My Molly went deaf early in life. She also went blind. I learned a lot about living with such a person. There's something absolutely wonderful about witnessing the pure courage and fortitude of someone so small and vulnerable to overcome such overwhelming odds. Molly did it and did it so that the world - everyone we interacted with - noticed.
One of the things we did before she went totally blind was train her in movements. I didn't call it sign language or anything so grand - it was just how Molly & I communicated. For instance, she knew that when I was going to pick her up, I sort of bounced her on her hind legs three times before I actually picked her up. That way, she could ready her muscles and not get hurt when I picked her up. Another example is when I'd put three fingers on her chest, my thumb and pinky finger under her arms and sort of push forward, she knew that it was time to "wave" to whomever was in front of her (she also knew this would probably get her a treat, because it was just so darned cute!).
Coming from this background, it was very interesting to me to find that there's a person who's developed ASL: Animal Sign Language. She did it so people and dogs could communicate more clearly with each other - not just have the dog do the person's bidding - they exchange information. They share where it hurts, that they want water, food, or treats, or a specific toy. That's HUGE!
That's an important step to humans understanding that they don't actually "own" their dog/cat/horse/animal any more than the people of the South "owned" their slaves. It's not possible. It's only through gross lunacy and an immoral sense of superiority that such an absurdity could happen. It's absolutely beyond me how any human could fathom that they could "own" another life.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Peanut Beggars
Tonight, the Grrls are begging peanuts from Mom. She's shelling peanuts, taking the red skin off and tossing them peanuts. (Can you say SPOILED DOGS???)
Sophie *always* catches whatever you throw for her to catch. Well, except for liver. All of our Grrls detest raw liver. It just cracks me up to picture in my head the first time they each had liver tossed to them. Sophie caught the liver piece, it *barely* touched her tongue and she spat it back out, then looked up at Mom like she was trying to poison her. Hahahaha! Have you ever seen a look like that from a dog? It's supposed to be something they LIKE.
Yenna just doesn't catch the treat unless she knows she's going to like it. Sometimes, she doesn't catch it even if she knows she's going to like it. Cookies, for instance, are in that category. Cookies are a favorite food, but she'd rather see it drop to the floor and go picking it up. It's frustrating to never quite know if she's going to catch it or not. What a picky, spoiled snot of a dog. Yen doesn't like liver, hearts, or stomach. She doesn't like fish, in general. She doesn't like lima beans (a dog after my own taste buds, let me tell ya!).
Lady Bug *NEVER* catches anything you toss to her - even if she can catch it. It's clearly beneath her to do some "common dog" trick like catching your food. It should always be HANDED to her... First, it should be presented properly, though, so she may enjoy the aromas before considering it to actually touch her palette. Liver, unless properly breaded, spiced, and crisped in oil, is something she would never consider. She'd never say something like "blech," but that sort of low-food form is just uncouth. WHY would we consider laying that before her Royalness? Ugh. It's so hard to find good help. She can be so catty some times.
Sophie *always* catches whatever you throw for her to catch. Well, except for liver. All of our Grrls detest raw liver. It just cracks me up to picture in my head the first time they each had liver tossed to them. Sophie caught the liver piece, it *barely* touched her tongue and she spat it back out, then looked up at Mom like she was trying to poison her. Hahahaha! Have you ever seen a look like that from a dog? It's supposed to be something they LIKE.
Yenna just doesn't catch the treat unless she knows she's going to like it. Sometimes, she doesn't catch it even if she knows she's going to like it. Cookies, for instance, are in that category. Cookies are a favorite food, but she'd rather see it drop to the floor and go picking it up. It's frustrating to never quite know if she's going to catch it or not. What a picky, spoiled snot of a dog. Yen doesn't like liver, hearts, or stomach. She doesn't like fish, in general. She doesn't like lima beans (a dog after my own taste buds, let me tell ya!).
Lady Bug *NEVER* catches anything you toss to her - even if she can catch it. It's clearly beneath her to do some "common dog" trick like catching your food. It should always be HANDED to her... First, it should be presented properly, though, so she may enjoy the aromas before considering it to actually touch her palette. Liver, unless properly breaded, spiced, and crisped in oil, is something she would never consider. She'd never say something like "blech," but that sort of low-food form is just uncouth. WHY would we consider laying that before her Royalness? Ugh. It's so hard to find good help. She can be so catty some times.
Yenna 1-52: I'm ignoring you. On purpose.
Fact #1: Yenna hates the camera because she never knows when it's going to flash in her eyes.
Here, she was intentionally ignoring my pleas to get her to look at me. Instead, she'd close her eyes, look away, roll over onto her side, and do everything in her power to NOT look my direction.
If I put the camera down, though, there were spectacular "missed shots" she'd show me.
Here, she was intentionally ignoring my pleas to get her to look at me. Instead, she'd close her eyes, look away, roll over onto her side, and do everything in her power to NOT look my direction.
