Thanksgiving For Dogs

This is Dispatch the Bichon Frise, this is me in the middle and see my adoring fans?  OK, maybe they are part of my mama's family and maybe they have their dogs but you see just exactly WHO is in the middle, my "sis" is holding me and I mean that literally, she is MINE, I adore her, don't know why she had to go and get her own dog? Anyway back to the celebration, they said something about it being the tall guys birthday and some holiday, but since there was so much meat cooking going on I know they planned it JUST FOR ME!!  I mean why else would they have ribs, and brisket, and turkey, and HAM?  That is unless it was for dogs. I even tried the cranberry salad!  Then they offered me so many pretty ladies. There was Phoebe...

Then there was Sassy, she was a bit camera shy?  Both of these lovely ladies were shorter than I was and everyone kept talking about being fixed in relation to ME, Dispatch Bichon Frise, but I have NO idea what they meant.  I was busy doing my best Pepe` Le Pew voice and telling the girls how lovely they were today.... but back to the beginning of the visit.

 This is my cousin dog Lester.  He is an OK guy. We sort of got in a little contest when I got to his house, he's basset and something else...pardon if I offend but I peed on a chair on Lester's patio.  It was just a little on the back leg of the chair...my daddy happened to be sitting in it but it stunk like Lester and I had to make it smell better.  Then Lester got in BIG trouble for peeing on the front leg of the chair with Daddy in it...I wasn't quite rolling on my back pointing with my paw but it was close.  So then I proceeds to go and peed in Lester's food dish.  I thought I'd gotten by with it and was over by the fence begging mama to pick me up so I could properly say "HELLO" to the neighbor lady dogs when Lester PEED on ME.  Like on my back!!  Mama shrieked like a girl (I suppose she technically is) grabbed me up and ran for the house, I got washed off and I'd just HAD A BATH THE DAY BEFORE. That was the worst part.
This shows more of the festivities, Sassy is in this one, she thought maybe someone would feed her.  Silly Sassy, the food was on the table, see that is me the wily Bichon in the background planning an assault on the meat platters.  Although I would never do such a thing (you think I'm an idiot, first all the people have to be out of the house and then I have to be able to make it look like another dog did it!)

See this black dog? His name is Zeus.  He wasn't interested in much but his family.  Mostly his mama.  He wanted to kill my mama (who kept referring to him as Devil Dog) but I wasn't too worried, he weighed about as much as my back leg. 
I was much more worried about the ladies and whether any other dog was getting food or attention.  It was heaven.

We have to mention the family dogs who had their representative people there but they were LEFT AT HOME.  Newman was left at home and Charlie was with his second family.  I'm sure I'll get to see them soon again.  Maybe they can help me mark the back yard?  We are back safely at home and the new kitty has started running from me and all is well in the world.

What New Form Of Alchemy Is This?

Hey this is Dispatch the Bichon. I's writing to youse cuz my mama? I'm thinking she may have lost it. Either that or she's like a Magician? I dunno, you be the judge. See she gets these bowls yesterday, this usually means food except for the one she puts the green stuff  in and throws it out, I've heard her tell the rugrats to take out the compost?  Anyway she goes and gets these two bowls and sits on the COUCH in the family room.  (you can see the family room is a workroom, old garage, tv room, rumpus room...thus the slime and laser/digital thermometer on the table, mama made me say that...)  The BOWLS on the COUCH have me puzzled in the first place, usually the BOWLS stay in the kitchen.  Little bowls come out for them to taunt me with eating ice cream in front of me but not the BIG BOWLS!

So then she's sitting there and granted the old broad is getting a bit long in the tooth but I thought surely she hadn't lost it yet.  I mean she remembers to feed me most of the time and can usually figure out what I'm so plainly telling her but this has me buffaloed.    See that's ME the ball of fluff watching MY MAMA take bits of green stuff like grass and puts part of it in one bowl and breaks the others in half or 1/3 and puts them in the other bowl?  I TRY AND TRY and smell but she has gone nuts?  I mean even strawberries and cantaloupe smell good to eat but this is insane and I'm a pretty good judge of insane.  And she is playing with them on the couch!  I hears her tell Daddy that it's been WAY too long since she has had a garden (my Aunt Peggi brought these green things, thanks Aunt Peggi, now my mama is NUTS!!)  because I'm 7 and have NO idea what snapping beans is all about.  Beans I know. That's the nasty part of Chili I think?  These are green mama!! Get a grip would ya!  I mean I try and try to figure out what she is doing, I stop short of actually EATING the raw green things but my gosh man they are right there in the BOWLS on the couch, I smell and paw and nose but there is not a clue to be found, the bowls just hold the green stuff, I try to lay down and can't, I'm entirely too upset, my food source and ability to look out tall windows has gone off her ROCKER!!  She is using the same BOWLS that hold real food like hamburger or chocolate cake batter, I don't get to eat the batter but it smells divine!!  I finally just gave up and let her go about her madness.  Pretty soon she takes the stuff in the kitchen and after awhile brings the things back to Daddy and he eats them with butter.  The butter I can understand, I'm pretty fond of butter but WHY would you sit and play with green stuff on the couch?  Still has me puzzled?
(note from Mama, the slime and the laser thermometer were Daddies, he was trying to expand his "pile" by the recliner...the slime and the thermometer left soon after that..., if I left him to his own devices we would have a welder and a jack under the tv in the family room.)

