A Bad Day

There were some unexpected changes in our neighborhood yesterday and I'd be hard pressed to say that I'm really all that sad about the more major of the changes. You see, our neighbor's maladjusted pit bull was playing a little too vigorously and accidentally broke the back of their old cat.

The old cat was close to 20 years old and was in declining health and had become less and less able to get out of the way. The other three dogs were pretty respectful of the old cat. But the pit bull had, well, it had attitude issues.

I learned last night that the pit had accidentally bitten one of the other dogs a couple of days prior. The bite was bad enough to need some surgery and a drainage tube installed.

The pit bull always creeped me out, it always looked at me with an expression of "Yeah, I could probably kill you if I wanted to" and would skulk around. I don't doubt that the dog was badly treated very, very early on its life and, as a result, had permanent issues. But that doesn't mean I enjoyed being around him. The pic there is of him as a puppy, already kind of spooked by much of his new world. But he was a pretty cute pup.

Oh yeah, side note, it probably didn't help that he hadn't been fixed and was swaggering around with a set of balls.

Anyway, the cat got its back broken and had to be taken to the vet to put him down and out of his misery. Already a really tough day. And then the mother next door made the decision that the pit had to go as well. Which, I think was the right thing to do.

But that doesn't make their hearts any lighter or their house any less emptier for the dual loss of both a long cherished cat and a dog that they had come to love but knew things were not going to improve and could get much, much worse.

I should also note now that the pit bull was not, as was first reported (and I posted here about) to me, responsible for the death of the other neighbor's chihuahua. The chi pup was accidentally stepped on by the largest of the four dogs next door and its back was accidentally broken. Which is a tragic accident for all concerned since the big black lab next door is just an over-sized sweetheart.

For my own part, I'm kind of relieved that this dangerous dog is no longer next door. That there will be no more battles through the fence with my dog. That I won't have to keep a close eye on my kids when we happened to be out front when the pit was around. I feel bad for my neighbors but I am happy that the maladjusted and unpleasant dog is no longer around.

Reality Check

Today started off reasonably well, I got to sleep in until after 8. The whole family took a trip up to Soquel to the chiropractor, my wife's tweaked neck was still giving her trouble and it was time for my regular appointment. We got to see a good friend who's now working at the chiro office. I got to give her the good news that one of the companies we used to work for has finally folded.

Yes, the market research company that screwed me over badly a few years ago has finally collapsed under the weight of its own arrogant stupidity. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving company.

We got back home, had some lunch and that's about when the day went sideways. Remember the cute chihuahua puppy from the other day? Well, our neighbor with her four dogs, one of which is a maladjusted pit bull, were let out to get a little exercise. The pit bull raced up the driveway and around the corner. It grabbed the chihuahua in its mouth, bit it and then flung it away. It was enough to kill the poor little chihuahua almost instantly.

The worst part of it all was that the chihuahua's family, including three very young girls, were all there to witness it. They saw it happen but it happened so fast that nobody could do anything to stop it. And this poor little puppy died. The maladjusted pit bull was yelled at all the way home but the damage was done.

It really, really put a big reality check on me. I went up to see if there was anything I could do for the family. I saw the poor little bloody dead puppy in the box. I heard the three girls crying. It about broke my heart.

And the pit bull? The pit bull gets a ticket and that's about it. The pit killed another animal, a loved family pet and its owners just get a ticket. I'm sorry but any dog that kills another dog needs to be put down. I've never been comfortable around that dog, I always keep my guard up and I keep myself between it and my kids. I don't trust it and I for damned sure don't want it outside without being on a leash ever again.

It went from being a reasonably good day to being a pretty sad day. Luckily though, neither of my boys were overly aware of what happened. They could tell something went down but not what it was. All they know is that the little puppy they just played with a couple of days ago isn't going to be around to play with anymore.

Life is fleeting. Life is unfair. Life can be stolen away in the blink of an eye. Live life like every moment just may be your last.

Snow Day Wrap Up

Until we started to see the snow on the side of the road, some four plus hours after leaving home, I wasn't convinced we were going to actually get to the snow before we reached the closed off mountain pass at Sonora. But it started with chunks of dirty piled up snow on the side of the road and progressed until the entire hillsides were covered in the beautiful white stuff.

