Dog Overboard or Dog Over-truck?

I have no pictures, happened too suddenly...we were driving from TX to Kansas City.  The roads were snow covered from Adair Oklahoma on...we took the back way.  In a big truck.  In the snow.  With people off in the ditch everywhere, well their cars were off and the people were still in the majority of em.  Anyway we stopped in Seneca Missouri to clean off  icy windshield wipers because they weren't doing their job especially on my side of the truck and it was really important I see so my various muscles could clench appropriately (we won't go into that).  I opened my door and started to reach around to the windshield wiper to slap it up and down and all of a sudden the Bichon Frise, Dispatch, is tumbling out and down, it's about 5 ft and the truck was stopped, he landed in a couple inches of water and slush.  It was a slow motion tumble I think he was trying to catch himself on every step.  He landed pretty well upright in the water and looks up indignant as h*!!, like you stupid woman, why'd you do that!! Get down here and PICK ME UP.  He was fine, a bit wet but not even really shaken up.  His pride was injured though.
BUT get this?  He still like jumps from the truck to my shoulder when I tell him it's time to get out, evidently he's still not afraid of heights.
Driving was a different story though...he was shivering and scared...I'm thinking why is this dog so scared of the snow?  Part of it was the noise the slush makes and if the snow plow decided to plow the shoulder of the 4 lane we would end up on rumble strips for a bit.  My husband says dog was tense because I was.  We saw @ least 100 cars off in the ditch in the last 150 miles or so, I think I had a right to be tense?  Especially when they would spin out about 1/4 of a mile ahead of us.
I've been a bad bad blogger, I've been freelancing for a web designer and trying to keep up with husband.  I've promised to do better but I haven't......I do think about you all..

Dispatch in LOVE

This picture is Dispatch the bichon playing with a ball. He uses his feet like a cat sometimes, bats @ things etc. much more than any other dog I've seen. The ball is about to go off the chair, he will go get it in his mouth, take it back on the chair, chew on it, bat it around, let it fall, jump down to get it etc. He can play like that for a long long time. This is another bad hair picture. I've heard that other bichon frise use their paws like cats too?

I wrote the two youngest kids like Dispatch more than the others. Christy and Christi remember? We call my daughter Christy Sissy, makes life much simpler and was her nickname anyway, if I really get carried away it's Sissy Beth which makes it sound like we live in the deep South? You can tell my daughters resemble me but they don't look much alike but we all three sound just alike to everyone but my husband, especially on the phone. We have fun with it, I can fool my daughters husband on the phone for awhile till I get tickled.

Sissy Beth is Dispatches favorite of the kids to this day. When he was neutered his hormones evidently ran amok. Sissy Beth came to visit about that time and she was his intended. He's not a really bad little dog about having to hunch or wanting to unless he's showing dominance to another dog, and wasn't then either but he was in LOVE. There is no other way to put it than he was like a love struck teenager. He would hear her voice and even if I was in the room he would RUN to her, he had to sit on her lap and if he couldn't he would stare mournfully @ her but you could tell he just worshiped her. We still talk about it, he still likes her the most out of all the kids, but has never acted like he did that one visit she made. I still call her Dispatches intended once in awhile to get her goat. She has a pet sitting business in Wichita now, Happy Tails if you need pet sitting or house sitting she is your girl.

Here are the dogs greeting Sis about a year ago.

Further Adventures With The Bichon And The Border Patrol

For those of you who have never been close to the Mexican border with the US by way of highway there are inspection stations where they stop all vehicles and search for aliens or anything illegal such as drugs. I've always wanted to say "no habe englais" when they ask if I am an American but I've refrained which is just as well considering jailhouse orange isn't my color and I thoroughly respect the border patrol, they have guns. A friend of ours did get stopped for an hour or so when the search dog went nuts over her truck, they wouldn't let her call her husband and he was waiting for her up the road. Evidently she had ran over something like a tossed out bag of drugs or something. I told her I would have asked if I was under arrest and called my husband when they said no. I'm stupid that way though and probably would have worn jailhouse orange but she got to leave after an hour of puppy going nuts. Another friend of ours (HI KELLY!! how ya doin?) was driving a truck from WI to TX weekly and one night he was tired. The border patrol asked him how he got such a nice new truck. You'd have to know Kelly but he said well the drug running helped pay for it. They did not find him humorous but let him go after a day or so.

So now we come to the Dis and what happened today. I try to hold Dispatch tightly and attempt to make him be quiet when the border patrol opens the door and peeks inside. I swear I think the dog is learning to read because I pick him up several hundred times a day but when we get close to the border patrol station he starts that thing that's between a cough and a bark when he sees the signs, then when we get closer and Daddy puts on the brake he goes into the full bark. Shush is not really in his vocabulary if he thinks there is a good reason to bark. A german shepherd and men in green suits opening up vehicle doors is plenty good reason he thinks to throw a full blown fit. So Dispatch is barking... he is evidently telling the German Shepherd I'll mop this place up with you, see what a giant q-tip can do (meaning Dispatch the Bichon) I know the search dogs are highly trained but it seems every time we pull into an inspection station they go nuts? So the younger border patrol opens the door and says we are OK but he's going to have to arrest Dispatch for threatening him and disturbing the peace, he almost has a straight face as he is saying this above the big deep barks and the little not so deep barks. Then he asks us what we have on the truck and then says we need to LEAVE as the German Shepherd is saying let me @ the q-tip fluffball and we will see who does the floor mopping. I believe Dispatch said in parting that if the GS tried to mop the floor with him he would choke on the fuzz and die before he got Dis bit but I could be imagining that?

