Wow, what a busy couple of weeks. Smack dab in the middle of our transition to a two dog household, Kevin’s dad passed away. That actually gave all of us more time at home and helped ease in the dog transitions, I believe.

If you follow us on Facebook or Instagram, you have seen by now what a great pair we have here. My fears with Ray were that he always was so large and “in your face” when trying to initiate play, that he would crush another dog in his enthusiasm. Also, once he gets wound up, it is harder to calm him down, though we work on it a lot.

Julius is so good natured and sweet that he has really helped Ray become the great big brother that he is today. Julius steals toys and chews on Ray’s neck and head while Ray is much more tolerant than I ever thought he could be.

Our two dog world isn’t without challenges, though. When they play together I constantly watch them. Ray is very vocal when he plays which sounds like growling. He has always been that way, so the only way to tell when he’s “had enough” is a nose wrinkle that goes along witht the sound. When I see that, I break up the play for a few mintues while everyone gets water or rests. This has generally worked out really well.

Over the weekend, we celebrated our Granddaughter’s birthday with a pool party, tasty food and of course cake. Since we are still settling things with Kevin’s dad’s passing, we opted to let Ray sit out the party at the apartment and let Julius attend the party. It actually turned out that my sister got a touch of food poisoning the night before, so she and Ray chilled out with a long nap and each other’s company.

Julius captured hearts left and right with his calm, sweet demeanor and even had my dad asking if he could have the Ju-Ju Bean. Ray and my sister came back towards the end of the party and got to enjoy a bit of poolside fun and sunshine after all. One thing is very apparent fromt the number of people coming and going in and out of the house and gate; my pit bulls are not good guard dogs, everyone is a friend and all are welcome.

Thanks for hanging in with us, I promise better updates with pics soon.

In the summer of 2011 we put our house up for sale and ended up having it on the market for just under a year.  Nearly every summer, I’ve expressed my desire for an in ground pool and we figured that it would be easier and more cost effective to find a house with a pool already done.  Our home sale was a nightmare of epic proportions so we took it off the market and installed a pool. 

After not even an entire year with our wonderful pool, we have again put our house on the market.  With the pool, we have limited space for Ray to run and very little space for a foster.  Priorities, right?   Naturally with a pool we’ve had a lot of showings in just a week and one of them, I discovered was for the day after I first met the puppy.  Knowing the kind of stress we have, especially my foster-resistant husband, on the eve of a showing, E and I formulated a plan; I would pick up Puppy on my lunch hour and E would puppy sit until I get off work. 

The best laid plans crashed when I lost the scrap of paper with the address, and I ended up driving up and down the street a few times searching.   It ended up not being  the same one I was near when I found Puppy.  I narrowed had it down with the help of my memory and the recognition of the car from the previous day.  It was parked in the drive, so I began ringing the doorbell, pounding knocking on the door and “helloooo”-ing at open windows.  I saw a dog chained in the backyard.  She lay there without making a peep, but I saw nary a sign of Puppy.  I texted E with my findings and went back to work vowing to return  at five. 

At five, the same car was in the drive and after the same knocking and shouting, I just stood near the back gate and  shouted G’s name over and over until a young man appeared.  I asked if they still had the puppy and if they were still willing to turn him over to me.  “Smokey” was wearing the collar that I had gotten from the shelter and though I was told the previous day that he already had a rabies tag at home, my tag was on the collar. 

He was obviously confused by being handed over, but in the truck he settled with a dehydrated duck foot and rode off to a new future.  What that future held for him was still a bit murky about the details.  He definitely needed a bath, some TLC, a microchip and a neuter, so in that order we set out to check off the list.  I had gotten my sister’s agreement to foster if necessary and her rescue could arrange adoption if we needed to go that route, so I felt pretty good that no matter what, he would be taken care of. 

Kevin spent most of the day that I was to pick up “Smokey” on the phone trying to find an adopter. Because of the upheaval in our lives right now and because of the mystery of the pup’s past, Kevin wasn’t sold. Until they met. I had lined up a foster (with my incredible sister) and gotten a Rescue committment, if necessary, but waited to see what Kevin’s reaction would be.

I had been considering the name Marcellus (he’s black, he’s bald…) but this lanky little guy was not up to carrying that name so after we bandied about a few possibilities, we chose the one that was nearly Ray’s name. Julius.

