Bosco Dog Blog

Joan says I'm fat

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:03:29 -0600

Joan said last night that I'm getting fatter, especially around my neck and she can't see my ribs as much. I guess she's gonna cut my food down! The reason is she's been sick so we haven't been doing our normal several runs a week plus she's been pretty liberal with my food. Now, I guess it is going to be back to a strict 1.5 cups of food in the morning and night.

She better keep up with the treats though!

Off Day

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 08:23:29 -0600

I don't feel so good this morning. Not sure why but I decided to not eat my breakfast (YET!) and let's just say going to the bathroom was more of a production than it normally is. I probably ate something on our walk or run yesterday (there are always interesting things to eat out on the street on in people's yards) that made my stomach upset.

Last night Melissa slept over. She is a human. She didn't want to stay in her house because a dead rat is smelling up her house. I kinda understand her, as I hate to hear things in the wall, but on the other hand, the smell might be really interesting to me! I love smells that humans don't seem to like - like a rotting squirrel in the road that got run over.

Bed Hopping

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:47:22 -0600

Since my sitters let me on the bed (Heidi, cool girl), sometimes I think I can go on the bed in my house. And sometimes Joan lets me, like when she was sick! So then I think I can go up on the beds, but truly Joan doesn't want me up on them because I shed brown fur on them. So when she leaves the house, she now closes her bedroom door so I cannot go in there.

Well, she doesn't close the other "extra" bedroom door. So, I've been sneaking up on the bed in there and Joan hasn't seemed to notice. However .... this morning, she saw that some papers that she had on the bed were on the ground ... and she suspected ... and looked close and saw, what?, but DOG FUR. I can't imagine whose fur that is!!!

Yep, she kinda looked at me and explained to me that I cannot go up there and that I leave evidence of everywhere I go....

yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joan was sick

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:04:25 -0600

Last week or so, Joan was really really sick. She was really delirious and slept a lot. The first day, I jumped up on her bed and slept at the foot - and she didn't care. I gave her plenty of space.

Later on, I started to take over more of the bed .....

But I was there for her!

Bones Part 2

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 08:59:46 -0600

Just so you know, that bone recipe makes bones that are kinda chewy. They are yummy but not crunchy!

More Bones ...

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:48:22 -0600

Joan is making me bones again --- as I write this. It doesn't smell as good as that salami she's been taking out of the fridge in the last few days (I come running for that but she doesn't give me any.) In any case, she varied the recipe this time and she also did not take the time to roll out the dough and use cookie cutters to make bone shapes (what a laze).

She just put it out in the trays as if it was cookie dough, spreading it to the edges. Honestly, I guess I don't care.

Here's the recipe she used tonight (she doubled it from before cuz she had defrosted a lot of broth.)

6 cups wheat flour
1 cup dry nonfat milk
2/3 cups shortening
2 cups broth (make sure there is no onion, onion powder, garlic in it - those are toxic to dogs)
2 eggs
1 carrot, grated
1/2 small apple, grated
1/2 cup applesauce

Mix the flour and milk in a bowl. Cut in the shortening with a fork or pastry blender. Mix the broth and eggs in a separate bowl. Add broth mixture, applesauce, carrot, and apple to flour mixture. Mix until blended and the dough comes away from the sides. Add more broth if needed.

Roll out on a flat, floured surface to 1/4" thick. Cut cookies into shapes, if desired. Place on greased cookie sheet. Make sure you bake all the dough as doggies don't care if the shapes don't make sense.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes until edges are brown and they look dry. Remove and cool treats. When all have been cooked, load all cookies onto one cookie sheet and put into the oven, shut door, and leave for 8 hours.

Keep in ziploc in freezer as these do not have any preservatives and will get moldy if left out. Remove bones daily for your favorite dog!

Summer Camp

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:08:00 -0600

I've spent the last two weeks with Heidi and her family. Heidi is 11 and she takes care of me sometimes when Joan leaves town. The time went so fast with a family of 4 plus another dog and a bird. The last day we had a third dog with us, too! And I got along with everyone because all the dogs let me be the "alpha" dog which is what I like the best.

The best part was I got to sleep on the human beds. I could sleep in either of the kids' beds and sometimes I'd sleep a little bit on both of their beds. Of course, the night I got back to our house, Joan let me sleep on her bed. But then she realized that I was going up on the bed ALL THE TIME - like even when she went outside for a few minutes to turn the sprinkler on. (I didn't know she'd be back so soon!)