Log, One Of My Heart Dogs

This is Log

He is one of the most loved dogs in my life.  He was born in 1984 I think, maybe 83, which would have made my girls 7 and 8.  His mother was a cross breed some friends from Kansas City had found and decided she needed a country home (with us?), she was a German Shepherd and Irish Setter mix.  More on her in another post but she wasn't a heart dog till she was older.  Logs father was the Saint Bernard next door.

I wish I could find some younger pictures of Log but he was a cute cute puppy.  Why Log?  Because he looked like a stump when he was sitting down when he was a puppy, solid and squat and sturdy, just a block sitting there waiting to get back up and follow you somewhere.

This picture was of a fairly young Log I think.  You are probably thinking what a horrible horrible looking dog.   He was beautiful inside.  He would do anything for the girls and I, anything.  All he wanted to do was be with us and follow us.  He never had any true understanding that he was the biggest dog and would try to crawl on our laps all his life though.  He reminded me of a giant stinky Dispatch.

He did bite some people.  Some had chased him on 4 wheelers, some he THOUGHT had chased him, Log was big and a bit freaky and people liked to tease him.  My father had a business though and the dogs were used to people coming and going.  One man was teasing the kids when Log was still growing (teasing in good fun he was a friend of the family and was surrounded by relatives and other men) and the girls were squealing.  Log decided enough was enough and went after the man.  He let the girl go and all was well in the world after that except Log didn't like that man either ever again.  That's the first time we knew Log was a little different than the other dogs.  He wasn't vicious @ all, a baby could have done anything he wanted to Log just as long as it didn't involve hurting me or the girls.

My brother probably wouldn't like me telling this story but my brother is big, over 6 ft.  Log adored my father too but he drew the line there as far as men, other relatives weren't included.  So my brother would sometimes bark @ Log.  Log would run, brother would pretend he was getting Daddy and the game was on.  Back and forth they would go and then brother would eventually feed Log a candy bar and all was forgiven (our dogs ate chocolate daily,  my dad sold it in his shop and we didn't know it was really supposed to be poison, our dogs ate chocolate ALL The time).  Like I said my brother is big and Log wasn't 100 lb I don't think but we didn't weigh him, he was WAY over 60 I know.  But here were these three, two big men and a big dog playing and playing....

One day a salesman came to my parents house.  Log wasn't particularly fond of my mother but she was part of his pack and we all lived on the same farm, I happened to be outside helping mom with the flowerbed or something @ her house.  The salesman was selling cemetery plots or burial plans, I can't remember.  Younger big and cocky man.  Well cocky for awhile.  Mom got tired of listening to the guy and told him to leave, he kept talking and mom started getting mad.  Mom was a schoolteacher and had her faults but lack of words was never one.  She started getting that tone and then was yelling @ the salesman to get back in his car.  Log had been laying under something in the shade.  The big cocky saleman became a big FAST salesman when he saw Log coming after him but the moment I told Log to stop he stopped. I admit I didn't say stop to till he was fairly close behind the salesman but the he had been told repeatedly to get back in his car and was making me a bit nervous too.

Log was afraid of storms, not badly terrified but leery.  One spring day a tornado formed close by Log usually obeyed but he decided that day he was a house dog and he was going to be an under the FURNITURE house dog.  We didn't get a direct hit but it was close.  After that we watched the dogs when there was a tornado warning, they were better than the radio and tv.

Log was a faithful companion for 12 years which is actually pretty long for a dog of his size.  One hot hot summer day we left for a wedding and there was no Log to greet us when we got home.  He was chasing us up the driveway and had a heart attack and died.

OH, I forgot to mention that.  Log chased cars.  We had several dogs and a long driveway and they chased cars.  Never could break them so we just didn't hit them and they stayed out of the way, it's a gravel driveway and most of the dogs were huge so it wasn't any great effort on the human or the dogs part not to get in each others way.  Log had another habit.  He bit car tires as he was chasing them, his teeth weren't very pretty either.  Log was a bit rough around the edges but he was a dog with a heart as big as he was.

