Neglected gear and equipment

It's really odd, but I found myself thinking about the hodge podge of Dante-related gear and equipment that I have accumulated over the years.

It all started with me thinking to myself on our walk today, that given the really WARM winter we've had so far (and judging from various posts all over the world that I've been reading, we're not the only one griping/rejoicing about the whacky winter this year), I've only had to replace Dante's winter boots ONCE this year instead of twice last year -- ka-ching! Instant $50 savings! Actually, since Dante's second set of boots from last winter were so worn out that they only had a gasp of life left in them, I really consider only having to replace Dante's boots 0.25 times this year. With it now being February, I don't really foresee having to buy Dante another set of winter boots this year, especially since he's only had to wear his boots for about 4-5 times this year.

Somehow all this mulling led me to thinking about the rest of Dante's (or Dante-related) gear and equipment that haven't really been used for quite a while. Sadly, it wouldn't be too far off to say that some of them haven't seen the light of the day for a long time.

Just off the top of my head:

There's the 3-feet braided leather leash designated as Dante's "obedience leash" -- the leash that Dante is on when I'm moving amongst crowds and other dogs while at an obedience trial/match venue. It's silly, but it always gives me a secret thrill, walking around a hub-bub of dogs and people with a large, powerful-looking dog trotting alongside connected to me only by this thin short leash.

There's Dante's more utilitarian obedience leash. Narrower than his regular inch-wide leather leash but just as strong and more flexible and maneuverable for precision obedience work.

There's the wooden peg board leaning against a basement wall, used for teaching Dante articles.

There's the articles themselves of course, neatly stacked against each other and packed away in a box.

There's Dante's portable obedience jump sets that I purchased from the states and had it specially shipped over at a premium price; all also tightly packed away in a gigantic box, stowed away in a lonely corner in the basement.

There's Dante's gritty-looking plastic dumbbell, keeping the rest of his training tugs of a myriad of materials -- leather, jute, firehose -- company in a large fabric bag on a shelf.

There's my training vests, the dirty one for training and the "clean" one with a shiny Doberman pin attached to it that makes it appearance at formal trials and shows. They are both languishing at the end of the rack in the hallway closet amongst other coats and jackets that are making fun of them for being no longer in the popular crowd.

There's Dante's obedience metal slip collars, which seem to have lost much of their gleam and sparkle not having Dante's dark glistening coat as their backdrop.

There's Dante's mesh cooling coat that hasn't seen the heat of competition for far too long.

There's the "sunbrella" portable umbrella and the nifty tent-shade hybrid setup, both which I hate setting up at agility trials but love when they are finally set up and keeps us all cool and contained for day-long agility excursions.

There's that ill-fitting baseball cap which I whip out and plonk on top of my head (or attempt to anyways, given its ill-fitting nature and my tight-fisted reluctance to get a better-fitting one when this one hasn't completely disintegrated from use yet) on sunny obedience and agility days. Actually, I've forgotten how ill-fitting it is, simply because it's been I can't remember the last time it hung off my head and not a hook at the back of a door.

Since I'm not actually attempting to complete a comprehensive catalogue of sorts, I'll just stop here for now. I'm sure there's a whole bunch more of stuff that I've forgotten and left off the "list" above.

Reflecting on all this "neglected" gear and equipment really brings into sharp relief how much my (and by extension, Dante's) life has changed in terms of routine, regiment and priorities. Not that long ago, it seemed that I was living a completely different life. Some parts of that life I still yearn and ache for, and others ... well, let's just say I'm having second thoughts about.

We're now heading into the second month of the new year and I still have not come any closer to deciding or knowing whether all this "stuff" will soon to be dusted off and put into good use again, like they should be.

The thoughts are still churning in my head, emotions still reeling. I'm getting closer, but not quite there yet. Hopefully I'll be arriving at some kind of decision in the next little while.

Till then, I'm still happy about socking that $50 away instead of spending it on a second set of winter boots this year!

A dog by any other name ...

It's been a few years and I know my memory's not that great even at the best of times, but I was pretty certain that I've blogged about Dante's various nicknames before. Ok, so I was pretty certain. After doing an extensive search on the blog for that elusive post, reality trumps flawed memory and I concede that such a post was never produced.

Something which I will now remedy.

Nicknames or pet names seem to be a staple in the human world, so it's not surprising that our pets -- which many of us consider among our closest companions -- are conferred an assortment of nicknames for various reasons.

