Call the PoPo

because today I became a dogsnatcher.

Or at least I felt like one.

This morning Potter and I were sitting out on the porch while I was doing some reading.  Suddenly I started to hear the clinking of dog-tags and looked up to see which familiar neighborhood dog was being walked around the pond: nobody.  But the clinking continued.  So, befuddled, I started to look around when I saw this gal:

trotting across the bridge that is perpendicular to our apartment.  I happened to know that she belongs to our upstairs neighbors and I doubted that they would be willing to let her run around the complex by herself.  So I tried to call her over to me but she, not knowing me at all, got scared and ran up to the door to her apartment.  She stood there for a bit, pawing at the door even, but nobody came to help.  She then ran back down and out towards this street.

At this point I began to worry that she’d be run over, so I lured her to me with a treat and went inside to call the number on her tag, where I also found her name: Cookie.  No answer at the number.  So I left a message and wrote a note to put on the neighbor’s door and brought her into my apartment to keep her safe.

I knew I was doing the right thing.  She is so little that she can fit in the palm of my hand and could therefore be whisked away or not noticed pretty easily, but it felt awkward.  I only know these neighbors, three college girls, enough to give a polite greeting as we pass each other in the parking lot.  I worried that they’d think I’d overstepped my boundaries, and perhaps I had.  But Cookie seemed relieved to be somewhere safe and lapped up the water I sat down for her, which reassured me.

The Potter Rotter, of course, was none-too-pleased.  He didn’t mind so much her being in the house.  What he minded was that I would not let him play with her.  Can you imagine?  He’s at least ten times her body weight; he’d accidentally crush her!  So I kept her in the spare bedroom and would rotate which pup I spent time with.  Cookie was good and quiet when I would leave her in the bedroom. Potter, on the other hand, would sit outside the bedroom door and whine when I wasn’t with him.  Pitiful guy.  So to cheer him up I offered him a piece of my banana as well as Chiquita’s wisdom:

He was not amused (but I was).

Luckily I only had to practice my balancing act for a few hours before Cookie’s owners came to get her, expressing relief and uncertainty as to how she could’ve gone out. I don’t know but I was glad she was back where she belonged and that I had done a good deed.

Plus I learned something.  Did you know you can paint a dog’s toenails?

I wonder how Potter would react to that.

I Must Be Crazy

It seems like lately I’ve been a glutton for punishment. First of all, I keep piling it on in my academic life. I started this semester with the purpose of keeping my responsibilities light so that I could get some non-required things done, like reading for prelims and sending out articles for publication. Slowly I kept getting roped into things (or sometimes roping myself in) like graduate student committees, starting a reading group, and taking on tougher-than-necessary projects for class. And now I’ve added one more thing: I’ve applied and been accepted to write an article for a forthcoming encyclopedia of contemporary fiction. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m pumped. This will be my first publication, and though not as prestigious as some publishing I want to do, it’s a start. And hopefully it will get the ball rolling for me. But this means that I have a to read a new book (Patchett’s The Patron Saint of Liars), research it and the author, and write a 1500 word entry (suitable to be read by lots of people, including publishers) by January 15. Exciting, but stupid me.

More stupid than that is my new ambition. I will be running Tallahassee’s Jingle Bell Run on December 3. Now, it’s only a 3K, but I don’t run. I hate to run. I have never run. (Okay I ran in soccer, but that was different somehow; it was running for short bursts with a purpose. I can do that.) And I have pitiful, weak little knees. But still I find myself trying to run. Darn this crazy running family I married into and their addictive healthy lifestyles! So last night I went out for my first run. I didn’t go far, but man am I weak! It was cold last night (probably in the 40s or low 50s when I ran), so my lungs weren’t used to that (or running for that matter). And my knees hate hills. But I did it. And I felt pretty good afterwards. And its nice that I have my own personal trainer at home:) So for now I think I’ll continue this stupid ambition.

One thing that I’m not crazy for but crazy about is getting to go to Kentucky this weekend. YAY! I get to see my friends, and go to the orchard, and play Settlers of Catan, and have a grand ol’ time. I cannot wait. I’m sure I’ll have lots of pictures for you come Monday. In the meantime, I must get back to my crazy life.

