No, this isn't a feeble attempt to imitate Friday Cat Blogging. We finally got a digital camera, so I figure now's as good a time as any to show off the current star of our household. It's a hard life that our Harry leads, but by God he's just the dog for it. Sadly for him, today is bath and a haircut day. Fortunately, he won't remember the experience by the time he gets home.
Posted by Charles Kuffner on January 09, 2004 to See, I do have a life! | TrackBackThis just proves that you're living a dog's life. ;-)
Posted by: William Hughes on January 9, 2004 6:36 PMThis is so sad. You've obviously been overworking Harry. The poor thing looks exhausted. You should give me a day off from plowing the fields.
Poor thing.
Posted by: Amy on January 9, 2004 8:10 PMOMG, is that a Maltese, the Breed from Hell? The breed with the genetic predisposition to steal small objects and hoard them? The breed that has brown crud that runs from their eyes? My mom had TWO of them.
Posted by: Charles E on January 9, 2004 9:29 PMFar as we know, he's a mutt. He was a found dog, so I don't know exactly what he is. I've always presumed a poodle/spaniel mix. He's about 40 pounds, so he's too big to be a Maltese, and he's not a collector. He does have the eye crud, though.
Posted by: Charles Kuffner on January 9, 2004 9:38 PMThat dog is the spitting image of my mom's AKC registered purebred Maltese male, which was also about 40 pounds, but that's about as big as they ever get. The purebred female was much smaller though. I'm pretty sure it's Maltese but of course it could be a mix. The best purebreds have pure white fur without the least tinge of brown, but most maltese have some light brown. That's the only way your dog differs from hers, yours is slightly brown in spots like the ears and tail, which is pretty common (or maybe that's just an effect of the camera).
The collecting behavior might show in numerous neurotic ways. Our male dog had the bad habit of guarding anything you dropped and biting you if you tried to get it back. My sister finally figured out the winning strategy, you don't try to take the object away from the dog, you take the dog away from the object. We had to sneak up on it from behind and grab it and pick it up in just the right way to avoid being bitten. The female dog had a bad habit of stashing bits of food and bones in odd places like behind couch cushions. We just painted the inside of my mom's house and when we moved all the furniture, we found yet another stash of fossilized food, and this is many years after the dogs died.
I recognize that post-grooming look too. Our dogs hated grooming, but then, what dog doesn't? We took ours to one groomer, who one day surprised us by appearing on the local TV news in a segment about "former heroin addict cleans up her act, runs local dog grooming business" and was washing OUR dogs on camera. The female just shook and shivered in fear the whole time. They always came back from the groomer completely worn out and lethargic. I think she drugged them to make them more compliant. I wouldn't have blamed her if she did.