How many dogs is too many?

People have asked me "Does Buster get along with Tuck?" and "Does Tuck like Buster?" These are complicated questions. At times, Buster seems annoyed with Tuck's antics. He usually just leaves the room to get away. Tuck sometimes is whiny because Buster won't play with him. So it's hard to say.

But I think this video pretty much sums up their relationship.

If only he really slept this much

Tuck is getting better, and gaining weight. And becoming much, much friskier. He runs around a lot, and bites anything he can get his paws on, including my feet. He wants to play all the time and can't stand it when John and I don't pay attention to him. He plays so hard he tires himself out and falls asleep, often right in the middle of playing. Which is why he falls asleep in such funny ways.

He's a silly little puppy, and will probably grow up to be just as silly and rambunctious as Buster. Speaking of Buster, he's being much gentler with Tuck. I think he's starting to get that Tuck is much smaller than he is. Tuck responds by trying to paw and bite Buster constantly.

I think Tuck is going to be a very smart dog. He's already figured out that whining at the back door is how you go outside. And he remembers what his medicine looks like, so he runs away when we get it out. Too smart for his own good.

I'll have to take some video of him running. He has the funniest little scamper - he's too small to really run, so he kind of hops around. Too cute.

Dog whisperer

Buster is a pretty good dog. But when he meets other dogs, he goes crazy. In a good way. Good crazy. He loves to play with other dogs, bite their ears, lick their ears, pounce on them, chase them. The other dog here is Zoidberg, Jarret and Casey's dog. He's older than Buster, and calmer. But that doesn't stop Buster from chasing him all over the house.

The good thing about dog sitting other dogs is that Buster is always tired at the end of the day and ready to go to bed.

The bad thing is that he wakes up at 3am, ready to play some more.

John and I are going to get another dog in January, so I guess this is good preparation for that. At least we know Buster will be friendly to a puppy, even if he does play with it to death.

Introducing Buster

I realized in the last post that I haven't properly introduced Buster to you (unless you've met him before. If so, you can skip this post. Or read it, you might learn something new.).

Ahem.

Buster came to us one cold January day. John and I moved into our house in October 2007. John has always wanted a dog, but I told him we had to wait for a house. And then when we got the house, we had already planned on being out of town on Thanksgiving and Christmas, and we were going to have our first houseguests in early January.

Then, on January 3, John got an email through his company listserv about someone who had found a mother dog and her 7-week-old puppies, about 8-10 puppies total. They were giving the puppies away. I told John we would look at them and if we liked one, we would go get puppy supplies and pick up the puppy the next day.

We went home with a puppy that night.

When we got Buster, he looked like this. He was cute and small and cuddly. He looked like a tiny bear. He was so small that he couldn't climb up on the couch. When we first got him, he was so calm and docile. This was a Thursday. On Monday, we took him in for his first vet appointment and found out he had worms. Lots and lots of worms. So we got him dewormed. We found out that the worms were making him calm, because he turned into a crazy ball of energy after that.

We got him all the food and bones and stuffed animals. His pal the porcupine there looked just like him, weirdly enough. We don't let him have stuffed animals anymore, because he devours them in minutes and strews stuffing all over the house.

Here's how we found out what breed Buster is: He had mange once, so we took him to the doctor. She said there are two treatments, oral and a wash. The oral is cheaper, but it can be fatal to collies and shepherds. Buster's mom looked kinda like a shepherd, so we didn't know if he was. We had no idea what he was. We couldn't give him the oral treatment until we had him DNA tested to find out what he was.

The test came back with only this on it, "smorgasbord." Ha, not really. But the vet did say that he is the salad bar of dogs, because he has a little of everything. He doesn't have any really strong breeds in him, but has traces of akita, chow, rottweiler and saluki (kinda like a greyhound).

Sometimes, Buster gets really riled up. Like when we give him baths and dry him off with a towel. Towels make him go crazy. And things that move, like the stability ball. Things that crinkle on their own are also terrifying to Buster, like plastic bags. In fact, if you're at our house and Buster is bothering you, you can just wave a bag at him and he will go away. Sam and Kate did this once, and it totally (partially) worked.

If you are sitting on the floor, or doing yoga, Buster will try to lick your face, or sit on you, or jump on you, or find a bone and eat it on top of you. It's one of his talents. Here he is "helping" John do yoga. See? He's helpful like that. Also, when you are cooking in the kitchen, he will sit right behind you so when you take a step back, you step on his paw. He will then yelp and scramble on the tile, causing you to drop a scalding hot pan of oil. That's Buster's way of helping.

He's a pretty smart dog. The picture at the top of this post is Buster's most awesome trick. He will balance a biscuit on his nose until you tell him to drop it. He'll sit there forever, even if you leave the room. If the biscuit falls off his nose, he'll stare at it forlornly until you let him eat it. He also knows the word "walk" so don't say it around him unless you're prepared to walk him.

Here's my favorite picture of Buster ever. Like master, like dog.

Alas, Buster is not a good guard dog. He is too gosh-darn friendly. He wants to be friends with every animal and person he sees, and he can't understand why they don't want to be friends with him. He doesn't get why everyone doesn't like his kisses. I've tried to tell him that you shouldn't get so close to people so fast, that not everyone likes French kissing so soon, but he doesn't understand. Probably because he's a dog and doesn't speak English.

When Buster gets up in the morning, he's really calm. He just wants to sit in my lap and sleep some more.

Buster has the grossest farts I've ever smelled.

But he's an all-around good dog, and I wouldn't trade him for any other.
P.S. Top and bottom photos are from our awesome wedding photographers, Bend the Light! They deserve many, many shout-outs. They totally were on board with my ideas for engagement photos, including the ones in our house.

This post is a joke (kinda)

Even my dog Buster is into this spending hiatus. He loves to recycle and reuse things. The other day, I was in the backyard with him, and he was running around with something black in his mouth. He spotted me and threw it at me. It turned out to be a dead bird.

See? Buster finds dead things and makes them into toys! So clever!

Yesterday, John told me that Buster found a dead lizard/killed a lizard and was playing with it. I've seen him do this with insects. He'll chase them around and pounce on them until they die. Buster is trying to be a conscientious consumer by making new friends and playing with them even after they're dead.

(OK, so I don't really think Buster is trying to recycle. But he does play with dead things. True story.)

What I did today instead of spending money

-Went to the Pearl Farmer's Market this morning. We bought lamb chops, beets, kohlrabi, onions, blackberries, spinach, leeks and peaches. I've eaten two peaches today, and we roasted the beets, cooked the lamb chops, and ate the spinach and onion in a salad. We're going to eat the leeks tomorrow. Clearly, we don't believe in delayed gratification.

Also, this doesn't count as spending money, because John paid for it. :) Hey, if I don't spend it, it doesn't count, right?

-Cleaned out my closet. I made a pile of stuff to give to Goodwill and rediscovered clothes that are cute but I don't wear them. It's like having new clothes!

-Organized the pantry. It is a crazy unorganized mess in there, but I straightened it.

-Cleaned off John's "work bench" aka his table in the office. (I'm beginning to realize most of my day sounds like what my friend Christine would call "married stuff." Mostly domestic crap.)

-Finished my mom's Mother's Day gift. Pictures to come. I like this idea so much, I'm going to do one for my dad for Father's Day!

-Thought about going to get ice cream, opted instead for pudding I had in the fridge.

-Cleaned the kitchen.

-Played with Buster. He's our 1.5 year old mutt. He's a good dog. I'll have to write a post on him someday.