Category Archives: buddy

Buddy: 2002? – January 22, 2016

Buddy joined our family on Sunday, March 7, 2010. We first met him at a pet adoption event the day before. He was a rescue from southern Indiana. He’d spent much of his life chained outside and through a sequence of events his family gave him up to a shelter, where Castaway Pet Rescue found him and brought him to the Chicago area. We met with his foster family on that Sunday and double-checked to see if he had any bad habits – trash-surfing, chewing, separation anxiety – and he was clean on all counts. We signed the adoption papers on the spot, and Buddy walked out the door with us.

He quickly adapted to our home, and we adjusted to having a new member of the family. While never an exuberantly affectionate dog, he nevertheless was always friendly and had a very sweet disposition. In short, he was well-suited to us and we were well-suited to him.

Being an older dog when we got him, Buddy had the start of all of the problems that come with advancing age: bad teeth, bad eyes, bad hips. Over the last year and a half those started to catch up with him. The muscles on the top of his head atrophied, possibly due to myositis. This put pressure on the brain and led to the onset of canine dementia. His hips got worse, cataracts set in, and he steadily lost his hearing in certain frequencies. His daily regimen included some rather astonishing doses of Tramadol and Valium.

The hardest decision that Dan and I have had to make together is determining when it is time. It comes down to what is the dog’s quality of life. In reviewing past photos and videos, it was plain to see that Buddy had reached that time. We have been wavering back and forth for months, and at times almost wished for some sudden event to occur that would make the decision for us. That event never came, and so it was up to us to make the call.

Tonight, that time came. Buddy is no longer with us, and there is a gaping hole in our hearts.

We were incredibly fortunate to have such a wonderful dog in our lives. I only wish we had had more time together.

This Dog Is Dragging

Oh man, am I tired. takaza wasn’t feeling well this morning and got up at about 3:30 AM. I woke up and while waiting for him to come back to bed I got to thinking and stressing and…well, so much for getting back to sleep. Mind you, it’s not his fault – a normal person would have gone right back to sleep. Me, I’m just neurotic that way. I don’t function well on five hours of sleep, unfortunately. (Dan did come back to bed and get a bit more sleep, which made me feel better.)

We’re getting ready for company this weekend, and a fun party and some other cool stuff. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone, but as usual I’ve succeeded in working myself up into a ball of stress in the process of getting everything ready. I’ll be fine tomorrow, I’m sure, but I have a list of stuff I need to get done tonight that’s really bugging me.

In non-holiday-weekend news, Buddy is still wearing The Cone of Shame for most of the day, though we do take it off in the evenings when we’re around to keep an eye on him. He gets his stitches out on Saturday morning, which is good. He didn’t try to lick the healing area last night, so I’m taking that as a very good sign. The vet let us know that the lump that was removed was “most likely” benign and his prognosis is excellent. We’ve got just a couple more antibiotic pills to give him, then hopefully his digestive tract will get back to normal, too. He’ll be a happy and friendly pup come this weekend, I’m sure!

Anthrocon is just a few weeks away and I am sure that if I took a close look at what remains to be done for that I’d be terrified. I am putting all that way until after Memorial Day weekend, though. In the meantime, soon it will be time to party!

Buddy Does Not Like The Cone Of Shame

Yesterday, Buddy had to go to the vet. For one thing, it was time for a good teeth cleaning (something for which he was clearly overdue). Also, he had been licking at a bump on his left front elbow for the last week. It clearly wasn’t painful, just annoying. I had pointed out the bump earlier to the vet, and he said when it got bigger or started to cause irritation, bring Buddy in. Looks like the time had come.

Buddy was a little woozy when we picked him up last night, and clearly not happy to be wearing a Victorian collar (aka The Cone of Shame). The vet said his teeth were healthy and no extractions were necessary. He removed the cyst from his elbow and had sent it off for biopsy, and put in three stitches. At our request he injected Buddy with a microchip for tracking, and even trimmed his claws (unasked!). He sent us off with a pain relieving syrup (meloxicam), an antibiotic (clindamycin), and an anti-anxiety med (acepromazine) for when Buddy gets too freaked out by thunderstorms.

