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A fun photo from Pet Day 2009.  They had someone on site to take family portraits.  Awww…

It’s kind of a stretch to call Good Dog. Stay a book.  It’s only about 90 pages in length.  And more than half the pages are pictures.

It is a story about a dog’s life.  A eulogy for a loyal companion.

There is a lot of truth in this short book.  Quindlen weaves the story of her family into the phases of her dog’s life, and there is much we can all relate to.

It is a very touching story.  As others i’ve talked to about this book have said, it reminded me of my own dog.

Two of my favorite quotes from the book:

“There are few things more pitiable than the sight of a full grown Labrador with only his tail and his back end visible from beneath the dust ruffle on the bed.”  This SO describes our dog.

“Any parents who believe that they themselves will not wind up walking the dog the most, if not all, of the time - especially in a downpour or sleet storm - are parents who will also believe that there is no homework over winter break and that the cigarettes belonged to someone else.”  This made me laugh because my mom always got after us kids about not taking care of the dog like we were supposed to.  And she also believed the cigarettes belonged to someone else.

I think most dog lovers will enjoy this book.

Our dog, Nugent, is not a smart puppy.

In our house, we have a circular area. But if you close one of the doors, Nugent cannot figure out that he just has to go around the other way. If a door is slightly ajar and he can see through it, he hasn’t figured out that he can just nose it open. He’s afraid of the ceiling. He can’t even fetch.

However, that dog always knows when he’s getting a bath.

Where he usually follows us around the house, especially when both of us are in one place, he runs and hides when it’s bathtime. We’ll call him, he comes, he takes one look, gives us the “i don’t think so!” look, turns around, and goes back downstairs.

I’m not sure how he knows. I’m sure there are plenty of cues, such as the towel, and both humans in the bathroom at the same time, and maybe he even knows the word ‘bath’. It just strikes me as funny every time.

notable events from the 3-day weekend at lake keowee in south carolina with my family:

* my 5-year old cousin, who refused to ride a jet-ski with anyone other than Her Dad (who was not there), consented to ride with me.  i felt honored and trusted.  after her first ride, she wanted another ride.  and then, even after i flipped the thing while she was riding behind me, she still trusted me and wanted to ride with me again.  and she still would not ride with anyone else.  i’m not sure how i earned this sacred trust, but i’ll take it.

* the dog puked in my car on the way to the lake.  poor baby, i felt so sorry for him.  on the way home, he puked three times.  i began to feel a little less sorry for him. 
(thank you, lance, for cleaning up that mess.)

* i learned that i will never understand stereo equipment.  i cannot hook up a dvd player and/or receiver to a tv with any good results.

* i attained a severe sunburn on the tops of my feet.  and on my legs above the knees, but that is tolerable.  the burn on the feet superbly sucks, because all shoes rub them in a discomfortable manner.

* my grandmother asked me point-blank if i believed that Jesus was my savior.  this was pretty traumatic - my entire family is of the fanatical fundamentalist sect (as in, the world really is only 4000 years old), and it is simply not acceptable to believe differently.  i have spent 10 years of my life just trying to avoid talking about it.  because there is no middle ground.  there is no agree to disagree.  there is only “you must believe this or else you will burn in hell forever and won’t be in heaven with us”.  since my parents have already heard the disappointing news, i saw no need to lie to the family matriarch.  in return for my honesty, i received a sermon, with the requisite “you will be cast away to burn in hell” and finally was able to extract myself and run away.  i avoided her the rest of the weekend.

* my mother cried when it was time for me & my two brothers to leave sunday afternoon.  no matter how much time we spend, it’s never enough.  all she can see is the time we don’t choose to spend with her.  i wish she could rejoice that she has three independent children with happy lives and good relationships, who all 3 love their parents and bother to take time off work to come home and spend time with her.  but i think the part about 2/3 of us burning in hell forever always overwhelms her during goodbyes.

despite the depressing nature of the final two points, it really was a fun weekend with lots of downtime and quality time with family and love and laughter and lots of water sports and splashing and stories and bonding.

As i mentioned a few posts ago, on Friday we opened our home to two dogs, Sam(antha) & Ted, as a favor to a friend who had surgery a few weeks ago. At the time i posted, her dogs and our dog had seemed to accept each other’s existence, but weren’t exactly playing together.

Saturday night, my brother Nathan brought his dog, Dakota, into the mix, just for the evening. She’s a sweet girl, although she can’t hold her water that well.

It is now just after noon on Sunday, and we are back down to just our one sweet doggie, Nugent. Nathan of course took Dakota home with him when he left last night. What happened to Sam & Ted? Well, here are a few incidents that occured:

- Ted, the more dominant of the two visiting dogs, was pretty aggressive toward Nugent the entire time. Whenever Nugent would come near, especially under the table, Ted would growl at him incessantly.

