One thing Nala’s become really good at is finding and tracking insects inside the house. It’s easy to tell when she’s got one in her sights too. I’ll walk into a room and see her staring really, really hard at something. Sure enough, there’s a bug under her nose that she’s sniffing at. It’s really kind of amusing, the way she gets with bugs.
The other day I walked into the kitchen and saw her staring at something just below the counter. I walked over to see what she was looking at and this huge moth flew up into the air and started banging against the ceiling and walls trying to get out. Finally managed to capture it when it landed on one of the plants, and released it safely outside.
This morning I spotted her crouched down staring at something at the base of the dishwasher. Found a little tiny cricket she had cornered.
Look out bugs!
The dog food quest goes full circle
After meeting lots of dog owners over the past year, I think one of the distinguishing characteristics of a dedicated dog lover is how much they end up talking about poop.
Well, after going through the 40lb bag of Nutro NC Lamb & Rice, we’re back to Diamond. Nala and Simba were both doing pretty well on the Nutro. Their coats looked good, dogs looked good, Nala’s weight stayed good and Simba packed on almost 10 pounds in 3 weeks. The only problem with the Nutro was that there was so much poop! With just one dog, I supposed I could have lived with it and we probably would have stayed on Nutro. With two dogs, it was just getting to be a little much and a little too stinky in the back yard.
So we decided to go back to what worked the first time. Nala’s on the adult Diamond L&R, and Simba’s on the LB Puppy L&R. It’s been about a week now, and the decrease in the amount of poop is definitely noticable. Just finished the transition phase, so I’ll be keeping an eye on both of them to see how they handle things.
My day at the park
Today we had a fun day at the park with mom, dad and that bratty brother of mine. I got to have more fun though, because he’s still too little and had to stay cooped up in his crate. Nyah nyah nyah.
We went to that park downtown where all the people go to buy stuff from other people under tents. There were lots of dogs there today which made it especially fun.
First dad entered me in this contest and made me walk up and down in front of some people who kept looking at me.
I didn’t win anything, but dad was still happy anyway.
Then we walked around to check out everything. We saw lots of neat looking dogs. There were big dogs
and really little dogs
a really drooly dog
and a bunch of dogs like me
We even saw another dog trying to get donations to help other greyhounds get nice homes with people.
After that we went to another party with all kinds of other dogs like me. The best part was getting to swim and play in the water! There were all kinds of fun things to do like running into the water to grab things. One contest was to see who could jump into the water the best.
Another contest was to see who could bring the toy back fastest. I got third place in that one! It was fun!
Then everyone got to go in at the same time and play.
Even that silly brother of mine got into the water to play. He did pretty good for going swimming for the first time.
A pretty cool day.
Random doggie musings
With the three runoff ponds up the street from us, there are a lot of frogs hopping around. With all the cars around, that also means that on any given day there are probably a few flattened frog corpses lying on the road too. Now that it’s getting hot out, those flattened frog carcasses bake out in the sun and turn into what Mike calls frog jerky (a very fitting description). Like Mike’s dog, Nala seems to love going after frog jerky. Fortunately for us, we’ve managed to catch her before she can chomp down too much on them. No puked up frog bits from Nala. Of course that doesn’t mean she hasn’t puked up other things. Mostly it’s bits of chewed up sticks we find. Invariably she waits until she’s on some nice absorbent carpet before starting off with that characteristic huffing sound that says she’s about to spew. What is it about dogs that makes them chew and eat things that inevitably wind up coming back up again?
This makes wonder about other dog things too.
- How do dogs manage to pant so hard without hyperventilating?
- Why do some dogs like to eat poop?
- What’s it like to be able to smell like a dog?
Comparison of two dogs
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| Nala at 10 weeks | Simba at 9 weeks |
It’s tough to do size comparisons without a scale, but I think Simba’s just about the size Nala was when we first got her. He’s still a little bit smaller, but that’s changing quickly. I can tell already he’s gotten a few pounds heavier than he was last week, and he’s definitely bigger too.