When I was coming up with names for Dante and Atia, I racked my brains over sleepless nights to come up with names that, among a multitude of very personal, subjective conditions/criteria, would also be names that would not lend themselves easily to being shortened or "tongue-twisted" in any way to become some sort of cutesy pet name or nickname by known people and complete strangers, for example, Samuel or Samantha into Sammy or Joe or Joanne into Jojo or something silly. Ok, so those are human names, but I think you get the picture. If I ever have kids, I know I would go through the same thoroughly mind-numbing name selection process as well to avoid such a "problem". I didn't want other people to be lazy with my dogs' names or turn them into cutesy, silly-sounding monikers. My position was if I gave my dogs a certain name, then that's the name I want them to be known as, because I gave them a particular name for a reason.

Anyway, it turned out that I needn't have fretted or worried one bit, because as it is, I am the single biggest culprit when it comes to calling Dante by anything but his given name of Dante ... most of the time.

The main exceptions to me always using Dante's "proper name" are when we are in a training/obedience/competetive sport situtaion and times when Dante has gotten himself into trouble. Otherwise, I seem to have quite the fondness for calling Dante by a whole range of pet and nicknames. Most of them not even direct or indirect derivatives of his actual name, actually.

Not that Dante seems to mind ... amazingly, he responds to them all. :)

Probably the most "generic" and frequently used one is "Puppy". Yes, I still call my 90lb, almost 5 year old somewhat-fearsome looking Doberman "Puppy". At the risk of being overly cheesy: He'll always be a cute little puppy to me.

At some point "Puppy" evolved into "Pup-pup".

And then there's "Bub". I don't know how that came about, probably some sort of word play extension on "Pup". "Bub" just sounds more ... I don't know, like a more solid kind of "Pup", ha.

There's the silly "Dante Boy" and its twin "Puppy Boy", which turns into "Dante Dork" when I'm somewhat miffed at him, which then turns into simply "Dork" or "Knucklehead" when I'm really annoyed at him.

Hmmm, come to think of it, NONE of the nicknames I've used for Dante are any actual derivations from his given name. Guess I picked well, ha!

When The Fred came into the picture, Dante added a few more nicknames to his roster. Nicknames that I've come to adopt too. Among my top two favourites are: "Woofles" and "Lunk". I always feel like bowling over with chuckles when I say them -- How does the man come up with such gems???

As you can see, The Fred definitely tops me in the creativity department when it comes to nicknames.

If I actually spoke Cat, I would definitely seek out the list of nicknames that Pixie and Tinsel use among themselves for Dante. I suspect those would be even more colourful ...

Two is cosy ...

Since we somehow seem to have fallen into the theme of beds, I thought I'd share another never-before-posted photo I stumbled across from rummaging through old photo files -- this time of both Dante and Atia "cuddling" (from Atia's perspective, that is; I think Dante saw it more as an invasion of his space ;) ) up on a fairly new bed (at the time). Sadly said bed didn't enjoy a long, healthy lifespan either, but the memories from it sure endure:

Yes, I seem to have lapse into some kind of sentimental, soppy mood this week. Times like this I really do this miss having Atia around ... Dante might have a different opinion though ...

Dante's first "donut bed"

I stumbled across this photo in my files the other day, and got quite sentimental looking at it with a wry smile. Since I had written an entire post on the "history" of Dante's beds not too long ago, I thought I'd share this one (I don't believe I've ever posted it before) -- a 14 month old Dante snoozing away on his very first "donut bed", which had been, as you can see, patched up many times over and not too far away from its eventual "demise" at the time the photo was taken:

Ah memories ...

Food Escort

Dante has always had this thing about the basement. He’s never had any sort of negative or frightening experience in the basement, but for whatever reason, he’s not too fond of it.

Dante has never shown an inclination to go down wandering in the basement on his own. He’ll reluctantly trundle downstairs if coaxed and cajoled enough, but he makes a point of not sticking around there for too long.

Dante’s raw food is stored down in the basement in a large chest freezer, with portions incrementally thawed out in a small bar fridge, also situated down in the basement. It’s been the same arrangement/system for both the previous house and the current house.

The only time Dante gets really excited about the basement is when he hears his food bowl thunking down on the counter and me subsequently lumbering down the basement stairs to retrieve his food. He stands at the top of the basement stairs, quivering all over in anticipation of being fed and belting out a caterwauling rendition that would put even Pixie to shame. When I reach the top of the stairs balancing food containers on both hands, I’m nearly always mugged for the food before it even reaches his bowl.

A few weeks ago, I set out Dante’s food bowl on the counter and prepared to head down the basement. Right on cue, Dante trailed me to the top of the basement stairs, then planted himself there getting increasingly vocal about having food NOW while I made my way down the stairs.