If I put the camera down, though, there were spectacular "missed shots" she'd show me.
Lady Bug 1-52: WHAT are you doing?
Fact #1: She's the smallest in our pack, but she's still the canine alpha.
Note that she's the only one on a pillow? See? She *is* on the doggie top of the pile. She's not feeling that well here because one of her ears was working it's way up to an infection, but she's still a cutie.
Sophie 1-52: Carrot Guarding
Fact #1: Soph loves fresh veggies including carrots, cucumbers, cauliflower, cookies... Oh, cookies isn't a fresh veggie? It should be.
Meet Yenna!
Yenna is my own pup.
Birthday: 2004.01.04
Standard Poodle (on the smallish side)
Full name: Vyen Tyahn Rosa Luca di Sera
(Vyen because I loved the name.
Tyahn because it's similar to my middle name, Tyrene.
Rosa for my first dog, Rose.
Luca di Sera means Light of the Evening in Italian.)
Call name: Yenna (which she often chooses to ignore. Really often.)
Nicknames: Yenna-nenna, Big Baby, Poodle-Doodle, TiggerDog, My Big Girl, Mouth
Yenna is a big bundle of energy. She's the perpetual puppy. I thought she'd grow out of it a little bit after age two, but she didn't. The only way, really, I can get her to just chill out is to break out the camera. THEN all her personality just gets shut off.
She chooses to do what she wants when she wants to. But if someone she doesn't know, or sometimes even someone she does know, approaches her, she's got a great bark and stands her ground until they're close enough to touch her. At that point, she runs and hides behind me. lol.
Birthday: 2004.01.04
Standard Poodle (on the smallish side)
Full name: Vyen Tyahn Rosa Luca di Sera
(Vyen because I loved the name.
Tyahn because it's similar to my middle name, Tyrene.
Rosa for my first dog, Rose.
Luca di Sera means Light of the Evening in Italian.)
Call name: Yenna (which she often chooses to ignore. Really often.)
Nicknames: Yenna-nenna, Big Baby, Poodle-Doodle, TiggerDog, My Big Girl, Mouth
Yenna is a big bundle of energy. She's the perpetual puppy. I thought she'd grow out of it a little bit after age two, but she didn't. The only way, really, I can get her to just chill out is to break out the camera. THEN all her personality just gets shut off.
She chooses to do what she wants when she wants to. But if someone she doesn't know, or sometimes even someone she does know, approaches her, she's got a great bark and stands her ground until they're close enough to touch her. At that point, she runs and hides behind me. lol.
Meet Lady Bugga-Twosie-Moe!
Lady Bug is my GrandDoghter.
Birthday: 1998.07.31
Toy Poodle
Full name: Friday's Tuesday Rose Cozette Tsan
Call name: That's complicated... She goes by ALL her nicknames.
Nicknames: Lady Bug, Moe, Me-Moe, Miss Me-Moe, Twosie, TwoPup, TwoDog, BugDog, Satcha, SatchaMoe, BuggaBoo, BabyDog, PiggaMoe, Great Mousie Hunter, Little Fluff, Lady BuggaTwosaMoe, Mff!, Snuggle Bug, Spoiled Brat, Turkey Butt.
Moe is my Mom's dog, but she has contracts with both of us. Moe's mom, Molly (my little girl), recently passed away, so Moe is taking care of me.
She's really the canine leader of the pack, but she's getting older now, so she doesn't feel the need to enforce it so much any more. It's funny and scary at the same time to see her go toe-to-toe with our two big dogs. She has no concept of size. At all.
Favorite snacks are cucumbers, carrots, and cookies. Favorite supper? FISHIES - except for Orange Roughy, which she'll leave sitting on the ground as she turns her nose up and walks away.
Birthday: 1998.07.31
Toy Poodle
Full name: Friday's Tuesday Rose Cozette Tsan
Call name: That's complicated... She goes by ALL her nicknames.
Nicknames: Lady Bug, Moe, Me-Moe, Miss Me-Moe, Twosie, TwoPup, TwoDog, BugDog, Satcha, SatchaMoe, BuggaBoo, BabyDog, PiggaMoe, Great Mousie Hunter, Little Fluff, Lady BuggaTwosaMoe, Mff!, Snuggle Bug, Spoiled Brat, Turkey Butt.
Moe is my Mom's dog, but she has contracts with both of us. Moe's mom, Molly (my little girl), recently passed away, so Moe is taking care of me.
She's really the canine leader of the pack, but she's getting older now, so she doesn't feel the need to enforce it so much any more. It's funny and scary at the same time to see her go toe-to-toe with our two big dogs. She has no concept of size. At all.
Favorite snacks are cucumbers, carrots, and cookies. Favorite supper? FISHIES - except for Orange Roughy, which she'll leave sitting on the ground as she turns her nose up and walks away.
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