Day 178 - Tuesday (More rain):
In the morning we did our usual loop walk. In the woods Finster got attacked by some serious deer flies and mosquitoes, maybe that's why they are staying off me. When we got back to the house I cleared 2 deer flies and a few mosquitoes from his head, oof. At around 1030 we did our normal morning walk through the wooded trail. I had a meeting from 12-1 so Finster was fidgeting in his crate, his internal clock was going nuts. By the time I was done it was pouring out so we were unable to go outside for a walk. Instead CA, Bill, and I played some tug with him in my office. At around 130 he went back to his crate after a quick pee break outside. It was still raining at 330 so I took him over to the other (vacant) half of our office building and played hide-n-seek with him. He loves this game :) I put him in a sit/stay and then go around the corner into a random office and hide on him. Then I call him and he looks for me. It's great fun! He whines until he finds me, which cracks me up; and then gets excited when he finds me. So, I guess I know what I'll be doing when it rains from now on.
At around 2 the Cornell Vet called and asked if we could bring Finster down that night for the surgery on Wednesday. I talked with E and we decided to put it off until we talked to George. So, still no scheduled surgery date yet.
In the evening we went for a little walk and played in the basement and outside a bit. Nothing too exciting. At around 10 George called and I chatted with him about the surgery. He said that it should be done asap for fear of his kidney bursting, which would be much more expensive and dangerous. I'm going to schedule an appointment tomorrow hopefully.
Before we went to bed E and I went down and played some hide-n-seek again with Finster :) he cracks us up with this game.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Day 177 - Monday (Home):
This morning it rained so Finster only got a quick walk outside. He stayed home with E today as usual. In the evening it was still raining off and on so we didn't do much outside. I worked on his "Take" command a little more which is progressing quite well. He forgets at first but after I tell him no once he remembers. I spent most of the night updating MSMoney which is about the worst way to spend a free night.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Day 176 - Sunday (The suck):
This morning E and I took Finster for a walk around 930 or so. We walked about 2 miles round trip down Quinlin road to Kinney road (I think; I don't really know the names of the roads around my house). It was pretty hot, about 80ish and the sun was quite hot. Finster started slowing down at the last half mile. He was panting like it was nobody's business. When we got back to the house I went to the basement to get Finster down for some water. He made a b-line for the ditch to roll in it to cool off. In an attempt to stop him I went for the hose and called him, this got him turned around and back to me. I grabbed his collar and took him to the basement, I didn't want him all muddy in the basement. I gave him his food and water, both of which he ignored. He laid on his carpet for about 15 minutes just panting, eventually he got up and ate/drank. At 1115 we went to Ava's Christening and brunch.
After the brunch (around 4) we went to get me some new sandals and then to Erin's to pick up some store printouts. While we were there Sparky got his dewclaw bent all the way back, it ended up at a 90 degree angle with his paw, ouch. Erin called the vet and was told to snip it back so that it doesn't get caught. After Erin snipped it off E and I departed. We got home at around 630, so Finster was home alone for over 7 hours! There were no accidents but Finster did get hungry and helped himself to the rest of the food in the bag. I'm not sure how much that was, probably 2-3 cups, which is his usual lunch amount.
I tried to take him for a walk and made it to Quinlin road when it started raining. Finster and I sprinted back to the house and into the basement. The rest of the night was a wash, it pretty much rained the whole time. I played with Finster off and on and did some reading in the basement. I also started training him to never take something from my hand until I tell him to "Take". It's rude when you don't want him to take something, and he sometimes gets some skin when he snatches it. The training went decent, I think the hardest part will be for me to remember to reprimand him for taking something without my permission.
Day 175 - Saturday (The party):
This morning we went for our loop walk and then got to work. We took the garbage and recycling to the dump, went to the library, cleaned the basement, mowed the lawn, and weed ate. While mowing the lawn I had to get off the mower twice to stop Finster from going in the road. He only got close when I was mowing next to the road. The rest of the time he stayed in our yard :) It looks like I might get away without buying an invisible fence! Maybe that money will go into his surgeries. For the first 10 minutes of mowing the lawn Finster caught the grass that came out of the mower, his face was a mess with wet grass :) Around 2 I went to the store to do some yard work there. When I got back around 430 Finster helped me clean up the deck. At around 7 our guests arrived. Ed -n- Tracy got there first and was greeted by an energetic Finster. He especially liked Tracy, probably because Ed was an old hat. He immediately went to her side and started wiggling. Tracy was trying to stay slobber free so I pulled Finster back. Before Charlie and Jason got there Finster found a tasty LOG to chew on. This sucker was about 3 inches in diameter, I don't know how he got his mouth open that wide. He brought it over to show Char and Jason and I think they were amazed at his log toting abilities. He wiggled next to both of them for a few seconds before Jason and I started playing log fetch with the moron :) He was especially excited about fetching the log for some reason.