Buddy was pretty wobbly last night, but is doing much better this morning. Navigating with the Cone of Shame is a continuing challenge – his spatial awareness is way off, and he almost fell down the stairs a few times. He has finally been able to get comfortable with it while sleeping, it seems. I think he was in a bit of pain this morning, as he couldn’t get comfortable and kept lying down, then getting up again. It looks like the pain killer has hit him surprisingly hard, though, as I’m watching him fall asleep on his bed right now. Theoretically, he has to wear the Cone for the next ten days, with his stitches coming out on Saturday. We’re hoping maybe we can take it off sooner than that, but we’ll take things day by day.

Meat and Booze – How Can You Go Wrong?

I need another weekend to recover from my weekend!

We started the fun off on Friday night. Roho and genet carpooled with us down to Downer’s Grove for dinner. We had some time to kill, so we stopped by Binny’s Beverage Depot to look around and ran into linnaeus! While there we were entertained by a gentleman who was offering samples of various spirits that he distributes, including Vana Tallinn, an Estonian liqueur. We were a little so-so at first, but then he had some cocktails available to sample showing how good it was for mixing. In fact, it was fantastic for mixing, especially the Canton Cannon: Vana Tallinn, vodka, fresh ginger, and just a touch of Sriracha hot sauce. It was delicious! Between us, our group bought three bottles of Vana Tallinn. Now that’s a good salesman!

Dinner was a nice little shindig put together by Rayven and Nihaler at Chama Gaucha. I have to say that this is one of the better iterations of the Brazilian Steakhouse type of restaurants – excellent service, really good-quality meats, and a decent price. I was impressed that once Dan told them he was allergic to garlic, not only did the waiters only offer him non-garlic-containing meats, they made a special skewer of chicken breasts just for him. This place is definitely worth going back to. When we got home I had to head off to bed, but Dan stayed up until kellicjtiger and uberhill arrived at about 1:30 AM.

Things were understandably a little slow to get started the next morning. We finally got out of the house and met up with Roho and Genet for brunch at Las Vegas Restaurant. We walked around downtown a bit afterward, then succumbed to the siren call of Antioch Packing House, our favorite local butcher (OMG MEAT!). Steaks were purchased, and then a bit more booze and grocery shopping followed (and once again it was proven that Garden Fresh Market is an evil place for those who make impulse purchases). That evening, we were joined by Linnaeus and a had great night of food, conversation, laughter, and boozamahol followed (we, um, killed about 80% of the 1-liter bottle of Vana Tallinn). It was really a whole lot of fun!

Sunday brought the Midwest FurFest staff meeting. The meeting was nice and short (as they typically are this time of year), but we had an extremely useful tour of the innards of the hotel afterward from one of the convention services managers. A small group of us went to Potbelly Sandwiches for dinner afterward, then we headed home. The evening was nicely low-key after such a raucous weekend, with Kellic and Charles working on some Geek Partnership Society work and us rotting our brains with the Survivor finale (which we watched in high-speed: 2 hours of TV in about 20 minutes, woo!).

This week we’re going to be doing a bit of housecleaning and getting ready for Memorial Day fun (more info on that coming very soon!). We need to take Buddy to the vet tomorrow to have his teeth cleaned and a bump removed from his leg that he has licked to the point that something needs to be done about it – it doesn’t seem to hurt him, it’s just an annoyance, I suspect. We’ll make sure that the vet microchips him too, since it doesn’t appear to have been done before. Given that they’ll have to put Buddy under to do the first two items, I’m sure he’ll be a bit of a mess when we pick him up tomorrow night. Fun times for doggie parents!

Spring Cleaning Weekend! Well, Almost…

We had plans, you see.

Spring Cleaning! Lots to do! A three-page list of tasks from the garage to the upstairs office to the back patio, we were going to be a whirlwind!

Well, yeah. Anyway. Not so much. But you know what? It was a pretty good weekend anyway.

We wound up eating out all three nights, which was unexpected. Friday night was dinner at The Lake House with aureth, jenwolf, roho and genet to celebrate Aureth’s birthday. This was our third time at The Lake House, and each time the service and food quality has gone downhill. While the company was great and we had a fun time, I don’t see a huge need to return to that restaurant. There’s too many other good places in the area still to try. (Like Rugan’s, which has a “beer fraternity”!).

