Obsessions

Those of you that never met Abby probably don't know how insanely light-obsessed she was! She would go nuts over any sort of light or reflection. It was especially a challenge to cook at night. You have NO idea how much your pots, pans, and spatulas pick up the overhead lights in your kitchen and throw them back up on the ceiling until you have a light-obsessed dog! Making dinner was always chaos. I'd have to hunch over the stove/pots in an effort to shield any bouncing lights. Otherwise Abby would go nuts, barking at the ceiling, jumping up on the counters - and I was always afraid she'd hurt herself on the slippery wood floors.

As much as we miss that girl, it's kind of nice to be able to cook without doing a Hunchback of Notre Dame imitation. Every time I pull one our shiny stainless pots out of the cupboard, I still flinch, expecting to be charged by a frantic tripawd.

Luckily, Rita is oblivious to the magical mystical powers of shiny objects! Hooray! This is our first dog who's not light-obsessed and it's wonderful. (Those of you who knew our previous dog, Bailey, know how crazy she was for the laser-light. She had to be "buzzed", as we called it, with the laser at least three times/day - chasing it up and down the halls and around the house. Crazy. We couldn't even show Abby the laser because she didn't know when to quit.) I got Rita the shiniest tag ever, with little pink rhinestones, and I'm constantly noticing it bouncing reflections off the walls of the house or the car, and she could care less. It's awesome.

"I'll wear these as long as you want. Just give me the cookie."

However, Rita does have other obsessions - mainly treats and, after really getting a taste for one, birds. She hangs out by our pantry, where the treats are stashed, a lot. I'm hoping to use her treat obsessiveness to train her to wear Abby's old Doggles:

"Are we done yet?"

Abby never liked to wear them for more than a second, but I'm hoping I can train Rita to wear them, since she loves to ride with her head hanging out the car window. Forget the safety aspect - it's worth the training time invested for the Cute Factor alone!

Three Little Birds

You might recognize the title of this post as a cheery Bob Marley song in which the titular (isn't that a funny word?) birds on his doorstep sing sweet songs and tell him not to worry, "cuz every little thing's gonna be all right."

Sadly, the three little birds I'm thinking of didn't do so well on my doorstep - or not in our backyard anyway. Every little thing was not all right. In fact, every little birdy thing was most definitely B*A*D.

First, a few years ago, there was the teenage-looking (all skinny and dorky) mourning dove that Bailey pounced on when it tried to leave the nest. (Mike had to put it in a bag and bop it one to put it out of it's misery, poor thing! And by that, I mean poor Mike, cuz he was very traumatized by the experience, what with being known as Mike of Assisi after all... Maybe not so much after me telling that story.) The mourning doves were aptly named that day.

Then, last year, there was the little birdie of some sort that Abby plucked out of a bush in our yard and promptly ate--feet, beak, feathers and all. (Amazingly, she suffered no ill side effects!) A bird in the bush may be worth half a bird in the hand (right? cuz a bird in the hand equals two in the bush...), but a bird in the mouth trumps all!

Finally, we come to this morning, when a sparrow made the mistake of flying in our slightly open sliding glass door. I was brushing my teeth when I heard a commotion in motion in our sunroom. The bird zoomed across the sunroom, with Rita in hot pursuit and smacked right into the far window. Stunned, it fell to the floor, and she pounced on it. I was trying to yell, "Leave it!", but that's not easy when your mouth is full of toothpaste! Rita tried to bring it to me. (Um, no thank you!) so I pointed outside and she took it out in the backyard where she tossed it around like a hackysack. Luckily it was an ex-bird by then! I was afraid she'd eat it, but she dug a hole and buried it. Nice of her to give it a proper burial. (Unfortunately, I had the fun task of beating her back out to the hole when we got home from Fiesta Island and digging up and disposing of the bird before she could toss it around some more!)

Today I also took Rita with me to PetSmart. She loves to go in there and look at all the colorful little song birds hopping around in their glass enclosures in the center of the store. She was sitting there, staring at them, fascinated, when she leapt straight up in the air about three feet - about to the same height as the little birdies on their perch. Luckily the glass kept the birdies safe, although they did look concerned. We got out of there after that because I didn't want to find out if PetSmart has a "you eat it, you buy it" policy.

It's a dog eat bird world out there.

Since no post is complete without a photo, here's a pic John took of Rita last week when she met up with Bernie bin Laden and Linda. She LOVES to ride with her head out the window. (We need to teach her to wear Abby's old doggles.)

And here's our latest felting endeavor - a little wooly Cass in his "gladiator suit":