A Dog's Life

It must me nice to be a dog in our house....they are very spoiled! We have Lucy, our almost 11 year old Walker Hound-Lab mix. Then, we have Harry! Harry, our 6 year old Boxer, is quite something. The pick of the litter, beautiful coloring, but boy is he dumb!

We call him.....
Harry
Harry Monster
Dufus Harry
Dufus Head
Harry Crazy
Baby Harry
Monster Head
Hungry Hippo
Fatbutt

Wigglebutt
....the list goes on!

He is our pillow eating, whining, always hungry, wake you up at 5am, tug of war playing, jacked-up teeth, love sponge!

A day in the life of Harry....

I normally wake up to the sound of Harry whining, and his nose nuzzling my arm about 5:00-5:30am each morning (even weekends). I reluctantly get out of bed, shuffle in to feed him (yes, I said FEED...he doesn't wake us up early to pee! NOPE, it's to eat!), and usually Lucy wakes up when she hears food being scooped. I then let both dogs outside. Ahhh, now I can go back to bed you think? Nope! Because, just as your head hits the pillow, Harry will bang on the back door to be let back inside (while Lucy stays out and plays or lays in the grass). This process usually takes a half hour, then we snuggle back to bed for a little while longer before my real alarm goes off and Casey gets up.

On the weekends, this is usually our wakeup call...Harry right in our faces!

Every morning, I remove the pillows from the bed or he will chew them/de-stuff them; close the bathroom door, to keep both dogs out of the trash; and shut the office door, so he will not chew on anything in there. (He got into papers and yarn a lot when he was younger...would he now?...don't know but not taking any changes!)

We come home for lunch and it is like we have been gone for days! He bounces and wiggles and spins because he is so happy to see us! Harry gets especially bouncy when Casey comes home versus me....I don't know why?! While eating lunch, Harry rests his head on the coffee table and breaths heavy or slobbers on you and your plate trying to get some food! He might lay down on his bed in the living room, trying to fake you out, but he just really wants some of your food! Unfortunately, it is a dinner time ritual too.

The dogs sleep most the day away, usually on our bed. (oops, forgot the pillows that day!)

After work, in the evenings, we play outside. He loves his football or "chewy"! We try fetch, but he really isn't very good at dropping the toy and we end up playing tug of war with it instead!

We come inside and we fix their bowls with Harry leaving a puddle of drool on the floor while waiting impatiently. He eats like a horse, wolfing down his food in 2 seconds flat. We think, if we left a feeder for them, he would eat and eat and eat til he was sick....dumb dog is always hungry!!!

Some nights we take walks as a family. Now, "WALK" is a four letter word in our house, not to be mentioned and only spelled. If the dogs hear the WALK....they instantly go nuts...their ears perk up, they get all bouncy and happy! Once we are changed for our walk, poop bags loaded in our pockets, we ask them "do you want to go on a WALK", and out the leashes come!!! Harry is so happy and loves walks!!!! But, he usually tires out early. He will stop, lay down and expect you to wait for him. We pull on the leash and he will reluctantly get up, run a little ahead, then slow down again. Once home, he collapses onto the floor, tongue rolled out, panting!

Harry loves having his butt scratched by Casey (I refuse)! He will sit down right in front of or on Casey and look backwards/upside-down waiting for Casey to scratch that perfect spot above his stubby little tail. Harry loves it and finds nothing better than being loved and scratched all the time!

Harry loves to play with Lucy, but Lucy doesn't like to play with Harry all the time. It is like the pesky little brother who wants to hang out with his big sis all the time! Lucy tolerates him, but would much prefer to be an only dog. Harry does have size on Lucy though and often uses what we call, "the power of the fat foo" to push her out of the way, getting all the attention and love!

Evenings when it is cold, the dogs love to snuggle in bed. I usually go to bed first and read. If Casey stays in the living room or office, Harry stays there too. BUT, as soon as Casey is up getting ready for bed, Harry wanders in, jumps up into bed, and plops down right next to me, taking up most of Casey's half of the bed. It is a battle every night for covers and I LOVE COVERS, but so does my Harry! And he has to be right in between us, like a little puppy sandwich. He is not happy unless he has squeezed his fat puppy self right in the middle and is touching both Casey and I simultaneously! There he will snuggle all night long (usually kicking Casey several time), until early in the morning when we start all over again!