Pups in the Pool

Today Dave and I took Potter to an event called Pups in the Pool. Tallahassee Parks and Rec sponsors the event and, basically, they clear out the “fun” pool at the local Aquatic Center and let dogs swim in it. You sign your dog up by weight (over or under 40 pounds), pay $3, and then your dog gets to swim for an hour.

We mostly went because a friend of ours went last year and this is how she got her dog to start enjoying the water. Potter is always more likely to swim if there is another dog around, so our hope was that this might be the final step to convincing him that he’s a water dog.

And sure enough, he had a blast. He never got into much of the deep water (really none of the dogs did), but he had a blast splashing around in the shallow water with all of the other dogs. There were tennis balls and frisbees everywhere; it was like doggy heaven.  As much fun as he had, though, is how nervous Dave and I were. There were probably 20 dogs there, some of which were very big, very rambunctious, and mildly aggressive.  They would chase each other in and around people and dogs, they’d run over or into other dogs, and it kind of freaked Potter out.  One of them kept trying to play with Potter and it made our pansy puppy a little scared.  But, he’d just run the other way and splash around in the water.  He played for probably 30 minutes until he literally got pinned by a little boxer dog for getting to close to a toy the boxer wanted.  Potter was shockingly submissive to the bully dog, but Dave and I decided it was probably time to go.  And Potter has been beat from it all day  (which Dave I love!).

So, even though it was a stressful half hour for Dave and I, Potter had a great time and seems more confident than ever in the water.  And we got some great pictures for you to enjoy:

Splashing around the water:

Playing tug in the water:

More splashing:

The rest of the weekend was full of school reading and grading and football (a very good weekend for the Noles and the Buckeyes).  Next weekend we’re going to Bowling Green (yay!) for Western’s homecoming and to spend some time with our friends.  I can’t wait!  But until then I will be working double time to get stuff done, so if you don’t hear from me, that’s why.  Hope you’re enjoying November!

If a Tree Falls On My Car and Nobody Sees It, Will Someone Else Still Pay For It?

At about 9:00 last night, in the midst of the first night of dog-sitting craziness, I hear a knock at the door. I look through the peep-hole to see Kathy, our Nascar-loving neighbor. When I open the door (only a crack so Kaya doesn’t escape), Kathy says, “Umm…I’m sorry to barge in, but you know that tree in front of my apartment? Well, um, it fell on your car.” Now normally my reaction would’ve been more worried or frantic, but I was so distracted by the dogs by my feet that I just thanked Kathy and told her we’d be out in a minute. So, I come back inside and yell to Dave that a tree fell on my car. He has a much stronger reaction, so we leach up the dogs and head out. Sure enough, there was a tree laying on top of my car and two others.

Luckily there was an SUV between my car and the tree, and the SUV took most of the fall. Though it was dark and raining, it looked like my car would just have scratches. None of the cars, including the SUV, had broken windows and there didn’t appear to be any major damage. Our only concern was the SUV, which had a tire that looked like it might blow from the weight of the tree, which was still laying on it. So, we called the apartment complex’s 24-hour hotline, where we got an answering service. Dave and the SUV-owner both left messages, hoping that would expedite the process.

We didn’t hear anything for at least an hour, when we were told that they (the apartment peeps) were trying to get someone to remove the tree that night, but so far hadn’t found anyone willing to come out in the dark and the rain. Then, around 10:30, we get a call that they found a tree guy and we needed to move our car. So, I did, though I still couldn’t tell much because of the dark/rain. When I stopped to talk to the apartment lady on the way back inside, I found out that the tree guys had broken the back windshield on the SUV when they cut one of the branches off. But other than that nothing seemed to be wrong. Still very lucky.

Now in the light of day it seems that my car is fine. Though I need to rinse off all of the tree debris before I’ll know for sure, there doesn’t even appear to be any major scratches. I know this is mean to say, but we were very lucky the SUV was there. If it hadn’t been, my car would’ve been the first thing the tree landed on, and it would’ve had longer to go and therefore a greater force of impact behind it. My little car would’ve taken a lot more damage than the SUV did I suspect. So, we were lucky. But it was definitely an interesting twist to the evening.

