Wolfettes Beserk

 The wolfettes went mad, barking. I looked out the front window and there was a majestic doe on the front lawn. Lillie was saying, "Please let me out! You won't need to feed me for a week!"

Why Was Our Dog So Desperate to Get in Front Yard?

Rhonda saw a buck in velvet as she descended the driveway and Lillie is definitely more wolfette than Canis familiaris.

Their First Stay in a Hilton

In Ogden. Or is it Dogden?

I Took The Girls For Their First Ride in the Cadillac (Driving Miss Rosie)

This got scrambled first time. A potential, and eventually actual buyer, wanted to see the house and Mom's Taxi was not home, so I loaded our Springer Spaniels in the back seat and away we went. Lillie tried to climb into the front seat, but I explained that she could not drive and she lay down in the back. Both girls calmed down and saw quietly in the back seat, without sedatives, sometimes looking out the window. I explained to my wife that Rosie and I could split driving shifts.  She was not convinced. The first prairie dog or pronghorn antelope along the road and we would driving after it.

The more I drive my CT5, the more impressed I get with the electronics. The SuperCruise lane change capacity at first disappointed me. I turn the turn signal on and I have to turn it off after the lane change completes. 

A few weeks back, I watched a YouTube video about features present in many cars that are not explicitly in the manuals and are very nice. One is that on many cars, if you turn the turn signal stalk just a little, it turns on the blinker just long enough to warn those in that lane, "I'm coming over." (In the 1960s, I repaired the blinkers on my 1964 Chevy Malibu wagon, and saw the very curious mechanism to implement that in plastic, without electronics.)

So I did the brief warning mode. SuperCruise did the lane change with no need to turn off the blinker. Very nice. It also will do uncommanded lane changes to get around road hogs. I do not understand how it makes this decision but it is possible to tell it to not make uncommanded right lane changes,  I have never seen it make a dangerous decision on this.

"A Madness of Marmots" is What SuperGrok Ssys is the Collective Noun

From the effect they have on our dogs at the window, I was going to call it an insanity of marmots, but it lacks cobsonance. (I am sufficiently uselessly educated to know alliteration involves vowels.)

If You Know the Story Behind How the Band Three Dog Night Came Up With That Name

Bird Dogs Aim High

Our dogs are bird dogs, so anything flying needs to be chased.  This morning their barking was unlikely to be useful.

Prozac

Our younger Springer Spaniel, Lillie, seems to have anxiety problems,  so our vet prescribed Prozac.  I think it is helping.  If you believe the Scientology propaganda about SSRI antidepressants causing mass murder, be assured that Lillie has no access to firearms.  If she did, marmots would be the only critters at risk.

When I asked ChatGPT to make a picture of Lillie with an AR-15:

"I can create an image of a liver-colored Springer Spaniel in a playful or action-themed pose, perhaps at a shooting range or wearing tactical gear. However, I can't generate an image of a dog actually firing or holding a real firearm like an AR-15, as that violates content guidelines around depictions of animals using weapons in a realistic manner."

Most Adorable Video Ever

Wonderful breed but they need a lot of exercise. 

Not Just the Marmots Taunting the Dogs

Just 30 feet from the do enclosure.  They soon walked to the north lawn where their movement caused great barking.

Identifying Separation Anxiety

Rosie and Lillie seemed not to be adjusting to the new house.  Rosie was not eating and was beginning to urinate on the carpet while we were away.  Both of them had accepted that they slept in the garage in the old house but here we needed to carry them out there.  Even bribes did not work. After a bit of googling, it appeared to be separation anxiety.  We no longer leave them alone for long and they sleep with us.  Problem solved 

 I rather like having two very loyal mini-wolves (or do you call them wolfettes?) near us at night.

Flying Dog

Lillie, who has unlimited energy, and Rosie, who considers rodents to be in the candy section of the Springer diet plan, escaped the garage yesterday.  (The garage door did not completely close before I opened the door from garage to house.)

Lillie started running expecting us to play fetch with her to return.  But where is the Chuck-It and balls in the chaos of the move.  At times, she ran far enough away to disappear.

Rosie ran the opposite direction because she can smell the marmots.  She also disappeared over the hill to a slightly busy road. I caught up with her engaged in Rosie Heaven digging madly as she got dangerously close to a road that might well lead her to Doggie Heaven.

We briefly got Lillie back into the dog run, where all the pent-up energy led to a flying leap over a three foot gate and the chase resumed.  Both were eventually persuaded to return, but it was scary.  The gate needs another foot in height.  And we call Lillie "Stubby" because she has fairly short legs.

Not over the gate.  There was about a foot between the top of the rabbit wire and the bottom rail of the fence.  She threw herself through (homonym test) the gap bending the rabbit wire enough to escape.  This time I saw the escape.

I Took a Nap

Yes, that's Lillie 's muzzle.

Water Dogs

 In the river between or new house and our old house.

Another Springer Themed Birthday Gift for My Wife

if There Was Not A Link to the Bill ..

I would dismiss this as conservative propaganda. But no, Colorado Democrats have introduced a bill to tax you $25 per pet including invertebrates.  That ant farm?  How many ants are in there. That aquarium of tropical fish?  Have you counted them recently?  Are they up on their birth control?

If This Shirt Makes No Sense ...

Look up Munch's The Scream.  Yes, our liver colored Springer Spaniel looks just like this 

T-Shirt of Shame

Rosie caught herself on some barbed wire and created a pretty serious cut on her front left leg that required stitches.  Much worse than the tear on her ear a few years ago.

The Cone of Shame kept her from licking the stitches but her rear leg was contacting it so the vet said she needed a T-shirt.

She is so well-behaved when we put her through things like this.

Lillie Pulled a Muscle

Ordinarily she can jump onto the couch or a bed with extraordinary ease.  But she seems to have pulled a muscle and cannot do that, so we got her a little bed to sleep on until she recovers her pretty amazing athleticism.

Recovery.  It was not elegant but during the night she took a flying leap, put her front paws on the top of the bed, and pulled herself onto the bed.

I Think This is the End

Tater could not even stand up anymore.   He has almost stopped eating.  He does not seem to be in pain but Rhonda is taking him to the veterinary hospital.  I doubt he will be coming back.

My kids used to think I did not like pets but really it is that I get so attached to them that when they die it hurts so much. 

I really did not want him.  My daughter got him when she was living in a no-pets apartment and Tater would sit in the window overlooking the parking lot.  So I had to go retrieve him halfway between Boise and Moscow.

Awake and dangerous:

What Tater enjoyed most:

And when a cat dreams big (yes, I am actually a Jaguar):

My wife took him to a shelter but there was something about it that reminded her too much of Auschwitz so we kept him.  He was a wonderful pet, sometimes lining up the little mouse bodies very neatly.  But shortly after the first dog arrived he became insistent on marking every part of the house.  Outside he went and he has stayed there ever since. 

He could be the most affectionate creature, crawling into my lap to get his head scratched and purring.  Even after he became an outdoor cat he remained affectionate.  I would brush him to remove matted fur and he sat their calmly, sometimes still purring, but clearly happy.

One day, my grandkids were visiting, and Tater came running through the house with a mouse wiggling in his mouth.  My granddaughter still remembers me yelling, "Tater, take that mouse out of your mouth right now!":

I miss him.

Over

Over.  No more suffering.  No more waking up in urine soaked bedding.  No more joint pain.  No more water dishes filled with toads and toad excrement. 

I will always have fond memories of him.