A girl and her dog

On Friday I wrote about the boy's club. Today is about the other dog/person pair in the house. Me and my girl.

Lola is without a doubt MY dog. She and I have a special bond. When she joined our family M was out of town a lot for work, so she really attached to me. And I attached to her. 

She follows me everywhere I go in the house. Everywhere. And sticks by my side out in the world. 

She's the definition of "man's best friend".  And I love almost everything about her. From her soft head to her big smile to her constant snoring. Even when she's awake.

Thanks to A@Two Pitties in the City for the photos of me and my girl.

Franklin Friday - the boys club

Poor M was outnumbered by girls 4:1 until Franklin arrived.

Now he has a buddy. Someone to watch The Godfather and Shawshank with every time they're on. Someone to talk about computers with (Franklin loves playing with the iPad). Someone to just hang out with.

The girls still outnumber the boys, but they have a strong bond and have charm on their side.


I know many of our friends have talked about having his and hers dogs. We certainly do.  Do you?

Maeby's office

Lindsey is our social cat - loving Lola, sharing laps with Franklin, and generally being the life of the party. Maeby however, prefers to spend time in her office.

She's often found hiding out here:

We call it her office. "Where's Maeby?" "She's in her office."  She scales the cabinets, leaving quite a trail of scratches, and spends hours and hours curled up above the refrigerator. I'm afraid to climb up there and see all the fur she's left.

Wordless Wednesday - Lindsey and Lola: caption this - week 2

Can someone explain cats to me?

Why do they love being IN bags?

Lindsey

Maeby

Why is this fun? And is it more fun than sitting on bags?

Sleeping in

This weekend was a bit off-kilter. Usually Saturday morning is spent basking in sunbeams, and Sunday is SociaBulls or long walks with our own little pack.  I'm one of the event coordinators for Chicago SociaBulls, and as I was organizing the packs for this weeks' walks, I noticed that the Sunday walk was really popular and there were more spaces on the Saturday walk, so Lola and I switched days. This gave a whole new rhythm to our weekend.

We got up early Saturday and enjoyed a nice walk with the pack around our neighborhood. Sunday I got up early (I'm really bad at sleeping in), did some work, took the pups for a walk, then crawled back into bed. Joined by almost all the critters.

that's my arm. I'm burrowed under the covers

Maybe not the most restful nap, but by far the cutest stuffed animals a girl could ask for. 

Franklin Fridays: groomer has it

Before Franklin, I'd never  had a dog that needed more than an occasional bath when they started smelling like corn chips, and a light brushing every few days. Franklin is high maintenance. He needs hair cuts and manicures and gland expressing (ick!).  Lola's more a wash and go gal. In the nearly two years Franklin has lived with us we've mapped out the cuteness cycle, and I've finally learned to schedule his appointments far in advance so he doesn't go too far down the shaggy slope.

Not that he's not cute when shaggy.

I found a great little independent grooming salon in the neighborhood. Jenn at Pet-a-cure keeps Franklin looking his most handsome and delightful smelling. Perfect for cuddling. And his haircuts are cheaper than mine, so I guess it's ok.

Shadow Cat

I've posted before about the wonders of the light streaming through our big front window. When the shade is down it creates other photo ops.

Maeby's our explorer. She dreams of the outside world, yet would have no idea what to do with any freedom whatsoever.  Her entire life from age 4 months has happened within this house, with the exception of a few check ups at the vet (agonized yowling the entire 3 mile drive each way) and one escape through an open 2nd story window that found her crying at the back door to come back in once she realized what happened.

She does like to hang out right in the window and dream of life on the outside. Here's the view when I headed out to work shortly after taking the above pic.

Do your cats get out? Typing that reminded me of my absolute favorite cute animal video. Enjoy.

Wordless Wednesday: Caption this.

In Black and White

No, not one of our favorite blogs about Lola's twin Billy, but a portfolio of dramatic photos of the pretty girl herself.

Progress report

We have updates to two previous challenges, one good and one not so good.

We'll get the bad out of the way first. A few months ago I thought I had solved the tubshitter situation. We got a good few weeks of appropriate pooping, and then someone relapsed. Whoever is doing the deed is at least pooping ON the chair mats, so clean up is easy. I'm currently trying two things:

1. Foil. Over the chair mats, crinkled up so it's really noisy and scary.
2. Nature's Miracle Pet Block

When I spray a few times a day this seems to work. If I miss spraying I pay the price. 

I wish I knew who the culprit was!

The positive update is about Lola the toy destroyer. The gift pack of holiday toys is still alive!

Polar Bear

Penguin

and the less-often played with Reindeer still have their stuffing, 5 months after meeting Lola and Franklin.