- Sam & Ted both jumped onto the bed Friday night as we were getting ready for bed, fully expecting to be able to sleep there. I told them “Off” and “Down”. They both just growled at me and moved toward the center of the bed! Ted is smaller, so he was easier to push off, but Sam is probably 35 pounds, and she did NOT want to get off the bed. Once off the bed, she kept trying to get back on the bed. Even cleverly waiting until she thought we were asleep to jump up.

- Sam & Ted both barked at the slightest sounds all night long. My parents were staying in the next room — people get up in the night to use the restroom. Bark bark bark bark. “SHUT UP!”

- During that first night, Lance steadily got more and more sick to his head, allergy-like symptoms. They were pretty frigging bad at about 4:30 in the morning. He took some medicine, but was pretty miserable all day Saturday.

- Saturday night, because he was feeling bad, Lance crashed kind of early. At some point, Sam went in and climbed on the bed with him. We had decided the dogs would NOT be sleeping in the bedroom anymore and would instead be sleeping in their kennels. Again she would not get off the bed, only this time, Lance was lying somewhat helplessly on the bed. She snapped at me, and then scrambled “behind” Lance to hide herself from me so i couldn’t reach her. Lance happened to be facing away from me, so she was snarling, barking and snapping at me literally in front of his FACE. Pretty scary for him. Once off the bed, I brought her downstairs to kennel up and she refused to. She ran away from me for awhile until i got her leash. She let me put that on her (probably thought we were going for a walk!) and then i was able to get her into her kennel. Geez!

- Sam was really aggressive about food. Nugent’s kind of a slow eater (he’s not used to having other dogs around that will gobble up his portion), while Sam wolfed hers down. I realized what was about to happen, so i sort of stood guard by Nugent so he could eat in peace. Sam repeatedly tried to dart past me, despite my actively saying “No” and blocking her attempts.

- Ted was aggressive toward Nathan’s dog, Dakota, on Saturday night, in a similar fashion as how he is with Nugent. Under the table, during dinner, he went for Dakota big time, but missed and bit/scratched my Dad instead. Nothing serious, but come on!

- Twice Saturday evening, during the big family gathering, we found big puddles of dog pee around the house. I suspected Dakota at the time, but no one dog could be blamed since there were four of them. Dakota being the only dog with a known history of doing this, it probably WAS her. However…

- This morning, Lance was watching TV, and Ted nonchalantly walked up to the TV stand, lifted his leg, and emtied his bladder.

So, what happened to Sam & Ted? No, i didn’t kill them, though i was sore tempted. They are back with their mommy, who would have preferred to have a dogless recovery a little while longer, but thinks she can handle them. She has our number if she needs help delivering them to a kennel for a short stay.

I’m really not sure what happened here. If we hadn’t just recently had a VERY pleasant dog-sitting experience with another dog, i might think this was our fault somehow. Maybe we could have done more, like maybe we should have done more to “establish dominance” or something. We both LOVE dogs, and never imagined having this kind of trouble with them. Anyway, Lance’s allergies were bad enough that i’m not going to analyze it too much - we simply can’t keep them if one of us is going to be miserable.

And so, now we have only one doggie. And he is so sweet, never pees inside, never growls or snarls at us, listens when we say No, and loves to cuddle. I love him even more now that i see what he is not.

The week before we left for the holidays, we dog-sat for one friend. She had one dog, who was sweet. Nugent loved having her around. At least i think so - they wrestled a lot, but it seemed good natured.

We returned to Raleigh the day after Christmas, and today, we have expanded our family once again for a short time. This other friend we are dog-sitting for has two sweet dogs. It seems they have made friends with Nugent. They’re not interacting as well — maybe “three is a crowd” applies to dogs too.

But, things are about to get even MORE interesting, because my family is at this very moment converging on our house. Two parents and two brothers, in 3 separate vehicles. And one brother is bringing his dog, too! So there will be even more furry friends to play with.

I think it’s good for Nugent to soclalize with other dogs, but i will be quite glad when this bout of dog-sitting is over. I already have one dog driving me crazy with dog hair, although i’ve been able to mostly get that under control. Three dogs, though, might end up being too much.

Because of work, i couldn’t stay at the beach for the entire week, so i returned midweek while Lance and Nugent stayed with the family.  So i drove home alone.  It was a good drive, full of loud music and chatting on the phone, but i was glad when it was over and i was pulling into the driveway.  It’s always a comfort to return to your home and its familiar surroundings.

Or is it?  This is the first time i have experienced this house as totally empty.  Lance is usually there, too, but Nugent in particular has always been a total constant.  It’s strange that he’s not there!  I found myself listening for the pup’s feet clatter over the floor.  I checked his food bowl to see if he’d eaten.  I looked outside to see if he wanted to come inside.  I would catch myself doing these things automatically and marvel at how very quickly i have become acclimated to living with a pet.