With some trepidation, we decided that the outing would be an all-family outing. That means including Nande, who's not known for being an especially calm or pleasant traveling dog. She has a tendency to breathe heavily, whuffle and whine and occasionally bark for no apparent reason. She can be quite trying on the nerves.

But she'd never been to the snow, nor had Sullivan. And we decided to give it a try. We also decided not to try and subject the cat to the journey and let her have a day at home alone. We hadn't counted on Nande's rather obnoxious flatulence but we dealt with it as best we could. She was surprisingly pretty good in the car aside from when we were on surface streets and she could find things to bark at.

We chose to head up to Sonora because it would give us a chance to stop by my wife's parents to say goodbye to the boys' cousins who were heading back to Colorado shortly.

From Pleasanton we headed east on 580 for several hours making one quick and awesomely delicious stop at an In 'n' Out Burger along the way. Why there is no In 'n' Out in Santa Cruz is a complete mystery to me. They have the best fast food burgers anywhere.

Once we got to the hills, I changed my GPS over to altitude to keep track of our climb. We started out just a few hundred feet above sea level and quickly climbed to about 2000 feet and then kept going up and up and up. We saw snow along the side of the road at around 4500 feet and then the hills were good and covered by about 5000.

Once we'd gotten into the snow country, the next step was finding a good spot to get off the road and into the snow. The first good candidate was a huge open sledding hill but it was also pretty full of people and, we later learned, bottomed out into a creek that got a bunch of sledders soaked. We kept going until we came upon a small turnout with a monster snow removal machine and a couple of cars. It turned out to be the perfect spot for us.

There were some paths already stomped into the snow which made life alot easier for Nande as she got used to this new world. She didn't much care for going off trail for a little while when her first foray ended up with her chest deep in the snow. After she got used to it, she had no problems with going anywhere and really had a ball.

Sully needed a little acclimatization as well to get his snow legs under him but he got used to it as well and had lots of fun sliding face first down small hills, climbing up slippery slopes and, as Grady loved to do too, eating the snow.

Grady was very small when we were last in the snow but he had zero problems getting down with his wintery self. I think we were there for less than five minutes before he started chucking snowballs at me.

My wife only wished she'd had some boots but otherwise had a ball riding down the hill on our shiny new hippy sled (it looked like a plastic tie-dye) and playing with Sully.

I enjoyed the heck out of myself doing some sledding, tossing snowballs at Nande and the boys and taking lots of pictures.

We had prepared for some hard core winter action with extra layers, changes of clothes, waterproofed gear and the like but we really didn't need much of it at all. The spot where we'd stopped was sunny and, maybe not quite warm, but it wasn't cold at all. I found myself peeled down to just my long sleeved shirt in no time.

We literally could not have chosen a better spot with better weather. The snow had a crust on it which made it fun to walk on, sometimes you sank in, other times you didn't. Both Grady and Sully got stuck a couple of times but they took it in stride and really just had a ball. Nande must have run miles and miles in the snow, she had as much fun as anyone else even when she'd step off the trail and find herself deep in the snow. She figured out how to jump like a jack rabbit to get herself free and to continue her off-trail forays.

Major kudos to my wife for suggesting the trip and putting together much of the gear, food and clothes we would need. Kudos to me for driving up and back, thinking to fill up our big thermos with delicious coffee that was so, so, so awesome when we were packing back up to leave. Kudos to the boys for being patient on the drive there and back and major kudos to Nande for going many miles to dispel the myth that she's not a good traveling dog.

Here's a taste of what we saw at the top of the hill. The full sized version is freakin' huge and awesome!

It Was Good Fun Until the Wiener Dog Bit Me

I'm finding that the more I refer to it as a wiener dog, the less annoyed I am about the whole thing. The cut to the chase is that we went to a birthday party and a wiener dog bit me, bit me good really. Got a good chunk taken out of my right hand near my thumb.

But up until that moment, we'd been having a good time at kid's birthday party up in the hills. The main attraction was an inflatable water slide that was usable by all but the smallest of the kids there.

And they used the heck out of it, it was complete pandemonium when it first went into use. Lots of fun and chaos and no smacked heads at all, which was astonishing to me and some of the other parents. But things settled down fairly quickly and really the slide kept a whole bunch of kids happily occupied for a good while.

