My Attempt to Secure the Dog-Free Zone

Forest doesn’t shed so he has free reign of most of house. He can play in every room and take a nap on any piece of furniture, but the bed Nick and I share is officially off limits. Although Forest hasn’t irritated Nick’s allergies, we thought it would be smart to have one place in the house that was dog-free, and what better place than the bed in which Nick spends 7+straight hours a day.

Our puppy has short, stubby legs and our bed has a thick mattress that raises it a tad, so we assumed Forest wouldn’t be able to jump on to it. A few months ago he attempted to get on the bed, but he didn’t estimate the distance correctly and awkwardly crashed into the side of it. Instead of yelling at him, I couldn’t help but just laugh. He’s a stubborn puppy though. A few weeks later he successfully made it onto the bed, but quickly jumped off after a barrage of shouts from his parents. Last week, I came out of the shower to find Forest curled up at the end of our bed. He just looked confused when I yelled at him, but quickly realized his mistake when Nick chimed in. We started to realize that no place in our home may be safe from the puppy.

Last night, Kansas City was struck by a vicious thunderstorm. Forest freaked out. He didn’t like the rolling thunder that shook our house or the bright flashes of lighting coming thru the windows. Nick is out of town on business this week, so unlike a previous storm encounter, the puppy didn’t have Daddy to run to. He followed me around most of the night, whimpering and jumping on my legs. At one point, I noticed that Forest had scampered off somewhere. I went looking for him, wondering where the puppy would seek comfort during a storm. I really should have known better.  I found Forest sprawled across our pillows on the bed. He definitely understood that he was being bad when I yelled at him and shamefully sulk off the bed.

A few hours later, I tried to go to sleep with what sounded like a hurricane raging outside my window.  Forest didn’t sleep. Instead he whimpered and stood on his hind legs at the side of the bed so his head was as close as possible to mine. Around 1 am, bad puppy breath woke me up. As soon as I lifted my head from my pillow, Forest sprung from the floor and landed at my side. I shouted, I cursed, I even tried shoving him away, but Forest refused to get off the bed. Part of me, the really tired part, tried to justify letting him sleep there. He would finally shut up, and I could always wash the sheets the following day before Nick got home. A loud clap of thunder woke me up a little more and l knew that it wouldn’t be fair to let him sleep on the bed for one night. He would assume sleeping on the bed was ok, and would probably get really confused when I yelled at him for getting on the bed the next night. I briefly considered locking Forest in his crate, but in the past even that hasn’t quieted him up when a thunderstorm was rolling through.

My sleep-depraved brain could only think of one other solution. I dragged my pillows into the guest room and slept on the futon with the puppy. I think it was a small victory in self-control, but also just feel like the damn dog has whipped me good.

My Attempt to Secure the Dog-Free Zone

Happy Father's Day!

Unlike my Mother's Day post, I actually planned ahead this time and saved a Daddy-related post for Father's Day. Please don't mistake this as a sign that I'm becoming more responsible, still haven't bought those wedding gifts.

I never thought Forest had a favorite parent. If Nick and I are both puttering around the house, the puppy will usually stick with me. If I'm working in the upstairs office and Nick is watching TV downstairs, Forest will most likely stay with Nick. If the puppy had to choose one of our cars to ride in, he would pick mine (probably because my car is lower to the ground, making it easier for the stubby-legged puppy to get in). But this week Forest made it clear that in a specific situation, Nick is his preferred parental figure.

We had a brief thunderstorm on Thursday. Forest doesn't like the rain, but he usually doesn't make much commotion and has even slept thru storms before.  However something about this storm transformed Forest into a total wuss. The puppy huddled in the corner of the kitchen and started shaking. He wouldn't eat any food or drink water. At first we thought he was sick. Then he began following Nick around the house. Forest is a big cuddlier, but he was always suave about it, like "Oh you're sitting on the couch now? I guess I'll just meander on to your lap for a quick nap." But during the storm, Forest was adamant about being as close to Nick as possible. For example, our puppy usually hates sitting in office chairs. He gets all fidgety like he thinks there's not enough room and he's afraid he's going to fall off. On Thursday, Forest was jumping on Nick's legs trying to claw his way up onto the office chair. I tried calling Forest to join me on the couch, but nope, Forest wanted to sit in Dad's lap, screw Mom.

