Friday the 25th. September
11:45 pm
Bubba is 100% fine. I say that, so nobody’s blood pressure gets up during this story.
I was checking on Bubba before I left. Buddy had passed out on the couch, pretty much after he was nuzzling me for attention. He had jumped up to the back of the couch, and closed his eyes faster than I’ve ever seen him go to sleep. Yesterday should have been the tired day, after 4 hours at the groomer. Today shouldn’t be, but he was really tired.
I couldn’t find Bubba. He had gone back to the bedroom while I finished cleaning. He wasn’t in the beds. I looked to see if he was on the bed, which was silly since he can’t jump that high. I looked alongside the bed. And then I heard him – an awful, strangled wheezing sound. I looked at the beds again, all empty. And then I saw him, out on the deck, in the dark, lying flat on his side, experiencing some sort of major respiratory distress. I panicked. I started trying to pry the sliding glass door open to get to him.
And then he came out walking from the last bed in the room, moving very casually, where he had been curled up, apparently. He had been hidden, resting in a segment of the last dog bed that was behind the air conditioning unit. I could see 70% of the bed from the other side of the room, making it look empty – but with plenty of room where a Chihuahua could sleep unseen.
He was having one of his coughing fits, which was muffled some by the AC unit blocking the sound and making it sound “behind glass”-ish, making it sound like he was outside. His tail was wagging. He was happy to see me and coming to “say hi”. I might have broken the door to get to him if he hadn’t popped out when he did. The “Bubba” I saw on the deck was a reflection of the oval-shaped dog bed. The sound of the coughing, which put me into state where I “saw what I wanted to see”. My eyes were looking for Bubba in trouble, and they found it, in the form of a refection of a dog bed.
Bubba followed me around a bit to watch me finish the clean up, but returned to the bedroom to sleep for the night before I was done.
10 pm
It’s not quiet, but it should be. The guys are both up. I’m being challenged with a bunny. Our in-house rules are no running on the ceiling most of the day, unless we know everyone is out. The person that works from home would be under the studio, so we can play on the other side of the house, but after 8pm we keep it to a minimum.
I was changing the pee pad. Buddy was gnawing on the bunny in the living room. Then he came trotting into the master suite, carrying the bunny, and he lifted his head just a bit, pushing his chin forward. It was much too far away for me to grab, but it was clearly a statement. It was confident – almost arrogant. His bunny; not mine. Then he immediately turned to return to the living room.
As I was typing, Buddy jumped up on the couch, put his right paw on top of my thigh and demanded petting. He got the petting and leaned into me. Then flopped down, half on the couch, half on my leg. Then when I tried to type, his head flipped back, pushing his head into my abdomen, eyes staring up, demanding a reason that the ear scratches had stopped. Petting before logging. That’s the rule.
Bubba was difficult to get medicated tonight. He was being obstinate about eating the mixture. It might have been the cups. One pill didn’t get crushed enough and there were some big chunks. I didn’t trust it to be safe for Bubba, but it was already mixed into the food in the Alpha cup, so I just swapped the cups for this month’s medication delivery. Buddy didn’t care, it was filet Mignon. But Bubba wouldn’t eat the food from the Buddy cup. He came around eventually. A Shwack burger is more important than the names written on Dixie cups.
Bubba came out for a while when I changed the pee pads. He’s been sleeping in the bedroom beds. Earlier he was playing with the bunny. That’s new. He was doing his alpha pose with/to the bunny, then headbutting the bunny to make sure it knew his place. Bubba the Alpha Moose. Of course, the game stopped before I could get my phone out to get video. I need to wear a bodycam full time when I’m on the job. I miss way too many Kodak moments with these guys.
4:30 pm
Bubba finally wanted to walk, and we did! It was a strange walk. Bubba kept running into places where the tail would tuck and he looked afraid and we would quickly change directions. At one point, we walked through a planter, and a few minutes later I noticed his right front leg looked like it was covered in brambles. But it turned out to be soft, dead leaves, clinging to him because he had walked through a spider web. On the opposite side, he had one clinging to the left side of his chin, and he kept dodging while I tried to grab it. He ended up getting a strand of the web in his mouth during all of the thrashing about. I couldn’t see all of the web, and he “plunged” his face into the grass to scrape it off. We eventually got it sorted, but it kinda ruined yesterday’s bath – and we’re both sorry about that.
We went across the street after some wandering through the neighborhood, cut across the center of the parking area, to the island. Both guys seemed unsure of which direction they wanted to go once on the island, and then it was decided that “back” was the direction of choice. Up on the sidewalk on Selva, we headed south, past the memorial. Buddy stopped to cross the street but Bubba continued on. Then the directional confusion came back, ultimately leading us back into the park to the far side of the memorial, and then into the memorial towards home.
We walked almost 50 minutes, and then mom headed out to pick up Shwack. Shwack + Filet Mignon makes the perfect, irresistable host for hiding flea meds. It’s too delicious for even Bubba to pass up on.
1:30 pm
Bubba helped me get Buddy out without needing to use force. Bubba got up, got dressed to go out, looked like he wanted to go, then changed his mind.
But by that time, Buddy had already decided we were going, and the mission would not be aborted. That said, we were out 6 minutes. Peed, pooped, sniffed around a lot downstairs – probably the scent of Christy’s dog – and back inside.
The grey morning turned into a sunny and hot day. The AC is on now.
12:10 pm
We are still not walking. Bubba is sleeping, and Buddy runs when I pick up the leash.
Buddy isn’t acting like he needs to go out, and the guys destroyed a pee pad so far. They’re drinking and peeing, but so far no poops from either. They ate all the dinner, and we hand-fed treats last night, so there should be stuff in the system.
I’m going home to get lunch.
9:35 am
Buddy stopped snoring and jumped down off the couch. I ran home to powder my nose before I got him hooked up to walk. When I got back, both guys were at the door looking eager to walk. But in reality, they both just wanted to play a game of “we want to walk!” and running away when I got up to take them out.
8 am
The guys were awake, but not interested in walking. Buddy looked like he might want to, but he was running to the bed before I had his harness out of the basket.
It already feels like a group effort slacking-off day for the three of us.