Bad Weather and Active Pets

Fall and winter in the Pacific Northwest often means rain. And rain means MUD! There are days I want to walk my dogs in hip boots and a full-length coat (at least I have the coat, in a muddish shade of brown so the splatters don’t show). There are some days I don’t want to leave the house at all. Lally (my boxer mix) is the same way! She’s a funny little girl: she hates the rain, and hates getting wet. On days when the skyfall is constant, it’s hard to get her more than a few steps outside the … Continue reading →

Dogs and Cats Living Together: Gate Jumpers

In my six month update, I mentioned one of my worst fears: that one of my roommates’ cats will jump the gate and encounter the dogs. Well, it’s happened. Twice. A quick background for new readers: in January, I moved in with roommates. Roommates who have cats. I have two dogs who are known cat chasers, at least when we’re outside. The cats and dogs are kept separate thanks to a baby gate. I wasn’t home for the first gate jumping experience, but here’s the story: Kachiko hopped the gate and wandered into the office, looking for roommate M., her … Continue reading →

Moose vs. the Patio Door

My dog Moose learned a new trick this week… one nobody taught him. I’ll start by saying that Moose doesn’t seem to be the smartest dog out there. When I first adopted him in January 2004, he was a handful. He didn’t answer to his name, he didn’t really know any commands, and he had very few boundaries. But over the years together, I’ve learned that Moose can be very clever when he wants to be. I already knew he could open doors — on more than one occasion, he’s managed to push the handle down on the bathroom door … Continue reading →

Adventures of the Brown Ninja

I forget how sneaky and quick my dog Moose can be. Most of the time, he’s a slow-moving object. (He isn’t nicknamed “Speed Bumpy” for nothing!) But the other morning he pulled a fast one on me, earning a new nickname: the Brown Ninja. Moose always eats his breakfast the second the bowl hits the floor. I don’t have to worry about him starving! My other dog, on the other hand, is a very picky eater. If she doesn’t eat her meal within the first five minutes or so, I have to pick up the bowl or Moose will eat … Continue reading →

Spring Fever: Moose’s Version

My shepherd mix Moose is handling the change of seasons very differently from my boxer mix Lally. Lally welcomed spring with an allergy attack of massive proportions. She’s been to the vet three times, taken steroids, antihistamines, and antibiotics (plus three different kinds of skin cream) to clear things up and is FINALLY getting back to normal. For Moose, spring has been more of an emotional change. Moose isn’t the most active dog out there. My roommates and I sometimes call him “Speed Bumpy” because he’s often found sprawled and snoring. He is a dog of comfort. But the warmer … Continue reading →

Pets and Dating

Did you see that movie — Must Love Dogs? A lot of pet parents get concerned when they enter the dating scene: will my special someone accept my pets? Will my pets like the person I’m dating? Winning over your special someone’s pets may or may not be easy — but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. I’m a “love me, love my pets” sort of person. If my dogs Moose and Lally aren’t appealing or at least tolerable, you’re going to have to find someone else to date. There’s no chance I’m going to abandon my dogs (who’ve been … Continue reading →

Moose is Full of Mischief!

I guess even dogs can get a wild hair now and then. My dog Moose (a German shepherd mix) has been full of mischief lately! It started a few nights ago. The dogs and I went to bed around ten (our usual bedtime, give or take an hour or so) after one last quick trip outside for piddles. Around 1:30 in the morning, something drags me out of slumber. Fwee! Fwee! This is the noise Moose makes when he wants attention; it’s a pathetic cross between a whine and a whistle. Moose only has the one “distress” noise, so I … Continue reading →

Dogs and Cats Living Together: the Advantage of Height

Little by little, my dogs and my roommates’ cats are getting used to each other. The dogs are mostly polite when the door to the cats’ room is open — they don’t bark or whine TOO much, unless I’m in with the cats. One of my roommates found an online forum for cat lovers, and asked for advice about introducing cats to dogs. She got one piece of advice that I think is really valuable: give the cats the advantage of height. Think of it this way: the cats weigh between ten and twenty pounds. The dogs weigh five to … Continue reading →

Dogs and Cats Living Together: Not What We Expected

Before my dogs met my roommates’ cats, we had lots of talks about how we thought it would go. We discussed the best ways to introduce them, what to do if things went wrong, and our dreams of animal harmony. I thought Lally, my boxer/shar-pei mix, would be the problem child. When we’re out walking, she can be quite a cat chaser. If she saw cats inside the apartment, I figured she’d be trying to run them down. (I’m not sure what she’d do with a cat if she ever caught one, but that doesn’t stop her from trying.) My … Continue reading →

Dogs and Cats Living Together: Dogs in Residence

With the help of some very determined (and awesome) friends, I moved into the new apartment this weekend. Moose and Lally were troopers through it all; they acted as official Welcoming Committee for my moving helpers. There was only one attempted escape, much to my surprise and delight. Lally tried to follow a friend out the back porch door when he went to get my bicycle. She came right back in, though! For the most part, the dogs were closed into a previously-emptied room while we moved boxes and furniture. We spent our first night in the new place on … Continue reading →