Decibel's First Christmas

Family tradition dictates that presents be opened on Christmas Eve, as soon as it is dark enough to call it "evening".  Our dogs seem to know this tradition as well.

Before picture:  Note there is still light in the window.

Maggie has picked out her present and started to guard it the day before:

The fun starts:

Decibel is not sure what to do

Maggie offers to help with the unwrapping

And, just as always, there is one present they all like the best... the other dog's.

A seasonal interlude...

It's snowing here and of course the dogs like it.

Me, I am trying to get as close to the fire without blistering my butt.

Harold has one of those Mr. Fixit days:

He told me real proudly that he combed two felts out of Decibel.  (She is getting that adult coat, winter wool and puppy wool coming and going, she felts a lot).

So I look at Decibel and am completely confused.  She was covered in straw, grass clippings, leaves, twigs, small branches and other yard material.  Covered.

"How did you pick the two spots to comb?"

Harold was still happy about his achievement, but one look at the girl, and he couldn't believe it.  

Butbutbut... he stuttered like the motor boat.  

He combed her, she was sleeping on the couch.  How she got outside, rolled around, came back and slept on the couch again, he could not figure out.

(I can't figure it out either, but she does this to me about three times a day, so I am used to it).

Next Harold takes apart the toaster.  It requires power tools.  I didn't know the thing was broken, but okay.  He shows me the mechanism, how it turns on, when you push the bread down.  Cool.  Then he says:  "Well, I was trying to get the bottom off, to clean out the toaster, but I guess you can't disassemble it".

He got real mad at me when I showed him that there is a flap you open and shake the crumbs out.  You need a fingernail, or in my case, a knife.  No power tools.  As I am prying the flap open he keeps telling me that I am breaking it, that it won't work etc.  Only I have done it before, and my memory is still good enough.

Well, yesterday we melted some of the beeswax to try and make candles.  Apparently there was so much crap and dead bees in the wax, that we made some dead bug smokers instead.  So much for making honey smelling candles.  Singed bees smell just about like toasted roaches... Ahh the holidays.

What is Mom doing with all that colored paper?  What are presents?

 Just looking, and nobody started unwrapping yet!

I was a very good girl all year!

Decibel's fall continues...

More of fall:

We are still having really nice weather, no frost yet, not a hard one anyhow, so the trees have not changed their colors all that much.  Of course it is mostly oaks and lots of cottonwood trees here, so the colors are not nearly as spectacular as in the northeast.  

But Kansas does have grass that changes color.  

It is a more subtle change, you walk out on a short cropped pasture, and going north it just looks like grass, maybe a little dry... nothing to write about.  Then you turn around and you find yourself surrounded by color, from yellow to orange to reddish purple, like flames dancing around you, with the wind making it all shimmy and wave and wiggle.  You turn back and the grass looks greenish again.  

The tall grass turns colors too, mostly a rich gold first then sort of a tarnished golden bronze, and then, later, in the winter when the rest of the world goes gray, then it becomes a rich copper that just warms the whole wide swath of land, in spite of the snow.  It took me a while before I noticed all this, but now I do look forward to all these changes.  (I usually don't like autumn, since it just ends up with winter...)  

Maybe you can translate the words into a mental image, although pictures would be better, but they rarely come out.  The camera can't quite capture the image at all, even though I am not really exaggerating it.  It is a little like Van Gogh's Starry night, I've seen stars like that, but of course that was the emotion as well as the image that made the vision. 

Okay, now I have to see what to do about apples and cheese in our house.  Decibel is spoiling for a good run or a game of kick the ball around the yard.  I am always amazed how energetic she is, and how nimble.  Barley was rather clumsy as a pup, probably because he was growing so fast and much, he never quite caught up with it all, and Ralph was already an adult, so he is much more 'settled'.  

Oh, Ralph has been rather good with Decibel for a while, he still doesn't LOVE her, but he grouches less, and often wags his tail when she licks his muzzle, not entirely friendly, but more like, oh-fine-I-won't-growl-but-only-because-you-are-a-girl, but there were times when I 'caught him' in a full play bow, and trying to play with her.  It doesn't last long, but it is a start.  Maggie plays with Decibel now, keep away with a toy, or tug of war, and of course she wins, but it is real play, and Decibel knows it too.  Again, it doesn't last long, and it doesn't happen all the time, but it is more common now, which means that they are secure in their positions and all, and can relax enough to play a bit.  

