Sharing 101

Ever since Max moved in, Steve has been a little over protective of his toys. This is a common sight- Steve makes sure that he's actually touching a couple toys and has a bunch of others nearby. As soon as he hears one of the other dogs approaching his eyes fly open and he stares down the approaching dog. Then Max or Nick usually just goes for the toy furthest from Steve.

I think we need a lesson in sharing for the boys!

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3 Dogs+2 Humans=1 Big Adjustment

We are a 3-dog household these days. Aaron's sister, Dena, and her family have moved again for her husband's job. This time around, they couldn't find a place that would accept pets, so they asked if Max could live with us for a while. We said yes, thinking, "We already have 150 pounds of dog running around. What's another 50 pounds?!?" So far this week though, it's felt like a lot more than 'just another 50 pounds of dog.'

All 3 dogs have been a lot more energetic and on edge this week than normal - at least I know Nick and Steve have been. I think they each want to make sure that they don't end up the low dog on the totem pole. This is more so the case for Max, because our dogs have teamed up against him several times this week, but already we can see our dogs teaming up with Max when it's to their advantage.

In addition, I think each dog has needed their 'alone time' this week. There's been a lot of extra sniffing, posturing, etc... and sometimes the poor guys can't even scratch their ear without another dog taking the opportunity to sniff or pounce. On Monday night Aaron was watching football in the basement and I was watching a movie in the bedroom. Max followed me into the bedroom and immediately layed down on the dog bed. He didn't move until I left the room after my movie. Nick and Steve (and even Aaron) wandered in a few times during the movie to check things out, but Max barely lifted his head to acknowledge them. He seemed very much to be saying, "I'm just laying here, minding my own business, not being bothered by anyone, so let's keep it that way!!" This morning, Nick was never more than a foot away from me while I was getting ready for work - in the bedroom, bathroom and everywhere in between. Although annoying, I kinda thought it was cute. "Hey!! Don't forget about me. I'm the dog who loves to get petted!! I noticed you weren't petting any other dogs right now, so I thought I better stay close by in case you're in the mood to pet..."
This is the dogs on Sunday morning, barely more than 12 hours after meeting eachother. You can see that they're all drawn together by a common thread - raw bacon!!

Here are my '(not-so)mini-bios' of each dog:

• Steve (85 pounds, 5 years old, Husky-Chow-German Shepard mix). He shares a name with my stepdad, because as Aaron puts it, he had the dog before he had me, so Steve is commonly known as "Steve The Dog." Steve came to live with Aaron after the vet's office that his sister worked at rescued Steve and his brother at only 6 weeks old. He didn't know how to drink water from a bowl, only from licking puddles on the sidewalk. He likes to pretend that he's cool and he doesn't really care if he gets any attention or petting. However, if you get him by himself - when the others are outside or busy eating - he can't get enough. He always looks a little ragged, because he has so much hair that no matter how much we brush him or what season it is, he is shedding. He loves to play fetch and is a big fan of catching the ball mid-air. The poor guy has some hip problems, so he has a hard time getting up after a hard day of playing, but he loves taking medicine, so we give him some glucosamine in hopes that it won't get worse. He seems to be able to sense when one of us is feeling blue and acts accordingly to try to cheer us up. When he hears the laptop click shut at night or the TV turn off, he immediately heads for the door so he can go out one last time before bed.
• Nick (65 pounds, 3 years old, Lab-Vizsla mix). We got Nick from the Animal Rescue League when he was 12 weeks old. He was tiny and adorable and afraid of pretty much everything, especially when he didn't have any backup from Steve. Nick doesn't like tall guys and gets freaked out by loud noises and falling apples. He likes to be just like the big dog, Steve, which is our explanation for his curled tail. He didn't have one when we first got him, and neither labs nor vizslas do... Anytime someone walks by the back door, he thinks he needs to go outside and check things out. We commonly use the phrase, "Nick's about to burst!" because you'd think his bladder was about to burst by the way he jumps around by the door. If he could be outside getting pet all day long he would be in heaven. He tries really hard to be a good cuddler, but he's just too much of a spaz. He has an uncanny knack to find "armholes" - any space between the crook of your elbow and your body where he can stick his head in hopes of getting pet. For a long time, we didn't think Nick really knew how to play fetch. When we throw the ball with both dogs, he just chases after Steve and bites his back side. When Steve's not around though, he tears after the ball like no other!! His claim to fame is that he can give high fives.
• Max (50 pounds, 8 years old, Rotweiler-Poodle mix) Adam and Dena got Max as a puppy and I'm told they had to use leather gloves to handle him because he was a biter with very sharp teeth. I had only met him a couple times before he moved in with us, and both times he was with Ziggy, a Miniature Pinscher, who was totally in charge of Max!! He seems to be having a really good time playing with dogs closer to his size and really seems to like the toys our dogs ignore. He reminds me of a kangaroo, because he's very jumpy. He goes from having all 4 paws on the ground to all 4 paws on the furniture (that he's not allowed on!!) in about half a second. It's crazy!! He's still learning the rules of our house, but I think at this point he's just playing dumb, hoping we'll let him get away with it. He's either playing hard or sleeping hard, there doesn't seem to be an inbetween. I'm sure we'll have the pleasure of learning even more of Max's quirks as time goes on!!

