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!!

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.

Daily Dispatch or Bicho Frise says I WILL GO!

No this isn't a picture of the unfinished door trim in the family room or my dirty old flip flops (I have it planned when I'm in the truck with husband, I have on jogging clothes @ night and put on flip flops and a hoodie and stumble in to bathroom and breakfast covering head with hoodie, sounds like a plan to me?). Dispatch got up on the bench by himself which is no small feat considering his water dish and food dish were in his way when he jumped!! So he is better, much better, read the previous few posts, he had anal gland problems and then limped. The Bichon is laying on top of my coats because he knows something is up and he does NOT want to be left out. My husband is taking short trips in the truck and I will be with him some. The "junk" is piled up so I can take it to truck. See whole grain club crackers? Water instead of Mountain Dew? we are living healthy now! Anyway the dog will be with us obviously. Kids and other relatives are here to take care of Skeeter. She's not doing too well. Here's a picture of her and the "posse"or our small dog collection in our yard. She's got to be 13 and she could be 18 or more years old. Did you ever try to get 4 dogs, 2 of whom aren't yours to stand still?

I have new posts on Tresa's Blog about the grandkids and on the "other" Animals That Give Pause about big cats. I don't mean overweight house cats that make up Dispatch's nightmares either. I mean like large dog killing cats in Missouri.

I haven't had time to go to other blogs or comment lately. I haven't forgotten and think of you all every day, Rae, Judy, Lilly, AL, Anne, Cindy, Jan........ and all the others who have wonderful blogs and whose links are below to the right if YOU perhaps would want to go read their wonderful blogs I wouldn't feel so guilty about not going there? Not exactly subliminal messaging, how's this? go to my other blogs and clicky clicky and then go to the blog list @ the bottom right and clicky clicky and comment nicely. How's that for subliminal? You would really help me assuage my extreme feelings of guilt that could lead to anxiety and depression and paranoia. Better subliminal? Too much?

If you are still reading this perhaps you have masochistic tendencies, did you ever look into that? I'M KIDDING!! OK??

Dog Stroller Or The Most Spoiled Bichon Frise

Read all about it on the new Animals That Give Pause and change any bookmarks or links to my NEW blog address if you haven't done so, I think you can join and put my new blog on your google reader, if not I need to fix it. Just click log in @ the top of
Animals That Give Pause.

See ya there as will the happy dog. He really used to hate this stroller, I don't know what happened except he is a ham.

Bichon Frise Talks! (again)

Now you have to go to my new blog to see the video. Or you can click it on the side if it shows up.
The link to see the talking bichon frise dog Dispatch is HERE. My other new blog telling what I've been doing (if you are REALLY bored and a glutton for punishment is... Tresa's Blog. Oh BTW it's not a good picture of the bichon's daddy, he's actually more handsome than Michael Douglas is (now). Or @ least I think so.

Bichon Versus Wolf

This is the Dis, Dispatch ya know, or you can call me Spike the bichon cuz it suits my personality better. Ya see the dog up above, don't let him fool you, he's a wolf!!! I'm not makin it up, his mama or daddy was part wolf. My mama says he's a sweet dog, I say he has cold yellow eyes and I told him which end was up. Then wolfies mama had to go and ruin it and tell how wolfie lives with chihuahuas and how one of em just has to look @ wolfie sideways and he gets out of her way. But I whizzed in his grass, right over where he had just whizzed, showed him I did, I would have gotten the food dish with a good ole whiz (that stops em in their tracks, I've used it on Rotties) but mama stopped me. She gets that way ya know. His mama really did say he is part wolf, mama even said so, I aint makin that up. Oh and that is wolfies duck laying there, I bet it used to be alive don't cha think? Wolves are barbaric that way, leaving food layin around and not burying it in chairs or under pillows!

This is me tired below, I'm still a bit worn out from our trip. Or should I say my unfair incarceration? Mama has this crate idea, thinks I need protected in the car? I have no idea why, she's always managed to keep it on the road and if she would let me drive like I want I know we wouldn't have any problems? Anyway she only gives me treats in the crate (prison) and she made me stay in it the WHOLE way down here except for potty breaks. I tried my best voices so she would know how unfair she was driving down here, I couldn't even touch her? Then I'd get mad and bark @ the old broad and she would just laugh, sometimes she would bark back, I was hoping someone would see her and report her for keeping me in the crate (or being crazy, people usually don't bark?)? Anyway I'm still tired from my ordeal.