I better quit now, Decibel is poking me, c'mon mom, lets do something!

A TEENAGER!

…she’ll want a cell phone next

Ah, Decibel now shows the occasional glimpse of teenager.  I think here she is asking her Dad for the car keys!

Seriously, her teenage moments are nothing horrible, but there are the distinct 'whatever' times where she clearly rolls her eyes before she listens, or the 'OMG, I have to finish texting first' (texting is wrestling with the cat, or eating manure or whatever), and of course there is the demonstrative 'I love you' (complete with the jumping up and full face wash), because we do things that way now, and the 'I can't hear you' and the sneaky steal big brother's bowl and cart it outside, complete with wide-eyed innocent 'What?' when caught.  We haven't got the 'I hate you, nobody loves me, you don't understand' yet, and I don't think she has it in her.  

She really is a nice teenager.

Mostly, she is very cute, sweet and 'mostly' obedient.  Mostly.  

She never pushes anything very far, and knows the BIG rules, no bite, no fight, no messing in the house, and listen to Mom when she gets loud (although I would prefer a period after the listen to Mom part - we're working on it).  

And there are the occasional flashes of sheer brilliance.  I know she will be a great dog when she is all done.  I actually think she will have a lot of sense (the je ne sais quoi quality that distinguishes Maggie from Ralph; both are good in obedience, but Maggie uses her 'powers' (a glance or a growl) sparingly, precisely, and fairly, while Ralph is one of those haphazard revolutionaries, that just wants to be against, without knowing what to be for.  Although Ralph is acting a lot better with Decibel now.  She is always submissive, and wants to make friends, make up, so it works.)  

Below you see Decibel licking Ralphy's muzzle, which is a regular AM event.  At first we had to intervene, as Ralph growled and warned her off with a show of teeth.  

Decibel just kept at it though, and now we reward Ralph for 'suffering through the affection'.  He gets special time and smooches for holding still, and you can see his 'enthusiasm' for it, in the first picture.  But at the last picture, he is relaxed and going over to Harold for special ear rub rewards.  I figure tolerating her is close enough.  It's how I got along with my brother too, mostly.

Sad happenings

This is the email I sent around a day ago.  It tells it all.

Yesterday sucked.

I had to put my old mare Chigger down.  Chigger was my first horse, my perfect horse and I had her for 12 wonderful years.  She had the exceptional ability to do the right thing no matter who rode her.  She could work cattle with the best of them, and loved that job above all others.  She would balance a child on her back with great care.  She would go on trails and calmly walk along highway traffic, barking dogs, and other horses.  She was disobedient only when someone inflicted pain on her or when she was in pain due to an injury or infection.

My best estimate of her final age is between 33 and 34 years old.

That is remarkably old for a quarter horse, especially one who had an unconventional rear end (damage a foal had caused).  The actual deed was quick and not very traumatic.  Chigger was a bit agitated, for I had led her out into the tall grass.  She kept tossing her head.  But once the catheter had been inserted, she was quiet and the first sedative had her drop to the ground.  She seemed relieved to lie down without having to worry about getting up again.  Getting up had become harder and harder for her to do, and she would injure her legs and exhaust herself in the struggle.  I could no longer blanket her, for fear she would get tangled.

Once she was stretched out, her life ended without a twitch.

SweetPea has been racing the paddocks all day and is screaming and hollering for Chigger.  It strikes us as funny, as she always tried to get the upper hand on Chigger, and it hardly seemed that the two horses liked each other.  Brownie and donkey on the other hand are just doing their thing.

A few years ago, when she could still balance a rider, this was Chigger, ready for work:

And here, not so long ago, when she gave Sweetpea, the paint, what for.  

Glimpses of Decibel’s puppyhood: September continued.

Decibel’s surgery

After checking out the osteosarcoma study and various other recommendations, and talking to our vet, we decided to have Decibel spayed before her first heat and at the same time have the surgery done to prevent torsion if she should bloat.  

