Saturday, September 09, 2006

Triumph

A banner day at our house yesterday.

Thanks to my crafty ways and excellent teaching skills--I was able to snag a blueberry muffin without being caught because my person was more worried about getting the blueberry muffin that Rafe stole away from him.

Although Rafe and I have had a rocky start, I'm beginning to see the potential in having an ally in the all important war of the counter. My person thought she'd outsmarted us (actually she wasn't paying much attention to us if truth be told), so I sent Rafe in as an early scout. He quickly spied the secret treasure, hot muffins cooling on a wire rack, and reported back. I told him that the time had come for him to earn his stripes, and even though he was not assured success, he sucked it up, took a deep breath and went for the prize. I waited behind, giving quiet pointers and was happy when he carefully made off with a muffin. I thought he was in the clear until suddenly, my person looked up from her computer, leapt to her feet and hurried over to where Rafe was valiantly trying to get the whole muffin down his gullet without chewing. It was a move any teacher would be proud of, but alas, he just doesn't have enough miles on him yet and, like the rest of us, has been brain-washed into immediately heeding the "drop it" command--so, the person was able to get the prize away from him.

However, back in the kitchen....

Once I realized that her attentions were diverted and that there was no hope for success with Rafe's venture, I quickly went in for a muffin of my own. My person was none the wiser until later when she counted the muffins. And as compensation for an excellent first attempt at stealing from the counters, I let Rafe lick the crumbs off my muzzle. I believe there is hope for him yet.

And then.....

My people were so lame as to leave a cheese slicer, with much delectable cheese residue right on the very same counter only a few hours later. Here is what they came home to--


It is difficult to see in the picture, but in addition to thoroughly cleaning the slicer, I also nibbled the handle just enough to leave my mark. I didn't want one of the other dogs, and especially not my goofy little brother Hamish, to get any credit OR to alert the people to the fact that I'm working with both young boys--Hamish and Rafe--to join me in the battle for the counter. They now know about Rafe, but haven't yet figured out that Hamish is part of my silent army, too. He will be a much more subtle, covert operator.

I'm still contemplating the moment when I can deploy him--right now, I'm holding him back as a secret weapon. My people have been properly lulled into believing he is a little sweet boy, as evidenced by this picture of him, where he has well-disguised his cunning, sneaky ways.

Little do they know what terrors await them.

Today's picture from the puppy archive
Early training for the battle of the counter. Although they gave me the treat, I quickly practiced taking it to a lair for consumption

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Giardia :-(

Well, after many truly unspeakable acts on the part of the vet, we have determined that I have giardia. What is giardia, you ask. It is some kind of nasty one-celled parasite that attaches itself to my intestines and basically steals my food while also making me feel yucky and have diarrhea. A nice beagle lady wrote a whole long explanation about it. Because of the giardia, all five of us pups are now taking Flagyl--but we know it as a peanut butter niblet.

Speaking of peanut butter, my person gave Rafe-oaf puppy a stuffed Busy Buddy to keep him busy. Of course, as soon as I could I took it away from him. Then, if you can imagine it, my person got up and took it away from ME and gave it back to HIM.

Here he is just chewing away on it. He is not nearly as skilled as I am at deconstructing the busy buddy. I used to get one every morning so that my people could eat their breakfast in peace, so I got very good at cleaning it out.

I'm pretty sure that he'll leave some of the choicest morsels--the kernals of dog kibble that have been thoroughly saturated with peanut butter--aided of course through targeted salivia delivery, which serves to bind the peanut butter more completely to the kibble.


When he gives up, I'll be waiting. In the meantime, my people lamely tried to appease me with a Kong--also stuffed, but not nearly as much challenge and really not more than a blatant bribe against my being mad at them for taking away my rightful acquistion.

Here I am in the last stages of cleaning out the Kong. I took it to the people's bed so that I could leave a nice peanut butter smear on their freshly laundered comforter. You can compare my skill to Rafe's--note in particular the differences in our grips--the wrist bend makes a lot of difference. Plus, you'll notice that my tongue is completely inside the Kong whereas Rafe is putting his in and out--a completely unnecessary use of energy that obviates the benefit of the additional calories gained from the peanut butter encrusted kibble in the first place.

Believe me, I have tried to explain this to Rafe, but he simply doesn't listen. Indeed, he listens to very little I have to say.

In this picture, I am doing my best to explain that there are serious consequences for staring at other dogs, in particular, for staring at me. You'll notice that he is averting his glance, finally--but this was after several tense moments of showing all of my teeth to him. I really am not sure he will ever be ready to enter the world of refined gentle pupdom, but I will perservere and accept that my lot in life is to try and teach this young rapscallion some respectable manners.
I may at some point need to enlist the services of the great Mugsy, who recently rid a Chihuahua of demons or perhaps William John Gavin can talk some sense into Rafe. I'm just glad that my goofy little brother Hamish is not quite such a project or I don't know when I'd ever get my grooming and napping done.

Today's picture from the puppy archive
Me at 10 weeks with my first ball (it even had a "tail")