Dog Work And Bad Breath

Dispatch has always been a busy dog. He's always been a people dog too, accommodating and sweet smelling. Here he is making sure Mama doesn't make the mistake of leaving him in the camper as he's pretty sure he wants to go in the car where the suitcases are...... sitting in the street should work?
Here he is directing the morning gathering of a hurricane crew cleaning up after Katrina in Biloxi MS. His Daddy and "brother" are the two biggest ones.

Here he is either washing Matt's boot or checking air pressure in the tires with moisture?

He is keeping Daddy firmly in the chair later in the week. Daddy had gotten staph from a chainsaw cut on his leg and a case of Daddy telling Mommy I don't need a bandage anymore a sock is fine......took 6 months and we both had staph by the time it was over. For the med geeks it was MRSA too! Daddy wasn't even supposed to be out in the heat but he thought Mama couldn't boss the hurricane cleanup crew as well as he could, he was probably right.
Dispatch was keeping Daddy weighted in the chair. Daddy isn't a good patient.
Dispatch even smells good when he is so upset he doesn't know what to do? Mama took him to the vet and they had a groomer there too. Horror of horrors. He'd never met a real groomer before and this was first in a long line This is also when the vet confirmed the French Canadians we lived by in FL were right. They said "ee es sich a sweet beeechon (bichon)" (talking about the dog when I would walk him) I said in my Missouri drawl, "hez a podoll, don't chall know a podoll when ya alls sees one?" (I maybe exaggerated my drawl a bit?) But I am digressing he still smelled fairly good.

Part of the problem is his Daddy has a nose like a bloodhound and always has. So when Dispatch started getting bad breath we looked to the teeth, a bit of tartar but not much, so we went with the treats and the bones designed to clean teeth. This was in September or October I think, I bought doggie toothpaste and until you've used that on a dog you haven't lived. We finally just stick it on a paper towel wrapped around our finger (plastic finger thingy was gone out of our toothpaste for dogs) and I disinfected his toothbrush and use it because I forgot mine. Yes I use the dogs toothbrush but get over it, IT'S DISINFECTED!!! He only used it once anyway, that was enough for me and him both. His breath wasn't much better, in fact it was getting worse. So I said OK, he can do pepto bismol so how about listerine and water on a paper towel and swab out his mouth? After this he seemed to prefer his Daddy over his Mama so much more? Wonder why? Every time I went to the pet store I forgot to buy anything for his breath. So yesterday Daddy and I were shopping and I'd refrained from buying the breath tabs for dogs @ Wal Mart because lets face it, Dispatch is picky, if it's not cheese, milk, ice cream, or meat it had better be really sweet or he'd better be starving. He refused to eat pork except for bacon or ham for years. The breath tabs are mint flavored. Daddy said let's try them as Daddy can smell the dog clear across the truck. Do you think he would even get CLOSE to them?
Does this look like the face of a mint eating dog? He will struggle but let me do almost anything to him. He let me dig @ his head once with tweezers to get a partial tick out of his skin. I break the breath tab in half, I plead with Dispatch, get a death grip on his head while he's on my lap and stick the mint in his mouth and he sort of chews on it in an effort to push it out of his mouth. After about 3 of those sessions the breath tab is mostly gone and I stick it in his food hoping he'll have a change of heart. The mints do seem to be helping.
Tomorrow maybe a post on Doggie flatulence..... yes he passes gas and it's HORRIBLE!!

Misty Colored Memories Of The Way We Were

I'm really good @ coming up with catchy titles that have no actual bearing on my subject matter in any truly constructive way? In other words people aren't going to be looking for memories on the search engines to come up with a video of a bichon and a lab playing but....that's the way I roll.


BTW, I don't normally say or even think that's the way I roll, it just came out. Maybe I'm ill? This is sort of a tribute to Mugsey, I was looking for pictures of Dispatch and came across these. Sorry they are long.. enjoy.

Oh and I know I'm not supposed to let the bichon latch onto my arm growling but it's soooo much fun and I doubt he turns into killer dog but you never know. Plus he has been fixed and he has to get his jollies where he can.... don't cha think? My brother says the bichon thinks he's like dominating me and preparing to hump when he grabs me like that...I think bro is just trying to gross me out? Bro would love nothing better than to gross me out horribly. He will be 70 soon (he's old enough to be my dad) and he will NEVER GROW UP!! Maybe I should tell him he HAS to get a computer so he can see what nasty things I'm writing about him?

