and the domestication of the dog continues unabated
Extremely cold weather has struck Florida. Fourteen degrees F. in Tallahassee; the coldest temperature I remember during the eight years I lived there was nineteen degrees. The Weather Channel said that this is the coldest it has been in Tallahassee since 1989.
We didn't get that cold, but it did freeze here. There is an overturned kiddie pool in our backyard that has a puddle of water in it. I broke the ice (!) and retrieved a shard from the water. The ice was 3/32" thick (that's halfway between 1/16" and 1/8" for the fractionally impaired). Lisa was amazed and my fingers were freezing.
On the puppy dog front, we are trying to change Marley's name to Rocky. He was named after Rastafarian reggae legend Bob Marley - because the original owners thought he had crazy hair - but he has short wiry hair. "Rocky" seems to suit him better and feels more natural when we say it. We are gradually getting him used to it by calling him "Rocky Marley". Eventually he will respond to "Rocky" alone. And now Lisa is changing Sweetpea's name to Marlo/Marly. They'll get used to it.
It is obvious that we did the right thing by bringing both of them home rather than just one. They are practically attached at hip; they fret when they are apart for too long. I have said for many years that there should be at least two dogs in a household or none at all. Dogs need the company of others of their kind. Sweetpea does all right without her brother, at least for short periods, but Rocky/Marley gets terribly out of sorts without his sister and whines like a pet store puppy. She leads, he follows.
Lisa has been doing her Dog Whisperer thing with them this morning, trying to get them in sync with our expectations.
One really good thing about having these kids: they are a great cat-repellent. We let them out into the pool enclosure (a large screened-in area) and the alien cats turn tail and leave our yard.
Extremely cold weather has struck Florida. Fourteen degrees F. in Tallahassee; the coldest temperature I remember during the eight years I lived there was nineteen degrees. The Weather Channel said that this is the coldest it has been in Tallahassee since 1989.
We didn't get that cold, but it did freeze here. There is an overturned kiddie pool in our backyard that has a puddle of water in it. I broke the ice (!) and retrieved a shard from the water. The ice was 3/32" thick (that's halfway between 1/16" and 1/8" for the fractionally impaired). Lisa was amazed and my fingers were freezing.
On the puppy dog front, we are trying to change Marley's name to Rocky. He was named after Rastafarian reggae legend Bob Marley - because the original owners thought he had crazy hair - but he has short wiry hair. "Rocky" seems to suit him better and feels more natural when we say it. We are gradually getting him used to it by calling him "Rocky Marley". Eventually he will respond to "Rocky" alone. And now Lisa is changing Sweetpea's name to Marlo/Marly. They'll get used to it.
It is obvious that we did the right thing by bringing both of them home rather than just one. They are practically attached at hip; they fret when they are apart for too long. I have said for many years that there should be at least two dogs in a household or none at all. Dogs need the company of others of their kind. Sweetpea does all right without her brother, at least for short periods, but Rocky/Marley gets terribly out of sorts without his sister and whines like a pet store puppy. She leads, he follows.
Lisa has been doing her Dog Whisperer thing with them this morning, trying to get them in sync with our expectations.
One really good thing about having these kids: they are a great cat-repellent. We let them out into the pool enclosure (a large screened-in area) and the alien cats turn tail and leave our yard.
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