New Year's Day

We all slept in this morning, so we were late going to doggie park, but we finally had some friends there to play with! There were a 21 mo. old chocolate and two Wheaten Terriers. Kevin ran around with them as if he were a puppy too!



I am convinced that dogs know their own breed and even their color. Guinness always seems very happy to meet another lab, and especially a chocolate one!



Kevin brought two sticks in the car. He opened the little door between the back seat and the rear so that Guinness saw the sticks. Guinness forced his big body through that little hole to get the sticks. ugh.



Kevin chose Christmas carols for me to play on the piano and he sang along with me. At one point, I turned around and he was hugging Guinness, so I grabbed my camera. I couldn't choose one; I had to post four!

A Boy and a Dog at Doggie Park

We started the day with doggie park. Guinness's friends did not come today.

Kevin found a long stick to play with...

...until Guinness broke it in two.

King Guinness

Kevin watched some old Christmas VHS videos that we taped from TV for his Mommy and uncle back in the early 1980s. They are still as good now as they were then! ha! And Guinness enjoyed watching them too from his perch on the bed!


I thought I had trouble keeping stuffed animals on the stairs as a Christmas decoration with Guinness around! Kevin collected them, plus other toys too, and put them on the bed with Guinness.

Kevin Has Come to Play for a Week!

Kevin spent the morning coloring with crayons and markers. Guinness eagerly watched hoping to have some fun with this cute boy.

Kevin and I prepared the sandwiches for lunch and placed them on the table in the dining room, then returned to the kitchen to begin making Rice Krispie Treats while waiting for Grampy to come home. We heard a commotion, ran to the dining room to find that Guinness had eaten Kevin's sandwich and had the napkin in his mouth. I tried to snap a picture of this goofy dog, but he runs pretty fast, though you can see the Christmas napkin in his mouth. I guess that tells us that Guinness sees himself higher in the pecking order than Kevin!

Christmas Dog

Since the kids were young, I have decorated the stairs with Christmas-related stuffed animals. But, with Guinness, there is no way he would leave them alone. This year, I decided to put HIS stuffed animals on the stairs rather than have none! It worked very well! Sometimes he would play with one or two, but there were no chase games, because it didn't matter. I posed him with the animals today, and he was more than willing!

Do you see the stem on the floor? Guinness's doings... He has done that twice now -- pulled a stem out of the garland decorations. sigh But no big deal; I just push it back in.

Our Best Friends

Doggie Park has changed in the past few months. One friend moved away. Others' schedules have changed. Instead of meeting at 7 AM, there is a new grouping that meets at 8:30. Most of them are Goldens -- four or five of them! Our old friend Holly is among them. Also Frank the candyman and Mad Mattie, a barking Border Collie, usually make an appearance. Often, Guinness is the only dark dog. A couple of days ago, a 6 month chocolate came. He and Guinness had great fun running! I am convinced they know their own breed!

This morning, the ground was coated with glittering, soft, cotton fluff snow. I hoped that the flashing diamonds in the snow would show up in the pictures. The view down the bike path was fairy-like with bright sun and twinkling snow. You'll have to take my word for it.


Today, there were only Holly, Wilson, and Guinness. A little fluffy dog stopped by for a few minutes. Here Guinness is begging his master for a treat.

Guinness is making a bee-line to grab my mitten. He spends much of his playtime stealing my mittens surreptitiously. He immediately is treated so that I can have a warm hand as soon as possible!

Holly and Wilson love to wrestle! Guinness only wrestles with Marley, a large Golden who has an uncanny resemblance to Aslan from Narnia, but he was not there today.

Guinness spies a dog entering the ballpark.

It is a dog that does not like other dogs, but Guinness seems to be blind to who the dog is until he runs up to him. Wilson wants to check him out too.

One of them finds a stick and they have a tug-of-war.

Holly comes along too, and it is a threesome!

Guinness relinquishes the find to his friends.