On the way to the freezer, I passed by the Dryer with a full load of dried and tumbled clothes staring back at me through the glass opening. It then occurred to me that I had two full loads of laundry waiting to be shoved into the Washer upstairs, and I really needed to stop procrastinating clearing out and folding the previous load from the Dryer.

So, I thought I’d make a little “detour” and unloaded the Dryer instead. Once the laundry basket was full and placed at the bottom of the stairs to the second floor, I would have no excuse for putting off tending to it. Once I was done with that I would come back down again for Dante’s food and get on with feeding him before he makes a dramatic theatrical show of croaking from starvation.

When I (unexpectedly, in Dante’s eyes) emerged from the basement with not food, but a heavy laundry basket in my hands, the expression on Dante’s face was akin to a little child who had been told that his goldfish had died. He was confused. I thought I could even detect a slight hint of panic in his bewildered gaze: “Mum?! Where’s ... the food?!?!?!” The poor thing ... I didn’t know whether to feel bad for him or chuckle out loud.

I placed the laundry basket at the foot of the stairs as planned. Then I reassured Dante that I was going back down to get his food, and that he hasn’t missed a meal on my watch yet!

This time though, Dante gingerly padded down the stairs behind me. Oh dear, I thought to myself, the dog doesn’t trust that I’m not going to come up with another laundry basket instead of food again!

He located the freezer and fridge, and immediately bounded towards it, alternating his gaze between the freezer/fridge and myself, as if trying to make it clear what I was supposed to be doing this time. I opened the fridge door and started reaching in for his food. Dante stood to one side, and from the corner of my eye, I caught him directing shifty, nervous glances all around himself towards the rest of the darkened basement.

When I finally had the food in my hands, Dante stuck to my side, and escorted me (and his food) all the way up the stairs until we reached the kitchen counter and I started shovelling food into his bowl.

Yep, he made his point.

Since then, Dante has been accompanying on my trips down to the basement when it comes to his meal times. He seems to have somehow gotten into his head that Mum can’t be trusted with the food now so he’ll have to act as an escort (for the food of course, not for Mum!) to make sure that the food makes it safely from the basement and into his bowl!

What I find funny is that it’s still evident that Dante does NOT like being down in the basement at all if he can avoid it. He’ll come downstairs with me, potter around in a fidgety “Hurry up Mum hurry up hurry up hurry up ...” until I have the food in my hands, and then try to nudge me up the stairs as fast as possible so he can get out of the basement. Sometimes he’ll zip up ahead of me, but he makes sure to peer back at me a few times just to confirm that I am indeed coming up with the food tout suite.

Now I no longer have to worry about being mugged when I reached the top of the basement stairs, but I’ve narrowly escaped being trampled and sent tumbling down the stairs by 90lb Doberman over-eager to high-tail it out of the basement! I wonder how much longer Dante plans to continue in his new Food Escort role before he “trusts” me again ... !

Why I have been a blogging delinquent ...

It's the end of a work day. The dog has been exercised and fed. Dinner has been made, gobbled up, and dishes washed and put away. The garbage and recyling are out for collection tomorrow. The dishwasher is humming away. Bills have been paid. Cats cuddled. Dog fussed over.

I sit down at the computer, flexing my fingers, getting ready to blog away.

Then The Fred says: "Ok, bed! Now! Movie! Now!"

Dante says: "Yeah Mum, get away from the puter and give me some attention!"

Pixie whines: "Why am I spread out all ALONE on the bed!"

Tinsel looks longingly at the bed too. We know what she wants.

The Fred wags a finger at me: "You said to give you 5 minutes, it's been more than 5 minutes now!"

My post ... what post? Didn't even get to catch up on reading through my blog list.

The Fred is wagging that finger again. Likely even an ear too.

Ah well, I just can't win tonight :) Or not for the past few nights either!

I'll try harder tomorrow. Really :)

Lull

Life is busy. Life is good.

I’ve been running into the familiar challenge of “too much to do, too little time”. It’s a good kind of busy though, so even though I’m scrambling at times to line up everything that needs to be done and actually get it all DONE, it’s like running around like a headless chicken, but feeling fulfilled about it. Ok, so that analogy might be a tad bit weird ...

I spent the majority of the weekend on a half-crazed shopping crusade searching (alas, in vain) for that perfect cocktail dress and accompanying accessories for a formal dinner and dance that the Fred and I will be attending in a couple of weeks’ time. Half-crazed because I had (regretfully, in hindsight) left the task till the last minute, and it being a crusade because I was determined to be properly attired for the event as it’s been a while since I’ve been to something of this ilk.

