Big Innocent Dog

I need to take some more pictures of Roxie the sweetest rottweiler in the world...but usually when she is around, I need to devote all of my hands, arms, muscle and focus on her and have none free for the camera.

And when she is around is "always." Except of course when she is out trying to figure out what is a "good dog" activity and what is a "bad dog" activity. I can't fault her for that. She's a one-year-old dog. Heck, I'm a 63-year-old human and I'm still trying to figure it out the "good Mark / bad Mark" stuff.

Yesterday I finally finished repairing the screen door on the porch that she shattered because I was outside and she thought I wanted her to come out and play.

Last night we decided it was time to open up the master bedroom so Roxie could get used to our cats and vice versa. (And so that I could stop sleeping on the couch). We also had put all new carpeting the bedroom about a year ago on the assumption that we would be having no more new animals. That's how much we know! But Roxie has been very good this week at becoming housebroken amazingly fast!

So the door opened, she went right inside, peed all over the new carpet and then smiled at us waiting for praise. Boy was she surprised! I guess we were thinking "bedroom" and she was thinking "door opens from place where I can't go to place where I'm supposed to go." We'd be thinking "inside and outside" and she had interpreted it as "going through a usually closed door."

We also moved the cats food from the previously closed bedroom to their usual place on the sink in the upstairs bath. This morning, investigating one of the numerous crashes in the night, I discovered that Roxie is capable of getting on the sink. Wish I had a picture! But I was reaching for the broom to sweep up a ton of catfood.

Why do they make dried cat food in round little bites like brown marbles that roll everywhere? I guess their research division didn't test it for having a bowl batted across a bathroom by the paws of a rottweiller.

Ah, but it was nice to sleep in the big bed again! Even nicer (sort of) because Roxie wanted to sleep as close as possible to us...what a sweetie!...and lying half under the bed, scratching and playing, the whole bed vibrated like one of those old Motel massage-a-beds.

And a few minutes ago, I stopped writing this due to more weird noises and went down to find that she had pinned Sally down. At 18 years old, Sally is not going to be Roxie's play thing. That's not a "bad dog" thing....that's a "find a new home for Roxie" thing. Roxie got a whole truck load of bad dog on that one.

But later, walking Sally, I got to thinking that Sally had not been whining or whimpering or yelping. I'm not entirely sure she hadn't been playing back. Hard to believe but...it is also true that since Roxie has arrived, Sally seems to have increased her energy level greatly.

Walking her around the house used to be a challenge. Now she insists on going with Roxie and Daisy (the oppossum dog) on one mile walks. She is slow, of course...particularly at the end...but the fact she does it seems miraculous. So maybe she wasn't minding the play fight with Roxie as much as I thought. But it still needs to stop.

And I need to learn to shoot photographs with one hand.