I was sort of thinkin Mugsey would be down here too? As soon as I got here I smelled the camper steps, I knew which camper was ours and it smelled like Daddy but not Mugsey? Then he wasn't in the camper, I knew all the other people but they didn't have Mugsey either? Mama thinks that's why I've been so tired lately, I thought Mugsey was with Daddy and he isn't. Not that I LIKED that big overgrown excuse for a dog but he was sort of handy for back up, and to lay by, and to play with, and he would watch out for me and I would watch out for him and Skeeter would try to pick on both of us. Anyway Mama says I've been quieter than normal. Everyone is trying to find us a dog. Mama says it's too soon. I say I'm an only child unless I can dominate it and I mean DOMINATE it. But that's just the wolf in me coming out? Mama did find this article that she found useful, Daddy didn't find it useful though. Ten Dogs For Small Spaces , it says apartment but I take it to mean a small house or someone who doesn't have much time to walk the dog.


I think in the picture below I look sort of wolflike don't you, maybe instead of a possible poodle bichon cross I'm a wolf bichon cross? Maybe I should try that look out on wolfie? See who's got glowing eyes then? Maybe that look will work on the alligator they say lives down the road, of course they say he's a baby but he's bigger than I am!



So since everyone is appropriately terrified of the bichon/wolf and impressed by my vast three tennis ball collection I will quit now. I hope to have further wolf adventures, he has to wake up though, I swear wolfie sleeps more than I do. I do my stiff legged/strutty walk around him and wolfie barely opens an eye, he never knows how much danger he is truly in I don't think?

Note from the old broad:
The dog is really part wolf, I mean like a measurable part, you can see it when he stands up. My kitten I left @ home was much meaner. I do watch Dispatch around him but I've never seen a more pleasant dog. My brother had a wolf cross and it was a good dog too. It's all in how they are raised. Evidently we missed something with raising Dispatch? Like telling him he is not really king?

Wordless Wednesday (sort of)

Hibiscus and Bichon
More Flowers on Florence View

Doggie Porn
I know you've seen the picture before but not from this angle

Bad Hair Day Baby

Bichon Frise Groomed Needlessly And Vengefully (from the dog)

First of all this is the dog talking, not some know it all hooman (ya wanna know what that broad DID? She threw me outside for barking @ the vacuum and wouldn't let me back in, like I was a regular dog or something? get real). My name is Dispatch, I've been here before, right now I think my name should have been Spike or Killer or something like that! They say I'm a bichon, ya know what that rhymes with and that's what I'm doing b.......... well maybe it don't rhyme so well but ya get the drift don't cha? First of all since I'm what they call a bichon frise (call me a powder puff and see which ankle hurts first!) I have to supposedly be groomed all time, not just once in awhile, like almost every day. The longer she waits to brush me the longer it takes and the more it hurts. I personally think about 1/2 inch all over and keep it that way would be the best if she aint gonna let my hair grow and get burrs in it and let me roll in the stinky stuff in the pasture.... , what do you think??

First of all she forgets to dry me when she give me a bath, I mean she dries me once but does she do the hugging and rubbing with the second towel right away? Nooooo sireee Bob, I have to wait till she like cleans the sink? Do ya see the look of utter disgust I give her for not giving me my towel rub RIGHT away and then playing pulley pulley with the towel? I mean I just stood there, so peeved I couldn't move. Things are not right (she hasn't been right for awhile, even before my pal Mugsey left for some reason). At least she stays @ home with me most of the time now, that's where her place is ya know!
So she gets through with the bath yesterday and decides to cut my hair today which is a OK with me, I personally think it would wear off if she's that worried about it but
evidently she thinks not. So she trims me about half way all is OK, she says my hair is too thick for her new clippers she can't use the guard and I wiggle and zip, I aint got nothin but skin for a ways on my back, I need like spf 40 sunscreen. Makes me so mad I could kick and beat somthing up. She says she's through now, she better be after all that and the glitch.









So I goes outside and get sort of close to Fema, I thought she was going to take my place once and I admit I aint liked her since but she's missing Mugsey as bad as I do. I think he's gonna be in BIG trouble when he does come home cuz he's never been gone this long, mama did find his collar and it smelled funny, made me sad but anyway I tolerate Fema @ times. She lives with mama's cousin the neighbor, OK she lives up here too. I think Mama was havin dreams about Mugsey last night because I was too, it was brown dogs appearing out of the mist around a different house, there was a bunch of relatives (some gone) in it too with their dogs, oooooweeoooooo, I think mama started dreamin it first cuz she has the wierdest dreams.




Back to the present, Mama keeps saying something about not chasin cats, (well she's actually screamin it with my name and NO NO but I can go deaf immediatly, it's one of my talents!) Cats, I don't see no cats?











I know, I am a cat, MEOW MEOW, see I'm not chasin em and I'm in the group.




















Sometimes laying around looking nonchalant (big word for a bichon dog) makes mama lose interest and the cats get really relaxed........
then POW, I go after the gray one with the tail, her name is Meany for good reason but the dog is meaner (sometimes).
No I didn't really chase em, ya think I'm toopid or something? Mama was there with the camera!





















So I have learned to meow rather well now don't cha think. Soon as she turns her back the gray one is mince meat, either gray one I don't care, the red one is my friend even though it's really confused (put a name like Paris on a tomcat and what do ya expect) Paris calls me Mama and we all know good and well who mama is and I aint it! But Paris is my friend, he can rub on me and follow me all day, well most of the day till he gets really obnoxious.

