Thursday, January 14, 2010

The Walk..


I have to confess that Grits doesn't get walked as much as he should in winter. It's either too cold, too wet, too windy or just the right temperature for the snow to form little snowballs in between the pads on his feet. We've tried booties but, while it's fun to watch Gritsy trying to walk in them, they don't stand a chance of staying on his feet for more than a couple of minutes. Still we try to make sure he gets at least a short walk once a day, except on those ridiculously cold days we have here in Calgary.
As is often the case, Grits is happy to hang out watching you do whatever: preparing meals, cleaning up the kitchen, doing laundry, brushing your teeth, etc., but the minute you decide to sit down and relax he decides it's about time you paid some attention to him. It's hard to believe how a dog can be so good at getting this point across! It involves a series of looks, sighs, whimpers and this funny little half jump he does from a seated position. So last night, since the bike path was way too icy to navigate, I decided to take Grits for a walk around the block.
The first thing that went wrong was that when Grits was trying to find just the right spot on our icy, rutted street, some pooh may have actually touched Grits' leash before I could get it moved out of the way. Then for some reason, even though I had multiple ziploc bags in my pocket, I decided I would try to pick up the second bit of pooh with the same baggie I had used for the first bit. I was conserving bags and therefore the environment.
Since there are no places to deposit pooh on our block, I held onto the bag with a plan to dispose of it in the garbage bin in our garage. One good thing about living in a cold weather climate is that cold garbage doesn't smell. I was just about to get rid of the bag, when I noticed something brown and sticky on the outside of the bag and now on my finger.
I grabbed a rag from the laundry room and opened the door to the garage with it. First get rid of the pooh in the bag. Next I washed my hands thoroughly. Then I had to try to remember everything I had touched since we got home and cleaned it: my house key, the leash (which was already under suspicion), the door knob, the light switch, the zippers on my boots. Then I washed my hands thoroughly.
By this time Grits was chillaxing on the landing. I grabbed him, put him on the dryer for his post walk sponge bath. That's when I noticed his left back foot looked yellow instead of white.
This is just great! So off to the kitchen sink for a proper foot washing. Of course, while I'm doing this the phone rings. I know it's my husband ringing to tell me he's on his way home. I answer it and get off the phone quickly, then finish bathing and drying the dog. Then I washed my hands thoroughly.
There done... Now I can relax! But wait, now he's looking longingly at the toys in the basket in the laundry room as if to say, "Okay Mom, now that that's done, we can play!". "Fine, sure, why not" I give in and off we go as Grits tries to tear the stuffing out of his new favorite toy. Then, of course I washed my hands thoroughly.
Finally, now I get to relax...

Friday, December 18, 2009

Scrouge is a word!

I don't mean "scrooge" as in Ebenezer! Scrouge rhymes with gouge.
I think the first time my husband heard the word "scrouge" was in a conversation about Grits. We were at my, Alabama born, Mom's place and she asked if Grits was scrouging us. My Canadian husband had never heard the word so we immediately got into debate about it. Mom pulled out my Dad's old dictionary from his university days in Arkansas. Sure enough, right there in black and white was the word. Scrouge: to crowd, press or squeeze. Since then, I've looked in a number of Canadian dictionaries and can't find it. Even as I'm typing this I'm getting the dotted red line underneath the word indicating a spelling error.
We still joke about it, but if there's anyone who is an expert at scrouging it's Grits! Last night, since Bob was working, I decided to let Grits sleep on my bed with me. It's hard to believe a 20 pound dog could just about scrouge me right off my king size bed, but that's exactly what happened. All night he was right up against me. If I moved an inch, he followed. At one point, I'm sure he was pushing me with all 4 paws. Maybe he thought he would like the bed all to himself. Who knows!
One thing I do know is that "scrouge" is definitely a word... in our house at least!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Mom's Bad Morning

