"Mousie"

As you all may know, our Poly is a great hunting dog, who has only barked through the fence and under the shed at the animals that were in the yard. This all changed this morning on the dogs first trip outside to do their "business".  Poly did her normal policing of the fence line around the whole yard and her customary trip around the shed just to make sure that the groundhogs and bunnies were in their rightful places. On one of her trips to the corner of the yard, where we have had to place bricks to keep her from digging a hole under the fence, something caught her eyes (or nose).  All I could see from my vantage point at the back door was her fiercely digging in the ground and poking her nose into the corner of the yard. She then went under the tree, which is also in the corner, to pick something up.  She then trotted over to the middle of the yard, proudly holding in her mouth the prize.  She dropped it near our patio, and then went to do her business.  Casey meandered over to investigate and ceremonially "marked" the area for himself after sniffing what it was.  At this point, I walked outside to see what prize she had so lovingly captured for us, and I discovered it was a recently deceased mouse.  What a good hunter we have!  She then picked it up again (by the tail) and did a victory lap in a small circle before dropping it again.  I let them enjoy their fun for a few minutes and then quietly deposited the catch in the trash when they were not looking any longer.

-Keith

Bully

Casey is a bully.  Period.  If Poly is sitting somewhere and Casey wants to be there, he will go and plop himself down, often sitting on her head.  He weighs about twice as much as her and knows it.  She gets her own "bully-ish" time in.  I often catch her biting at his legs.  They play rough and she regularly instigates.  He returns the favor by biting at her legs, too.  When she is feeling playful and he is not, he will go and seek refuge in his crate.  However, more often than not, he is the bully.

Groundhog

I've mentioned before that there is a groundhog which lives under our shed (along with a bunny).  Well this week, the groundhog has been taunting Casey and Poly.  It has been coming out from beneath the fence and wandering around the yard.  Poly sees this and barks her little head off, begging to go outside.  Casey recognizes her "there is a creature in our yard" bard and joins her at the back door.  Once, Casey jumped a good 4+ feet in the air out of excitement.  I've never seen him jump so high.


Before they go outside, they must first sit.  Poly is famous for putting her rear on the ground for a milli-second and looking at us, as if to say "what?  I sat!"  I then open and close the sliding door a few inches to let the critter know that it needs to return under the shed or slide under the turkey wire into the neighbor's yard.  So, Casey and Poly then race each other, taking off at full speed, for the shed.  They both try to fit as much of their bodies underneath as they can; they also like to dig at the rocks on which the shed sits and kick them into the yard.


It is difficult to get them both to come inside after they have spotted the groundhog or bunny.  This continues for several trips outside, sometimes into the next day.  They become totally obsessed!  If left inside, Poly will continue to bark, sometimes for more than an hour... even if she is locked out of the kitchen where the sliding glass door is.  She is one determined little thing!  Casey isn't totally innocent in this adventure.  He will also bark, but is more apt to quiet down when distracted from the door.  He does run from me if I attempt to grab him and bring him inside.  Poly does as well, but we have her dragging around a leash so she has become far easier to catch.


I have to wonder if the groundhog and bunny will ever get the point that there are crazy dogs living in our home and that they need to find someplace else to  reside rather than under our shed.  I can keep wishing...!

Mud

I took the dogs out bright and early this morning to find the ground wet.  This didn't bother Casey or Poly.  They both took off in the mud for the shed, to further investigate the bunny or groundhog living underneath it.  Poly proceeded to kick the stones out from under and onto the grass; we all learned that she fits between the shed and one side of the railroad tie walls surrounding it on 3 sides.  Casey took some of his time out there to DIG!  In the mud!!  It was right next to the door, too, so he didn't walk on the grass, so no opportunity to wipe it off onto the grass.


When he came inside, Casey was very good about sitting down on a towel and letting me wipe all 4 of his paws off.  I was surprised, since usually he is more interested in getting his muddy toes all over the living room carpet.  Yay Casey!  Poly was slightly less cooperative, yet still allowed Keith to clean off her paws.


Keith and I went to the pet store today and got a bag of treats for them - a kind they had never tried.  It was chicken jerky.  These guys love -- LOVE chicken!  Sometimes they get cut up breasts on top of their dog food.  Well, this jerky was no different.  It disappeared in no time at all!!  Casey ate the crumbs which fell from Poly's; she went over to where he was eating his, but there were no crumbs left on the floor, much to her disappointment.


Now, they are sound asleep, tired from another jaunt outside.  Oh, the life of our pups...

Bunny

There is a bunny (or several) living under the shed in our back yard.  Poly knows this and often spends her time outside trying to "befriend"  the little creature.  It's especially fun at 6:30 in the morning as she barks her little head off, running away from me in circles around the shed.  This morning Casey also wanted to "play" with the bunny.  My neighbors are going to turn us in for disturbing the peace.


Later in the morning, after Casey and Poly had finally come inside, they started barking again.  I went into the kitchen to check it out and saw that the bunny was in our neighbor's yard.  The pups saw it, too.  One morning I saw the little thing run across our yard with Poly chasing after him.  How is he possibly faster than she is?  I'm just glad to not get a "gift" from Poly!


Anyone out there interested in a bunny or two?  How about a possum?  Keith has seen one of those come from under the shed, too.  If I can catch Poly, I can catch the little rodent.

Fireworks

Yesterday was the 4th of July.  This is NOT Poly's favorite holiday.  While she loves having her Daddy home, she is certainly less than a fan of what this day means: fireworks.  Sure it's not as if we live next door to a fireworks location, we're close enough to a couple that she hears the BANG, BOOM and CRASH that they make.


We give her an all-natural remedy, albeit not exciting to her.  Last night, Keith gave it to her in a plate of pepperoni (I know, I know, an all-natural product in a very processed food); of course he had to give Casey a plate of pepperoni, too!  She wound up falling asleep during the displays.  Later, after Keith had come to bed, there was a thunderstorm and the noise of the storm affects her in the same way as fireworks.  She didn't bark or anything and made it through ok.  Let's hope she slept through the storm, too.  It's awful to see her when she's so scared by loud noises.  She just sits and trembles.  Sleep is good, sleep is very good.

Heat Wave

Today it was 99 degrees.  99 flipping degrees.  And muggy!  What did Poly and Casey want to do?  Lay in the grass... especially with the heat of the afternoon sun in the back yard.  Now, I was about dying standing out there for 5 mins and I'm not wearing a fur coat.  Casey even refused to come in a couple of times.  Even when they did come in, I couldn't get them to drink some water to try to alleviate some of that panting.  They both did spend some time on the non-carpeted floor, so I hope that was cool for them.


Once cooling off, both were sure to hop right onto the sofa/love seat to nap for hours on end.  It's just too hot for anything else.  They did finally drink some water, too.  It's as if they are being defiant teenagers; "No, I won't drink the water.  You can't make me!"


We got them one of those hard plastic kiddie pools.  Casey peed on (and in) it and Poly has NO interest.  We bought a couple of dog water toys, both made by Kong.  

Casey would go in to "rescue" the water Wubba, but climbed right back out after saving it.  I had hoped the pool would offer them some relief from the heat, but can't - won't - force them into it.


We were away for about a week last month and the pups went to stay at a Day Care/Boarding place.  Mr. Jim, the owner of this place, told us that he had introduced Casey and Poly to the kiddie pool with the same results... Casey hesitantly put his front toes in and Poly steered clear.  Today, Poly was slightly intrigued when I was "knocking" on the pool, but never got closer than about a foot away.  Maybe by the end of summer the two of them will realize the advantages of refreshing pool water.