Takes back the throne

Greta in June 2006.

The last few weeks we've seen the power shift between Greta and Cassie. It used to be so obvious that Greta was the dominant dog, but it's not as obvious anymore. Cassie seems to tell Greta what to do, and she obeys. It's been interesting to watch this transition happen. Brains over braun I guess.

Thursday evening after I fed them, Cassie wanted to play, but Greta wasn't interested. Greta was trying to avoid her, but Cassie kept getting in her face.

So Greta jumped up on top of their crate.

Doesn't sound very special, right? Well, it is. Because Cassie can't jump on top of it. She isn't strong enough to jump up there and her legs aren't long enough.

So this was Greta's special place where she could get away from Cassie and there was nothing Cassie could do about it. Absolutely brilliant. I loved it and it restored my faith in Greta also.

Before we adopted Cassie, Greta would spend all day on top of the crate, just perched up there surveying the neighborhood. She can see over the fence when she's up there, so it was like she was keeping watch over everything. But she rarely goes up there anymore unless we tell her to, for a brushing or ear cleaning.

But maybe she'll think of it again in the future as a good escape route.

Summer pool season has begun

Every Memorial Day we buy the girls a new pool. One of those kiddie pools. We throw them away at the end of the summer cause they're pretty gross and dirty from them playing in them every day.

So this Memorial Day was no different. While kids across the country were taking their first dips in neighborhood pools, so would be Greta and Cassie in their backyard pool.

My husband manned the hose while I got the camera ready. They both jumped in with such excitement. You've never seen such excitement.

Greta's favorite move in the pool is to dig the water. Like she's digging a hole in the water. She digs fast and vigorously. It's hilarious to watch. But something happened after she started digging. Cassie started barking at Greta and circled the pool. Greta snapped at Cassie once. Then Cassie continued the barking and the circling. We yelled at Cassie to stop. But then we realized what was happening. Cassie was herding Greta out of the pool. And it worked.

Greta, all mopey and Eeyore-like, wandered off to a shady corner by the fence and curled up. She never came back to the pool.

Cassie, in the meantime, gallivanted around like she'd won the lottery. She jumped in and out of the pool. She tossed water in the air with her nose. And we were disgusted with her. We couldn't even enjoy the good time she was having because Greta looked so miserable and defeated.

So our summer pool season has started on a sour note. In memory of happier times, here are some pictures from the last two summers.

Dead of the night

In the warmer months, the dogs sleep in their outside crate on the back porch. They like it, we like it. It's a win-win.

But with them being outside, as opposed to inside, they wake up more in the middle of the night. Here are three scenarios that play out at least once or twice a week:

SCENARIO 1: CASSIE HAS TO PEE

Scrape, scrape, scrape, scrape. Long pause. Scrape, scrape, scrape, scrape. Long pause. Scrape, scrape, scrape, scrape. Long pause.

Cassie is scraping her paw against the metal door of the crate. It's her signal to let us know she needs out of the crate and has to pee. No barking. No whining. No whimpering. Just scrape, scrape, scrape, scrape.

If we're not in the right room of the house when this happens, we don't hear her. I couldn't even guess how many nights might go by with her doing this and us not hearing it. But in general, this is one of our favorite Cassie moves. It's adorable and sad all at the same time.

SCENARIO 2: GRETA HAS TO PEE

It starts as a tiny whimper. Then after a few minutes it grows into a louder and longer whine. Then it becomes a yelp. At that point it's annoying, so we go rescue her.

SCENARIO 3: THERE'S SOMETHING OUT THERE (WILD ANIMAL, ETC.)

Greta is barking. Full-fledged barking. She only barks like this at storm clouds and wild animals. So it must be a wild animal. This is always the interesting part, cause when I let the girls out of their crate, they go running to the edge of the fence and I start looking, with my sleepy eyes. Once or twice a family of deer has crossed the street. That was pretty cool. The other night there was a strange noise that sounded like a dying duck. And I put that etc. above because one night there were kids vandalizing our fence with spray paint. So really, when Greta starts barking, you just never know what's going to happen.

