Down.Stay.

Down.Stay., a photo by Jodi K. on Flickr.

Honey and Rusty have really become two peas in a pod. Honey is still kind of finding her personality and follows Rusty a lot. I was trying to snap a photo of him and she just had to join us. Rusty and I don't mind at all.

Muttley Crew

Muttley Crew, a photo by Jodi K. on Flickr.

Happy New Year from Little Guy, Rusty, and Honey. They are all cuter in person, I swear.

In Memorium

If I had made a resolution to "be on time" or "stop being late" for 2011, I would have already failed. The lateness of my "year end" post here is only one example.

I can't say that I'm too sad to say good-bye to 2010. Yes, some very good things did happen this past year. Unfortunately, there have been some not-so-pleasant personal things and a really sad recurring theme. In the last twelve months, family, friends and I all lost dear pets. We were "lucky" in many of the cases in that our precious four-legged friends were old and lived very long, very full lives. While somewhat comforting, that fact does not diminish the losses. So, my year-end wrap up blog post is not meant to be depressing, but is a tribute to some of those we had to bid farewell to in 2010.

Jetta and Rex, both of my parents' German Shepherd Dogs passed away within about a month of each other. I took this photo when I last saw them six years ago. Jetta had just come to live with them at that time. Rex was with my family since he was puppy. They were good dogs and I was really sad not to see them when I visited at Thanksgiving. 

Bryce was a good friend of ours. We've known his dad since college and met Bryce, also known as "The Mooch," shortly after we moved to California 16 years ago. This sweet, adorable little fuzzball peed on our old tv, but I can't blame him. Prior to that, when we took Cosette to his place, she took all of his toys and was so bossy that he hid under the bed. I was embarrassed, but we did laugh about that for years to come.

Audrey the cat was the most recent to leave us. For several years, I looked in on and fed Miss Audrey while her parents went away for the holidays. We sort of had a love-hate relationship. I tried, I did, but I'm not really a cat person and Audrey knew that. I smelled like dogs and accused her of "wagging" her tail. I shot the above video while trying to make nice with her. It fully demonstrates my ignorance of the inner workings of a cat's mind. Overall, she was pretty tolerant of me and my camera (which she did not like). The old, wise feline definitely taught me some life lessons and will be greatly missed.

I know that I have some photos of Bailey, a friend's German Shepherd Dog, but can't find them. He was a beautiful, smart and gentle dog. He was quite a faithful companion.

I never knew Peter, Electra and Sophie as I did the above animals, but I care about these cats' owners and was sad for them having to experience their losses.

A day hasn't gone by in this past year with me thinking of our sweet Cosette, often with tears. I still miss my Puppy Girl so much and know I always will.

Happy Pawlidays!

From me and my pets to you and yours...

A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener...

Thoreau may have waxed poetic about the rain, but personally, I find it annoying and inconvenient. I have acclimated to the normally sunny Southern California weather and am having trouble dealing with our current deluge. I don't know how folks living in the Pacific Northwest do it. I'm not sure I'd survive.

It's true that the rain does make the grass greener. In fact, it produces grass in our back yard, which spends a good part of the year being brown and dusty.

This photo of our sweet Cosette was taken in November of 2006, before the rainy season. Notice the "yard" behind her (and Rusty and Little Guy!) Pretty desolate.

I took this photo yesterday during a brief break in the rain after convincing Little Guy to take a potty break. I imagine that once this rain is done, we'll have twice as much green back there as we do right now. Luckily, I cut it a few days ago as it was growing pretty well from some other recent rain. The dogs and I will be thrilled when the storms are gone though, just as Cosette always was. Damn, I miss her.

Ho Ho Honey

For many years we've taken Rusty with us to the Toluca Lake Holiday Open House, which happens the first weekend of December. All of the businesses along Riverside Drive stay open and many offer treats and warm beverages. There's a tree lighting, bagpipers, Santa Claus and more. Many of the restaurants give out delicious samples and you can always count on Trader Joe's to share some pfeffernüsse.

We typically dress Rusty up in his Santa outfit. This year, we decided to bring Honey along and found an old sweater and holiday scarf of Little Guy's for her to wear. She kind of had a Mrs. Claus vibe going. They were quite popular and were photographed quite a bit. I didn't bring my camera, so wanted to capture the cuteness when we got home before going in and removing the costumes.

The results were less than stellar and the one above is about the best one I got. As is par for the course, I had a hard time capturing Honey in a moment of stillness. Below is how most of the photos turned out. Rusty, posing like a good little dog, and Honey, a blur of constant motion!