Saturday was gray and wet outside, and neither takaza nor I felt particularly motivated. We did give Buddy a bath, which is always amusing. Once he knows that it’s bath time, he’ll tuck his tail between his legs and walk slowly into the bathroom and climb into the bathtub on his own, then look at you with this expression of, “Can we please just get this over with?” Anyway, with him clean we took the opportunity to wash his bedding as well, but then pretty much ran out of get-up-and-go. Instead we opted for a bit of retail therapy. We needed someplace to put all of our DVD’s and (small) collection of video games, so we decided we needed to go to Ikea and pick up a couple of Benno DVD towers.

We called Roho and Genet to see if they wanted to join us; Roho was tuckered out, but Genet was up for it! One trip to Ikea later we had the towers, as well as a few other things (yeah, that’s the way they work). We then went over to Five Guys Burgers and Fries for dinner, the first time we had visited one. The verdict: great fries (yeah, Dan ordered the large size – big mistake), and pretty darned tasty burgers. A little pricey, but I expect we’ll be going back.

Sunday we made a small dent in some of the work to do, sorting through a few of the boxes in the office. Side note: we have a clash of family cultures in our house. We always have had an attic where we had a dozen or more boxes of stuff sitting around. We’d look at it every five years or so, shrug, and back into storage it would go. Dan’s family didn’t have the stash of boxes and doesn’t see my predilection for not minding all these boxes stashed in a closet. So we’re compromising: Sort through the boxes, get rid of what isn’t needed, sort the rest into clear plastic bins, and get some order into the place. Well, that was the idea, and we’ll still finish it at some point. On Sunday, though, we did a little work then decided to take a break. Then it was time to head out for dinner!

Dinner this night was at The Sequoit Creek Lodge a mostly-bar-but-also-a-restaurant in Antioch. There we met up with Roho, Genet, and chebutykin, on her way home from Ebertfest in Champaign (and recovering from drinking gin and Squirt with mirkowuff). We had a fun time, and were surprised at the end of the meal when Aureth and Jenne dropped by, having seen tweets of where we were eating. It was a nice reminder of how fun Cheb is to hang out with, and why we really must persuade her to visit for Memorial Day 🙂

This week is a lot more sane than the last. A high-speed project was created, written up, executed, and the final report signed off late Friday of last week, and I’m still recovering a bit from that. We’ve got plans for the weekend (more on that later) that will keep us hopping as well. Hope everyone has a great week!

Thunderstorms, Conventions, and Really Good Fajitas

We had some impressive thunderstorms roll through last night. While Buddy had been pretty much unaffected by storms that had come through earlier in the day, something about storms in the middle of the night freaked him out. He wound up crawling up on the bed between me and takaza and shivering and panting for a while, until he calmed down. Unfortunately he kept shifting around and waking me up, so I was a meanie and evicted him from the bed (hey, I had to get up and go to work in the morning, he didn’t). He was OK, though – he curled up into a ball right next to the bed on the floor and seemed to weather the rest of the night without incident.

As for what else is going on, this is a short week for us since we’re taking off Friday (and the following Monday) to attend Furry Connection North. Dan has been helping with their publications (as have I, in small places) and although we were supposed to help perro move on Saturday, we instead wound up spending most of the day at home as Dan put the finishing touches on the Restaurant Guide. It worked out OK, though, since that allowed us to pick up my car from the dealership (60,000 mile service + new brakes) and do some shopping at Woodman’s in Kenosha for exotic Wisconsin sodas.

On Sunday we invited roho and genet over for a low-key dinner and to watch The Amazing Race. Dinner was marinated skirt steak grilled and made into fajitas. The ripe avocados that we added to the fajitas were excellent and really propelled them over the top. We’ll be making those again!

Looking ahead to the coming week, we have stuff to take care of tonight in preparation for the convention (cleaning my car’s interior, for example, including getting the nose prints off the windows 🙂 Tomorrow night we’ll drop Buddy off at Dan’s mom’s place, where she is going to watch Buddy and Roho & Genet’s Samoyed, Brianna. This will be in addition to her 8-week old Rottweiler puppy, Bailey, and Bud the three-legged cat. I think she’s going to have her hands full! But it should all work out.

We leave for the outskirts of Detroit right after work on Thursday. We’re expecting to roll into the convention hotel at around 10:30 PM or so, and will likely collapse not long afterward. It should be a busy convention for me since I will be working in Operations. Dan will be busy as well, working in a behind-the-scenes role similar to what his mom did at Midwest FurFest. We’ve also got a party and a dinner planned for the convention; those should be a blast as well.

