Pirates and Alligators

I just found some old pictures on my camera from when I was fostering Ritter a few weeks ago.  I took Ritter, Ziggy and Tulsa on a walk by the river, and the walk went something like this:

We set off, with the dogs leading the way but not pulling (most of the time).  I had all three leashes attached to my belt which let me keep my hands free for important things like photography and skipping rocks.

We paused to watch the salvage ship at work.  It's busy digging up a pirate ship filled with treasure.  At least that's what I told Ritter.  

Then we stopped to watch the freshwater alligators (or so Ritter believes).  Ziggy wanted to go play in the water, but I said no. 

Things were progressing nicely until we came to several piles of bones on the trail.  I explained to Ritter that the alligators must have eaten one of the pirates.  I think he believed me.

The bones presented a challenge for me, since Ziggy is bone aggressive.  Fortunately there were plenty of pirate bones to go around.  Tulsa preferred to give hers a thorough sniffing.

Ritter was happy to roll in his pile of bones. Very happy.  Maybe pirate bones are like catnip for dogs.

Ziggy chose a bone to chew along the way, and I quickly got the dogs moving again.  We stopped once more to admire the view. Ziggy chose to lay in his favorite "frog leg" position, as close to the water as possible.

Tulsa and Ritter stayed with me up by the trail and enjoyed the cool breeze.  

Finally we had to go home, where we all slept soundly and dreamed of pirate treasure, or pirate bones.

Ritter is a Bad Dog!

I usually don't like to be too negative about a foster dog, because no one wants to adopt a dog that is criticized by the foster parent.  But fortunately for me, Ritter has already been adopted!  I'm keeping him for the week because his new family is out of town, but he's going to his new house on Sunday.  And I don't think they are aware of this blog, so it should be safe to tell you all about Ritter. 

Ritter pretended to be a perfect dog when he came to my house.  He was perfect at his last foster home, but he was being picked on by bigger dogs, so he came to my house for his own safety.  At least that's what his last foster mom said.  After keeping him for two weeks, I think maybe he came here for her own safety.  And I already warned her if he gets returned, he's going to have to go back to her house or no one will be safe, most especially him!  I was mostly kidding, but don't tell her that.

It all started off so easily.  He was said to be house-trained, and good with other dogs, perfectly well behaved in the house and very affectionate.  Sounds great, right?  And for three days, he was.  Then the real Ritter appeared.  And I found out none of those things was true.  Except the last, which turned out to be not a good thing at all. 

House-trained?  Not really.  Oh, most of the time he does fine, but it seems he can't pass an empty dog crate without lifting his leg and urinating into the crate.  This may be because he hates the crate and is showing his displeasure, but keep in mind the only time he does this is when he is outside of the crate.  And okay fine, he's only done this twice in two weeks, despite constantly being around dog crates, but it's still really annoying, especially when said crates had a blanket and several dog toys in the line of fire. 

Good with other dogs?  Well, okay, yes.  It's true he's great with other pets, but he's also great at getting them into trouble.  He's found at least three different places to escape the fenced in yard, and then Tulsa just follows him right out into the surrounding fields.  He's a very bad influence, and I'm constantly worried about them getting out and getting hurt.  At least he's finding all the weak spots in the new fence so I can get them sealed up one at a time!  In the meantime, they're bringing in ticks from the fields, which somehow find their way to the couch and the bed and onto me - all in spite of their monthly flea/tick preventative. 

Well behaved in the house?  Sure, if you don't count the computer cord he ate one day while I was at work.  I was so careful after that - I knew he couldn't be trusted.  The cord had the chew-repellent cover on it, but that didn't stop him from chewing it into little pieces.  Fortunately I had a replacement cord.  I kept the computer in another room unless I was using it so he couldn't hurt it.  Then the next night while I was typing away, my computer went dim, and I looked down, and Ritter had crawled under the desk to chew up the other cord.  This was when I officially deemed him a Bad Dog. 

Very affectionate.  In spite of his Bad Dog designation, it's hard to be mad at the little guy when he just wants to be close to you.  And by close to you, I mean right in your face, laying on your chest like he's a cat, close to you.  And the more you push him away, the closer he insists on being, as if by scooting closer he can make you like him more.  This was annoying, but I could live with it.  Until he started hanging out by the rose bush outside, which is currently surrounded by poison ivy.  So now I have poison ivy on my legs and arms, thanks to one very affectionate Bad Dog.  Sunday is not getting here soon enough!

Introducing Ritter

Ritter is a Beagle mix, possibly with Dachshund.  He is about a year old, and he's a great dog.  He is housetrained and gets along well with the other dogs and the cats.  He loves to cuddle and he usually wants to be a lap dog. He is a little guy, but I don't think he's figured that out yet.  

He loves to play with Tulsa and Ziggy, and I can often find them off by themselves plotting some sort of mischief.  I think it's obvious that Ritter is calling the shots in these little pow-wows.

I took Ritter home last weekend because Target went out on a trial adoption!  He was adopted by a family with two children and another dog who looks remarkably similar to Target.  I hope that this trial goes well and Target has found his forever home!