I was trying to torpedo through all of that on top of all the regular household chores that needed to be done over the weekend as well as a growing list of fixing-up-the-house-tasks to complete. Sadly a couple of chores (like trimming Dante’s nails, oooops) still fell by the wayside and I was utterly exhausted by the end of it all. I thought shopping for girly stuff was supposed to be “fun”????

Another bi-monthly trip to Costco was made this past weekend and somehow, I ended up purchasing ANOTHER new dog bed for Dante. The Fred’s comment was: “Dante’s going to take one whiff at you when we get home, realize you’ve been to Costso and say ‘Where’s my new bed, Mum?’” Hmmm ... I think I may have a closet addiction to those dog beds :)

Work has been pretty hectic too in the past week. I’ve been sorting out a huge database at work and as a result, doing alot of squinting and staring at the computer screen scrutinizing thousands of rows and columns of busy data. So much so that my eyes have been feeling so dry and tired when I get home at the end of the day and hence, I’ve been trying to stay off the computer for as much as possible while I’m home apart from tasks like essential online banking and responding to important correspondences. Unfortunately daily blogging has become one of the casualties as well.

There’s been a couple of long, reflective posts brewing inside my head, arising from Atia’s recent visit and stay – one on Dante, and one on Atia. Those are somewhat “difficult” posts in some ways, so I haven’t quite churned them out of my head yet as I continue to ponder upon their content and how to word some of my thoughts. I’m going to be needing some catharsis from all this back and forth in my head soon though, so it’s on the verge of it all tumbling out in one long wordy diarrhea ...

Aside from the above, I know I’ve been kind of lazy with jotting down and publishing short quips on the blog as they occur to me. I’ve been happily humming along and caught up with the blissful contentment of running a full household with a dependable partner (such a refreshing change!). It’s a wonderful, fuzzy feeling. The “kids” are merrily coasting along with us – “home” and “family” never felt this full of comfort and a solid sense of belonging.

I’ll try to keep up with a daily blogging pace and catch up now with snippets and other tidbits from the last few days. But with how well things are going on so many fronts, an evolution of the blog in its various aspects might just be long overdue ...

Life is busy. Life is good :)

Driving in a snow storm should be like dog-walking ...

There was an unexpected snow storm today; unexpected as in it wasn't in the morning forecast, so nobody was actually looking out for it until it actually struck.

It was a snow squall, to be more specific. The temperature wasn't very cold, but there was a steady snowfall and blustery winds of up to 60km/h. Thankfully, the worst part of it was during the middle of the day, and when it came time to make the drive home from work, it was on the verge of slowly petering out.

It took me DOUBLE the amount of time to get home than it usually takes. The drive home was excruciatingly SLOW. Now, I can certainly understand, and am all for, added caution on the road  when driving in adverse winter conditions. However, I am constantly puzzled and frustrated by how many drivers seem to forget how to drive with every snowfall. Traffic was crawling and practically chaotic in places because, it appeared to me, most people were either trembling behind the wheel at the prospect of going more than 10km/h in what amounts to typical winter conditions, or it's just their approach to drive in the same careless, manic fashion all the time regardless of road conditions. Then there are those who straddle two or more lanes while their vehicles slip and swerve all over the place. For crying out loud: If you get so ridiculously nervous driving in winter weather or can't be bothered to make sure that your vehicle is winter road-worthy, then GET OFF THE ROAD and stay home and let the rest of us get on our way! Can you tell that this is one of my major pet peeves during winter?

You know what I do like about adverse winter weather conditions (or just adverse weather conditions in general) though? Whether it's rain or snow, some of my best walks and outdoor time spent with Dante is during days of not-so-pleasant weather going on outside. Why? Because during such days, all but the most dedicated dog owners will look out the window, groan and decide that they would rather stay home and be warm, cosy and comfy instead of braving whatever howling wind, pouring rain or blowing snow is out there to give their dog a walk.

One of the biggest downsides of suburban dog-walking is that for every responsible, wonderful dog owner there is at least 5 irresponsible, ignorant, dimwitted morons who allow their dogs to indulge in obnoxious, unruly behaviour in public and harass other dog owners/walkers and their dogs. Unfortunately, I run into at least 1-2 of these idjits on an almost daily basis whenever Dante and I are out on our walks on an average day.

Well, when the weather gets a little nasty, guess what -- yep, all the idjits are suddenly no where to be seen! Hence, adverse weather days are days that I actually often look forward to (barring a complete white-out of a blizzard or something equally catastrophic, of course) heading out to stretch my legs with Dante.

