And With A Leap, He Exits Stage Left

A couple of weeks ago we made the decision to stop sending Ollie to dog camp. It was a lot harder for me than hubby since hubby thought that dog camp was too foo-foo-la-la anyway. Whatever. I looked at it as a way for Ollie to socialize with other dogs a couple of times a week. Especially now that we have Claire. ESPECIALLY because remembering to take him to the dog park is a lot of work for us.

The unfortunate side effect of our decision is that Ollie has been extremely rambunctious. If he doesn't get in a walk at least once a day he begins bouncing off of the walls. Nevermind if the weather is horrific for days on end. That only makes the situation worse because come that first day of sunshine he is putting on his own collar and is waiting for us to unlock the door. It must be noted that we have a fairly big backyard and Ollie has free access to it via his doggie door, but apparently that isn't enough. He is our little prince and that part of his personality has only been slapping us in the face now that Claire is older and demands more of our attention as well.

Today has been a fairly low-key day and I kept trying to get Ollie to understand that a walk wasn't going to happen. Usually one day a week we just don't do much except hang around the house and do as little as possible. Today happened to be one of those days. I don't think Ollie understood. Actually, I know he didn't understand because he left us a little surprise when we returned from grocery shopping.

It's usually known that an owner's dog gets excited when the owner comes back home and the dog will usually greet its owner at the door. Not our dog. It depends on his mood. Sometimes he'll just hang out on our bed or his bed (in our bedroom) and wait for us to approach him. Today, when we returned home we didn't get a greeting. After finishing with the groceries I head into the bedroom and notice that Ollie wasn't anywhere in sight. Red flags starting going off in my head. So I check the other rooms, then head downstairs. OY!! His doggie door was left open. This has happened before... sometimes we forgot to close his doggie door when we leave and when we return and he sees us from the yard, he'd come shooting through the door to greet us. Except this time I didn't see a flash of gray streaking through the yard. So now I run out and start calling his name. Within seconds I hear our neighbour shout "He's over here!" WHAT??!?

I run out front to meet up with our neighbour. Apparently, as she was leaving the house she saw Ollie in her driveway. She tried our house but no answer so she brought him into her house to hang out. What concerned me most is that we both noticed that the yard gates were closed, which means the buggah jumped the fence. Never has he done that before. Never in the 6 years of his life has he jumped the fence because he has always known better and honestly, he is too cautious of a dog. But I guess the lack of play is making him more bold in many ways. I'm still so angry and yet grateful that he's ok. And I am so appreciative of our neighbour for watching him.

If anything, this was a big wake-up call for us. As much as hubby dislikes my planning, I am going to plan that Ollie is taken to the dog park no less than twice a week so he can play with other pups and get his energy out because I can't have this happen again. It's also a note for us to replace our back fence too. See, after this past winters intense snow bombing (5 feet dumped in a weeks time), the weight of the snow destroyed our fence so it's now easier for him to jump it if he is so inclined. And now he is inclined too.

argh.

Rainy Days Make for Great Hiding Spots

The past 2 days have been gray and rainy. Not much fun when mamma, baby and dog LOVE being outdoors. Luckily we had a bit of a reprieve today, but yesterday-- yikes! Talk about cabin fever! At one point we all were looking at one another with shifty eyes, just daring the other to do something annoying. All we needed was a tiny prod and *BAM* we'd be all over the instigator giving her what-for.

Eight hours into our day, and Ollie had enough of the house, us... life! It was his birthday after all and had expected to be treated like royalty. Oh wait. He expects that treatment every day so it wasn't anything new. Claire had woken up a bit cranky from her nap so I was doing my best to keep her happy and myself calm so as not to go mental. Ollie realized that his needs were not going to be met and kind of disappeared. I think at one point I heard him go in and out of his doggie door approximately 12 times in 10 minutes.

Fast forward to early evening. Dadda's home! WEEEEEE!!! Claire's happy. Ollie runs in from outside, ecstatic. Dadda notes how muddy Ollie's nose was, which we know means he was out burying or re-burying something. After the greetings, dadda begins his evening ritual that includes putting on his house slippers. But wait-a-minute. One slipper is missing. Uh-oh. Only one of the 2 non-adult mammals could have done something with it and since I was constantly with Claire post-nap, the remaining 4-legged mammal was our prime suspect.

I suggested dadda get his rain gear on and check out back to see whether Ollie had buried his slipper. After searching in the rain, dadda re-enters the house and gives the house another look through. That was frustrating. Next it's mamma's turn. After I gear up, we all somehow end up in the yard looking around. That search also ended up in a big F.A.I.L. Ok, break time. Let's get some dinner.

Being that I couldn't give up quite yet, I went back outside while dadda and Claire ate their meal. Slowly I make my way around the yard. I'm about 3/4 of the way done when I happened to catch something out of the corner of my eye. I do a double take on the stump of the honey suckle tree (Side note: our beautiful tree had to be chopped because the 5 feet of snow we were hit with in 1 week completely destroyed the tree. *sniff* It will be missed). Where was I? Oh yeah, so I do a double take on the stump and I notice that the dirt had 2 different shades of brown, and the lighter brown had a very distinct shape. Well, well, well. I guess Ollie wasn't burying a bone after all and boy! Did he do an awesome job burying the slipper. Never have I seen Ollie bury anything -- be it bone, rawhide, sock, or ball -- so well! Impressive. He must have really wanted dadda's attention.

So now the slipper has been recovered, but totally unwearable. We managed to shake most of the dirt off/out of it and then left it to dry so that it could be dusted again. And wouldn't you know it, this morning while I was eating breakfast I hear Ollie running in and out of his doggie door. It sounded like he was struggling to get through the door and at the same time was crying. Suddenly I remembered that one of Claire's stuffies was lying on the floor downstairs and a million-to-one Ollie thought he could take it and bury it. I ran downstairs to find Ollie walking around nervously with the stuffie in his mouth. Good grief! Thank goodness I was able to rescue the stuffie in time. I didn't want to see it reach the same fate as dadda's slipper.