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Our neighbour, Mr. Campbell, sold his acreage and moved away.  The new owners haven’t taken possession yet, so we’ve been playing over at his place for a change of scenery.  I like it better for photos, because the property is level, rather than sloped, and there aren’t a jillion cottonwoods behind the field, so I can get the blue sky in the photos.  Which is prettier.  Mr. Campbell still comes and mows the lawn and doesn’t mind if we play beneath his plum trees.

It really showcases the weirdness that is my dog Dexter.

And it has shade.  Because it’s been SO HOT here the last week!  Redonkulously hot.  We can sit under the willow trees and be naughty without boiling to death.

Speaking of naughty, I am *very* proud of TWooie this week.  Because although he was – as usual – naughty, he was also an abbreviated sort of naughty.  A few days ago we were playing on Mr. Campbell’s property when this guy in the neighbourhood with a rottweiler came strolling down the street.  I don’t like this guy OR his rottweiler, because he lets it off the leash on our dead end road … which is fine, as long as it stays on the road.  But why people think those of us who live on the farms on this road want their dogs loping on and off our properties, trying to get at our chickens and pooping in our grass, is a mystery to me.  Twice I have caught his rottweiler trying to find its way through my fence to get at my ducks, while the owner keeps walking down the road completely out of sight until I yell at him to get his damn dog.  I finally told him I’d call animal control on him if he didn’t leash his dog.  So this time he had his dog on a leash while he walked down the road, and TWooie spotted him and of course went running over to be an asshole.  But you know what he did?  He STOPPED ON THE PROPERTY LINE and barked from the property, but didn’t step paw one on the road itself.  And then he came back when I called him, all chuffed with himself.

And then this morning a neighbour with a border collie we have met before stopped to say hi and TWooie ran up to the dog, barked and snarled at it from about two feet away about three times to assert his presence in the universe, and then decided to ignore him altogether while we chatted.  For TWooie, this is remarkably restrained.  Of course the border collie is used to TWooie and knows he is all spittle and ugly face and no follow through so he didn’t pay him any mind, but still.  I am proud of the little fatso.  I just want to hug his weird and grouchy little self.

Of course I can’t as he’s hiding from me right now because he tore off most of his dewclaw and I had to cut the rest of it away and then clean it up and wrap it in vet wrap.  As we know from previous entries, TWooie doesn’t handle pain well and he’s pretty sure I was trying to kill him, even though he’d only been a partial monster this week rather than his usual full on monster self.

I did create a monster though, that goes by the name of Peetie.

As I mentioned previously, all the toys are belong to Peetie.  Every throw of a ball or frisbee is for Peetie, obviously.  I finally found a Wootie Toy at a pet store today and Wootie didn’t even get a chance to play with it, because Peetie wouldn’t stop beating him (and everyone else) to the Wootie Toy.  She’s FAST.  I now have teach Peetie to turn it on AND off, rather than turn it on and leave it on ALL THE TIME.

She likes to share though – when she gets the ball she wants DoDo to chase her and try and take it.  It’s her favourite thing.

And when she has the Wootie Toy she actively shoves it at DoDo so she’ll grab it and they can play tug.  She’s become such an interactive little critter, and a very busy one.  It’s very charming.

But it encourages bad behaviour in DoDo, who can’t always tell the black-n-whites apart.  Which could, you know, lead to her untimely demise.

One thing I would really like Peetie to do is leave me alone.  She is a super touchy-feely dog and doesn’t understand “go away” signals (or orders, or shoving, or yelling obscenities).  If I sit on the ground, she tries to get in my lap 400 times, in eight thousand degree heat.  When I’m at the computer, she hooks a paw around my calf and tries to worm her way chest first onto my lap.  If I pet another dog, she’s in there like a dirty shirt (and tries to climb into my lap to boot.  Are you seeing a pattern here?).  If I get annoyed with her, she gets sucky and extra clingy.  If I try to reward her when she backs off, she backs right in again!  It’s driving me a bit nuts.  Any ideas?

It’s a couple of days early, but I’m going to take this opportunity to wish Dexter a happy SEVENTH BIRTHDAY.  Seven!

I love this dog.  I don’t love trying to play agility with him, but I do love him.  He’s the best spontaneous hugger, and so gregarious and full of enthusiasm for everything.  He might not be the dog I wanted, but he’s the dog I got, and I wouldn’t trade him for anything.  There’s no dog like him!

Well, except for this dog, who looks an awful lot like him.