Anyway, no more Bosco on the bed it seems like. The door is shut and I'm back to my chair or my various beds. I'll keep my eyes peeled for bed opps, though, if Joan forget to close the door or anything!

Dog BONES

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:06:36 -0600

Guess what Joan did last night?

Yep she made yummy, yummy dog bones. WAY better than the ones that come from the box. These have real chicken in them and really yummy chicken broth, too. They smell SOOO great and taste even better.

Sorry I've been gone for so long. It has been a busy summer - with Joan working a lot so I don't have access to the computer as much as I would like! I do have some stories to tell so I'll try to post them soon.

~Bosco

Beach Stories!

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 11:37:09 -0600

Hello all --- I'm back to tell you about my vacation in Galveston, TX. We went down there a couple weeks ago and I could tell that something was happening because there was packing going on. Of course, when I saw Joan pack my bag with my bowls and food and then when my bed came out, I knew I was going with them! Yeah!!!!! The first chance I could, I escaped from the yard and got in the back of the car and just sat there. That way, they can't leave without me.

I really loved the beach. The only other time I was there was in California in San Luis Obispo, in Berkeley, and in Mendocino, CA. But I didn't spend that much time on the beach in California except for the dog park in Berkeley area.

In Galveston, we stayed in a nice house but I had to let the neighbors and their dogs and their friends know that I was now in town and to not bother us - I'm controlling the new territory. They seemed to listen.

We went on long walks and runs on the beach. I realized, as I told earlier, that it is not a good thing to drink the water even if you are thirsty because it makes you throw up later on in the day or night! Note in the picture below that my nose is almost all fixed up. I had to take 20 more days of strong antibiotics that cost Joan $4 each but it looks like it might have fixed me up.

Well, it turns out one night Lee tried to burn our house down. (Not really, but almost.) I was really relaxing on the couch with Joan because she was tired and I was tired too!

The next thing I knew, Joan said "what was that?" because there was a big flash. It turns out the oil that Lee was heating up caught on fire on the stove. Then he tried to carry it outside (with an ill-fitting lid on it) and everytime the lid moved, flames spewed out. Plus, did I tell you about the smoke?? Well, I ran away as fast I could out the house, down the stairs, and away from them! Joan was very concerned and kind of screaming about 911 or something. Plus, it was windy outside so then the wind just made it flame more. Then Joan made Lee move it down to the cement. Lee told Joan she better find ME because who knows where I went! But I was just down in the grass, not too far away, but you know I could have just run away from all this excitement. When Joan got me back up on the porch, I decided to hide under the bench. Inside the house, it was all smoky. Joan said her lungs were burning. Then they opened all the windows, turned the fans on etc. etc. It was lucky it was so windy that night because it helped clear the house out. Of course, this incident only set me back more in terms of me being comfortable in the house and eating my dinner and breakfast - I didn't eat much all week. They finally ate their dinner (Joan took over and sauteed the fish instead.)

This is a nice picture to show that the week was actually very relaxing rather than the turmoil of kitchen fires and throwing up!

Garbage Pickup and Change of Schedule

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 23:03:04 -0600

I have two things to talk with you all about .... later I will post some pictures and tell you about the near fire I experienced down at the beach but that will be later ....

First, Joan is instigating a new movement and you are the first to hear about it - actually spread the word because she's probably not going to do much advertising about it because she already has too much to do. Anyway, we are back to picking up trash on our walks. We did this when we first moved here. In Texas, A LOT of people LITTER. Joan said she read somewhere that 80% of Texans believe one should not litter but only 50% do not litter!! This, of course, is quite a difference from clean, organized Minnesota. So anyway, we constantly see trash and stuff on the streets when we walk. So our new routine is to pick up at least one piece of garbage during our walk. It is not that difficult since we already have a ready garbage bag (aka poop bag) and you can pick up the garbage just like you're picking up poop so you don't even have to touch it. Our "garbage" in the last few days actually was almost all recyclables. Beer cans, soda cans, soda bottles! We are filling our recycle bin at the same time. So we are urging you, other dogs and humans, to do the same - especially if you are in Texas. We need to clean this place up!

The other thing is that it seems Joan is changing my walk schedule. She is avoiding the afternoon walk and doing it later at like 8pm. Last night, we went out at 9:30 PM and it was great for me. Nice and (relatively) cool. Plus, there are tons of people and other dogs out then, too. At 5:00, no one is out and it takes me about 45 minutes to recover from any length of walk. This is due to the fact that it is really, really hot here. Like we are on our 18, 19 or 20th day of highs in the 90s! Joan seems to like it, but we both would appreciate having a pool in the backyard. Joan always comes home dripping wet since she travels via that 2 wheel bike that scares me.

