Bedtime in the Peaceabull Kingdom is usually a pretty routine affair; the boys have a last potty break then settle in on the sofa with me to watch a little TV. Everyone has their place and falls asleep rather quickly. Within about 30 minutes of this type of rest, I can usually scoot myself out from under Ray. He sleepily opens his eyes but doesn’t move a muscle while I lift Julius off the sofa. Actually, three weeks ago I was carrying Julius to his crate, but these days, I lift his front legs off the sofa and he groggily walks to his crate and lies down.

I cover Julius and kiss him goodnight then return to the sofa to cover Ray and give him his goodnight kiss. Early on, I had Ray sleep on his mat in the kitchen behind the baby gate because I didn’t want him nosing around the crate and making Julius feel trapped or threatened. While I still keep them separated like that during the day when we are at work, I have found that Julius seems to take comfort in having Ray sleep close by, so this has worked out well.

There is another bedtime routine however; it’s an alternate arrangement for when Kevin is out of town for work. It’s Ray’s special time as we go out for the last potty break and I say, “After potty, you can go night-night with Mommy.” During the first week or two that Julius was living with us, Kevin went out of town and Ray and I had our usual little slumber party. I felt that this was Ray’s special time and I was not going to offer the opportunity to Julius for quite a while.

This past week, though, we started out with our usual routine, we tucked Julius in his crate and Ray and I headed upstairs and settled in for the night. Or so I thought. Ray lay down at the end of the bed, facing the door instead of in his usual spot and after a few minutes I heard it: Julius was whining. It was such a sad pitiful little cry, that it melted my heart, but I wanted the choice to be Ray’s. I said to him, “Should we go get Julius?”

We got up and Ray ran downstairs to Julius’ crate door, so I let him out and both boys headed back upstairs and were lying in bed before my aged legs made it down the hallway. I love how Ray is bonding with Julius like that. Although at TV time, Ray still is the one who gets to lie on Mommy’s lap, he is willing to have Julius nearby and they slept well together. Even better is that they both went back to the original sleeping arrangements without a thought when Kevin returned home.

Do your pooches get special or different privileges when one parent is away?

Earlier this year, when we were seriously considering bringing King into our home, my biggest hesitancy was due to my fear that Ray might suffer by comparison. King was so calm and stable in every situation that I had him in, whether it was on a walk around the neighborhood, a visit to the office, or just a lunch date, he was a steady-Eddie.

Ray was becoming much better both in the house and out on the town, though he still occasionally got amped up, especially when hot and/or tired. Possibly coincidentally, just after we got the news that King had found his forever home, Ray morphed. As if he crossed some secret threshold, he suddenly seemed more mature like he just “knew.” Ray may have just started growing up earlier than I expected, he may have been maturing and I just didn’t notice or secretly he knew he was being compared to King. Whatever the case, it took me aback somewhat, as I didn’t really expect it until after he turned two.

Bringing Julius home has been even more of an enhancement to Ray. Julius is so easy going and confident that he and Ray have been able to play well together and as a result, Ray has developed some social skills that he may have never developed in a one-dog household. Ray has also been able to showcase his maturity in a contrast to Julius who is still very puppy-like. Ray is more relaxed around the baby because he knows that he can get up and walk away. She kisses him, he kisses her, she takes is toys and he takes hers, but not from her hand.

Recently as we were preparing dinner, Asia and Julius went outside while Ray, the baby and I stayed inside. The baby was carrying around a tortilla that she was gnawing on and Ray was following very close behind her. I knew he wanted a bite, but was so proud that he didn’t even lean in for as much as a sniff. When Asia and Julius returned, Julius took one look at the tortilla and thought, “Don’t mind if I do,” grabbed an end and helped himself to a portion. That was Ray’s cue to go ahead and take a bite of Juli’s piece, of course.

That’s what brothers do.