Honey was superbly behaved during our outing. We weren't sure how she would do as the festival is always very crowded. She handled herself quite well and didn't bark even one time. (That's a feat, people). I thought for sure that she'd flip over the Great Dane we ran into or maybe even the bagpipes. She wasn't thrilled with very loud drums, but just hurried up her pace a little instead of freaking out.

This funny little dog might be a spaz, but she is also quite loveable. Honey definitely knows she is part of our family and genuinely seems to be happy. She was ecstatic when I recently returned home from vacation, which pleased me to no end.

Hopefully, we'll be able to trust her one of these days to not eat any random item she encounters, such as socks, hair elastics, flash drives...

Tolerance

Cosette and Little Guy

This is a crappy cell phone photo, but I captured the rare moment while still in bed yesterday morning. If I'd gotten up to get the real camera, they would have moved in anticipation of something to eat.

Cosette and Little Guy have merely tolerated each other for the eight-plus years they have lived together. Cosette had been an only dog for about seven-and-a-half years and it was a big adjustment. Little Guy came into our home thinking he'd suddenly take over as alpha dog. This did not go over well with the true leader and he was soon put in his place. When Rusty became part of the family a year or so later he bonded immediately with both dogs. He and Little Guy became playmates and Rusty took on the role of the puppy Cosette never bore. Little Guy and Cosette haven't fought since the very beginning, but they simple coexist.

I think that's why I was a little surprised to see them lying so close together, which is something they just don't do. Cosette kept getting bopped in the face when Guy would wag his tail, but she'd simply move her head position and that was it. At first I thought it was a really sweet moment and perhaps it was. In reality though, I think it was more likely that nearly seventeen-year old Cosette and almost thirteen-year old Little Guy, who is still recovering very slowly from his knee surgery, have difficulty moving and can't be bothered to get up for such a trivial matter.

The More You Know...

I sat down to do a big essay about my feelings on Michael Vick, but ending up rambling for paragraphs about growing up in a football fanatic family, being a fan myself by default, and coming to dislike the sport and its violent nature many years later. It was becoming an epic post and way longer than anything I would take the time to read.

When it comes to hearing Vick's name in the news whether he's going to court, leaving jail, getting a provisional reinstatement into the NFL, I just think of those dogs. Those innocent, tortured, indescribably mistreated dogs. The recent news has coincided with something in my life that lead to a lot of friends and colleagues ranting about how much they hate Pit Bulls and how evil they are by nature. My attempts to speak up on the unfair rap this breed have been ignored. I passive-aggressively printed out information from, well, the website called Bad Rap and posted them with photos of me being licked on the face by one of my best Pit friends. Obviously, not out to make friends, but if I could change one mind...

Daizy and me

We all have our prejudices and might be easily influenced by the fear-mongering media. If you aren't sure about Pit Bulls yourself, take a couple of minutes to read up on the breed and the crazy myths surrounding them. Yes, dogs can hurt you. ANY dog of ANY breed of ANY size can hurt you or another dog. Certain breeds have some traits that might not be a good match for you and your family as a pet. That's why people should educate themselves, make well-informed decisions before obtaining a dog, and commit to training that will help your canine become a good citizen. This goes for any dog from a teacup Poodle to a Great Dane to the I-have-no-idea-what-kind-of-dog-this-is Mutt. My cute fluff ball of a dog, Little Guy, is often horrible around other dogs, in spite of training efforts, so I purposefully avoid precarious situations as much as I can.

The many, often goofy, faces of Daizy

Personally, I don't think I would want to own a Pit Bull, but not because I'm afraid. I've just become fonder of smaller, long haired, pointy-eared dogs, in spite of growing up with and loving German Shepherds. I've spent a lot of time with my friend Daizy, above. I've walked her in the hills, played fetch with her, cuddled and snuggled with her as well. She is full of energy and love. She does like to jump up and say hi, but you tell her to "sit" and she does. Daizy has training, Daizy has responsible owners, Daizy is loved as much as she loves back. Daizy sometimes mingles at parties and is well received, especially when she's disguised Petey from The Little Rascals. Daizy's "parents" do encounter hate and prejudice though when in public, which shows how truly ignorant people often are.

I did end up rambling, but sometimes we have to speak up for those who can't for themselves. I understand that a lot of folks don't like or understand dogs period. Just because I'm a self-proclaimed "crazy dog lady," I really don't care if they aren't your thing and won't try to convince you otherwise. Talk to me about cats sometime. Or don't. Please don't. I just get really peeved that negative untruths being propagated by the ill-informed.

