Happy Birthday!

Happy 8th Birthday to my little T man!!  

We love you big brudther!  Even if you do pick us up in crazy ways, we know how much you love us! 

We sure love you too!

Love, 

Mr. Fox & Scruffy

and

Scooby & Shaggy too!

The Sock

Who doesn’t love a good sock?  I know I have trouble finding good fitting socks.  I have small, wide Fred Flintstone type feet so most socks are too long for me and the heel is usually coming up out of the back of the shoe.  I usually just buy your run of the mill sock from Target but I went and bought some nice new workout shoes and found these lovely synthetic socks and perfectly fitting as well…  Ahhh…. but who cares about that?  This is a dog blog right?  

I protect these socks dearly because if I don’t they become dog toys.  Two pairs have already been eaten.  Since they are pricey, I am protecting my last pair until I buy more.  This sock toy business is partly my fault, ok, maybe all my fault; but when I saw Mr. Fox and Scruffy playing tug of war with a sock I took one that had no match, tied a knot in it and gave it to the dogs to play with.  Now, they steal the socks from the laundry. Look at cute they are!

Mr. Fox: "I want that sock RIGHT NOOOOOWWWWW!!!!"

 

Scruffy: "Just you try and get it from me! Muahahaha!"

Scruffy:  "Who is he kidding?  I am as cute as they come and I will not give it up without a fight!"

TUG O' WAR!!!!!!

Hey, pups, I read something on a dog breed info website and I want to know if it's true.  Can the Scotties please tell me?  The website said one should never play tug o war with a Scottie because they can 'challenge family members who have not established leadership over them.'  What do you think?  I grew up with two great Scots and I recall them being very playful and loving dogs.  I don't know if we ever played tug o war or not but someday, when I'm under my 4 small animal limit again, I'd love to rescue a little Scottie so I am curious.  Hope you all have a lovely day!

The Toy

I don’t know what happens to dog toys in your house, but around here they don’t last very long, especially the ones that have any kind of squeaker on the inside.  Mr. Fox will squeak that squeaker until it won’t squeak anymore and then he will tear up the toy until he gets the squeaker out.  Once he’s accomplished this task, he chews the squeaker up, eats as much of it as he can until we confiscate it and then eats as much of the toy as he can until we confiscate that too. View said evidence below:

 

Incidentally, this is one of the toys I bought Foxy when we first got him a year ago.  It is one of the very few that has stood the test of time with this pup.  The other great toy and a true favorite of all three of the dogs is the Bouncy Bone.  The ends come off and you can put fresh treats on the end, when they are gone your pooch can gnaw on the nylon bone ends.  Plus you can throw it and it bounces along making for some funny doggy maneuvers while they are chasing it.  I currently don’t know where this toy is, which means it is probably buried in one of the flowerbeds.  I know this because when Ginger arrived, I hadn’t seen that toy in a while and being the digging terrier she was, she dug that thing up and was playing with all full of dirt.  All the while Mr. Fox sat in front of her and made these howling like yowling sounds mixed with yips and barks and giving me the sad eye, hoping I would take it from Ginger and give it to him!  This is the  Bouncy Bone.  I must go buy another.

Furiends!

We made friends with some of the doggies on our daily walk!

This is Harley-he’s the Rat Terrier on the right.  Cooper is the Shitzu Mix that Mr. Fox is sniffing.  You don’t see Scruffy because she’s hiding between my legs.  

We have been walking past this house since the first day Foxy came home.  Harley’s peep didn’t have a dog then and he said he used to look out the window at me and say, “Boy, she’s got her hands full with that one!”  This makes me feel a bit redeemed as I’ve been saying my poor, issue laden Foxy has been nutso on the walk.  At least I know it’s not all in my head!  Harley’s Dad said he didn’t know what possessed him to go to the shelter and get a dog but a few months after Mr. Fox & I started our walks Harley appeared.  He is a really cute dog.  He hasn’t let me pet him yet and I’m a little worried Foxy is being too pushy. 

All that being said, I took a chance and let both dogs off their leashes to play with Harley and Cooper and… no one ran away!!!  Yippee!  I was a little worried given the yard escaping incident back in January but I kept calling both dogs and they came right away.  They also both stayed on Harley’s front lawn and didn’t run onto the sidewalk or street.  This is amazing progress for my boy.  Oh, how I wish I had video of how uncontrollable he was so I could show the comparison to now…  Mr. Fox has come such a long way and I have to say, I feel proud of myself for helping get him to this point. 