At home, I manage to snap a shot showing the snow jewels! Click to enlarge.

While I clean up the yard, Guinness cleans up where I spilled birdseed yesterday.

New Trick

For the last month or so, Guinness has found something to do while we are out of the house to let us know his displeasure at being left behind. Unless the weather is too hot or too cold, or for a convenience reason, he usually does travel everywhere with me.

No harm done. It's actually kind of cute. (You have to be a dog lover to say that! LOL)

Leaving NC

Kevin has a "jungle gym" bed. He climbs a ladder to the bed, which has play space beneath the bed, and glides down a slide to leave his bed. This morning, Guinness shot up the slide and was on top of Kevin's bed!!! What a goof!!! He certainly loves having a child to play with!!!

We had to say goodbye this morning. Kevin cried and Grandma did too! What a sweet boy! Somehow or other, Grandma and Grandpa need to move closer!!!

In spite of rain in our eyes, the skies were cloudless and beautiful! My new SUV has a humongous sunroof so that it is almost a convertible! Guinness loves it!

Black Friday

We spent Thanksgiving with Steve and Kevin in NC. While Grant, Kevin, and I were out shopping, Steve was home alone with Guinness. Steve was working upstairs and heard some noise downstairs, but did not investigate. When he returned to the kitchen, this is what he found --

I think he looks INNOCENT!!!!

Thanksgiving Day

Kevin was VERY tired last night, got to bed late again, and we hoped he would sleep in. Not! The day began with Guinness awakening at 7 AM, wandering into Kevin's room, and licking Kevin's hand. He awoke happy, but not impressed with the lick.



We saw two deer in the backyard today. Here is one.

Guinness Arrives in NC

Grant and Guinness arrived today for the Thanksgiving holiday!
Guinness is loving his big brother. ;-)

And, of course, his cousin Kevin!!!

Funny Dog

Even though he does give me my shoes now when I ask, that does indicate that he still does steal my shoes. Cousin Vanessa was here today. He brought my shoe to her, I guess, hoping that she would play with him and try to take it from him. He definitely keeps us laughing.

Towels

Our pod coffee maker has started leaking. Until we replace it, I placed a towel under it to absorb the excess water. As you may remember, we cannot keep towels on a towel rack, because he pulls them off and hugs them. He also pulls them out of the laundry hamper. It never occurred to me that he would pull it out from under the coffee pot. So who is the dumb one here?

Enjoying the towel.

Wildlife

We have plenty of wildlife around us. Maybe a bit too much!

Our pest control person told me that this "mouse poo" I found is most likely bat poo! He must be roosting in our soffit. Not good.

Then this pastoral picture is in our backyard. Now that the leaves are coming off the trees, we can see the raccoons better -- in the hole and one in the crook of the tree.

These adorable raccoons won't leave my bird feeders alone.

They knocked them down even though I had them on an enclosed hook, they were able to open the hook and remove the feeders. I will have to wait until they hibernate to feed the birds.

Unpacking

I was a bit slow in unpacking my suitcase from the weekend, so Guinness helped me. He took out my new Halloween T-shirt.

The Model

Guinness did some modeling in our yard today -- displaying his exquisite form.

The Good and the Bad

Now that Guinness has regained his freedom, his behavior has changed in the intervening four months of rehabilitation -- some things for the better, some not.

The Good:
1) He still likes to play the reverse retrieve game, but he gives up the object quite readily. Thus, now we can keep our outdoor shoes at the door instead of on top of a cabinet!
2) He has a "job" for the first time! When I gather up the dark clothes to take down to the laundry room, invariably there is a sock dangling and Guinness grabs it. Now I can coax him to come along with me downstairs, carrying the sock, and he willingly gives it up to go in the washer! So now his job is to help carry the laundry downstairs! :)
3) He has not pulled the placemats off the table! I can actually leave them there between meals!


The Bad:
1) He has forgotten what "side" means while walking (that is the term we use for "heel"). He is much more forceful about wanting to charge ahead on a walk.
2) He is quite vocal when he sees a dog on the street. He sounds like a vicious dog because he is so adamant that he wants to play, and barks and barks while jumping at the end of his leash. Not good... He is not making favorable impressions.
3) There is no improvement in towels on towel racks. He still pulls them off.

Lonely

This morning, we walked to our unofficial doggie park beside a bike path. Over the summer, our group has broken up. Riley moved away a couple of weeks ago. Everyone else's schedules have changed so that they do not arrive at doggie park at the same time. We walked around the baseball diamond then started walking in front of the row of evergreens, when he sat down in the field just beyond the ballfield and stared at the horizon of the bikepath from where Riley and Mattie would arrive. He sat there keenly alert and motionless for about 2 minutes before I called him away!!!! He is missing his friends! Sad.

Crazy, Then Relaxed

Today is the first day in four months that he has been allowed to go to doggie park to see his friends. Our group seems to be dwindling with different schedules plus Riley will be moving away next week. Today only Riley and Smartie were there, but, boy, was Guinness happy to see them! Not sure they were as thrilled. When I let him off leash, he ran like a crazy man around them making a huge circle as fast as he could go -- just like he did on May 19 when he blew his knee. I thought I should snap his leash back on before he does any damage, so he didn't even get his 5 minutes of allotted freedom.

When we arrived home, he was content to lie in the yard, so I left him there for a couple of hours. During that time, a UPS man came to our door, passing Guinness beside the patio. Amazingly, he didn't go crazy. He lay there like a perfect gentleman. I had to take his picture to prove it.

Recovery at 16 Weeks

Today was our final post-op check at the vet college. Again, Guinness was very happy when we turned on Route 6. Again, a half hour later and two blocks from the veterinary college, Guinness was dancing his happy dance!

Two German shepherds parked beside us as we arrived and everyone got out of the cars together. Guinness's "I want to get to know you and play" barks sent the Shepherds into "Don't you dare come near us!" barks. I had to have the lemon in my hand and threaten him with it repeatedly to slow down the barking. We entered the waiting room, and it was a challenge to to be heard at the check-in window above his excitement.

We arrived on time, but had to wait an hour before Guinness was ever called. The intern checked his leg, and we conversed a bit about his progress. He informed me that they needed to do more X-rays, and I pleaded that they not over medicate him as they did last time. He told me that overly excited dogs sometimes react more acutely to sedation. An hour and a half later, the intern said that he would be ready in 10 minutes for me to talk to the doctor. 45 minutes later, I was finally called. When we left, we had been there a total of FOUR hours!!!! And I came without a book to read.

Our instructions for now are -- only 5 minutes per day of playing off leash, limited stair useage, and no jumping in and out of the car. He said that going up stairs is easier for him than going down, but it is rather difficult to traverse stairs only in one direction. We left with a clean bill of health!

Life's Embarrassing Moments

Today, we drove to Chautauqua to check out houses available for rent next summer. We stopped in Mayville at The House on the Hill for brunch. Grant parked under a tree to give Guinny some shade, then we walked him around the property for a potty break. When Grant put him back in the car, he removed his leash. I asked why. He said, "I don't want him to get caught and hurt."
"Well, *I* would have left the leash ON."
As we bantered, Guinness jumped OUT, ran straight to the back door/kitchen door of the restaurant and ran THROUGH the already broken screen!!!! Oh, my.... There I am screaming at the top of my lungs, "Guinness!!!! Come!!! Stop!!!" The cook was quick! He grabbed Guinness's collar and brought him to me.
No harm done. Thank goodness!!!

After lunch, I saw the young man standing on the back porch. I apologized to him profusely and asked to take a picture for Guinness's blog. He said, "Don't worry about it. That is the most fun thing that will happen today!" For sure. Glad it was fun!!!