Troubles McSteans

I got all gung ho this afternoon to bathe the dogs. Lucy in particular, considering every time I looked at her recently I could practically hear the flies buzzing, was in desperate need of a dip in the tub. My plan was to get Scout in the bathroom first, because I wasn't sure if 1) She would actually go into the bathroom 2) She would actually get into the tub 3) She wouln't freak the hell out when I ran the water As it turned out, we barely covered step 1. She was frightened of the towels I had placed on the floor, and when I tried to lead her in by her collar, her defense mechanism was to hit the deck. Taking a different tactic, I went to get the mini-marshmallows to attempt to lure her into the bathroom. I didn't honestly think this was going to work, but it was worth a shot. After feeding her a couple of treats, I tossed one into the tub to see what would happen, but that only resulted in the sudden appearance of a black lab in the bath. I gave up and washed Lucy. So...

Doug fixed my picture for me

My mom took me shopping today for my birthday (early shopping - it's more than a month away). In retrospect I'm really glad we decided to go to Barton Springs mall instead of the Arbor because of the plane crash situation. We were mainly looking for jeans, because my daily uniform consists of jeans and t-shirts and I don't know if I currently own any denim that's younger than 5 years. There's a reason I don't have any newish jeans: I hate shopping for them. Maybe it's because I'm rocketing towards middle age, but all the jeans now are totally ugly. They're either too faded or look like they've been mauled by tigers. So no jeans for me today, but I did find some other stuff. Thanks, mom! One of the shirts I tried on made me laugh. It was this t-shirt with a giant picture of a dog head. The only problem was that it looked a lot better as a flat picture and, well, I am not a flat surface. Let's just say the dog's face became a littl...

The Dream Team Why Scout so sad? Evil kitty stole her new pillow.

Well, if you've been periodically checking Troubles the past couple of months and are shocked to see it open for business today, you can probably guess what my New Year's resolution is. I'm giving this blogging thing another go. Around October I kind of just ran out of ideas and went on a little hiatus. Hopefully I can get back in the swing of things, because I do honestly enjoy writing. I'd like to start on a somber note, by honoring my big orange friend Melbotis, who passed away one year ago today. I still miss my buddy every day and that's all I'll say on the matter for fear of getting verklempt and upsetting Lucy. I don't have any Earth shattering news, other than Scout thinks she's in the Great Escape and has run off into the wilds of Grand Oaks subdivision twice now. She returned to us relatively unharmed once by the kindness of strangers and once by the tenacity of my mother in the pouring rain. Sometimes I think I hear her throwing a tennis...

My brother Doug is having a heck of a week. After returning home from the hospital with Kristen (who I hear is recovering and should be A-ok for the wedding, thankfully), he had to take his kitty Digger to the kitty ER in the middle of the night. He had a surgery consult the next morning to decide if they should attempt to remove a mass as well as part of some intestine (ironically, the same surgery Kristen had just undergone). If Digger had been a younger cat, Doug would have without question done the surgery. But Dig was 14 and has had a number of other medical trials recently. Doug made the difficult decision to say goodbye to his friend. Ryan said it better here , but Digger was a great kitty. I am sorry I didn't get to spend more time with him, because he was always super friendly and sweet when I went out to visit Doug. He had a good life and was even playing and frisky when we were in Berkeley this summer. I know Doug and Kristen will miss him tremendously, and my he...

One step forward, three steps back So last week Scout learned to sit. I know I posted a picture of her sitting the previous week, but I think that was due more to coincidence than her comprehension. But now she's got it down. She'll do it mostly with the first request and even sans edible reward. We're also well on our way to "lie down" as she hears it all the time. She is picking up the art of fetching, although not so much with the "giving back" once she's returned to the porch. Then again Mel was never so good at that part, either. She's been pretty good when we leave her alone, up until Sunday night. Scout had a major anxiety attack while we were out at Ryan's parents' house and took her frustration out on a number of Ryan's books. If you'd like details, you can read Ryan's account of the incident . Scout is clearly not as comfortable here as we assumed, which is normal for an animal in a new environment, but noneth...

Scout is fitting in with Steansclan nicely. For a while after she realized there was a cat, she spent all of Jeff's time downstairs attempting to alert us to his presence. "Hey! Hey! Did you know you had a cat? Hey! It's a cat! It's a cat! It's a cat!" We haven't had any major property damage aside from the power cable incidents, although she has a fondness for liberating shoelaces. We've had to relocate all shoes from the shoe caddy by the back door to the safety of the stairs behind the baby gate. Scout and Lucy are getting along swimmingly. They go for walks together, play in the backyard, play inside, steal each others toys. I even caught them sleeping on the floor the other day with Lucy resting her head on Scout's stomach. It was painfully cute, but unfortunately I was cameraless. Here's another instead: Lucy and Scout lose consciousness after an epic nylon bone power struggle In the process of dorking around with the camera o...

Scout has been doing unbelievably well for a youg pup with Labrador DNA and a mentor who took a year and a half to learn how to "shake". After about a week, she pretty much refused to go back in her crate and since it was there mainly for her to feel safe in our absence, she's had free reign of the downstairs ever since. She's also completely housebroken and plays really well with both Lucy and now Cassidy. She had been doing so well that I just knew a slip up was coming. Yesterday morning I was wary walking in the door from dialysis as I knew the dogs had not gotten their morning walkies. Ryan had left early to go to Waco for work and I don't walk them on the days I get my blood cleaned. On first glance everything looked in order. There were no sofa cushions on the floor, no area rug stains, no dead cat. I settled on the couch, grabbed my computer, went for the power cable and pulled back a mangled cord. I sat staring at the cable for about 10 seconds and ...

