true confessions of a dog owner.

It's time for some true confessions! Are you ready for this? I put together a list of twelve truths pertaining to being a dog owner. Know that I mean no offense, so I apologize in advance if anything written is taken the wrong way. But I figured it would be fun to let you all know some of my honest-to-goodness thoughts and maybe even share some of my own bad habits! Leave a comment below with some of your confessions - I love getting the scoop!

1. I am of the persuasion that raising a dog is just as hard as raising a child.

2. Every Sunday, when I go grocery shopping, I make sure to bring back a special little treat or toy for Claire.

3. It's very likely that I spend more money on Christmas presents for Claire than I do on all of my friends combined.

4. No matter how adorable I think your dog is, I'll always think that mine is cuter.

5. I think you can tell a lot about a person by the way they treat their dog. I tend to write people off if I see them treating their dog poorly.

6. It's really hard for me to like you if you don't like my dog. And please know that "like" does not mean "tolerate."

7. I have more of a problem with separation anxiety than Claire does. She usually does just fine when she's at Bark-O-Lounge while I'm on vacation. I, however, call/text a few times per day to make sure that she's all right...

8. I have been late to work a time or two solely because I've stayed in bed cuddling with Claire for too long.

9. Sometimes when we're at the park, I yell "SQUIRREL!!" really loudly because I think it's hilarious how Claire's ears immediately perk up and she looks all around to find it.

10. There have been many times where I have slept on the very edge of the bed as to not disturb the angelic sleep of Princess Claire.

11. Claire's vice is digging, and I even encourage it sometimes because I feel like it helps file those nails ;)

12. If I believed in past lives, I would definitely think that I was a dog.
  

oh, the (adorable) irony.

Claire's curious nature is so endearing to me, but I've got to keep an eye on her at all times. It doesn't take much for her curiosity to bloom into mischievousness, and it only takes a split second for her to find something to get into that she should be leaving alone. It's been so hot lately that we haven't been able to spend much time together outside, which has been making her a bit restless. Restlessness - in Claire - means trouble. I attempted to brave the heat for a mere five minutes last week so that I could take her for a little stroll around the yard [I was sweating within ten seconds of stepping outside, by the way]. She stopped by the porch and started sniffing around, which I didn't think much of, at first. But then she started nosing aside some dead grass... and I heard a squeak. When I saw something rustle in the grass, I instantly took Claire into the house so that I could take a closer look without her prey drive gearing up and getting out of control. When I moved aside the grass, I found these little munchkins:

Baby bunnies!!

I have to confess that my first thought was "What ARE you?!" Can you tell that I didn't grow up around animals?! I'm not proud to admit that at first I thought they were baby mice. Obviously, I quickly scratched that because of the lack of a long tail. Then I guessed that they might be baby moles. But then I remembered that Claire had scared off a rabbit from the same spot earlier this morning [that was the ah-ha! moment]. I've checked on Claire's bunnies over the past few days, and they're doing really well - they have finally opened their eyes and now they have more fur! We had a terrible rainstorm last night, however, and I stayed awake worrying that their burrow would collapse, and now I'm afraid to go check on them again because my heart would break if they didn't survive [maybe this is why my mom never allowed us to have any pets].

For those of you who have followed the blog for awhile and/or followed me on Twitter, I'm sure you've seen my posts/tweets about Claire's rabbit obsession. I completely realize that it's absurd to be so concerned about these little bunnies when they'll eventually grow up to torment Claire, in turn tormenting me when she freaks out at spotting them through the kitchen window. But they're just so cute and tiny right now! I can't help it! Ugh. I am such a girl.

   

the anatomy of a trip to the park.

I was sitting on the park bench chatting with some friends, and I looked around for Claire just to make sure she wasn't getting into trouble. She was a little ways away introducing herself to the people who came into the park. She could've cared less about the dogs at that point, since she'd had a pretty busy afternoon at the river with Gracie and Asya.

