Fall Colours

Walking with the dog on a beautiful fall morning. Sun was shining and the temperature wasn't too cool!

Digging in the Snow

Cheeky, our dog, is enjoying the winter. She loves bounding through the snow, although sometimes her hips give her some trouble and she finds it difficult to pull herself out of the deep snow.

She also seems to have a great nose or maybe it's ears, as she often hears gophers and mice under the snow. It's not uncommon for her to start digging in the snow in the park by our house, right where I know there is a gopher hole in the summer.

Recently she did some digging when out for a walk with our friend and her dog, Conan.

I don't know what we'll do when she can no longer pull herself out of the drifts, they give her so much pleasure.

Maybe tomorrow she'll find a rabbit to chase. (Don't worry, she'll never catch it.)

Walking home from the park. It's beautiful!

Animal Friendships

Animal friendships are simply wonderful.

Our dog, Cheeky is good friends with a number of different dogs in the neighbourhood. Her very best friend is Conan, a beagle. Cheeky and Conan love to run together. When I take Cheeky out and say we are going to get Conan for a walk she immediately turns toward his house.

The family of a former student of mine has a great dog that adopted a baby crow one summer. Their dog found the crow at the edge of their yard. She wouldn't come in the house, but instead stayed by the baby crow guarding it. She 'took care' of the crow for the entire summer. The family taught the crow how to fly and their dog let her go by the end of the summer.

There are many stories of animal friendships out there. This video tells the story of Tarra and Bella, a dog and an elephant.

Dogs who Hug

Does your dog hug?

I think ours does. Take a look at her front legs wrapped around her 'baby.'

This is Cheeky's standard pose for 'nap time.' When she was a new puppy, her toys would be unstuffed within minutes.

She hasn't unstuffed a toy for  years. Now she hugs them and eventually when she gets tired her head will drift down to rest on her toy. She may also take its snout in her mouth and fall asleep with it in her mouth....you'd almost think it was a soother.

Pet Giggles

Funny pet pictures:

The first picture comes complements of my friend. Her dog is very compliant. He allowed her to put motorcycle goggles on him and then he stayed in a motorcycle compartment without jumping out. He's amazing! My dog would never let me do that!

Here are a couple more pictures I found on the web.

Pet Therapy

Pets are the absolute BEST! I've written about my dog before, and I can't say enough about having a great dog. Our dog, Cheeky, is beautiful and generally well-mannered. She is a mutt, a lab cross, and probably not every one's 'beauty.' But she's ours.

The summer she turned one, our other dog, Lady, broke her hip and became paralized. She could not be healed and we had to let her go. Lady was a super smart dog. She was a gentle, well-mannered border collie cross, a pure bred farm dog. We could let Lady off leash anywhere, in the middle of lots of dogs or a supermarket of raw meat and she still would have come when we called.

Lady was the alpha of the Cheeky and Lady pair. So much so, that when we lost her we were very surprised to learn how much she influenced Cheeky. All along through her first year, we'd thought that Cheeky was listening to us. However, within days of losing Lady we discovered that Cheeky didn't have a clue about what we were saying. Sit, stay, come, even her name meant nothing. She'd taken all of her clues from Lady.

At  first, before we figured this out, we started to wonder if Cheeky was actually a bit stupid. Luckily we didn't write her off and make that judgment hastily. Within a few weeks she was able to obey all of the commands that Lady had, plus more. The funny thing is that since we're now a one dog family we tend to talk to her a lot more. I talk to her as if she should understand everything I say. 

What that has translated to is a dog who understands more words than we could have ever imagined. Even when I spell the word walk she understands. Her vocabulary has really gotten quite large.

Cheeky is also a stubborn dog. She's getting older and has arthritis. She knows exactly how far she'd like to walk and when we get to her limit she turns around and won't go any further. She isn't fond of small dogs who are yappy, although there are a few neighbour dogs who are very good friends of hers. She is always very happy to see them. Those small yappy dogs are ones she used to be ones she'd be patient for, but now she just turns up her nose and walks away. If they keep on following her she barks at them.

Cheeky also loves kids. Even though she does have pain in her hip she always lets kids pet her and hug her. She doesn't seem to mind them at all. There are a few that catch a school bus right on our corner. She loves to watch them out our living room window and if one of us is home during the day, she seems to know the right time to be out on the front steps so that she can be there for pets from the kids.

Even though she has a limit as to how far she'll walk these days, Cheeky is also great for me. With her arthritis we always make sure that she gets two walks a day. We usually take her for at least a half hour walk in the morning and after work. That way I get out for at least a half an hour a day, minimum, too. When it isn't too hot out, she's comfortable walking farther. When she can't walk too far I often bring her home and then I take a longer walk without her.

Cheeky doesn't let her arthritis stop her from stalking squirrels, either. She's never caught one, but she loves to chase them and if we let her she'd sit at the base of a tree staring up at one for the whole day if we let her. She also likes to sniff out gophers and dig in their holes until her head has disappeared into the gigantic hole she's made.

She also doesn't mind if I write a post about her, or put her picture up, even if her eyes look kind of funny in the one picture. :-)

Cheeky

Cheeky is 8 years old and is a special part of our lives. One of her favourite things to do is to settle in front of the tv and catch a show. She's not big on sitcoms or action, preferring nature shows and just about anything that has animals.

Tonight it's America's Funniest Home Videos. Dogs behaving badly really make her mad. She is our great protector from all things animal...on the tv.
Cheeky is also a big softy. She usually falls asleep with one of her stuffed toys in her mouth...she has a few. We believe she has some Lab in her, hence the need to have things in her mouth.
Cheeky is a good judge of character............she is always happy to see us.
I want to be the kind of person my dog thinks I am. Bo Johnson