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Blaze is a very quiet dog. When left to himself he rarely makes a noise. He will whine at me when he needs to go outside or when he is trying to convince me that he should eat earlier. He has yet to learn, as the other family members know so well, that I’ll get around to making dinner eventually, but don’t expect it to be soon. When I visited the breeder, I was amazed at how quiet her dogs were. A kennel of quiet dogs is a bit odd. I was thrilled that Blaze carried on the genetics. However, we have discovered throughout the last month that there is one individual who greatly enjoys pestering him into barking. When Blaze can’t be watched, he is in his crate, to prevent sock swallowing. Patches has the run of the house and she makes him aware of it every day. Sometimes she’ll sit right next to his crate and look at him, sometimes she’ll turn her back as if he doesn’t exist, but what she loves most is to partially hide inside or under something as if she is stalking him. It drives him nuts and I will hear him make a high pitched whiny bark. I am often sending the kids to catch and relocate her, but she always comes back to play her favorite game. When I take him outside into the back yard to play fetch, she waits patiently at the sliding glass door. I often go in and leave him outside a little longer, but he doesn’t like to be alone so he will soon be on the top step looking in the door. Patches loves this moment and will touch her paw to the glass. Blaze, who moments prior had been patiently waiting, then goes nuts jumping on the door. She’s a piece of work.

Josiah is watching the neighbor’s dog this week, so we attempted to go together on a walk. Blaze was so nuts trying to get the other dog to play, that I thought it would be best to have them run around the backyard a bit. Josiah forgot to shut the back gate, so they decided to run around the neighborhood instead. Thankfully, no cars were driving by, Josiah was able to catch Blaze, and the neighbor dog just ran home. As I ran out after the dogs, a feeling of familiarity overtook me. The feeling of familiarity ended as soon as we caught the dogs, however, for Czar and Sasha would have been long gone and I would have gotten in the car to continue the pursuit. We tried to get the dogs playing in the back yard again, gate closed this time when suddenly we heard this terrified yelp. Blaze came dashing for us with his tail between his legs. The neighbor’s dog did not want to play. So, Blaze is far down the pack order. Well behind the cat and the neighbor dog.

Patches and Blaze at Door

Blaze

Patches Stretching

Blaze Walking the Dog

Gabe has been busy assembling various items in anticipation of the puppy and kitten’s arrival.  Yes, it started with feeding the birds.  Then we got fish.  Tomorrow we bring home the puppy.  And June 18th we bring home a kitten.  That’s it.  No more.  No rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets, mice, rats, lizards, spiders, and definitely no snakes.  Really, I’m done.  Although, I’m sure Gabe would like something else to build.  Each time Gabe starts his building project, he puts on his work clothes, a pair of blue jean overalls.  He then opens the box, looks at the directions, gathers his tools, and gets to work.  His biggest project was the cat tree, purchased in the hope that the kitten will actually scratch that instead of my favorite chair.  He worked on it while I was out walking.  I came home thinking I would have to help him straighten things out, but instead I saw him proudly displaying his work.  He also set up a travel crate and a house crate for the puppy.  “You can call it a kennel, Mommy, but it’s a cage.  You’re putting the poor puppy in a cage.”  I attempted to explain that experts advocate crate training a dog, but he didn’t want to hear it.  The crates can’t be too bad, since Zeke keeps crawling inside and locking himself in.  Today when Gabe began his work, he looked at me and said, “You don’t need to help, Mommy. I can do it myself.”  Gabe has spent the last 9 1/2 months assisting me on my failed home improvement attempts and has apparently decided that he is better off without me.