Dispatchs "New" Trick

Yes it's been airbrushed, Dispatch said he didn't want to get any girl dogs excited by the playboy pose. This isn't his new trick, it's not even an old trick.
Basically I was looking for a picture of Dispatch on a table but couldn't find one. Dispatch took to table sitting again last week when we stayed in the motel because the tire fell off the truck. Everytime I'd leave the room I'd come back and he would be on the table with the laptop, I was starting to think he was emailing SOS! Dispatch has always climbed like a cat, I've heard bichons do. Also they curl their claws around a bit somewhat like a cat. I tried to teach Dis to climb a ladder but he knew I wanted him to do it. If you lean a pallet against a porch without steps he can climb that to get to mama though!!

Here in the truck Dispatch has reached new heights in climbing though, I haven't been able to get a picture of it but he wedges his head between my husbands leg and the steering wheel. (we are in the middle of nowhere when we let him do this) and pulls himself up on my husbands lap by climbing and levering against the steering wheel with the back of his head. This is partly because he really isn't allowed on Daddies lap when Daddy is driving so Dispatch MUST get up there. Also Dispatches Daddy is supreme ruler of the world as far as Dispatch is concerned so when he is sitting on Daddies lap he is second ruler in command of the world. (according to Dispatch)

Dispatch looks pretty funny sitting on Daddies lap. Daddy is the baseball cap, levi's 501 jeans, cowboy boot wearing truck driver and used to look like the Marlboro man (if you squinted, maybe a hairy Marlboro man?) Anyway they are a bit amusing to see walking across a parking lot too. Dispatch tries REALLY hard to look Macho and tough but it's hard to pull off when you are white and fluffy? I'll try to get some more pictures soon.

Bichon Keeping My Humans in Line

I bet you wanted to start your day off with a bichon butt? This is Dispatch the bichon frise (and a tough one @ that) and it's a mighty handsome butt if I do say so myself. What am I doing? Mama has this screensaver on her laptop that has a cat playing, I've never caught the cat but I tried again the other day. As with most cats this one thinks he has superior cunning and higher mental abilities than the bichon. The bichon will teach that cat that dogs rule!!! (Just as soon as I catch him) Mama says she tried to lighten the picture but it looked worse, if she lightened it the bichon butt wouldn't show up so well I don't think? I know if I touch the laptop that sneaky cat disappears but I will get him soon.

This is me this morning, this is the look I give mama when I don't want her to go outside (I've almost perfected poor and pitiful don't cha think?), she moved her computer to the table and I love to sit on her lap, propped up appropriately by her left arm, and watch tv. I do fall asleep but she tries to get me to lay down and I wake up. Sometimes she has the audacity to make me get down on the floor, I can lay there but prefer the recliner.
My mama has been busy busy lately, she hasn't had any time to let me blog even!! Daddy takes up quite a bit of her time but that is OK, when he is home I'm on his lap unless we are watching tv as a family, then I usually sit on the floor in front of the tv and watch. They say I'm trying to figure out what is going on but I know what is happening. That's why I go to sleep. Reruns ya know? The big black book on the table in the picture has a bunch of stuff that needs to go into the computer and mama says there are more in the closet that need to be either checked or put into the computer. It makes her busy and grouchy. She took the day off yesterday, she said she did anyway, she was still on that puter with the kitty on it, a day off is a day petting THE DOG and feeding him but did that happen NO! She's trying to make a new blog which will be the same name as this one and dot com. You might have to put blog on there too but she's not sure since she can't get ANY of it to show up, not even so she can mess it up. She keeps muttering about something called a control panel and wordpress and ftp and even htaccess. She says she even tried uninstalling and putting an index page in. She thinks maybe she messed something up which sometimes happens to her because she can do most things by the seat of her pants on the fly and doesn't pay attention sometimes. She says if you have had problems with wordpress and fantastico and solved them to email her you can use this address (moads4u at gmail dot com) or tc at animalsthatgivepause dot com but she's not sure THAT is working either, she's been able to send mail but hasn't got any. Mama has LOTS of hair but she says she might pull it out, as long as she stays away from my hair that's ok.
She did manage to give me a haircut WITH the clipper guard this time. I got to go in everybodies camper after that even people who don't like animals in their house because I'm so CLEAN and handsome. The bare patch on my hip (see like a few posts back when wacky woman trimmed me without the clipper guard) is growing out, I have TERRIBLE itches there, mama says it's when my tail hits the skin without much hair on it but I know there is something GETTING me there. I sit down and swing around no matter what I'm doing and try to chew on my butt, they laugh but it's serious, it could be a giant flea I'm saving the world from?
Mama said she will be back blogging and commenting regularly soon. She said she went to Houston and back in 3 hours last week 200 miles and picked up parts for Daddy. I know that people LAUGHED @ me when I yodeled when she got out of the car (with the doors locked and ac on of course) then she scoped out the place and decided I could come inside and I entertained by walking on my hind legs chasing her trying to get her to hold me so I could help her get the RIGHT parts. Daddy said some funny words when Mama told him she was almost back with the parts on the phone. I know she hadn't paid much attention to me and had that stupid music on really loud. Then there was a traffic jam and she ducked off the highway in a place I don't think she was supposed to go and the car sort of went up and down, she told daddy it was an entrance ramp for the access road, not an exit for the freeway. That's OK though we got back and had brats and hamburgers and of course everyone ate together and fed ME which is what is MOST IMPORTANT. I like it when we all eat together outside, Mama doesn't watch so close and EVERYONE feeds me lots. Except her of course. I've gotten so spoiled I won't eat my old dog food? Mama is feeding two dogs outside though with my old food, one lives here, it's the landlords and the other is a hound stray. And of course Wolfie next door gets a few scraps. Mama is trying to get pictures of the other dogs but she's been so busy saying bad words to the computer that she barely has time to take THE DOG out?

