| Kelsey's Very Intermittently Updated Blog | |
My life changed forever on Friday 1st November 2002 when I was taken to a new place by my foster-father Richard. I gave my lickiest greeting to a man there who appeared to be expecting me. This man and Richard walked around the property looking at all my potential escape routes - it's not going to be that hard when I get really bored but so far I haven't been bored. Then Richard left and I was all alone with the man. The first strange thing I noticed was that in the back yard at this place is this huge drinking bowl! It's painted blue and looks pretty deep.
On that first day I'll never forget, the man took me on this ENORMOUS walk. We went up into these mountains on a fire road. At least he knew to stop and give me water. I reckon I kept up pretty well, and I was pulling him down on the downhill. That evening a woman came to the house, so I had to give her my best and lickiest greeting.
After a week, I think I've decided that this man and woman are my new dad and mom. Initially they had no idea about food and some nights they fed me too late, so I had to poop on the carpet. I know I shouldn't, but they should know not to feed me so late. I think they're finally getting it now. Mom looked up in a book (with a picture of one of my people on the front) and said something about 6 hours to go through "my system". I think I then heard Dad say something about "2 inches an hour", but maybe I was mistaken.
They started off allowing me to sleep on their bed, and of course I liked to jam myself right between them. After the third night, they then started shutting me in the room where dad watches TV at close range and taps his fingers. I made a pretty good fuss and ripped off the springy thing on the door that stops the door banging into the wall. When they let me out each morning, I have to "catch up" on lots of licking to make up for all the hours we were apart during the night.
| My new parents just don't understand my water fixation. They don't see that it's normal for me to jump in the shower - to catch the water in the air, or lick the tiles, or their ankles, after they've just showered. Dad was hosing stuff yesterday outside and I was in major attack mode. He hosed me into the giant drinking bowl! Oh boy, I had to remember how to swim in a hurry. Dad pulled me out and then they tried to dry me off, which I hate. Some days Dad walks me, which I kinda dread as I have no idea how far we're going to go, so I hang back. He likes to go places with few other dogs, but when we go with Mom as well, it's better as we go a bit slower (especially up the hills) and with her, so far we also seem to see more other dogs. |  |
Mom took me for a couple of days - boy I love to ride in her car - and we just went to this place with loads of people doing painting. I made a beeline for one guy, gave him my lickiest greeting, only to find later he's the one guy I shouldn't have chosen. They said something about "OCD syndrome", whatever that is.
What's nice about these people so far, is that they haven't left me alone much at all. Don't they have jobs to go to?? Maybe Dad watching TV at close range and tapping his fingers is something to do with his work.
Today Mom mentioned something about "microchipping", whatever that is - sounds painful. I think they're also going to get me to wear a tag on my collar.
By the way I do have my own E-mail address (kelsey@spannertech.com) and have in fact received a couple of messages already from the UK.
Bye for now, gotta go lick the shower.....to be continued.
11/17/2002 I got my microchip and that didn't hurt at all. I just found out that sprinklers are almost as good as the shower, and don't have the pesky shampoo flavor (which made me throw up one day last week). Here you can see me in action in attack mode, the first time the sprinklers went on: sprinklers.mov (my dads says you'll need Quicktime, 4.8Mb)
12/06/2002: my people have figured out my brain:
We have been on a couple of hikes way up in some mountains (which means a good car ride to get there) where there are so few doggy smells that I have no excuse to hang back. My people seem to like me in this mode and gave me nice treats.
1/22/03: several weeks ago my people disappeared on me for a couple of weeks. Uncle Bryan took over. He did a pretty good job on the whole...but there was a lot of being shut in while he had to go to work. Then when my real people came back I licked and licked and licked them!!!
Then a few days after that, we went on a loooooong drive (which I love!) and ended up in a place full of the white stuff. It was coooooold!!! Turned out to be not such a good time for me. I was shut in most of the time while they put planks on their feet to slide around in the white stuff! The second day I had to stay in the car all day since they couldn't get "late checkout" whatever that is.
2?15/2003: A great day. I got two dinners. Dad fed me, and then half an hour later, mom fed me! I wasn't about to volunteer that I'd already been fed! They seemed to laugh a lot about it. Dad mentioned something about "she shouldn't have any breakfast" but was fortunately overruled!
12/27/2003: Gosh a lot of time has gone by! I've become pretty settled with my new parents. I think I'm here to stay now. My folks made some terrible mistakes in the long hot summer months. They already know I have a heart murmur, but dad still insisted on taking me out a couple of times when it was WAYYYYYY too hot for me. So I just sit and sulk under a tree until he picks me up. This happened on a couple of times. He thought it was going to be cool enough, but then it wasn't. Duh!