Recently, OhMyDog asked “what would your dog’s theme song be?” Because I tend to first react then over-think, that question kind of threw me. Ray would kind of be easy, because although this isn’t really a song, Ray’s theme would be Chris Farley singing “Fat guy in a little coat.” (Sorry, Ray-Ray.) Ray is large, but doesn’t know it and his life is full of silliness. He’s an 80 pound lap dog who is completely a Mama’s boy and I truly believe that in his mind, he is still the 6 pound puppy I carried home a year and a half ago.

Julius was a little bit harder to figure out. He had a quality about him that I didn’t recognize at first. When I first met him, I knew Julius would be great for Ray and it turns out that I was right. He has helped Ray be less socially awkward and I can see that he will most likely be the leader between the two. As I was watching them play, that word that had been eluding me finally came to light. Julius is confident. Julius is the good-looking, confident guy that everyone wants to be friends with. He’s the quarterback on the winning team, the student body president. Julius can walk up to anyone knowing full well that he will be well received. Juli’s theme song is “I’m sexy and I know it.”

So we want to know: what is your dog’s theme song?

Yesterday, I talked about some of the differences between Ray and Jubes, ending with Julius’ freedom run from his former home (Smokey’s home) into my heart. 

Some of the similarities of the two are that they are both Mama’s boys (ass attachments, my husband calls them, though I think entourage has a nice ring to it), though they both love all of our family members to pieces.  They are both great with the baby, with Ray having a gentler mouth and Julius being smaller, so when he bumps into her, usually the impact is slightly less dramatic.  Ray is very guttural when communicating but rarely barks.  Julius is never guttural but barks quite a bit.  We’re working on that barking thing but it’s a slow process.

Both boys are chipped and I’m sure that if Ray ever found himself outside the gate, he would take full advantage and snoop out all of the tasty parts of the neighborhood.  Julius showed us that while he might not be an Einstein, he has his street smarts and he’s not afraid to use them.

Julius may not be housebroken, but he came to our home old enough to have been crate trained for whatever reason.  After the first few nights in the smaller of our two crates with absolutely no incidents, I moved him into the extra large crate.  That gave him more leg room for the days we were all at work and still he maintained a clean, dry crate.  Housebreaking is a slightly different matter.  He knows what “outside to go potty” means, but he doesn’t go to the door to ask like Ray does.  By keeping a watchful eye, we’ve kept accidents to a very minuscule number.

One such accident did occur this week when our Directv guy was installing some equipment.  I was at work and received a text from Asia.  “Kevin just let Juli out and forgot the gate was open and all of a sudden Juli is at the front door looking in, lol.”

I immediately saw red, but knew there would be no ‘lol’ if the matter was serious.  Apparently, Juli started to potty on the floor, so Kevin let him out, the gate was open because of the Directv guy and Juli ran from the back yard to the front door!  Kevin’s first thought was that dog at the front door looks just like Julius!

So, my anthropomorphic conjecture is that Smokey ran from his home seeking a better life as Julius.  Julius knows when things are good and has no desire to wander farther than his own front porch.

I try to be very mindful when talking about Julius to not let too much conjecture creep into my vocabulary. It just seems too self-congratulatory and judgmental. I know where he lived before coming home with me and that he “wasn’t housebroken,” his left ear was a raw, open-scabby area where flies had been biting him, his hair was thin, spotty and a dull grayish-black. Julius is lanky and lean where Ray has always been stocky, but at his initial vet visit, was found to not be too lean. Conjecture: outside only dog.

Julius is highly food motivated where Ray is only highly treat motivated. Ray has never wolfed down a meal but will do nearly anything for a treat of any kind while Ju-bers wolfs down meals and treats of all kinds though so far the only vegetable that he will eat is a carrot. Conjecture: Ray has never missed a meal in his life and has never had to wonder when or where the next meal is coming. Julius may not have had the same feeding schedule and has certainly not enjoyed a variety of good healthy foods.

GoRay knows a variety of “commands” and he learns at a scary-fast rate but Julius …doesn’t seem to learn as quickly nor is he as manipulative as Ray. There is no fancy “leave it,” “drop it,” or “wait” (yet) in Julius’ vocabulary, but we’ve been working on “down” for about 2 weeks now. One thing Julius does know is “no.” He’s also afraid of the fly swatter, which in our home is used only to swat flies. Conjecture: I shudder.

