Hey blog readers. I'm sorry I haven't been posting. I'm house sitting until Monday and don't have regular access to the internet like I do at home. I'll try to make a trip or two to my apartment to keep you updated, but I can't promise anything. I'm watching five dogs! Bowie is included in that number but still, four extra dogs is a big job.
Speaking of dogs, my adorable Bowie is featured over at Who's Your Dachshund? today. Check it out!
Back soon!
Bowie, Bo Staff, Bo Bear, Bosif, Bo Star, Bo-ness, Bo...
Happy Birthday!
I love you so much my heart could burst.
Whenever Bowie is bored and wants to play, she'll run from one side of my studio apartment to another. She usually does it about twenty times back and forth before she finally feels tired. I don't know why exactly, but watching her is highly entertaining for me. So much so, that recording it made me late for work. But I can't think of a better excuse than an adorable dog named Bowie.
There are two main sections in the toy aisle at Petsmart. Mainly, the first one has a sign that indicates a section of toys for light chewers. Next to it is a section of toys for heavy chewers. The sign also says that heavy chewers need rubber. As you might guess with the previous reputation of my dog and also with the fact that she's part coyote, she is a heavy chewer. Bowie needs rubber.
The other day I was browsing the rubber section and sizing up my options. She used to have a Kong and had absolutely no interest in it. So that option was out. I've bought her Nylabones before and she chewed them up within hours. Both of these toys are supposed to be the more durable of the chew toys on the market, yet Bowie chews them until they are dead. She is not satisfied with merely having a chew toy around, she has to destroy it. But Bowie needed more toys. So, I kept looking. Finally, I decided upon a half-inch pink ring, made of, can you guess?, rubber. I thought it would be fun to play tug-of-war with her using the ring and plus, it was labeled as almost indestructible. I also got her a rope, because even though she ends up destroying them too, she absolutely loves them. I went with a thicker one this time though, hoping it would last longer.
I brought the toys home and as I suspected, Bowie loved them. She couldn't decide which to play with, so I knew she was happy. Soon enough I had to leave to do some laundry and so I put her new toys with her in her crate. When I came home an hour or so later, the pink ring was chewed in half and there were little rubber pink bits every where. She killed the rope the day after.
So here you go, Bowie. Have a piece of sheet metal.
Look at this girl! She looks so free, so casual, so "Ahh, I'm outside and lovin' it, baby!"
If only I didn't have to work...
Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.
That's right. I received my vacation money from my old job yesterday. I decided to splurge and get this bitch a crate. It's a big one because she's a spoiled brat. She can definitely chase her tail in that thing. Regardless, I think she and I are going to have a much better relationship going forward.
If you look closely in this picture, you can see behind her butt area and by her ears the line of pink that was created from her Pepto Bismol incident. Don't even get me started on that one.
So now I'm going to go shopping without the worry that Bowie has ripped my library apart by the time I get home. What do you know? One can find inner peace.
It seems that despite the fact that your life has taken a great turn with a new job, a new apartment of your own and so on, it doesn't really matter because the world is going to find a way to shit on you anyway. I'm completely grateful of my situation now, don't get me wrong. I've been lucky to have the life I have and now I don't have to deal with horrible people like Josh and Jenna anymore. And it's been nice, to say the least.
But even though all that has been wonderful, my dog, Bowie, has decided to become the biggest bitch of all bitches. Literally. I know we've been moving a lot and it's been hard for her to get used to the situation and I know she's only eight months old, but come on Bowie! Throw me a bone here!
When I first moved into my little apartment and had to leave for work for the first time, I decided to leave Bowie on her own freely. Not a good idea. She had destroyed half my things. A few of my DVD's, a box of tissues, books, magazines...you name it, she chewed it. Within the next week, this happened again twice. I felt bad because I hired 6-6 to come over to my place during lunch time to let her out, play with her, etc. It seemed only fitting as 6-6 and Bowie love each other and he works nights while I work days. So, it was 6-6 to discover Bowie's evil ways which left him with having to clean up most of it.
Then 6-6 and I devised a plan. I own eight large silver, plastic bins that I use to move my things in and then store away until I need them again. We decided to put heavy things inside of them and then stack them up in front of my kitchen to create a sort of barrier to keep her in. I didn't really know what else to do as dog gates have always been easy for her to either jump over or knock down and there aren't really any crates big enough for her unless I want to spend almost $200 on one.
Naturally, she escaped. She's determined, that Bowie.
I was almost starting to get used to Bowie's flaw that is, until yesterday. I get a call from 6-6 while I was at my last day at my current job, which was stressful enough in itself, telling me that Bowie had gotten into my medicine bucket and more specifically, my Pepto Bismol. I rushed home to find a large line of pink dyed into my green carpet as if she had gotten into it at one starting point and then dragged the open bottle across the room. 6-6 and I scrubbed and scrubbed to no avail.
I cried.
At that moment in time, I hated Bowie and seriously considered giving her away. And the thing that bothers me most about it is that she knows the difference between right and wrong. She doesn't destroy things while I'm around because she knows that would make her a bad girl. I was frustrated beyond belief because I was finally at a point in my life where things could just be normal and then my dog had to turn into a menace.
It's times like these when I have to remember this:
This photo depicts Bowie at a mere three-months-old. It shows a time when she was worse than what she is now. She would chew on my shoes while I was sleeping, soil the house every half hour, run away from me when I needed her, ignore me when I commanded her to do something, and generally wreak havoc. Those were the days when one ear grew cartilage so slowly that it had no other choice than to flop down. Those were the days when I got three hours of sleep a night because of her and when I felt like I was in a hell of my own making.
This photo helps me to remember that even though she's doing things that frustrate me, she is getting better. She hasn't had a pee accident in two months. She listens to me when I tell her to come here, sit and stay. She no longer eats her food so quickly that she throws it up five minutes after consuming it. She doesn't run away from me when I take her outside anymore. She's developed manners when we go to the dog park or hiking. She comes when I call her.
Most importantly, this photo helps me to remember that things can improve.
Sera: Bowie has quite a lot of colors in her.
Me: What do you mean?
Sera: Well, she has white, black, brown, purple-ish...
Me: Yeah, that's true. If she were going to college, she'd get lots of scholarships.
I wasn't even going to blog today. Once I woke up, I went for a long trail run and thought, while mid-run, that blogging would require too much effort for today. But then I got home and discovered that Bowie, my Bowie, had escaped.
Jenna and I are in the habit of putting George and Bowie in the solarium whenever we go somewhere and either of us won't be home. The solarium is perfect for this as there is absolutely nothing in it for destroying and it's a rather large room for playing and running around in. But Bowie escaped.
Luckily, she's not the type, like George, to want to run away and be free forever. She stayed in the backyard. But the question is, how the hell did she get out in the first place? Both doors in the solarium were closed and locked. Two of the windows were open but there are screens on them and the screens show no sign of having been moved. Unless Bowie knows how to take the screen off and put it back on once she's outside. But I doubt it.
I can only narrow it down to something that is high off the ground because George hadn't gone anywhere and believe me, he would if he could. But he's a short little half Corgi, and Bowie has long coyote legs. Plus, she can out jump most basketball players.
I stood out in the solarium and investigated for about twenty minutes trying to figure it out. I have absolutely no idea.
I just don't understand how she can go from being so mysterious, majestic and smart. Like this:
And then go to being so stupid. Like this:
