If you know me, you know I am a klutz! I have fallen on so many occasions and broken various bones in my ankles, feet, wrists and hands. Walking is scary, really scary for me to attempt. I live with person who is much taller and his stride is much longer. To walk with him at any pace is a workout. But then I fall. Usually I trip over the sidewalk cracks, or a buildup of asphalt. My inattentiveness has caused me to actually miss steps and walk right off into space. I have a bum knee to prove it. So I don't enjoy walking.
Now we have this dog. He needs to walk. I have been walking him. Yesterday I tripped over the dog! He had stopped right in front of me while I was trying to talk to a kid by the street. I didn't fall! But all this walking is waking up a few sore muscles and some arthritic joints that I have been babying for the past year. (my last fall and fracture was 4-08-06) But in order to be less "trifling" and more active, I am walking again. Slowly and on level terrain, but nevertheless moving. On those days the dog's new name is Treadmill!
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Monday, March 26, 2007
Spring Puppy
Spring Time!!! Our weather has been consistently inconsistent and we are intermittently busy at work. One slight difference is that Riley has been reassigned as an at home worker. His presence here was an issue with a customer who was terrified of dogs in general. NOT GOOD! Plus his personal hygiene has been questionable. NOT GOOD!
At home my rope became much shorter as he continued to forget the porch was not his potty. So we removed him to the back yard. Yes, the yard he is petrified of...that yard. (see earlier blogs, too much to explain) I have moved his food dishes to various places within the "safe zone" and he has been coaxed to venture out far enough to grab a bite and run back to the comfort of a doorway. Now after a week of this maneuver he is actually playing in the backyard!!! yippee!!!
My doorstep is clean and the yard is a happy place for Riley. But as one bad habit disappears another comes to visit. He barks as every leaf, person and dog within his visual and auditory range. Day and night! So now he goes into lock down in the garage at night so we can't hear him. We can only hope the neighbors can't hear him either.
Dilemma though...I actually have someone willing to take him if we REALLY do not want him. After all this effort and heartache can I really give him up? Some people who live with me cannot see where there is any room for doubt. I'm thinking on it.
Happy Monday!
At home my rope became much shorter as he continued to forget the porch was not his potty. So we removed him to the back yard. Yes, the yard he is petrified of...that yard. (see earlier blogs, too much to explain) I have moved his food dishes to various places within the "safe zone" and he has been coaxed to venture out far enough to grab a bite and run back to the comfort of a doorway. Now after a week of this maneuver he is actually playing in the backyard!!! yippee!!!
My doorstep is clean and the yard is a happy place for Riley. But as one bad habit disappears another comes to visit. He barks as every leaf, person and dog within his visual and auditory range. Day and night! So now he goes into lock down in the garage at night so we can't hear him. We can only hope the neighbors can't hear him either.
Dilemma though...I actually have someone willing to take him if we REALLY do not want him. After all this effort and heartache can I really give him up? Some people who live with me cannot see where there is any room for doubt. I'm thinking on it.
Happy Monday!
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Doggy Day (and night) Care
As the 49th anniversary of my birth draws nearer I find myself more and more forgetful. It has taken me quite a bit of my morning just to remember how to log on to this site! I feel so dumb! Am I as smart as a 5th grader? nope!
Is there anyone out there who cares whether or not I keep this blog going?
The dog is really getting on my nerves. Guilt is all that is keeping me from dumping him at some unsuspecting home with other animals in the yard. Cruel isn't it? Well he has peed on my kitchen floor, pooped on my sidewalk, refuses to go out into our rather spacious yard and uses my flower beds and ivy boxes as restrooms. He won't eat food/treats from your hand, he will only accept if they are on the floor/ground. NOT in his dish either! He will not eat dog food from a round bowl. it must be in a large open container and once the bottom has been uncovered he will not longer eat, but bark rabidly at the now exposed area. This mean having to load large amounts of dog food into a 9*13 glad ware plastic dish and he only eats about 1/2 or you can feed him on a paper plate which will blow across the yard when he is outside. Thus the dish. If there is an ant in his field of vision he goes berserk. He has a constant odor that is not BAD, but is more doggy that I like and I feel like a creep to be so picky. If you scold him he hides in the large boxwoods by the house. You can find him by locating the trembling shrub! But the most worrisome is that he leaks. Just a drop of urine when he is up and about, but his bed is almost always wet in the AM!!! HELP! Depends for dogs anyone?
But he's ours and we have to keep him because he loves us and we kinda have some affection torward him. His new name is Mr. Manners!
So if this blog disappears, it doesn't necessarily mean Riley is also gone, but that I am too busy nursing his neurosis and physical ailments to blog!
Is there anyone out there who cares whether or not I keep this blog going?
The dog is really getting on my nerves. Guilt is all that is keeping me from dumping him at some unsuspecting home with other animals in the yard. Cruel isn't it? Well he has peed on my kitchen floor, pooped on my sidewalk, refuses to go out into our rather spacious yard and uses my flower beds and ivy boxes as restrooms. He won't eat food/treats from your hand, he will only accept if they are on the floor/ground. NOT in his dish either! He will not eat dog food from a round bowl. it must be in a large open container and once the bottom has been uncovered he will not longer eat, but bark rabidly at the now exposed area. This mean having to load large amounts of dog food into a 9*13 glad ware plastic dish and he only eats about 1/2 or you can feed him on a paper plate which will blow across the yard when he is outside. Thus the dish. If there is an ant in his field of vision he goes berserk. He has a constant odor that is not BAD, but is more doggy that I like and I feel like a creep to be so picky. If you scold him he hides in the large boxwoods by the house. You can find him by locating the trembling shrub! But the most worrisome is that he leaks. Just a drop of urine when he is up and about, but his bed is almost always wet in the AM!!! HELP! Depends for dogs anyone?
But he's ours and we have to keep him because he loves us and we kinda have some affection torward him. His new name is Mr. Manners!
So if this blog disappears, it doesn't necessarily mean Riley is also gone, but that I am too busy nursing his neurosis and physical ailments to blog!
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