Will I Ever Ketchup*?

When I have a lot going on that serves as actual blog fodder, I don't seem to have time to write about any of it. Various topics in the queue include a proper wrap-up of Maker Faire, a quick trip to the adorable City of Orange, the drive-in series that ended last week, the Hot Dog Death March*, an update on the beasties, the L.A. Film Festival, Comic-Con, which is approaching ever so quickly (!), and who knows what else.

In lieu of an actual post, I leave you with a photo that I took in Orange. Feel free to share your thoughts and/or title or caption suggestions.

See chameleon lying there in the sun...

I've waited almost a week to publish this so I don't get melodramatic when describing an event that could have possible had a tragic and life-changing ending. I want to preface the story by stating that I am extremely thankful for and relieved by the end result. That said, I started last Wednesday by feeling like my heart might stop.

I was off to a good start that morning. As anyone who knows me is aware, I tend to run late most of the time. I was in sync with the clock though and got out the door at the exact right time. Depending on how things are going, I go one of two ways to exit my neighborhood. I briefly thought of turning my car around to go out the easier way. Thinking it would be okay since I was leaving right at 7am, I just went straight. I headed up the street, past the four houses between mine and an intersection. I looked further down the street, gasped, and slammed on my brakes so hard my car skidded.

Across the intersection, I saw Rusty, one of my dogs (which any reader probably knows already), trotting along side a woman and the yellow Lab she was walking. He had the biggest smile on his face and was obviously having a grand old time. WHAT THE...??? I jumped out of the car, screaming, and running toward him. He looked, but didn't come to me, which was probably okay considering he'd be going over a cross street. I ran up to him like a raving lunatic shouting, "What the hell???" I'm sure the lady thought I was insane. My heart is palpitating a little as I recount this.

I scooped him up and plopped him onto the passenger side floor and drove back to the house. I was reprimanding him, as if that was helping at all. He was clearly having a blast and had also rolled in something as his entire body was wet. I got him into the house and immediately checked that Cosette and Little Guy were still there. I then had to figure out how in the world this frakkin' happened. None of my dogs has ever gotten out.

My first thought was that I hadn't latched and locked the one side gate after bringing in the garbage cans the night before. Nope. Latched and locked. I went into the back yard and briefly had an absurd thought that somehow Rusty had climbed up our huge carob tree, which has a branch near the top of our 6-foot wall. Um, yeah, right. I was really shaken and clearly not thinking straight. I made my way over to the other side of the house, where our cinder block wall does not travel the full distance to the gate in the front, so there is a gate in the back. Well, lo and behold, the wooden gate had split down the middle and half was on the ground, opening a passage from the normally confined back yard. The gate was fairly rickety, but had been latched and secure last we checked.

Since Rusty was safe and I was now running late to work, I closed the back door and awoke E and barked out the story. He later repositioned the gate and blocked it so it's impossible to fall again before we repair it.

My mind raced on the drive, imagining the horrific possibilities from Rusty being run down by one of the huge SUVs that tend to speed down our street to him being kidnapped. He loves people, is a size that can be picked up, and would easily adjust to a new family. Although we live on a relatively quiet street, aside from the occasional speeders, we are a block away from an extremely busy, highly trafficked thoroughfare.

In retrospect, I kind of think the woman may have been herding Rusty toward home. He has tags with our address and I've never seen this woman in the neighborhood. I pretty much recognize all of the dogs taking a stroll, especially in the early morning. I feel like an ass because I didn't even talk to her, partially due to my car still being parked and running in the middle of the street and well, also due to general freak out.

Rusty is a good boy and was so frazzled by my overreaction. E said he acted out of sorts all day. When I got home, I picked him up and he "hugged" me, making these little noises as if to say, "I'm sorry, don't be mad at me." If you've made it this far, I commend you. Personally, I hate long blog entries and would have stopped reading by now.

National Poetry Month: Haiku A Day (Sort Of) #7&8

The season for Peeps®
Love the sugary goodness
And squishy insides



Little Guy smiley
My sweet, sweet baby boy dog
Recovering well

I'm gonna break my rusty cage and run

Last but not least...Rusty. I haven't even blogged about what's been going on with him lately. About three weeks ago, he came in from the back yard not putting any weight on his right hind leg. Same thing as Little Guy, opposite side. I could not believe this could be happening. Again. We went to the vet, who sedated Rusty to check is knee and found what she thought was a torn ligament. (He'd also just been sedated a few days before for a tooth extraction). So, off to the surgeon we went.