Julius was understandably timid the first day or two. We knew he was not housebroken so opted to crate him in the smaller of our two crates. This is the one Ray used for his first six or seven months and was the perfect size for Julius. He seemed grateful for the safe spot and took to it right away. Because the weather has been cooler, and we had to keep the boys separated at first, we put the crate in the garage so that he would be close to the family room and us.

The first night went extremely well with a dry and clean crate, the successive nights followed suit and we’ve kept the crated door open during the day and have been rewarded with a clean and dry garage. We’ve also had successful visits in the house. With these early visits, I anticipate a little bit of counter surfing, but he is so easily corrected so far.

Surprisingly, or maybe not, I’d say that I was the hardest sell. Adopting Julius would put an end to my fostering plans, at least for the forseeable future and if we could be assured of him going to a great home, I would be all for it. The other tough sell would be Ray himself. Back when we came so close to adopting or at least fostering King, I shared a reservation that I had in a conversation with Jessica, our shelter Director. My fear was that with King being so awesome, that Ray may suffer by comparison and Julius appears to be no different.

Ray is a work in progress, he’s challenging, frustrating and awesome. He is my baby, my puppy and my heart dog and nothing will ever change that. Julius is great and I love him. He has the makings of a great ambassadog and will probably be the one taken out to many of the outings Ray previously attended. Ray will still shop in his favorite stores and we will never stop with his training.
I can’t even begin to count how many hearts Julius has collected in just  a few days.  He’s absolutely adorable and beyond sweet. 

So, is he a Foster or a Lockhart?

Right on the heels of our post last week where we wrote about our new Organizing Utility Tote and About Town Blanket, but noted that we misplaced our folding water bowl, our July BarkBox arrived. 
This month’s BarkBox was so full of doggety goodness that I could have sworn that it was packed with things especially selected just for Ray.

Yes, that is a SafeMade flexi-bowl that I can add to my doggie bag as well as some great treats and dispensers.

While we haven’t yet tried everything, the Max & Ruffy’s Tree of Life treats were a HUGE hit.  They smelled a bit like a gingerbread cookie and I was somewhat tempeted to sample one myself, which I could do because they are made with organic human-grade ingredients.  As if that wasn’t enough, they’ve included a coupon too!  I’ve perused the Max & Ruffy’s site a bit and I can guarantee that we will make use of that coupon.  I try to be very careful with introducing new treats to Ray with all of his pink piggy sensitivities and these are definitely winners.

What was your favorite part of this month’s BarkBox?

So often while heading to the shelter or while actually out on walks, I remembered things that I wanted to bring with me.  This began happening so often that I decided to get a bit more organized and luckily I had an occasion to purchase some Thirty One items.  Actually what had happened was I borrowed a bag that Asia had purchased and I loved the functionality so much that I decided to give hers back and get one in a color that suited my needs and with a saying of my choice. 

Thus, this became my dog walking bag that I keep in my vehicle.

I decided not to have anything embroidered on it about Ray or Peaceabull just because it will be used for  so many different events and dogs.

backside

 The multitude of pockets is perfect for just grabbing things I might need and the inside is roomy enough for other essentials.

So what all did I decide are essentials that I either use regularly or just want to have “just in case,”  you ask? 

From the top, a spare harness (and leash) that actually no longer fits Ray but will fit many of the dogs I might walk, though the only other pooch who has worn it was Glamour/Kya and it was a bit large on her.  Clicker.  I don’t really click with the shelter dogs but if I have Ray out and about I like to have my clicker handy.  Carabiner.  If you have a dog, have ever walked a dog or needed a free hand or extra hanger you know how valuable this is.  I could hang carabiners all over myself and be very happy.  Comfy, flat walking shoes.  Although I’ve written about walking in 3″ heels,  I’ve found that while I still do it occasionally, I’m getting wise enough to utilize the flats more.  Bio spray and lip gloss.  Only one of those are for pooches and the other is for me.  I stash lip gloss all over the place like a squirrel hiding nuts.  Seriously, I have at least seven different kinds in my desk at work and two more in the door handle compartment in my truck.  Groom mitts.  These came in a BarkBox and they’re completely awesome.  I’m also not above admitting that on a super humid day, I may have made use of one on a certain human before heading back to work.   Lint roller, because dogs shed.  Treat pouch and poop bags.  Kind of self explanatory.  Last but not least is my new “dog mat.”  I didn’t even know Thirty One made anything like this, but it will be so handy for the truck or any other time we need something portable and washable to sit on.

Fleecy side

Water resistant side

I love that it folds up and closes with velcro and it even has a zippered pouch for money or other things I don’t want stuffed into the open pockets.  It’s also roomy enough to fit at least one person and a dog. 

