Do your dogs seem to  be conspiring at building an international global alliance with the Tribe of Mosquitoes? What is it with dogs and open doors?

 Ruby Doo and Cassie the Corgi have decided that the kitchen door must remain open to the Wide World at all times. At this time of year, when the weather is spectacular and the air is clean, that rule would normally be OK. But this year we're having the most amazing plague of mosquitoes I've ever seen.

In the Golden…

Ruby the Corgi Pup is doing exceedingly well these days. She's thriving.



Over the past few weeks she's had a growth spurt and is now almost as tall as Cassie. She weighed 21 pounds the other day, up from 16.



All of this came about after the vet and I made a little discovery: she's allergic to beef. Even as a tiny pup she looked a little wan around the eyes. Over time, her eyes took to running constantly. Vet thought it was an airborne allergy, and we were…

Our neighborhood LOVES Hallowe'en. The communal delight with it is getting to be right up there with Christmas, a chivaree at which we historically excel. Folks have already been putting up decorations all over their houses and yards, preparatory to welcoming the hordes of little kids who'll be trucked into the area on the spooky night.

So all this is pretty amazing to a short, feisty little dog. Ruby-Doo has the wildest hypersensitivity to any changes in her…

Ruby and Cassie are SO much better! Now that I've recovered from the most recent (rather annoying) surgery and my son has repatriated the puppy, the worrisome behavioral issues have pretty much resolved.

Putting Ruby on a leash or confining her inside a room with me and Cassie all the time she's in the house worked some sort of a miracle in short order. Really, I couldn't begin to explain why or how this worked...only can report that the competitive "I'm gonna kill…

Okay, so we're in the second day of The Plan to get Ruby civilized enough to survive life at the Funny Farm in the wake of at least one and possibly two more fun surgeries on The Human. After despairing as to whether I would be able to keep Ruby in the face of growing female/female competition plus a ridiculous unending series of increasingly wearing surgical procedures, friends and corgi fanciers began to…

Well! Maybe I've been making a great deal more of the Ruby/Cassie doggy rivalry than fits the parameters of reality. It's been a surprising day...for a change, pleasantly surprising.

My son brought Ruby back to the Funny Farm today, after about a week of dog-sitting at his house while I recuperated from a painful surgical procedure. You may recall that the…

A serious issue has arisen -- actually, two serious issues merging into one -- and I'm seeking advice on how to deal with it/them. If Ruby the Corgi Pup (about 9 months old now) is to keep her home here at the Funny Farm, I'm going to have to find a way to cope with this stuff. If not, Ruby is going to have to find a new home.

Right now she's at my son's house. Even though Ruby and Charley the Golden Retriever adore each other and get along well, he does not want two dogs.…

What with the surgery (singular) I thought I was facing, I hired a neighbor's cleaning lady to help with the house, since I knew I wouldn't be able to do the usual amount of physical labor needed to keep the Funny Farm running. Now that "one" surgery has morphed into an endless series of surgeries, it looks like Liz (as we'll call her) is officially a semipermanent employee.

{sigh} The trouble with cleaning ladies -- even the best of them, as Liz happens to be -- is that you…

So I got two harnesses, one for Ruby and one for Cassie, to jury-rig the proposed car tie-downs. That doesn't seem like the greatest idea ever to hit the pike. BUT... I decided to try using them for the daily doggy walk, instead of their collars.

Cassie, a grown dog, is not a dragger. But Ruby the Corgi Pup is only just beginning to get the "heel" idea. She will drag for half a block or so, until her ginger wears down and she remembers. The other day I'd put a rolled leather…

So Ruby Doo and I are driving to the vet, there to get her conjunctivitis checked. Actually, I'm driving. She's riding in her crate, which is supposed to protect her in the event of a highway mishap. The crate is tied down with the only credible tool I have to use as a tie-down: to wit, clothesline rope.

Not far into this journey, one of my Fellow Homicidal Drivers (you have to live in Arizona to appreciate this nomenclature) tries to kill us. In maneuvering out of reach, I…

I've been reading and really enjoying Amy & Rubi Rae's discussion, "Rubi Proves Herself Worthless at Guard Dog Duty." If you haven't seen this post and its comments yet, you should go there now and check it…

What is going on here?

Ruby the Corgi Pup was doing fine in the house-training department, once we addressed the UTI that she apparently had at the time she arrived here at 8 weeks of age.

Recently, she started peeing on the floor again. So forthwith it was back to the vet: he couldn't find an infection but did see some crystals (which it develops are not out of the ordinary in dogs and may not indicate pathology). But he put her back on Clavamox and the…

Ruby the Corgi Pup is thriving on the "Real Food" (as I like to call it) that she's been getting since recovering from her UTI and subsequent spate of projectile doggyrhea. Her growth has resumed, her shiny coat practically glows in the dark, and she's full of ginger. She and Cassie have learned to play tug o'war together with some very silly-looking toys recently acquired at Costco, and for the past hour they've been sharing a frenzy over Ball.

Cassie has had Real Food ever…

...that Ruby is not a purebred corgi?

This morning when I took Ruby in to get her stitches out, I finally extracted a certificate of spaying from the vet's office -- they had my old address and had mailed a copy there. When I came to light long enough to scan it and send it to Lindsay, I noticed that they had described her as a "Corgi cross."

Called and said she's a purebred, and they said they'd send out another form. But...hm. It's easy to see why a…

Okay, I challenge ANYONE to name one critter -- other than a two-year-old -- that can complicate your life MORE THAN A PUPPY CAN!

So, it's along about 4 p.m. Hotter than a three-dollar cookstove outside and passing warm here inside the Funny Farm, with the AC set at 80 and struggling to hold the temp in the back of the house at around 82. Cassie and Ruby are crapped out on the cool tile floor. I've been working like a stevedore all day and am thinking...ahhh...a late siesta!…

{sob!} Ruby the Corgi is at the vet's, recovering from this morning's spay surgery. Who would think the little pesker would be so missed during such a short absence?

Cassie has been moping about all day (though just now she remembered that the Purpose of Ball is to keep the human busy. Constantly). Luz the Cleaning Lady…

Ruby has survived the implied "parvo" infection and lived to thrive another day. For hevvinsake.

Here she is engaged in a great mock "fight" with Charley the Golden Retriever. The fact that he's at least five times bigger than she doesn't seem to faze her!

Her chronic…

So yesterday afternoon I took Ruby to a vet in town who keeps 7-day-a-week hours -- not an "emergency" vet of the sort who charges $200 for you to walk in the door, but a regular veterinary practice. They have a bunch of vets and operate a kind of veterinary factory, but they at least are vets.

She still had diarrhea, and yesterday (Sunday, naturally) she barfed up all the food I gave her. The food was bland diet: chicken and rice.

After we waited…

What next, Lord?

My son's 90-pound dog, Charley the Golden Retriever, is passing a week at my house while Son vacations in Puget Sound. This is fine, by and large, because Pup and Charley play like puppies (they are puppies...Charley at two is still an addledescent), and Cassie I'm sure is relieved to have Charley here to distract Ruby from her usual pestering activities.

Last night Ruby, who has graduated to sleeping on the bed with Cassie, woke up at 3:30 in…

So now several days -- a whole bunch of days -- have passed without ANY puddles on the floor! It's a miracle.

Presumably Ruby's UTI has cleared up pretty much. She's still on the prescription diet, so not getting (IMHO) the nutrition one would like, but I think when we finish the current crateful of cans, we'll probably transition over to real food. Still adding 1/4 cup of water to each of her three meals a day, which may also be helping. And I expect I'll keep on…