So I'm back

 And I realize that it's been hella long, but the old electronic gear wasn't doing it, and trying to do Blogger from an iPhone was quite the exercise in frustration. But now I have a new computer that runs something more modern than Windows 7 (Don't judge me!) and it plays nice with the new phone I had to buy last week when the iPhone 5 finally bit the dust.  In sum, I'm reasonably modernized and connected again.

So...where to start?  The three doggoes are still here and doing fine. Murphy had a toe removed last month do to an infection that wouldn't stop, and he also had a fractured tooth with an underlying abscess removed and fixed, so he's feeling fine again and I'm feeling poor. (Vet bill for him alone last month was higher than my mortgage payment.) But he's my pal, so...

"Three-toed Murphy" he shall be known as. 

And it was worth it to see how much better he walked and ate after doing all this work. Apparently he'd been masking it well but it had been impeding him a lot.

Belle's just Belle--a sweet, gentle, fairly obedient dog.

And Merida...Sigh. There's always one.

Don't let the cute face fool you...Baby Murder Dog has killed four chickens and a pigeon in recent months. but when not slaughtering domestic livestock, she's really quite cuddly. 

There's a new van project here too. Meet Rocinante.

I picked this up  at auction a couple months back. It's diesel and 4-wheel drive and it's factory built for off-road use. I'm converting it into a camper and I just finished a first trial trip with it, going from Louisiana to the California desert and back, Stopping to visit friends along the way, of course. It's still a work in progress, but it's performance was flawless this time out, between pulling 16mpg hwy and clawing up jeep trails in the desert, it did everything I asked of it. Right now there's a bed in the back but a kitchen and solar power system are coming next. Merida came along with me on this trip and while she's not exactly an adventure dog (she prefers to sleep in or under the truck), she nonetheless had a good time, being it "standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona"

or hanging out at Hoover Dam

Or melting in the California Desert

She even saw Mexico and had a real taco.

Not an unhappy dog.

But now we're home and I've got 21st century tech finally and blogging shall resume, with stories and pics and other musings on our pre-apocalyptic days. But I'm only sticking around so long as I get the idea that I'm not just posting for the same six readers. If you're still out there, let me know, eh?

 

Hey--write about ME!

 So someone read this blog and saw the recent posts about her sister and brother and suddenly she was giving me the eye and wanting to know where her post was.

So even though her anniversary here isn't until August, to keep the peace, here's a post for Merida.

She's been here a year and a half now, and she'd definitely made herself at home.

Despite being "differently abled", she's the most active and aggressive member of the pack now because she's still fairly young. 

She's only about 45lbs, but she's rock solid and she's learned how to throw that mass around to her advantage, knocking the bigger shepherds aside whenever they get between her and something she wants. But she still loves them.

And for so long, I wanted a dog I could wrestle and roughhouse with. The Shepherds are good for a lot of stuff, but they don't care to be tossed around or messed with. It's never been their thing. This one though? She lives for it. Nothing makes her happier than a good tussle. The downside I never thought about? She often wants to do this when I don't want to...like first thing in the morning when I'm still trying to sleep. Her signature move is to step on me with her one front leg, then drop on me like Superfly Snuka. And when I push her away, that mouth full of no front teeth can get a very impressive hold on my forearm if I'm not careful. She wants to play and play hard and I really don't get much choice. She's a little badass and she knows it. 

This is also why she's banned from the dog park--she'll take on dogs twice her size and whup 'em, and with other animals, she's not playing. She goes right for the throat and if she had all her teeth I'd have been paying some serious vet bills...and she's taken out three of my chickens already even without those teeth.

"Fuck around and find out. I dare ya."

But she's got her soft, girly side too, and her other favorite activity is snuggling, and whenever I sit or lie down, she's gotta get right in there too, because she's decided that her place is wherever I'm at. And it's hard to stay mad at this little Tasmanian Devil for long, because she's got the gift of cute, and she works it.

Guest post from Merida

Hi people. Merida here.

I'm blogging today because my human was out waaay too late last night at an adult-themed ball and after a brief nap and change of costume, is now back on the parade route acting a fool and passing out free wine to other fools. Sigh.

Ar least he hasn't gotten run over by a float yet.

