Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Beware of Vicious (cough, hack, wheeze, gag) Dog

Even though Petey is almost 16 human years old and has quite the grey head, he can still muster a vicious bark.  The kind that communicates that he'll rip your head off right here, right now.  It has always been amusing to me because he's so small.  The victims of this ferocity are much larger than him and could just punt him away.  So far none have.  Most are amused and go on about their business.  This was demonstrated most recently last week.

Our neighbor whose driveway is next to ours is out of town.  A woman that Petey never has liked came by to feed the cat.  (That may be why Petey doesn't like her.) Petey began his most vicious rant against her.  I (Lori) was in the house and John was outside.  Initially, I didn't do anything because I knew John would have the situation in hand.

The barking continued and seemed to get worse, so I decided to investigate.  When I went out on the back porch.  I saw John in our driveway with an amused look on his face.  This woman in the neighbor's driveway going about her business and Petey in our driveway giving the woman a good barking. Just about that time, Petey got strangled.

He turned around with his back to the woman.  He began to cough, hack, wheeze and gag worthy of a 911 call.  This went on for several seconds if not a minute or more.  BUT, as soon as Petey had cleared the pipes, he once again turned around and resumed his verbal assault of the woman.

The three humans had a big laugh and Petey was a little bewildered as to the humor. The woman actually offered Petey a treat after all of that.  Of course he snubbed her and the treat.  Who does she think she is being nice to him after all of that!

 I sorely wished that I had videoed the encounter.  I'm sure it would have gone viral on you-tube. 

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

10 Fleas!

Something has happened in our neighborhood to make the flea population grow exponentially of late.  Poor Petey.  Every time he comes in the house he must be de-flead immediately.  Yesterday, after one outing, I pulled off 6.  Later, after another trip outdoors, John pulled of 4.  That is a total of 10 fleas in one day.

We talked to the vet about it and were told that even the best flea treatments can take a couple of hours to kill a flea.  Petey can't take that.  He'd scratch himself into oblivion if he had to endure two hours of torture before a flea died.

He's enduring the humiliation a little better.  I think as smart as he is, he's figured out that he feels better once the inspections are complete.  He doesn't like them very much at all, but he'll stay still long enough for a good once over.  BUT, not twice.  We have to be quick and thorough!

I'm not one to long for the cold, but for Petey's sake I am looking forward to that first hard freeze.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Beddie-bye for Petey-pie

Yesterday we attending a wedding that was over 2 hours away.  We were gone from the house from about 3:00 in the afternoon until after 10:00.  This is a very bad infraction of the Petey rules.  No one should be gone from the house that long.  Both people being gone is even worse.  Then we were gone waaaaaay past bedtime.  That is the perfect trifecta for Petey's ire.

On the way home we discussed just how much trouble we were in and what if anything could be done about it.  We wondered if we would be met at the back door, or if Petey had put himself to bed without us.  It really didn't matter since, either way we were in deep trouble.

We were met at the door, a little to our surprise since it was after 10:00.  Petey zipped outside to take care of business with the expectation that the three of us would go straight to bed.  He didn't dilly-dally outside.  He was out and back in quickly so as not to waste precious sleep time.  Little did he know that we had been listening to the Alabama game on the radio all the way home and that there were still a couple of minutes left in the game.

We rushed in to turn the TV on and actually watch the last few moments of the pounding the Tide was giving Michigan.  This was quite upsetting to Petey.  He spend the next few minutes as the game ended huffing and puffing at us as he walked down the hall to the bedroom and back.  He flung himself around the living room floor  to demonstrate that we should be laying down not sitting down.

As soon as the game was over, I (Lori) had mercy on the poor dog and went to bed.  John likes to watch the interviews and recaps at the end of the game and he would be several minutes getting to bed.  I thought if one of us went to bed that would be fine and Petey would settle down.  Oh no! 

Petey got in the bed alright, but that was all.  He was not settling down to sleep at all.  He started under the covers, but had to get on the pillows, then he had a very bad itch.  After that he decided the foot of the bed was more appealing and then back under the covers.  The itchies struck again and he had to be uncovered to take care of than.  On and on, round and round we went, much like a toddler delaying nap time.

I was a little tired from a long day and wanted to go to sleep.  I told him so and that if he didn't settle down he'd have to get up.  He got up.  I think he thought he was punishing me by not sleeping with. me.  He could have been going for John, but it didn't matter to me. I was glad.  I could finally get some sleep.