Vineyard’s Being Harvested

Or so says our dog walker.

Tomorrow Dexter goes under the knife…

Those walnuts that have been weighing him down are getting removed and hopefully he’ll calm down a bit.  But at the very least, those lovely walnuts will be gone forever!

Cracked Out

Why do we have so many crazies here in Philly?

Yet another example of crazies on yet another walk.

Last night the boys and I were walking down Pine with our neighbor, Rachel and our neighbor dog, Lucky.  I hear this whistle/high pitched voice saying, “Oh cute doggies, doggies,” and Dexter does as well.  I try to keep pulling him along, but the voice eventually catches up.  It’s this crackhead and her crackhead boyfriend/husband.  Seriously, she looked like a freaking skeleton with skin laid over her.  Anyway, Dexter LOVED her.  He was jumping all over her and couldn’t get enough.  Jack on the other hand caught on to her sketchiness and almost bit her when she tried to pet him.  Good job Jackie.  Lucky & Rachel had continued down Pine in an effort to escape the crackheads.  After a few minutes we were able to escape and continue on our walk.

Nice.

Last Night’s Walk

Last night we were just walking out of the apartment when I hear a female voice coming from a car passing by on the street.

“Hey, your dog just pooped back there!”
“No he didn’t, we just came outside!”
“Shut up you fat bitch!”

They then kept driving until they hit the red light at the corner.  We walked towards them on the sidewalk and as we got closer the girl in the passenger seat (the yeller) rolled up the window…I guess thinking we would sic the dogs on them or something?  Who knows.  Anyway, the light changed before we could get close enough to see why they yelled/shut the window/whatever.

There’s some crazy people here in Philly.

Mr. Nonchalant

Our dogs love attention.  If we give Dex too much attention, Jack makes sure to get right in our faces so he can get his attention too.  If Jack gets too much attention, Dex will talk/whine so that we pay attention to him.  It’s different when we’re on the street.  I’m not sure what it is, but for the most part Dex could care less about the attention Jack gets on the street.  He will just stand there watching or try to keep walking.  One of the security guards at UArts loved the dogs (he no longer works there) and whenever we’d pass him by, Jack would love getting petted by him, as well as the students.  Dexter would just stand there, prompting the guard to name him Mr. Nonchalant.  Though, this could also have something to do with the fact that the guard thought Dex’s name was Derek.

Anyway, last night the roles reversed.  We were walking out the door and this woman was passing by our stoop.  She petted both the dogs but Dex started giving her kisses when she leaned down and Jack just stood by.  Then later as we were near UArts two girls walked by and started petting the dogs.  Dexter love it, jumping up for attention, while Jack decided he didn’t like the girls and he started barking at them.

Crazy monkeys.

Guitar Hero Lullabies

One no fail way to get Dexter to lie down and take a nap is to play Guitar Hero.  If Megan plays while sitting on the couch he cries/whines/talks until she lets him up and he immediately cuddles up next to her and falls asleep (case in point, about 2 minutes ago when she started playing…He had been chasing the cats and just generally goofing around like he does, and as soon as she started playing he curled up and is passed out asleep).  If she sits on the floor to play, he’s right there also.  He’ll sit down right next to her while she’s just setting up the XBOX – and then he moves when she settles into her spot.  He’s a nutter!

Crazy Man

Last night I took dogs out around 10 or so for the final walk of the night.  At one point we turned the corner and at the far end of the block a crazy looking man was walking towards us.  I looked away from him for whatever reason and then I looked up and he was walking in the street.  As we got closer to him he says, “Nothing against you, I just don’t want to end up a statistic!”  I guess he was referring to the statistic of being attacked by a dog.  Anyway, I just responded with a cheery, “Okay!” and continued the walk.  As we pass each other he mutters, “Dirty bitch!”.  I’m not sure if he was referring to me or not.  Now, I hadn’t showered (whatever, it was my day off) and I was admittedly, dirty.  But not in any way that he could tell.  I disregarded his remark since a of all, he was crazy and b of all, how does one respond to such a comment?  He keeps walking and I pause to take care of some doggie business.  He’s probably 25 feet away from me at this point and he yells, “Yeah that’s right, I called you a dirty bitch!”.  Which I guess means that he was referring to me and thought that if he said it near the dogs they’d attack him?  I’m still not quite sure what whole exchange was about.

Cold As Ice

During the summer Jack gets really hot and overheated.  Thanks to his puggie-ness he can’t regulate his breathing that well and when we try to get him to drink water he refuses.  So we tried to think of something else to use.  At some point we put ice cubes in the water to cool it off and the little bugger fished them out and started chopping down on them.  Dexter joined him.  Now when we go into the freezer and get out the ice tray both dogs come running into the kitchen and sit, waiting for their icy cold treat.  I’m hoping to get some doggie ice cream this summer for them – we can sit outside on the stoop and they can make a mess of them.

Bad Dog

Tonight when putting Jack in his bed for the night we noticed that he had crumpled up his blankets into a ball towards the back of his crate. Megan went to smooth them out and as she lifted them out little pieces of poop fell to the bottom of the crate. Nice. So after we yelled at him (which we had to do carefully since he was on our bed & tends to pee when he’s nervous/upset/getting yelled at) and cleaning it up he was back in his bed. Normally Dexter whines around 2am or so and we let the dogs into the bed…tonight Jack will be left in his bed.

Later when surfing LOL Dogs I found this:

This is the face that Jack gave us, knowing he did something wrong.

Dexter’s Ball

Dexter has a green ball that he loves. It actually started as a green ball with feet, but he ate them off (see picture below). It loves playing with it, but then it will roll under the couch and he’ll forget about it. After a while he’ll spot it under the couch again and start whining. Not just whining – but “speaking”. He’ll say something that sounds like ball and look towards the ball under the couch. As soon as we get it out from under the couch he’s completely happy and just chews/plays with the ball.

Introducing…

We live with two dogs.

Jack, a Jack Russell/Pug mix.
And Dexter, a Boston Terrier/Miniature Pinscher mix.

We like to joke that Jack is about 90% pug and 10% Jack Russell, especially his looks. He’s built like a pug, has a curly tail like pugs. He just has a pushed out snout and his coloring is more Jack Russell. But he does have some wrinkles. Jack likes to lounge, but then he’ll get a big burst of energy and run around in circles.

Dexter…who knows where Dex came from. He looks like a miniature Pit, but isn’t as broad. He’s brindle. He has big ears and dark brown, slanty eyes. He’s strong as heck and has no manners. But he’s cuddley and warm. He likes to plop himself down right next to you or lie on the couch pacifying himself on a blanket.

In addition to our two mutts we live with 4 cats (Meow Meow [real name: Argo], Xena, Ares & Zeus), a bird (Zazu), and a betta (Franklin).

This blog will chronicle the adventure that is life in Philly with a zoo.