Little Guy's surgeon, who was wonderful, was on vacation so we saw someone else at the practice. He felt there was a partial ligament tear* and recommended a far more invasive, i.e. far more expensive, procedure. It's the one they usually do on dogs who weigh over 40 pounds--more than twice Rusty's weight. By the time of the consult, and in fact by the day after the injury, he was bearing full weight on his leg. So I asked about conservative treatment, which basically entails 6-8 weeks of confinement and anti-inflammatory medication. Of course, this was not what the doctor recommended as first course of action. He just wanted to cut.

I tried putting Rusty in his crate. Ha! I knew that wouldn't work as he's always hated the crate and injured a front paw trying to scratch his way out in the past. My next brilliant idea was to put him in with Little Guy. Yeah, right. Rusty kept jumping over the baby gate. We resorted to just leaving him in the hallway with Guy, where he could jump and scratch at the door all he wanted. When home, I'd bring him out and leash him to the dining room table where he'd lie pretty quietly as long as he could see us.

In the past three weeks, Rusty has not shown any signs pain or favored his injured leg at all. I took it into my own hands to decrease the medication dose, which had no ill effect. He's a hard dog to keep down, so I took him to his vet to get her recommendations. Upon examining him, watching him move, and taking into account the full weight bearing he was doing the day after, she thinks that there probably wasn't a tear after all and maybe just a sprain. The only way to truly know would be an MRI and since he is asymptomatic, there's no way I'm paying for that right now.

We put Rusty on the same "gradual return to activity" program Little Guy is on and starting with short walks. I've been taking them together and it's not working. After 3/4 of a block, I have to pick Guy up and carry him the rest of the way and Rusty is wanting to zoom along at a fast pace and for a longer distance. We're also putting him in the hallway with LG when we go out so he's not jumping on and off furniture and running a lot in the back yard.
(The squirrels and birds are happy for the reprieve!)

Things are working out, but there were a few days there where I was freaking out. This surgery that Little Guy had has a tough recovery period. Luckily, he's been pretty mellow and was becoming so inactive before that it's been somewhat easy forcing him to rest. I was just imagining Rusty having the surgery and ruining it within the first week. The surgeon was kind enough to suggest we could give him sedatives. For 8 weeks.

Mostly this has all been inconvenient, more so for the dogs than us. Rusty did miss out on a special event he was supposed to attend and we're now officially on a temporary break from therapy dog work. I also know that he very well may injure himself in the future and need more invasive treatment, but it seems like we've dodged the bullet this time, thankfully. While we're still keeping Rusty reigned in for a couple more weeks, he is going to be in his first movie this weekend. It's a friend's short independent film, but exciting nonetheless. Oh, and it'll be in 3D. How cool is that?

*Little Guy had a fully torn ligament, as well as a damaged meniscus.

Update Of The Furry Kind

(No, not THAT kind of furry!)

Here are the updates on four of the four-legged kids that I didn't quite get to in the last post. It was going to include all five, but there's been a lot of stuff going on with Rusty that I haven't shared, so he will get his own chapter.

Little Guy is now 10 weeks out from his knee surgery and continues to do well. We've moved into a new phase of activity. Over the past two weeks, we've been increasing walks, but maintaining strict confinement. Now we are still working on progressing the walks (he can only make it ~3/4 of a block before getting a lot of spasming in his left rear leg), but he is allowed to have a bit more freedom. Running and jumping are both no-nos for 4 more weeks, so he's not allowed in the back yard, off leash and alone yet and he is confined, in the hallway, at night and when we go out. He hangs out in the house when we are home and that makes him extremely happy. He misses the squirrels though.


Cosette continues to be as feisty as she can be at 16 years old. She's been losing weight steadily over the past several months, in spite of a voracious appetite, so we are adjusting some feeding and keeping an eye on it. Otherwise, she's doing fine so we're forgoing any extensive testing at this point. Recent blood work showed a little elevation in some liver values, but that has been going on with her for many, many years and the results aren't as high have they have been in the past. She's going back on a medication for that. Cosette loves veggies and has been enjoying eating some during the nightly preparation of snacks for the guinea pigs. There are a couple of behavioral frustrations, but we're going with the flow (literally) and are just happy to still have her around, enjoying life. She's aging pretty gracefully.