My Dog Talking To His Food

My Bichon talks, does yours? I really wish I could figure out what this talking dog was saying so I knew whether he needed psychological help or not or he's just spoiled? Ok, he's probably talking to me telling me just exactly WHY he can't eat out of this bowl he's eaten out of for years. We did have a time last winter when I had to put the food on a cookie sheet. Bichons can come up with some odd little habits for sure. The second video he's pawing @ his food, he does that when he can't eat it because it's hot or it's "scared" him for some reason. The dog is eating now quite happily and has scattered about half the bowl on the floor. There are two short videos because I forgot you had to charge new camera batteries before I used them. Duhhhh on me.



Also these pictures will be a before example for his grooming post, yes I groom my bichon @ home. For one thing he's not good @ the groomers, for another it's supposed to promote closeness between the owner and dog for the owner to groom his pet. Thirdly we live in the sticks, if I took him to the groomer and then went to pick him up later the time and money invested would be MUCH more than my time @ home so I will spend my days off mowing the lawn and grooming the dog. I haven't trimmed him fully for months and his brushing has been more miss than hit lately plus its rained every third day for weeks and he likes to spend time outside being a dog. We are planning a trip to go see his Daddy (my husband) the end of the month (more on that later on Florenceview blog). So my next post will be on giving the squirmy white puffball a haircut and bath, that part isn't bad as bad as the brushing out!

Pedi Paws and Bichon Frise Video

My daughter gave me this Pedi Paws last night. Here's the video with the Bichon and the Pedi Paws, pardon the fat white legs and remember our family room is done in early junk, blob by the camera is an antique quilt on my dad's old office chair. My daughters English Bulldogs won't let her use the Pedi Paws, my nephew wrote a hilarious email quoting the TV commercial about the Pedi Paws and then said his dog wouldn't let him near him with it. Dispatch (bichon frise) "mouths" me when I brush him and growls, this is much better. He REALLY doesn't want me doing anything with his feet, Bichon's are sort of like really stubborn poodles or giant Maltese with minds of their own so this is an accomplishment. I've had to wrap Dispatch in a towel to get him to let me cut his nails, sometimes I think I just took him to the vet or the groomer to get his nails cut and the hair pulled out of his ears. Not that I'm afraid of a 17 lb. dog, it's just one of the unpleasant things about dog ownership. You have to understand too when Dispatch was about 6 months old I gave him a bath and was brushing him out, he started the growling thing and that was the first time he mouthed me (now I glare @ him and he quits), I had never had a dog do that and I yelled @ him and put him outside. This is a little white fluffy puppy mind you, he said FINE, and went and hid under the pickup and then sat about halfway down the driveway looking toward the highway waiting for his "daddy" to come home. I went and got him and finished brushing him after a little bit but that shows how stubborn he is. Anyway watch the video, he's nervous but it went quite well with the Pedi Paws don't you think?

From the dog's point of view, his master is an elongated and abnormally cunning dog. ~Mabel Louise Robinson

Do You Worry About Your Pets Happiness?

And if you do is it a sign of caring or craziness?This is the Easter Bunny ($2.50 @ Wal Mart, he got a sheep too but I'm saving it) I got for Dispatch today, notice the similarity in the texture of the hair? You should have seen him when I got it out of the bag, we played pulley pulley with it for a bit and he mauled it then I got the leftover cheese out of the kong he hadn't been able to get out all day and he ate it on bunny. Dispatch is a great hunter you see and he is eating his prey (eating cheese on top of a stuffed animal), he also looks @ himself in the mirror and does the play bounce, he has a very rich imaginary life. Oh and BTW he's not spoiled or anything but he likes to go through the shopping bags when I get home if I put them on the floor and see which one has something in it for him!

Anyway I said something to my daughter about this one day (she has English Bulldogs) and she worries about whether her pets are truly happy too. It must run in the family?
This is the picture I got when I tried to get a close up. He needs a bath, couldn't resist the tongue, he does that when he gets nervous, my daughter says he thinks he's talking back to me and I can't hear him when he does it.
This is a better picture of him actually posing. So do you worry about if your pet is happy, is it just like us motherly types? Do you worry if your husband is happy? Your children? So why not your pet. I heartily recommend a bichon as a pet although Dispatch may have other blood in him, he has these long straight black hairs scattered down by his tail, I think he has hound blood in him, he's a little relaxed for a little dog sometimes?
BTW I decided Dispatch was happy most of the time, especially if I'm home or he gets to think he's like this fierce hunter or can go past the edge of the yard by himself but he gets scared if he gets more than 100 ft. from me.