I watch both dogs when they're playing with the stuffies, and correct when they start tugging and biting hard. I also check the toys regularly and mend any little tears. And I make sure that the toy is never in the middle of a game of tug. Even though Lola sometimes lets Franklin win, the toy never wins.

want more progress updates and lots of cute pictures? Like Franklin on Facebook!

Franklin Friday: Who you callin Little Man?

We spent a lot of time deciding what to name the little dog. Then had long discussions about what the proper middle name for such a fine gentleman would be. Because every pet needs not only a first name, but a middle name (his middle name is Sinclair). I often wonder why we bothered because I call him everything BUT Franklin. My favorites are:

Buddy

Little Man

Beans (Franklin = Franks & Beans = Beans)

Monkey

Franklin Franklinson (there's a song that goes along with this one)

and my favorite, Frankin.

Typo on Frankin's certificate led to my favorite nickname

What "unofficial" names do you use for your pet? 

A good marrow bone eases the pain

After an afternoon of fun at the beach Franklin looked like this:

and Lola was a bit less sandy, but still not in any condition to crawl into a clean people bed and snuggle.

Sadly for them, it was bath time.

We eased the pain with some nice fresh marrow bones. And the humiliation of the bath was quickly forgotten.

Wordless Wednesday: one more from the lake

The best thing about being a Chicago dog

DOG BEACH!



We don't live too close to dog beach, so we don't get there too often. By summer the lakefront is usually too crowded to enjoy, and in winter, well, it's winter in Chicago.

But a lovely spring day was perfect. Warm enough for dogs to run around in the water and for people to walk barefoot in the sand, yet cool enough that parking and traffic weren't bad.

Lola and Franklin both tore around the beach and went into the water, and played with the other dogs a little. Lola was mostly interested in standing near me, attempting to drink the whole lake or playing with Franklin, and Franklin stayed close too, occasionally finding a flock of little dogs to run around with, and mixing it up with the big kids.

And I loved checking out all the other dogs. I loooooooove Basset Hounds. Look at that guy!

And I loved taking home the two cutest sleepy happy dogs at the beach.

That was a fun weekend

We had a lot of fun over the long weekend. This is what the aftermath looks like.

Pets sprawled all over the floor. Displaying the full range of pet sprawl poses. Chin-on-paw, frogdog, belly up, and side snoozing.

Don't you just want to wedge into that spot in the middle and nap with them?

We'll share pics from all the fun that was had later this week.

For more about these party animals like us on Facebook. 

Franklin Friday - what I don't like

I love Franklin. He's one of the cutest, nicest dogs in the world. But I don't love everything about Franklin. Here's what I like least.

I hate his tail. It is nasty and scraggly and looks like something you would dust with or clean a toilet with.

It's much less ugly when wagging. And we're talking about Franklin, so it's wagging most of the time.

I guess I'll keep him. :)

The first little dog in the house

The first little dog in our home wasn't Franklin. He was Owen. Owen came to visit a while before we adopted Franklin. Lola liked having a little buddy around to play with.  Thanks Owen, for showing us how cute and fun the little guys can be.

Owen and Franklin occasionally meet for playdates. Here's one of the best pictures ever. I dare you to not smile.

Wordless Wednesday

Study buddies

I started grad school this week, and am figuring out how to balance a very full-time job, life and school. Quality time with the dogs does not seem to be in danger of being compromised, as they joined me in my first official study session.

I decided that their room would be the best place to read. No TV, good light, away from noise. So I brought all my supplies and headed up to camp out. Of course Lola followed me. She follows me everywhere. We shut ourselves in the room and began to read.

Yes, that is my wedding dress hanging on the back of the door. Anyone need one? It's really pretty...

Pretty soon I was distracted by some scrabbling at the door. Franklin wanted to join the study group. So I let him in.  Shortly after, Lola retired to her crate for a real nap.

Then, proving what students all around the world know, that studying makes you really really sleepy, and causes uncontrollable napping, Franklin went to his crate and took a nap.

You read that right. Franklin, who hates his crate, tucked himself in, curled up and started sawing logs.

These things should come with a warning!

I finally broke down and got a Furminator. Lindsey was my first client in the Furminator salon. She loves being groomed and is quite a fluffy girl.

I was amazed at the amount of fur that was coming off her. Mountains and mountains of it. We nearly filled a bag with fur.

She kept coming back for more, so I kept brushing her. And more and more fur kept coming off. Finally we took a break. A few strokes too late!  Poor girl has some bald patches now!

I supposed she'll shed less for a little while. BECAUSE SHE'S BALD!

Furminator pros, how do you know when to stop?

Please don't make fun of sweet Linds. She doesn't seem to notice that she's not her most beautiful right now, and I feel awful.