Tornado Potter

Why the new nickname? Well, that would be because Potter discovered that he can rip through anything in his path. We’ve been very lucky with Potter in that he’s never been a heavy chewer (other than on things he’s supposed to chew) or destructive. He’s been staying outside of his crate in the living room/dining room while we’re gone since he was 5 months old and has never so much as nibbled a pillow, or anything else for that matter…until yesterday. Tuesdays are one of the two days when Potter is by himself for a long period of time. I leave around 9 and Dave and/or I get home around 5. He always does fine when we’re gone but is VERY happy when we get back. Well, yesterday Dave and I had to run some errands, so I picked him up from work and we didn’t get home until around 7. Potter was very very excited we were home. Unfortunately we both left again about half an hour later, Dave to the gym and me on a quick trip to the store. I was only gone maybe 15 minutes, but Potter had apparently had enough of being left alone for the day. I got home to find what you see in the pictures all over our living room floor. I don’t think the pictures of the two DVDs (which were from Netflix) do it justice; Potter had ripped one of the two DVDs into two pieces (I didn’t even realize there were two layers on a DVD) and had apparently just begun to chew on the 2nd DVD. All of the shredded paper was the Netflix envelopes and a couple of other bits of mail that were lying around. I really think he did it because he was pissed off at us for leaving him alone again. I guess we won’t do that again! Now we just have to figure out what to do about the Netflix DVDs…

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I just finished reading the final Harry Potter book and, though I have tons to say, I’m going to keep quiet (for now) out of respect for my friends and family that think its important to get more than an hour and a half of sleep rather than finish a book as fast as possible:) I will, however, tell you about our adventure of getting the book, which turned out to be a bit more of an ordeal than planned!

I had pre-ordered copies of the book from Borders for Jessica, Dave, and I months ago (I’m thinking it was at least in May) and they didn’t provide any instructions or give me a print-out with a confirmation on it or anything. They just said to show up. I received an automated call last week reminding me I had pre-ordered books, so I figured they were safe. Well, they were safe. What Borders failed to mention was their “plan” for distributing books. They gave everybody who had pre-ordered books a wrist band when they came to “check in” at the store. They had 7 colors of wrist bands, 150 bands per color. They sold the books in order of the color of band you had on. This was all well and good except I had no idea they would do it this way. I had looked this past week and hadn’t even been able to find anything that said what time the “festivities” started. So, I thought we were safe and wouldn’t have to wait forever (having pre-ordered months ago) nor would we have to show up to the store 4 hours early.

So, to pass the time, Dave, Jess, my friends Amanda and Dan, and I went to see the HP5 movie (again). While it was equally good the second time, it only made me more anxious for the book. After the movie, we came home, took Potter out, and played a little Wii before finally heading to Borders at 11.

When we got to Borders, it took us 10 minutes to even figure out that we needed wrist bands and probably another 10 minutes to wind our way to the check-in table, by which point we were given the second to last band color. But, no worries, they assured us that there were MORE than enough books for everyone. Good.

So at midnight they start selling, and as we watch the madness (because there were too many people for our color bands too even be in line yet), we notice that the line is moving VERY slowly. At 1am they were still just selling to the second color. So, my genius strikes and I get the idea to send Dave to Wal-mart to see if the line is shorter/faster there. Sure enough, he gets our books there and we’re home reading before we would’ve even gotten our books from Borders.

And read is all I’ve done all day. I went to sleep at about 5:30 this morning and woke up at 7, when Dave got up to go play golf. Because my mind wouldn’t stop thinking about the book, I just got on up and started reading again. And, with the exception of a few dog walks, some meals, and a lot of bathroom breaks, I read all day. And loved every minute of it.

Without saying anything about the plot, let me just say that this is bittersweet for me. I love Harry Potter. I just do. Can’t explain it. And while I’m glad to have all of my questions answered now, I’m sad that there are no more Harry stories in my future. So, like I said, it’s bittersweet…but totally worth it.