Who’s that girl?

Like most residents of this area, I spent quite a bit of Saturday preparing for this huge snow and cold that was supposedly heading our way.  I stocked up on all of the normal blizzard supplies; milk, bread, cheese, zuppa fixin’s, and wine.



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Hey, the booze is right next to the produce.

I also made a run to PetSmart and Petco to get Ray’s food (Julius still eats puppy food), more coats for the boys if I could find anything even close to fitting, and some doggie boots for Ray.  His feet get very tender, while Julius seems to have rhino feet.  I had visions of the boys chewing on their peanut butter knuckle bones for long stretches of the day, but it turns out that although it was snowing pretty hard, the temps didn’t fall until later so they were able to go out and play for short bursts throughout the day Sunday.

As a side note, that Kong Bounzer is the best toy I never bought.  I won it in a give away from Oh My Dog and the boys can’t get enough of it.

I’m sure the next few days will be full of more inside quiet time activities like this:

though it was very gratifying to be able to watch them having so much fun in the snow.  Did you get any of that cold white stuff?  How did you spend the weekend?

*Note: this was written on Sunday.  Monday morning, the temps are -8 and the wind chill makes it
-45.  The boys put on their coats and ran out to potty and ran in.  Even “rhino foot” Julius was limping a bit from the cold.  Potty breaks will be brief and intentional today.  Please, please be safe. 

I was asked recently if the boys had any food aggression issues and the answer was an easy no. They have not exhibited any food aggression issues mostly because they have had very little opportunity to have them.

The first week or so that Julius came to live with us, the boys were completely separated so feeding was just another facet of that. Julius was ravenous and scarfed down his food so that I started very early on giving him food puzzles and creating obstacles in his bowl that he had to eat around in an effort to slow him down. His first vet check showed that he wasn’t by any means skinny, so I’m just assuming that while he had sufficient food, I suspect it was not delivered on a regular basis.

Once Ju-Ju moved into the mainstream of life with us, I continued to feed him in his crate with the door open, but made sure to hover between the two boys. Ray had always been a grazer and I constantly was looking for tasty toppers to enhance his kibble so that he would finish his meals in one sitting. With work schedules, it wasn’t feasible to feed him more than twice a day and Kongs generally went untouched if he was alone. He seemed to have to be with someone (usually me) if he was eating a meal.

As the weeks progressed, the boys’ eating habits began to even out. Julius was taking more time, savoring his kibble, if you will, and Ray was finishing his meals quickly and without the aid of additional toppers, other than the teaspoonful of organic coconut oil they both received. They were both still fed in separate rooms as Ray eats in the kitchen and Juli still eats in his crate. One day I actually found Ray budging his big bully head into Juli’s crate to eat puppy kibble and Julius just sat nearby and allowed it. Needless to say, I stepped up the vigilance a bit, but all in all the boys seemed to be willing to share. Julius cleans up the floor near Ray’s bowl and Ray always inspects Julius’s area for left overs.

With the holidays and a new home, we ended up moving the crate yet again so Julius began receiving his meals around the corner in the dining room but not in his crate and since that went so well through most of December, I tried an experiment and fed them both in the kitchen, but on opposite sides of the cabinets. The only issue with that one was that Ray now eats faster than Julius, so I stay nearby to moderate, but in all actuality, this is the most gratifying thing I can think of. In my opinion, Julius is so confident that is food will come regularly twice a day that he no longer needs to inhale it. I feel like we’ve given him the gift of security and he has given us one even more valuable: trust.

I have a friend who is not a dog person, but is in the process of understanding our particular kind of crazy.  So many of the things I take for granted as normal, my erudite friend indicates that he is keeping tabs on my sanity insofar as being an indulgent dog-mom.  I imagine most Peace-a-bull readers may not be too far outside the fence of crazy dog lady-ness and will nod while reading or perhaps scratch your head wondering which part is crazy. 

During the holidays when I’m in a spending mind-frame, I find it easier to pick up little things I need for around the house.  I tend to do so much more shopping on line but every once in a while slip into a store with a purchase in mind.  With our most recent bully stick order, I wanted a beautiful and airtight container with which to store our purchases.  Those plastic zip top bags don’t always get closed properly and then the kitchen begins to smell like something unsavory to humans but oh so delish to the canines.  With that in mind, I embarked on a search for a bully stick and duck foot container that would be beautiful and fill the back corner of the counter under the cabinets in that dead space. 

He’s sexy and he knows it.

Friday the thirteenth has had nothing on today.  Have you ever had one of those days where it seemed like you were swimming through molasses?  Yeah, that was my morning.  Traffic was backed up by apparently nothing, because by the time I got to my exit, there was nothing amiss.  Once on the next road, what did I see but a little Boston Terrier running across four lanes of traffic.

Google image.

 Luckily I was very near a vee in the road and able to pull off to the side, because by the time I parked my vehicle, a semi was stopped and honking at the little guy.  I waived the semi on because he couldn’t see that the dog was no longer in front of the truck.  As he pulled away, the next layer of traffic was at a standstill.  I started calling and baby talking to the dog and after some lady, you are an idiot blank looks, invited him to chase me which luckily he did.  Right about then, one of the business owners came out of his shop and the little Boston took one look at the banana the guy was eating and ran right up to him! 

The little dog was wearing a collar and allowed himself to be scooped up by the banana guy who said he’d take care of calling this in.  I’m hoping the little dude makes it back to either his loving home or to one who will keep him out of traffic because there won’t always be a crazy woman in 4 inch heels braving traffic and ice or a kind banana man to save him.

Brutus was the first Rottweiler I’d ever met and the standard to which I held most other dogs. Unfortunately for “most other dogs,” it was a very lofty standard. I’d say puppy Ray had suffered in comparison several times during our early months together. I met Brutus when I was in my early twenties and living in Chicago. He belonged to the guy who would eventually become my ex-fiancé and huge nightmare, but boy did that guy open my horizons to Rottweilers.

Brutus with my sister and her schnauzer. As you can see, I’ve been dandy-fying dogs for decades.

When I first met Brutus, I didn’t think too much about him mostly because he didn’t think much about me. By that I mean he completely ignored me until he saw me hanging around more. “The guy” had gotten Bru from a repo-man who used to pop the locks and have Brutus sit in the car he was about to repossess. And Brutus was good at his job. He was a dignified, stoic “little” guy until someone came near the car he was in and he was given the word to protect the car. I don’t remember why the repo-man rehomed Brutus, but “the guy” got Brutus when he was about two, so it’s a mystery by now.

Brutus was as close to perfect as perfect can get. When leashed (which was rarely) he was perfectly loose-leashed. When off leash, he rocked heal. I never saw him jump and he took snacks from a friend’s baby so gently that he barely got any in his mouth. Although we had two other Rotties, one of whom was more “mine,” Brutus was and always will be the sole reason for my deep and unwavering love for the breed.

I don’t think I can finish this story today.