So now it's the 21st century and...

SUMMARY: It's going to be WHAT? 2024? No wayyy!

Inspired by my comment on FB: Dec 31, 2023

A friend on FB threw the question out to his world, having lost his partner of 20ish years: What is everyone doing for New Years Eve? Party? Family gathering? Champagne at midnight? Me? Probably in bed by 8, scrolling for a fun movie. No one to kiss at midnight.

Taj MuttHall responds -- I'll be doing something useful like washing dishes or OH NO donating to charities at the last minute, snuggle with Zorro a bit but no kissing because COAT BEING BLOWN WHY?! when winter is just starting?!, in bed I hope by 8 and hope the fireworks noise isn't enough to keep me or Zorro up. Last year he hid in my closet and seemed fine there. Thank goodness I don't have Chip's terror to deal with any more. [But I miss him none the less]

Wishing you and the world at large a happy 2024.

 (How can it possibly be that year?! I still keep referring to, for example,  six years ago as 2007. Or sometimes 1997. Too many years to keep track of )

Me and former husband at a friend's fancy New Year's Eve party.
Back in 2018.... 2008... oh good grief, 1988. I'm sure I still look the same

Do You Want Breakfast?

SUMMARY: Who… wants…BREAKFAST!

Just a short unedited minute and a half video of Zorro when it’s time for breakfast. Once he starts eating, nothing else. Exciting happens. Just a fun quick little watch.

Second Annual Chip High-Heat Ice Cream Wake

SUMMARY: This could become a tradition

Chip left us last year, on June 17. It's been really hard for me this week.  

Also I can't believe that I've gone an entire year without  a 2nd dog. Zorro just turned seven last week, and for the last couple of months, he hasn't been so cavalier about jumping up into his crate in the back of MUTT MOVER. I have to do things to give him extra space or gear to help him get up. 

But that's a different story.

Last year, on June 18, Zorro and I headed down the street to Baskin Robbins to have some memorial ice cream in honor of Chip.  In 100+ degree heat.

I don't know why blogger accepts videos, uploads them, and then displays what looks like a control pane--but it's just a PIC of a control pane. And then says video not available.
Sorry for now, folks.

So, this year, we did the same. In 108-degree weather. And so is born, ta-da:

Annual Chip High-Heat Ice Cream Wake

Wasn't going to leave Zorro in the car while I got ice cream unless (a) I could park in complete shade and (b) Baskin Robbins didn't have a huge line.  Turns out, yes! Full parking spot in the shade, and yes! no one else at BR! Freaky.

And then all this happened.

Empty Baskin Robbins! In this heat?

Still wearing masks to be safe. Plus my buttons saying I'm not one of the unvaxed.

It leaked all over my hand just walking back to the car, no matter how fast I licked.
Had to keep licking to try to take photos.
Now my phone/camera is sticky.

Rest assured, Human Mom ate almost all the ice cream.

I was glad that I kept his crate door closed and latched, because right about then a huge Standard Poodle trotted up from behind us and tried to stick his nose into our business.
Zorro was not pleased.
Owners did not have him on leash.

Biting through the wires is strenuous!

Fun with animated gifs, part 1
Wagging tail, hard-working tongue
(from 6 photos; need to figure out how to crop it more betterz.)

That was TOTAL nom-nom-noms!

Took the rest home because in the heat it was liquidating beyond  control.
(Fortunately only 5 minutes away.)

The last bite.

Fun with animated gifs, part 2 (from two photos).
Guess who gets to lick the bowl.

P.S. 

I do have a history of drowning my dog grief (or sometimes celebrations) in frozen concoctions that help me hang on. (No--not margaritas--) .--in addition to 2020 and this year-- at least the followings:

• June 2019
• April 2018 and 2015

Barkage

SUMMARY: Who says what to whom and why?

From FB 4/2/21: A comment I left on a friend's post about how their dogs' barking patterns changed depending on who was home, dog or human.

4/11/21: Just added another paragraph (tagged inline). 

Dogs are insane. 