All this trauma (including having her implanted with a microchip) happened yesterday, and she is coming around nicely.  

Yesterday Decibel was very, very tired and ouchy when she tried to stretch and such.  Well, considering that she has two 'zippers' in her belly, that isn't unusual.  She seemed to feel discomfort only during certain movements, and rested easily (once we lifted her on the couch), so we did not give her any additional pain meds.  

This morning she got up and 'feels all better'.  She is on leash for exercising, and no jumping, roughhousing and the like, but then I am home, and can supervise, so that is no problem.  Still, Decibel feels fine, I have not even had to give her any pain meds, although the vet sent us home with two kinds, just in case.

We go for leash walks, and I keep an eye on Skeeter, he likes to play with Decibel a lot, but so far they are all behaving.

Dr Ann mentioned that Decibel was 'very reactive' during surgery, and that even under anesthesia her heart rate would increase when she was cutting or clamping.  So the fact that Decibel cries when vaccinated might actually be inherited or as Ann said, she's wired that way.  It is not all just being a drama queen.  She could not fake the reaction under sedation.  Also one incision was closed with braided suture material, and Decibel bruised almost immediately.  Non-braided monofilament material bruised hardly at all.

I'm passing the info along, in case her litter mates have similar 'issues'.

Decibel is recuperating very well, and so far has been good about not licking her incisions.  She does not seem to be in pain, and was a little confused about not being allowed in the pond, which I think is a good sign.  A few more days of taking it easy, and she will be 'good as new'.

I did not want to tell you about the surgery before, since I managed to worry about it enough for seven people.  You would have thought it was the first dog to ever go under the knife.  Coincidentally, an eight-year-old dog was being spayed when we picked Decibel up and that poor bitch was riddled with mammary tumors, which from the feel and location and such were likely deemed malignant by Dr. Ann.  She showed me (I get to assist her during surgeries at times, but cannot do that when it is one of my dogs on the table) the tumors, and said, 'if you ever need another reason for an early spay'.  Now that Decibel is healing and acting normal, I am glad that it is done and hopefully soon 'over with' as a memory.

Love,

I know you are all very busy and traveling, but I just wanted to let you know that Decibel is recovering really nicely, no problems at all, and if it were up to her, she would be back in the pond swimming.

Both incisions are healing well, no trouble, and the one that bruised earlier now looks a bit better, so it was only a temporary reaction to the suturing material.  The girl did not even need to wear a 'cone of shame' as we call the Elizabethan collars in our house, because the dogs who wear them always look so miserable in them.  Of course, with Decibel, who knows, she might just think it was a fashion statement.  I had a very wide collar that I bought, and never used, because it was absurd, about 4 inches wide, that I put on her for a day or two, and that distracted her well enough from licking.

I am sending you her post op pitiful picture, but really, she looks back to normal now, eats well, plays, and mostly hates having a naked belly.

Pretty in pink

all is well here, and Decibel is 'all better' as well.  She does not like her shaved belly, but has not licked or otherwise kept the incisions from healing.  She is doing so well we let her go swimming again (there is no opening, just a scar on her belly) and we took her to town for dog class.  Unfortunately nobody else showed, so class was canceled.  
So we went shopping. Decibel needed her 'adult' outfit, her permanent collar.  Since she is now microchipped, we wanted to attach the tag on her collar, but not the temporary one she has been wearing until now.  I have to admit we have not registered the chip yet, the service got much more expensive than the last time we did it, and I am not even sure that I want to do it.  Decibel is not so likely to get lost or run off.

We have had chipped dogs since 1991, and never 'used' the home again service.  I think I have time to decide.

Anyhow, the collar that fit her and suited her best was bright pink.  So now she is pretty in pink.

Here she is mooching for apples.

Hope your various travels went smoothly,

I know there is no chance of you sending Dominique our way, but we have way too many apples, and I could sure use a hand in converting them all into something that will last, like applesauce.  I could teach Dominique how to make cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese and butter in return.  You will never go back to store-bought.  

Actually, that is a bad thing, because I am such a food snob now.  

