Bosco Dog Blog

You might already know where this entry is going...bath time. It started this morning. Joan took me down to the river and she brought her gloves and garbage bags. There were other people down there, too, and they were all picking up garbage. I was supporting them - moral support - and occasionally jumping in the Mississippi or finding a stick and running around with it. Joan found a half-full propane tank! We filled 1 and 1/2 bags full of mostly styrafoam (cups, bubbles, larger pieces) and plastic (lids, bags, cigarette pack plastic) and cigarettes. Well, during all this I was roaming around and I found two really smelly (fish smelly) spots and I was rolling around in them big time, ignoring Joan calling me to her. Well, as you might imagine, when we got home, Joan gave me a bath. Can't she just leave me smelly? I guess not, because I also heard Tim, my favorite neighbor, say that he wouldn't even come over and see me if I was smelly. She washed me in the front yard with REALLY cold water. But I liked it better than the bathtub because it goes faster. Then she dried me off with warm towels and then brushed me. That felt good. Now, I'm going to lie in the sun on my bed and dry completely while Joan takes a shower to get the smell off of her!

Posted by Joan Hughes at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Joan took some pictures of me last week at the dog park but she hasn't downloaded them onto the computer yet for me...so you'll have to wait.

In the meantime, I'm disappointed in myself because Joan keeps tricking me, and I keep falling for it. It is that dang pink pill she keeps giving me. She'll throw it under my food but while I'm eating, I'll come upon it and then spit it out on the mat next to my bowl. Then the next thing I know, I return from being outside and do a "walk-by" my bowl and smell something - mmmm...peanut butter...and then I eat it up. Guess what? The pill is in the peanut butter. I keep falling for this trick day after day. I'm such a food hound that the peanut butter lulls my brain, and I can't think straight and just eat it up. Then, my brain starts working again and I realize, oops, I just fell for the trick again!

I hear that other dogs fall for this, too, so I won't feel SO bad about it.

Posted by Joan Hughes at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Joan came home to tell me that I am famous. Our local newspaper, the Star Tribune, has an article on blogs and they wrote about my blog!!

Here's the link: http://www.startribune.com/535/story/329769.html

You can also download a PDF of the article too: Download article

It's about time I got some press - I've been writing about my life for two years now. If you come see my blog, write me a comment so I know you came by!

Now, to today's reflections. Joan was very sneaky. This morning she put one of those pink pills in my food and I bit it in half and it was yucky, so I spit it out on the mat next to my bowl. She tried to put it in my mouth but I spit it out again. Then she put it in my bowl and just left it there. When she came home earlier, it was still there. I was outside sunning myself on the back stoop, and when I came in, I checked my bowl and saw something in there. I smelled it, and it really smelled good - mmmmm....peanut butter! So I naturally ate it. Guess what? I realized that that the pill was under the peanut butter but at that point, I had already swallowed it. I'll try to remember this trick if she tries to pull that one again. I'll probably forget though.

Well, I'll try to not have all the glitz of being famous go to my head! But I think I'll strut a bit out on our walk today. hee hee. No other dogs in my neighborhood have their own blogs as far as I know.

Posted by Joan Hughes at 01:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Dang it! Joan left me again! Last week - not long after I told you about my morning vomiting problem, Joan packed me up. I knew she was leaving and bringing me when I saw her bring my bed into the kitchen. Wow, did I get crazy wild because I wanted to know where we were going. Sometimes she takes me on long trips. This time, though, we drove not too far away to the house with the big yard and little boy. The little boy is Will and his humans in charge are Lew and Rachel (I guess they don't know that really it is the young people and dogs who are really in charge). I saw Will bang and talk loudly that he wanted more food and stuff like that to get his humans running to him. Ha! We love power like that. Sometimes I bark at Joan like that!

It was a good weekend over there. I got to run in the backyard, patrolling for squirrels and bunnies and people and dogs on the other side of the fence. They threw my toys for me, too. In the house, Will was a lot of fun. He likes to pet me - sometimes my toes - but I'm pretty unsure about people touching my toes because I think they are going to cut my toenails! EEKS. Will also has many loud, scary toys like a small vacuum cleaner (DOUBLE EEKS) and a train. I'm okay with them unless they come really near me. I tried to convince Rachel to let me on the couch - I gave her sad eyes - but no dice. I won't admit it, but I might have gone on the couch when they were not looking ;-). I'll deny it to my death, though.

One day they spent picking up sticks in the backyard. Joan does that, too, and I can't figure it out. Why don't they throw the sticks for me? In fact, Joan has been assembling sticks on the other side of the fence after I take a liking to them. I think it is because I chew on them because Joan always says "no" and then takes it away. She always wants me to play with my toy but I also like sticks. The weather got really warm while Joan was gone, so I also got to lay in the sun - my FAVORITE thing to do ever.

Yesterday, I heard a knock on the door and went into the kitchen to see Joan on the other side. I started wagging my tail a lot and finally Joan came inside and greeted me. Everyone was gone but Joan was walking around looking for them...duh, can't she smell that no one was there? Anyway, she got all my things and let me outside and then we went back to our house! I was so excited on the way home, I yelped in Joan's ear a few times - oops - she yelled at me.