Chip barked enthusiastically at the dogs next door (next door on both sides of the yard) through a solid wood fence (he'd look through knotholes until he saw them). Not quite in a fence-fighting way so much as tail wagging and fur not raised, but still very barky and I hated it. I ended up putting up a lightweight solid fence about six inches from the fence on one side to chill him down a bit. Worked fairly well--although only on that side.

Chip, peering through a knothole at the neighbor's yard and wagging his tail.

I adopted Zorro after Chip had been here for over a year and while the don't-bark fence was still up, and Zorro never barked at the dogs next door, and Chip was more minimal. For months and months after Zorro arrived.

Dog window in fence! Awesome!

Then, because I eventually took down the fence on that side because it was a nuisance and Chip's barking had calmed, Chip started barking at that side again as well as the other side. But Zorro--still months of nonparticipation.

The antibark fence along the side. It's black(ish) and behind things, so you almost don't notice it.

This is what it is: Construction "chickenwire" with water-resistant paper.
Eventually, the paper does deteriorate and it starts looking crappy. 
But it worked for no-bark!
(Can't see it, can't smell it up close: can't bark at it.)

And then one day when Chip was barking, Zorro plowed through Chip and took up ferocious fence-fighting barking, and from that day forward, it was Zorro who barked like crazy at the neighbor dogs, even if Chip weren't the initiator. (Chip would still do it, but Zorro would often push him out of the way and take over.) 

Added April 11-- Just found this post from 3 years ago:

April 11, 2018: OK, for the nearly 3 years that Zorro has been here, he has not obsessively barked at the dogs next door. Chip has done that always given half a chance.  So--why this week has Zorro decided to take over that job?  🙁  (Chip the tattle-tale, was just in here letting me know that Zorro was misbehaving. Interesting dynamics around here.)

[I hope that I have photos of Zorro barking at the fence. Haven't found any yet, but I have *so many* dogs-in-yard albums without any tagging on the photos. But in the process I rediscovered an album with a ton of photos of Chip running through his tunnels. Which I then spent an hour editing and posted on Facebook. (No idea whether that link will work for anyone.) Not barking related, but such happiness!]

Since Chip died last June, Z has shown less and less interest in barking at the fence, and the few times when he does, it's for just a couple of seconds and then he's done. Was he taking care of Chip? Was he just trying to prove that he was tougher than Chip? Did he think that was a game for the two of them to play?

But he does bark to let me know if a dangerous entity is approaching my door, or parking in my driveway, or if a monstrous delivery vehicle (say, Amazon, UPS, ...) is threatening us anywhere on the street.

Dog minds are endlessly fascinating. 

Feb 11 on Facebook - Rain, Cookies, Sunrises

SUMMARY: I dunno, doing this because I can. Why not?

Background: My comment on Facebook Feb 11 '21 after Linda said that her dog Abby walked a short way in the rain and then said, nope, we're going home.

Zorro insisted that I come out into the yard to play with him. In the rain. Dragged me out of bed after working at it for half an hour because I realllly didn't want to get up from my afternoon nap. Brought me a Jolly to throw, which I did, and then he dropped it and started eating grass. This is how it has been going for a long time. I don't know the reason--I think maybe some kind of stress reaction, rather than needing to eat grass, because he comes right into the house after me if I leave. Which I was happy to do this time because it was raining! 

Unlike Abby, he didn't seem to care about that. Not sure what would've happened if I had tried to take him for a walk. I think he'd have been glad to go but unwilling to stop while I took photos.

Photo borrowed from April 2019. 
I didn't take photos this time because it was raining!

Background: Also on the 11, a friend noted that her girl scout cookies order arrived.  I said...

Wow! Yayyyyy! I'm eating through mine WAY too fast so I just ordered more. Not good for my physical health, but my mental health is happy. 
[about 6 hours ago, ordered 5 more boxes of ToffeeTastic. Soooooooo good. Will be dropped off tonight or tomorrow]

Backgroiund: Also on the 11, I caught morning sky! orange! colors! I said...

This is definitely the sort of thing that one likes to wake up to. The sudden red-orange on the curtains is what drew me out from between my warm soft sheets.