Just like the dogs... Briards always crack me up, my other dogs just open their mouths and hope that I will share, but not Decibel or Ralph.  NOOO.  They have to sniff, and taste a sample before they commit.  Talk about food snobs.  Those guys will slurp and smack their way through a pea-sized morsel, roll their eyes and evaluate it.  Wine tasters have less of a to do about it.

Harold always says that when the Briards crowd the kitchen, something good is cooking.  Barley was the same way.  He chewed and tasted his food.  

That's so French...

Glimpses of Decibel’s puppyhood: September.

Decibel the bargain dog

Decibel is taking to fall like she took to water, with enthusiasm.  Racing around in the cooler temps seems to be a no brainer.  Me - I dread winter.

She has brilliant moments of sheepherding, and chaotic flashes of "chase that silly thing", especially when another dog 'helps' out.  Usually the magic of the 'that'll do' holds, and I can get her refocused on me, and work again.  She is learning that horses are big and to avoid them at close quarters.  I prefer that.  There is no need for a dog to be too confident around large animals with hard hooves.

I know she is not supposed to be afraid of anything, but there is a difference between caution and fear.

Anyhow, because she was out of her BilJac food, I took her to town last week.  Our first stop was in another town, our county seat, where I had to renew the conservation reserve contract at the Farm service agency.  (The program allows us to keep highly erodible land out of production and covered by perennials.  Without it we would have to have the land farmed, but it would be intensive and require high fertilizer input to produce anything.  It would be hard on the soil, groundwater etc., and barely pay the taxes.  The CRP barely pays the taxes with benefits to the environment.  It is only a bad deal when people call it a subsidy.)

Decibel was on her best behavior.  She walked in at heel, sat to be petted and was such a hit, that we walked out of there without paying the contract renewal fee, since it was all about the dog.  Unfortunately I got a call a few days later about that, so I still had to pay, but it almost worked.  

We had a good laugh over that.  Even the FSA agent thought it was funny.  And yes, it was all due to Decibel's blinding beauty.

At Petco Decibel got me a 10% off coupon, because she is so pretty.  I should take her shopping for big-ticket items.

On the way out of the store we saw a big construction machine that scared the wits right out of her.  So I had to load her food in the car and spend another twenty minutes watching construction with her, until she could ignore the roaring clanking beeping dozer.  

Once she could watch it without freaking out, and do a sit on command, without touching me for safety, I found her a nice human to pet her and we went home.

I'm sure the construction workers were flattered, thinking this 'cougar' watched them for completely different reasons.

Decibel is doing well on most of her single trips (no other dogs), and all of her double trips to town.  When she is alone, she still gets nervous now and then and throws up.  It isn't real car sickness, as in motion sickness, she just gets a little stressed.  At least that is how it appears to me.  She never gets carsick on the way home, even though it is the same distance ride, same driver.  And I know that dogs can barf way more than just once.

What can I say?  She shreds, too.

Love

Decibel the star

I hope your time at the Nationals was well spent and you were successful.  However, there is no way your success could compare to the magnificent Decibel.  She was absolutely awesome, fabulous and beyond comparison.

Let me elaborate:

Yesterday we gave a 'dinner party' for 15 of Harold's colleagues (from across the country.  They were here for a professional meeting, and this was one of those 'dinner for the boss' type affairs that I had hoped to never have to host.  I mean that sort of stuff should have been abolished in the sixties.)

At least three of the attendees were NOT dog people.  One doesn't like to be touched by dogs.

Still mine is a house with dogs, so I won't lock them away.

First came the weeklong prep period.  Clean the damn house, cook, bake, shop prepare, clean again, etc.  

The last day was chaos.  

Additionally my cow Ruby is due to calve, donkey choked, and we have kittens to get acclimated to us.

Sure, all Harold has to do is go to work.  He gets paid for that?!

Anyhow, all dogs were very good, they picked up that I was stressed and behaved, BUT Decibel went a step beyond.  She made sure that I remembered that life was not about the perfect sparkling floor.  I had the rugs piled up and was mopping, turned around and there on top of the rug pile, sat a flowerpot.

Perfectly balanced.

