Doggie Monday

It has been SO COLD this week!!! I talk to people around the country for John Morgan Seminars, and the farther north I go, the colder and grumpier people are! So I won't complain anymore. Ha. Before the snow, it was just cold:

Reggie says, "Come play!"

Bingo obliges.

 And then they run to the back gate to bark at the dog across the lake:

And then settle on the back deck:

Hullo.

And then!  It snowed:

About an inch, but it stayed all week. BECAUSE IT WAS SO COLD!

Here's Reggie:

Awwww. . . Look at the cute snowy nose. Now come IN already!

Hehhhhh . . . or just stand there, letting the heat out.

 Reggie has such a problem with coming in. I leave the door open but he won't come in. So then I go out and he just runs around, still not going in. And did I mention it's COLD?!

Bingo heads in.

Not Reggie. 

This is where he goes:

He's got thick fur, but I'm afraid his little paws will freeze!

At this point I can see my breath in the kitchen. I'm not kidding.

 Bingo has no problem coming in:

Sitting in a nice sunny patch in the kitchen.

Getting slitty-eyed.

Zzzzzz . . . 

I shut the door and here's Reggie:

Hullo.

Do you want to come in? OK:

 But does he come in?

No. 

So I go out and try to corral him toward the kitchen door. He runs off, so I go out on the porch. The whole point of opening the door is for him to come in, not for me to go OUT. And get even colder. So I call to Reggie, "Come on," and out the door Bingo comes. So then of course he wants to play and Bingo wants to stay out. Which is fine until she comes back in and we start all over again! In the meantime, I'm getting frostbite in my kitchen, even with the wood stove roaring. So what to do? 

This:

I had this box in my shed, mostly because I couldn't be bothered to lug it to the recycling center. Good thing! It blocks off this part of the deck so that Reggie doesn't go around and around. Honestly, I think he thinks it's a game. And it would be kinda fun. IF IT WEREN'T SO COLD!

So now we have it down to a system. It still requires me to go out, but he comes in immediately. I'm hoping eventually that he'll skip the me-coming-out part and just go in when I open the door. Prolly in a few months when I'm complaining about the heat. Ha! 

Tabby in my office:

I looked out the window to see this:

Bingo was barking at something here. This is often where a small herd of deer hangs out.

  And here are Bingo & Reggie romping:

Er . . . well, here's Bingo eating snow.

 Here they are romping:

Just 2 black blobs against a snowy background . . . .

Back inside on a cozy night by the wood

stove:

I mentioned this in my last post on sunrises, but Reggie woke me up on Saturday morning making his grumbley-growly-barky noise because of this:

By the time I got the camera, it had changed from a crimson red to this. Still BEAUTIFUL. 

 I have a neighbor who does target practice, making gun shot sounds. This is right up there with thunder, and Bingo gets scared. So I put on her Thundershirt, but I can't let her outside because Reggie will rip it right off. It's looking pretty tattered. One night she went out with it on and I realized that she didn't have it on when she came back in. I retrieved it the next morning in a screwed up heap in the yard. *sigh* Reggie!

Also for her anxiety, I grind up some benedryl, mix it in peanut butter and put it in her Kong:

One day I was in my office and Bingo comes trotting in and making that "there's-something-wrong" squeaky noise that she makes when something's wrong. "What's the matter?" I follow her out to the living room where Reggie has gotten a hold of HER Kong and is licking it. So I went to the store and got him his own:

His is black. It's the extra-strong one for chewers like Reggie. We'll see how long it lasts!

They've never been aggressive with each other over food or toys. It doesn't matter how clean one of them has licked something, the other one will come and lick it after. I got a Costco rotisserie chicken. When I walk in the door, both dogs follow me to the kitchen because they can smell it and they know I'm going to give them a few morsels. What was amazing is that Chiro-sis was with me and she actually fed Reggie! He also sat on the sofa with us when we were watching a movie. Progress!

Sunday morning I transferred the chicken to a different container. I gave Bingo some things on a plate, and I gave the chicken tray to Reggie in his crate. After Reggie went outside, Bingo sneaked into his crate, and:

This.

Hey . . . 

*slurp*

Sorry, Buddy.

 Do you want to come in?

Of course not.

Today is my birthday. I'm fifty. FIFTY! I wrote more about this in yesterday's sunrise post, but I'll say it here, too: in lieu of gifts, I'm requesting that you donate to Animal Adoption and Rescue.