Vacation Dilemma

With apologies to Shakespeare and Hamlet for trivializing Hamlet's life or death dilemma, I present the following original verse:
 
To vacation, or not to vacation-
that is the question addressed in this post.
Whether 'tis better to stay home with the
pets and know they are being well cared for,
or to take chances with sitters for them.
Or do we dare kennel them and worry
how they will handle their time in the joint?
Should we plan a pet-friendly trip somewhere?
Perhaps 'tis best we never leave our homes
and just become known as the crazy pet
people who cannot go away.

I am an English teacher. I find it cathartic to emote via iambic pentameter.  hahahaha

The hubs and I are going away for two days. TWO WHOLE DAYS. And that means we have to find someone to dogsit Wiley. Wiley's total aversion to a crate, plus his terrible attachment issues and fear of strangers, precludes kenneling him. I also don't think he's ready to go on any trips, because if he did we could never leave him, not even for an instant, in a strange place. So we are trying out a new sitter.  We have successfully left him with a sitter before for two days, but she is unavailable. 

Enter Meredith. Mer once sat with Wiley right after we got him, when I had to go away for the day. She did a stellar job, and I feel she is more than up to the physical task of caring for Wiley. She may be a bit mentally fatigued when she's finished though. 

All of these pictures show Wiley's reaction to her on various visits to our house. He is always trying to get himself into a position where he can kiss her face.  

Mer has plenty of dog experiences of her own. Here she is with her precious Nala.

We've shared Nala in a few Photo Share posts. She is very sweet; I've met her. She is loving and well-behaved. Here she is looking at Pop-tarts the same way I always look at Pop-tarts.

She is also compliant with being dressed up, like a true lady.

  I feel Meredith will do a good job. On the other hand, I have a dog-sitting experience to share with you that exemplifies why some dog owners never go away.

 Leroy's dad, Luke, went away on a fishing trip this past week and left Leroy in the care of his girlfriend Kim, whom Leroy adores.  It did not go well. It did not go well at all. 

Kim is a nurse, and after the first long day of being at work while Leroy was at his house, this is more or less what she came home to:

Ok, that's actually what the window looked like by the middle of the week. I don't want you to think I'm exaggerating. Oh yeah, and HOLY CRAP LEROY! WHAT THE HECK!?!

He's always had separation anxiety. He has destroyed various parts of Luke's house, with the worst destruction occurring last year during Luke's annual fishing trip. Leroy ate through the dry wall surrounding the door and nearly made it to the outside wall of the house.  

Before you ask, yes Leroy is well-exercised. He is also medicated. Kim spoils him with an extraordinary amount of love and affection. And if you're wondering why Luke continues to go away when he knows he'll come home to this, read this explanation of the trip.

So Kimberly took me up on my offering of help. 

Now, side-note, I have to show you these cute pictures of the puppy who lives next to Luke and Leroy. He was out one day when I stopped by. His name is Lincoln.

 <---He was talking to me in this picture. He wanted me to throw the ball he's playing with in the picture on the right.

Anyway, getting back to the problem, I went to visit Leroy during the day when Kim had work. I walked him. I played with him. I hung out for hours. I took a nap on the couch.  I cleaned up with him while having a nice long talk.  While I was sweeping up some of his window shavings, he joined me but pretended to not notice what I was doing:

  He spent a considerable portion of time looking around attentively, honestly probably searching for Luke. 

Guess what? He still destroyed the house after I left.   And I would get so mad at him when I walked in the house to a mess, but then he would give this look:

Who can be mad at a dog that looks like a Sesame Street muppet? By the way if you glance closely at the cabinet in the background you can see some of the damage he's done there.

I have mentioned he loves Kim, right? Here's a picture she took right at the beginning of the week, when she was still hopeful. 

And when he was with her, just like when I was there, he was a perfect little angel.

A perfect little angel dreaming of when he would be reunited with Luke, and how many windows and countertops he could destroy between now and then.

So, getting back to Wiley, we shall see how it goes. I know the amount of time he spends trying to force himself on Meredith's face for a kiss is not necessarily indicative of how he'll be while we're gone.

I will not be posting a new blog entry at all while I'm away. I will continue to promote this post, and I hope if you like it, and you've experienced some of the issues described here, you'll pass it along and share it. If you miss me and Wiley too much you can just come here and reread this. ;-) 

We hope to be back to blogging on Wednesday, with our next Oral Fixation Photo Share. It's not too late to get your pictures in to me. Email me at pabibliophile@gmail.com.  And say a prayer for a nice, calm, relaxing time for Wiley (and me) if you would.

PS: Here's a ridiculously cute picture I took of Leroy on one of our walks.