I'm happy to be back at home so I can rest again - I'm awake so much over at Will's house! Though, today Joan took me running! I also saw that she gave me one of those pink pills - I wonder why she did that? Maybe because I've been scratching my eyes and shaking my ears - allergy time again!

Posted by Joan Hughes at 07:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I was sick this morning, like Joan was on Sunday. After the music and voices started coming out of the clock, I joined Joan on the bed. Joan was snoozing and then I stood up on the bed and was licking my lips. Now, Joan recognizes this as a sign. She says sometimes humans do that too when they are going to get sick - their mouth starts watering not to mention getting really hot.

But at this point, Joan did not realize what was about to happen. Then I jumped off the bed (later, Joan was happy about that) and then I went into the hallway and started vomiting on the carpet. This is one way to get Joan out of bed in a FLASH. She ran into the hall and started urging me to go downstairs. I followed her down but then got sick a bit more on the hardwood floor by the door and then she pushed me outside pronto. Wow, that was fast. While I was outside, she cleaned the floor and got the carpet wet. Then she let me back in, gave me some food, and then started spraying smelly stuff on the carpet. Meanwhile, I was not interested in my food. I just did not feel that great. Joan came over and handed me some of my food in her hand. I put it in my mouth and then dropped it on the floor. I licked the food a little more and then I started eating it. I could see Joan was happy I was eating.

We went on a nice walk along the river, longer than our normal morning walk. I think I just did not eat enough food last night or I digested it really fast. When my stomach is really empty, I sometimes get sick like this. Anyway, the day has become better since this morning.

ruff, ruff. ~Bosco

Posted by Joan Hughes at 09:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I can tell it is spring. Not because it is sunnier and warmer, but because my ears have started itching me a lot. I shake my ears back and forth and Joan then knows that I have brown gunk in my ears that needs to be cleaned out. I don't like having my ears cleaned but I let Joan do it because I know I'll feel better if she has. Sometimes it gets so bad that all my sensitive parts are hurting and itching - like my ears, my eyes, in between my toes, and my butt. That happened once and Joan took me to the vet, and he said "this is a classic case of allergies." So now, if it gets bad, Joan starts putting a pill in my breakfast. She thinks I don't know about it, but I see that it is a pink pill - I mean, it doesn't look like my brown food! But I'm cooperative and I eat it along with my food.

At some point, I gashed my leg. Joan saw it when she returned from her trip. It was only a small scab, but now I've been licking it a lot, so I think Joan is getting concerned. Last night she put some smelly goop on it and then tied a bandana around my leg - I think in desperate hope that I would not lick it. Of course, this morning I jumped up next to her on the bed and guess what, no bandana on my leg!

Yesterday, I got to play with my friend, Chloe, the yellow lab around the corner. She was out while her human was working on his fence and the kids were playing on bikes. I like Chloe a lot. Joan let me off leash and we ran around a bit in Chloe's yard. Chloe is younger than I am but I still like playing with her.

Posted by Joan Hughes at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On Saturday, Joan took me to the dog park. Well, first she went to the coffee shop on the way and I had to wait in the car while she got her food and drink. Then, she let me out and we sat outside at the tables. She ate her food and I waited, waited, waited. There was no lack of people to look at because people kept coming in to the shop, so I'd check them out as they went in or out. Sometimes I would try to get near them so I could sniff their legs - interesting smells.

Then, we finally did go to the park. Once we got in and beyond the initial pack of dogs waiting at the top, I was more comfortable. The park wasn't as muddy as last week and the Mississippi River was flowing VERY high, so we couldn't walk on the shore of the river like we did last week. Joan chatted with this woman who had two very small dogs - one black and one brown. I also ran around with some springer spaniel type dogs - we had some great chasing.

After the park, we did the usual things - some that I like and some that I don't. We had to go through that machine again which sprays water all over the car while we are in it. It scares me and I whine a lot. But, then we went to the store where I can go in and BONUS get treats to eat.

On Sunday, Joan seemed very upset and she was getting sick in the bathroom. That was weird. I've done that sometimes when my stomach gets empty and I vomit on the floor. Actually, Joan doesn't let me in the bathroom except for bathtime - which I don't like - so I would not know to vomit in there if that is the right place. I really wanted to go for a walk but at the same time, I could see that Joan was kinda sick, so I stayed kinda low profile as much as I could. She did take me for a walk but I think she was feeling really bad because she was sick some more when we returned and then she went to bed. I was very sensitive to that and instead of trying to get up on the bed with her, which is what I usually would try for, I just took a nap on my own bed on the floor and let her try to feel better.

This morning she seems OK. She got up really early and immediately started working on her computer (after feeding and letting me out, of course) instead of taking me on a walk - that is not our usual schedule. Again, good thing I've been practicing being patient lately, because I had to be patient some more waiting for her to take me on a walk. We just returned from it - and it is cold outside again! BRRRR. Not like Zero or anything, but with the wind a bit cool on my furry back and wet nose.

Posted by Joan Hughes at 09:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)