We finally came to the conclusion that the thunder was frightening our puppy. Although Forest loved his Mommy, only Daddy would suffice when Forest was really scared.

So in celebration of Father's Day, here are some pictures of the Dads in Forest's life.  Starting, of course, with Forest's Daddy:

Forest's grandfathers, Grandpa Chuck…

…Grandpa Neil...

...and Grandpa John:

Uncle Jason, who kindly acts as Forest's surrogate Dad when we're on vacation:

And finally, Great Uncle Scott:

Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Father's Day!

Forest's First Hailstorm

A big thunderstorm is passing thru, randomly dumping rain and hail. Forest is not liking the thunder and lightning, but he's loving the hail. I let our puppy go outside during a pause in the madness.

"Uh, what are these?"

 He was thrilled to find frozen rain all over the ground.

"Yay, just like ice cubes! Nom nom nom"

Holy smokes, Forest is so happy he's smiling!!!

Forest's First Hailstorm

(Winter) iPhone Puppy

In honor of the beautiful weather, I've decided it's time to replace the snowy photo that's been my iPhone desktop for a couple of months, as adorable as it may be...

This is the full-sized photo I cropped for my iPhone desktop. Nick was helping his brother Jason shovel his driveway in Iowa while Forest played in the snow. 

That Iowa snow pile is taller than our puppy. Missouri has had some crappy weather this year but we can't complain to any of our Iowa family members (spoilsports).

Now I just need a spring-time photo of Forest running thru a field of wildflowers or pausing next to a trickling stream.

(Winter) iPhone Puppy

Snow Dog

We had one blissful week without snow before Mother Nature gave us the middle finger and chucked another 4 inches at us. Nick and I are not happy; Forest is thrilled.

  Our puppy dislikes rain and water but he loves snow.

Based on his initial reaction to snow, we weren't anticipating this type of obsession. Forest was a little confused the first time he encountered snow.

I don't think he was expecting the ground to be so cold or slushy because he kept picking up his paws one at a time like "ohhh, this isn't how the ground usually feels, is this right?"

He slowly made his way into the yard…sniffing the air…licking the grass…and repeatedly looking back at us like he was expecting Nick or I to suddenly start yelling at him to get off of the weird white stuff on the ground.

On that first day he happily came back inside after a few minutes. But nowadays it's a 50/50 chance that we'll have to march into the yard and carry the puppy back into the house.

Snow makes our puppy very hyper. He'll literally bounce around the yard like a caffeinated bunny rabbit. On several different occasions I've tried to tape this spectacle but the video always comes out all shaky because I'm giggling too much.

 Zoom zoom...

We've been on vacation a lot and just overall lazy this winter so we've only shoveled snow around four times (which is like three times more often that it's been shoveled any other year). Thus our sidewalks and driveway have spent about 75% of this winter covered in ice and snow. In the past we've tried to train Forest to only go potty on the grass, but all of this snow has really confused him. I'll often find him taking a leak on the driveway or a big dump on the sidewalk. Can't yell at the poor puppy because it's not like he's going to understand "No, don't go bathroom in that snow pile, move over one foot and lay some pipe in this snow pile instead." (FYI, don't blame me, "lay some pipe" is one of Nick's numerous euphemisms to describe Forest's potty breaks).

Snow butt.

Luckily the snow is melting very quickly, so hopefully we won't encounter this wild beast again this year...

(To be fair, he really needed a haircut, there's a bush with extra snow and wild branches directly behind him and there was a snowstorm raging around us but still, yikes puppy.)

Snow Dog