And TWO float fatalities here in less than a week? By now even Darwin is slapping his forehead and muttering "WTF?" I mean these things roll every year in about 70 parades across the area and most anyone with the sense that God gives geese knows to not go between two floats that are hitched together and moving. And of course Mayor Latoya "Won't-pay-my-taxes-but-all-about-taxing-you" Cantrell immediately proclaimed that there will be no more tandem or triple floats for the rest of the season now. Why not just ban stupid people who don't understand basic physics? Oh wait--the floats are doing that pretty well this year.

Anyway, ya'll have a great day. I'm just gonna sit here and binge-watch the human's pay-per-view and maybe eat a couple more of his books while he's gone.

She's part beaver!

So the other night was a very good night...such that I got home about 9:30 the next morning. And although I'd texted my neighbor and asked her to let the dogs out, she never saw the text, so I came home to this:

The entire molding strip next to the back door had been ripped right off the wall. Teeth marks were at a level consistent with one Merida.

I guess someone really wanted to get outside badly. Even the Shepherds never did this sort of damage to my house--any of them!

But it's hard to scold her when she stands up to lick you,using the refrigerator for support.

So I gave her a cookie and sent her to bed.

Banned

How has Merida been doing? Well she's showing some character and personality now and starting to demonstrate some independence again. Oh, and she's banned from the dog park now after beating up two Schnauzers and a Jack Russell Terrier. Apparently she doesn't care for dogs her size or smaller and when she sees one, she's on it like a three-legged heat-seeking missile and much barking and screaming ensues as she proceeds to whip it's ass before I can get in and pull her off. And the lack of front teeth on this girl is probably the only reason I'm not paying vet bills for these other dogs. She'll play with big dogs for an hour with no issues, but let her see one that's under 50lbs or so and it's clobbering time. So until this gets figured out and trained out of her...no dog park.

Three legs and no teeth and still a little bad-ass.


And lest anyone forget, Murphy was like that when I first got him too, only it was teen boys that he went after due to his abuse history at the hands of a group of them. We worked through that and he's fine now. Hopefully I can do the same with this gal.

Discipline SUXS! (So sayeth Merida)

So the other night I called Merida because I wanted to play with her. She did not come to me, so after a few calls I went looking, because this isn't like her at all. I found her up on my bed, sleeping on my pillow.

That's a "Nope" right there.

So I pulled her down the the floor and gave her a good "NO!" And in return, she gave me a dirty look and climbed right back up on the bed. Really?

A few seconds later saw her back on the floor with another negative admonition, at which point she went over to her blanket on the floor at the foot end of the bed, lay down and stuck her head under the bed. I went over and tried to coax her out, because I still wanted to play with her, but everything I did caused her to burrow further under the bed. Then it hit me--she was sulking! Poor thing's probably never been corrected before, and definitely not by me yet, and she wasn't liking it. So I left her alone and went on about my business for an hour or so and when I went back in the room she was still on the floor but she got up and came over to me, this time in a little better mood. I gave her some petting and scratching, and then she turned and went back up on the bed again, as if to see if it was ok now. She was removed a third time and hasn't tried it again since. And she seems to have gotten over her little fit of pique and now follows me around everywhere again. I guess someone was trying for the role of Alpha in the house and now that she realized that she didn't get the part she's ok again.

So this morning, since it finally wasn't a million degrees and the dogs all let me sleep in for a bit, we went down to the French Quarter.

It was the first time I took all three of them out together, and Merida preferred to walk with the big dogs rather than ride in her wagon. I let her at first and she did ok for a few blocks but she fatigued pretty quickly and I decided to put her back in it. Again I got challenges, as she really wanted to be with her pack and kept jumping out of the wagon. It was admirable, and the girl's got grit, but she just doesn't have that stamina yet and it was obvious that she was struggling so I repeatedly put her back in the wagon until she finally learned to stay in it. It's looking like she's going to be a bit of a hard-head just like her pal Murphy.

Hell, they drove me to drink this morning and it wasn't even 10AM yet.

Wagon Train(ing)

The other night, my friend Paige came over to help me accustom Merida to her wagon.

She apparently liked her ride enough to decide that Paige was ok. She decided on her own to climb up on the couch with Paige afterwards.

What am I going to do with these two?

And then there were three. So much for the "fostering" idea...