One of the guys who was loving on Claire called over to me and asked if she's the dog who sits on the bench. When I said that yes, she's the one, he asked if she does that because she's afraid of the other dogs. I told him how she's been coming here since she was a puppy, so she knows most of the dogs who frequent the park as much as we do. I said that, it isn't that she's afraid of the other dogs, it's just, now that she's older, she has a certain routine for herself when we come to the park.

Claire spends a half an hour or so sitting next to me on the bench observing everything, and then she goes and plays a little bit with her friends. She checks in with me more during this playtime, and, if she finds a tennis ball that meets her high standards, she'll ask me to throw it for her a couple times. Sometimes she digs a hole or two under whatever bench I'm sitting on. And every so often, Claire will stop whatever she is doing and will go find Asya; she likes to antagonize her until she agrees to chase her in circles around the park. After that, Claire just hops back on the bench and sits with me for awhile until she lets me know that she's ready to go.

When Claire was a puppy, we used to go to the park for hours on end, and Claire would just run and run the entire time. It's funny how her needs have changed in the past couple years. She's not old by any means - she's just three! - but she certainly doesn't have that constant flow of energy anymore!
 

a day of rest.

I needed a day like today. In fact, I think I need another day like it soon. Really soon. Life has been tumultuous lately, and I'm very much the kind of person who needs quiet and peace and stability. My Saturday was really busy - I had places to go, people to see, things to do! - and so I decided that today was going to be full of rest. God knew what He was doing when He created the Sabbath, and I think I need to honor that more.

Claire and I started the day by sleeping in. It was glorious. I could have just kept on sleeping, but around 9am, I woke up to a wet nose touching mine and a tail thumping against the bed. Waking up like that is a million times better than an alarm clock, by the way. I got up, got ready, and we headed off to spend a few hours at the dog park with friends, since the weather was so nice. Claire ran around and wrestled with Asya, dug a big hole with Simba, and got some loving from Kingsley. I knew it was time to go when she laid down in the middle of the park, so we came back home and curled up for naptime. [Naps on Sunday afternoons are the best, aren't they?]

Later on, I took her to see her vet at Banfield because she's had itchy red eyes all week, and it turns out that her allergies were acting up and then caused a secondary sinus infection. AHH. Once we got her on some antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, we headed home. I gave her dinner, a bath, a bone, and put some Vaseline on her poor little chapped nose, and now she is sound asleep and snuggled up with her Blue Elephant on top of my electric blanket. My sweet girl.

...You know, I think Claire needed a day of rest as much as I did.
 

romping around.

Claire and I trekked out to the park today in the pouring rain. I sent this video to my mother:

Mom's response: "Hope it's clean in your car before I visit on October 22nd!" I think I might clean the whole car except for the passenger's seat... ;)
 

the beauty of muddy paws.

All day yesterday, I looked forward to getting out of work because I really just craved getting to spend time outside with Claire. It started raining just as we got to the park, but I was determined to stay as long as we could. It wasn't long before it got muddy, and Claire quickly found her way to the muddiest part of the park...

She was having so much fun that I just didn't have it in me to tell her to leave it! She was digging in the mud puddles, running through them, and slipping and sliding everywhere. I loved watching her have so much fun! The joy I feel when I watch Claire having fun is worth all the muddy pawprints in the world! And hey, I even managed to stay pretty clean myself until she got herself so excited that she ran straight at me and tried to jump into my arms! I tried to clean her off a little bit before we got into the car but she still looked like this:

Of course, as soon as I put her in the car, she started rolling around in the backseat to try and clean herself off, so my car is pretty dirty right now... Let's be honest though, it's Claire's car, I am just her chauffeur!

adventures in gardening.

I tried my hand at gardening for the first time this past weekend. This is a big deal, mainly because I have the deaths of two aloe plants on my track record so far - and aloe plants are supposedly indestructible. Anyway, I was the lucky recipient of a gorgeous azalea, and I decided that it was a good weekend to give it a permanent spot in my front yard.