We still talk about him often which is as big a tribute as any dog gets I suppose.

Dirty Dog

It was Monday, Monday morning to be exact. Not only was it Monday and time to rage against the machine again but it was raining. Normally the dog does not DO rain. He did this morning.

So before I even got dressed it was bath time for the dog.  He had also discovered something brown and decidedly fragrant.
So evidently I was a little harsh with the brushing and scolding because he wasn't taking brushing well.  Trust me the bichon was not really yelled @ even.  I just hold his head and say "look @ me, aren't you ASHAMED of yourself" while giving my best I am extremely peeved and don't know what I'm going to do mommy look when he growls.    So he quits growling and grovels under my neck so I PLEASE won't give him that horrible mommy look anymore until I have to change what I'm brushing and then we repeat the whole process.  Probably not acceptable doggie behavior but that's how we do it.

So I'm on the computer writing or looking @ how stuff is selling on ebay after the brushing  (countryjunque go check it out soon)   and I look over and THIS is what I see.  You see he never lays under this bench but I suppose he was hiding and invisible?  He is extremely peeved himself.  Then we graduated to this.....

Sitting by the back door on the grandkids sweatshirts they left.  I do believe he is saying just let me outside crazy woman away from you you crazy woman, did I mention you are crazy because you gave me a bath first thing this morning and it's MONDAY for dogs TOO!!
Or @ least that's what I think he said?
I didn't let him out, still wet and raining.  He has gotten mad before after I groom him if I scold him, sometimes he goes and sits in the driveway and looks toward the highway and waits for "daddy" to come home to rescue him from crazy woman.
All is forgiven now though.......I think........

Bichon Frise Gets Crazy When He Goes To Bed

 Dispatch is my Bichon Frise as you can see, he gets REALLY excited when we go to bed. He attacks my feet, he attacks my hands, he hears things and barks. He gets so excited he chokes but goes to the EDGE of the bed to cough because he has been taught not to spit up on the furniture if he can help it. I swear.

Dog Is Afraid Of Food Bowl

This is the dog.....


Here's the video of  him talking to his food a year ago.
If I hold the bowl up he will eat.  He goes in the kitchen where his bowl is and barks @ it.  Yes I could put the food on the floor and he would eat it.  I'm not a food on the floor kind of person.  He will eat out of plastic, he will also dump plastic bowls.  He is 6, he will probably face down the bowl when he gets really hungry.  BUT not until he tries to get me to hold it for him?  Not that he is spoiled, he also knows I have a supply of bones in the freezer and has learned to beg when I go to the freezer.....

I Have No Louisiana Pictures, Or Why To Keep Training Your Dog On A Leash

Ok, I went down to see my husband, he's got his truck in Louisiana working construction. What does this have to do with animals you ask? Well Mugsey the Labrador Retriever and Dispatch the Bichon Frise went with me. Dispatch doesn't ride well, he still thinks he should be on my lap. Once we had 700 miles of whining, this wasn't that bad, it was only like 650 miles. Just kidding, he was quiet some of the time.

So I take off in the middle of the night headed for Louisiana alone with two dogs. I tried to take a nap after work but no dice so I finally got up about 11 and left about midnight. The first bathroom break was North of Springfield MO. The gas station attendant was trying to make friends with Mugsey, and he got a big deep WHOOF for his troubles, after that I wasn't so worried about traveling alone with the two "boys". Little did the attendant know Dispatch would gnaw his leg off if he'd gotten too much closer to the car. OK, I'm kidding but Dispatch said he would have. Mugsey slept and slept, Dispatch paced and panted, he was better if he could touch me but I sort of like to be turned mostly toward the steering wheel when going down the road.
So I don't remember much except thinking I really hoped the dogs didn't get sick going down 65 highway in Northern Arkansas so I took it sort of easy, it was getting close to daybreak when we stopped North of Conway, then I could call people because they were actually awake and life got easier. If you are from Arkansas pardon me but they don't believe in too many speed limit signs or signs announcing which road you are on, it's sort of a guessing game. I guessed right except for one time they said 167 turned the next left and they really meant it except it looked like a construction road going into a cow pasture, it was only there was more highway . The only wrong turn I took till I got to where my husband was, then I took another wrong turn and played slow motion chicken with a semi but that comes later (he won, I decided to delicately back up and go in the RIGHT way?). So it's early morning, every time we've stopped I've tried to get the dogs to go potty. Remember Mugsey the WHOOF dog? Well he acts like he's never been close to people or vehicles before every time we stop @ a gas station for gas and potty breaks. The lab acts like I perhaps beat him also, imagine, slink slink tail down, I'm insisting he wears a leash because he's not as well trained as Dispatch who has on a leash too. The lab has been to town many many times lately but for some reason traveling with mama in the car makes him more fearful than traveling with Daddy in the pickup. It's that leash thing mama insists he wears, it is a connection with the devil he's pretty sure I think?