All of the above conjecture though, is normal, in a way. I’m human and we tend to make guesses about things. Tomorrow marks four weeks since I brought Julius home. In that time, his ear is completely healed and nearly all of the hair has grown back in. Though he is still lanky, he has filled out to nearly 43 pounds from the 36 pounds he weighed at his neuter. His coat is silky and shiny and all of the thin spots are filling in nicely. He knows that “who wants one?” while not a “command” is answered by a butt-on-the-ground sit to indicate “I do.”

Because I’m human and need to anthropomorphize, I imagine that when Julius ran out of his yard that day, he was running to a better future, which is why what happened yesterday is funny, though only in hindsight. Tune in tomorrow to find out what it was.

This weekend was another busy one in the Peaceabull household.  Julius needed his puppy booster, so he and I went up to his vet for that and visited a few friends in Fort Wayne.  Poor Julius is not a good rider still and has upheld his record of not holding his food down well during a car ride.  I think maybe we’ve had two mess free rides, the first one being his freedom ride with me.  We were gone about two hours and luckily I have learned that, though I have a  cover for the dogs in the back seat, I now double cover for Julius.

Ray, meanwhile, waited patiently at home for his turn to have an adventure. This past week was Pet Appreciation Week at Tractor Supply Company and this year we actually had an opportunity to go.  Since this store allows dogs and is nearby, Ray and I had been going there quite a bit, especially last fall but had missed the appreciation day last week. 

In addition to the dogs a rescue had brought, there were some longhorn cows (cattle?) one of whom moooed at Ray and stopped him in his tracks.  I imagined him issuing some sort of challenge related to Ray’s bully stick addiction, which made me chuckle.  I have to admit, though, on the way to the store, I second guessed myself.  Why was I taking socially inept Ray to a place that I knew would have various dogs and cattle as well as other customers with their dogs.  It’s a fairly small store, so there was little chance for avoidance.  I decided we’d drive over and check it out from the car to determine the level of chaos before venturing in. 

All seemed to be going well, so we entered, selected a few items for purchase, collected our swag bag of gifts and proceeded to check out where two smallish dogs came up to greet Ray and Ray…greeted them back appropriately!  I think Ray has really gained a great deal of, well, everything in the social skills department thanks to his little brother.  I couldn’t have been prouder.

I’ve known or at least suspected for quite a while that Ray really just needed a playmate who could play appropriately with him and handle his size.  He had a bit of that with Glamour (now named Kya) but her time with us was short before moving on to her perfect forever family.  Julius is still young and easy going but strong and fast enough to handle Ray (with Mom always overseeing the shenanegans.) 

So, actually, nothing Earth shattering, but still a great way to spend a Saturday, though being proud of my boys is a daily thing, not just a weekend thing. 

I don’t remember life before Samantha.  I guess technically, she was my uncle’s dog because he got her when he was in high school, but I was just a year old when she came to live with my grandparents.  To me, there was no life before Samantha. 

Childhood
We grew up together and I always was stymied as to what breed of dog she was.  I used to pour over pictures in my Grandma’s encyclopedia of dog breeds looking for one that might be a match.  Was she a lab?  No, she was too short.  A beagle?  No she was black.  On and on we went.  Mutt was the best we could ever come up with or Heinz 57 if you’re feeling fancy.  She was black with a white blaze on her deep chest and she had ears that were not droopy but flopped over themselves (rose, they call it) a squarish head and short coarse hair.  Her long tapered tail always wagged in my presence.
Recently and out of the blue, I texted my sister:  “I think Samantha was a little staffie mix.”
“Who’s Samantha…oh our Samantha!  Makes sense.” 
“Yes,” I replied. 
“Kind of throws things into perspective,” was her reply.