I knew Decibel had put it there, only when?  I looked for her, and she had somehow gotten across the room and was innocently sleeping on the couch.  I never heard or saw her.  She didn't mess anything up, but I took a break and went to play with them all, while tossing the flowerpot over the fence so she had to find another one.  After finishing the floor and having put the rugs back, vacuumed, I stepped back for a final look.

There on the rug, a red apple.  Perfectly placed by devilishly clever Decibel.  How? When?

She didn't make any messes, but kept reminding me that there was more to life.  Don't you just love that girl?

But that would not have quite gotten her the equivalent of the Doggie Nobel Prize, that came later.  We had arranged with Dehlia, Harold's lab tech who attends dog class with us, and teaches me the horse business, that she would take one of the dogs on lead, when people arrived.  She had Maggie who behaved perfectly, sitting for pets and the like.  Harold took Skeeter, who will jump up otherwise, I had Decibel.  Ralph does not jump up, and can mostly be voice controlled, as long as everyone else behaves.

Any one of them can really, but when there are four loose dogs and 14 people including two toddler/children types, Skeeter jumps up for attention and then it all goes to hell from there.  And I didn't want to have to use my 'dog training voice'.

Well, the dogs were awesome.  Decibel went through the whole meet and greet like it was her final CGC exam, Skeeter behaved, Maggie showed off, and Ralph was fine.

Soon Maggie was off lead, then Skeeter, then Decibel.

Now the older boy is maybe four (what do I know about kids, he is mobile, fast, and can speak in short intelligible sentences, and understand even more.  I think he is four) and he likes the dogs, but does this run by pet quickly, move quickly, wave hands and arms around, screech occasionally, thing that some dogs think makes him something to chase.

So I watched Decibel really close, since we don't have much kid time with her.

She was spectacular.

She never showed fear or got overexcited; she behaved as if she knew all about kids.  We all went for a walk to see the farm animals, and Decibel would trot ahead, chased by the boy, Alex.  She would let him catch up and then quickly circle him, and I though, oh no, she is playing, and she roughhouses with Skeeter like that, but she never bumped Alex, jumped on him, or even reacted in any way when he grabbed for her tail.  She would run ahead again, no, trot, slowly, letting him chase her.

She was absolutely wonderful with him.

Then we got back to the house, and I gave the obligatory tour (Damn why do people want to see the whole house, where am I supposed to hide all the crap I cleaned out from the public area?) finished dinner, and the dogs were all wonderful.  During dinner Ralph was in his crate, Maggie and Skeeter were at my feet, and Decibel?  She carried in her big bone (they had all gotten bones so I could work, and chewed on them in the yard) plopped down at the bottom of the stairs and chewed on that.

Terry, Dominique, we had steaks!

I mean manna for dogs, and yet Decibel just occupied herself, no begging, no table surfing, no lap drooling.

Not impressed yet?

It got better.  Alex got restless and started cruising the room again.  Decibel did not care that he touched her or showed any sort of bad reaction, in spite of having her bone there.  Now I was watching like a hawk, mind you, hovering close by, but there was no indication of her being stressed or wanting to defend her bone or anything.  Of course I take food up, bones away, toys back, but that was fabulous calm behavior from a not yet seven month old.

It got even better.  

The toddler Kristopher began wobbling around the floor, and Decibel was very gentle and nice to him, never pushed him over or ran through him, let him grab onto her, no problem, and in the end gave him kisses (it was okay with the mother, who got kisses too from Decibel).  The whole time Decibel acted like she grew up in a daycare.  Screeches and crying didn't bother her, she was gentle, aware of her size, and wait, it gets better yet.

Alex told her to 'sit down'.  Decibel sat, then laid down.  I swear, she did.

Then Alex looked at me and said, 'make her get up again', and Decibel sat.

She took pieces of steak from him, and left all the fingers intact.

I knew she would, she does not snap at food and we work with her on that, but it was still awesome to see.  All four dogs around this little kid, who is about the height of Ralph sitting, and they do their sits and downs on his say so, and eating bits of steak without the occasional finger.

I was so proud of my gang, and Decibel especially, since in spite of the socializing and all, she just doesn't get all that much off leash kid time.