I Should Have Stayed with Old Spice

I took the day off from my farm duties and went shopping for new cologne. Tried a few samples and settled on one I really like. Came home wearing a bit of eau de cowpoo and thought it made me smell quite manly. My mistake. Let me impart a bit of wisdom to my terrier friends out there -- humans not only have fewer old-factories senses than we canines, but they have a completely different set of old-factories and take major offense at some of the odors we think are interesting. And when Mom wrinkles her muzzle up and say, "Ewww!", you'd better run.

I wasn't fast enough. Into the bathtub, splish-splash, she 'bout scrubbed my hide off. My whites have never been so white. It was quite an insult, really. I will definitely have to warn My Boy about this.

~Tell

I Seize The Moment And Almost Kill Myself

Summer is at its peak here in Oklahoma. Hotter than blazes, you might say, and it isn't a "dry heat" as some areas have. Nope, very humid here. Not much fun being outside when it makes us huff and puff hard. Much cooler to stay indoors on the tile floor. Boring, but cooler.

The other day Mom turned us outside for a break. While Cap and Glynn tended to their own business, I slipped around behind the shed. I had a nice hole going there, out of eyesight of The Family, kind of my own little secret. I shinnied under the fence went exploring. There I was, running like the wind and sniffing all over the place, when suddenly I didn't feel so good. I had overdone it in the summer sun, gave myself a heat stroke. Talk about the phrase "sicker than a dog", well that was me all over. Literally. Just about did myself in before The Family located me and drove me home in the pickup. I was a hurtin' cowboy, believe me. The next day I was so stiff and sore I could barely move around. Took a few more days to get my bounce back. I may have to rethink the summertime escapades. Wasn't hardly worth it that time.

On a brighter note, here's what we found early one morning on one of our more sedate (translate boring) walkies. It's a newborn calf, and she wasn't too very much bigger than me and Glynn put together. Mama Cow was snorting in my hip pocket, though, so I couldn't stay and talk long. Don't know what her problem was, I was just looking. I plan to go back and spend a little more time playing later when she gets her land legs under her.

~Tell

Wordless Wednesday: One of These Things Is Not Like The Others

~Tell

Better Than A Rabbit's Foot

Out doing a bit of roaming around today, helping My Boy with things he needs help with. He's always needing my supervision. No telling what trouble he'd get into without my guidance. Here he is holding Ruby Tuesday's baby, Giacomo. He's almost as big as My Boy is now! Queen Ruby likes My Boy and doesn't seem to mind. She's a good mama.

While we were checking out the cow and calf, I noticed Glynn had found something very interesting in the grass. I mosied over to see what she was doing, and she told me that she had found a bumper crop of four-leaf clovers and was collecting some to press and keep for good luck.

She said it's easy as pie to find a four-leaf clover. Just stare at the clover patch and one would jump right out at me. She had already found several to press, like this one.

Never in my whole eight years have I found a four-leaf clover. Not even close. I've never even caught a rabbit's foot, so I was a bit skeptical. Still, I gave it a go, and I stared at that clover patch until my eyes were crossed.

And then, would you believe, I found one! I was so excited I did a Snoopy dance. Glynn showed me how to press it when we got back to the house. Though it isn't a perfect specimen, I'm proud of it. A dog like me can never have too much good luck!

Wishing every dog and hammie out there a safe and fun-filled Memorial Day weekend.

~Tell

I Do A Little Spring Cleaning

I learned my lesson about climbing fences quite a while back. As you may remember, My Family tried everything to get me to stay home, but being an adventurer at heart, I couldn't resist levitating over the fence and having a free day now and then. As a last attempt to curtail my wanderings, My Family stretched a tiny little wire along the top of the fence. I laughed. Won't hold me, I thought. That itty bitty thing? Until I stuck my snoot to it. Lost a few brain cells that time, I'm tellin' you. No more giant leaps for me. I dig under the fence now.

So now that I'm on my best behavior as far as boosting myself over the boundary, I decided to help tidy up the yard this spring. Along with digging up some sweetpea and iris plants, I removed part of the hot wire on the fence (don't worry, it's been turned off practically forever now). Just a few more of these insulators to go, and you'll never know this place used to be locked up tighter than Alcatraz.
~Tell

Cap Gets Abducted by Aliens (Again)

An update on my ol' buddy, Cap. He went back to the vet Monday, again on Tuesday. Good news is that his knee is fine (I never did believe that story about an old football injury when he was a linebacker for the Cowboys). The x-rays showed "significant" arthur-itis in his hips and knees, but no other problems. Just a good wrenching of the joints when he flipped on the tile. Getting too old for such nonesense, he told me. Must have been a senile moment that made him act like a spring pup. He's very embarrassed.

Since they did have to knock him out for the procedures, which Cap likens to being abducted by aliens, the vet took advantage of it and gave him another dental cleaning, too. Lost a couple more toofers. He came home a bit tipsy, staggered around until he found his favorite toy, and fell asleep with drool running out of his mouth. Kinda like usual.

We are now feeding him a special diet that is good for arthritis and joint pain. Cap seems to like it pretty good and snarfs it down quick, so he doesn't even know he's getting a pill in there somewhere. I sniffed it but wasn't impressed. The main ingredient is chopped liver. I'm more of a chicken man myself.

I told Cap that next time he feels inspired to do bodily damage to himself, come to me. I can be pretty smart at doctoring things up. Comes from living on a farm. We make due with what's handy. Give me a little duct tape, some baling wire, I can splint a hindleg in no time. Spritz some WD-40 on those creaky joints, they'll limber right up. Yeah, I know, pretty impressive. I should have went to med school. I'd be a gazillionaire by now.

~Tell

Cap Takes a Wrong Turn

I don't know what got into Cap yesterday. He's older 'n dirt, almost blind, purt-near deaf, but once in a while he gets inspired to act like a puppy, and that almost always leads to trouble.


Mom had let him outside for a bit, then opened the door and called him in. Suddenly he burst through the door, bouncing like a bunny, and tried to spin around. He went one way, his feet went the other, and splat! It was a pretty spectacular wipe-out, and not the first time he's flipped on the floor. He hopped right up, but this was different. He started hobbling around on three legs and wouldn't put his back foot on the floor at all.

This meant a quick trip to our favorite vet. Now, I have to tell you, Cap's a funny terrier. Biggest wuss there ever was. He has no pain tolerance at all. None. Zilch. He stubbs his toe and cries like a baby. So it was rather strange that the vet couldn't find anything wrong. All the twisting and flexing, poking and prodding produced not one flinch or whimper out of the old boy. Still, he won't use his leg. It's a mystery. Then he got a shot, which did make him yelp, and some pain pills to get him through the weekend. We all felt like it was just a bruise. My Boy gave him a Zanies toy, which Cap is busy de-squeaking. With his lack of teeth, it will probably be a week from next Tuesday before he finishes it off.

Meanwhile, we're watching him through the weekend to see if he gets any better. If he's not trotting on all fours again by Monday morning, we're heading back for some x-rays. The vet said he may have ruptured a ligament (like football players do), and to check him for that he will have to be sedated. With his age, Mom does not want to do that to Cap if we can help it. So we're all keeping our paws crossed that Cap gets better on his own and doesn't have to have any risky things done to him on Monday. Until then, he's being waited on like royalty. Lucky dog.

~Tell