Come on Thursday, get here soon! I’m ready to hit the road…

A Weekend of Cooking, Partying, and…Training?

On Saturday, aureth and jenwolf were hosting a party over at their place. I thought I’d try to make a couple of new dishes to bring: Spicy Baked Plantain Chips and Salsa Verde. The plantain chips did not turn out well – a bit leathery, unfortunately. They were close to burning, but could have used a bit more time in the oven to crisp up. The salsa verde was… well, it wasn’t up to my standards. Way too salty, and the four Serrano chiles in the recipe made it mighty damn hot! This was a good reminder that I really need to only make tried-and-true recipes for these sorts of things.

mirkowuff arrived Saturday afternoon with his malamute, Chase. Buddy seems to be feeling better (though his appetite still isn’t up to snuff – possibly due to the continued antibiotics) and so greeted Chase with a wagging tail…and then spent the next hour trying to mount him. Oy. At this point I have to assume it’s a dominance thing. Chase let him know it wasn’t appreciated, and eventually they got things sorted out, but it was certainly comical to watch. We were a little late to the party because Mirko wanted to watch some basketball thing or something with his alma mater. He spent the rest of the evening squee-ing about the game 🙂

The party was a lot of fun. Jim’s brown ale was excellent, and the company was wonderful. I wish that we could have stayed later, but we had to get up stupidly-early the next day, so we grabbed hartree and Mirko and headed back to our place.

On Sunday morning, Hartree and Mirko and I left before 8 AM (well, left the first time – we had to double back because I forgot my ticket. Doh!) for the Illinois Rail Museum Snowflake Special CTA Tour. This was a 9-hour tour of the Chicago elevated train system. We were joined by dexcat, rustitobuck, and linnaeus. The tour went from Rosemont (right next to the Hyatt Regency O’Hare!) to downtown, out to UIC, down the South Side to 61st Street, then north to Evanston, with numerous stops and detours along the way. I have to say I was very much impressed by the IRM’s organization, and the quality of the tour was very good as well, with near-continuous narration provided by a pair of very knowledgeable fellows. I took over 180 pictures, and I’ll post some of those soon.

We had lunch in The Loop, stopping at the Qdoba on Randolph. We were unexpectedly joined by a rather loquacious train fan who was maybe 10 years old. He talked a blue streak, and while he knew his stuff, it was amusing to listen to him rattle on about the wisdom of the Circle Line while his parent nodded wearily beside him with that look of, “Oh thank God, he’s talking to someone else for a change.” After lunch we had time for a quick stop at Intelligentsia Coffee, then it was back on the train. All in all, I have to say that it was about seven hours of an interesting tour – the last two hours really dragged and it was a bit of a relief when we pulled back into Rosemont. takaza, roho, and genet met us there (with Chase, who went home with Mirko from there). The rest of us went down for dinner at Smoque, which was excellent, as usual.

And here we are at a new week. I have some errands to run after work, then I’ll grill up dinner while Dan works on the FCN con book. It sounds like we’re going to go see “How To Train Your Dragon” tomorrow night at one of my favorite local theaters, so we’re off to a great start to the week!

One Sick Doggy

(Yes, this is more of me being an obsessive new parent over our dog. If that’s not your thing move on to the next post on your Friends Page 🙂

It’s been something of a roller coaster these last two days. You see, Buddy got sick.

I took Buddy to the vet on Wednesday for his distemper booster shot. No problems, and the vet also gave me a follow-up round of Panocur for the whipworm problem, just to make sure everything is taken care of, as well as a 6-month supply of flea/tick/mosquito medicine. $186, yowch. When we got home, I made the mistake of letting Buddy out of the car without a leash, thinking he’d head straight over to the door into the house. No, instead he led me on a chase across half of the neighborhood, never letting me get closer than 10-15 feet. I finally tackled him and brought him home. The unfortunate result of this is that unless we can get him more training, Buddy cannot go anywhere off the leash, not even the dog park (after all, if he doesn’t come when called, we’ll wind up chasing him around when it’s time to leave).

That night because my back was still messed up from putting together our new grill I took a muscle relaxer and went to bed early. Dan woke me up – sometime, no idea when since I was in a bit of a haze – to tell me that Buddy had thrown up twice and wasn’t doing well. I acknowledged him and quickly fell back asleep.

