The thunder came rolling in about 5:20 am this morning. I hate thunder during my "sleep time".
Thunder means that our Golden Retriever, Xena, is going to park herself on my head. You can be sound asleep....one roll of thunder....no matter where she is in the house...she will immediately race to the bed, leap up and plant herself on your head! She is terrified of storms and loud noises (don't even get me started about the 4th of July!)...that's how we ended up with her...I adopted her from the animal shelter about 8 years ago....animal control had found her running in a field outside of town....our best guess is that someone took her out for her first "hunting" experience and when they fired off the gun she ran (hunters call that "gunshy" and to them the dog is worthless). Poor Xena just shakes and shakes during thunderstorms....we've tried calming her (then figured we were just feeding into her anxieties) and now we just accept it as a part of who she is. We don't "do anything" now....we try to be "calm role models" and she does do a little better. Unfortunately, the Spooker (our terrier/dachshund mix adopted the day before Halloween) has decided after 7 years that thunder needs to be barked at. So Xena leaps onto my pillow as I'm sleeping, immediately followed by Spooker standing on the end of my bed barking every time the sky rumbles. Our latest rescue, Skippy, (a 1 year old 6 pound Italian Greyhound) is now learning from the Spooker to bark at that "bad noise"! So now the two of them bark at the thunder while Xena stands on my head! Not the way I want to be woken up in the morning......(but knowing that the next couple of months I have to just accept it as we go into storm season in Kansas)
The other two indoor dogs (Phoebe...(yorkie) and Zoe...(very old long haired dachshund) just keep right on sleeping.
Some people actually believe that dogs are just "dogs"....but each one of our 10 dogs has a very distinct personality.
Xena....amazingly great dog...loves all people...she even shakes hands....major tail wagger!
Phoebe....the term bitch definitely applies to this female dog!...she's a little doll and sooooo pretty (and she knows it) but at 7 pounds she definitely rules the roost around here. She can put our 100 pound male golden to his knees! She is also "leash phobic"....she has no problem walking on a leash...it's the leashes on the other dogs...as soon as I snap the leash on Xena, Phoebe goes crazy...she will bite at the back of Xena's legs, jump up and grab Xena's leash and pull on it...then as I snap the leash on Skippy, she grabs his leash, jerking and pulling backwards....it is absolute chaos....we have tried and tried to break her of this habit...to no avail.
The Spookanator.....also known as "the dog from hell"....he can be as sweet as pie...but try to take a chewie away from him or be a guy in uniform and "it's on"......(we found out later that his previous owner, a deputy sheriff, had drop kicked him a few times)...spookay suffers from "fear agression"...we deal...we love him...enough said
Little Miss Zoe.....at 15 she is now totally deaf and doesn't see as well as she used to....she has always lived in "her own little world".....she definitely is quirky.....she is "obsessive-compulsive" and has little patterns she always follows...it's always the same path in the yard, the same path through the house.....and instead of going to the door to tell you she needs to go out...she sits next to your feet and whines ...a very pathetic poor me whine (then you stand up and if she heads for the kitchen she wants food, if she heads for the door she wants out)
Skippy....also known as "skippy dippy" and "skinny ass", is just totally and completely insane. Think of a cat on meth.....this dog is crazed...(and I understand most Italian greyhounds are this way)....they love to climb like a cat....he manages to get up onto things you can't imagine...the other day I walked into the laundry room and he was standing on the dryer (remember this is a small dog....think chihuahua with long skinny legs)....one lady's IG's actually manage to get up on top of her refrigerator!! And they bounce. And they want to play HARD with whoever will play with them...he is constantly trying to get the cats to play.....the cats ignore him...which makes him only try harder. He's a total clown!
That's enough for today....I'll explain the other 5 dogs tomorrow! (and yes we are crazy too....who the heck has 10 dogs except for maybe Caesar Milan!!)
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
big city vs country
As I sit here at the computer this fine Saturday morning eating a helping of biscuits and gravy I got to thinking about "city folk".......IF they were up this early in the morning they are probably heading to "Starbucks" to get some fancy smancie "latte grande" and a "scone" (whatever the hell that is)
Being "country folk" our Saturday starts with getting up, throwing on a jacket, putting the leashes on the two "crazy" dogs, and then heading out for the first of several "dog potty breaks"...(we don't leash the other three indoor dogs because they will actually just stay with us as we walk (as opposed the the "crazys" who if given a fraction of a second off leash will bolt to the pastures for rabbit hunting and cow patty rolling).
Then the hubby gets in the truck and heads to "town" ...population 3,000....and hits the convenience store (we actually have 2!!!!) for a couple of newspapers and then it's on to the local dairy queen for two servings of biscuits and gravy.
He drinks home brewed coffee (yes all you Starbucks fans...you can actually purchase this thing called a "percolator" and put in water, a few spoonfuls of Folgers, and plug it in and viola!! you get coffee!) and I, unfortunately for my teeth, drink Coca cola for my caffeine fix in the morning.
