It has been a breathtaking week. And I do not mean that in the “awesome beauty in nature” way. I mostly mean it in the “thankfully we all got through it without needing medical care” way.
First there was Pippa the fence jumping dog. I succeeded in keeping her corralled, but she leaped onto the loaded dining room table from a sitting position so she could see what was happening in the front yard. And she ate my brand new toothbrush. Ok, she ate 80% of it. But still. she ate a flippin’ toothbrush. There were two unopened bags of dog treats and the last remnants of a bag of dog food on the counter, and she chose the toothbrush.
Dahlia chasing Lillie the Aussie
Then Dahlia knocked me off my feet at the dog park. I was walking down the hill with Lola the pug in my arms. (Lola is lazy. Carrying her to the bottom of the park is a way to get her to move around.) As we reached the center of the park Dahlia and Lillie came thundering downhill. Dahlia hit me on the right side at about hip height. Her impact lifted me off my feet, spun me around and sat me down facing uphill with Lola in my lap. I’m grateful that Dahlia didn’t knock me down in a way that would’ve harmed Lola, and disappointed that no one caught the moment on video. Though Dahlia weighs at least 100 pounds she didn’t hurt me or Lola so I see the humor in the moment, and I wish I could have instant replay!
On Wednesday during a late afternoon dog park outing two dogs got into a fight. Neither were with me, but Zebi the giant Golden Doodle who has been staying with me for the past week charged over toward the fray. I tried to call him back because I thought he was going to jump on the bandwagon and make the fight worse. Much to my surprise and delight he broke up the fight, He thrust his larger, older body between the fighters and they immediately stood down. It was like Zebi said, “You. Will. Not!” I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
Thursday we arrived home and were barely in the door before black Lily who was starting her board stint with us that night knocked over a couple of folding chairs and completely freaked Aiko out. He was stiff and shaking. I had to stash the chairs out of sight to get him past the front door.
With that trauma resolved I took all the dogs out to the pen behind my house. Their pen is converted horse stalls, so there is a covered area and an outdoor area. The covered area appeals to many critters besides my dogs. Unbeknownst to us night there was a bird in there Thursday night. I had just closed the gate when it swooped down out of the rafters and went nuts thunking into the walls, the ceiling, the floodlights. It was clearly panicked. It even flew at my head several times, but like a moth it kept returning to the light.
Naturally the dogs thought this was all great fun. But I was afraid the bird would injure itself and land on the ground amongst the dogs. So I quickly shut the pen lights off and ran inside for a flashlight. I tried to use the light to lure the bird outside.
When I shined the light into the covered area to get the bird’s attention it went nuts and slammed into the walls, so I drew the beam of light along the wall until it was pointed to the outdoors, and fortunately the bird followed. It sailed out of the pen and disappeared over the roof of the barn. I wish I’d gotten a daylight view so I could know who I was dealing with. All I could see was that It had a long bill like a woodpecker or sapsucker, and it was 5-7 inches in length.
Lily the Labradoodle
This morning Lily and Posy got into a fight in the kitchen. Posy started it. She has always been one to snap at the other dogs, and they all cow to her. It must have been some surprise for her to have Lily strike back. As I moved in to break them up Doris charged in from the other room and tried to join in. Only Aiko was smart enough to stay out of it. What a way to start the day!
Hopefully the rest of the weekend will be uneventful. We’re about to go find out!
Aiko's Adventures 