{"id":1950,"date":"2008-03-12T18:59:18","date_gmt":"2008-03-12T22:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/more-dog-blogging\/"},"modified":"2008-03-12T18:59:18","modified_gmt":"2008-03-12T22:59:18","slug":"more-dog-blogging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/more-dog-blogging","title":{"rendered":"More dog-blogging"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’re bored by reading pet-ownership posts, skip on to something else. For the latest on Rufus, click More.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I don’t know if I have a very strange dog. The only two I’ve owned were outdoor dogs, so my standards are, “Did he\/she break the chain and terrorize any kids today? Nope? Great!”<\/p>\n

Now I have to figure out how to get a dog to crap outside, how much I can leave him on his own during the day, and how to get him to climb a flight of stairs.<\/p>\n

Today, all those issues jumbled into one.<\/p>\n

Because of Rufus’ hesitancy about stairs, I’ve refrained from getting a dog-walker to come in by day to take him out. I don’t want someone to risk getting him up and down the stairs, and end up breaking one of his legs (they’re fragile dogs).<\/p>\n

I’ve gone home each day from the office, taken him out, and either stayed at home for the rest of the day, or headed back to work. The thing is, I feel terrible<\/em> about leaving him, and especially having to leave him in a cage\/crate. It’s probably one of the reasons I haven’t owned a pet in so long; I feel way too much pity\/sadness for them.<\/p>\n

Monday, I decided to try leaving him out of the crate but in my home office (where the crate is located). As I mentioned<\/a>, he knocked over the gate and wandered around the office, the living room, the dining room and the kitchen. He greeted me at the top of the stairs, which led me on a merry chase to figure out what carnage he’d caused. Amazingly, he didn’t cause much (I’d closed off the master and guest bedrooms, as well as the upstairs bathroom); just a can opener he’d pulled from the counter to the floor, as well as a couple of dishrags.<\/p>\n

Tuesday, I decided to work at home and let him hang out in the living room with me. He was quiet and content. Still not happy with stairs, but getting better. At one point, I left him upstairs alone for 5 minutes while I drove down the street to pick up some drycleaning. When I returned, he had approximately the same level of joy that he shows when I’ve been away 5 hours. I appear to have a goldfish of a dog.<\/p>\n

Today, I decided to stretch his boundaries. I came home from lunch, took him for a walk, and then let him stay in the library\/rec room downstairs. While he’s been getting better with going up the stairs, I thought there was no chance he’d try it on his own. Still, I put up a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs, brought down his water bowl, bed and a couple of toys, and left him to his own devices (I closed off the side room, the boiler room and the downstairs bathroom).<\/p>\n

Once again, he greeted me at the top of the stairs. I blinked several times. After all, what were the chances that he’d get so bored that he’d risk going up two<\/em> flights of stairs? This was a dog who was in a state of catatonia on Sunday when he stood on the landing.<\/p>\n

I noticed that he’d knocked over the baby gate downstairs, and then . . . off to inspect the carnage. Unfortunately, I left the master bedroom door open this time.<\/p>\n

I knew I was in trouble when I noticed one of my socks beside him on the top of the stairs. The visit to the bedroom confirmed my fears: he’d gotten into the hamper and dragged every piece of clothing out of it. Thing were strewn all over the bedroom and my office. More investigation revealed that he’d chewed a bottle cap off a bottle of Coke (dangerous, I know), and that he’d gone up on a sofa to grab . . . his dog coat (greyhounds need coats outside in cold weather), which was strewn among our things.<\/p>\n

Checking out the library, I discovered that he’d had an accident on the carpet, but it turned out to be much more cleanable than I feared it would be. Still, I pick up enough crap at work all day without having to deal with it at home.<\/p>\n

He could sense my dismay throughout this whole experience, and looked up at me with his ridiculously cute sad eyes. Meanwhile, I felt like Ron Burgundy when he discovers his little dog has gotten into trouble at home:<\/p>\n

What? You pooped in the refrigerator? And you ate the whole . . . wheel of cheese? How’d you do that? Heck, I’m not even mad; that’s amazing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As I cleaned up, I noticed something odd: he didn’t shred anything<\/em>. Didn’t touch a book, magazine, houseplant, piece of mail, tissue: not a thing. He went bananas with the hamper, pulling clothes. He couldn’t hold it in and crapped down in the library. But he didn’t chew on anything except his toys.<\/p>\n

So it looks like he’s got that going for him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’re bored by reading pet-ownership posts, skip on to something else. For the latest on Rufus, click More.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-vs","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3961,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/rufus-recovery-update","url_meta":{"origin":1950,"position":0},"title":"Rufus recovery update","author":"Gil","date":"May 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"No real news over the rest of the day. He rests in his crate, tries to lick his wounds, gets talked down, and goes out to pee every so often. We go to the vet tomorrow to see if it's okay for him to start using the stairs. Here's our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3611\/3555368012_274e9eb85d.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1944,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-truth-about-cats-and-dogs","url_meta":{"origin":1950,"position":1},"title":"The Truth About Cats and Dogs","author":"Gil","date":"March 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to the Virtual Memories \/ Minimally Invasive estates, Rufus, you retired racing greyhound! Rufus raced under the name Primco Kabam, shares a birthday with my brother and, even though he didn't do too well on the track, his breed can supposedly get up to around 45mph . . .\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "suburbs"","block_context":{"text":"suburbs","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/suburbs"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2188\/2322031144_7867a4de57_d.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2064,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/working-like-a-dog","url_meta":{"origin":1950,"position":2},"title":"Working like a dog","author":"Gil","date":"May 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Today was \"Take your Rufus to work day\": That weird device next to Rufus' head is a Soundstick, from Amy's old computer. And yes, I had iTunes going on my desktop computer.","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2523,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/fear-of-a-grey-planet","url_meta":{"origin":1950,"position":3},"title":"Fear of a Grey Planet","author":"Gil","date":"September 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the neat aspects of adopting a failed retired racing greyhound is that you become part of a community of grey owners. I've never been one for, well, belonging, so I'm surprised by how much I enjoy going to greyhound meet and greets and events like this past weekend's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"Amy, Rufus and Bizzys Barker, Sept. 21, 2008","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3139\/2880726370_afc8112010_d.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2072,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/working-like-a-dog-2","url_meta":{"origin":1950,"position":4},"title":"Working like a dog","author":"Gil","date":"May 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"From today's installment of \"Take your Rufus to work day\": \"So you, uh, don't happen to have any treats in that desk drawer, do you?\"","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4569,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/park-it-2","url_meta":{"origin":1950,"position":5},"title":"Park it!","author":"Gil","date":"October 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"After last week's 35-degree snap, we have 75-degree weather today. Go figure. I'm going into the city tonight to meet friends for dinner, but since it's such beautiful weather, I decided to take a half-day, bring Rufus to the local(ish) dog park, and hope he would finally decide to play\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2657\/4035616964_bc5f6381f3.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}