Nothing But Bull-Pics

No preamble for this post. I'll just dive right in. The other day, Auburn did something I thought was real smart. In the days P.B., we would keep multiple water bowls filled around the house--heaven forbid the dog have to walk more than ten feet to get a drink. As Bode has gotten older, a favorite thing for him to do is grab the water bowls, and he has yet to learn that a full bowl when grabbed by one with minimal grabbing dexterity will likely spill. Thus, we now only have the one water bowl in the kitchen.

As you might have heard, Dudley has been diagnosed with diabetes. Before you panic, let me say it's very treatable with daily injections of insulin (and it only costs $18 per month, so it's not like we're breaking the bank to do it). Dudley will start on insulin this Wednesday. The symptoms of diabetes in a canine are a lot like those in a person (e.g. drinking a lot of water). The increased water intake has made Dudley pee quite often, and many times in the house (it's a pain to get old). Therefore, until he gets on insulin, we've had to pen him in to keep him off the carpet/furniture in the event of an accident. We sit him on some towels, try to make him comfortable, and, yes, we're doing a lot of laundry. In his little area, we have also placed a water bowl.

Now, back to the thing Auburn did that I thought was smart. I had forgotten to fill Auburn's water bowl and didn't realize it. For almost an hour, Auburn kept going over to Dudley's pen and staring into it. For the life of me, I had no idea what she was doing, and then it clicked: she wanted the water. I checked and her bowl was indeed empty. I apologized profusely (which she probably heard as, "Blah bah, blaaah, blah bah, Auburn"). I commented to Ashley about Auburn's behavior and how smart I thought she was. Ashley's response? Well, she wasn't near as impressed as I was. She said, and I (mis)quote, "If the bitch was so smart, why didn't she just kick her empty bowl into the wall?" (As many of you Holiday newsletter readers know, b---h is a perfectly acceptable word. If you don't believe me, just watch the Eukenuba Dog Show and count how many times they use the b-word--and I quote, "What a pristine looking bitch...") Anyways, evidently Auburn isn't as smart as I thought...

This week, the camera was operated by Miss Ashley. Here are some action shots of me and the not-so-light dude. First, here he is on my shoulders.Bode is getting heavy. We had to go to the doc this past week--6/10 kids in his class got pink-eye...Bode was one of the lucky 60%. Fortunately, Ashley nor I have yet to get it...but my eyes are sort of itchy. At the doc's office, Bode weighed 29.4 pounds, and he's not even 17 months old. Ashley doesn't like it when I call him Bode-the-Hutt...

Here's Bode and Daddy reading about all the wonderful sounds Mr. Brown can make. Not quite Stephen King, but interesting none-the-less (particularly so on the fifth reading...)
Next, we have Bode and Daddy playing trains. Note how Daddy is responsible for construction while Bode is in more of a supervisory role. I think we have the makings of a future government employee.Here's a great shot of Bode sitting on my back. I thought I'd see how many push-ups I could do with a 30-pounder weighing me down. The position you see me in is about as far as I got...(and before you make comments, yes, that is the stupidiest look on my faceWe reached another milestone this week. See if you can figure out what it is from this picture.
Did you figure out what it was? Note the cup Bode is using. There's no lid i.e. no sippy-cup top. Yessiree, Bode-man is drinking like a normal person. Well, almost like a normal person. Sometimes he gets too ambitious and tilts the cup too far. And while we're in training mode, all he gets in the cup is water.

That about does it for this post. I apologize that there are no pictures of Auburn or Ashley. Evidently the bitch wasn't pristine enough to photograph this week :-)

Pleasant evening to all.