British vs American Bedrooms: A Rebuttal or More Likely Just A Response

SUMMARY: After watching this video: 5 Ways British and American Bedrooms Are Very Different

Top sheets

Sheba and Amber demonstrating prehistoric
pre-duvet-cover, pro-top-sheet-and-blankets days
Blankets wore out quickly with all the washings.

I've lived in the U.S. my entire multiple decades of life. We were raised putting a top sheet between you and the blanket(s), which made sense because blankets can be a bit scratchy.  Sometimes we might have a comforter instead of a blanket, but we treated those the same way--top sheet first, comforter on top of that, to protect having to wash the comforters too often.  

However, because my dogs also sleep on my bed, my blankets would get dirty from the top side so I always had to wash them anyway. Which was hard on the blankets.

Zorro demonstrating a dog
on a duvet cover

Thirty-five or so years ago, I came upon the concept of a "duvet cover".  When I got myself a lovely down comforter, I didn't want to have to wash it (or dry clean it! Expensive!) frequently due to dog mud and hair. So I was delighted to discover, and start using, duvet covers.  Which are, essentially, two top sheets sewn together.

I realized quickly that a top sheet between me and it made no sense at all and thus stopped using top sheets (except in certain weeks during the summer when it gets very hot and I don't have a/c but still want something over me). 

Therefore, I have a stack of top sheets that are virtually never used because companies too often sell sheets as sets and I can't always get just a bottom sheet of the pattern I want.

Also, this set-up makes it sublime to "make the bed" in the morning. Quick shake: Done.

Found this in a drawer in my
bathroom last month.
Tossed it.
No idea when I last used it.

Hot water bottles

Used them as a kid, for warmth sometimes but usually for aches & pains.  My parents also eventually got a heating pad for aches & pains, but there was something pleasing (and more responsive, more close-fitting) about a towel-wrapped flat rubber bottle filled with steaming water. As long as they didn't start leaking.

Out on my own, of course I had a hot water bottle for many years. Finally splurged (gulp) on a heating pad-- and then I discovered that I could use themit to warm my bed (in small sections) before I got into it. And even keep me warm on particularly cold nights.

 And THEN maybe 25 years ago I discovered heated mattress pads and now I use mine all the time. Haven't had a water bottle in ages. But I still use the heating pad for aches & pains.

Our hot water bottles always looked like the one
on the right. I never saw a heart-shaped one!

Peng, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>,
via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:W%C3%A4rmflasche1.jpg

Zorro kindly demonstrating another duvet cover.
He is a skilled demonstrator of such bedding.

And another. I gottamillionof'em.

Gratuitous Recent Dog Photos

SUMMARY: [Mostly] Wordless Wednesday

Ears back or up

Panting

Spontaneous hug

Checking out ground squirrel hole

Human Mom took him away from an almost-caught squirrel. So rude.

Squeaky Snake

Teeter in agility class

>>  Visit the Wordless Wednesday site; lots of blogs. << <

Zorro the Mighty Hunter

SUMMARY: No! Dead! Rodents! In! House! Please!

Backfill: From June 26  and 27 on Facebook. Posted here July 2.

June 26, 7:14 PM:

Day 3 of the Vermin Killer: Mongo gopher got taken down today. Zorro nearly killed himself in the process--fortunately I was home and went looking for him. When I finally yelled sternly, Zorro, Come!, I heard a sound near the hot wooden shed in the side yard. Or... IN the shed. He pushed through the crappy doors into the shed apparently to finalize the transaction, but they don't push out. Still clutching the monster in his jaws. Seemed happy to see me.

Dork. Must find a solution for those doors.

P.S. I don't know which are gophers and which are ground squirrels--I don't actually look that closely usually. "big furry dead thing that's not a cat." ;-) My soil is also highly clay and bakes like rock in the summer, however, I do water during the summer usually, and that probably helps them, no matter which they are.