I think this is going to work out fine. Lucy being tolerated Lucy pushing her luck Lucy having no concept of personal boundaries 5 seconds later

Things with Scout are progressing. On the plus side, the dogs haven't killed each other. Also: Scout seems to have little to no interest in Jeff the Cat. She ate a whole cup of food over the course of the day, which is more than she consumed the previous 2 days combined. Unlike a puppy, she has no aversion to her kennel and has been sleeping through the night. Scout and Lucy are by no means the best of friends. They are still trying to figure out who is boss and there is mild growling and baring of teeth when one crosses the other's imaginary boundary line. I hope they can soon sort out their differences. Can't we all just get along? Scout is very loving towards people and seems incredibly intelligent. She is already picking up commands and was fetching tennis balls in the backyard this evening. She's a good combination of sweet labridor and smart shepherd, which is one of the great things about mutts. More updates to come...

Yesterday we ventured to the Austin ASPCA to do some dog shopping. Lucy has needed a companion for some time now and I finally felt like I was ready to welcome a new friend to the family. Ryan found a shy, one and a half year old, bat-eared yellow lab/shepherd mix (we think) named "Babette". Hi! My name is Scout and I think "Babette" is a stupid name We took Lucy up to the shelter today for a meet and greet to see how the dogs would get along. Lucy was more interested in the bountiful supply of tennis balls than in Scout, but there was little to no hostility so we declared the session a success, signed some paperwork and brought the dogs home. Scout has yet to venture outside of the kitchen and has camped out next to the stove, but seems pretty comfortable. She growls quietly at Jeff every so often, but Jeff deserves it for being creepy so I'm not too worried. I also have yet to hear her bark, so I'm hoping she remains good tempered and is happy here. ...

Today Troubles McSteans celebrates our one year anniversary. Hurrah! Thanks to all three of my readers! My mom just left. We've been cleaning since 9 this morning for our 4th of July shindig on Saturday. The house is now 85% devoid of pet hair (that's really the best one can hope for) and smells of floor cleaner. If you're going to be in the area on Saturday, feel free to drop by the house for some burgers and dogs to celebrate the U.S. of A. Now I'm camped out on the couch, pondering a nap and listening to Lucy snoring. The dogs had a big morning, what with fleeing the vacuum, various wrestling matches, and spending about an hour in the yard while we dealt with the floor. Jason is back from his big trip to London and it sounds like he had a great time. He's on his way over to collect Miss Cassidy. Cassidy has had a good visit - she's been a great houseguest and fun playmate for Lucy. It's getting to be time for us to get another dog. Lucy really ...

After finally getting to bed at a decent hour for the first night in about a week, I woke up this morning around 5 with a migraine. Luckily I had the senses to bypass the pills and go straight for my Imitrex shot, which gets the drug in your system about 10 times faster and saves me from the 2 hours of flopping around in bed waiting for the medicine to kick in. The headache quickly subsided and I was back asleep within 10 minutes. The downside of the shot is, it's a bit powerful if I haven't taken one in a while, so I was a bit groggy when I woke up again at 7:30. It's honestly a miracle I made it out of bed at all what with the drowsiness and the soft rolling thunder outside and the comfiness of the bed. I'd been shirking my Lucy walking duties for about a week for one reason or another, so we both were in desperate need of getting out to stretch our legs. Keeping a watchful eye on the encroaching clouds we headed out. The walk was bizarre. It was incredibly warm...

Jason is off to London until the end of next week, so we're keeping Cassidy for a while. I'm trying to come up with some camp activities for the girls (Lucy and Cassidy) but it's a little hard to do archery or crafts when you lack opposable thumbs. Maybe we'll take them swimming this weekend. We started off pretty well last night, with Miss Cassidy only waking me up once at 4 this morning for a bathroom break. That was fine other than I for some reason could not get back to sleep for a while afterwards. Maybe because I couldn't get Duran Duran's "Rio" out of my head, which is strange because I haven't heard that song in months. I was a bit worried about how Cassidy and Jeff the Cat would get along for 10 days. I brought out the baby gate for the stairs last night to give Jeff a refuge, but he stupidly refuses to stay upstairs. Cat + curiosity = dead cat. So far, so good, however. To my astonishment, Cassidy actually allowed Jeff to drink fr...

Taxes are DONE. Just printed them out and e-filed. Hallelujah Every year it seems tax time sneaks up on me, even though there is no excuse for my surprise. Every year I scramble around my office, collecting documents I have failed to file properly, even though every year I tell myself I will be more organized. Oh well. They are done. Hooray. Rain has finally come to Central Texas along with a wicked cold front. This is a good thing as we needed the rain desperately. I'm not sure Lucy agrees with me. Lucy spends her days attached to my shins. I've even been taking her down to my parents' house with me because she loves their half acre backyard (aka Happy Hills Puppy Farm). Usually by the drive back to Austin she has collapsed in a furry panting heap in the passenger seat. I've also been pretty good about taking her for walkies, so she's been getting lots of exercise, which is good for a hyper lab. Today Lucy is performing a series of woe-is-me flops and pat...

I was planning on a longer post today, but I had Cassidy (Steanso's dog) at the house last night and she likes to check in every hour on the hour. So I'm a bit loagy today. I did want to give a shout out to my mother in law, Karen, as it is her birthday today. Happy Birthday, Karen! I am very lucky to have her as a mother in law. She's a real sweetheart and I love her lots and lots. Have a great day!