After a few minutes we went back to the deck and got ready for dinner. Finster actually chewed on his log for about 15 minutes and threw wood chips everywhere, which entertained everyone. He got some more log fetching in right before dinner thanks to Jason and Char. For dinner Finster stayed on the top deck while we ate on the bottom deck, we didn't even have to tell him to. Around dessert time he feigned the need to urinate so we let him off to pee and he stayed on the lower deck with us, but just laid next to the railing.
Finster had a special fondness for Tracy the whole night and tried to stay by her side wherever she went, even though she was probably the one least likely to appreciate his drool. After dinner we settled around the chimenea as Finster continued to chew on his log. He refused to chew it behind the circle of chairs, he had to lay in front of the fire in the middle of the circle (look at me look at me). A bit later I traded his log for a new beef rawhide for fear of him dropping his log on someone's foot. The night ended up being a success, Finster was a well behaved young man who entertained and delighted the guests. He didn't jump up on anyone, just wiggle and wagged his body vigorously against everyone's legs.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Not so much Finster related, except that he wanted to play with this little guy. This is a baby chipping sparrow we found at E's parent's house, he wasn't too shy :)
Day 174 - Friday (Dog park trail):
For lunch today Finster and I went to the dog park again. Oscar was unavailable for play. When we got there and started down to the dog park we almost killed ourselves. One of the ways to get there is down a steep hill through some woods, I prefer this to the blacktop trail. On the way down I started running a bit, leash in hand. Finster decided to take one way around a tree and I decided to go another. It didn't work out very well. I got my hand brush burned from the leash yanking on it, and Finster got choked and yanked by the leash. We both brushed it off and carried on. Instead of heading straight to the dark park area I took Finster over some hilly trails. The verticals on some of the trails were quite steep. I had to hold onto trees on the way up and down. We probably walked about 3/4 of a mile through some hills before we wound up at the dog park. We got to the dog area with about 30 minutes to go. Finster romped with the other dogs and played in the water. I've had nothing but good experiences from the dog park so far. It's especially good at lunch because there are fewer dogs there so the likelihood of meeting a bad dog is much less.
Day 173 - Thursday (back to work): Finster got to go back to work with Pa today. He enjoys going to work to see all the people and go for walks :0 For lunch we went to the park to play with Oscar. Both dogs were acting sort of weird today. Oscar wasn't really in to retrieving his ball. He would get it but then stop about 10 feet from shore and play with it in the water. Finster on the other hand stayed in the water the whole time trying to tear down one of the water bushes. He played around it and tugged on it like it offended his mother. After work Finster and I headed to Ellison park for some doggy heaven. It was too, after 5 tons of dogs show up. There were probaly 30-40 dogs there! It was doggy overload. Finster found 2 pals that he spent most of his time with. He would chase one for a while and get chased by it, and then vear off to find the other one. One was a black poodle (with a hot body) and the other was a Wymaraner I think. A reporter from the D+C was there also taking pictures, Finster didn't get chosen to get his picture taken :( I think he is too normal of a dog, there were about 10 other labs there. He recked shop for about an hour and then we went home happy and tired!
When we got home we had the house to ourselves, not that we really did anything important. I finished up Marley and Me and Finster laid by my side. Man, what a sad book! That was the slowest 3 pages I've ever read, I had to look up after every 2 sentences for fear of crying like a school girl.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Day 172 - Wednesday (At Present Tense again):
I finally posted the picture from last week, enjoy.
Today Finster went to the store again with Erica. It was our anniversary today (4 years) so I went to the store after work. I took Finster for a bit of a walk when I got there. He gets quite bored at the store because E can't give him much of a walk. After the store closed we went to Main Street Pizza to enjoy a Grilled Greek Pizza, it was cool enough for Finster to stay in the car. We got home around 10ish and hung out on the deck for the rest of the evening.