Girl’s Best Friend
She was the kind of dog who played dress up with me and adored wearing  pretty necklaces.  In fact, if I put a necklace on her she would get upset if my grandparents would try to remove it.  Samantha loved me that much and wanted to wear anything that made me happy, because of course, I made over her and her prettiness.  I can only imagine how many tutus she would own if she were alive today.   She never wandered off although she was never leashed, chipped or tagged other than her rabies tag.  In fact, I don’t ever remember anyone ever correcting her.  In my memory, Samantha was perfect in just being her.

Oh, Samantha!
I can still hear her excited yowling whenever I came to visit.  “Ohhh, Samantha!  Myyyy  Samantha!” I would say over and over and she would whoop and holler back, so excited to see me.  Back in the day, we didn’t worry about things like super excited greetings, separation anxiety or other behavioralisssues.  She was always super excited to see me and I was always happy to feed the fire.

The Teen Years
Like a ]typical teen, I started coming less frequently and tried to avoid getting her “Samantha hair” on my clothes.  Visiting my grandparents and my adoring Samantha was becoming more of an obligation than a privilage.  How many of us would give an arm to spend more time…and hour, ten minutes…sixty seconds with a loved one who is gone. Eventually, the day came that I was visiting the grandparents and after having been there for awhile, I finally asked if Samantha was outside. 

No, she wasn’t.

Gone
My grandparents had a cottage in Michigan.  Like Samantha, there was never a life for me without the cottage.  We went every summer and it was as much a part of my life as my toothbrush.  We’d pick Grandpa up at work and he would drive to the toll booth and pull up a little further so I could get the ticket.  We’d stop in the same town at the same deli for cheese and in the same town we’d roll up the the windows because for whatever reason, the smells of that town made Samantha want to run and catch the feeling.  While they were in Michigan at their summer cottage, the place we all loved going, Samantha died/  The dog that never ran away or awry grew old, slow, hard of hearing and weak of sight, was hit by a car and was buried in a place that she loved. 

The Bridge
Sometimes when I see the cartoon above, I think about Samantha.  I wonder if she waited for me, if she waits for me still or if she went on with my grandparents  when they arrived.  What do I hope for?  Is she waiting still?  How many years did I spend wrapped up in my own life while she “waited at the bridge?”  I’ve held this  post for so long, because I know I’ll never be able to do her justice.  I just don’t have the right words to bust past the lump in my chest.

My Samantha
I’ve always had a soft spot for black dogs and upon reflection, it makes sense.  Like a parent, she was always there to support and love me.  She was so there, that I didn’t realize how much until it was way too late.  I guess back in the day, people didn’t just take pictures of their dogs like we do today and the ones I posted yesterday pretty much show that her presence is kind of random in the snapshots.  Her presence in my heart, however is neither random nor insignificant.  She became the unspoken standard of a great dog.  Was she  part Staffie or a Pit Bull mix?  I don’t know, but I prefer to believe so.  Is the “Nanny Dog” a myth?  No.  Samantha was my nanny dog and you can bet that whether she was a beagle, a lab, a Pit mix or a billy goat, she would protect me and watch over me at all costs.

Somewhere there is a picture of the two of us sitting in a box as babies together.  I really need to find it and make sure it is kept safe but if it turns out that it really is gone, at least I have a copy in my mind’s eye. 

Oh, Samantha!  A better dog never lived.

Every so often this cartoon makes it’s rounds on Facebook and each time it appears, it never ceases to choke me up.

Charles Barsotti

While we had a variety of dogs when I was growing up, there is one that will always be my “childhood dog.”

Pop in tomorrow to read about her.

There are times when I just shake my head and wonder why I thought having two rowdy boys would be a good idea. I would liken them to loud little boys, but my nephews who are 8ish and 5ish were visiting over the weekend and were perfect angels. My boys, though, can rough-house with the best of them. Fortunately, they also embrace the joys of couch potato-ness and are becoming able to share not only Mommy, but the sofa as well.

After much jockying and posturing we have finally figured out our cozy spots and are settling in, which is great since for the last two days a certain new puppy has been waking up at 4:00 a.m.