Holiday Dog

When Bingo ordered all of his thank you presents for the people who donated to his Sit Stay Give Campaign, he also got a "FREE" holiday necklace. He's wearing it in this photo. It has little snowmen on it. I'm beginning it wonder if maybe Bingo doesn't have a shopping problem.

Perhaps he spends too much time watching me....As a matter of fact, where are my credit cards and is that the home shopping network I'm hearing!

Dog in the Air

Bingo will be getting his first airline flight experience soon. He goes in on Monday to get a health certificate from the Vet and I will find out what to do in order to get him on the plane and through the four-hour nonstop flight from Tampa to Phoenix. We have detailed instructions from Donna, which I will post tomorrow with the Vet's details so others will have a better idea of what to do when taking a service dog on the plane.

I'm sure it will be an interesting experience. We'll have the Flip video and if we don't make the news, we'll at least make Utube. 8-)

If you haven't donated to Bingo's Sit Stay Give Campaign, I will tell you that Bingo is a pretty generous little puppy. He is personally giving out thank you presents for every donation that is $50 or more and the presents are from Southeastern Guide Dogs. They are pretty nifty. So, think about donating. We are currently at $300 of our $1500 goal.

Watching Some Golfers

By Fred
Bingo and I went for a long walk yesterday, down to the park near our house. He's doing much better now off the sidewalk, though he still gets distracted by the occasional stick, acorn, clump of Spanish moss, weed, ant, leaf, or one of the countless invisible scents along the way. But sometimes, not very often, he becomes entranced with something in the distance, and he stares with an odd intensity. I first noticed this on the day we brought him home (see the puppy picture at the top of this blog). Something on TV had caught his attention, and he just seemed so unusually interested.

Yesterday he became fascinated with a golf cart and two golfers, probably about 100 ft away. Their voices barely carried to us, and the cart moved along silently and slowly. Something new to consider, and we both watched them for a minute or two.

I'm sure I am experiencing what a parent often feels--that their kid is the smartest kid in the world, ever. I'm almost expecting Bingo to turn to me and ask 'What is that?' as if he actually is smarter than any dog that has ever lived.

And then, for the 1,000th time, he tries to eat an acorn on the way home.

Chili Peppers, Cows and Christmas Trees

[Photo of Bingo (black lab) sitting facing the camera in front of a lighted Christmas tree. The Christmas tree is decorated with chili pepper lights and chili and cow ornaments. ONLY chili and cow ornaments.]

In the previous post I mentioned some insanity, well, it all comes out now. There was a time in my life when I collected cows. It got a bit out of hand and the house got a bit kitschy. So I relegated the cows to the Christmas tree and for the last 18 years I have been collecting cow and chili pepper ornaments to decorate my tree. Only cow and chili pepper ornaments. You would be surprised at how many you can find. Some years there are tons; others, maybe one.

We started out with a tiny tree, but over the years we were able to get a normal size tree. Now we have an 8.5 foot Frasier Fir tree. It is lovely. I love Christmas. Every year I pull out my ornaments and I remember just where I bought each one. Fred's favorite came from the Phoenix Museum of Art. It's a cool glass chili.

As you can imagine, a Christmas tree could be quite the curiosity cabinet for a puppy. Bingo did a fair amount of sniffing around. He did knock off an ornament with his tail (we have a 2" tail wag zone at the bottom of the tree). Overall, though, he walks by with nary a glance.

[Closeup of Bingo sitting in front of Christmas tree with head cocked to the right looking right.]

Evil Wing-Loving Backyard Neighbors

I will confess right now to a bit of insanity right up front, so all of you readers who aren't close friends and family might be surprised. But perhaps a bit of my craziness has come through in my blog posts, so this story won't be a surprise. Needless to say, my husband just shook his head and my friends Christy and Michele roared with laughter at me.

Last week I let the dogs out into the backyard to busy busy for the last time of the evening. Bingo took a little jaunt out into the bushes and when he came back it was clear there was something in his mouth.

"Drop it." He did. He's very good at dropping it and out plops this chicken wing. Not a hot wing with meat still on it, but a chicken wing bone, no meat on it all. "Good boy!" I pick up the nasty chicken bone and look into the dark of the back yard and think to myself, "What in the great good night is a chicken wing doing in my back yard?"

The next night, I let the dogs out to do their busy, busy and what do you know? Bingo brings back ANOTHER chicken wing! OMG! Now, I'm incensed. I look into the dark of the backyard and I see the porchlight of our backyard neighbors and it hits me. Our neighbors are eating chicken wings and throwing them over the fence. I narrow my eyes and glare at their porch light. Don't they know what chicken bones can do to dog? How many wings are in my back yard? I'm going to have to do a wing search and ferret out all the chicken bones those cretins have tossed over their shoulder without a care in the world. I can picture it now. Sitting by their pool, big bowl of wings, lawn chairs backing up to the fence, wing goes in their gaping maw of a mouth, then flip, over the fence where my unsuspecting puppy snarfs it up only to be told to Drop It.

