Misc.

 

At the beginning of the month my brother and I spent the day putting up Christmas decorations. Because we were going in and out the front door so much I had to put Mokey on a leash attached to the banister. I even gave her a tendon to chew on so that she'd have something to do. Still, she wasn't a fan. I've never actually seen her 'pout' before but she certainly gave it a good try this time. When we were finally all done and I came in to let her off she just stared at me from where she lay - normally she'd be all excited and happy - as if to say 'I really don't love you right now.' Conjecture of course, but then you didn't see her face. :)

At the end of the day Mokey was so tired she curled up on my parents bed and fell soundly asleep. Apparently all those decorations emerging from the basement were scary and stressful. Of course, the basement itself is distressing to Momo. Every time I go down there and come back up it's to find her peering down the steps with a worried expression on her face, like maybe I was never going to come back up, like maybe the basement just decided to eat me. So I guess I can understand why she might think strange objects suddenly being regurgitated up from such a place could be scary.

 Mom and I recently tried to take Mokey swimming again but it turns out we waited too long between visits. Mokey was just as scared this time as the last. It took us an hour but by the end of our time she was going up and down the ramp more comfortably, just not swimming. I think I'll have to take her more often for her to really get more confidence at it.

 

 We also recently joined the ranks of the dog shamming community. Mostly because we can no longer leave Chase out by himself. At first it started with counter surfing, now he's learned how to open the cabinet and pull the trash bin out. It figures that Chase, our smaller sheltie, is the one who gets into stuff while Mokey, the larger leonberger, leaves it alone.