Thursday, July 21, 2011

Reuben Saves the Day! (or the household)

 

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Have you ever saved for something and then gotten exactly what you wanted?  isn’t it a glorious feeling?  I am only a dog but I have also had that moment of pure joy .  Actually, that moment was this morning.   I saved and saved and saved and then urinated all over Owner’s carpet. She deserved it.

You see we are fostering a little dog from Second Chance.  He’s a baby; Reuben is his name and mixed up heritage is his game.     Apparently he is a downright perfect specimen of dog.   He has the perfect amount of energy, perfect markings,  and perfect little floppy ears.  It’s not Reuben that got me all pissed off, literally.  It’s Owner’s falsetto…..oooh Reuben, aren’t you CUUUUUUTE!!!   Oh Reuben, you are so SMART – you peed on the grass!  Well for God’s sake, he’s supposed to pee on the grass at least that’s the rule I am made to abide by.   My God you’d think he’d invented puppyhood the way she carries on.  Her voice is so squeaky when she talks to him that it hurts my eardrums and I’m pretty good with high-pitched noises.  Lest I forget…he loved having a bath in the shower; suds  seemed to agree with his perfect little body.

Actually, to be honest.  I think it is good he came into our house this week.  Owner could not stop crying about the brutal beating Xiongxiong, my Chinese cousin endured  in Shanghai.   His crime?  He escaped from his garden and a  neighbour called the police.  From the description of how David found him, tied by a leg to a tree and dying, it is amazing baby  Xiong survived.  He’s only 7 months old and a darling little Samoyed.  At the moment it looks like he will pull through; his will to live was doubtful there for a while. 

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Reuben, the Second Chance puppy, made Owner laugh again. .  He jumps as high as he can and then falls down on his side because he’s lost his balance when he’s three feet up in the air.  He chases balls.  He snuggles up to her in the evening to keep her feet warm.  He tugs my ears to make me play.  Last week Owner couldn’t laugh and this week she can. Reuben brought that lightheartedness back into our home.

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  He doesn’t cry in his crate at night. He enjoys long walks. He drinks his water just as messily as I do so I’m finally off the hook for being a water-drinking slob.  He figured out the grass at the corner is his toilet  on the very first day.  Today he started to march around the living room to let Owner know he needed outside and then went to the front door…..damn show off! (did I mention he’s only been here two days; his brain must be immense in that cute little head of his.)   I bet he’s smart enough to learn to ring a bell when he wants to go out like my friend, Mars, in Phoenix. If someone wanted to train him to do that obstacle course that dog’s do…Reuben is smart, fast, and definitely your man.

He’s a great guy and he deserves a fabulous home.  If someone wants a hiking dog, he’s  going to grow into that. He loves other dogs. He finds chidlren interesting; I don’t. He didn’t know how to use the stairs when he arrived but he’s got them down pat.  He runs up and down them just for fun…it irritates me no end to see him do that.  It takes me some work to  haul my ass upstairs now (arthritis!).    He just wants and needs a forever home.  He’s been at Second Chance for a while  and he’s ready to leave his friends there and move on.  I can tell he’s a real homebody.  Somebody out there must want him.  Oh yeah, can’t forget to tell you he now sits for  Owner on  command to get nibbles of  biscuit….I love that about him because my biscuit quotient has gone up too since he arrived and I don’t do a damn thing.

OK…I really like him.  He’s a great dude.  I just think he needs to find his own home.  I can’t pee on the carpet many more times or I might get in trouble.  If you think you’d like to meet my sleepover pal, Reuben,  call Second Chance in Ridgway 970.626.2273 and say…hey, where’s that pup  that’s getting all the great press in Telluride Dog Blog. If you are full up with dogs and cats at your house, think of a friend who might deserve to own such a fine specimen as Reuben.  They will never regret their decision.  He’s as loyal as the day is long. 

By the way,  Owner would call him MEX for Mexican Jumping Bean. I have to agree.  See ya later.

 

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Saturday, May 7, 2011

Back Where I Belong!

 

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Well I could be cruel but that would just be cruel.  I thought about putting this little video gem at the end of the posting.  However, for those of you who never read to the end you’d never see it.  Owner sits and hits play and then play again and then play again and laughs every time.  I’m starting to get worried about her. If you can’t get this to work just go to you tube and type in the title below…..it will work then.  Even I find this funny.