Brushing the Bichon part I

You say what's the big deal? Well it's supposed to be done every day. I haven't done it for a few days and like a week before that, the last haircut was inside which didn't make for an even haircut and he needs a bath. Pictures @ top are before and last ones are after the FIRST brushing with the pin brush. Bath will be on later, I hope. First a rest for both of us and then brushing with the slicker brush and maybe combing and a bit of trimming. BTW he HATES grooming of any kind except long brushes with the people brush.

Bichon rescues family!

Here's the link. It's an older story from September but I found it interesting and heartwarming. BTW the dogs name is Fluffy.

Happened in New Zealand, seems the wife of the house left a pot of oil on the stove on low low heat by mistake thinking it was off and it exploded while everyone was asleep later that night. The dogs barking woke her up. Proves a bichon frise is good for something even if it is just barking! Ok, they are good to cuddle and love and spoil too. Everyone got out of the thick smoke safely thank goodness.

Going to the Bathroom with Pets

I don't mean house training or walking them in the morning and evening (we train ours to stay out of the road and just let them out, much simpler when we are @ home). I am talking about the human in the house using the restroom. It becomes free for all petting time with a captive human who can't get up. Of course this only happens if the door is open or the pet manages to open it or accompanies you on your mission. Around here it's usually 2 people in the house, door gets left open since the bathrooms are scattered all around and fairly private and after all we are married.
It's not so bad since the kittens went out, as I've written before somehow I've raised 3 sets of orphan kittens 3 times last year, that's a 0-9 cat increase in a year. We only have 6 left, don't know what happened to two but one decided my car engine was a good place on a HOT summer morning, not a smart move on his part but he didn't suffer. Anyway 2 dogs and 3 kittens in a bathroom can get a little claustrophobic, especially if it happens EVERY time you go and the dogs are trying to edge the kittens and each other away from the parent who happens to be on the throne @ the moment. Now it's not so bad with just the two dogs but I was thinking about this as the Bichon attempted to push the lab away from me in our latest family gathering in the little room.
The funniest episode happened with my husbands brother. Dispatch (Bichon) loves his uncle, in fact uncle had a hand in naming him, we had a trucking company @ the time and it was a running joke, people would call and ask to talk to Dispatch and if we were feeling very humorous and knew them we would say you can try but he can't talk too well yet, he's only a puppy. Anyway uncle was using the restroom in the laundry room between the kitchen and family room, I was doing the supper dishes. Dispatch was a puppy, I heard the door shut, knew it was uncle but forgot the door didn't always lock right or completely latch for that matter. Heard Dis scratching, scratching and then door bang open. Heard Uncle shout, get out of here you durn dog, dog left, I was bending over the kitchen sink trying to stifle intense laughter. Uncle seemed not to be into this communal bathroom time thing the dog prized so highly? Of course Uncle is unmarried and childless, by the time you go through children in the house privacy becomes a thing of the past.

Oh and when little foo foo dog does go outside to go potty he kicks his heels like male dogs do after they have marked their territory, in fact he kicks so much he throws grass all over himself sometimes, if you stand and laugh it goes on all the longer. I've seen him throw twigs up on his back though and think someone was throwing things @ him and hightail it for the house because he is just pretty sure he has been attacked in his own yard! Doesn't the green green grass look really nice right now?

My dog is spoiled Part III

This is a picture of dis and mittens, they had a long standing feud, the big cats we had might have made Dis want to chase cats more? This was another unfortunate teenage picture of dis, I cut his hair and obviously he wouldn't sit still for that or being brushed!

Getting tired of this yet? I've never written this all down yet and feel I must finish. Plus it gives me blogging material I can put on during the week when I'm @ work and the white fuzzy one is home by himself. Ok, he's not always by himself, he's got family going by and stopping in all the time but he says he's terribly lonely.

And BTW little white foo foo dog, fireworks, guns and thunderstorms, don't bother him in the least. Ok if the thunder shakes the house or camper when we lived in one in MS he would move to my lap but that was about it. I think he actually likes the commercials for Disney World with the fireworks because he always watches them, or maybe he's thinking he can go there and chase mice on his birthday, you get in for free on your birthday you know? The lab and the terrier are terrified by any and all of the above, thunder isn't so bad for the lab but fireworks do him in and they both go the opposite direction if there is a gun being fired.

Dispatch has only been hurt or sick three times and they all show how spoiled he is. The first time he was only a few months old, it was almost Christmas and I had gone to California MO to distribute gifts to people we did business with, my husband was already over there in another truck. It had been a long long pickup ride but Dispatch hadn't acted upset or like he had to go potty, it had only been like an hour since he'd been out, my husband had bought this new pickup the February before, his pride and joy, 2002 Silverado with cloth seats, that's important, this truck was CLEAN. I brought my husband lunch from Mickey D's and told him it was in the truck to go out and we would eat it. He gets out there and I follow him, he slams the door after grabbing the food which thankfully was in a different seat from the dog. Evidently the dog had gotten sick or gone potty all over the new pickup, I didn't think a small dog could produce so much whatever it was, it was ALL OVER. I think he was sick but I had to drive 30 miles home with him and that stink, I have a strong stomach but it was all I could do not to get sick myself, he was so upset because I wouldn't let him touch me and he finally crawled over by the other door and laid down facing away from me. I can't remember whether I cleaned the dog or the pickup first but neither one was fun. Then the dog curled up beside the heater in his bed and let me wrap him up so I'm pretty sure he was feeling horrible, he slept for hours, perked up a little before bedtime and was OK the next day. I knew my husband had accepted the dog when he asked about the dog BEFORE he asked about the pickup when he called later that evening. I did get the pickup clean and after a month or so it didn't stink like upholstery cleaner anymore.

