Fraidy Sadie

Sadie, showing a gross case of "crap neck."

Hi, all; Lily the corgi here.  Last week I told you a bit about my nosy beagle mix sister Lucy, so I figured this week I'd give equal time to my sister Sadie.  Sadie is beautiful and has the softest fur; her ears are like pure silk.  She is a very playful dog but also likes petting and snuggles.  Sadie is a sweet girl, but she is, well, different.

Years ago, my mama decided to go to the local animal shelter and look at dogs.  She saw Sadie there and thought Sadie was very nice, but a family was looking at Sadie so mama went home without a dog.  A few weeks later, mama and daddy's gorgeous husky boy, Alexei, died and the only remaining dog was sad and lonely.  After a few months, mama went back to the shelter to look at a companion for the dog-widow Colleen and, lo and behold, there Sadie was still waiting. 

The shelter people told mama that Sadie had been a puppy living in a small town nearby with her feral canine mama.  No one ever said what happened to the mama, but someone managed to catch Sadie.  Sadie was very shy and nervous; she had never been around people and had no idea how to behave like a normal companion animal.  While Sadie quickly learned to love and trust mama and daddy, she was super-scared of everyone else.  When Sadie would get stressed, she would give a look my parents call "the crazy eye."  Looks something like this:

When Sadie starts to pant and shows the white of that "crazy eye" you can bet she's about to flip out!

Here's another crazy eye--we had guests in the house and she was nervous!!

Sadie has some other odd behaviors as well.  One of my favorites is what my parents call "crap neck."  Somehow Sadie goes out into the yard and manages to roll her neck in poo...not her leg, not her belly, just her neck.  It makes my parents nuts!  Makes me chuckle.  The odd thing Sadie does that makes most people laugh is her impression of a sealaroo (that's a cross between a seal and a kangaroo.)  When Sadie is excited, she hops on her hind legs like a kangaroo while clapping her front feet together like some sort of demented seal.  

Some of Sadie's behaviors are just a little sad.  When lots of family and friends are around and everyone is having a good time, Sadie will often put herself in a safe, secluded spot like the utility room or hidden beside the bed.  She really is just too afraid of all the people and play; it sorts of hurts my heart to see her so very scared.  Sadie barks a lot because she is so worried about all the things going on around her.  Sadie treats food as if she were a concentration camp survivor--she will eat and eat like she thinks she'll never get another meal.  For whatever reason, Sadie is afraid to drink water at home--I somehow picture her as having been captured while having a drink and so she never feels comfortable drinking again (I have no idea if that happened or not; it's just a scenario I can see in my abundant corgi imagination.)  She has actually gotten much more bold about things over the years, but she still earns the title "Fraidy Sadie."

Sadie bravely sitting beside human cousin Kathleen (notice she's still doing that nervous panting.)

So as you can see, I'm the only normal dog in the household.  It's a curse, trying to show others how to behave when they don't seem to have any concept that they are strange!  But as the resident corgi, that's my job and I will continue to execute my duties to the best of my abilities.

Just to let you know, mama and daddy are planning on a vacation later this week, so it will be a couple of weeks before I'm able to blog again.  I'm pretty bummed that I can't go on this trip because mama and daddy, Aunt Cathy, Uncle Roger, Aunt Vicky, and a batch of cousins, including the babies, are going on the trip together.  Sounds like a huge amount of fun.  That's okay; I'll just be here waiting for their return.  

Til next time, love ya!

Lily the Corgi

Fraidy Sadie, rocking a summer haircut.

The Adventures of Lucy the Nosy

Lucy found this while looking through a grocery bag.

Hi all, Lily the Corgi here.  This is a painful thing for me to tell you--I have failed.  As you know, I am the alpha dog in our household.  This means I am responsible for keeping all family members--human and canine--in line, walking the straight and narrow, on their best behavior.  For several years, I performed these duties admirably and we were able to live (mostly) in peace and harmony.  