On Thursday morning when the alarm went off, Buddy was right there by my side, poking me with his nose and shivering like all get-out. I filled his water bowl, and he promptly drank the entire contents – with predictable results. At least I got him outside before he vomited. I tried giving him a little water at a time and had similar results (again, getting him outside just in time!). That was it – time to go to the vet. My back was still pretty lousy anyway, so between the two problems I felt OK about calling off for the day.

When we were finally seen by the vet, he wasn’t quite sure what the problem was. Buddy was running a 103.4 degree F fever (normal is around 101), which explains the shivering. The vet didn’t think it was due to the distemper booster since Buddy hadn’t shown any reaction to the initial shot, but wouldn’t rule that out either. He took the general approach: treat the symptoms, and hit it with a broad-spectrum antibiotic. In addition to giving Buddy a shot of epinephrine and a steroid, he gave me a prescription of Flagyl (an antibiotic good against anaerobic bacteria and protozoa) and told me to dose Buddy morning and night with one teaspoon of Pepto Bismol (administered via syringe) and 25 mg of Benadryl. (And that was another $85, though at least he didn’t charge for an office visit.)

I took Buddy home, and the poor guy was obviously miserable. I gave him the pills and the Pepto (he’s OK about the pills, but clearly didn’t enjoy either those or the Pepto) and waited for those to take effect. He was reluctant to lie down, probably because of breathing issues or just not feeling well, but as the Benadryl kicked in this caused a problem. He would stand with his head down, staring at nothing, and start to sway. Eventually one of his legs would give out and he would stagger a bit, then begin again. After about 20 minutes of this, and when he almost staggered into the TV stand and nearly whacked his head, I led him over to his bed and slowly pulled his feet out from under him until he was laying down. I could see his thought processes were something like “But I don’t want to lie down, I…OK I guess I’ll just lie here for a whilezzzzzzzz”.

By evening his fever was gone, but he was obviously still dopey from the antihistamine. He generally dozed the night away, though he ate the half-can of food we put down for him during the night. This morning, after an epically-long pee (which is good – much better than throwing the water back up!) he slowly started to show a little more appetite. The vet wants us to keep the pills going through tonight, but I think that by tomorrow he’ll be back to normal (though he’s very sleepy now!).

While I would never draw a direct parallel between owning a dog and having a child, I can say that I have a deeper appreciation for those with kids, and what they go through when their child is ill. It’s nerve-wracking, exasperating, and stressful. I have to say it was very much worth it for me when I came downstairs this morning to see Buddy looking at me hopefully and hear his wagging tail thumping on the sofa.

Company, Meetings, and Dog Stuff

Well, that was a fun-but-busy weekend!

On Friday takaza and I finished up the last bit of housecleaning from the week in preparation for guests. I went ahead and bought a gas grill and propane tank, too. We’re not getting rid of the charcoal grill, I assure you! I love that smoker too much. No, this is for weeknight cooking, when we don’t want to fool with getting a proper charcoal fire going but would like something grilled and quick. I still believe that the flavor and cooking qualities of charcoal are superior, but when we had a gas grill in North Carolina we used it at least 3 nights per week. Now…I just need to put the fool thing together 🙂

fordshepherd and baja_hyena drove in on Friday night (arriving late enough that I had already gone to bed!), and r_bear flew in on Saturday. We decided on a late lunch at one of my favorite places that we hadn’t been to in ages, The Firkin. Their beer selection has always been top-notch, but we had found their food so-so. The beer was still excellent, but the big surprise was that the food was fantastic as well! We had a really enjoyable meal. We finished off the rest of the evening hanging out at our place and chatting (and, um, imbibing just a bit).

Sunday brought the Midwest FurFest staff meeting. It was quick and relatively painless, and after the meeting I was able to give some tours to folks who needed to see what was where. We had an early dinner at Red Bar in the Hyatt, and while the food wasn’t bad the prices were, um, hotel-like. In spite of that, I suspect I’ll be eating more than one meal there during the convention. Ford and Baja hit the road after the meeting, but RB and graywolf769 came back to our place and we hung out and chatted for a while. After Gray left for the ride back to Indiana, we watched a bit of TV and went to bed.