 

We have lot of friends who wonder why we live in Telluride.  It can be difficult to get to.  We have blizzards. You can’t ski every day; well some people can but that’s a whole different problem. I decided you needed a dog’s eye  photos of why they live here.  It’s for ME.   Does it get any better than this for a dog? Xiongxiong…..fly on over and check us out.  You’d go crazy here.

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Who doesn’t want a fun town with  tons to do and a short period of time during the year  when the Main Street is empty at 12:00 noon.  It gives peace and quality of life in this  fast-paced world.

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Does this even need an explanation?  This is my view as I trek into town along a burbling stream?

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Dandelions, every child’s favourite flower for making chains and fairy crowns are NOT considered illegal!  I like them too.

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Bears come to town….yup, the real kind. If I hear them at night I growl giving me a sense of  protecting Owner and Curly.

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Best of all though is dogs get to do dog stuff. Unleashed.

 

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Sign notwithstanding…It says something like “dogs must be leashed at all times.”  I’m sure it doesn’t refer to me.

 

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So good to be home.  So good to have owner up and moving and breathing.  So good to have Spring springing into place.  See ya later.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Hey Guys, how ya been?

 

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back to blogging I go in memory of Chelsea, a fellow Chowbrador

If you have to ask, then you don’t have back problems.  It is just more comfortable for me to lie half in and half out of my very expensive bed than it is to be all curled up.  It works for me.

It’s true that I haven’t written for a while.  My brain dried out.  Every time owner looked at me I knew she was wondering what I was thinking and feeling. My new dwelling spot became anywhere Curly was ‘cause he’s not into that touchy feely stuff so much and the pressure was off.  

A new Facebook fan  asked if I was going to post any more blogs and this jostled me into action. Her dog, Chelsea, who so sadly passed away unexpectedly, was a doppelgänger for yours truly. I swear you would not have been able to tell us apart.  Apparently we both have the same delightful personalities, so much so that both owner and Chelsea’s owner swear we should be a breed unto ourselves.  I wholeheartedly agree. Chowbradors unite!!! Demand recognition. We are top dog quality.

Casey Daily Planet Photo

There’s a new dog in our family.  A grand dog for owner and a cousin for me, but the bad news is he lives in China.   Damn it all…this dog is going to be gorgeous.  Not only that but the darn thing is bilingual.  This dog is preparing for the new world; he speaks English and Mandarin.  076However, he speaks both in a high-squealed pitch since he had his balls chopped off this week.  Serves the little pup right for trying to take over in the cuteness factor in our household.   Everywhere owner went with him in Shanghai, people stopped to gawk and talk.

  Xiongxiong (shongshong) means little/little or bear/bear.  BUT if you say it properly it means Little Bear.  David got mad at owner for sounding “tres sophistique” by pronouncing it Jeanjean.  After three weeks she had it down pat .What was hilarious to owner is that David’s high school and university language teachers would fall over in a faint if they heard him chattering away in Chinese about his dog.  David? speaking a foreign lanuage?  huh?  impossible!  Incroyable!! (said in French to show you I’m not quite the dumb dog Xiongxiong may think I am.)  

Samoyeds are one of the few breeds popular in Shanghai which doesn’t make sense.  It is brutally hot in the summer time.  However, the apartments stay very cold due to the marble floors and the way the buildings are designed.  In fact in winter, when it is very very cold, the buildings are almost impossible to get warm inside.  They don’t have any central heating and it is colder inside than out

Who doesn’t love a puppy, especially in a country where they eat dogs? Just kidding.

(keeping the print small so as not to offend, use your imagination if you want..and no they never went here, they would never go here, this is just a menu someone showed them.)

Dog meat anyone

  I don’t think anyone owner and Curly met thought about eating Xiongxiong but they were curious.  Many were even very frightened.  The most frightened was the hotel attendant who bent down for  a pat when the little guy dove for his balls….the attendant let out quite a squeal and was quick to protect himself with his hands.   Then Xiong knocked over the large sand-filled ashtray outside the hotel. Instantaneously an important person from the “delighted to serve” staff  came outside to tell owner….”this hotel no regulating for dogs.”  She took it to mean get the heck off the property!  She did.