After a protracted, miserable drive home, being able to enjoy an idiot-free walk with Dante certainly went a long way towards putting me in a better mood for the rest of the evening. The wind had died down and the ground was carpeted in fluffy, soft fresh snow. We had a lovely brisk walk without running into even one boorish idjit or being ambushed by someone's dog wandering loose on their front yard. It was a great workout trudging through the snowladen pathways and a simple way to unwind from a long way at work. Fantabulous!

Now, if ignorant, irresponsible drivers would just hole themselves up indoors whenever the weather is a little less than postcard perfect, I would be perfectly happy to cross another pet peeve off my list ...

Fickle

While I grapple with my own fickle and conflicting sentiments that arose out of Atia's brief visit and stay, I would like to ask Dante:

Dear Dante, why is it that when Atia was here, you pulled spectacularly long faces, acted the macho "I don't play with little girls" stoic big man role worthy of an Oscar, and just generally sulked and pouted around the house wondering when she was going away again; yet, now that she's gone, you wander the house with a heart-wrenching morose look on your face piteously whining and pining at her absence?

Looks like I'm not the only one in the house in a pickle with fickle emotions.

Atia: Day 2 & 3

The next day, it was clear that Atia was feeling much better. For starters, no sooner had Dante vacated his bed at the crack of dawn, Atia commenced Operation Takeover Dante's Stuff:

"Uhm ... errr ... Mum? Why is Dante looking at me like that? What do you mean it's his FAVOURITE bed? Oh ..."

She was still carrying her "baby" everywhere with her (even when going out into the yard to pee!), but she was a little more inquisitive and less mopey. Of course, Operation Takeover meant she claimed all the prime sunny spots in the house as well:

Pixie is keeping the secret of the moving sunbeams to herself for now.

I had booked the day off work, but had to drop into the office for a couple hours first thing in the morning. According to The Fred, who had the day off as well, after I had left the house Atia wandered around looking for me for a while, then resignedly plonked herself down on the stairway landing where she could keep an eye on the front door for my reappearance and still keep an ear out for activitiy upstairs:

When I returned a couple of hours later, the whole house was abuzz with excitement because the dogs had gotten wind that we were going out HIKING.

It was a bit of mayhem getting two dogs ready to go after only having to fuss about Dante for a long while now, but we finally did end up out the door, with the two dogs giving each other hairy eyeballs in the backseat making sure that their respective halves of the seat were clearly staked out.

The weather wasn't as warm as we had hoped, but it wasn't too bad once we all started moving at a good brisk pace. Actually, it was pretty much like a route march for at least a solid hour, so that gave the dogs a great workout and they had a blast zipping past each other on varied terrain. I didn't get as many varied photos as I would have liked, as many parts of the trail was sheer ice and safety and commonsense dictated that I had to set the camera aside to ensure I had proper footing and grip as we moved along (especially when two Dobermans are zooming to and fro alongside at high speed!); but here are some from the hike:

"Let's go let's go LET'S GO!!!!"

Interesting smells abound ...

Dante showing off -- notice that all his four feet are off the ground!

Emergency braking!

Revving up again ...

"Dante!!! WAIT UP!!!!"

Homeward bound ...

Atia seemed to have worn herself out on the hike, so much so that she seemed to have gotten into a cranky spell for the rest of the evening holing herself up in her crate cuddling with her "baby". Dante on the other hand had just enough stamina to hang around mooching for handouts as bacon, sausages and eggs were put on the grill. The Fred and I relaxed and enjoyed the rest of our day off with two tired but happy puppies moseying up for the occasional pet and scratch every now and then.

Day 3 (today), Atia woke up quite the chirpy little girl. Dante on the other hand was starting to have the "Is she going home yet Mum???" look on his face. I was back at work for the day, while The Fred was lucky enough to be able to work from home and play the role of Puppy Nanny. I had to be content with getting updates throughout the day from The Fred on how Atia was much happier around the house, and starting to goad Dante (who would have none of it) into play. The cats were a little cranky that all their usual attention had literally gone to the dogs (yeah I bet you saw that pun coming a mile away!), but otherwise the dogs were voluntarily on their best behaviour and actually spent most of the day curled up in the home office with The Fred working away:

There were potty, snack and play breaks of course, and then the dogs trailed The Fred back into the office and switched beds every so often:

When I got home from work later in the day, it was time for a nice long walk. We were out for over an hour, and got caught in a flash downpour on our way back. Eau de Wet Dog was the scent for the night!

Dinner for the dogs and humans later, Atia's breeder showed up at the expected time, and ... Atia was gone. It's been a good 3 days having her around again, even if just for a short while.

Until next time Atia, whenever that may be ...