And then, there was Lucy.  Lucy came to us from the local animal shelter.  In the adoption advertisement, Lucy was shown as a beagle/corgi mix; now I have my doubts she is corgi, but her personality is certainly beagle!  She is a very sweet and snuggly girl, loves to play, loves to eat.  She loves to go around with her snout to the ground, sniffing at everything as she goes--typical beagle behavior.  Lucy doesn't cause fights, doesn't steal food from her fur-siblings, though she does tend to bark excessively on occasion.  

But Lucy has a very annoying trait; she is too nosy for her own good.  Lucy's beagle snout leads her to interesting and often inadvisable situations.  Lucy gets into things that are not her business and could even be bad for her; she eats what she shouldn't eat; she does what she shouldn't do.  I've done my best to keep her in line, keep her distracted, keep her safe, but there's only so much a corgi can do!  Let me give you some examples:

At the top of the page, you'll see the results of Lucy's taking a dive into the grocery bags that mama was bringing in.  She got in it and dragged out a box of brownie mix--brownie mix!  What normal dog does that?  A steak, yes.  A cookie, maybe.  But a box of plain old uncooked brownie mix?  What was she going to do with it, bake?  I've tried to teach her to be more discerning in her tastes, but to no avail.  I'll be over here, waiting for a proper snack while Lucy tries to turn on the oven.

Lucy and her interesting choice of headwear.

Here's another photo of Lucy after getting in to something she shouldn't.  Mama had used a paper bag to absorb something greasy and then threw it in the trash can.  Lucy rummaged around in the trash, got the sack and, in attempting to lick crumbs out of the bottom of the sack, got her head stuck.  Lucy pranced all around the kitchen, shaking her head and trying to fling off the paper sack.  Mama took the time to get the camera and snap a picture instead of helping Lucy remove the paper sack.  Eventually, mama was afraid Lucy would crash in to something so she took the sack off the goofy thing's head.  I always put on a fine example of dignity and grace, but as you can see, Lucy doesn't follow examples very well. 

Mama tries to keep the trash can up out of Lucy's reach, but sometimes it has to be out where it can be used, am I right?  A few days ago, Lucy took advantage of an unguarded trash can and, with ninja-like quietness, helped herself to a big old pork chop bone.  Now, I would be happy to feast on a pork chop bone myself, so I can't fault Lucy for being lured toward it, but it is just uncivilized to go dumpster diving in one's own home.  So anyway, Lucy sneaked the bone onto mama and daddy's bed; mama discovered what was going on when she heard Lucy crunching.  Mama grabbed the bone and then spent several days worrying about the condition of Lucy's stomach and intestines.  I'm happy to report that no ill effects resulted from this dietary indiscretion.

 Lucy nosing around in the swimming pool before it was even filled.

Lucy gets in to everything; mama calls her "nosy Rosie."  The other day Lucy made it her business to tear open a box that came in the mail and toss mama's new bras across the floor.  Lucy was wearing them before mama even got a chance to to take them out of the box!  While mama was working on the computer the other day, Lucy walked across her to take a nectarine pit out of a bowl on the table beside her.  Did Lucy really think mama would just let her walk off with a nectarine pit?   This past Easter mama ended up putting ALL dogs in the house because Lucy wouldn't stop gathering Easter eggs!  Whoa, that's going too far; when your nosiness starts to affect my life, we have a problem!

Sigh...I've tried, I really have.  I understand it is a beagle thing to be ruled by your nose, but all dogs need to use a little common sense.  If you plan to steal food, for example, grab from one of the baby's plates!  If you want to snuggle in the parents' clothing, get something used that has their comforting smell on it.  Youngsters need to be willing to learn from their alphas.

Okay, I give up...right now Lucy and our neurotic sister Sadie was sitting on the couch, barking at HUMMINGBIRDS who are sipping from their feeder on our back porch.   I do love my sisters, but sometimes I dream of being an only child!

Til next time, everyone.

