Toby’s new home November 8, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Life At Home, N95 pictures, Toby.Tags: backyard, dog house, kennel, poodle, scent, shih tzu, Toby
add a comment
No, Toby hasn’t been shafted. He still lives with us. Readers can rest easy.
I’ve been looking for a dog house for Toby to seek shelter from and more importantly, a place to rest. Previously, he had used his doggy door to enter the laundry, where it’s warm and secure. But doing that left our security door open, and we didn’t spend hundreds of dollars on a new security door so it’s left unused.
I’ve read a lot on dog forums how difficult it is to persuade your four-legged friend to get into the dog house. Dogs – when left outside – don’t tend to stray too far from the entry point into the home. So with that in mind, I moved things around the backyard to accomodate his new dog house and placed it right by the back door. This way the first thing he sees when he leaves his house is the entry to his ‘other’ house.
Getting him into the house was less stress-free than I had envisioned. Many owners recall trying to bait them with food, sitting next to the dog house to arouse the dog’s curiosity or even getting into the dog house.
My problem, however was three-fold.
Do you kiss your dog? June 13, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Life At Home, Michele, N95 pictures, Observations, Toby.Tags: advocate, cat, cattle, creek, dog, doody, face, faeces, frontal, full, jawbone, kiss, kissing your dog, lick, lip, metro, pee, revolution, saliva, salty, scent, sucking, Toby, tongue
add a comment
Nothing but a nice, cold kiss to soothe the fraying nerves of an anxious Toby
Hello. I hope you have all been well.
Do you kiss your dog? As in, full frontal-no reservations-lip on lip-sometimes tongue-saliva smothering-face sucking-kiss?
Okay I jest with some of the seat squirming antics. Personally, I restrict my kisses and sometimes loving kicks to Toby’s face to just his nose (it’s almost always cold and wet; that’s a good thing) and on days when I know he’s just been cleaned and hasn’t been grovelling his face into some other dogs’ faeces, I allow him to lick my mouth and face.
Working in a dog environment, I get to interact a lot with owners and our conversations range from the mundane (“what kind of diet is your dog on?”) to the nitty gritty (“is he on Advocate? I heard Revolution is better!”). Most times, the conversations degenerates from the serious into a public declaration of how much their dog is loved. And it degenerates even further when they ask me whether I have a furry friend at home myself. Me? Of course! I don’t just love him, I kiss him too!
Often, that line alone is enough to put some dog owners off. Regardless of the dog’s size or breed, they are curious chumps and the likelihood of them stuffing their face silly into a dead possum, chook or (bless me!) his own faeces is relatively common.
Blink and you’ll miss.
Dog owners often tell funny stories of their dogs getting up to mischief and putting God knows what into their mouths. The worst I’ve ever seen Toby clean his teeth with are the skeletal remains of a *insert animal* when we went walking along a creek. He had disappeared behind some bushes for awhile, and when I called out to him, he reappeared with half a jawbone of an animal that had obviously passed on at that same spot. I didn’t know whether to feel disgust or laugh at Toby’s antics. Afterall, what do you say to a dog who’s obviously happy to find a chew toy and was wagging his tail furiously to show off his trophy.
Toby – Skinny or otherwise? February 23, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Life At Home, N95 pictures, Toby.Tags: cute, fluffy, hypoallergenic, N95 pictures, poodle, shenanigans, skinny, skinny jeans, Toby, winter
2 comments
Yet more treasure from the archives of my N95. It’s a wonder how dogs look really fluffy and cute with their thick coats on and look like a pair of skinny jeans the moment their coat is shaved off.
I took this picture in the winter just gone. I haven’t been the best Daddy last year (no excuses!) and had allowed Toby’s hair (How exclusive poodles are. They have first dibs on the term ‘hair’ instead of ‘fur’ due to their hypoallergenic qualities) to grow to an unmanageable length until it began to matt.
Granted, finances were difficult last year so Toby’s welfare was secondary to the general shenanigans of the household, but no longer. Things are a lot better now, and Toby is getting the best care. He always had our love and attention, but now he truly is spoilt. Oh well, how’s that a bad thing? :O
Life really is hard when you’re cute and adorable. I’m just glad Toby doesn’t look anything like this now. Michele wouldn’t be too pleased if a skinny chicken posed together with us on our wedding day.
Toby and Friend February 22, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Life At Home, N95 pictures, Toby.Tags: dog, Jerry, N95 pictures, Nseries, PC Suite, pomeranian, poodle, Toby
add a comment
Believe it or not, I have six months of images and videos stored in my Nokia N95 (8GB) I have not transferred to my computer for uploading. The lineup of events – mostly wedding plans, job-seeking and the in-laws coming over – over these months have kept me occupied for long periods of time and I finally got around to figuring out an extremely non-user friendly Nokia’s mobile-to-computer Nseries PC Suite.
I did try transferring the images and videos to my computer once, but even a technology-proficient bloke like me found the Nseries PC Suite to be a bit of a challenge. Whatever happened to a simply click and transfer? It got to a point where I had too many valuable images and videos stored on my mobile and last weekend, out of pure frustration, I forced myself to sit down and figure out the programme.
As it turned out, the programme wasn’t that challenging. It just required a fair bit of finesse and it only made sense to someone who truly appreciated the power of a smart phone. Me? I just bought the N95 because it was free on a two-year plan, and it was the best mobile on the market last year, bar the Blackberry and what-not fruit ranges of mobiles.
Most of the images and videos from the N95 are just shots of Toby and Michele doing cutesy stuff. Therefore, I’ve created a new category of posts completely dedicated to my N95 and my family.
Today, it’s images of Toby and Jerry, a pomeranian. Jerry belongs to our lovely friend (and our Maid-of-honour!) Kayleen, who was away for a few days and left Jerry under our care. They’ve met up and played themselves silly together many times, but it was their first night together. How lovely.
Don’t think Jerry appreciated being placed in the company of a strange environment. Toby didn’t like it either, so it was a yelp and whine fest for several hours, before both dogs tired out and fell asleep. These images were taken at an hourly interval. The bottom picture was taken three hours into their ‘ordeal’. They just wouldn’t sleep!