Day 171 - Tuesday (Work alone):
Today I went back to work without Finster. He went to the store with E for the day because we had guests from NJ visit us at work. He did well at the store in his wonderful fenced in area. E said that he refused to pee in his area and ended up holding it until noon after E realized what he was doing. She said he pee'd forever when she let him out.
After work E and I went to my baseball game (we won!). Finster had too much pent up energy for E to control him. He pulled her over going after a foul ball while she was sitting in a chair. One of the foul balls that Finster retrieved E took from him and started walking back to the field; Finster thought she was playing and went for the ball and accidentally got her hand instead. This landed Finster in the car for the remaining 2 innings of the game. After the game Erin and Sparkles, Rokes, Swack, and Tim (Swack's friend) came over for some pizza. While Erin went to get the pizza Swack played rough with Finster. He thoroughly enjoyed it :) he was pouncing on him and wagging his whole body. The game was up though when he got Swack's hat off his head :) He also got to play tug and fetch his ball, so he was plenty happy to burn off some energy. We left Finster and Sparky in the basement unsupervised while we ate, and they were perfect, we didn't hear a peep out of either of them the whole time. They both stood on the stairs (Sparky on the top, Finster 6 steps down) waiting for us to come let them free.
After dinner and after the boys left Rokes, Erin, E and I had a rockin' printing party! All the cool people were in attendance and we got quite efficient once we got the printer to print yellow, that dastardly yellow! Rokes rocked out a few origami swans from the ruined prints. During the party Erin and I took the dogs for a walk. They did great on the walk, Finster pulled a bit, but much better than usual. It was either because it was pitch black out or because of the slip leash that I got from Cornell.
Day 170 - Monday (The big vet):
This morning we woke up and did the usual loop trail. Then got in the car and headed to Cornell University to find out what Finster's dripping problem is. Finster slept for the whole 2 hour car ride. He was still sleepy from the tiring Sunday. He generally sleeps a ton after the weekend. When we got to Cornell Finster took a nice long pee and then we went to the waiting room. There were a few dogs in there, all of which Finster was very interested in. After about 10 minutes of sniffing the floor (there were no dogs in our row of seats) Finster laid down on the floor and took a little snooze. Even the dog's barking 2 rows down didn't stir Finster, he was in complete relaxation mode.
Then the vet in training came to get us. She gave him the once over and asked us all the usual questions about his problems. She got Finster pretty excited while she was checking him out. She kept calling him handsome and talking in excited tones. Finster was wagging his whole body in glee. He was very good, even with the finger and thermometer crammed up his pooper. Then the first vet left to get the senior vet. She was gone for about 20 minutes, in which time Finster took a nap by the door and under the desk.
The second vet also gave Finster some lovin' and got him good and excited. Finster is one with the ladies I must say. Eventually, they took Finster in for the ultrasound and blood work and E and I went to cruise Ithaca, checking out some bookstores.
When we got back they were done with the tests and we got the verdict. Finster has one kidney that is dead to the world. It is completely non-functioning and is enlarged and full of urine. His 2nd kidney is also enlarged, likely due to the extra work it has to do to take on the responsibility of both kidneys. Their recommendation is to take out the dead kidney. The fear is that it may rupture, spilling all the urine into Finster's body, which would be bad. Also, the dead kidney greatens the possibility of internal infections. They said that pulling the dead kidney may or may not stop the dripping problem. They said it weighed 10lbs. and might be hindering the other organs due to its size. They said that it would be a routine operation for them, the only fear being that the 2nd kidney might not be up to snuff to manage all the work. Also, there is potential for kidney problems in the future. So, there you have it, we finally got to the bottom of the problem. The operation would have a nifty price tag of $1500-$1800, that's one expensive dead kidney.
After the verbal prognosis we waited about 45 minutes for them to write up the report. During this time Finster did some more sleeping :) We ended up leaving around 5 and stopped at Taughannock Falls State Park and took Finster for a little mile or so hike around the park. After we left there we stopped at a little soft ice cream joint for some dinner, during which Finster slept on the outside deck that we ate on.
