It’s June 19 and  according to the crazy calendar, it’s National Pets in Film Day.  So I found this quiz…

So what do you get when you are the pickiest dog on the planet?  Venison.  Dehydrated venison.  That’s the latest menu item for the picky Picard.  And it’s working.

Well today is a special day.  It’s Father’s Day – a day to honor dear old Dad.  My human’s Dad went to the Rainbow Bridge to meet some dogs  quite a few years ago – in fact we never got to meet him.  But we understand that it was my human’s father who was the real dog lover in the family – and that’s probably where my human acquired her love of dogs.  Not that her mother didn’t like them – but her father LOVED them.  It wasn’t until my human was in high school that she and her father were able to finally convince her mother that they NEEDED a dog.  Up until that point, my human had to get her dog fix with the neighbors’ dogs and at least one stray that she brought home.  Who her father found a home for, because her mother still wasn’t ready at that time for a dog.  But the first REAL dog in the household was Mickey – an Irish Setter.   My human’s father walked him in the fields near their home every day and he quickly learned that Mickey had an innate hunting instinct.  It was so good that one neighbor asked to borrow Mickey to go hunting.  My human’s father went along and carried a gun, but had no intention of shooting anything.  He wanted to look that part, though.  Mickey did a fabulous job pointing out  pheasants and he went on more that one hunting adventure. He and her father were best buddies. 

Yesterday was a day of many feelings in our house.

Well for a change I have some good news.  Some really good news!  The vet called yesterday and said that my blood work was good – and in fact, my liver values improved substantially!   You see, one of the problems with some of the medications for seizures is that they have side effects.  For example, phenobarbital, which is a go-to drug for seizures, can cause liver damage.  And I was on a therapeutic dosage,  but it was quite high.  So when I had blood tests back in January, I was starting to have liver problems. My vet and my human decided to reduce my dosage, and they added a new drug with fewer side effects.  As well, my human has been giving me milk thistle daily – which supports liver function.  So obviously it works!

I went to the Vet last night.  But don’t panic – it was for routine blood work.  My human busted in the house after work, told us to pee pronto, and then whisked me onto the grooming table for a 30 second brushing and she put a clip in my hair.  Because apparently one must look good at the vet. It was at that point that I realized something was up.  She opened the door and told me to head for the car. I had not figured out our destination  so I happily jumped in the crate –  thinking we were going somewhere fun. Wrong.

So we have talked before about the fact that we canines have a super ability to use our noses for scent detection.  We’ve talked about explosive dogs, cadaver dogs, drug dogs, dogs that can find bugs and rodents and dogs who can sniff out illegal goods – like antiquities.  But there’s a new job description in the scent detection profession – dogs who sniff out wildlife for conservation detection.  They are trained to find endangered species, or evidence of species.  In Australia, for example, they have dogs who are trained to find things like koala poop.  The technical term is scat.  I just call it poop.  I would be good at finding poop.  But I digress.  What  is really interesting in Australia are dogs who search for amphibians – they are trained to find the elusive Baw Baw frogs. These little guys live mostly underground in the Mount  Baw Baw Plateau.  Scientists are trying to find and save the Baw Baw frogs as there are reportedly less than 1200 left in the wild.  Apparently dogs have been trained to find the presence of creatures who live above ground, but these underground hoppers are a new category, at least in Australia. Australia has a captive breeding program for these frogs – and because they don’t start using their calls until they are 5 or 6 years old, scientists had to wait a long time after releasing them to know if they were surviving.  But now, the dogs can find them and let them know if their efforts are working.  How cool is that? I didn’t even know what a Baw Baw frog was. But now I do – and so do you, if you didn’t already know. It’s also interesting that the dogs they are using are Border Collies.  They say they have both good searching abilities and good stamina.  I think Einstein and I would get bored looking for Baw Baw frogs, and wouldn’t like trekking through the wilds to find them .  The FG would definitely not have the attention for that kind of work.  Playing with Baw BAw frogs, maybe.  But hunting for them – forget it. Kudos to the Border Collies. 

I did it again.  Might as well confess, because my human will no doubt tell people anyway.  My human left the door  to the Landry room unlatched.  Not wide open.  Just unlatched.  And I knew it.  So I pushed the door and I was in.  I headed straight for the trash can.  Where I found a great surprise- a huge fistful of dryer lint.  I know we have talked about this before.  But my human remains stumped as to why I find it so delectable.  I love it.  In fact,  I think they should make it an ice cream flavor.  Why not? I mean if you can get flavors like Brown Butter Bacon or Curry Mint – why not dryer lint?  Who do I call at Haagen Dazs? 

Life is pretty boring these days.  Why?  Because of the deck. It is beyond the normal annual scrape and touch up stage.  It needs MAJOR scraping, some boards need to be replaced and it needs a new paint job. My human has been scraping every chance she gets, and for some odd reason, she doesn’t want our help.  So we sit inside with our noses pressed against the glass, supervising every move.  It guess all our peeing out there didn’t cause the paint to disappear.

So you know how humans have habits that, at times, they are not even aware that they do?  Like twirl their hair, or bite their nails, or clear their throat.  Sometimes they realize what they are doing, and other times they are not even aware.  Well my human has a habit and it was pointed out to her recently.  She says things in threes.  Like “yes, yes, yes,” or “no, no, no.” It has become a bit of a joke at her work recently.  And WHY you you think she does it?  Why because of us, of course.  She has to give commands all the time – so there is a a continual repetition of everything in triplicate. “Sit, sit sit.” When she is trying to feed us.   “Stay, stay, stay.”  When she is trying to go in the garage or any room where she doesn’t want us to go. “Wait, wait, wait.” When she goes to take her shower or take the garbage out. The warning “Off, off, off.” When we are counter surfing. And the famous “Treat, treat, treat.” In a futile attempt to get us to return when we are running away OR when she is trying to take a photo. There’s also the famous “Hey, hey, hey” and also multiple repetitions of our names – “Viktor, Viktor, Viktor.”  Because we never respond to our name on the first call.  Mind you, there is also the El-Fro-Viktor. And the Fro-Vik-Elroy. And Vik-El-Frodo.  That’s when she is JUST trying to call one of us- but we get the three dog combo.  Often followed by “whatever your name is.”