So I hope you've had a better day than I have. Oh one more thing, Mama's been giving me all these good treats and putting me in the crate while she eats (who cares if I'm in the crate if I have jerky or cheese?). So then she leave me in it sometimes for like a while. Sometimes I go in it for the heck of it. She didn't put me in it while she ate lunch today? I barked, growled, talked, did the butt bounce while lookin @ the crate, did all 4 @ once and she still didn't give me my treat. Stoopid woman, get used to something and she changes it, sheesh. Hope ya had a better day, I'm gonna go watch the rain now since the big noise is over. Then I need my 3rd nap. Oh yeah, the broad put this on the blog (broad-blog pretty good for a ball of FLUFF don't cha think?) anyway she said somethin about the spacin not bein right and my pictures not wanting to show another way. @ least she aint freakin like she did the other day when she couldn't get on blogger, you would have thought cats had invaded from Mars or something the way she carried on.

If you've gotten this far Mama says you deserve the link to the crate training article so here it it link.

Bichon Frise Puppy Photos And More

I found bunches of bichon frise baby pictures, well they are bichon frise adolescent pictures and one baby puppy picture you haven't seen yet. If you are new here my bichons name is Dispatch and I bought him as a poodle. This dog didn't know the word brush till he was like 6 months old which is obvious, bichons are hard to brush sometimes and he said no way. Me being the wimp that I am said OK whatever you want snookyplum and what we have now is the result of me being said wimp. I think all of these were taken around Christmas of 2003 except for the baby bichon picture, that was taken in September. I'm just so happy I found these and my other pictures.

This is his dog in charge pose, actually he's having withdrawal after I got out of the chair, I thought my office/family room was cluttered NOW, looks great compared to then, notice the microwave behind the door! He's saying hey where'd she go, she might get away and then I will be by myself, help help.........he really does have two ears, don't know what he did with the other one.






He obviously liked to stay on top of things, he looks rather rough here doesn't he, it's cold and snowy. His looks would have been greatly improved if I'd known how to trim a bichon. That's my daughter being supportive. He's saying I am ruler of all I survey, which is one of his favorite sayings I believe, remember this is actually a garage these pictures were taken in. I believe he jumped on her back when she bent over beside a chair and that's how we got the idea for this picture, he climbs.




I guess he was in the tutu when he was smaller too? No wonder he wasn't upset when I put it on him last summer? My granddaughters first Halloween costume, she looked like a marshmallow with a tutu on.











Here we have relaxed bichon frise puppy laying by daddies boots. I adore the fat little tummy too. I didn't have my new camera then so I'm not sure exactly how old he was then but he was smaller like 1/2 or 1/3 that size when we got him. And yes we still have that lovely orange/green furniture, my mother ordered it special when they built this house and it's still with us. I do cover it up though. Couch is COMFY and long enough for two to lay down!





More bichon frise puppy pictures tomorrow or soon after. I found these because I was looking for some other dog pictures to explain a strange coincidence and an interesting story. More about that later in the week. My kitten (whom I'm thinking of calling Roof, see posts immediately preceding this one) now allowed me to pet it, while feeding it canned cat food, it's still on the roof. Tomorrow I hope it comes to me when I don't have canned cat food? We will see. Too much going on to try feeding it @ the door.

Two other things I found today, the Eagles were set to record their Very Best Of Album on September 11, 2001, they didn't obviously. They then wrote There's a Hole In The World due to that experience (maybe you knew that? I didn't know that), LINK.

Also I played this game compulsively for about an hour this afternoon, I did get almost 3000, I think the more points the better? Knock yourself out. Cat Herder Link

The lawn is mowed and I MIGHT get to go to TX to see husband soon for a few days? We will see.

One more thing if you have been following the story of my labrador Mugsey and how he passed away last week. I swear he following is true, dog lovers will believe me, others will call me a liar, I don't know what he was thinking but I know what he did.

I was folding clothes this evening on the bed, usually Dispatch likes to be in the middle of what I am doing, especially folding clothes, I think he likes to get his butt on the dishtowels if you want to know what I think, I usually try to avoid that. He was just laying there looking @ me like he expected me to do something while I was folding, I asked him what? Do you want something? Then I thought, he understands words and simple sentences, have I told him Mugsey is gone? I said Mugsey is no more, he went bye bye, he's dead, gone, no more Mugsey. I know this sounds rather harsh but we are talking trying to get through to a dog here. When I told Dispatch with every bit of the sentence his eyes would narrow and finally he was blinking blinking like he was fighting tears? Boy Scouts honor. He does lift his paw like it's hurt when I leave the house sometimes so I know he knows sadness and how to convey it, I thought I'd seen him cry before but this was just totally weird and sad @ the same time.