When we got home Finster did some more sleeping while E and I watched game 7.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Day 169 - Sunday (The long one):
Sundays are always long days and this one was not an exception. We hung out at home until around 11 and then headed, Finster in tow, to the inlaws. The first thing Finster did when we got there was headed to the pond for a dip. It was about 90 so it was warranted. While in the pond he found 2 dead birds and successfully rolled in one of them and sniffed the other. A little later Erin and Sparkles showed up and Finster tried, yet again, to play with Sparky. This time it worked much better because we both just let them off their leash to run. This works so nicely because Sparky can run from Finster and neither one of them seem to mind the running. We left them off the leash and free the whole afternoon and there was only one incident. After lunch Sparky and Finster were lying on the deck. Sparky was behind the bench and Finster was lying in front of the door about 7 feet away. This was much too far away for Finster so he kept inching closer and closer. When he got within 3 feet Sparky drew the line, he went after Finster and bit him (at least I think he did, Finster cried like a school girl). For a bit after that Finster kept his distance.
At around 230 we took the dogs up to Grandma C's house to see the rest of the family. I kept Finster on his leash so he didn't jump on the 70+ year old grandparents, that might be disastrous. He doesn't usual jump, but who knows. When they got the bean bag game out Finster has real problems with his leash. He kept trying to retrieve the bean bags on every throw. Eventually, I tied him up to the tire swing and he chewed on the rope a bit, but that only distracted him for 10 minutes. Eventually he got bored with the bean bags and he just laid down for a bit until we left for my parents.
When we got to my parents I put Finster in the huge fenced in back yard while we ate. I love it there, I don't have to worry about him. After lunch my dad went out to play Frisbee with all 3 dogs, Finster and his 2 dogs. Finster didn't bother retrieving the Frisbee (he doesn't handle competition well) rather he let Tilly get it and then he would take it from her about 20 feet from my dad and then he would bring it back to my dad; a relay-retrieve if you will.
When we finally got home Finster crashed in exhaustion :) It was a long day for him too.
Day 168 - Saturday (Work Work):
I had a baseball game at 10am (we lost) this morning so I got up and took Finster for a nice little loop walk. He was in the basement from 930 - 230 again without a problem. I think next week we are going to try leaving him home from work for a day to see how that goes. When I got home from the game and the store there was a big pile of mulch in our driveway (finally). I let Finster out and starting working. Finster dug into the mulch nose first, he loves chewing on the wood pieces! He quickly became a mulchy mess but enjoyed every second of it. He followed me around the whole afternoon while I mulched the gardens and the trees. When E got home he followed and helped us both out mulching the rest of the gardens/trees. He loves it when we do yard work and he is such a big help. His main tasks are to eat every weed, grass, dirt, etc. that we pull up and to protect us from the moths that roam our yard.
In the evening we watched game 6 of the Stanley cup finals while Finster hung out on the deck watching the neighbors and eating bugs.
Day 167 - Thursday (Don't remember):
Day 168 - Friday (Morning walk):
Today started out a bit different than usual. I had an oil change appointment at Monroe at 745am, an early bird special for 10.99!!! During the oil change Finster and I walked down (route) main street to the Oatka creek and back. It was a joyous occasion, a wonderful summer morning :)
After the appointment we went to work. For lunch we went to the Canal boat launch and Finster and Oscar swam for a solid hour fetching crap out of the nice clean canal.
In the evening E and I hung out with Finster on the deck. Finster loves being outside at night. We turn on the outside light for him and it provides him with hours of entertainment. His main objective is to eat as many bugs as possible. He stares at the wall calculating the perfect moment to attack his prey and devour his snack. Moths are his favorite, likely because they are big and slow and likely taste fantastic.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Day 166 - Wednesday (Just another day at the office):
Today was nothing special, walk in the morning, and then to work. For lunch we went to the Kings bend park to play with Oscar. We got there about 15 minutes before Oscar so Finster had a nice warm up swim. I was throwing sticks out 20 yards into the pond and he would continuously retrieve them. I love watching him swim, he looks so happy :) When Oscar showed up they did their usual routine of swimming after the stick/ball and occasionally playing with each other.
After work Finster and I played with his big soccer ball for a while and then I took a ton of pictures of the little guy. I posted my favorite on Day 172.
Day 165 - Tuesday (Long day in the basement):
I took today off to go to the NAIBA Trunk show with E. For the morning I took Finster on the usual walk around the loop trail, albeit at 545am :) Finster was still sleeping when I went down to get him up, and he didn't look too happy about going for a walk at that hour.
The trunk show was is Syracuse and was scheduled to go from 9-5pm. We had to leave at 7am to get there when it started. If we stayed until 5 that would put us back home at 7pm, a full 12 hours for Finster in the basement. I asked the neighbor (Sedona's owner) if he would come over and let Finster out around noonish, and he did.
