We don’t have a doorbell right now. The hardwired one broke, years ago, and the previous tenant had a wireless one that she apparently took with her. We bought a battery-operated one but haven’t been able to get it together to put the batteries in both the bell and the wireless button, then stick the thing to the doorframe.
It only matters when we’re expecting a package or a takeout order, but doorbells are a useful thing to have. Say, when your neighbor wants to get your attention because they think your dog is wandering around free outside.
I was talking to a neighbor, the owner of one of Zoe’s (many) pit bull friends. “I rang your doorbell yesterday, around 9:30,” she said. “There was a black dog on your porch, and I thought it was yours. I wanted to let you know she was out.” Zoe was snuggled up to me in bed at the time, so it wasn’t her. Who was this mysterious black dog?
We found out a few days later. A skinny, scruffy-looking gray dog that looked like some kind of poodle-spaniel mix wandered in front of us. I wanted to pet him and check his collar for an ID tag so he could go home, but Zoe wouldn’t stop barking. Why? She usually runs up to other dogs and tries to play with them.
I began to call him Ghost Dog, and looked for him around the neighborhood. I even posted a “found” notice on Craigslist. But I never saw him again.
I hope you’re clean, comfy, and curled up in your warm dog bed at home after eating a nice bowl of kibble, Ghost Dog.
Clips of “Rex Is Not Your Lawyer” are out on YouTube. Or, well, maybe they’ve been out for a while, and I missed them. This one, however, is new.
I’ve heard him do an American accent before, but one was rather bad, and the other… good, but not good enough to pass for someone from Chicago.
This clip? There’s no plot context, but… I’m impressed. Startled, at first.
Sometimes, working with a dog in your lap can work. Not, however, with this particular dog and this particular desk.
Zoe doesn’t like kibble. I think she was raised on canned food, or maybe lower quality kibble with strong artificial flavors. She hasn’t liked any brand I’ve tried, and between samples and bags I think we’re over up to seven or eight different kinds. In less than three months.
I finally gave in and started giving her some canned food mixed with kibble.. I ran out of cans, though, and gave her just kibble today. She won’t touch it. She ate one or two pieces, left the rest, and stared at me pitifully all evening.
While I was getting ready for bed, I didn’t notice that she was out of my sight. I thought she was napping. I heard rustling in the kitchen, and discovered that Zoe had pulled a bag of onions out of a lower cabinet that I had left open, and tried to eat them through the mesh. She had managed to gnaw a nice chunk off one onion. (Onions are poisonous to dogs, but she doesn’t care.)
She’s always interested in human food, but it’s worse when she’s this hungry. And she’s ravenous because her horrible mean human won’t give her the food she wants.
Brat.
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This is Zoe trying to engage her Aunt Maggie in a super-fun doggie romp. Maggie isn’t interested, and doesn’t seem to understand what Zoe is even talking about.
Update: Mom reports that when she played the video, Maggie started barking at it.
Can you imagine a Woodstock-style festival on the rolling pastures of Tug Hill, New York? I guess it makes almost as much sense as Bethel. My dad wrote about it, here.
All told, the windmills turned out to be more profitable and quieter neighbors.
Unfortunately, the text of this isn’t online. But I’ve reproduced it here, just for you. read more…
Me: Zoe likes to chase cats. But she’ll learn her lesson.
AJ: That’s right. Cats have pointy ends.
Me: Five of them.
AJ: Exactly.
Me: You know that if they could, they’d evolve spikes on their tails. Like dinosaurs.
AJ: They’d also want to fly. And shoot fire out of their mouths.
Taunting me with not one, BUT TWO yuppie grocery establishments I don’t have access to here in the hinterlands of eastern New York! Jerks.
A month ago today, I adopted Zoe the cocker spaniel from the Capital District Humane Association. I went to an adoption clinic hoping to meet a different dog, but she had an adoption pending and was too shy to attend a clinic. They had just taken in lovely Zoe, and I stopped to take a picture of her because she looked so much like my parents’ dog, Maggie. She was sweet and cute, and I talked to and petted her just as I did all of the other dogs at the clinic. I left an application with the group and went home.
A few days later, someone from the group called. The dog I was interested in was adopted, she told me, but what kind of dog was I interested in? I explained that my family has had cocker spaniels since I was eight years old, and that was about the size and temperament of dog I was looking for.
Well. “Did you meet Zoe, the little cocker we had at the clinic?” she asked.
“Yes. She’s so sweet! I loved her.” Ten days later, I brought her home.
Here’s her description from the brief time she was on Petfinder and the rescue group’s page:
Zoe
Cocker SpanielSize: small
Sex: female
Age: adultNotes: Zoe is a five-year-old, spayed female, black Cocker Spaniel. She is just about the perfect dog–sweet, well-behaved, and great with everyone.
She’s housebroken and crate trained. We’d like to see Zoe be adopted by someone who knows and loves this breed of dog. Zoe lost her home due to a divorce in the family.
I have to agree. She’s the perfect dog for me, at least. We’re a good personality match.
“Loves everyone?” Yes. To a fault. It’s a struggle to keep her from running up to everyone she sees on a walk. People we meet on the sidewalk, people sitting on their front porches, people gardening…. She’s getting better about this, but she’s friendly to a fault. Not everyone likes dogs, and a few toddlers have been scared of her. (All 16 pounds of her.) She is especially eager to run up to kids–her previous owners were a family with three of them. This bad but not as bad as it could be–I’ve interacted with more of my neighbors in the last four weeks than I did in four years living in my old apartment.
I’ve learned that she’s obsessed with fruit. I think you could put a plate of steak and a plate of watermelon in front of her, and she’d go for the watermelon. I haven’t tested this, though. She peeled three bananas with her paws and teeth and ate them last night. Talent.
She doesn’t bark much, which is a good quality for an apartment dog. She loves to cuddle and sit in my lap, which I enjoy.
We’ve had a happy month together.