Dog-wise, we hit a great milestone this weekend. We tried giving Buddy the run of the house when we went to lunch on Saturday and again when we were at the staff meeting on Sunday. In both cases he behaved himself perfectly! As far as I’m concerned the crate is a thing of the past for him (thanks for the loan, roho and genet!). He seemed so much happier when I went home to walk him at lunch today, so I think we’re making the right decision. Health-wise, his digestive system seems to be working much better and he’s slowly gaining weight back into a more healthy range. We’re going to need to buy him a new harness because the medium-sized one is quickly becoming too tight! He was also a perfect gentleman all weekend with our guests, snuggling right up to them 🙂

So, now the new work week has started. There’s nothing crazy going on at work, thank heavens. I’ve got an appointment with my optician this afternoon, then I’ll probably go to work putting Boxee on an old server we have (not sure if I’ll put Windows or Ubuntu on there for the OS – we’ll see what happens). The new gas grill needs to be put together too – Dan may do that today or I’ll do it tomorrow. Generally speaking, though, it should be a pretty low-stress week.

(Oh, and if you’re waiting to reserve a suite for Midwest FurFest, watch this space! And , and Twitter, and our website, and our forums…)

The State of the Dog

So, we’re one week into dog ownership. How has it been?

Overall, I have to say that we are very happy dog owners. We have established a daily routine with Buddy and he seems to have adapted to it pretty well. Between takaza and me, we’re walking him through the neighborhood about 3-4 miles each day. The only downside is that on weekends he has to go out at around 6 AM. It’s a good thing I don’t mind waking up early on weekends!

We took him to the vet last week for a full check-up. The vet agreed that Buddy is around 8 and 9 years old, based on his teeth. He is unfortunately afflicted with all the things that go with older dogs: bad teeth, bad hips, and bad eyes (early signs of cataracts). The bad teeth probably explains why he rejects all hard food. He tested negative for heartworm, but did test positive for whipworm, which is apparently pretty unusual. Fortunately, a short round of anti-parasitic meds should clear that up. The vet also gave us a painkiller for his hips (Previcox, a Cox II inhibitor); that seems to make a difference.

Buddy has only had one accident in the house, and it really got me to thinking. At his foster home he was used to being let out immediately after being fed. We had hoped to break him of that habit, but when we didn’t let him out right after eating he simply couldn’t wait and peed on the carpet. I don’t fault him one bit for that (OK, I wasn’t happy, but it cleaned up fine), and realized that part of the familiarization process is as much him training us as us training him. I think it’s amazing and gratifying that we have had so few issues with him, and it makes me very glad that we decided to adopt him.

I did a little doggie shopping yesterday, using a PetSmart gift card that Dan got through credit card rewards. We picked up a new dog bed (nice and floofy), some more dog food, and some chewy treats that contain glucosamine and chondroitin. He loves the treats, and seemed very happy with his bed as well.

We spent the weekend hanging out with roho and genet, and their pretty-but-brainless Samoyed, Brianna. I should point out that both Buddy and Brianna are fixed, but that sure didn’t stop buddy from trying to mount Brianna every chance he got. Fortunately, Brianna had no problem demonstrating her lack of interest (with a snarl and a snap) and eventually he settled down.

On Saturday we watched a few shows off the DVR and made country-fried steak, mashed potatoes, and sauteed escarole. On Sunday we were joined by Linnaeus, and we celebrate Pi Day with homemade pizza (pies), chocolate cream pie, and key lime pie. Linnaeus also brought over an awesome toy for Buddy: a raccoon (of course) made of the same canvas used for fire hoses. Buddy loved it!

And here we are back at work today. Dan and I are making lists of stuff we need to do before company arrives this coming weekend. I’m catching up on some MFF work, and hopefully some stuff for Anthrocon as well.

I’ll leave you with a thought I had as I walked Buddy back after today’s lunchtime walk. I’ve joked with friends about not wanting a cat because I didn’t want a box of crap in the house. Instead, I’m walking through the neighborhood with a bag of crap in my pocket. Oh, that’s MUCH better. All of you cat owners, feel free to tell me to shut up 🙂

Buddy Has Two Daddies

Or, Reflections on 24 Hours of Dog Ownership.

* In walking Buddy around the neighborhood this morning I met more neighbors than I have the entire seven months that we’ve lived in our house.

* The fact that you and a stranger each have a dog is the basis for striking up a friendly and chatty conversation. And everyone loves a shelter dog.

* Buddy spent the night in our bedroom last night, outside of his crate. He crashed out on his bed and pretty much stayed there all night. Dan and I kept waking up worried about him or thinking we heard whining, but he was just fine. This is very promising.