Come back soon and I'll tell you about the BEACH>

barf-o-rama

Wed, 21 May 2008 18:45:26 -0600

I found out that salt water is really bad for my stomach. The other night (at 1 AM Joan points out) I started barfing in the living room. I had finally eaten my food - which was unfortunate as you might imagine. It was pretty bad with at least 6 or 7 iterations.

Joan tries to get me to not drink the salt water and carries around a water drink thing for me now.

Still loving the beach!

Beach

Mon, 19 May 2008 17:14:57 -0600

I love the beach! I love the beach! I love the beach!
Swim, swim, swim. Fetch, fetch, fetch. Swim, swim swim.
Smell, smell, smell, smell, sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff, sniff, smell, smell, smell, pee, swim, swim, swim.

breathe.

Drink. Awwww, yuck, that water tastes really really bad. Salty!!!! What's the deal?!

Nose, bad.

Fri, 09 May 2008 22:28:56 -0600

Joan says my nose is bad again. I have another sore on it. Now I guess she's gonna drag me up north to see this other special doctor someone who does dermatology. She says she can't believe there's such a thing , but there is. She also sat on the computer for a long time and she thinks she knows what my problem is - at least one of three choices from a website that lists all sorts of dog-related skin lesion problems. She thinks I need a longer course of antibiotics as the website said to do 4 weeks or at until you think it is cured and then 10 MORE days beyond that. Well, I only had 30 days of eating peanut butter 2x day, so I guess that was not enough. I'm delighted to eat more peanut butter anytime. Yeah for PB. She says the derm doctor costs $105 just to see her. We better have a good time up there!

I would like to say something about the cats. All the CATS. In Austin, there are CATS everywhere. They roam loose - not fair, how come they don't have leashes and people? I guess cuz they're CATS and do their own thing. I guess I would rather be with my person than crouched under a car or alone on a doorstep which is where I see most of the cats around town. Sometimes they are fine and I don't care. Today, I had a stare-down with one on a doorstep and then I pulled really hard to attack. (no, not really, but just a show you know). But Joan wouldn't let me put the show on! She's no fun.

Today was super-duper hot. I'm all for my walk in the evening but nowadays I'm a slow molasses dog since it is 94 out. Joan doesn't seem much faster especially since she arrives home on her bike, dripping sweat off her head. She's a mess but I don't care. It's a walk!

CONE!

Tue, 06 May 2008 09:20:29 -0600

Joan put that cone back on me last night. She took off my collar and gave me some great petting around my neck. mmm, that felt good. But THEN I saw her pull out the cone. No way! I got up and went to the other side of the room. No way!

But it happened. She put it back on me. She was talking on the phone and saying that I have a sore on my nose again - some of it is healing but there's this one spot that I guess is a sore and then it was getting bigger everyday.

Oh well. It's not that big of a deal - I remember how this all works.

Creatures freak me out

Mon, 05 May 2008 08:51:02 -0600

Well, this morning something odd happened that drove me pitter pattering into Joan's bedroom with great fear. There was a creature - great or small I don't know - in the house. Luckily for me and Joan it was not IN the house but IN the WALLS of the house. It was still dark out and I heard it. FREEZE! I scampered into Joan's room with great fear. I was whining and looking at her like "Let me up on that bed with you this minute! I'm afraid!" I'm embarrassed to even admit my fear, but dogs can't always be courageous.

She didn't let me up on the bed though she looked, first, a little confused and sleepy, and then second, very intent on listening. She closed the closet door (hopefully in case the animal somehow made it through the wall, she didn't want to greet it). Then she got up and went into the bathroom and listened to claws clawing at the bathtub and wall. Sometimes it sounded like a snake slithering. Other times, it sounded like a huge clawed animal.

Then Joan got the long stick that has a light on the end from under the sink and put her sandals on and went out the front door in her pajamas, and she made me stay inside. She was out there for maybe 3 minutes and then returned. Then she went back into the bathroom and was shining the light on the end of the stick out the window.

Then she let me outside finally to pee and then gave me my breakfast. Then she got back into her bed with that light on the end of the stick with her but not me. She kept the light on in the hallway and I stayed in the living room. I don't want to be near any strange animal except myself!