My bump on my backside grew quite a bit this year. So much so that my doggy friends started to laugh at it! Mom (who is a Doc after all) was concerned that I might never recover under general anaesthetic during an op. to have it removed. So I had to be taken to a special place to be checked up. That was a long journey. Talking of journeys riding in the car is much less fun now they always put me in my own little prison. I can't see the cars so much so don't get quite so excited.
The yellow tape is where they put in an "IV" whatever that is. A couple of weeks after this, we went on a looooong trip to a place where it rained all the time. Aunt Francis was there, one of my surrogate mothers whom I stayed with for a bit in the summer. She and Mom held me down and removed the staples. I started to race in circles to catch up with the scab that was driving me nuts! Thankfully they even picked it for me. It's healing pretty well now.
You know I really can't complain too much. My folks are pretty good with letting me lick stuff out. This is a typical example.
2/9/04: Uh oh, in trouble again. My people had been to Petco (a very good store - I get to wander around and terrorize the bunnies) and bought a 40LB bag of my food. Well, they just left it propped up by the front door and, well, they left me for a few hours so what I was supposed to do? I pulled at it and the whole thing came down on the floor. Then I made a discrete hole in one corner and started chowing. I'm used to just half a cup of this stuff morning and night, and this was endless. I'm not sure how much I ate, but Dad came back and scolded me and I went all grovelling like I do. He then took me for a brutal hike up Cahuenga Peak (the steep route) and I could hardly move. I was dragging just like the old days when I was not so fit. I was so full of food. My harness was feeling rather tight. Dad said something about me being "unusually round" and when we got home, he weighed me and then I heard him talking on the phone to mom about whether I should get any food that night. He gave me a little. They've now moved the bag out of my reach. But I'll have another go when I get bored and I'll find a way for sure.
[8/9/2004] By the way this routine happens every day when my people take a shower. I looooove the shower.
[8/17/2004] I decided to get up and stretch at about 2am. Went out through the doggie door and saw an alien space ship moving around in the pool. Barked my head off. My dad was pretty mad - he had to come out fully naked and remove the "beachball" from the pool.
Back to Spannertech
I've been lost twice since my last diary entry: once on top of Echo Mountain, which I really hate, by the way. Dad has dragged me up there twice now and the first time I was so draggy he gave up half way, but the second time I reluctantly let him get to the top. I punished him for this ordeal by getting lost, by taking a wrong turn. He was calling and calling. The other time was just this week early in the morning....I'm much more energetic in the early mornings and sometimes Dad takes me to do this loop which starts off with a good bit of car-chasing, then some single-track, then a short bit of road, then fireroad. Well, there was this delicious Spaniel called Ben on the fireroad section and we just legged it, back down the hill. Ben's mom and my dad chased but we left them in the dust. I was found 15 minutes later in the road. Unfortunately it's rather a quiet road, otherwise I could have got in some leash-free car-chasing. Oh, and I bit Dad's nose too....teach him to get too close to me. He was mad and gave me detention for a couple of hours.
Soon after that, I was taken on an all-time long hike....we climbed 3500' and ended up in white stuff in the shady parts. I don't look so white against this stuff. But it was nice and cool on the feet. We went for 6 hours and didn't see another soul. Apparently we did 16.5 miles by the end. I was pretty pooped on the last stretch in the hot sun. Dad didn't have much to eat since he forgot his food, so we shared 1 apple and 1 powerbar. 
2/27/2003: I got my first real car chase in today. Actually, it was a Glendale Water and Power truck, and it was going up this fire road. My people put me on the leash as usual when they saw it coming, but then they let me off before it had gone out of site. Duh! What was I to do but chase after it!! I ran and ran, and only stopped when it went off down a side turning. I was full of beans for the rest of today's hike! My people think they're lucky compared with some other people's JRT experiences they were reading about here.
3/2/2003: Today was the day I finally broke into the compost bin. I've been sniffing this thing for days now, and something was definitely in there worth barking at today, so I did for several hours. I got the door off all by myself, and got a good bit of digging in. 
One morning they forgot to give me any breakfast! Ugh that was terrible. Then later in the morning, Mom took me to the vet and next thing I knew I had this pipe shoved down my throat. That top picture is me flat out waiting to be operated on! See my bump!! Apparently I had it taken off and Ms Vet had stitched up my butt with 12 metal staples. The bump weighed in at 2.2oz. It had been really slowing me down (NOT!!) The vet had shaved a huge area so I felt a bit naked. It's growing back pretty fast now.
Watch me in action at shower time.