I went and added little Merida to the sidebar today so I guess that makes it official. She's just fitting in too well here. The other dogs have taken to her despite their initial reluctance because she worked so hard at befriending them. Even Belle the diva finally melted. And Murphy may not act like he likes her around the house, but I've started taking all of them out in public together and he very clearly guards her when other people come up and want to pet her. Nothing aggressive but he always seems to put himself very close to her if not in between her and the interested person to the extent that people point out how protective he's being. Belle does to to an extent, but she's still a princess with her own need for attention. Frankly I expected jealousy from her but haven't seen a bit, not even when Merida eats out of her dish, takes a drink when Belle's drinking from the water bowl, or steals Belle's bed.

Everybody's just getting along and they even lay down and sleep by her at night now. I was letting her out my bedroom door into the back yard special to save her the longer walk the other dogs make when I put them out the side door (they have to go the length of the house on gravel to reach the back yard for "dog business") but now she runs out the side door with them, preferring the long walk with her new pack over the easy shortcut with me. She's also learned how to jump up on my bed, which is almost as far off the ground as she is tall, but she hasn't learned how to do it without crashing into me like a 45lb wrecking ball whilst I'm still dozing. Bottom line: She's real cute and everyone loves her and it would be cruel to uproot her again when she's finally feeling secure and happy. So she's staying.

The other night I took all three to the dog park, but when we got there the park was closed. So I took them to the bar instead. (OK, two bars and a gourmet french fry shop...) She's much more confident walking in with her pack then when I took her solo a couple nights prior. And they stuck to her instead of trying to hustle pets and snacks like they usually do.

We got home and she was all tuckered out and went right to sleep, no doubt dreaming dreams of finally finding her forever home.

Sometimes little dogs' dreams do come true.

Off we go!

"A walk would be nice," say the big dogs.

But how do we take out new pack sister with us? Oh yeah...Amazon sells wagons!

To be honest, she didn't take to it at first. It was ok to sit in, but moving? Well there's going to need to be some training here.
And we started the training outside.



And the neighbor kids were right there to give her some needed encouragement, and I think that helped a lot.

More to come on this experiment but if it works, she'll have all the mobility that the other two have for evening walkabouts.

Of dogs and decadence

She went to the vet today. Needed a bath bad. Hadn't had one since who knows when and she was greasy and grimy. They said the water turned black and I believe it because she's noticeably lighter now and much more pleasant to touch. Smells better too. The vet techs could not believe the change in her disposition in just a week, from scared and withdrawn to cheerful and loving. She'd doing great.

Back home, she kept me company outside while I tried (and failed) to fix my flood-damaged lawn mower, which apparently went under water while I was in Mexico. I got it from "won't start" to "almost stays running" but I can't quite knack it. I guess it's into the mower shop. Sigh. But she stayed out with me while the other two went right back in for air conditioning. Loyalty.

Now she's dozing on the sofa. Shame on her...but too cute to kick off.

But lest you think it's been all dog all the time, I did get out to Mid-Summer Mardi Gras uptown this week-end. There was a parade and adult beverages were consumed.

Don't try to understand it. You really had to be there.

And her name shall be Merida

Sorry for the lack of posting. Been busy here. But little Merida is fitting right in. And that will be her name now, named for the capital city in Mexico's Yucatan state, a beautiful place that I would never have gone to on my own, but once I saw it, I fell in love with it. And that applies to this crazy little 3/4 Pit Bull too. I didn't want another dog and wouldn't have chosen a pibbie but now that I've started to get to know her...

Here she is on one of the two dog beds by the window. She has no problem competing for this prime space with the other two, meaning one of the Shepherds has to sleep elsewhere. But they let her. She's now chasing them around, trying to be everywhere they they are and licking at their faces whenever she can, kind of like that annoying little sibling they wish would go away but who adores them so much. And they put up with all of it, although Murphy does get agitated at times. I think even he's come along though. She's got this sunny disposition that you just can't get mad at. Despite everything that's happened to her, she's downright cheerful.

Yesterday she was outside with me and the other two, and suddenly, like they'd coordinated it all three ran to the back door wanting to get in the house.

So I got up from my lawn chair where I'd been sitting and went over to let them in. I knew that rain was coming but within thirty seconds of us all going inside, a deluge hit and it poured like crazy. They felt it--all three of them. And then they all looked at me smugly when we were inside and they were lying down on their nice dry dog beds as the rain beat on the windows and roof. "Good thing hooman listen to us!"