I _won’t_ get off your lawn, you grumpy old goat. %$#*&@! you and your mother!
Did he just say what we think he said?
Oh shit.
Come back here and fight like a man, you lily livered, yellow bellied hairball!
May as well get the whole community involved.
Le sigh. The good news is it doesn’t even faze me anymore. My dogs chase down coyotes en masse and I don’t even blink. I must be fully assimilated into Life In The Stix now. Ironically, the two biggest dogs in the house are the ones that don’t bother with the coyotes – they just watch all the Littles go apeshit and stand at my knee. I am pretty sure TWooie thinks they are dogs (and therefore must DIE) and Piper just finds them incredibly offensive, right up there with herons. She will systematically scour the property for coyote poop so she can pee on it.
More good news – when she pees on it, TWooie no longer wants to eat it (*gag*).
Still more good news: today I took Tweed to a CERF clinic held at the Abbotsford Trade-Ex. There’s some huge dog show event out there this weekend I guess (I tend to avoid show dog people like the plague, as they frighten and confuse me) and Dr. Lewis was there testing eyes. $45 at a clinic is a lot cheaper than $60 at my vet for a referral to the Opthamology Clinic that costs a kazillion dollars, so I signed him up.
Obviously, I don’t need Tweed CERFed for anything, but over the last year or so we’ve been noticing some disturbing things about my red man. Not too long ago, he walked face first into my stove – you may be familiar with it. It’s a big white appliance, hasn’t budged an inch since I moved here (what can I say? My “clean house” obsession only extend as far as surfaces one can see. I recommend you NEVER try to crawl under my bed, for example). Also, he ran face first into the side of a couple of tunnels at outdoor trials this year, and has been refusing tunnels in class from time to time. I was getting pretty worried about his eyesight.
So I took him to Dr. Lewis today, who declared his sight just fine. That’s super good news. The bad news is that some of the face-first-into-stove business could be attributed to a loss of cognitive function :( And he does have something called Iris Atrophy, which means his irises are degenerating, particularly the right one. You can see here how the right pupil has failed to contract in the sunlight:
The doc says that it won’t affect his vision, but because his eyes can’t adjust to bright light very well, he may squint and the squinting could cause some of the oopsies he makes on the agility course. I may have to pray for cloudy weather at Regionals next year … when Tweed will be 12. Twelve! I hope he can still run Regionals at 12, that would be super awesome.
And speaking of agility, Springaling has been getting her agility on in class a little bit.
Yay me!
I figure if she’s already there, may as well let her play. I can already see that she is going to be the kind of dog who isn’t going to be very good at gambling, but what the heck. It’s putting her busy little brain to work.
People say border collies have boundless energy, but I think those people have never lived with a terrier. Spring rarely rests … she is always roaming the house, pouncing on poor Dexter and ravaging his ears so he will get up and play with her, pulling toys out of the basket, destuffing them when she does, following the cats around, messing up my bedspread, trying to open the cupboards, standing on the arm of the sofa chewing on my hair … she’s a busy little worker bee. She’s exhausting! If she wasn’t so little, she’d be a real pain in the ass.
So ya’ll seemed to like TWooie’s TWoosday photo. That little heartbreaker with her eyes squeezed all shut comes from a wheelbarrow load of puppies we have at the shelter:
We’re calling them Aussie mixes because they are both fluffy and spotty, but really we have no idea what they are, other than ZOMGSOFREAKINGCUTE. So if you’re in the market for a puppy, come on down to the shelter.
Cuz they want to go home.
Mr. Orange does not approve of puppies.
Fay says
Ok, the Mr. Orange photo and caption made me let loose a loud guffaw! Best way to end the word day! Thank you.
Shasta says
Coyotes….dayum. That takes balls! I thought they ran in packs? Or is that wolves?
Bobo and Meja says
Please NO.MORE.PUPPIES…. Can’t stand any more pictures. Can’t have another puppY. C.A.N.’T. H.A.V.E !!!!!!!!!
Shasta says
And I feel you about your Tweedy-Pie. I’ve got an old gal who’s not acting all there either. :( Sad to see them start to act their age. A good excuse for more snoot-kisses, I guess.
Katharine Swan says
We’ve got an older girl too. She’s been doing some odd things (hugging some walls when she crosses rooms, backing out of places instead of turning around, walking with her nails out like she’s trying to hang on to the floor) that could either be from a mixture of eyesight and hip problems, or the beginnings of dementia, or all of the above. We’re getting started on a better treatment plan for her hip problems (she’s gotten worse quickly), but now that you mention it, we may want to see about getting her eyes tested, too.
Katharine Swan says
By the way, I just noticed this:
“May a dog pee upon any person who steals, borrows or uses my photos or text without permission!”
Best copyright notice ever!!!
Helene says
My dog is a total love bug but I worry when she chases deer. What if she catches a big one with antlers? She could get gored. And there are foxes. Hopefully they run faster than she does. I think she just wants to play with them but I don’t think they would feel the same way. But she loves to run so we still take her to the woods.
Una says
Yay for Spring – she is a doll! Keep the pics coming!
jen says
Looks like a frickin’ wolf, not a coyote.
Those puppies are illegally cute. I wants one.
Alison says
Poor Tweed – and you. It’s hard watching them get older.
If that last puppy picture doesn’t get some of those puppies out of the shelter and into homes I will eat my hat!
Alice says
ZOMG, that poofy-headed black wheelbarrow puppy makes me want to squeal audibly. *looks around* aaaand since I’m home alone: “squee!” They’re beauts, FL, and I’m sure since they’re little, they’ll be snatched up in no time.
As for Mr. Tweed-Pants, I’m sure he’ll be running next year–he’s got the best mum ever to look after him, and to scan the skies for clouds to help him out. I know he doesn’t know me, but give him a pat from a B.C. obsessed grad student.
Patty says
I just busted out laughing when I read the comment about Twooie not being interested in eating the coyote poop after Piper peed on it! Can I borrow her to pee on the poop in my yard so’s my crew won’t eat it before I get it cleaned up??
Ann says
That was us last night at 2 am: Rolley, Sparky and Lani chasing off the coyotes that had the balls to come into the back yard, and Mistress bare-assed on the back porch in her sleepshirt, worrying about the cats (who all turned out to be inside sleeping).
Don’t let a dog chase coyotes by itself. A single coyote has been known to lure a dog into a waiting pack, where it becomes a meal.
I “heart” Mr. Orange!!!
CarolG. says
Is there rather less of Mr. Orange than I remember? He looks smaller. I agree, it is hard to watch the pets we love loose abilities with age. Lucky Tweed, he has you to love him.
Adrienne says
I’m sorry to hear about Mr. Tweed man. I had to watch my (mom’s)Reggie-dog go steadily more senile, deaf and blind in his last year and it was reeeeally hard.
Spring sounds like just a hoot! *Spring* *sproing* *boing* *bounce* “What can I do now? How about now? And now??” lol
DeAnna says
Pretty sure that thing about the coyote luring a dog into a waiting pack is a myth. It’s a pervasive one, but I’ve done a lot of research about it and I can’t find any instances where someone actually saw it happen. Lots of stories from ranchers who totally believe that’s what happened, but also lots of stories from people who have lived in harmony with coyotes on their property for generations. Lots of stories of coyotes and dogs being seen playing together, but no evidence of coyotes luring dogs to an ambush.