So now I have this bichon that potties on command but THEN he takes his leash in his teeth and walks on his hind legs to me after pottying and scraping the grass thoroughly like a little bull while I'm pleading with the slinking fearful labrador to PLEASE go potty. So I put the show off bichon back in the car and take the lab for a walk by himself, nothing, no pottying from the lab, plus he looks like I've stolen him from his true master, the only time he wags his tail is when he's getting BACK in the car after not pottying again.

We get to where my husband is working construction in Louisiana, well where our camper is, husband has taken part of the day off but wants me to come out to the staging area so I do. That's where I play chicken with the big truck, it seems you go in on the left and not the right, I finally get on the right road after dodging all these HUGE car swallowing mud puddles, I see no other cars, just pickups and semis, then I get back in the parking lot where husband is. You have to remember the bichon is talking this whole time, harrr huh harr huh which really adds to my concentration. There are definitely holes that would rip the tires right off my car and a 4 inch jog isn't anything for a semi but for a low wanna be sports car it's quite a jump. So we finally get to husband and I just let the dogs go, then I take them to the grass without leashes so they can go potty and they do. So I'm walking back watching the lab so he doesn't get muddy because everywhere there's a hole there's MUD, Louisiana MUD, and the bichon is gaily trotting along behind like he usually does and plop, the bichon sort of disappears. He's in a hole between two logs in the parking lot, in the mud, the stinking mud. So he jumps out and immediately wants picked up and gets mud all over me, there are people around I'm meeting and shaking hands while trying to wipe most of the mud off of the bichon before he distributes it on me and the other people who he's SO very glad to see. And I'm fielding the usual, is it a poodle questions about the bichon and why is Mugsey named Mugsey?

So that was pretty much our adventure except the lab still acts like I've been abusing him when I put him on the leash and the bichon acts like he owns the world, I've given up putting the bichon on a leash because he never goes anywhere but right beside me and it's embarrassing when he holds the leash in his mouth and follows me on his hind feet, I'm not kidding but naturally I didn't have the camera anytime he did it. Also the bichon did sleep on the way home past Little Rock, he snuck in the front seat and faced away from me, that way I couldn't see him? You do know if a dog can't see you you can't see them didn't you? We were also going through Little Rock right after that Military Recruiter got shot, traffic was backing up, I did hear more about it on the news, poor poor man.

We get home today and I'm talking to my husband and all the cats and dogs are frolicking on the lawn and I see a big red cat in the log cabin, we have two light red cats, they are both in the grass frolicking with their friend the bichon. So I go over there and take a picture (with my new phone), seems I've acquired another cat while I was gone?

It seems I can't transfer pictures from my new phone to my ancient (4 year old) desktop without an act of congress (or I figure out what I'm missing besides brains) so pictures of the cat will have to wait because it disappeared when I went to get the real camera.

Postscript: More than one way to skin a cat (pardon the pun), sent the picture to my daughters phone who had GOOD internet service on her phone so then she sent it to my email!! See I told you there was a kitty in the log cabin? Thanks Sis!!

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

Mugsey Marley and Me Look Alike

Hi, my name is Mugsey, my mama is typing this for me, my paws are much too big. This is my baby picture. Mama says I looked so much like Marley it wasn't even funny, they hadn't made the movie yet, this was in the spring of 2007. Now everyone says I'm a Marley lookalike or look alike however you want to say it. This picture was taken about 5 minutes after she brought me in the door. Daddy said something about a yellow puppy although he kept telling mama they couldn't have another dog, especially living in a camper cleaning up after Katrina. Somehow Daddy relaxed his rules for me? There's a commercial on about some of these mugs may have bugs but there aint no bugs on me. Mama said I looked like the dog on the commercial so that was my name, Mugsey. Makes me sound rather tough don't ya think?
I have a "big" brother, his name is Dispatch, here he is on the bed, I think he's just about the best thing besides bones. He started to play with me a couple weeks after I came to live with them. The first two weeks were rough though. See Dispatch still has all his tail hair?

