Wordless Wednesday - Franklin needs a haircut edition

Get me outtahere!

Franklin does not like his crate.

He has to be lured into it every day and often cries. As I've mentioned before, he really doesn't need to be crated, but Lola does (and she loves her crate). So when we're away for more than an hour or two, he gets incarcerated.

This is what happens when we let them out of their crates. Lola does some stretches. Franklin jumps on the nearest person.

He does a few dance moves to get your attention and let you know that he REALLY didn't like being locked up.

Then he runs out of the room to the stairs to go down to the food and the yard and to freedom.

I think about just giving him the run of the house all the time, but think the cats might like their dog-free time, and even though I know dogs don't think the way people do, it just seems unfair to lock up Lola while little man kicks it on the furniture. 

Terri-Bulls?

We couldn't make yesterday's Chicago SociaBulls walk, so we had our own Terri-Bulls (get it?  terrier+bully?  Ha ha?) walk. We stayed in our neighborhood and enjoyed the early spring-like weather.

Lola and Franklin were the only participants.

 And they had to do a lot more "work" on the walk than they usually do. We practiced paying attention.

And sitting nicely at corners.

We obeyed the rule about not greeting other dogs. Not even these two who were sitting so nicely outside waiting for their people to finish lunch. 

Lola and Franklin missed their friends (and so did I!). But next week we'll be back with the pack.

Lola moves in

Yesterday I wrote about finding Lola. She came to live with us in a foster-to-adopt situation a few days after we met her. Here are a few shots from her first few days with us.

We kept her on leash around the cats for a little while, but soon discovered that she has no chase instinct, so we let her go free and she quickly learned her place in the pack (Lindsey is the alpha).

How I met my girl

About 3 weeks after we lost Emma, I realized that although I missed her terribly, I wanted a new dog in my life. I was home alone often as M traveled for work most weeks. I was lonely. I know that pets don't talk back, but somehow it felt less sad to talk to a dog than a cat. At least they look at you like they might be listening.

We started making the rounds of local rescues and adoption events, going to either PAWS or Anti Cruelty every weekend. I spent hours on adoption websites. I fell in love daily. M had to talk sense into me when I fell in love with dogs that were too young, or too yippy, too furry or too lethargic. I wanted a big dog, but one who didn't look at all like Emma. I was drawn to white pit bulls even then, and fell hard for Herb.  Herb was a New Leash dog. We went to meet him at an adoption event. And realized that he wasn't our dog. He was adorable, but he just didn't have the temperament we wanted. So we kept looking, and kept in touch with NLOL. We sent them our wish list (found this in my sent file)

- a young adult dog - @ 2-4 years old
- male or female - no preference
- no size/breed preference
- playful, but not in need of constant attention
- can be alone during the day - we do use a dog walker as needed.
- gets along with cats (we have two 1 year olds) and other dogs (always potential for more!)
- ok with children (while we don't have any, we do have friends over often who have kids)
- likes people, good companion
- knowledge of basic commands preferred - we plan on going through training with our new dog, but any previous training is a plus.

And we went to another NLOL adoption event. When we introduced ourselves to the volunteers they said "oh, we remember you guys, your dog is over there" and they pointed to the most beautiful white and black pit mix. (you know where this story is going...)They walked us over to Ms. Flo (her name at the time), M bent down to pet her and she licked his cheek. We spent some time admiring her and petting her and falling in love. 


A few hours later I sent this e-mail:

Notice the date. Today is 4 years since I first touched those soft soft ears. 

The rest, as they say, is history.

Photo by A of Two Pitties in the City

Wordless Wednesday

Finally, a decent camera!

I've been limited to the camera on my iPhone for the past year or so. M finally got a decent camera for his birthday, and I had to test it out. Good thing I have some stunning models in the house.

True to their personalities, Franklin went cute:

and Lola went more introspective and moody:

I still have a way to go before I match Two Pittie's A - I love this recent shot she took of Franklin:

Favorite dog tags

I bet you can hardly see Lola's tag in this picture. She, and Franklin wear CollarTags.

These tags slide on the collar rather than hang off. I like them because there's no clanging with the rabies tags.

It's a simple little thing, but it makes life with dogs just a bit quieter and better.

Works of art

Our friend (and mom to Lola's true love Jack) Kim from SociaBulls paints fantastic pet portraits. After a few months of saying "we should really get Kim to paint Lola and Franklin", we finally did.

Here they are hanging on the wall in the hallway

Pretty Lola

Sweet Franklin

I love how Kim captured Lola's pretty pose and muscular tank of a body, and you can practically see Franklin wagging with delight, like he usually does.

If you want your own portraits, contact Yellow Brick Home!

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

It's someone in our family's birthday today. Not us, not the cats. Happy Birthday M!