The second time dis was sick he got neutered. I was a baby about it and Dispatch was like over 2 when we finally got it done. I really wanted little Dispatches but knew that was silly. The vet INSISTED on keeping him overnight, I told him that wasn't a good idea, Dispatch had never been away from me overnight but once when we our nephew was killed in a car accident and then we left Dis @ home and a friend came in and let him out and fed him but he was @ home. The vet insisted, I gave in because Drs know best right? It's the next morning, my husband stays home later than he should from a trip to IA because he wanted to go with me to the vet to get the dog. I'd called the evening before all is fine, the vet calls back in the morning after he
goes and checks on Dispatch and tells me to wait till late late morning. Seems Dispatch was FINE when he left him for the night. But somehow during the night (or probably all night) Dispatch tried to escape from a stainless steel crate with NO sharp edges. He pawed and pawed till his feet were bloody, the vet himself gave him a bath and apologized all over himself, I guess he looked horrible when he went in in the morning and scared the vet, he was like totally bloody. He said if he wanted to keep him again remind him of what happened. I got to the vets and I hear this barking and whining all at once sounds like 3 dogs, it's Dispatch who is VERY glad to see me despite his operation.

The last time he was sick it was my fault. We were in MS in early 2007, everyone around had a dog and had gotten new puppies and it's a warm southern climate, that means fleas. I tried everything to get rid of them on Dispatch, he'd had frontline before like once a summer which seemed to take care of them so I went and got some from the vet again. Don't know if it was what I'd put on him before (I bathed him before the frontline) or a bad reaction which I had read about after all this happened but all of a sudden one morning he was like lethargic just barely raised his head when I would get out of the car, I had to carry him to the car that morning which was NOT like him. I don't remember if I'd put on the frontline the night before or gotten it that morning. Called the vet and she told me to rush him home and give him a bath, I gave him 2 or three baths, he didn't mind. When we were in the car running errands he would look up when I would get out but that was it, no barking or whining, didn't even want to stand up. The night was horrible, his breathing was fast and shallow and he was restless but didn't want to do anything but lay by my head. I didn't want to disturb my husband so I laid on the living room floor with Dispatch on a pallet all night. He made it obviously but it scared me horribly and I will never put frontline on him again. It took like 2 or 3 days for him to be bouncy again and completely back to normal, it was like a child was sick.
So that is the story of our spoiled rotten little dog. As you can see he can be useful, actually I painted the rose and sold it on ebay, Dispatch wouldn't leave me alone while I was trying to take the picture so I said Ok earn your keep, roll over, then I put the picture on him and took the photo. The picture is small they are called aceos, I used to sell them before the economy went south and I had to get a "real" job. LOL

Am I goofy over the dog, yes. Is he goofy over me? yes. Do pets enrich your life whether they are fuzzy or short haired, bark or meow, or even have scales or feather? Yes Yes Yes. Remember if you are thinking about getting a new pet get one you can take care of, and PLEASE think about adopting a rescue pet.

