Fan Mail

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Email received today:

Dearest Pongo,

I want you to know you are a very handsome C.D.

However, beyond that you are spoiled rotten!
In fact, my daughter even told me that in her next life she is coming back as you!

I used to think I was an OK mom but how can I measure up?  I think your mom and dad need to
rethink your college funds!

-S

Dear Miss S-

Thank you very much.  I should let you know though, it is very hard being so cute because I want to be so BAD…chasing kitties, eating rocks, barking at those 4-legged subordinate beings that walk by the house, and trying to out smart my Mama and Papa!  My motto in life is: I do what I want!

I think your daughter would have a good life here with my Mama and Papa. Tell her that if she does come back as a Cattle Dog, to milk it for all they got!

College fund?  I don’t need no stinkin’ college–I’m a Cattle Dog!  Plus, I think my Mama and Papa are broke from all the trips to the vet because I keep eating those hard, yet very tasty grey things.

Herd On,
Pongo

Hard To Believe…They’ve Seen Worse!

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To our horror, Pongo has found a new use for the basket muzzle he wears during recess at doggie daycare: a poop grater.  Yes, he is now smashing the front of his muzzle down into his doggie friend’s poop, or maybe even his own, and coming up with a poop smeared muzzle.  Maybe he’s found a new way to entertain himself but personally, I think it’s an act of rebellion: he’s going to make sure others pay for him having to wear this embarrassing contraption.

Poor Miss Janelle, his teacher today, ended up with poop streaked pants from Pongo’s antics.  And while I screeched “GROSS!” when the staff told me of his repulsive adventure today, they just laughed and replied…”We’ve seen worse.”

Here’s Pongo after a day of keeping his daycare teachers on their toes.  If he’s this worn out, I can’t even imagine how they’re feeling!

Crystal Gallery of Ice

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Breakfast and a walk downtown with Pongo has been our Saturday morning ritual the past couple of weekends.  We are really trying to expose Pongo to new situations and environments while practicing our heeling, “watch me,” and greeting people appropriately (i.e. NOT jump on them).  He has done such a wonderful job and seems to really enjoy the new experiences.  Today, we walked through Town Square and were pleasantly surprised to find artists working on their ice sculptures for the Crystal Gallery of Ice Competition.

This Easter Island Moai sculpture was carved by Chris, who along with his significant other, Melanie own two Cattle Dogs.  They have been a great resource for working with Pongo.

And my all time favorite sculpture…


Teenage Tyrant

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December 23rd, to the day, Pongo turned his listening ears off and transformed into a I’m-going-to-do-the-opposite-of-everything-you-say 18 month old tyrant.  He has been testing, testing, testing.  I think he has spent more time in time-out the past couple of days than he has since he was a young pup.  We’ve been warned about the terror of raising a teenage Cattle Dog: it’s a battle of the wills.  Don’t worry though…we WILL win.

Along with dealing with our oppositional and rebellious Cattle Dog, we are also trying to stay one step ahead of him in deterring his rock eating and keeping him safe.  We’ve resorted to a basket muzzle now, during outdoor recess, at doggie daycare.  He’s only worn it one day but so far so good.

Bless the Dog Tired Doggie Daycare staff–they had to put up with Pongo’a teenage antics, plus manage the basket muzzle on Friday.

Christmas Coma

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I crack up every time Steve’s Mom tells the story of when Steve was younger and how he had to have a bucket next to him, while opening Christmas presents because he would throw-up from the excitement of it all.  The anticipation of Christmas can be overwhelming to some.  Our troop on the other hand was pretty underwhelmed by the whole production this morning.

Reid and Pongo waiting to open presents.

That is until it was time to open presents!  Christmas is Reid’s favorite time of the year.  She LOVES to open presents. Enter little brother, who has to be in the middle of everything and you have one very annoyed Reid.

Here’s Steve showing off his new donut pillow made by his Mom.

The Baileys and coffee now sipped down to the last drop.  The gifts unwrapped.  Brunch made and enjoyed. Toys chewed and forgotten while sleepiness takes over.  We’re all sitting by the wood stove, comatose from an action-filled morning.

Wishing you all a Season filled with love, peace, and joy!

Dem Bones

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I’ve never been one to feed our dogs raw bones.  They gross me out!  And as a vegetarian, I’m really not wanting to touch nasty, slimy bones (you should see me trying to cook Steve’s meaty dinner–LONG wooden spoons to mix up his hamburgers.  Yes, I’m a very good wife!).  I realize bones are what their ancestors eat out in the wild.  But, the horror stories of bones splintering, dogs needing surgery to remove bone shards deterred me from buying them bones.  We do allow the dogs to gnaw on deer or elk antlers but they lose interest in those rather quickly.

The bone issue came to a head, when the vet recommended we feed Reid raw bones to help clean her teeth.  Because of her age, we were all worried about putting her under to have her teeth cleaned.  So, off I went in search of raw bones.  I was not too thrilled about having to go to a meat market like Mr. Prime Beef to find raw bones.  Luckily, when we were shopping at my all time favorite store Alaska Mill and Feed, we ran across a refrigerator full of raw bones!

The dogs get to gnaw on a frozen, raw bone for 15-20 minutes every now and then as a special treat.  Reid is gung-ho for about 5 minutes and then gives up; I have a feeling her teeth hurt her.  Poor baby.  We do keep a good eye on our wild man, Pongo when he’s chewing on his bone.  We never know what kind of stunt he might pull: try to swallow the whole thing out of bone-induced ecstasy?!?

To view on YouTube click HERE.

Transitions

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Winter Solstice.

A day of celebration here in Alaska when our sacred light begins its return.  It seems a little backwards that we celebrate Winter solstice but each small increment of increasing light brings us closer and closer to Summer.  That is until we hit the dreaded June 21st-Summer Solstice.  But that’s another blog, for another day.

House Hunting

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We’re on a search.  It’s been on-going (well, at least I have been looking not so much Steve) for the past couple of years.  Now that we have Pongo, the search has intensified.

It will be 10 years in May that we’ve been in this house.  We bought it because of it’s “charm” (real estate term) and it’s “quirkiness” (our term).  We’ve put copious amounts of sweat equity into the house–thank you, Mom and Dad for your tireless help!  We’ve endured the hell having a makeshift kitchen consisting of a coffee maker, a toaster, and a microwave set-up in our living room for 4 months, while our kitchen was being remodeled; a week of no heat in single digit temps while waiting for the new hot-water base boards to be put in, and the backaches of moving 7 tons of rock (bad choice for landscaping but hindsight is 20/20) to beautify the backyard.  If we put so much time and money into our house, why on earth would we want to move?  We need more space, specifically lot square footage.  Our little 6600 square foot lot makes it awfully difficult to do much of anything when it comes to playing with the dogs outside.  I wouldn’t mind 600-700 square foot added to the house size either.

Our next house has to have character, no cookie-cutter houses for us.  It has to have at least 10,000 square feet for the yard and some sense of privacy would be an added bonus.  If we could find all of this on the Westside of Anchorage, we would be in heaven!

We spent 3 hours today driving around Anchorage looking at houses.  Pongo accompanied us trying out his new seatbelt, the Kurgo Tru-Fit Smart Harness.  He was such a good boy and was thrilled he could sit and watch out the window, instead of peering through the slats of his kennel.

We didn’t find anything today but are in no rush.  We want to find something we love and not something we’re going to settle for.  And even though we didn’t find anything, we did drive through some beautiful parts of Anchorage while looking.

All the driving and house hunting wore all of us out–including Pongo.