Pepper and Pickle are doing very well. They seem to be fighting less, especially at 2am, which is a relief to me, on work nights especially. I still have the amazing ability to scare the crap out of them (and boy do they crap a lot!), but the girls are getting more used to being handled and have learned where the food and hay come from. Much like Penny used to do, they started squeaking when they hear E's voice as it's usually followed by a special treat of parsley or Romaine. They provide nightly entertainment during floor time. Pickle is quite amusing as she likes to "popcorn" quite a bit, which is supposedly a sign of happiness in a piggie. Pepper occasionally does it too, but she likes being a little more low key, hanging out in her brown paper lunch bag. Well, when she's not picking on Pickle, that is. The pigs both love lettuce, clementines, blueberries, strawberries, parsley, apples, pears, and dandelion leaves. Pickle seems to like carrots better than Pepper does. Neither of them care for tomatoes or peppers. They are good little feeders and growers.

Coming soon: An epic Rusty update. (He's doing just fine, by the way).

Corner me and make me something

I never intended for my blog to have a theme or to become a blogger that fit into a certain category. I'm not a political blogger or a tech blogger. I'm most certainly not a food blogger. And since I don't have kids, I can't even pretend to be a mommy blogger. While I do occasionally write about music/tv/film, life in Los Angeles (and actually, I've moved a lot of that over to my posts at L.A. Metblogs), or things I find absurd or dorky, there is a definite trend in what I've been writing about lately. Well, when I've even posted.

My pets. The four-legged beasties that share my home are family. I appreciate that not everyone "gets" that and may stop coming around to avoid being bored by endless chatter about furry creatures. So, what does that make me? A DoggyPiggyMommy Blogger? A I'mSoCrazyAboutMyPets YouShouldCallTheAuthorities Blogger? Or maybe merely a PetMommy Blogger. I don't know. Labels don't concern me too much.

It's been a tough year so far in our pack. 2009 is not even a quarter of the way over and we've dealt with major surgery, death, adoption, injury, and the ever-growing challenges of aging. Right now we're in the midst of an overhaul of feeding for the dogs, medication additions and subtractions, new activity routines, and the continued acclimation of the guinea pigs.

Originally, I proceeded to go into an update on all five pets, but this started turning into one of those epic posts that I usually end up not reading because of the length. So, if you happen to be curious about how Cosette, Little Guy, Rusty, Pickle and/or Pepper are doing, check back soon.

I Can't Even Think Of A Title

The lack of posts around these parts is a testament to how crazy and exhausting life has been for the last week or so. My solution is to leave you with photos of a couple my pets. What? How is that different than usual?

Little Guy sniffing the wind while lying in the dirt. He's a dirty dog.


Pickle Piggie after enjoying clementine slices.

Post Op Day 44

Little Guy continues to recover nicely. Still as grumpy as can be due to continued imprisonment. He will go for his big 8-week follow up appointment with the surgeon next week, where he'll hopefully be given the clearance to start his month-long "gradual return to activity" program. Essentially, we'll start walking him prescribed progressive distances.

The fur on that rear hindquarter is coming in nicely. Not sure what's up with the big patch on his back though. It's still just stubble.

Dogs Love Popcorn

1 Month Update

Little Guy had his 1-month follow up appointment with the surgeon this morning. The doctor is very pleased with his healing up to this point. The collar is off, which will hopefully help his grumpy mood improve.

He has one more month of strict activity restriction, aka doggy jail. If all is still well at that point, he'll move into the next phase of recovery, which is one month of gradual return to "normal" activity. I have a feeling it take a bit longer for Guy as his left rear leg muscles were quite atrophied before the surgery due to him not really using that extremity much.

Overall, it's all good news and my efforts at being very strict at minimizing standing, walking, etc. are paying off thus far.

Post Op Day 24 Haiku

Still in doggy jail
That's why I have a sad face
Hope to get out soon

*Little Guy continues to recover well from his surgery. He's very bored though and pretty grumpy to be confined with strict limits set on his activity. He goes back to see the doctor on Friday for a 1-month follow-up. And then it will be only 2 to 6 weeks more of dog rest.

Little Guy Update, Post Op Day 14

It's kind of hard to believe that it's already been two weeks since Little Guy's surgery. It's even harder to believe I'll have to go back to work on Monday. He saw the surgeon today and had his sutures removed. The doctor was very pleased with how his incision is healing and said the 'knee' felt good. Along with that came the strong reminder that Guy's activity must be strictly limited for the next six to ten weeks, which will be challenging.

I took the above in the parking lot at the vet. Little Guy was very happy that we were leaving and that the doctor told me he could keep the collar off. Well...that didn't last too long and he's back in the collar. He was good for a while, but then started really licking the incision. In the interest of protecting the healing he's done and not opening it back up, we had to take action.

So, yeah, he's coming along nicely. We just have to keep him quiet and inactive as much as possible. Hopefully the collar can really come off soon.