Stan’s Obligatory Blog

A few days ago, I posted a bit about how Sadie, the new dog in our house managed to break off the bottom of one of the fence boards and get out of the yard. I had to do a quick repair to keep her from getting away. But this morning, I could see that she’d already started gnawing or clawing or something on the patch, and she was getting through the wood. So I had to come up with something. I had a look in my workshop junk drawer, and I found a stainless steel switchplate. That was just about the right size for what I needed, so I attached it to the wood with some screws. So let’s see her gnaw through that.

We have a new dog staying with us. She’s been here for about a week now, and she’s been getting into some trouble. Today, she found the cracked board at the bottom of the driveway gate, and somehow managed to break off the cracked part and get out through the hole. I was impressed by this, since I didn’t think she’d even fit through that hole, but both dogs got out and were running around the neighborhood when I got home from work. Suzie came running back when she saw me coming home, but I had to chase Sadie down and bring her back. Then I locked them in the house while I patched the hole as best I could do on such short notice. I’m reasonably sure she won’t be able to get through that any time soon.

This is Coyote. She is a cattle-dog and something else mix. And her name is pretty self-explanatory. She looks like a coyote, and she moves like a coyote.

Last weekend we went and met Coyote. She was nice, and very mellow. So this week we took Suzie out to meet her to see if they would get along. They did all right, so we brought Coyote home. She’s still new here, but Lucinda is teaching her to use the dog door.

So we’re a two-dog family again.

I had the day off today for Columbus Day, so after Lucinda got out of school, we all went to the dog park with Ripley and Suzie Q. It was a nice day for it. The dogs played a bit, and we just stayed in the shade. I took some pictures for a new dog photo album.

The dog park in our neighborhood is still new, and they are still getting the grass established. So they had signs warning that the sprinklers go on at 3:00 PM. The light was just right, so we saw a nice rainbow in the spray. And yes, there really is a trash can at the end of the rainbow.

While I was at the Safety Fair in Beverly Hills, Cathy called me to say that they were looking at a new dog to adopt, and they wanted me to come and meet her. So on our way back, Erik dropped me off in Burbank.

Suzie Q was a stray found living on the streets. We think she’s part Corgi and part Spaniel. She’s a small dog to begin with, and she’s pretty emaciated. She’s been in foster care for a little while, but she still needs to be fed more to bulk up. But she has a very sweet personality. And she’s not a big barker. So we all liked her from the start.

Suzie came home with us on Sunday afternoon. She’s getting along fine with Ripley, and we’re teaching her to use the dog door. Overall, we’re pretty happy to have her in our family.

On Monday, Lucinda had the day off school, so her friend came over to play. They were playing with the robot in the living room. And at one point, the robot walked up to Ripley’s dog bed and was pushing against it and making loud motor-whirring noises. Our other dogs were all more high-strung, and they would have freaked out at this. But not Rip.

Last year, Cathy found a little article in the Auto Club magazine about a school near San Francisco that trains guide dogs for the blind. It said that they had an open house that we could visit. She loves dogs, and she wanted to take a trip up there to go to it. I thought that surely in a city the size of Los Angeles, there must be something comparable. So I went looking, and found Guide Dogs of America. It’s in Sylmar in the northeast corner of the San Fernando Valley.

They have a graduation and open house every three months there, so we made plans to go to one. And today was the day.

The graduation involved the class of dogs that are being given to their new masters, as well as the people who fostered the dogs as puppies. The puppy raisers do the basic training and socialization of the dogs, and then some specialized trainers teach the dog how to be a guide dog before they are matched up with blind people in need of dogs. It’s a pretty amazing process, and it was very obvious that the blind people were very happy to have the dogs to help them. Apparently, the entire service is free to the blind, and it’s largely supported by donations and volunteers.

We got to meet a lot of dogs in training. The foster families are encouraged to bring them to events like these so that they can get used to the environment. We also got some information about possibly having them do a presentation at Lucinda’s school, and also how to sign up to foster a puppy. We may or may not do that soon, but we probably will some day.

Cathy and Lucinda were decorating the house for Valentine’s Day. Lucinda went around and stuck little hearts on just about everything that didn’t run away. Being that Ripley is 12 and very mellow, she didn’t run away.

It occurred to me today that I’ve never written anything about Ripley. She’s the ‘forgotton middle child’ of our dogs. We got her back in 1995 when we first moved to this house. She’s a corgi/cocker mix, and she’s the sweetest and mellowest dog we’ve ever had. When she first came to live with us, she decided that she was my dog. I don’t know why, but she picked me. And before we had Lucinda, Ripley was the ‘practice baby’ for me to hold.

Ripley is easily the best-behaved dog. She’s never been a problem in any way. Her only remarkable ability is her eye/snout coordination. She can snap dropped food right out the air before it hits the floor. Sometimes she even catches flies right out of the air and eats them.

Ripley has never been an ‘only dog’, but it looks like she’s going to have to be the only one for a while now.