This morning was not a good one for Grit's Mom. Yes, that's me. I refer to myself as his "Mom" even though I don't refer to Grits as my son, child or furchild. That would be weird!
I woke up this morning feeling, more than usual, like I should just stay in bed. Staying up late to watch SNL's Christmas special might not have been the best idea after all... but it was funny.
My husband and I had a plan to drop Gritsy off at Dogsville (doggie daycare for those of you who don't know), then I would meet Bob at the Suzuki dealership where we would drop off my SX4 for service and then Bob would drive me to work. Grits needed to go to daycare because Bob is working 9pm to 7am tonight and would need to have a nap this afternoon without our sometimes demanding dog bothering him.
I had my travel mug filled with home made coffee (Serious Coffee of course!) plus my lunch, a snack for Gritsy's lunch and my purse. Bob had put Grits in the kennel in backseat and as I normally do, I put my travel mug on the roof of the car while I got organized. Then I hopped in and backed out of the garage. Right away I noticed a clunking noise when I drove over the deep ruts in the hard packed snow on our street. It sounded to me like I had left the hatch in the back open. So I stopped and checked the back door and the dog's kennel. The snow and ice everywhere is starting to melt so when I noticed some muddy liquid running down the windshield I didn't think anything of it. I was glad we were taking the car in for service, because if the noise didn't stop we could tell Suzuki about it. But it was probably a hunk of ice or a rock in my wheel well. So off I went. Once I got a couple of blocks from our house I noticed the noise again and looked in my rear view mirror to see what appeared to by my travel mug bouncing away from me down the road. It's a good thing there was no one right behind me as that stainless steel mug might have smashed someone's windshield!
I looked down at my empty cup holder and said to Grits, "Ah... that's what the noise was!" and drove on. Any other day, I probably would have stopped but as you can tell, I wasn't really with it this morning. I hadn't had my coffee yet! Luckily there's a Starbucks on the way!
We made it to Dogsville in one piece and I told Marian my story, but in the process forgot to hand over Grits' snack. It's not the first time I've done that this week either.
When I saw Bob at the dealership he said he would take the kibble to Dogsville. He did and Grits, who had already been giving Marian dirty looks by this time, was VERY happy to see the food... and Bob as well.
Later Bob called me to tell me he had been back home and saw that our snowy streets had been plowed. Long gone (until spring anyhow) was my coffee mug thanks to the extra $2 million our mayor had arranged from the "rainy day fund" for snow removal on side streets.
I'm not really sure what I've learned from all of this and if Grits had anything to do with it. Perhaps some days it's better to just stay in bed... or I should NEVER stay up past 10pm... or I should ask Santa for a new travel mug... or I should NEVER forget food for the dog... or I should just shake it off and get on with my day.
The last one I think... that's what Grits would do!

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Our Apologies...


Grits and I have to apologize for not writing much lately. To be honest, we didn't think anyone was reading, apart from my sister and the girls at Dogsville. Thanks Patty!
This weekend we watched the movie, Julie & Julia. Grits slept through most of it, but I really enjoyed it and was inspired to check my blog to see if anyone had commented. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had received my first ever comment outside of facebook. Thanks Jerr!
Grits and I really would enjoy seeing more comments from our readers, and I'm going to try to write more often (and take some better pics) and not let life's distractions get in the way...

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Halloween

Halloween is very stressful for our security specialist, Grits. All night he sits looking out the front door window, ears perked up waiting for the next intruders to arrive or up in the office window barking at everyone walking down the street. As far as he's concerned we shouldn't be letting all these kids in their crazy costumes come bang on our door. It's just a bad idea! Thanks to Gritsy's efforts all the evil doers stayed away and today he is exhausted after being on guard well past his unofficial bedtime of 7 pm. I'm glad we only had 35 kids come round and we are safe... until next year that is!

Friday, October 23, 2009

Onyx is Grits' girlfriend...


Onyx is Grits' girlfriend... well in his dreams she is! About once a week or so we run in to our neighbour's walking their beautiful American Eskimo dog (Photo of Dog similar to Onyx). She always shows up perfectly groomed sporting her soft, bright white fur and a pink collar. Grits is a pretty good looking dog, but she makes him look scruffy by comparison. All Grits can do to try impress her is to run around in circles while tethered to his leash. He is fast, but this is literally getting him no where. She just moves out of the way, not even bothering to say hello, while she waits patiently for the humans have a quick chat. My husband suggested that if Grits could show her his big bone (beef bone that is), Gritsy might have a chance. If only he had pockets he could bring it along for the walk...

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Be thankful for time with family and friends...

Grits most enjoys the days when we are all at home together! We sit by the fire, surf the web, go for walks, play, watch TV and of course nap. Even better is when his extended family comes to visit! This weekend Grandma (Bob's mom) came over for Thanksgiving brunch. We made waffles, sausages and Bob's special yummy potatoes while Grits enthusiastically enjoyed the same thing he eats everyday, his kibble and a carrot for dessert. Then we all sat around and enjoyed our coffee while Grits got a nice head/tummy rub squished between Bob and me on the couch. He really does have the best life and he reminds me that my life is pretty great too! And that we're lucky to be able to spend time with our family and friends. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!