We ended up getting home at 3 after we went to all the meetings, ate some free lunch and got as many free books as we felt right getting. Trunk shows rule! Finster did fine in the basement again. I think he was napping when we got home and Don let him out at around 1230 to pee.
After we got home E went back to the store and Finster and I hung out around the house after going for a little 30 minute walk. While we were home I decided to try training him a little more with the come command, the most challenging of all. I tied 20' of clothesline around his collar and followed him around for a while. I waited for him to drink out of the ditch before I gave him the first come command. He usually completely ignores me when he's drinking out of that, and he did again this time. Only, I had the upper hand ;) I gave him a nice tug and he came. Then he went back to drink again, and ignored me again so I gave him another tug. The 3rd time he listened, woot, and I didn't have to tug him to get him to come. We'll see how well it works later on though.
Day 164 - Monday (Home with mom):
Here is today's log of Finster and E:
ptb: omg
(14:22:26) ptb: your dog is hilarious
(14:22:38) ptb: he just pounced on a piece of lint from the dryer vent
(14:22:43) ptb: and it got stuck to his nose
(14:23:01) buffyblice: lol
(14:23:03) buffyblice: omg
(14:23:11) buffyblice: i miss spending the day with that goofball
(14:24:10) ptb: hes so funny
(14:24:13) buffyblice: he makes everything so simple and fun
(14:24:14) ptb: then he started sneezig
(14:24:16) ptb: sneezing
(14:24:19) buffyblice: lol
(14:24:26) buffyblice: you were probably dying werent you
(14:24:29) ptb: omg
(14:24:36) ptb: i had tears in my eyes
(14:24:39) buffyblice: i bet that lint was scared :)
(14:24:44) ptb: yup
(14:24:57) ptb: i also started putting my head down in my hands and saying finster cant find me
(14:25:01) ptb: and he was going nuts
5:06) ptb: biting my ponytail
(14:25:11) ptb: poking his nose in my face
Needless to say, they had a pretty good time. The bad thing that he did for the day was to chew up the grease catcher on the grill. I'm not sure how much grease that thing actually catches anyways, doesn't it just get burned up in the flames?
When I got home Finster was pretty happy to see me as usual. I love it when he wiggles his whole body, cracks me up. Finster had a pretty boring night as E and I watched another Stanley cup finals game.
Monday, June 12, 2006
After the walk we rushed around to get ready for church. We made record time and all 3 of us were ready in 30 minutes. Finster stayed in the car during church (it was a nice cool 60 degrees) and then got out at the in laws afterwards. I took him back to the pond for a drink/swim and then walked around the fields and yard until lunch. For lunch I locked Finster in the garage with his food. I put his whole lunch in his food ball. After lunch I went out to check on him and he had his lunch and then some dessert provided by the garbage can. It looked like he ate some chicken wings and such, sounds good. I cleaned up the mess and gave him a little scolding (I actually caught him in the act). I went back in for my dessert and then came back out after about 10 minutes to find him munching on the spilled garbage again. I gave him another scolding and cleaned it up again. When Finster is really bad like this the worst scolding he gets is a "no" and I put my hand over the top of his neck (like a mother biting her pup). I barely squeeze at all so it doesn't hurt him at all. He knew he was bad and went to lay down on the entry way carpet. After about 20 minutes I came back out to check on him and this time he left the garbage alone :) it worked. He stayed away from the garbage for the rest of the day!!
In the afternoon we all took a walk around the yard with Erin and Sparky included. Finster is such a pain when Sparky is around. He pulls like mad to walk with Sparky when he's on the leash and he tries constantly to play with Sparks when he's off. I've taught him that whenever another dog is around it's play time, so I have to work on him being calm and not expecting to play with every dog in sight.
During the walk Finster got to play with Sadie (the neighbor dog) for about 10 minutes. Sadie was quite aggressive with Finster. I don't think she sees many other dogs so she probably isn't very socialized. I split them up after a while because I didn't like the way she was playing.
One good thing did happen during the visit with the in laws. After the walk Finster went to the pond again for a drink/swim and then came up to the house. We were all sitting on the deck and I told Finster to stay "Off", no one (but me) likes a wet dog, and he did. He came up on the deck twice in the 20-30 minutes that we sat and chatted. Sparky was even on the deck but Finster still stayed off.
