Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Betrayal for a cause

today mommy left me for hours to go play with other dogs. But for once, I'm not all that upset. I will leave the blog to her to explain.

Three or four weeks ago, there were two raids on puppymills around here. The SPCA had over 300 dogs to take care of. Some got taken in by other organisations and now they "only" have about 30 or so. Court cases are still pending about their ownership and they need dedicated volunteers to go and clean cages, give baths and walk dogs. I mostly did the fun stuff, walking and playing with these doggies. Some, despite three weeks of TLC are still so skinny that you can not only count their ribs, you can almost see the rib, all the way around. If I was living somewhere of my own instead of with my parents, I'd have asked to foster one of the girlies. But I'm limited to one dog and I respect my mother's wishes.

All of the doggies are amazing and sweet, even though I like some more than others. Two of the german shepherds have gimpy mutatoe-paws like Meeshka's mutatoe brother Loki. I had never really got what his paw could look like until I saw the oversized, flat paw on the front right of each of the two girls, so I thought about him a lot as I played with them, especially with the older female who had other problems and was a real gimpy. The younger gimpy-pawed one is one of the skinniest dogs I've ever seen and she's very pregnant. We're all praying for her and her puppies, praying they have the strength to pull through. She's so affectionate despite her condition, she'll make a good family dog eventually, I think. One of the big black mixed-breed (I think?) dogs just laid down in my lap and begged to be loved. I've rarely seen a dog that affectionate. There was a husky named Frank who totally won me over. He looked a lot like Thrawn as he chilled in his cage, totally ignoring the barking dogs around him and his food. He was above all this, a total zen master. I seem to remember a picture of young Thrawn curled in the back of his cage, looking up at the camera with a very long-suffering expression. This is how Frank looked, as if he would be just totally fine if the rest of the world stopped being idiots for a minute. A typical, beautiful husky. My last mention is of Freya, a beautiful pretty girl german shepherd who was the only one with no name. She was in a different room along with the two giant breed dogs, so she tends to be a little forgotten, but once you get her going, there isn't a dog to match her in playfulness and affection. I had a vague recollection of Freya being the norse goddess of love and beauty, or something like that, so I thought it suited her. She's now no longer nameless and she's going to make someone very happy, one day when she's let into their homes.

I return tomorrow and then again this weekend. I love those puppies, It's a joy spending time with them, even if I will be cleaning cages soon.

The blog will return to Louka next post,
Take care,
The Mommy.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Cooking

I've been inspired after reading Zim from the Ao4's posts about doing KP while his mommy cooks. It's apple season, so mommy's been going a little nuts. Of course, I as the dog must help her with the cooking, supervising and making sure that any cheese that might be wasted goes to me.

Mommy thought I was being cute, so sue tried to get some pictures. Of course, I'm a sibe, so managing to get me cooperative was a chore.


But I can always be tempted with some cheese. It's a failing, I know, but I can't help it.
After helping with dishes, I had to make sure that Mommy was getting her recipe right. What is that I spy up on the stove? (please ignore the ugly floor with the suspicious stains from "the raspberry incident")
Oooh! Apple pie, apple cake and applesauce! I want some!










Mommy is being mean and not letting me have much. Just a tiny bit of applesauce, because it has no sugar, just maple syrup, and not a lot at that. It's very good. I'm perfecting the begging eyes to get more. But Mommy wasn't caving, so I told her to just stop with the pictures already. Honestly. She doesn't know when to quit.

I love doing KP, it's a nice bonding experience for me and Mommy. It's so fun that she says when we move out, we need a bigger kitchen so that I have more room to watch her (and so that she stops tripping over me, hee hee)

Oooh, is someone opening the cheese in the kitchen? I'd had better go check it out!
Woos,
Louka

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Betrayal most foul

Every now and then, Mommy leaves. Sometimes it's just for the day, to go to work, or for a few hours to go to class, but every now and then she leaves for a few days and I have to stay with my Auntique. I love my Auntique and she takes me to the mountain and she loves me and plays with me, but she's not Mommy.

So I'm always very sad when Mommy leaves and very happy when she gets back. I was thrilled to have her back until I discovered this on her laptop:



That's my Mommy, fraternising with another dog while away on vacation! And a famous dog at that! She went and met Balto without me! I thought I was her husky-woo! She says its only a statue and that she did it because she was missing me and because she needed a picture with a famous sled-dog who could inspire me but woo! The betrayal!

She could have at least taken me to meet him. She'd had better make it up to me.

Louka who is sulking

Thursday, October 9, 2008

My nefarious plan has worked!