When it came time to tear into the pinata (a rather large Hello Kitty model), there were just four kids left on the water slide, my two boys, an older girl and a same age as Sully boy. Despite repeated mentions of a pending candy storm, none of the kids were ready to stop sliding yet.

Grady ended up getting out just a minute or two before before the pinata was split open and the candy fell. His candy gathering game has improved markedly and he certainly got his share of sugary loot. Sully did not but there were enough adult allies to put together a bag for him too.

And yes, once the candy was rolling, the slide was forgotten.

It was during the candy munching period that the little dachshund wiener dog got very upset at being tied up and found a tasty hand to lash out on. And the only positive in it is that the dog bit me and not Sullivan who was sitting closer and had the advantage of being lightly coated in chocolate.

But I got to be the lucky one and get tagged. It isn't a deep bite but it is a pretty good one, leaving a decent flap of skin loose. It also put a pretty immediate damper on the party and made getting home a little bit of a challenge.

Now its a little more than a day later and it looks alot better than it did yesterday and no signs of infection though I did get permission to chop off the little dog's head if I needed to.

I don't think it'll come to that but I also don't think I'm going to be riding any bikes anytime soon.

1 - 2 - 3 Awwwwww!

Babies Taste Good

One of many, many precious moments from the puppy invasion the other day. Our neighbor's nephew brought over his four pit bull puppies to see if he could pawn a couple off on some of us.

We successfully resisted the urge to buy up one of these adorable little dogs but our neighbors were unable to resist and got not one but two of them. Which is fine by me, more dogs is more better and now we've got five dogs in three houses.

Plenty of really great shots from the afternoon playing with them. This one ranks as one of the best, for sure. And you can't even tell that Sully is a drooling machine these days (teething seems to do that).
Here are a couple more pics with some others to follow.

Big Ben is Man's Best Friend's Best Friend

Big Ben to donate to police K-9 units

"The grant will be distributed to the Cleveland Division of Police's Canine Unit to purchase an explosive detection canine, dog training and a canine protective vest," the news release from Roethlisberger's agent, Ryan Tollner, read.

"It's something we decided to do, my foundation is doing, after the police dog in my hometown got shot and killed. We decided to do it for every away city I play in and every time we play at home -- pick a department here in Pittsburgh to donate to," Roethlisberger said yesterday.

Now this makes me incredibly happy to be a Big Ben fan and a Steelers fan. The example he is setting is one I hope other players decide to emulate.

Found via David Grenier, a blog I need to get back to reading regularly again. Done (added to my Bloglines) and done (added to my links on the right there).

Today Was a Good Day

We Have Liftoff!

Anyday where you can go to the beach, play with your dog, snap some pics and catch a great shot like this can't be a bad day.

It was chilly out but warm enough for a tank top and shorts. We walked up and down the almost deserted beach for a while, I threw scoops of sand for Nande and she had a ball running after it.

That and I found a neat little spinning top with a frog in it on the beach, which I'm sure Grady will love.

I'm trying to take advantage of my time out of work as best I can. Today was either a beach day or we were going trail riding. Maybe that'll happen tomorrow!

The 80% Compliant Dog

That might be too generous really.

We have a dog. She's a rather good sized hound with a big personality and a dominant streak in her. She believes that she's the alpha with pretty much everyone she's around. With me being the partial exception.

As she's grown up over the last couple of years, she's developed a strong spirit that makes her less than wholly compliant with all commands. She takes her time sitting, she takes her time turning around and coming back, she is a willful and headstrong creature.

Sometimes it gets her, meaning me, into trouble. The other day, the mailman was several houses down the street and still out of sight. I was outside talking with my neighbor, Nande was playing around with her two dogs. And then, bam, like a bolt, she takes off toward the mailman. She means no harm, she's just excited to see someone new. The fact that she's 90 pounds of teeth and dog coming at someone who may or may not even like dogs doesn't really play into her choice of actions.

She's also changed when we go for walks at the dog park with the two boys. She treats the double stroller (fighter style, not that side by side stuff) like home turf and will keep other dogs from getting too close. And, from reports from my wife, she's less controlled and controllable when I'm not out with them.

Part of this lay off time is being spent working with her to reinforce her training again. Reinforce to her that she really isn't in control and has never been the one in control. But she remains pretty skeptical.

With another nice day like today, we'll be hitting the beach tomorrow and that should be a really good time. Its been a little while.