Lola is not a shoe girl

With the recent snow and resulting slushy and salty sidewalks I decided to dig out the boots that Emma bequeathed to Lola.

We started slow and spent some time just hanging out with a boot or two on in the house. No problems.

Then I got Lola ready for SociaBulls on Sunday morning. I put on all four boots.

She wouldn't budge.

I put on her coat and leash and got ready to go.

Notice, she's still in the EXACT same spot.

I finally got her to follow me into the next room, and eventually into the car. She did pretty well with the boots on during the walk. She slipped a few times on icy patches, but kept 3 boots on for the whole walk, and didn't protest when I put the one that fell off back on.

She's wearing Muttluks. Has anyone had better luck with another brand? The primary problem she had was the boots flipping upside down, so the soles faced up.

Maybe they're both part dalmation?

Lola and Franklin share a secret.

They appear to be mostly-white dogs with a few spots.

But underneath their furriness, they're both covered in freckles and speckles.

A short haircut brings out the little guy's true colors:

And Lola shows her stuff when wet:

The moral of this story is that we're all really the same deep down :)

You CAN teach an old dog new tricks

When we got each of our dogs we enrolled them (and us) in "Basic Pawsibilities" at Anything is Pawsible. In that class we (and Lola, then Franklin) learned the basics of being not only good dogs, but good dog owners. We learned to sit, stay, walk nicely on a leash and recall. Our dogs completed the class with varying levels of prowess. (no judgement. we love them both. One of them may have finished first in the skills test at the end of her class, and one may have finished last in his class. Not naming names...).

We quickly discovered that Lola LOVES working and learning. We started taking "Advanced Pawsibilites" shortly after finishing basic. Then life got in the way. We both had to travel for work, and couldn't get Lola to class. Lola became a dropout. A year or so later we tried to erase the pain by attending a Tricks class. Lola perfected her rollover (watch the video from the Super Levi walk for a demo) among other tricks. Yet the failure to complete the advanced skills class gnawed at her like she gnaws at her favorite nylabone.

So we tried again, starting Advanced class in January. I'm proud to announce that Lola not only completed the class this week, but won the 'stay-off', a true test of canine will where dogs were put in a sit-stay and asked to hold it while tennis balls were tossed around, squeeky toys were squeeked, names were called and general chaos unfolded.

She has also mastered the 'finish', the stand stay, dabbles in heeling, and can do a field down when she feels like it.

It was interesting watching Lola in this class. Most of the other students were quite young or newly adopted, while Lola is almost 5 and has been with us for 4 of those years. She's definitely more mature. She can focus for much longer than the young ones. And just has a different way about her. But she can still learn. And looks really cute while she does.

Lola's bed - part 10

Even when the cushion is in the wash, the bed sees action.

Wordless Wednesday

Collar upgrades!

Lola and Franklin both got new collars recently. They were due for a style upgrade, and now they both look fantastic!

Lola's sporting the stunning Maya collar from Sirius Republic. We went with a limited slip collar which hopefully will help her pulling without having to go prong.  I worry about putting the cold metal near her skin when it's really really cold out.

 Franklin looks spectacular in his blue tartan Silly Buddy bowtie.  Buddy (of Silly Buddy fame) is a fellow smaller member of SociaBulls.

Excuses excuses

Due to the previously mentioned computer CATastrophe (from which I have not yet recovered all my backed-up Franklinphotos) and a nasty stomach bug which had me sleeping or otherwise occupied (ick) much of the weekend (with the exception of a short burst of Chicago SociaBulls activity from which I'm now recovering) I do not have the photos or the energy for a good post. So today we will make do with one of my favorite pictures of the muppet.

enjoy.

Fine. I like cats.

I used to be a cat hater. I thought twice about dating the man who would become my husband because he had cats. Then I learned to love his cats. Those cats are no longer with us, but Maeby and Lindsey have filled that void. 

Here's just a peek at why I love them. 

(When we first got them, we tried keeping collars and tags on them, hence the quiet spots. They did not like the collars and kept ripping them off, so they go naked now. They're chipped and never go outside.)

Favorite cat product

When we adopted the kittens years ago, we spent days debating how to keep them from destroying our home and scratching our furniture to splinters. Declawing really wasn't an option. After doing some research we found Soft Paws.

Not only do they protect people, dogs and upholstery, but they are so darn cute:

Lindsey and Maeby have signature colors. Pink and purple. Sometimes its the only way I can tell them apart.

They're pretty good about letting us put them on - it is a two-person job, but no one's gotten hurt. And the nails stay on for 4-6 weeks.

And we just discovered that PetSmart has another brand of tips that they sell in multi-colored packs. And look - they come in a pink and purple combo pack!

Catbruary Wordless Wednesday