Our little herder

So Cassie's a border collie. What does that mean? Well, she has a herding instinct. We didn't really know what that meant until this weekend. It's not like we have livestock for her to round up. So honestly we were ignorant about what it meant for Cassie to be a herder.

My husband was watching a special on TV about herding dogs competing. And a handler being interviewed said that once a herding dog gets to a certain age, the instinct comes out and it'll start herding anything and everything, kids and other pets. That clicked with my husband. And he said "You know when Greta's running beside the fence, watching people or other dogs walk by? Cassie will run beside her, around her, back and forth, and bark at her. She's never barking at the people or the dogs, she's barking at Greta. She's herding her. Trying to get her away from the fence. Trying to get her to do what she wants her to do."

So wow. That just blows my mind now that I realize that. Does that make Cassie the dominant dog? Cause Greta usually obeys Cassie and falls in line. Although with some resistance.

A summer 'do

Cassie in January.

Cassie with her summer 'do.

When I dropped Greta and Cassie off at the kennel Friday morning, I spoke with the groomer about Cassie needing a haircut. I told her we didn't want her to be completely shaved, but we wanted her hair cut really short. The groomer gave me two options: Cassie could get a bath so that her hair would be all poofed out. And then they would trim and shape it down from there. Or they could just start out with the razer and see what happens. The second option sounded weird to me, so I opted for the bath and trim.

They guy at the front desk asked if I wanted a "summer 'do". I thought that was funny.

We picked the girls up yesterday, and Cassie had an incredible summer 'do! Nice and short, easy to keep clean. She looks like a totally different dog though. I wonder how awful she was for them during the whole process.

This will keep her nice and cool this summer, so we're very pleased.

Update

Greta lived. Her wound scabbed up nicely. So I guess everything's ok.

We are heading out of town this weekend so I took the girls to the kennel this morning. Cassie's getting her haircut on Sunday! Very exciting. But we decided not to get her shaved. So her hair will just be shorter. I'm not sure it'll be that noticeable, but I'm hoping it'll help cool her off.

While I was signing them in I had them change amount of food to feed Greta. We've increased it from 3.5 cups to 4 cups because she was losing weight.

I saw on the computer screen a note from last time they were there. "Boxer is very skinny." Then that same lady from my last visit walked in the room while I was giving feeding instructions. And she commented on how skinny Greta was.

I'm not happy with the commentary at this place. Overall we think they take good care of our dogs, but this woman is really starting to get on my nerves.

Frantic morning

So Greta's had this thing hanging off her leg for a little while. A little tiny round, soft thing. We wondered if it was a tick, but we figured it was some kind of scab.

This morning, as I was spending time brushing the girls during our normal walking time, I decided to remove this thing from her leg. It wasn't pulling off. So I got the handy pair of scissors I'd just used to cut a knot out of Cassie's hair.

Snip, I cut this thing off of Greta's leg. And the blood started gushing. It was like on those medical shows when blood just starts spewing everywhere. I freaked out. Greta didn't seem to really notice. She started licking up the blood that was rolling down her leg.

I ran in the house and wet some paper towels and then put them on the wound, with some pressure, hoping the bleeding would stop. It continued for about 5 minutes. Just gushing. I felt terrible. I don't know what I just did, but I think it was wrong.

There were drops of blood all over the porch, Cassie was licking those up for me. Finally the bleeding was under control, so I could go inside and get some triple anti-biotic ointment. I applied several coats of that before leaving for work.

Overall, I'm a mess over this incident. I don't know what that thing was, I don't know what I did to Greta. She doesn't seem to be in pain. But I hope she and Cassie don't get into any kind of wrestling matches this afternoon that will cause her wound to start bleeding again.

I'm injured

So it looks like I have some kind of foot injury, probably because of the running I've been doing with the dogs. I'm going to the doctor in the next couple days. But it's amazing how many of my co-workers seem to know exactly what's wrong with my foot and have had the same problem before. It's something about the tendons reaching from my heel through the arch of my foot have tears in it. Sometimes it can go away with home care, but sometimes it needs surgery! Yikes!

So I haven't been walking Greta and Cassie. My husband has been great and has been doing it for me. I just hope this thing goes away quickly. And when it does, I guess maybe we'll have to stop running. So poor Cassie might be overweight forever. :(