Good Morning All!
67F @ 59% yet another hot day. Got to 102F yesterday ... yuk!
Pet Pills: Used to be any dog or cat we had was like pulling teeth to get pills down the craw. Enter Jake. All ya have to do is call him and drop what ever on the floor and it goes away. All the others sans one is dip it in butter then it goes away. That one sucks all the butter off then spits the pill. So for him it is smash up the pill, mix with bacon grease then it is gone. While we are talking about pets - Jake is a 'heavy chewer'. Nothing on the floor or what he can reach is safe and gets teeth marks. Maria has lost 3 pairs of shoes so far. He even chewed the bottom corner of the hot tub ( Redwood ). Kitchen towels are 'removed' from the hanging spots and when found have a hole pretty much dead center. He was dragging one of the 100Ft hoses this morning. So I did some 'googling' and found what looks to be the ideal chew. Virtually indestructible hard rubber that is bacon flavored. We have another hard rubber thingie and it has made it through 5 dogs over the years; alas no bacon flavor. We will see.
There are numerous reasons we don't have a dog.
#1 I was 8 when I was pulled off my bike by a country dog out without a lead. The next day was school picture day. Most of the damage to my face was from the gravel on the road's shoulder. I still have the picture. Mom told me I'd want it some day.
No mother. a photo of the aftermath of one of the scariest moments of my life is not something I ever want to see again.
Reason #2: My wife wanted a dog, and let me choose the breed to help allay my fears. She wanted it to take on walks. But I couldn't ever get her to be the responsible one. She'd always look at me.... "What are you going to do with the dog while we're on vacation?"
"Sell it? Give it away?" - Evidently, that wasn't the correct answer. But it always came down to me figuring out where to board it, who could watch it. Why me?
And I had dog poop duty any time I wanted to mow.
Not my dog, why am I picking up it's poo? Even after we had a kid, and she agreed (when we got beagle #2), she'd only pick up a few shovels of poo, then run off to do something else. It was only when she took over mowing duty for $$ that she got serious about poo removal.
They loved to chew - mostly my stuff. Rabbits too. I didn't enjoy picking up half-carcasses from the fenced in back yard. One went nuts and dug up a mole as well. More destruction. I did discover the dog didn't like molasses. Nor the front end either. She left the mole alone once it was dead.
But, even rubbing hot sauce weekly on power cords wouldn't keep the dog away from her daily dose of shock therapy. The second beagle loved chewing power cords. Speaker wire. straps. Fortunately she left the hose for the gas grill alone, but I worried.
The worst part was actually the dogs being storm scared (and fireworks... Indiana residents LOOOOOVE their fireworks). The problem was that I was too empathetic, and their emotional state made me anxious. I love rainstorms. I always found them relaxing (if they didn't come with tornadoes). A shivering animal passed their emotions on to me. Wife decided with #2 beagle that putting it down in the basement would make it less scared.
That was my hobby and TV area. All it did was train the dog to find me during storms. That backfired.
When #2 died, I asked for 26 years without a dog, since we got #1 soon after we got married. 26 years between two beagles, can I have the same time with just a cat?
Hope that doesn't come off as cold and callous. But, following the bike incident when I was 8, I've never been a dog person.
(if thats not enough its also a Diesel 