The first problem that I ran into was that I forgot to buy a shovel when I made my Home Depot run. But hey, I thought I could improvise, and grabbed one of those mini spade things (that's right, people, I don't even know the correct terminology). Five minutes into it, I realized how long it was going to take to dig the right sized hole, and so I sat back to rethink my course of action. Then I thought how great it would be if Claire could dig on command and it for me. She's a champ at the dog park when it comes to digging sprain-your-ankle-if-you-trip-and-fall-into-it sized holes (which my friends Amy and Jake hate because she has taught their dogs how to dig as well). Of course, I figured I would give it a try. I went inside, leashed her up, brought her over to the spot that I wanted to plant the azalea, and told her to dig.

Helping me out with the gardening!

I was so excited that her instinct as a dog aligned with my need for help at the perfect time! If the therapy training doesn't work out, I think I'll rent her out to greenhouses and farms all across the country so that others can reap the benefits of her digging skills!

The end result!

**Excuse the crappy cell phone pictures. As I have said before, my cell phone is often within reach on a minute to minute basis, where the DSLR is not.

a typical saturday with my girl.

We have a routine, Claire and I. Saturday mornings are a little rough, since she wakes me up between 5am-6am to eat breakfast, then again between 7am-8am to go for a walk, then around 9:30am to see if I am wanting to play yet, and then one last time around 10:30am. And by then, I'm up.  Next, we hop in the car to make a run to the library in addition to other errands, and we swing by our favorite bakery, See Spot Eat to pick up some organic and freshly-baked treats for Claire (check out their selection - it is amazing!). We usually run home after that to drop off the library books and such, and while I clean up around the house a little bit, Claire chews on a bone or plays with some toys. Between 2pm-3pm, we head to the dog park for a couple hours. And when you frequent a park as much as Claire and I do (4-5 times a week), you can count on running into at least one person - and dog - you know.

Claire at the dog park!

Today, when we arrived, Amy was there with her great dane, Kingsley. Kingsley and Claire are so cute when they play together, because Kingsley is HUGE but often forgets his size. Claire loves to be chased, so she'll run as fast as she possibly can while Kingsley lumbers after her. Claire will run so fast that she will leap over other dogs who are in her path, cut through groups of people, and run under benches. Kingsley, attempting to follow in Claire's footsteps, dodges around other dogs, runs into people, and tips over benches. And it is hilarious to watch them! They were having such a great time today while Amy and I were hanging out.

Kingsley, Claire's boyfriend :)

Once Amy and Kingsley left, Claire took a little break by digging a hole so deep that half of her body disappeared into it. I attempted to catch this on video, but by the time I got it working on my phone, she was done. Don't worry, I'll get it next time. All of a sudden, Claire stopped sniffing around her freshly dug hole and just stared at the gate with her tail wagging. Then she ran and disappeared into a crowd of newcomers. I was watching to see what had her so excited, and then all of a sudden, she emerged. Who was in pursuit? Her best friend, Ava.

Ava and Claire after a play date.

Ava is a yellow lab who is about six months younger than Claire. They have been playing together since Ava was just a teeny thing. And, boy, do they love each other! They have play dates often, and tend to just wear themselves out! Ava's parents, Amy and Cope, live in the same apartment complex as we do - and we are going to miss them so much when we move! So I was just as happy as Claire to see them at the park today. Ava and Claire frolicked, tumbled, chased, dug holes, and sniffed around together for two hours. They were both a complete mess afterward, but at least they had fun! The bottom half of Ava was brown from rolling around in the dirt, and Claire had paw prints and drool from other dogs all over her!


When we came home, I cleaned her up, and we both had dinner. Then she curled up in her favorite spot on the couch and promptly fell asleep. There is a saying among dog owners: "a tired dog is a happy dog." And tonight, this is especially true.

Sleepy girl...