The Hunt

Had I not heard the sound of her paw smacking the side of the dish and run into the kitchen to investigate, I'm sure Teeca would have consumed the entire dish of pork loin marinated in peanut sauce. By the time I interrupted her, she had jumped on her hind legs, pulled the dish to the edge of the stove, and had eaten about half of the pork loin. After I took the pork away from her, she spent much of the rest of the evening lying in front of the oven, licking peanut sauce off of her coat, staring with fondness at the site of her most recent catch.

Ah yes, girl, the hunt was fruitful this evening.

Quahog wild

Jay and I recently spent a Sunday biking around South County, making our way from the URI campus, through the bike path, and down to Narragansett. We rewarded ourselves for our efforts at Aunt Carrie's clam shack.

The south county bike path is surrounded on both sides by a lot of tree cover, and it is common to see rabbits, deer, and other critters while biking the path. To my surprise, while careening down the path, a squirrel ran out and jumped on my foot while I was pedaling. I felt the soft, fat body of the squirrel hit my foot, and shrieked as it then ricocheted off my foot back onto the path and ran off. Though I had not kicked the squirrel, I felt fully disturbed as if I had intentionally kicked the little guy. I suppose he just wanted to hitch a ride.

It's a tough life, ain't it

In between jumping on and off walls, chewing on femur bones, and battling it out over Dirty Sock, the kids tuck themselves in for a number of naps.

Dirty Sock: Rendezvous

With an almost innocent beginning, an encounter with Dirty Sock quickly escalates into a full scale battle.

Neither dog will back down until this sock is fully perforated, another unwearable cast off.

Book Club

These dogs love going to the library. On the morning walk, as soon as we get near the library they both start pulling and trying to break out into a run.

I created this monstrous behavior when Carlito was a puppy and he started jumping on landscaping walls, benches, etc. I used to encourage both of the dogs to jump up, run the length of the wall, and reward them with treats after they jumped off the end.

There is a short wall that runs alongside the front of the library, and the wall run has become part of our walk. As we approach, the excitement builds, and the dogs want to run to get to the wall. We run the length of the wall together, they jump off the end, and then they sit and stare up at me in expectation of a treat.

Fortunately, I have a little wrist strap for my camera.... I need one of those for my coffee.

I want to ride my bicycle

We've been doing a lot of biking on the weekends. Jay bikes everyday, since his commute is completely car free. I am just now relearning the joys of getting around on a bike after 5 years of car culture, and am loving our weekend rides.

Our latest ride was a bit over 22 miles round trip. We jumped on the bike path at Haynes Memorial Park, rode to the bike path's end in Bristol, and then continued on Scenic Route 114 until we hit the Mount Hope Bridge.

You can bike over the Mount Hope Bridge (there's even a sign alerting motorists to look for cyclists), but it definitely looks a bit frightening. I wasn't ready. From the looks of it, the lanes are pretty tight, and I can already imagine the road rage of the annoyed and nervous car drivers. I will one day triumphantly bike over this bridge.

For classic New England, cute town on the water charm, you cannot argue with the cuteness of Bristol. Since we were biking through Bristol instead of blowing by in a car, we paused to take a rest in a place we never realized existed. Blithewold Mansion and Gardens was a welcome find, a place I will return when I have need of a longer pause than a quick apple and water stop.

Dirty Sock: Caught in the Act

These two were locked in battle over Dirty Sock until I grabbed the camera. You can still see the guilty gleam in Teeca's eye. Good thing Can o' Beans, Spoon, Painted Stick, and Conch Shell were no where nearby.

I beg your pardon

"Please, oh please, oh please drop your sandwich. At least a bite? Hasn't anyone ever told you it's rude to eat in front of others?"

With guns in their hands and God on their side

With thundershowers in the forecast on the 5th of July, Jay and I altered our outdoorsy weekend plans and opted to take the dogs to the park and then head to the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center (Jay's way of getting me to agree to go to Foxwoods for the day).

The Museum is well worth the visit, with exhibits set up to walk you through time, beginning with glaciers and the Ice Age 18,000 years ago and ending in present day New England. You can hear Native creation stories, view a re-creation of a caribou hunt from 11,000 years ago, get an

in-depth view of daily life including the tribe's social and political organization, ceremonies, spirituality, and medicine, and see how the Europeans came and gobbled up the resources and land via lies, war, and an inhuman trumped up sense of superiority. There's actually a letter on display that was written by one of the tribal leaders in the 1780s pleading with the government to stop seizing their orchards and lands for their own profit and use.


After leaving the museum, we went into the
casino and threw down some cash. It turns out that a holiday weekend is a crazy time to visit Foxwoods, the place was wildly crowded. Even so we had a fabulous time, and by the way, I was a winner.

Bliss

Now to the general public, the Providence dog park may appear to be nothing more than a fenced in dirt pile. While this is actually fairly accurate, for dogs it provides the blissful opportunity to run and play leash free. When time allows, I do prefer taking them to the woods, on a hike, or even a long walk. That being said, they love coming here so much, that when we turn onto Gano street they begin singing, crying, and howling with impatience.

She's in the Jailhouse Now

In addition to wear and tear on hardwood floors, housing and sheltering a husky team can really be ruinous to your white wood trim. Jay and I decided to take a "vacation" day to repaint all of the white trim in the house.

To achieve this without finding our house covered in white paw prints and worse, we secured the dogs in our bedroom using the baby gate so they would still benefit from the air flow blowing from our window AC units.

The painting project literally took all day, and so we attempted to tire the dogs out at the dog park prior to even picking up the paint brushes.

Carlito wasn't too bothered with the arrangement, he jumped on our bed and curled up right away. Teeca, on the other hand, did not relax once. She serenaded us throughout the day by whining and crying passionately. She never even sat down, but stood at the baby gate staring at us mournfully, and loudly protested at being cooped up and separated from us. That girl can really belt out some high decibel crooning tunes which have a way of putting your nerves right over the edge.

The house looks probably 50 times better now though.

Depression

No one hates Mondays more than Teeca.

As soon as I begin my morning routine she sighs, huffs, and puffs, and collapses at my feet while I get ready in the bathroom.

You don't love me, you just love my Bobby style

On the way to the dog park, Jay donned his self-inflicted, rag tag, sports team version of a British Bobby hat.

I am not sure why he customized his cap.

Judge for yourself, here are the profile and front views, and below is a pic of the true Brit style.

Pocked floors

One of the troubles with having two dogs is the wear and tear on the house. Our hardwood floors have truly paid the price of activities such as dog wrestling, and nails scratching as they tear across the floor. On Sunday we treated and protected the floors, and then put down new large area rugs in each room.

Teeca took to the new rugs straight away, luxuriously laying down all spread out in the middle of the rug. Her vibe was, "finally they have provided a large queen size bed just for my comfort."

Carlito on the other hand, true to his easily frightened self, was initially very suspicious of the new rugs and would not walk on them. He walked the perimeter of the room, around the large rug, to avoid touching this new, foreign surface. I tested his fear by throwing a treat in the middle of the rug, and he just stared at me as if to say, "how could you be so cruel." Teeca swooped in and removed Carlito's dilemma by scarfing down the treat and lying down.