* Speaking of crates, Buddy wasn’t really sure he liked his. He had to be bodily escorted in this morning, though once in he laid down and didn’t complain. When I put him back in the crate after walking him at lunchtime he strolled right in. Maybe it was just a case of getting used to it?

* Adopting an adult dog is a fascinating case of trying to deduce the dog’s training and history by his behavior. He is crate trained – we knew that from his foster family. He was obviously not allowed on the furniture by his past owners, since he steadfastly refused our invitation onto the sofa. It looks like his foster family fed him the very first thing when they woke up, since he was positively bouncing off the walls when I came downstairs this morning. He gets one can of Pedigree in the morning, and another in the evening. We need to see if we can work in some dry food to get him a bit more fiber because, uh, he kind of needs it.

* The only strange quirk I’ve noticed about Buddy is that he tends to sleep with his eyes open, which can be a little freaky. You think he’s asleep and you look down and his eyes are rolled back in his head. Eep!

So far things have been going very well. I’m very pleased! Plus, it means we’re going to be getting more exercise each day, which is also a Very Good Thing. I know I’ve already walked a mile and a half just today, and there will be more tonight.

A Weekend Full of Fuzzies

On Friday night, takaza‘s mom brought over her new kitty, Bud.

From 2010_03_05 – Bud the Cat

He’s a sweetie with a terrible story: he was shot with a shotgun, but the vet was able to patch him back up although he lost one of his front legs. He gets around amazingly well and is healing up quickly considering it’s been less than a month. He’s a little purr box, and it’s great to see Dan’s mom with another pet in her life.

On Saturday, we celebrated genet‘s birthday! We went her and roho to Dixie Kitchen & Bait Shop in Evanston and had a really awesome lunch. I had a very tasty Southern Eggs Benedict with Creole Hollandaise. Dan’s Cajun Biscuits and Gravy were excellent as well! After brunch we stopped by Happy Husky Bakery because the guys there are so nice (and Ginger and Astaire, the titular huskies, are indeed happy and friendly!) and picked up a few items at The Spice House. From there it was down to Ruff House Pets to look at some of the dogs that New Leash On Life had at an adoption event. We saw some real sweeties (I was quite taken with Dug, who was indeed a true representation of the film Dug), but none of them that really clicked with us. So it was on to the next adoption event, this one at the Highland Park Petco put on by Castaway Pet Rescue.

Wow. I can’t say enough good things about Castaway. Kathy and Debbie clearly believe in the work that they are doing, but they also know that the more dogs they place in homes, then the more dogs they can rescue out of shelters with euthanize. We really liked working with them (and it was so refreshing after our last experience!) and it seems like we asked all the right questions. We met two dogs we liked, Merlin and Buddy. Merlin was a bit of a handful – very sweet, but headstrong and clearly a behavior “project”. Buddy really clicked with us, though, and after discussing it between us and with Roho and Genet we decided to put in an application for him. We celebrated by coming home and hanging out at our place, watching fun videos and getting Genet drunk 🙂 By the end of the evening I had two emails from Castaway promising to set up an adoption appointment with Buddy’s Foster family on Sunday.

This afternoon we met with Kathy from Castaway and the adoptive family, who live nearby. We met with Buddy (and their other dogs, including Tulip, an adorable – and huge – great Dane/akita mix) and chatted briefly. We double-checked to see if Buddy had any bad habits – trash-surfing, chewing, separation anxiety – and he was clean on all counts. We signed the adoption papers on the spot, and Buddy walked out the door with us. We stopped by Petco and invested in quite a few goodies (dog food, grooming stuff, harness, etc.), then came home. We took some time to take some pictures to show off our new cute family member:

From 2010_03_07 – Buddys First Day

I headed out again to pick up a few more things at Meijer and Petsmart, and to stop by Roho and Genet’s. They were kind enough to lend us Brianna’s crate since she isn’t using it (thank heavens because after pricing out crates…yikes!). We’ve been spending the evening relaxing and getting used to each other. He’s sacked out on a pile of blankets and seems very happy. We’ll be taking him to the vet this week for a check-up (it’s suggested in the adoption contract, and a good way to establish the relationship). We need to work on making sure he’s comfortable with his crate, too – that’s a job for tomorrow I think.