced before. After a few days, it had gotten so bad I was convinced there was something wrong and we headed into the vet's office. It turned out her anal glands had become impacted.

I had the joy and pleasure of being in the room when they drained her glands out. If you have never had the pleasure of smelling that, let me tell you- DON'T DO IT! It is a smell that you retain for hours. It haunts you for a couple of days on and off. It goes way beyond a normal gland drain that the groomer might do that has a slight aroma to it. This is WAY bigger and MUCH grosser.

Just as a Tidbit of info- the groomer can work with the glands from the outside- the Dr gets all up in there and drains the hell out of it. Even the Doctor agreed with me when I said to her "this must be one the least enjoyable parts of the job".

By the time the glands have gotten full enough and infected enough to become impacted, things have taken a really gnarly turn for the animal. Our poor girl had been worrying at her glands for days, and we hadn't noticed how bad it had gotten until the smell started to invade the entire house. Fortunately, we got her in before it ruptured, and got her on her antibiotics. She LOVES taking pills because there's peanut butter involved, and bless her heart she doesn't look past that to find the pill inside.

We got her through her treatment cycle, get her better, and changed her diet slightly to up her fiber levels, hoping that would help her system stay in the reset position. We were doing really well for a while. She hadn't gotten into anything and eaten bathroom items, or office supplies. It all added up to a healthy girl for a few months.

Then she ate a marker. Then we ran out of her diet supplement (canned pumpkin!). Then time to eat a highlighter. Then the smell started to come back.... So, yet again I had to drag her into the vet's office to get her glands drained. Fortunately this time we caught it just when the glands were just full, not impacted.

It's so frustrating, because if she just didn't do the one thing, she wouldn't have to deal with the other. I mean, come ON- a highlighter can't possibly taste that good. It just can't.

The price we have to pay is a truly stinky dog. When her glands start to become an issue, the smell is something that can't be denied or ignored. her crimes send us all to a level of punishment. Granted our punishment is much easier then hers, no one is stinking their fingers anywhere on us- it's just a smell.

Now, if we could just convince Piper that eating writing implements or anything in the 'lotion' category is a bad idea, regardless of how yummy it may smell, we'll be much happier overall.

SHELTER UPDATE- a true lady

Shelter stories

Working at the shelter as a volunteer has afforded me the opportunity to meet some truly fantastic dogs. Some of them come with baggage that means they stay at the shelter for longer then they deserve. It's a sad truth that less then ideal circumstances become a temporary home for these critters, but we do all we can to make them content while they're with us.

One of our current long term residents is a GORGEOUS blue pit bull lady named Garbo.

Garbo is young- about a year old- and a total goofball. She loves to play and be snuggled. She's very smart, and is truly a prefect example of all the positives of her breed. She's built for speed, but would rather sit on your foot. We've been working on her training and she has a solid Sit, and her Stay is getting rather good as well.

The only Crime this lovely lady has committed was being born a breed that gets a bad rap. Yes, there are bad and vicious pit bulls- some because they were abused violently once they arrived on the planet, some are just born that way. The fact is the same can be said of ANY breed of dog. Or Human, for that matter. The only thing different about this breed is the tendency humans have to abuse them into becoming violent, and their ability to do damage based on their size and physicality.

They are also loyal, gentle, and very smart. They will happily grow fat and old and be doted upon. They will make sure your house and family are protected while allowing your kids to yank, pull and play all over them without a flinch. The key to all of it is picking the right dog for the right family, regardless of size, shape or breed.

On the day I spent a long chunk of alone time with Garbo, we went into the play yard to get some exercise. She was so eager to go, she practically pulled me there like a sled dog (they don't get out every day, so every chance they have becomes a moment of GREAT ENTHUSIASM, which can be...... humorous). We spent some time just running in circles and sniffing every spot any dog had touched earlier that day.

Then it was Toy time.

The best time EVER.

Garbo very carefully selected her first toy out of the toy basket we keep in the yard. She played with it for a few minutes, I threw it around for her a bit, and a grand old time was had.

Then that got old.

So, she went and got another toy- more playing, more throwing, more running around.

And another.

And another.

By the time she had 4 toys out, I started trying to pick up the discarded ones, putting them on the bench, on their way back to the bucket.

This was totally uncool.

Garbo was very offended by my efforts to take away her carefully selected options. She wasn't truly content until she had about 7 toys actively being enjoyed. We played for almost a half hour, with toys being interchanged in the game as if they were all part of one bigger game.

I was able to reach into the mouth of this big scary 'dangerous' dog and yank toys out with no trouble at all. The only negative result was my being covered in a LOT of dog slobber. Not my favorite part of the job, but you get used to it.

Her ability to identify individual toys, and know that I had moved them, even while she was off doing something else really impressed me. She showed an intellect beyond what most young children have. Even while she was playing, when I asked her to sit for a toy, her butt hit the ground promptly. She had figured out very quickly that when I asked her to sit, she got to chase a toy, and was totally in for it.

Obviously, I have fallen a little bit in love with this dog. I find her to be absolutely gorgeous on every level. Her eyes are filled with intellect and a sad sweetness- she wants to bond with a family so very much. When she has her faced rubbed, she relaxes and I immediately conjure up an image of her sleeping by someone's feet, snoring and happy. She has committed no crime, and she deserves to be broken out of this shelter SOON. She will be an excellent hiking buddy, and friend. She represents a lot of other dogs I've encountered as well. Really lovely creatures who need space to run and people to understand their quirks and challenges.

This face deserves to be looked upon with love every day. She is a dear creature and I have such a strong desire to see good things for her. I want good things for all our... I'm gonna call them tenants.... but some in particular find a way into your heart and become special projects. Garbo has become that for me, as well as many other people who work at the shelter. We all adore her.

The true crime here is that not enough people outside of our staff have realized how great she is....

(see what I did there, I turned the "crime" thing on its head... Yep, I did it. And I meant it.)

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.