Spoiled Dog Part II

The picture above is Dispatch reviewing computer files when he was like 6 weeks old.
You know my dog is spoiled when it takes two posts to describe how spoiled he is. In his defense I've never bought him clothing, my husband says anything I put on him gives him a headache, the dog gets a headache not my husband. How does he know you ask? My husband says he can just tell. I think he just doesn't want a foo foo dog although a bichon looks foo foo, when he's blitzing or attacking he's anything but foo foo.
The dog does have a car seat and a stroller. Perfectly logical explanation though. I had to travel between here and MS with him when we lived down there cleaning up after Katrina. Dispatch is a good traveler, as long as he gets his way which is on my lap. Considering he's 17 lb now he doesn't quite fit between my legs and the steering wheel, well he does but if I were to wreck and the airbags came up it would be dead puppy automatically. Besides he does get annoying because not only does he like to ride on my lap the old leaning on my left arm is the perfect way to see the world go by. If Dispatch doesn't get his way he has been known to cry and pace for 650 miles of a 700 mile trip. So I got the car seat and put it in the back seat, he's fastened in by his collar, he immediately learned how to get out and hang himself. After a new harness and a few episodes he did learn to ride in it. He doesn't like it and it's every bit as cumbersome as an infant car seat except it folds but he would ride in it. Most of the time. I finally decided to put the passenger seat back as far as it would go and put the car seat in it. Don't know if he was any safer since he sort of hung out of it but he had a better view? Now since he doesn't go with me EVERYWHERE I took it out of the seat and only use it for long trips or when I feel particularly masochistic toward myself.
The stroller is because he follows me everywhere, all the time, continuously. When we were working in MS I would leave him in the car sometimes, then I left him in the car with the ac running. He still gets that treatment on occasion. He wasn't happy though. He does stay with me right on my heels, I know most towns have leash laws and I usually had a leash with me or on him but he didn't need one. He was right with me. Unless a large machine made a noise or a tree branch fell then he ran for what he perceived as safety which because he's a bichon sometimes his perceptions aren't too good. So I'd seen these strollers and thought it would be a good investment, you guessed it, he was penned up, he will ride in it just fine but when I walk away he wants to be right behind me. So the stroller is sort of a novelty item but I'm sure I'll use it again someday.
Bichons are known for being stubborn and having minds of their own, most HAVE to have a leash so I'm glad in a way he's like he is. He does respond to hand signals some. Oh and he was 2 years old before he got his first collar and leash. As I've written before he had to have a big thick leather collar because I got him a cloth one the first two times, they lasted 5 minutes and 2 minutes respectively. The first time I put a leash on him I was sure he was going to injure himself, we walked down to my cousins house, maybe 200 yards away. Dispatch was just going to live there if I wanted to put the leash back on him, sat there under the kitchen table when I got ready to leave and looked @ me like are you nuts I'm not getting that thing back on. We went to FL because my husband was cleaning up after Wilma down there, a bunch of French Canadians go there to winter, it was a NICE resort but crowded. Anyway they played that French bowling whatever it is and the dog and I would walk in the evenings, everyone would coo and say what a sweet bichon, (actually they would say ohh ave sich a sweet pupppeee, es ee beechon? don't flame me I'm part French) I'd say no he's a poodle (Missouri accent sounded like naw, heaz a poodel), after 2 states of people calling him a bichon we finally decided maybe he was, and the vet said he was. Anyway Dispatch was still learning to walk on the leash, he's mastered it now but down in FL he would prance and strut while people were around saying what a cute dog he was, they would get out of sight and he'd be back to wild cur dog struggling to get free of his oppressor, on his hind legs biting valiantly against the cruel ties that bound him or that's how he thought. I found a light chain leash so he wouldn't chew through THAT while I wasn't looking.
More on the spoiled dog later. He was rather compliant back then, this was an awkward teenage picture, see he didn't make a pretty poodle did he?? Plus brushing was like this horrible ordeal so I mostly cut his hair and gave up.

The Dog TALKS!

Right now he is "talking" to the powers that be, growling and play barking, evidently they are outside the window and he is frustrated because he only got a bite of the grilled chicken breast I just had?? Oh, I just figured it out, the plastic wrap the chicken was in is in the trash beside me but he isn't supposed to get in the trash, check out the video @ the top or go to it here.
BTW I hadn't vacuumed, the blanket hanging off the chair is to protect it from the dogs.

Spoiled dog???

Dispatch @ 5 weeks, exploring among the giant elephant ears I had that year.

