Day 2567

Today was certainly different. Janet got up real early and went to the airport before I was fully awake. I vaguely remember saying goodby before I went back to sleep again. When I woke up, I noticed that I had done a terrible job cleaning up Dot when she pooped during the night. I guess I should have turned the light on, but I didn't want to wake anyone. At any rate, I failed to clean her completely and the poop had dried on her fur and blankets. It took a lot of time and a lot of wet rags to clean her properly.

Our new routine still starts by getting Dot outside to pee as soon as I can, but after that it gets more complicated. I give the dogs their morning meds and then feed them their breakfast. Dot gets her walk first and then I fix my own breakfast. Both dogs like to eat slices of banana while I have my morning coffee and drink my smoothie. Dash is lazy, but barking for bananas usually gets him energized enough so that he's ready for his own walk when breakfast is finished. When both dogs are back at the house, I wash the dishes and then go outside and see if I can find where Dash has pooped in the yard. If I don't do this, it is inevitable that I will step in the stuff when I take Dot out late at night. Today was somewhat of a work in progress, but I was amazed at how long everything took without Janet's help. By the time I had finished the complete morning routine and was ready to turn the computer on for the day, it was almost noon.

Once both dogs were sleeping, I took a quick shower and ran to the store, since everything will be closed tomorrow. The first thing on my list was a big box of puppy training pads. We are running through these things at an alarming rate. Now that Dot's incontinence is getting worse, I must use five of six of these things a day. The weather is so wet and humid that pee isn't the only problem. Both dogs track water and mud into the house every time they go out. Cleaning Dot's paws was always a two person job. Since she can't stand up properly, one person has to hold her up while the other cleans the paws. Did I mention the house is pretty dirty.

I hope I can refine my plan a bit in the days to come. I thought I'd try writing the blog in the morning when the dogs are sleeping, but that never happened. The walks took a lot longer than I expected and I needed to go to the store. When Dot is in her evening restless period, she is constantly whining to get up, wandering around aimlessly, and falling over if I'm not nearby to steady her. Consequently, I'm writing the blog one sentence at a time this evening.

Today was one of those foggy days that I love to photograph. Everything looks so ghostly in a thick blanket of fog. Dash had no interest in turning his morning walk into a photo excursion unfortunately. I grabbed a few quick shots with my phone, but that was about it. The sailboats on the lake are often quite beautiful in a thick fog, but I couldn't get near the sailboats with Dash. He just wasn't interested. Sure, I guess I could have gone back on my own later, but there wasn't enough time. There is never enough time these days. It took over an hour just to clean the poop off Dot this morning before we had breakfast. Hopefully, I'll wake up tonight before she has time to make a mess of herself again.

There's enough food to last until Janet gets back. I doubt that I'll have many work assignments between Christmas and New Years either. That leaves plenty of time to see if I can perfect caring for one sick dog and one crazy dog on my own. I still need to give the dogs their evening meds and then try my best to get Dot to pee outside before I put her to bed. If I can't get her to pee around 11 PM, she won't make it through the night.

The Dr. Who Christmas Special is tomorrow. Maybe I'll watch it. Maybe I won't. This is the first year in a long time that I'm not all that interested in Dr. Who.

Dash is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1747

Today we declared war on fleas. Both dogs have been seen with fleas lately and we suspect that they are probably inside the house. Fleas love to hide in carpet, bedding, dog blankets, and of course on the dogs themselves. Both dogs got a bath this morning, and then to make sure new fleas didn't just crawl back on each dog, I started systematically washing and cleaning everything. I'm still not finished. I think there are enough dog blankets in our house to sink a ship.

The house needed a good cleaning anyway, so hopefully this will help. You might think it would be a lot easier to just use a topical flea preventative like Frontline, but our dogs have sensitive skin and products like these leave their skin red and raw. Personally, I'd rather deal with the fleas than with a bad skin condition.

It took forever to get the dogs washed this morning. The place where we go only has four tubs and they are often filled when we arrive. Today a mother and daughter cut ahead of us in line, saying they had an important school event to attend and were running late. The daughter, who supposedly was in such a hurry, proceeded to text her friends on her phone while she was washing her dog. She was impossibly slow. An employee was grooming a dog in one of the other tanks while we were waiting. This girl left to go on a break, just leaving her wet dog sitting in the tank. She could have easily moved the dog to one of the kennels in the back and let some of the waiting customers bathe their dogs while she took her break. She also could have finished her job before she took her break. That's what I would have done. I'd leave these people a bad review on Yelp if it weren't for the fact that, despite all the problems, it's still the best dog washing place in the neighborhood. The manager is a nice guy and keeps the place very clean. It's his customers and employees who are the problem.