Hoofing it.

One of the things Aaron and I were most excited about when moving to Ames was that we wouldn't have to drive everywhere. When we lived in Slater, we had to go to Ames or Ankeny to get/do pretty much everything, so walking or riding our bikes wasn't really an option. We had 2 motivations for wanting to drive everywhere - exercising more and polluting less.

I found this set of facts from http://www.idealbite.com/ pertaining to walking and thought it was interesting.

The Benefits

• Getting fit as a horse. Even at a slow pace, you'll burn around 100 calories per mile, and consistent exercise from walking reduces the risk of diabetes and heart disease.
• Saving change for the races. Walking 1 mile each day instead of driving will save you about 15 cents on gas each day. That's almost $55 a year.
• Not horsing around with our air. Walking instead of driving 10 1-mile trips each week averts 500 pounds of CO2 emissions per year.
• Connecting with neigh-bors. It's easier to interact with other people when you're not stuck behind the wheel.

So how's the walking/bike riding going?? Well, we're making small strides. We walk to my mom's a lot - all .2 miles each way. We've also ridden our bikes to the farmer's market, the library and church a couple times. Only recently did I get a helmet, we both got flashing lights for the bikes and we got a basket to go on the front of one of the bikes. Since then, we've been able to safely take advantage of the bikes a little more.

I don't think we'll ever ride our bikes to work - I don't like what the helmet does to my hair - and it seems quite unlikely that we'll ride our bikes during the winter, but we're doing what we can while we can.

Best Slumber Party EVER!!

Although we would never wish Aaron's mom back in the hospital, we did find the silver lining of it all - more time with Emma!! Dena and Emma both stayed with us for a few nights, then we got a night with Emma all to ourselves for a "slumber party."

She took a bubble bath and then we all piled onto air mattresses on the floor of our family room. We ate popcorn, watched Hannah Montana and best of all...cuddled!! Aaron and I didn't get much sleep that night, (turns out 3 year olds move around alot while they're sleeping...who knew?!?) but I would still say it was fantastic.

For Seriously!?!

Aaron and I picked up about 130 gallons of apples from our backyard on Saturday morning. Aaron actually raked most of the apples into piles while I picked up the strays. Then we were able to just shove the apples into buckets from the pile - much easier than the previously used methods. However, there were also waaayy more apples than we've had to deal with before.
This is our 96 gallon trash can. The only thing other than apples in here is one bag of trash, so basically all apples.
We also had 2 overflowing 13 gallon trash cans, one 5 gallon bucket and three 2 gallon buckets.

So the garbage was picked up today, but not without a little resistance from the garbage-men. They left us a notice on the trash can, stating that there is a weight limit to what can be picked up. So apparently 90-ish gallons of apples weighs too much. Which begs the question, "What will we do with this week's apples??" We already have 37+ gallons of overflow from last week...

Anyone want a bucket full of bug-infested, partially eaten and bruised apples??