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Dio

 

Dio is an attention junkie, so he's really going to enjoy today's post. He is part of Rachel's pack, which also includes Logan and Mika. He's an Alaskan Malamute, one of my favorite breeds. However, the responsibilities of caring for Malamutes are as big as the dogs themselves, so their ownership is not to be taken lightly.  

Dio has a tendency to jump in the bath with Rachel. The last time he did that she decided to give him a bath. The top left pic is all the hair she groomed out of him afterward.

Rachel was contacted by Dogs Deserve Better about this beautiful dog who was tied to a tree in Nashville. She and her husband brought him home as a foster dog, and in one night he ripped up all the carpeting in their great room. They still fell in love with him.  

They tried, however, to adopt him out twice.  Both people returned him because they couldn't handle him. Rachel's warnings had fallen on deaf ears, and he ate a trampoline, two couches, and a rug!!!  In fact, he actually escaped from the adopter's yard and was found in Kentucky. Rachel had to drive from Nashville to the biker bar he was hanging out in to retrieve him. 

Rachel and her husband decided to keep him, and much of the destruction stopped. Rachel believes this is due to the presence of her other dogs, which compensate for Dio's separation anxiety.  

Nonetheless, he finds plenty of trouble to get into. They have to keep all the food put away or he steals it, and keep the doors locked at all times because Dio knows how to open them. He aggravates the other dogs and never stops talking. If you think the name MalaMUTE implies silence Dio has something to say about that. 

None of that matters though. Dio is a part of Rachel's pack and his good qualities far outweigh his naughtiness. He is a Daddy's Boy:

But loves that mom sometimes takes him to work, as seen here:

 
He is great with people, approaching them with his head down and his tail wagging. He is gentle with babies and kids.  All attention is good attention to Dio, and one look at this dog should explain why he gets so much attention to begin with.  

Fun  fact about this picture: Rachel shares that Mika was staring intently at the construction workers outside when Dio decided to join her. However, although Dio looks as though he too is staring down the workers, he is in fact looking at himself in the mirror. HAHA

Thanks so much for sharing Dio Rachel. We still have to talk about Rachel's whole pack and how they interact with her foster dogs, but we will save that story for later.  

I do want to share a few words about my brother's Malamute, Jackie, who went to the Rainbow Bridge about 10 years ago. She was the most loving and affectionate incorrigible dog I've ever met. She ate everything. 

She once ate rock salt out of the bag. Another time my mom was dogsitting her and heard all kinds of clanging in the kitchen. Jackie was standing at the stove eating directly out of a pot of hot chili, and her collar was clanging against it.

She also ran away often. She would lean on my brother's fence until it would bend, and then she'd hop over. Frequently she would run the six blocks to my parents' house, but she also made her trips around the neighborhood visiting with everyone. My brother would get calls saying, "We have Jackie." She would walk right up on the neighbors' porches and stare in at them.  Once she tried to hop in a minivan full of kids.

One day her two worst habits combined, and she ran away from my brother's house when my dad was letting her out. I was at my parents and the phone rang. The person said "Yeah, do you have some big husky-looking dog?"  Now my parents did not have a "big husky-looking dog" so I said no, very confused. 

They said "Well this number is the second number on the collar. I tried the first and there was no answer."  I realized they must be talking about Jackie, who I didn't even know was missing. They gave me their address and it was actually just a few houses away from my parents', so I walked down to get her.  She was thrilled to see me and I her, until the people told me they were cooking out on the grill and heard a loud noise. They turned in time to see a giant dog eating all the chicken off the grill!!! 

Can you even imagine? I was mortified, and tried to explain that she wasn't my dog. I apologized profusely. Don't worry though, my mom still went in her freezer and took some chicken out. She walked it down and apologized again.

Jackie's face, though, and her sweetness. . . .it just made it impossible to stay mad! 

 
 I apologize for the quality of the picture but it's the only one I have. 

What funny stories do you have to share? I'd love to hear them, and I'd love to hear your rescue stories too! Email me at pabibliophile@gmail.com

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Wiley's Battle Tactics

All these posts about sleeping reminded me of a series of pictures I took this summer.  I hope you'll allow for the below average quality as I was trying to take a lot of pictures in a very short period of time.   

It all started when I told Wiley to get off the couch because I wanted to vacuum.  This was the initial response I got.

           So I had to gently scoot him off the couch, at which point he immediately jumped on the chair, as you can see.

When I said to him, "No-you can't be on the chair either,"  he responded by closing his eyes and pretending not to hear me, which is one of his go-to moves.

I said "Wiley, you have to get down," and I reached my hand out to slide him.  He gave me his paw before I could try.