At 4 I had another baseball game. E got to watch Finster. He did pull her over once trying to get to Sparky and barked at Sparky once but E squirted him with a water gun and he didn't bark again ;) He did ok at the game. E said he tried to play with Sparky a few times, but it was tolerable. I'll deem it a success because he didn't get sent to the car.
After the game we went back home to my parents house (I told you it was a long day). Finster chased their two dogs around a bit and played with my Pa. He is getting much braver with my parents two dogs. Fred still owns him though (the 10 lbs miniature fox terrier) and Tilly, well, she still humps him. He looks absolutely massive next to these two dogs.
We finally made it home at 9pm, Sundays are tiring. Finster was exhausted without any naps. He slept in the basement pretty much the whole time until 11. E and I finished up Heart and Blood : Living with Deer in America which is the book that we bought E's dad for Father's day. It was the most beautifully written scientific book I have ever read! It was so interesting to learn about one of the most prevalent large mammal in this country.
Day 162 - Saturday (Basemented and the phantom poo):
This morning I had a baseball game at 10am. I woke up at around 8 and took Finster for a nice loop walk to tire him out a tad. He brought back a monster stick with him and felt quite proud of himself. I left Finster loose in our basement during our game. I was gone from 915-230 (5 hours). I was a bit nervous to see the destruction when I got back. When I went down to let him out at 230 I smelled some poop. I let Finster out and then looked around for the droppings. I spent about 5 minutes looking under stuff and in corners for the phantom poop all to no avail. Then I realized that he must have farted in excitement right before I came down. I've never seen Finster with so much energy before. It's amazing the difference walking him makes. As soon as he got done emptying his bowels I took him for a nice walk around the neighborhood. He was quite energetic and was pulling more than usual. When we got back I fed him and then played fetch with him for a bit with his big soccer ball. After that I did some yard work, pulling up sod around the trees. Finster loves this because he gets to attack the sod as it's being thrown into the wheelbarrow. Every once and a while Finster would get bored and just start sprinting around the house. It's hilarious when he does this! During one of his sprints he got distracted by the neighbors dog and ran over the ditch to see him. I quickly gathered him up and put him in the basement for 20 minutes as a punishment.
When E got home we walked around the yard a bit and then hung out on the deck for a little while. By this time Finster was tired out again, it's hard work tiring an 86 lbs. puppy out :) We watched the Stanley cup finals game at around 8ish and Finster hung out in the basement. Finster will be glad when hockey is over. During the game I finished Cesar's way (the book). Out of 10 stars I'd give it around 7. I would certainly recommend reading it though. It was a little repeditive and a little long. He could have condensed it to about 100 pages (it is 270 pages) and not lost a thing. It gives a little more detail about his methods than does his show so it's a good read if you also watch the show. I wish it would have gone into more detail about his tactics though.
Day 161 - Friday (Singing in the rain):
Today's lunch was rainy, windy and a bit cold. Due to the rain we hit the wooded 1/4 mile loop trail in the woods behind out office park. We walked that path for a solid 50 minutes. After about 10 minutes Finster picked up a 3'x1.5" stick and carried it around with him the rest of the time. We probably went around 12-16 times (3-4 miles). I love walking in the woods when it's raining, I feel like I'm getting away with something because I'm not getting wet :) There are 2 mud puddles right off the path that Finster enjoys splashing in. He's like a little kid when he sees the mud. He spashes down with his 2 huge paws and bites at the splash; and then puts his head in the water and bites at the water, I guess he's showing the water who's boss!
After work it was just Finster and I. We played outside for a while with his new favorite toy, a minurature soccer ball. He loves big balls for some reason.
Day 160 - Thursday (Skip it):
Today we went to the park for lunch. Finster and Oscar swam swam swam despite the sub 70 degree temperature. They both have their own fixations, Oscar will only chase his ball and Finster prefers chasing a stick.
After work was a nice relaxing evening. We played a bit and read a bit, nothing too exciting. Whata boring day, I love it!
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Day 159 - Wednesday (Moist pole):
This morning Finster lifted his leg again on the same telephone pole, I'm not sure what this one pole did to him because it's the only thing that he lifts his leg for.
For lunch today we went to the boat launch at the canal. Finster didn't jump off the deck at all today :( instead he leaned over the edge and barked at the sticks and balls that I threw in. Him and Oscar did a ton of swimming. Finster wasn't too sure about the wake from the boat that went by twice. It made him a bit nervous to see waves splashing up on the launch.