I should eat a big bowl of wings and start flipping them into their pool and see how they like those bones! But that seems kind of gross and unhygenic and I think they have children and what if that creates some weird sort of bacteria in the pool? That might result in a House episode that ends up sending me to prison for making children ill with a potentially life threatening bacteria all because my neighbors didn't want to get a trashcan for their wings. Sounds a bit silly. I'll have to think out this revenge thing a bit more.

So I pondered. And pondered.

This morning Fred brought in another bone Bingo had found. Fred said it was clearly the leg of a wild bird that had died. Fred thinks that a wild bird died in our yard, decomposed naturally and Bingo found the bones and was bringing them in to us, one at a time, leaving the neighbors blameless.

I guess I should forgive our neighbors. They might even be vegetarians for all I know. Turns out Mother Nature is to blame. I don't think I can get revenge on her.

Holiday Happenings at School

Today we had a couple of holiday things that were planned. First off we had what was called a wrap-in. That is where all three divisions come together in small groups and bring gifts for different charities and we all decorate gift bags for them. Our upper division advisory group was paired with a pre-k class, which turned out to be a Godsend because they were soooooo cute. They just oozed the holiday spirit!

So we showed up with donut holes, OJ, presents, gift bags, upper division students and Bingo. They had all the decorating supplies and oodles of enthusiasm. And very small chairs to sit in. Here he is with his biggest teacher fan (although the World Languages Department would have a fit and contest that statement, wouldn't you ladies?! 8-) as we are trying to get him to sit still for a photo. I took Bingo's coat off for him to visit with every table, but since he is a moose, he kind of intimidated some of the kids even though he was pretty good and sat to be petted and wasn't too mouthy (he's a licker, but even that can be intimidating to a small child). He did have some fans. A couple of the boys had some dogs and were comfortable around big dogs his size (he's 58.3 pounds now!). One boy was very excited to get to pet him and later said that Bingo was his friend.

Bingo seems to have gotten the concept of coat and no coat, even though we were told they don't understand that until 6 months. he may not fully understand it (I'm hedging my bet here!) but he does seem to be cognizant that while in coat, he won't be petted and while out of coat, he will get attention. It makes a difference in his demeanor.

Although, in the next photo, he was still a bad boy and was going for the tissue paper (he LOVES to tear apart paper!), but I stopped him before he got a mouthful. There was one funny incident that happened when we were walking the little kids to drop off the gifts. One of my advisees asked the little boy she was with to hold her hand and he said no. She asked him why and he said, "I haven't washed my hands and your supposed to wash your hands after you pick your nose."

After the wrap-in we went to classes and ended the day with the holiday convo. It's a fun convo, with lots of singing and load music and general revelry. A good exposure opportunity for Bingo. We got there a bit late and had to force our way through a crowd of juniors. Fortunately, they will do anything for Bingo. I just look helpless and point at him and say, "I need to get over there" and then I push him in that direction. They part like the Red Sea. It's so nice.

I sat on the first bleacher and Bingo was on the floor. We had several lovely, long haired girls in front of us (this will be important later). It was pretty clear from the start that of all the all school convos, this one was going to be Bingo's most challenging. The girls were very sweet because Bingo would lie down and stick his nose in between them as you can see from the photo at right.

The girl on the right has her hair in a bun. Unfortunately, there was some singing and clapping, which made Bingo sit up, and her bun was at eye level and she turned her head quickly. She has lots of really pretty hair and it makes a lovely bun that is slightly kong shaped, if you get my meaning, maybe on a DNA level, a little bit reminscent of wild things, because it is more of a freeform bun, loose and a bit low. Yes, Bingo hit that bun like a greyhound wants to hit the rabbit at the racetrack, only more gently. Slightly. Fortunately, I'm on very good terms with her and she likes Bingo quite a bit. It was a quick bite and release. A loud NO! The two other girls quickly pulled their long hair in front so that Bingo couldn't get to it. 8-)

The video below was taken by my friend the religion teacher who doesn't realize you can't put video in that direction. But I'm still putting it up because you can see how Bingo is still a bit interested in her bun, but mainly for his complete disinterest in the pipe and drum corps and the fact that he ends up sleeping through it.

Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree!

Today after school we went to a friend's tree lot and picked out our tree. The lot is on the corner of Dale Mabry and Bay to Bay and they have fresh Frasier firs from North Carolina and the growers are on the premises, which is pretty cool. The smell was pretty overwhelming. Bingo was quite interested in the trees and what was going on in the process of looking at them and deciding on one. Here we are by the one we decided upon.

Of course, trees can capture a young pups attention for only so long. He was much more interested in snuffling in the needles and biting sticks, which isn't allowed in coat. I had my hands full. Still, he was pretty well behaved. We also went for dinner out at Pane Rustica afterwards and he was very good.

And if you need a tree, go to Tom Daly's tree lot behind the church on Dale Mabry and Bay to Bay. They are beautiful fresh Frasier fir trees! And tell him Bingo sent you!