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.

While on my lunch, I managed to find and befriend a dog, meet some more neighbors, text a picture to the wrong number, speak to a stranger on the phone, become mixed up in a neighborhood mini-feud, and get myself invited to a Christmas party. Naturally, it all started with the dog.

Since moving to our new house, I generally try to come home for lunch on days that I know no one will be home. It gives the dogs a break and I can eat left-overs while doing a load of laundry or dishes. On this day, as usual, I drove up to collect the mail and rounded the corner to turn around when I saw a large-ish dog in our neighbor, B’s yard. I knew that wasn’t her dog and this one not only had no collar or tags but heavily resembled a dog I had seen posted as lost on Facebook. The only problem is that I couldn’t search and find that Facebook page, so I started texting the picture around hoping to get some assistance. The dog and I were around the corner from my house and he seemed hesitant to take a ride in the truck so I began motioning to people driving by, “Is this your dog? Do you know this dog?”

You always carry those tasty treats, Strange Lady?

My accosting paid off in that one guy called his wife to come outside, she called the neighbor whose yard I saw the dog in and left a message while another neighbor finally drove by who knew the dog. In the meantime, I found the FB page and texted the picture accidently to the wrong number and then to the right number. I followed that up with a voicemail and the lady called me back to say she had found her 14 year old boxer mix but thanked me for calling her. Also by now B was home and shouting to us that we should call “Animal Rescue” but the other neighbor was returning the dog.

I haven’t missed many meals.

I extricated myself from B who was intent on telling me what a nice person I was, how nice I looked and how pretty my purse is while saying that Animal Rescue needed to be called because her dog gets upset when dogs run loose in the neighborhood and something about other dogs in the neighborhood that have been loose…and some mention of racial profiling.

Back at home, my boys got their potty break and I was shoving some lunch down my pie hole when the doorbell rang. It turned out to be the neighbor who returned the dog, to apologize if she was brusque but that there were things going on in the neighborhood that were annoying and she didn’t want me to be offended. We had a nice chat about dogs, rescue, Allen County SPCA and the other shelter. It turns out the wayward dog belongs to her neighbor and it is microchipped because of its tendency to run loose. After we’d chatted about all manner of dogs she invited me to a Christmas party she is hosting. Apparently it is an annual event that has been occurring for 40 years and I might even meet the founder if we attend.

Sounds like it might be a good time and just for insurance I got the name of the dog. You never know who you might meet.

Along with those magical words, Breakfast and Dinner, they boys know quite a few more words for food. Treat, cookie, cheese, and bully stick are some of the top ones, though Ray also knows peas, jolly ball, tug-tug, and antler. Ray also knows all of our animals by name while Julius knows who Julius is.

Then there are the phrases. “Would you like…” always draws an adorable head tilt because while the boys are pretty sure they would like one, they need to know what it is. The most comical, though is the phrase, “Who wants one?” That phrase always draws a crowd of three because, no matter what “one” is, they all want one.

Simple phrases, to be sure, though Asia often tries to take things one step further. Ray knows that all treats like bully sticks and kongs must be eaten on a mat, which can be anything from an actual dog bed to a towel on the floor. He knows we always have that layer between him and the carpet so one of his “go-to” offerings is to run to his mat and wait to be treated.

It can get comical watching him run around looking for the nearest mat in order to get a treat but lately Asia tries to make him reason things out. Holding a treat she says, “If someone wanted something, where might they go?” Obviously, Ray can not reason, but since that is his go-to, it is funny to hear the conversation and to see him run to his mat as if he thought the process through.

I know I shouldn’t compare the two, but Ray is much brighter than Julius is. Julius is sweet and very simple. He’s easy to live with and eager to please. I admit I’ve been slacking on giving him individual training time, so he learns a lot by mimicking Ray.

There are two words, though, that Julius learned quite quickly and I believe they are two of his favorite words in the entire world. Breakfast and dinner. Some words are just so special that they require special fancy font, or at least capitalization. He knows when they are coming, he knows the routine and I love that he seems to know that Every. Single. Day. He will receive his breakfast in the morning and his dinner in the evening.

In the morning, I get up first and shower while the boys get to stay snuggled in bed amid a pile of blankets, pillows and various family members. Ray sleeps with me and Kevin while Julius sleeps with Asia and the baby. Occasionally Juli sleeps with us and there is usually a cat or two sleeping in our room. Once I’m out of the shower I round up the boys for their first morning potty break. While they are outside, I clean the litter boxes, feed and water the cats and vacuum the “litterbox room.”

Usually by that time, the boys are back in the garage waiting to come in but if not, I shout out the door, “Who’s ready for breakfast?” The boys come in and I measure out their kibble and again count down the months till Julius graduates from puppy food. I take the bowls to the counter and scoop out their spoonfuls of organic coconut oil to dollop on their food and sprinkle a pinch of grated bully shavings on Ray’s food.

Ray eats in the kitchen and he follows me to his spot, sits and waits for the bowl delivery and the ok to eat.

Julius by now knows that his breakfast is very near. When I turn from delivering Ray’s bowl, Julius will be doing one of two things. Neither of these boys are droolers, but when it comes to Breakfast and Dinner, Julius may often be found sitting in the middle of the kitchen with one long strand of Breakfast or Dinner drool running from his face.

Julius eats in his crate. He has always been pretty open to the concept of his crate, but I wanted to keep these good feelings going so this is were he eats those magical meals: Breakfast and Dinner. If he is not sitting in the middle of the kitchen being Drooli Juli, then he is already sitting in his crate waiting for Breakfast or Dinner.

What are your pooches favorite words?

Though the boys now sleep in separate bedrooms, they spend a tremendous amount of time snuggling with each other at every opportunity. Their Facebook page certainly showcases their affinity for snuggling on the sofa with numerous shots like this:

Quite often I can be found near the bottom of that pile on the sofa, but occasionally I am allowed to sit in a chair alone. Recently that very thing happened and while the boys were being their extremely cute selves, the paparazzi were swarming them.

Luckily Ray and Julius are used to the attention and were able to continue their nap uninterrupted.

As often happens when I do something on the spur of the moment, I find that I need to change my plans in midstream. For instance, this contest. I didn’t mean for it to be convoluted, therefore, the first person to get the right answer won a prize and everyone else who commented (great guesses, by the way…you’re all so much more creative than I could ever be) was entered into the drawing.

So the first person to guess that Ray was dressed as an “X-Ray” was Laura, who actually is the mommy of Ray’s littermate, Dahey. Laura opted for a cash donation to our local shelter but she scored a bonus because I already owe her a necklace. Our other winner was none other than the mommy of Julius’ dopelganger, Nigel.

Thanks to everyone who played and Pocket Pittie in the City peeps, we messaged you on FB.