I've visited many a "big" city (my step-daughter lived in NYC until after 9/11) and I just don't get the fascination for smog, congestion, a kazillion cars and taxis, people pushing and shoving to get here and there......
smog..........the only time we get anything resembling "smog" in central Kansas is when the farmer's are burning off the pastures (and it smells kind of good!)
congestion/cars/taxis......congestion for us is driving 8 miles without meeting another car but the car you meet is actually a huge tractor pulling an even bigger "springtooth" and we have to pull over into the ditch until they pass...as for taxis....well, in our little town they have a van that picks up folks (mostly senior citizens) so they can get to their doctors appointments and a stop at our local grocery store called "Dougs"...we don't have a chain grocery store...closest one is a 38 minute drive away.
That's how distance is measured in Kansas.....it's in "time" not mileage.
people pushing/shoving.......well that would be the County Fair Demolition derby....there just aren't enough folks to "push and shove against each other" so we do it with old cars and sometimes combines!
personally, give me the country life and the back roads any day!
Being "country folk" our Saturday starts with getting up, throwing on a jacket, putting the leashes on the two "crazy" dogs, and then heading out for the first of several "dog potty breaks"...(we don't leash the other three indoor dogs because they will actually just stay with us as we walk (as opposed the the "crazys" who if given a fraction of a second off leash will bolt to the pastures for rabbit hunting and cow patty rolling).
Then the hubby gets in the truck and heads to "town" ...population 3,000....and hits the convenience store (we actually have 2!!!!) for a couple of newspapers and then it's on to the local dairy queen for two servings of biscuits and gravy.
He drinks home brewed coffee (yes all you Starbucks fans...you can actually purchase this thing called a "percolator" and put in water, a few spoonfuls of Folgers, and plug it in and viola!! you get coffee!) and I, unfortunately for my teeth, drink Coca cola for my caffeine fix in the morning.
I've visited many a "big" city (my step-daughter lived in NYC until after 9/11) and I just don't get the fascination for smog, congestion, a kazillion cars and taxis, people pushing and shoving to get here and there......
smog..........the only time we get anything resembling "smog" in central Kansas is when the farmer's are burning off the pastures (and it smells kind of good!)
congestion/cars/taxis......congestion for us is driving 8 miles without meeting another car but the car you meet is actually a huge tractor pulling an even bigger "springtooth" and we have to pull over into the ditch until they pass...as for taxis....well, in our little town they have a van that picks up folks (mostly senior citizens) so they can get to their doctors appointments and a stop at our local grocery store called "Dougs"...we don't have a chain grocery store...closest one is a 38 minute drive away.
That's how distance is measured in Kansas.....it's in "time" not mileage.
people pushing/shoving.......well that would be the County Fair Demolition derby....there just aren't enough folks to "push and shove against each other" so we do it with old cars and sometimes combines!
personally, give me the country life and the back roads any day!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Random thoughts 4-21
Wow....a new place to blather on about what's going on in my brain.
Most of my random thoughts are about little things.....like I think I know why we have "senior moments"...it's because my brain is so full of information from years of accumulation that some of the info leaks out of my ears while I am sleeping....only thing I can think of to explain my myriad "senior moments"
I am still trying to figure out how to hook up an inverter to my face connected to my laptop...I swear I could power my laptop from my hot flashes!! It's nice to know at this age that I'm still "hot"!!
my dogs have "the stare" down .............. they stare at me with those "soulful eyes" and I usually give them something to eat...........maybe dogs are smarter than we give them credit for.........they get what they want without saying a word (or maybe they have telepathic abilities we just haven't figured out yet and they are master manipulators........kind of like Jedi knights.............."he's not the one you want, let him pass")
life is not like a box of chocolates, it's like walking out to the dumpster with a big bag of trash, and the bag breaking half way there. Picking up the pieces and getting on with it again.
having long waist length hair means throwing it in a pony tail and getting on with the day. it also means, when it's windy outside and you get into your car, you will either get your hair caught in the door when you close it or caught in the seatbelt gear when you put on your seatbelt.
Time to go take care of the dogs. On my next post I will go into some random thoughts about the dogs, the cats, the squirrel, and the cottontail bunny...well maybe just one or two of them anyway.
Most of my random thoughts are about little things.....like I think I know why we have "senior moments"...it's because my brain is so full of information from years of accumulation that some of the info leaks out of my ears while I am sleeping....only thing I can think of to explain my myriad "senior moments"
I am still trying to figure out how to hook up an inverter to my face connected to my laptop...I swear I could power my laptop from my hot flashes!! It's nice to know at this age that I'm still "hot"!!
my dogs have "the stare" down .............. they stare at me with those "soulful eyes" and I usually give them something to eat...........maybe dogs are smarter than we give them credit for.........they get what they want without saying a word (or maybe they have telepathic abilities we just haven't figured out yet and they are master manipulators........kind of like Jedi knights.............."he's not the one you want, let him pass")
life is not like a box of chocolates, it's like walking out to the dumpster with a big bag of trash, and the bag breaking half way there. Picking up the pieces and getting on with it again.
having long waist length hair means throwing it in a pony tail and getting on with the day. it also means, when it's windy outside and you get into your car, you will either get your hair caught in the door when you close it or caught in the seatbelt gear when you put on your seatbelt.
Time to go take care of the dogs. On my next post I will go into some random thoughts about the dogs, the cats, the squirrel, and the cottontail bunny...well maybe just one or two of them anyway.
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