My Baby

No, not my T.  Although he will be my baby until he's 100 and I'm well, very old.  My Foxy is my baby too.  He loves a good snuggle on me like nobody's business.  Every night he is on me and his favorite position is flopped on his back getting his belly rubbed.  He can't do this if I'm on the computer or crocheting but he tries to butt my hands out of the way with his nose.  This is how we spend many nights.

I need this fur ball cuddle these days since my little cuddle bug boy isn't so much into cuddling anymore.

Walk-Induced Psychosis

Oh that crazy Fox...  You have heard me talk about how he is a crazy ass on the leash.  I'm sorry for the word choice but, you know, there is just no other way to describe him!  Plus, I am from New Jersey and we are a colorful people.

It seems that any time I take Mr. Fox out on a walk he loses all control.  He can be laying on me like a baby in the house, but the minute I get up and put my shoes on and say "Want to go get T?" he goes nuts.  Running in circles, barking, yiping, jumping, barking, you get the picture.  It's kind of cute, but it makes it difficult to get the leash on him. I will say, we have come a very long way in a year.  When Mr. Fox arrived, we could not and I mean not get the leash on him without holding him very tightly.  The ensuing walk was horrendous.  There was the attacking of everything and thankfully we are beyond that point.

Mr. Fox charges out the gate but there is something up on the electrical wire that creates the psychosis.  I mean he goes nuts at this piece of wood or who-knows-what on the electrical wire just outside the front gate.  His nutjobness sets off the two pitbulls in my nice neighbor's house and there is then an excessive amount of barking.  I tried the Dog Whisperer trick of standing there and letting him bark it out but I have these other not so nice neighbors that I am afraid are going to call the police on me so onward I go telling Mr. Fox to 'be quiet' or 'be a nice dog'.  Scruffy meanwhile just walks along nicely and gives it to Fox if he gets in her way.  Once again, she's a terrier.  I'm beginning to wonder if they are not truly a superior breed!  I joke about this but I hate to admit, I do favor terriers, what can I say?  I am human after all.  That being said, you know how much that little Chihuahua nutjob has won my heart.  But I digress...

That Which Causes Psychosis

The psychosis continues on down the block as I have these unpleasant neighbors and one of them assaulted my husband in front of Mr. Fox and T last year.  That is a long story and I don't want to ruin my blog with negativity...  So, Mr. Fox, I think remembers this or something because until we round the corner he does not calm down.  Until...  we pass the next telephone pole with large bushes around it where he proceeds to go nuts wanting to get under the bushes to see if there is a critter he can eat.  I'm pulling and correcting all the way.  We round the next corner without incident and make it to T's school and he's ok for the most part.  We get T and walk back home and of course he goes psycho at the same two spots all over again.  When I scold him, he looks at me with that one eye... uh... it's cute and comical all that same time.

I just love this little doggy.  He is so special in so many ways and provides us with wonderfully interesting tales to tell.  I will leave you with this bit of cuteness.

True Love

The Collar

This is Scruffy....

This is Scruffy's collar....

Yes, it is ripped apart.  Do you want to know it got that way?

MR. FOX CHEWED IT OFF OF HER NECK!!!

This is not the first time the One-Eyed Wonder (as his fairy godmother, Nanci calls him) has done this.  This is the SECOND collar he has chewed off her neck.  I mean, does she just lay there during the day when we are at work and allow Fox to gnaw at her neck???  I mean really...  At night, the Mr. Fox will play with her or lick her face but she's a pretty tough cookie and she growls and doesn't let him get away with very much.  Ugh.  

Now I want to find her a new, more durable collar.  I already got another Target cheapy because I must have a tag on her.  I'm paranoid since the previous escaping incident.  I have a metal choke collar for her, but I hate that thing.  My childhood dogs all grew up with choke collars but you know, she is a girl.  A real girlie girl at that.  I mean she should really be named Cupcake or Princess (no, not that, I have a girl in my class with that name) or Tiffany or Tiara or something feminine.  I thought I was going to get my pink buying jollies with this dog.  You know, pink collar, pink leash, pink sweater and maybe even a pink bow in that Scruffy hair BUT NOOOOO....  I have to have some durable collar because of my one-eyed beast!  Man I love that Foxy Dog!!  He is so bad sometimes but I love him to bits!  

I think the funniest thing was when I saw the collar this morning and I said, "Baaad Dog!" and Husband told me not to scold the dog because he doesn't know what he did wrong and we don't want him to get a complex.  Yes, he was serious.  Really, he was.  He is a hopeless animal lover.  One day I will tell you about the raccoons.