Did I mention my husband spoils Dispatch too, he spoils both dogs, Mugsey goes almost everywhere husband goes when he's not working. My husband was raised without dogs in the house and was determined our dogs would stay on the porch if we had one, his mom and dad had an enclosed one where the dog slept, really like part of the living room. We have no porch in this house and when we got Dispatch he was supposed to be a poodle and we promised we would keep him inside, was OK with ME! So when we got this little puppy he was only about 5 weeks old but the lady who had him said he was ready to leave his mama. I think he was a little young, he was the strangest puppy I'd ever seen, he wasn't that interested in eating or being cuddled. Little did I know I was creating a monster. Back to husband, we kept Dispatch in the garage which was the family room/office, picture carpet on the floor, paneling on the wall but still had a garage door @ that time. Dispatch was so little I would put him on the chair to sleep and he couldn't get down, I'd put a newspaper under him and a towel or blanket for him to snuggle in but he would NEVER potty in the chair. I was home almost all of the time and he was like instantly house trained although I used newspapers on the floor for when I was gone or outside without him for long periods of time. He decided the white area rug in the living room was possibly a newspaper also and it became the place he would go if he couldn't get my attention. Sometimes it still is if he is sick and just can't get me to wake up, but it's still white so that tells you how easily he was house trained. Anyway we had had Dispatch maybe 3 nights or so and my husband was home, he'd been away on a business trip and he said don't you think he is lonely out there all by himself (meaning the little dog in the big family room) so I went and got Dispatch and he has slept with us ever since. Preferably by my head but he's gotten too big for him and me on the pillow. He used to try to sleep between us when he could and would feign instant sleep if he could just lay there between us, was the funniest thing I'd ever seen, instant sleeping dog. He doesn't like to get up in the mornings and doesn't wake up well, if he was out in the wild he'd be soooo eaten by wild animals it wouldn't be funny.
I kept him on my lap constantly @ first, partly because he was so small, partly because he didn't seem to be bonding with us as fast as I was used to puppies bonding. I spent most of the day on the computer or the telephone, we had a trucking business, and Dis was like THERE. He was weird in that he watched the computer screen too. I had a screensaver that would make everything on the screen get bigger in jumpy increments and then start over. Dispatch did NOT like it, especailly if there was a picture of a horse or something on the screen or another dog. He finally figured out if he moved the mouse the stupid thing would go off, that's when I wondered how much he did understand? When he was all OVER the guy who had had him when he was a baby puppy and hadn't seen him for two years I wondered even more? So Dispatch was used to being with me constantly, like glued to me. Which I wanted him to act like he was my dog but this was ridiculous. He HAD to sit in the chair with me, after he got too big to fit between the keyboard tray and my lap (he weighs like 17 lb now) I leaned forward and he sat behind me, not the way a computer chair was meant to be utilized but hey that's how it is, I tried to break him and he will now sleep in his bed or on the couch if I'm on the computer but if he's insecure or feels he needs me there is no hope. A great recipe for backaches I might add.
When I would leave the house I sometimes would think he was crying, he gets this shocked look and sits or stands stock still. I thought he was putting on and then I knew he was when he started raising his paw like he was hurt if I showed the slightest inclination that I might take him? He gets this look when I take out my coffee mug in the mornings, I wear certain clothes to work and when I put them on he seems to know I'm leaving.
At first he ate puppy food, we had a cheap plastic bowl because of course he was a dog. (he's on my lap and resting his chest and front legs on my left arm now, preferred position for pre sleep, doesn't do much for the typing, we have to bond again, he just went outside). He took to dragging the food bowl around if it was empty enough for him to drag when he was a puppy, so I got a heavy ironstone bowl and that's what he's eaten in ever since, that or a heavy metal one that clangs when he moves it. The eating the puppy food soon quit when my husband found out the dog could dance for his food. Actually the dog can walk about 20 ft on his hind legs and go backwards, getting him to do it on command is another thing. So the dog started eating people food. Then the dog started having to have his own food if he didn't like what we were having, I would feed him those Pedigree soft meals in the pouches if I didn't feel like cooking him a chicken breast and he would eat them if he got hungry enough. Dry dog food??? It could sit there for hours and maybe days and he would pick @ it, maybe and it had to be little tiny chunks. I gave up. Then my husband was gone on business for like 2 weeks in 2005, dispatch was 2 years old and I didn't cook meat much for myself. Dispatch soon learned to eat dry dog food. He also learned to eat vegetable soup if he couldn't get anything but dry dog food. He's been eating dry dog food ever since. Old Roy, kibbles and chunks, he just eats the little pieces but hey it's better than soft dog food for him.
Spoiled dog is resting comfortably behind me right now. More later, my laundry is calling. BTW, this game is I'm bigger than Mama, or kill foot game. He latches onto my shoe or pants leg and I jerk him around and he pretends that he is growling. He was less than a year old when this picture was taken, we hadn't figured out he was a bichon yet, just thought he was a weird poodle.

What greets me when I come home.

My lap is warm, there is a Bichon on it, the picture above is him as a puppy of 2 or 3 months old. He was SOOO cute. He still is cute or @ least I think so. He was really worried about what the tree frog was doing on the door in this picture below. He is spoiled, have I mentioned that but come to think of it he spoils me too. He's hopelessly devoted and pouts if I'm not home. He forgives everything especially my strange aversion to him chasing cars and cats. He even forgives spankings, I know some people say corporal punishment is not a good idea for children or animals but it gets the point across, I'm talking spanking, not with any great force and not with an object and not as a regular occurance. Also biting them if they bite you gets the idea across, for children AND dogs but you will get strange looks. I don't think I've ever HURT him except by accident when brushing him or cutting his nails etc. Speaking of that Dispatch the bichon has a peculiar habit that I've been wondering if all bichons have or he's just weird. If he thinks he's in trouble or doesn't know what to do he will just freeze, stand stock still, if I keep yelling (this happens most often when he's gone somewhere he shouldn't or got in trouble for chasing something) he will look stiffly one way and then the other like he's watching a slow tennis match? Sometimes he does this for like a minute till I start laughing and go pick him up, OK, he's spoiled, sometimes he will snap out of it and come to me. It's like his little world has turned upside down and he doesn't know which way to turn but he's sure which ever way he does turn it will be WRONG because he's made mama mad.

Anyway be kind to your best friend. Remember all the unconditional love they give you and how they enrich your life. No matter what strange things you do or how you make them stay by themselves or not jump on the furniture which is sooooo very cozy or have old Uncle Al over who thinks it's great fun to meow like a cat they will forgive you.

I just petted my smelly little furball and hugged him, he has breath like he's been eating something dead for a week. I've threatened to brush his teeth since he will have nothing to do with those breath freshening doggie treats.

When I come home from work I know there will be a white dynamo wanting to wiggle all over me, getting petted and having baby talk just makes it better. We try to avoid doing it when I walk in the door because of his separation anxiety, more on that later. Dispatch does have a tendancy to like go nuts when you come home though, if my husband has been gone for a day or so he really goes crazy, jumping and whining and barking, running from person to person. He's the epitome of "I'm REALLY happy to see you". We've had people ask who haven't seen him before what's wrong with him and does he ALWAYS act this way. He was sick twice in his life and would come to the door but that was about it, was a sad sad time. I know he's spoiled but like I said I'm spoiled too.