I let go of his paw and told him again to get down, and he acted like a cool kid who meant to have his paw there all along.  It was impossible not to laugh at this ridiculous pose.

I repeated my command, "Wiley-get down!"  I got those puppy dog eyes.  I tried to explain to him that if it weren't for his hair I wouldn't need to vacuum the furniture but he didn't respond.

I said "Wiley- I know you understand me."  He sat up and looked casually off into the distance.

"Let's go! GET DOWN!"  He responded by sitting up.

Sitting up nearly always works on me, and sitting up on the chair was hilarious. It was hard to get the picture because not only did it happen fast, but it is also a rocking chair so it was moving.  I was laughing out loud but I still said "Wiley, no. You must get down."  He sulked.

Then he tried to go for nonchalant.  Just tuned me out completely and assumed a nice casual stance.

I got closer to actually remove him, which is always awful because he is 60 pounds of dead weight. I don't like grabbing his collar and dragging so I always put my hand behind his butt and slide him off.  He went for the last ditch effort and clung to the sides when he saw me coming.

In the end, Mom won, and he conceded with a full surrender. 

I'd like to say he napped there quietly the rest of the afternoon but once the vacuum came out he had no choice but to defend and protect us all by biting it and barking at it, as per usual.  Once he had saved us and the vacuum was safely locked in the closet, we started the whole hairy process over again when he jumped back on the couch.  Good thing Hubs and I agreed on that whole "no furniture" rule before we brought him home. hahahahahaha


Now you have an understanding of why Wiley is so spoiled!  He uses his number one defense mechanism, cuteness, to perfection. And you know what?  I don't care. If people don't want to sit on a couch with dog hair then they shouldn't visit this house!

We have one more week of the Sleeping Pet Photo Share. All pets are welcome. All I need is a picture and a name.

As always, this blog revolves around your rescue stories so please share them with me and I'll share them with everyone! 

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Jesse and Dora

 Jesse and Dora were in the Jerusalem SPCA in Jerusalem, Israel, when Santa Claus offered to save them for Carrie and her family around Christmas of 2004.  Carrie wanted to get two cats, but her husband Scot would only agree to it if he had a say in the choice, since he did not consider himself a "cat person."

In the shelter, the cats were in cages that were overflowing, and they were allowed to come and go. Some just wandered off in fact.  When Scot first stepped into the cage, a kitten wrapped itself around his neck and purred and purred. Decision made!  

Jesse had a weepy eye and cataracts, even as a kitten. Not only would his physical defects have worked against him in the adoption process, but he was also mostly black. The woman at the shelter told Carrie no one would have adopted him because black cats are perceived as very unlucky in their culture, more so than ours even. So she thanked Carrie and Scot for saving his life.

A two-headed cat is snuggling with Thomas.

 Dora and Jesse are very good with the children in the household: Thomas, Maggie, Scoty, and Georgia.  Actually there's a new baby too but the cats haven't met her yet.

"Hi guys! Need any help?"

 Jesse is the more affectionate of the two, but both of them sit pretty close in the wintertime when the heat isn't nearly efficient enough. 

Dora climbs the ladder of Maggie's bunkbed to wake her for school. She also is very particular about her television preferences. 

"Turn off the Puppy Bowl!"

Both endure being dressed up by Georgia, and Jesse sleeps with Georgia at night too so there are no hard feelings there. 

 They have plenty of big and little hands to give them attention, and they even have a balcony for bird watching! 

 Although, one time Jesse got way braver than he should have and leapt off the balcony onto the neighbor's below, via a clothesline!  GAH! It sounds like the plot of a Sylvester and Tweety cartoon. Luckily Jesse was unhurt, and he never tried that again.

The window is a nice safe place for a stare-down.

 These two cats have purred their way into Carrie's and Scot's home. They've made Carrie a bigger "cat person" than she ever expected to be, and Scot may never admit it, but he has a soft spot for them too. Wiley and I are so excited to share an international tale of his arch enemies: cats!  He feels very cosmopolitan and open-minded right now.

Wiley asked me to share one more thing.  In one of my December posts, I had asked you to keep a new-born baby, Charlotte Josephine, in your prayers because she needed open-heart surgery.  Well Carrie and Scot are Charlie Jo's parents, and I'm pleased to use this post to give you an update. That's her, looking silly up there.^^  Below is her two-month picture, and you can see she is happy and thriving! 

Thanks for joining us in supporting all kinds of rescue stories, and thanks to Carrie for sharing Jesse and Dora's story.  Don't forget to share your rescue story, and follow us on social media like Twitter @RescueDogBlog and Facebook.