(dish of duck tongues for sale…reallly delicious according to Leta, David’s girlfriend, native Shanghainese)

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Eating food was really hard for Owner while she was away.  Curly ate everything.  He kind of fell into that rule of thumb…..eat everything with four legs except tables and anything that flies except airplanes.  Owner was not quite as convinced this was the way to go.  She couldn’t get her  mind wrapped around “duck web” soup or roasted “duck beak.” “Sliced fried pig’s ears”….well her stomach was a little out of sorts that day.  When David said that he didn’t think Leta’s blood soup was really blood soup, she replied oh yes, these long dark strands are blood.  Oh, yum!  Owner thought about eating shrimp in a cyrbelium format but didn’t know what it was so stuck to Peking Duck – who knew the Chinese invented fajitas!

(unidentified objects in background, undoubtedly delicious according to Leta)

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Just so you can envision the restaurant.  It was actually lovely.  It was on the third, fourth and fifth floor of a large tower.  The tables were great.  It was clean and modern.  The only problem was that it was windowless and everyone smokes in the waiting area.  This smoking takes place in a country where already the air particulate count is four times higher than we regard as the most dangerous level for humans. (trust me Owner suffered, suffered, suffered, and is still suffering from this air pollution.) You are crammed in an airless, windowless room waiting for your

Abe in restaur Beijinganttable with fifty or sixty of the heaviest smoking dudes on the planet.   Curly knew Owner couldn’t handle it and found her a small breezeway to wait for their table.  Leta probably thinks Owner is a big whiner but let’s face it we live in Telluride, home of clean air and no smoking.

locusts on the left and large snails son the right, delicious according to Leta

Snails and Locusts Beijing

Being a worrywart Owner also thought a lot about this issue…if there is a fire, we will NEVER get out of here.  Luckily there was no fire, the meal was great and she survived the smoke.

God only knows (looks like bat if you ask me?)  but  I’m sure it is delicous according to Leta.

David eating Shanghai

Speaking Chinese is almost impossible.  There are many tones for words, words that go up in sound, words that go down, words that say in the same sound range…and something else..up and  down in one breath?  Who knows.  At any rate Owner has always prided herself on doing really well with languages. Mandarin had her beat.  Learning to say thank you 90% properly took three weeks.  It sounds a bit like Sheiiisheiiii..but you can never quite get your ears wrapped around where those sounds are going.  On the night of Peking Duck she practiced the word for tea…..”cha”.  She had it down pat until the waiter came.  He looked at her and said TEA?  Damn!!!

owner eating Spider

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just kidding..it’s dried tea leaf,she never heard anyone ate spider

After the meal we headed out to Snake Street. Luckily it was really Snack Street.  Leta has a bit of difficulty with differentiating between Snake and Snack….a lot like Owner with her Chinese.   David engaged in tons of bartering with the local sellers who get an enormous charge out of a 6’2” blue eyed boy arguing with them about their goods and their prices.  Hilarity ensued.

duck is just duck right..but the head is really delicious according to Leta

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And what should we spy here?  Perhaps we wanted a little after meal snack?  Well why  not scorpion on  a shishkebab sticks.   Large platters of snails and locusts were also available if you just wanted a little protein kick to start your evening.  Well they don’t eat a lot of sugar and you might as well snack on something you like.   To everyone’s great fortune a couple hearty Brit boys came along and they really felt like a snack of Scorpion.  When I figure out how to get that little video up and running….you shall

Scorpions, seahorse, and starfish ready for snacking upon.  Horrible idea for a snack and Leta would never try one.  FINALLY

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be the first to see them chow down on the little wrigglers. These boys were some hearty travellers.  They had already feasted (and hold on to your hats and don’t get mad at me as I’m only the messenger not the chef) on cat, dog and snake.  They found cat the tastiest.  Well, as a dog I can’t really disagree with that although I’ve never really managed to catch one of the critters.  Maybe I should go to  China and check the little meow’s out. (ouch! I felt that slap)

So Owner has a lot of China stories.  Some will have you rolling on the floor laughing.  Just a teaser, anyone need a massage? And, no, it’s not what you think.

Xiongxiong – Cute and bilingual

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me – Unlingual but Cutest of the Cute

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OK…not my best look fresh out of the shower

 

It feels good to be back. See ya later.

 

Leo on the bed