Not only has mommy given in and gotten me things I like to eat (and talked to the butcher about acquiring more "brick"), now that I'm eating again she's so happy that tonight when i was feeling a bit peckish? I just whined and paced mournfully towards the kitchen and I got fed! ok, granted I only had one meal today and so this is my normal portion, but I managed to get fed at quarter to two in the morning! And I got sardines!

Fear the siberian mind meld
Louka

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Further abuse

Someone call the SPCA!

I have just finally had my first meal in three days. Three days! Three and a half, even! Mommy would just not get the point. I'm sick of chicken. I've been eating chicken for the last week. Why should I have to eat more of the same, boring thing? But of course instead of just being a good mommy and giving me something else, she just took it away and gave me the same thing at supper! I finally managed to wear her down, though, she gave me innards for supper because she's afraid I'm going to start losing weight. And the puppy-dog eyes finally worked. I've been fine-tuning that expression all week, eying her mashed potatoes longingly, sitting in front of the fridge, glaring at my food...

But I'm still abused.

Hawoos,
Louka

Mommy's version: Does anyone else have this problem? There's nothing wrong with him, health-wise. He's just picky. It's the reason he's raw-fed, he refused dog food (even when soaked, soaked in chicken broth, mixed in with yogurt, etc) for at least 4 days straight while trying to counter-surf, something he never does, and trying to chow down on anything that looked vaguely edible outside. I thought I had solved the problem. Suuure, he doesn't like kidney, but he'd eat pretty much anything else. Since last week, when I started giving him "brick" (chicken carcass and snippets and whatever that the butcher just put through the grinder to make a kind of paste), he pretty much stopped eating. I finally had him eating two meals a day again, after two days of no food and two or three days of one reluctant meal a day. Then I ran out of "brick" and bought more carcass, which he generally loves. Three days. Three WHOLE days of no eating. He'll lick his bowl mournfully. He'll sit in front of the fridge. He'll actually deign to beg at the table (sitting and staring at my food), which he never does. He'll howl happily in the morning when I tell him it's "manger" (eating) time and dance and scold until I take his food out. Then one look at it and he wants to come back inside from where he eats on the balcony and he won't touch it. Everyone I've asked says "well have you tried just taking it away after 20 minutes? He'll eat then when he sees food isn't always available". Those people have never dealt with a determined sibe, I'm sure of it. In the last two weeks, he's eaten two meals a day, which is his normal ration, only two or three times. I've had five or six whole days of no eating at all and the rest he just takes one meal. I'm going back to the butcher tomorrow to ask for more "brick" and get ground beef, but I'm at the end of my rope. Any one else has this issue and has advice?

My mother's laughing her head off at me. I have always been a very picky eater and she has been waiting for revenge for a long time, now. She thought she'd have to wait for me to have kids for the karma to catch up to me. I've been apologising for two weeks, now. Sigh.

Back to trying to figure out how to make the cute mutt eat
The Mommy

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Three!

After a very traumatic summer, good things are starting to happen again.

I say traumatic because Mommy was working way too much and leaving me alone and neglecting my blog and worse, neglecting me! Woo! I'm still kind of upset. But I've started sleeping in the big bed with her again, so her punishment is mostly over, especially since she's staying home most of the time.

But that wasn't the point of this post.

The point of this post was to tell you that I'm now, officially at least, three years old! I got salmon for both meals today and mommy stayed home all day with me and played with me and napped with me and cuddled with me and... Ok, ok, that was because she always stays home all day on Wednesdays but STILL! It was a good birthday. We went to the dogrun for a long time andmy friend Misha the boxer mix tried to eat my face a lot (that was fun) and my friend Inook who's a not-as-cute-as-me husky tired to steal my mommy because he's a suck up, but it was till ok because I got to play in the mud and then in the snow! Because the magical snow pile is back and mommy lets me go play there until there's real snow to dig in.

I also want to show you something else good that happened to me this summer
Yeah, that's a good thing. That's my cousin Thulku the rescued pit bull. We were having a lot of fun when that picture was taken, even though we look like we're arguing. Mommy and Thulku's Mommy were a little nervous that we'd REALLY argue because Thulku doesn't always like other dogs and we both were "fixed" older and I really don't like not fixed dogs most of the time and Mommy wasn't sure if I'd think that Thulku was still broken. But I didn't and he liked me and we had so, so, so much fun! He has a HUGE property out in the country by a lake and after we played, we went hiking outside all together and I got to model my harness.

Me showing how happy I am and waiting for mommy to pet me

Thulku and me taking a break

Me getting my well-deserved petting and no, I am not an attention-hog. But I thought it would be appropriate, given all the huzzy pictures going around. Strangely enough, despite the pose this is one of the rare times I'm actually wearing a collar. I only wear one when I'm not at home.

So that was the highlight of my summer. I think back on that and on Mushing for the first time as I turn three and think about the past year.

Woos to you all,
Louka