Dispatch liked to play pulley pulley with me, I soon learned to rip all the toys to shreds. Mama won't let me have any more except one expensive stuffed dog that I haven't destroyed because it's too well made. The face is gone though? I'll get it chewed up soon and then she will have to buy new ones. BTW there's a video of me howling with Dispatch about this age if you want to click on the videos on the right? You have to look through the other videos to get to it though.

Mama was cleaning out a camper they had in storage on a horse farm for one of my human brothers who worked for my Daddy. Dispatch told me he could make the horse eat me. It didn't but I wasn't taking any chances.
Soon after this we came back to Missouri, I was born in Mississippi under a storage container. Daddy said they rescued me. Mama reminds him I was in the air conditioned house with the kids when they "rescued" me. My doggie mama was a golden retriever and my doggie daddy was a huge black Labrador. I got my size more from my doggie mama but I'm still trying to grow! When we came back to Missouri we lived on something called a farm and I could go without a leash (what a relief) and there was another old grouchy dog named Skeeter. She's now one of my best friends but boy was she grouchy @ first. As you can see by the picture below I got most of Dispatches tail hair pulled out by early fall. It was such a fun handle, I'd grab him by it and he would growl and mama would yell, sometimes I even tried to pull him by it but Dispach is a fierce warrior under that fluffy white hair. We were playing here, Dispatch does something called a Bichon Blitz but I think he just goes nuts and thinks he's faster than me?

Mama said I was too big for Dispatch's bed and put it up on a table so I couldn't get it because I sort of liked to chew it too. Daddy came home and I had to show him I could still fit in the bed. I don't know what Mama is talking about sometimes?
All of this required I sleep. Mama doesn't like me sleeping in this chair much, I have a chair in the family room I can sleep in but she gets really loud when I take my naps in the living room?

I tried to shield Dispatch when Mama dressed him up in a tutu from Sara my human niece, she tastes good most of the time when I lick her. Anyway mama remembered the tutu she had made for Sara's first Halloween and dressed poor Dispatch in it. I was a little jealous but I really didn't want my own tutu.


Later I learned about ice and how it was wise just to lay down and not try to walk sometimes. I was tired after all this and had to sleep some more.



I learned to watch for Daddy when he was outside. See how I am camouflaged in the jungle tree? Mama says pay no attention to the unfinished window sill, she is just glad to have a wall and have sheet rock up, this used to be a garage door before I came around Dispatch said.I am guarding continuously, sometime I must hide if the danger gets too close though. Mama says I'm not nearly as dumb as she thought I was. I had an accident in the house when Mama was really tired and didn't let me outside in the middle of the night. She didn't find it till she had let me out the next morning but I knew she would be mad so I tried to go live with my best friend Fema who lives down the hill, Fema's mama is my mamas best friend and Fema is a miniature schnauzer, sometimes the schnauzer across the road comes to visit too and we all play in the front lawn. Nothing will attack then because of all 5 fierce dogs guarding the place huh?

All of this guarding and talking about it has made me tired, I have to sleep again.
I have found out that a warm human is the best thing to sleep by on a lazy Sunday morning, this is Jacob my human nephew, Jacob is good to me and feeds me human food too. We are watching a dog show on PBS, well Jacob and Dispatch are, I'm trying to catch a few zzzz's which doesn't sound like a bad idea. See Dispatch's tail hair did grow back!! I'm really not a bad dog.

Newman Update January

My nephew wrote this about Newman also known as Runt, as you may or may not remember or care he came to get Newman @ Thanksgiving, what a way to get the relatives to come see you on holidays, give them a dog! Anyway here's the Newman update.

Newman is good. He is laying in the floor chewing on a barbell. Yeah, we don't mess with the wimpy chew toys, we go straight for the heavy metal stuff. He's stupid. He broke out of his baby gate today and look totally thrilled and quite surprised when we got home. No damage, so that was good. I would like to see how he did it. I'm thinking he did a running start and just bashed into it. He's like that. Took him to the dog park about a month ago and he was mean, mean mean. Not joking. So I took him back a couple of days ago and he did much better. He found a friend. A jack russell named Rowdy who constantly bit him. It's all good in dog world.

I wrote him back and told him Dispatch didn't do so good with other dogs in social situations either. At petsmart he acts like he's thinking "OK I finally got in the store where people can worship me properly and I can see what mama does in these places but WHY are these other dogs in here and WHY do they want to act like DOGS? I'm in my human incognito persona and they still want to sniff butts? Maybe if I act like a human I will finally get to really drive and learn to talk right? AND be able to get in the refrigerator whenever I want? I've got the walking on my hind legs pretty well down pat."

Or @ least that's what he seems to be thinking.

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?

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.

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.