Lily the Corgi

Lucy, aka Nosy Rosie

Balls, Balls, Balls

(Come on, throw it!  You know you want to!)

Hi all; Lily the Corgi here.  So today seemed just the sort of day to do some deep thinking, and I've been thinking about balls.  Yep, I said balls.  My daddy thinks about balls a lot.  He watches balls on tv and types about balls on his computer and talks about balls on the phone with my Uncle Wayne.  Daddy goes off one night a week to play with a bowling ball and enjoys kicking around a soccer ball when he gets the chance.  Sometimes the little girl next door loses her ball over our fence and has to come get mama to rescue it for her out of the back yard.  Mama isn't as concerned about balls, but sometimes I hear her mutter, "Oh, balls," so I know she does care about them to a degree.

Balls have been around since ancient times.  I'm going to guess that round fruits, rocks, nuts, or other natural materials provided the first balls for play by humans as well as canines (Lucy used to play ball with little crab apples in our yard when we lived in Texas.)  Eventually, the humans began making balls out of string, leather, and wood.  In the modern world, balls can be made out of about any material and come in all shapes and sizes.  Balls are used in a variety of games.  I like games!

We have a number of balls around our house; some of them just lie around on the floor for anyone to pick up and play with at any time.  Others are specially made for the babies' toys and dogs aren't allowed to play with them.  Still others belong to mama and daddy.  They let us play with tennis balls and even allow us to try to push around bowling balls if we want, but there is one ball my daddy WILL NOT allow anyone to play with.  That ball came out yesterday to sit on top of the tv while the OU Sooners played football; daddy says this ball has special lucky powers and that he has to use it to help the Sooners win games.

(The special ball...I don't know why we can't play with it; someone already wrote all over it.)

Sometimes balls aren't even balls.  Sometimes other items are used in place of balls.  Our baby Cohen likes to throw his foam blocks so my beagle sister Lucy and I can fetch them.  I'm not usually much of a fetcher, but he's a nice baby and doesn't know any better, so I play along.  My late brother Claude the grouchy husky used to toss toys in the air and catch them; he didn't need a human to help him play catch.   Predictably, my neurotic sister Sadie is afraid of balls and won't play with a ball or any item used in place of a ball--though she will catch the occasional piece of popcorn thrown her way. Lucy is the most playful of all us dogs and loves to play with tennis balls; unfortunately, she ends up stripping the fuzzy part off the outside of the ball and then chewing the rubber stuff underneath into little icky pieces, often in mama and daddy's bed.  So Lucy has to improvise with other ball-like things to amuse herself when the parents take the balls away.

(Not really a ball, but it is round so Lucy enjoys it just the same.)

A couple of times, we've gotten to go to a ball game.  My human cousin Matt plays baseball in college and we've attended his games in the past.  We were mostly interested in the shade and the smells and people and not so interested in the balls, but we are always up for an outing!

Sometimes the minor league baseball team in Tulsa has "Dog Days" when dogs are actually allowed in the stadium to watch real professionals play ball.  Mama won't let us go to that; she says I'd be bothering everyone instead of watching the game.  That's just rude; I don't bother anyone--everyone is always happy to visit with me.

You know the kind of balls I really like?  Meat balls.  Mama makes those sometimes and they are SO tasty.  If I turn on my charm and give her my cutest head tilt with moist eyes, she'll usually cave and give me a meat ball or two.  Hmmm...maybe that's how I put on weight?

Daddy likes a ball team called the Cleveland Browns; they have a section of their stadium called the Dawg Pound.  I like how they combine ball and dogs, even if they can't spell D-O-G.  I think they will be my favorite team too. Daddy is sitting on the couch right now watching football; he says it's the start of the new season.  I think I'll go lie down with him and watch a little.  Maybe later, mama will make meatballs.   

That's all for this time.  Take care of yourselves and watch out for flying balls.

Til next time,

Lily the Corgi

(Waiting for Cohen to throw some blocks for us to fetch.)