So tell me, what is in your doggie bag and what am I forgetting?

*Not pictured is our foldable water dish…I misplaced it, so we’ve been making due with water bottles.

I think that I might have started this post in my head nearly a dozen times, but when it came to typing it out, I couldn’t formulate a coherent thought.  Maybe that’s a sign that I’m addressing this too soon.  Maybe the emotion of the week is still wearing off and I’m still riding the waves of such a new and life-changing experience.

Last week, one of the folks at the shelter that I was talking to called me something that meant the world to me.  Something that made me feel like a super hero.  She called me “Glamour’s foster mom.”  Today, I
am proud to announce that Glamour, now known as Kya is:

Her perfect family has found her and she is now the happy little sister to her Doberman brother and is already loved and cherished by her people.  How do I know that?  They have messaged me and graciously friended us on Facebook, so we’ll get pictures and updates!

Miko has decided that the family room belongs to him, so he has taken up residence on the back of the sofa.  The sofa that Ray lays on in the room that Ray spends the majority of his time in.  Miko, however, has decided that not only does he own the room, he’s done with Ray being in there, so Miko has begun to hiss and growl at Ray (when confronted nose to nose) and whenever that results only in more tail wags. A good solid whomp to the block head will suffice.

Miko sitting in Ray’s antler box.

Recently, the three of us were on the sofa, Miko on the back, Ray sprawled across my lap, all peaceabully coexisting until Ray decided to greet Miko.  Miko hissed and growled and stood his ground for a few seconds before begrudgingly moving to the side table.  Ray followed, got kitty slapped and slinked around the coffee table with his tail between his legs, properly chastised, and returned to my lap.

With Miko being our youngest kitty, I think Ray is going to have a long road ahead of him.

A local trainer teaches a seminar on dog personality types and graciously offered this free of charge to fosters and prospective fosters of the SPCA, so I was able to use some Community time off and attend.  I found it fascinating and interesting yet also took it with a slight grain of salt, which is why I won’t do any links right now. 

What was really interesting is that we took a little six question quiz to determine our personality or dogality type and then talked about how that matched up with our canine companions or fosters.  The dogality types were Dominant, Outgoing, Guarding, Supportive and submissive (intentionally lowercase)  D.O.G.S.s. then we talked about traits and physical behaviors that would help us determine what type of dog we were dealing with.  We had live models of behavior (one was a Miss M. doppelganger!) to see each type of dog in real life as well as pictures of humans and dogs displaying these characteristics.

Naturally, there are various instances and characteristics that make all of these up, so with that in mind, the two dogs that I know which I had the most trouble classifying were Ray and Glamour.  With some of the issues that have happened with Glamour it would seem to be easy to peg her, but it turns out she is a very different dog with me than she is with many others.

I figured she was Supportive.  After all, she is constantly trying to please me and is very easy to redirect with just a word.  She checks in with me a lot and she knows when I approach that if she doesn’t sit, she doesn’t get attention.  Supportive, right?

Last night Asia took Glamour out to the back yard.  Asia jokes a lot that the animals see her as an equal in our house, and I always say that they don’t even give her that much status.  Glamour went outside with Asia and jumped right up on top of the patio table as if that was planned, hopped down and proceeded to run zoomies around the yard like it was her job.  Girlfriend had a lot of energy pent up.

“I’m ready to come in, now.”

 I’m finding that Miss G pushes her boundaries and likes to test the waters but is very willing to take redirection.  It’s like she really, really wants the structure of rules.  I believe she is a Dominant, after all, it just took me longer to see it and it is much clearer when looking at the situation without being in the mix. 

What was my “dogality?”  Of the six questions, I ended up with two Guarded and four Dominant. 

Shocker.

We had some good guesses the other day on the landscaping picture, most involving not digging a hole when in fact, I’m pretty stoked because of a hole. 



Check out the circled item.

Last fall, we decided to purchase a Doggie Dooley system but we didn’t know exactly where we wanted to put it with the considerations of  needing to either edge or mow around something that still sticks up above the ground a bit.  When the weather finally permitted, we decided on a low corner in the yard and in a stroke of inspiration, decided to extend the landscaping, add some grasses to camoflage the Dooley and voila! my new favorite thing about the yard. 

With this, scooping daily is so much easier to gear up for and being able to enjoy a clean lawn is priceless.

So for those of you with yards, what do you do with do-do?