After work Finster and I went to the store to pick up some bricks for our house. When we got home I continued reading my Birthday book, Cesar's Way. It's Cesar Millan's book about dog psychology. It's a pretty good read and I'll give the review when I'm done with it.
Day 158 - Tuesday (Horizontal Urination!):
This morning Finster and I went to the vet at 8, up at 615 :(. I wanted the vet to check out Finster's incision for infection and get his paperwork to take to Cornell. Before we left we went for our normal walk and Finster LIFTED HIS LEG to moisten the telephone pole! He almost fell over but he managed to get some on there, I was quite proud, and a little sad.
When we got to the vet we were received by a cacophony of dog barking. George's 3 heel biters were barking their heads off at Finster. Finster didn't really know what to think of it so he just kind of stayed away.
We went inside and Finster weighed in at 86.1 lbs! Big boy. The vet said that the internal sutures were getting pushed out by Finster's body, which is why there was some puffyness and puss. He said this was normal but it would be open for infection so he got some antibiotics for 9 days.
For lunch today we went to Ellison park again to play with some dogs. When we first got to the dog area there weren't any dogs there. So I walked around the creek and back up the path and met up with about 6 dogs. I turned around and walked back to the dog area and there were about 10 dogs there now :) Finster got to playing with a bigger dog. He was chasing it around and practically knocked the head off of an old, deaf shin nipper as he ran by the little dog. That park is crazy, the leash law does not apply there, or so it seems; no one has their dogs on leashes anywhere in the park except for the parking lot. On the way back up to the car Finster was walking off leash. He got ahead of me a bit so I hid behind a tree to scare him a bit. He got about 30 yards ahead when he realized he couldn't see me anymore. He came running back looking for me a little panicked. After that he stayed right with me for the rest of the walk.
Monday, June 05, 2006
Day 157 - Monday (Home with Mom):
This morning I got up and let Finster out of his crate. When I went down there he was sitting up and had quite a bit of drool coming out of his mouth. There was a bunch of drool on his bed too for some reason, weird; I'll have to keep that in mind.
Today I got nothing but good reports from E about Finster. He didn't wander into the neighbors at all :) He helped her pull weeds and hang clothes. He managed to eat a few moths and other random bugs throughout the day. E said that Finster is kind of slow and lackadaisical today. I think he might be sore from his romp with Coco yesterday.
I called the vet and he wanted to see Finster's incision to make sure it isn't infected, so we have to go there tomorrow to get it checked out; joy!
Finster was happy to see me when I got home. We played in the yard for a bit until we ate dinner and then a little more afterwards.
Day 156 - Sunday (Want some Coco with that?):
E and I woke up around 930ish and I went down to let Finster out. We listened to some church through the streaming feed at the Father's house.
After the service we went to the inlaws house for a bit. Before I went in for lunch I took Finster out back to make an organic deposit. Instead he found another animal's organic deposit and rolled in it. Then, on the way to the pond (to clean him off) he found the skeleton of a raccoon and managed to roll in that also. Both scents cleaned off fairly well by the pond. I had him swim for about 15 minutes and then I went up for lunch. During lunch I left Finster in the garage with the door open. He stayed in there for most of the time. Before I finished lunch I checked on him and he was gone. I went looking for him but before I got out of the garage he came back around the corner so I shut the doors of the garage.
After lunch we went to my Sister's to play with the kids and Coco. Coco and Finster played rough the whole time we were there, over 2 hours! Finster was entirely exhausted when we left, but he had a HUGE smile on his face.
When we got home we just hung out on the deck and read, Finster slept :)
We noticed that Finster's incision from his neutering had some puss coming out of it, I'm not sure if it should be healed by now or not? I'll call the vet tomorrow.
Day 155 - Saturday (The rainout):
My first game of the season got rained out today. Finster and I hung out in the basement all morning as it was pouring outside. Quite boring for everyone involved. We went into the garage and did some fiddling there but other than that nothing was happening. At around 1 we went to the store for an event. The rain finally stopped around that time so Finster hung out in the back of the store in his fenced in area. He got a few visitors back there from the event. One of which was my pa. He loves my dad and my dad loves him. My dad ended up with a muddy face from hugging Finster :) Finster actually does the submissive urination with my dad. He grunts and wiggles while my dad pets and hugs him, it's quite funny! He also got a visit from Mary which excited him immensely. Mary was loud and excited and Finster fed off that energy by bouncing around and trying to wiggle/jump on her, he was on the leash so he really didn't get a chance.
