Trip to the Vet Ends with Ice Cream

Spike had to go to the Vet this evening to find out why he's leaking. For the bargain price of $199.20, he received a urinalysis, a probe in an area where things should only come out and never go in, a blood test with a big scary needle and two prescriptions.

To reward him for being such a brave little guy, I took him to the FrosTop (my generic name for every little ice cream shop) and bought him the doggie treat special. We walked across the street to the park and I sat the bowl on the grass and waited for him to discover it on his own.

~~~ He found it, but wasn't quite sure what it was. ~~~

~~~ Yummy ~~~

Goldie Hates the Flash

We stopped by The Institution yesterday afternoon to deliver some fresh produce and cookies to Grandma.

Bruce and Goldie were having a fun game of fishin' for kitty when I ruined it for them. All it took was one flash from the camera and Goldie's play came to a stand still.

She walked across the room and I'm pretty sure she scowled at me. I guess she doesn't like having her picture taken.

Bruce Makes a Friend at Northstar Pet Resort

Spike spent a few days at Northstar Pet Resort while we were out of town this weekend. Our usual kennel, Odd Acres in Osceola, was totally booked so we had to drive across the county and pay twice as much to board him at "luxury acres".

The daily rates aren't too bad at Northstar at $16, but they get you with the a la carte guilt menu.

Puppy Play Time: $4 per day

Evening Ice Cream Snack: $2.50 per day


Luxury Suite with TV: $Arm & Leg

Spike Cam

I sometimes wonder what Spike does while I'm at work.

I've considered setting up a web cam, but I suspect the show would be fairly boring.

For 7 hours and 45 minutes, the web cam would probably show me this view.

For the other 15 minutes, it would show something like this.

That Dog is Fluffy

Spike visited the Dog Gone Good dog groomers on Ash Road in Osceola today for a spa treatment.

I had cut most of the paint out of his fur from last weekend's painting mishap, but there was still paint on his ear that I couldn't get off.

The dog groomer not only got all of the paint out of his fur, but also trimmed his toenails, made him smell terrific and gave him this dapper tie.

Goodbye Fish

After having the fish tank set up and running for the past five years, we decided it was time to tear it down.

We invited our friend, Rick, over to take the fish for his 55 gallon aquarium.

The biggest reason I wanted to get rid of the fish was that the Placastamous (algae eater) had gotten so huge that he freaked me out.

We may turn the tank into a terrarium. Bruce mentioned something about adding lizards -- not sure how thrilled I am about that.





I asked him what lizards eat and he replied, "Crickets."

I know how annoying it is when crickets get into our garage in the summer -- I can imagine how much fun it will be to have them in our family room.

Spike Wants to Play

We had a houseful of friends over this evening for a card party.

While the gals played euchre and "Screw Your Neighbor", the guys played poker.

Poor Spike couldn't get into either game.

The Amazing Skidboot

A friend emailed me this video of an amazing dog named Skidboot and his owner/trainer/friend, David Hartwig.

The video is a little more than eight minutes, but worth the investment of time to watch it through.

I have no idea how you'd go about training a dog to respond like Skidboot did (he passed away in March 2007), but it must take a combination of love, patience and a really smart dog.


My first dog, Tyler the Rottweiler, was able to pick out balls from his toy box, by color, on demand.

He had an orange ball and a yellow ball, identical in every way but color. I'd ask him to get one of his balls, mentioning the color, and, every single time, he'd pull out the ball I'd asked for.

Tyler could also open the back door by twisting the door handle with his nose.

But, his most impressive trick was what we called, "self-service automatic goodies". He liked ice cubes and we had a refrigerator with an ice/water dispenser in the door. He would walk up to the refrigerator, press his nose against the ice dispenser and catch the ice cubes as they shot out.

Spike's Road Trip

Cousin Dozer invited Spike to come down to Indianapolis for Christmas dinner with the whole family.

Spike was pretty excited because his normal road trips end at either the vet or the kennel.

We took a pit stop near Peru at the Grissom Air Museum where Spike and Bruce were able to check out this 1950s T-2C Buckeye Navy plane.



Spike also liked the YS-11.