Doom Dogs

[Greg]

I don't have five nicknames for the dogs. Maeve is usually Maeve or Meavelous. Daniel is frequently Dani. I often refer to them both as the baby or the puppy.

And when either of them is having bowel troubles and/or loose stool, they can be referred to as the poop flinger. Usually as in "Which of one of you is the poop flinger"

[King Bob]

Over the course of her life Hazel had way more than five nicknames from me. I gradually kind of settled on Hazy Pups or Little Pups. When she was very old and feeble I called her Puppy Girl a lot.

[Drunk Monk]

Harry the Dirty Dog has always been one of my favorites. 

Agreed. Tara had all of them in single editions. Yuki is kinda built like a cartoon dog so it works. Plus his fur is like a sponge and soaks up whatever he rolls in - dead seals, gulls and pelicans mostly.

And when either of them is having bowel troubles and/or loose stool, they can be referred to as the poop flinger. Usually as in "Which of one of you is the poop flinger"

I can't imagine that's something any dog would fess up too, but they can look so guilty sometimes. Yuki has a fuzzy butt which is becoming a neutral zone issue (Klingons). We will get him trimmed there professionally soon.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

G-Man: Havoc and Mayhem were monikers for a while, or were those just their noms de plume?

[Greg]

Who can forget Havoc and Mayhem? Besides me? Of course that was the group name for both dogs to describe their path of destruction.

[Drunk Monk]

we have puppy

Today is the one year anniversary of Yuki joining our family. 

Yuki is a good dog.

[Greg]

Awesome. He's been a very good boi.

[Drunk Monk]

Yuki found a dead squirrel in the yard. It was dry and stiff, probably dead for some time. He wanted to bring it in the bungalow but fortunately I spied what was happening quickly, traded him for a treat and disposed of the cadaver.

Dogs can be so gross.

[Greg]

If any of you need Ivermectin to help cure your Covid, I can totally hook you up after a trip to the Vet's office today. Ivermectin is the main ingredient in the dog's heartworm medication.

(I will totally not hook you up with Ivermectin for your Covid. Don't be absurd)

[Greg]

To recap, Maeve can no longer hop on the bed. It's been years since she could. Plus, our bed is particularly tall. What Maeve does instead is put her front paws on the bed and look to us to lift her the rest of the way onto the bed. We are well trained. You will get no argument from on that count.

Lately, (last year or so. maybe longer) Maeve cries or sings once I turn out the lights. She's fast asleep before the lights go out. But once it gets dark, the whimpering/singing starts. After a few beats of that, I get her off the bed and send her outside. She usually stays there for a couple of hours, sometimes all night. She also comes back in and does her let me on the bed schtick. This maneuver is accompanied by whining and crying to wake us and alert us that she needs to be back on the bed. Again, she cries when the lights are off. So, once she is back on the bed, she settles quietly for a few minutes before the whimpering singing begins. On some occasions I can ignore the noise that gradually grows more pathetic. At other times, I kick her out of the bed to go back outside. The darkness outside does not concern her. The only noises Maeve makes from the back yard is to bark at intruders of which there are many.

Some nights the dance of Maeve on and off the bed can be pretty tedious. Last night was an exemplar of this. I don't I have slept because of the dance. But last night there was an added complication. tQ just got back from her biopsy in Los Angeles. This entailed ten hours of driving. The surgery coupled with the driving left her exhausted. She promptly went to sleep. I think Maeve took this as a challenge. She ramped up her crying to 11. Every twenty minutes or so she wanted up on the bed. This was closely followed by the symphony of sighs. This made me throw her off the bed. But she wouldn't go outside. She would just lay down next to the bed. Sometimes this works. Maeve will lie down on the floor and be quiet for the night. Not last night. She'd be on the floor waiting until I had just fallen asleep and she'd make the call for assistance.

Why don't I just lock her out of the room? Excellent question. That used to work. But Dani has taught her crying outside the door will get us to open the door. And again. Maeve cries loud.

Now, this is the typical madness. Last night we added a wrinkle to the scenario. tQ was down for the count. Usually we take turns with the madness. Or more generally, I ignore Maeve and tQ deals with it. But last night I took on full chores, trying to keep Maeve from waking up tQ.

I failed miserably at one point. Maeve jumped up on tQ's side of the bed as Maeve usually does. tQ was sleeping at the edge of the bed as tQ usually does. This works out well for Maeve because she hits tQ and wakes her doing this maneuver. That happened this time. Only, Maeve hit tQ right in the chest at the spot where she had her biopsy. A pained cry emanated from that side of the bed. The cry was not pretty. Maeve was unrepentant but I did manage to shoo her away from the bed. I asked tQ if she was all right. She wearily said yes.

There was no more sleeping for me after that as I had to make doubly sure Maeve didn't jump up on that side of the bed.

[King Bob]

Hazel got anxious when she got very old, and had bad sundowners where she would pace etc. and also separation anxiety. We put her on a little doggie Prozac and it worked well. You might consider it. We had to do the same thing with my mom.

[Drunk Monk]

Not to sound too much like the tokin D00M stoner, but have you looked into CBD tinctures? They make them for dogs. That helped Jingles in his old age.

[Drunk Monk]

Yuki was just barking in his sleep. It’s a particular bark, somewhat muffled from his usual commanding woofs. That’s both cute and annoying at 1am.

[Greg]

For the first time in three days, Maeve gave me the bed serenade.

[Drunk Monk]

Thanks to Greg for this bit o trivia. 

Yuki


Yuki was a mixed breed dog found by President Johnson's daughter, Luci, at a gas station in Texas on Thanksgiving Day 1966, while on her way to the LBJ Ranch. Luci named him Yuki, which means snow in Japanese. At first, Yuki lived with Luci, but he eventually won LBJ's heart and became his faithful companion.
[img=374x0]https://lbj-prod-staticfiles-4pgcba8v8q69.s3.amazonaws.com/styles/artifact_horizontal/s3/artifacts/images/2018-08/D4717-12a_09181972.jpg?AWM3tUWiOr2SQobzvqghluCAgNWf0x0b[/img]LBJ riding in a Lincoln convertible with his dog, Yuki, sitting in the back.
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On Aug. 27, 1967, LBJ's birthday, Luci told her father that he could keep Yuki. He was often by LBJ's side, seen at meetings in the Oval Office and bill signings to trips abroad and domestically. When LBJ left office on Jan. 20, 1969, Yuki returned to the LBJ ranch with the Johnson family.
[img=374x0]https://lbj-prod-staticfiles-4pgcba8v8q69.s3.amazonaws.com/styles/artifact_vertical/s3/artifacts/images/2018-08/a5370-25a_med.jpg?KNoxOM4UvEq9rCKAe3pgaEhJiTUkBCEO[/img]President Johnson sings with his dog, Yuki, while his grandson, Patrick Lyndon Nugent, looks on.
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[img=374x0]https://lbj-prod-staticfiles-4pgcba8v8q69.s3.amazonaws.com/styles/artifact_vertical/s3/artifacts/images/2018-08/D1493-15_08271968.jpg?y_HITzS_TCcCEDdtcPq4CVeZScB2zQ7M[/img]President Johnson, while holding his dog, Yuki, sits in the LBJ ranch pool reading a memo. His grandson, Patrick Lyndon Nugent, is beside him.
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After LBJ passed in January 1973, Yuki went to live with Luci. He died sometime in 1979.
According to Luci, one morning they looked for Yuki in her backyard and could not find him. They searched for days and were never able to locate him. The family's veterinarian told them that sometimes elderly dogs will wander off in their last days. Luci suspects "the greatest light in his life left with my father and he just went looking for him."