After the event we came home to drop Finster off then we went to Erin's for our first dog birthday party (believe it or not). I left Finster loose in the basement again which worked out great for all involved. He didn't touch a thing in the basement, so sweet!
Day 154 - Friday (London):
Today was a fairly typical day. For the morning we went on our usual loop walk. In the woods I saw 3 deer and we (the deer and I) stood still and stared at each other for about a minute.
For lunch I went to the Laundromat and then to the Henrietta park. They installed a new playground there so there are now kids playing on it everytime I go there. We instead walked through the park to the exercise trail (about 1/2 mile track). We walked around it once and on the 2nd time around I saw a dog and his owner on the other side going in the same direction that we were going in. I turned around to go meet up with this couple and am glad I did. Jeff, the owner, was deaf and his dog was a shaved Old English Sheepdog appropriately named London. This dog had one brown eye and one blue eye, I have to admit, I like them shaved better and the dog seemed to enjoy it also. He was pretty high energy and Jeff and I let Finster and him off the leash to romp. They had a blast running around each other, Finster, as usual, had a hard time keeping up with London. Eventually Jeff and I started walking towards the creek and when we got near it Finster made a B-Line to it and London followed. Then they ran up and down the creek as Jeff and I tried to call them back. They went out of sight a few times but always came back. We finally got them out and then we departed. It's cool meeting other dog owners like this, and it's great to see people of all types enjoying their dogs. It was interesting trying to communicate with Jeff, if after a few attempts I still didn't understand him he would write the words in the dirt.
After work Finster, E and I hung out on the deck in front of a fire :).
Day 153 - Thursday (The babysitter):
Today for lunch I got a call from an old friend to go to lunch. So we went to Arby's and got some wraps and took them to the park. Ivan and Oscar were there so I let Finster go play with them while we ate. I saw them playing fetch for a little while and then the went around the corner. Finster apparently went to the pond for a swim. About 20 minutes later they came back and Finster was good and wet!
After the park we got back a little early so I took Finster out for a little extra walk. We went back to the woods for a run around the trail. On the way back to the office Finster took a roll in something (some decomposing leaves most likely). So he came up smelling pretty horrible. I took him inside thinking it wasn't that bad, but I was pretty wrong. So I decided to take him to the canal in hopes that the water would clean him off a bit. Before we left we stopped off an Ron's office, in which Finster rolled on the carpet and stunk it up; well done my man.
I took him out of the office and to the park. This helped a bit and so he was a little more tolerable to be with. After work I suds'd him up again to get the rest of the stink off, which was somewhat effective; that stuff doesn't clean off so easily.
That night we watched in horror as the Sabres lost game 7 :(
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Day 152 - Wednesday (Dog park):
Today for lunch Finster, Me, Bill, Chris and Ron went to Ellison Park to check out the "dog park". It isn't an official, legal dog park, but the leash law isn't enforced either. When we got there we didn't know where it was so we asked. It was about a half mile walk into the park before we saw the dogs. When we got there there were only about 5 dogs there. I unleashed Finster and threw him to the dogs. A chow mix named Bear came over to greet us and they started playing after the butt sniffing ritual. There is a little stream at this unmarked dog area and Finster and Bear were chasing each other through it and playing. Then some more dogs showed up and jumped in on the fun. At one point Finster, Bear and Chocolate Lab were terrorizing a little shin nipper dog. It was pretty funny. Finster just had a blast, I could literally see the smile on his face. It was like letting lose a kid at Disney World :) He played for about 30 minutes and then we went back to work. He slept until 415 when I woke him up for a walk. That park tired him out quite a bit.
After work we went straight to the store. Finster had to be put in the basement because Erin brought Sparky, who got tied in the side yard, and the reading group met on the patio where Finster's fenced in area is. This was fine though, he laid down there for the hour and a half and didn't make a peep. After the reading group was done Erin, Sparks, me and Finster went for a walk around the town. Finster was being totally retarded pulling to play with Sparky and pulling to smell stuff and pulling to annoy me. After about 10 minutes he went poop and that helped out a little with the pulling. He just doesn't know how to walk with other dogs yet :(