I noticed that Dot's dog bed was wet this afternoon, but I couldn't tell whether she had peed in the bed again or whether she was still a bit wet from her bath. The wet spot didn't really smell like pee, but my sense of smell isn't so good, so I took the cover off the bed and washed it anyway. Once I get in a washing kind of mood, it's hard to stop me. I recorded the new Dr. Who episode on the DVR again this evening because it doesn't look like I'll have time to watch it any time soon. By the time I get all the cleaning done and charge up the camera batteries for tomorrow's photoshoot, it will be time for bed.

I saw our yard possum again this morning. Luckily, the dogs didn't. I have a feeling that the possum lives somewhere in the back of the yard, because it certainly doesn't go far. I don't know why it likes our yard so much, because their are plenty of larger and much grander yards just down the street. Maybe it feels at home here. I'll have to admit now that the St. Augustine grass is dying and the ground cover beds are full of spider webs and weeds, the yard does look like a place a possum might enjoy.

Tomorrow will be busy. I keeping thinking that I have way too many aches and pains to do sports photography anymore. Then I remember that I'm just taking pictures of golfers. It isn't all that strenuous. I just follow the players around in a golf cart and take picture of them teeing off and putting. Occasionally, I get a good shot. I know the golfers are having more fun than I am, because they're drinking beer, while I'm still just drinking water.

Sophie is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1421

The rain continued for a second straight day. I put raincoats on the dogs this morning, but halfway through their walk, they decided that they didn't want to wear them anymore. I took the coats off, and the dogs got wet. They didn't like that either. Sustained rain really tests my patience. The car gets muddy. The house gets muddy. The dogs constantly need to be cleaned up. On days like this, I'm either cleaning dogs, doing laundry, or looking at the weather radar on my iPhone.

My doctor's appointment took a lot longer than expected this afternoon. When the doctor finally arrived, he apologized for the delay and said that there had been complications in a surgery he had just completed. This was certainly better than my typical excuses for being late. The best I can usually come up with is that the dogs wouldn't poop on their walk.

My delayed doctor visit ate up so much of my time that I didn't even come close to getting to the gym today. Like it or not, it looks like it might be a two workout week. While I was sitting in the doctor's lobby, I checked on the dogs using the nanny cam app. Both dogs have a highly refined sense of time. Ten minutes before their dinner time, they were both sleeping. Thirty minutes after their normal dinner time, they were sleeping again. Right at dinner time, they were barking and making a big commotion. They were mad that I was late.

It was dark before I got home to take Dot and Dash on their evening walk. I hate walking at night for a variety of reasons. We didn't see any coyotes tonight, but we did see three suspicious looking people lurking around in the dark and what appeared to be a drug deal taking place in one of the parking lots. I prefer the park in daylight myself.

The rain is supposed to continue through tomorrow. This means that my morning networking breakfast, Dot's acupuncture appointment, and our evening dog training class will all be impacted by the bad weather. I don't know why rain bothers me so much, but it does. When the sun finally reappears, I'll clean the house, wash the car, and my tidy little world will be back to normal.

Coach is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day

Day 1108

Somebody please send me a little glamor. I spent the day chopping a big sheet of ice up on the roof into little blocks I could remove. When I got cold, I would come back inside and write articles that seemed a lot like the metaphorical equivalent of blocks of ice. The whole process reminded me of the woodpeckers I see on our morning walks. Such industrious little birds, but there must be a better way of finding food and sustenance.

A note to the folks who depend on me to write their fake press releases. I've got a nice wool Ralph Lauren tux that still actually fits. You might consider actually sending me to a few of those glamorous events instead of just asking me to pretend I was there. Another note to those who continue to send me Christmas cards long after they have fired me. Wouldn't it have showed a lot more Christmas cheer to have simply kept me on your payroll a bit longer?

While I was eating breakfast this morning, Dot had to go outside and pee. When I let her back inside again, her paws looked like they were wearing clown shoes. Big, brown oak leaves had cemented themselves to a layer of sticky red clay that was all that remained from this Summer's St. Augustine turf. The whole mess, in turn, cemented itself to each of Dot's paws. She looked ridiculous and I had to laugh, despite the fact that it took me at least fifteen minutes to clean her up again.

This is the trouble with Winter. It's just so messy. I don't mind the cold nearly as much as I mind the mess. Every Winter I am continually wiping condensation off of large expanses of single pane glass, so the window sills won't rot. There is a continual load of laundry running from all the towels I use to clean mud off the dogs paws. I never seem to catch all the mud on their paws either. I'm always discovering muddy little surprises on the bedsheets, the sofa and the dog beds. The zippers on my Winter coats always keep breaking too. I've got to take another coat to the tailor tomorrow.

At least it's Friday tomorrow. I'm already thinking about what to order for breakfast. There's a short week to look forward to as well. I always like a week with a holiday right in the middle.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day