June 27 12:07 PM:

Yesterday the mighty hunter was so desperately hot on a hot day--after spending quite a long time digging a mongo hole** under my waterfall-that-has-never-worked and then chasing the very large squirrel or gopher into the shed--that when I freed him from the shed, he brought the corpus delicti inside and dropped it on my front-hall rug. After I chased him outside with it, he came back in and dropped it on the rug in the downstairs bathroom. I chased him out again and when he brought it back in and dropped it on the kitchen rug, I started tossing cookies into the hallway while I extirpated the unwelcome "visitor". ("In a bag in the trash" = "destroyed completely")

Revisiting the scenes of the crime. Now you know, when you come to visit, which carpets to not rub your face on.

** Begging the question of who is really doing more damage to my backyard…

My beautiful hall carpet. Probably the one that I like the best in my house at this time. Not that it has a lot of competition, but I love the colors. (which, incidentally, are a rich deep red, and a wonderful navy blue, and kind of an ivory yellow.)And he dropped a giant corpse on it!

The bathroom carpet where Zorro's catch briefly resided.
(When the guy came to strip the wallpaper, fix the water damage, and paint the walls and ceiling, I said, don't bother painting the vanity; I want to do it!
In April 2019. The paint is waiting for me...)

The “kitchen” carpet. It’s really just something to wipe feet on, and for the dogs to land on when they come through the dog door with their muddy feet. But, still...

Side note I commented in Facebook:  The gophers are active enough this spring that I have been able to collect the dirt that they shove out their back door and use it to fill all the previous pits of peril created mostly by Chip but sometimes Zorro and rarely by gophers. I also am very good at finding all of those by stepping on what I think is solid grass and twisting my ankle. I have actually run out of places to put those mounds of dirt and am stacking it on my patio for future needs! Sheesh.

Zorro Has A Lot Going On

SUMMARY: He is keeping Human Mom busy.

Backfill: From Facebook June 25; posted here July 2

We’ve been working on weave poles – – first time in a very long time that I’ve felt like actually doing agility training in my yard. We haven’t been working on the dogwalk, but that’s OK, because Zorro takes it all by himself.

The hunting business is hopping.  Yesterday he caught a ground squirrel, last night or this morning, two small rats. (And the next day there'll be a gopher or squirrel, and the next day another squirrel.)

We’ve been going for a walk once or twice every day, which is the first time in a long time that I’ve felt like making that effort.

There’s always the shower to lick out after Human Mom squeegees it.

This morning, Human Mom did her best to play the game he and Chip would play: bitey face and then tuck tail and chase each other frantically back-and-forth in the upstairs hall and bedroom;
Zorro got fully into it, and mom used her hand as the bitey face, rolled around on the bed with him doing it, and then back-and-forth excitedly up and down the hallway.


And lots and lots of massaging of the neck and back and legs, and just snuggling.

Martial Cottle Park mini-hike During COVID

SUMMARY: Zorro doesn't mind.

Backfill: From Facebook June 22; posted here July 2. Trying to catch up on my life here instead of lost on Facebook.

I’ve been avoiding walking in the park behind my house: Too many people mostly without masks these days. So we headed out about 6:20; cold air; strong chilling breeze that kept my hair blown over my eyes; overcast. I figured, all the wimps will be at home.

Hmmm—In the days of SIP **, apparently nobody is a wimp.

** Shelter In Place -- it has been just over 3 months now

And my mask broke.

But Zorro got to explore many, many, many gopher holes.

And we got about a mile in, fourth day in a row.

Everyone Drives to the Vet

SUMMARY: Chip is with the vet. What is up with him?

Backfill: From Facebook June 14; posted here July 2

Well, here we are in the vet’s new waiting room, Chip inside the building getting checked out, Zorro and me hanging out in the back seat of the van, watching the world go by.

Oops... Apparently human mom is sitting in the back seat and Zorro is taking over the driver seat.

(They'll check him over and draw some blood and call me back tomorrow. )

(Vet says to watch and see whether he's having trouble breathing when he's not stressed at the vet. I find that he really is at times--take a video for the vet. It is not hot, and he has not been active recently. Here I can also see how much weight he has lost so quickly. He still looked good 2 weeks ago but that was another symptom--)

(Tonight I'll make a list of his symptoms over the last couple of days to give to the vet tomorrow as needed:)