Sunday ~ Fort Doberdale Style

This morning, Regis leads Baby in the Dober Tango.

Luigi’s current favorite Cuz ball is in everyone’s possession but his.

Baby Diva is sporting coconut hair in her teeth.

Lilian passes by with a reproachful look at Baby’s hairy tooth as if Lilian, queen of hairy teeth, should talk.

So as a retaliatory move, Baby, The Queen Mother, moves Lilian to the “do not touch me” list. This means Lilian is allowed to stand by, hold her ball, and watch the QM play; however touching The QM is forbidden until further notice.

Bouchard licks off Z-snail juice from grass blades.

Luna bird watches.

Bird dog watches.

Such a lovely Dove.

Ginger catches snowflakes. (OK, pretend.)

Raven flung her bells off the door this morning, then she and the herd trampled them. Guess who’s going to be reshaping Raven’s jingle bells this afternoon. The Dobermaid.

And Annie Bananie has been labeled.

The Queen Mother

Baby, aka The Diva, Mother Superior, and The Queen Mother (QM) was at her best last night. Wow!

The Dobergirl with the QM personality basically wants what she wants when she wants it. Baby has always had that motto. She is the type of girl who will pick and choose her friends and if you are not on her friend list, then you may not touch her. And if you are on her friend list, and she is not in the mood, you may not touch her. If you are on her friend list, she will undoubtedly want to pull your leg. That goes for dogsbaby

Now she likes humans, and because she is a Diva, she especially likes men. She has embarrassed me more than once with her flirtatious overtures at men.

I used to take her to the dog park, but that stopped when she decidedly chose another family to buddy up with, and no matter how many times I would go over to her to pull her away, she returned to them. I believe this was retribution for something I may have done to her that she was keeping score on. Because I pretty much was picked by Baby to be her mom. She was the one who jumped into my lap when I was sitting on a sofa and she was charging through the door at warp speed. This was before we were even on a first name basis. But we adopted each other and I will tell you I have never had a better puppy than Baby – ever! And especially right now <cough cough>.

Baby was my first Dobermann, though I’d admired them all throughout my life. My mother was afraid of them, so until her passing, I had other breeds. The closest I could get looks wise to a Dobermann was a Dalmatian. I adored my Brandie Girl, but she was not a Dobermann and she was the hardest puppy I ever had. She was a puppy well into adulthood. Seven years into it! I hope to God that Raven doesn’t break her record. Meanwhile, and once I lived with Baby, I found it easy to adopt and Doberparent more homeless Doberkids.

I do have an Aussie, and love her to pieces. She has a more independent intelligence than my Dobies, and a lot more fur.

But Dobies are the stick-to-my-heart kinda dog.

Because of Baby, I am the mother of a lovely family of Doberkids. I would like to point out here, that if I had adopted Raven as my first Doberchild years ago, I would probably, most likely, OK positively not be writing the same story. Raven is definitely one of those … er … I don’t want to say freaks of nature, er … what is it? She’s a Doberanomaly. Yes, that sounds better. But all the Dobies I have adopted are definitely due to Baby’s magnificent influence.

The Dobies, too, have proven consistent to the breed’s intelligent, dedicated, personable standards. (Until you know who.)

So this brings us to last night. Bedtime. It was the first chilly night of the season, and I asked Baby three separate times (that’s 3) to come to bed instead of sleeping on the sofa. She rolled her eyes at me, ignored me, and shifted on the sofa, so I figured it was not going to happen unless I manhandled her, which isn’t a good thing to do if you want to maintain good relations with a QM. So I went to bed and three other smart Doberkids found their way into the warmth of the bed, as well.

Sometime deep in the night, I would say far after midnight, but hours from sunrise, the QM suddenly decides that she DOES want to be on the bed. She barked at me and chopped her ever-flapping jaws. I told her to leave me alone, and just shut up. Yeah, I know. I have nerve. I’m gutsy when I’m sleeping.

This is how the QM looked, but it was darker in the room and she was right at eye-level by my bed. I took these pictures of her this morning when she wanted her Frisbee NOW. Same attitude, different time of day.

We argued. Baby was persistent and I didn’t want to have to rearrange anyone because of her lack of deference to my good judgment previously. But she IS the QM, so I put another plan into action. That plan involved my having to get up out of bed, which I dredded, but I did it for her sake. I put two (that’s right, 2) dog comforters on the floor for her, and I doubled them, so it was a four-comforter thick comfort bed. I thought that was a fine and comfortable compromise, so told her so and went back to bed.

By the time I was tucked in again, Baby was back chopping at me and giving me what for. She was cold and wanted to be on that bed! “Do you not understand me?” says she.

Yeah, I understood her. I apologized to the “lesser” Dobies, and I say that from Baby’s perspective, not mine, but two of them had to evacuate the bed so Her Highness could stretch out upon their toasty-warm spots. I am so certain that in Baby’s mind, the spots were warmed especially for her until she was ready to take possession of the warm spots.

Baby jumped on the bed, the others found the dog blankeys on the floor appropriate for their use and I got back to doing what I was doing earlier. Sleeping!

Baby settled into sleep and dreamed of beautiful Diva-like things.

Raven Loses Her Self-Control

It’s dinner time. Raven knows it. She tries very hard to maintain herself.

When she gets anxious, she steps outside her crate to tell me so.

Then she goes back inside and raises the volume of her demands.

This is the point where she zones out and is about to leave her senses.

Rabid dog! Rabid dog! Hungry Rabid Dog!

Baby tells it like it is.

Raven had to stay behind the curtain until she calmed her bad self down. Then she got served dinner.

A November Bath Day and Thensome

Today I had to take the hose set-up from my laundry room to Home Depot where a nice, young gentleman there managed to remove the nozzle from the hose. This has been an on-going sore spot for me. I had set up this slinky-type hose with hot/cold water access in the laundry room, so I could stretch it out on cool days to the dog-wash table for a warm-water bath. But the nozzel broke and I couldn’t remove it. Not with pliers or hammers or WD-40. So the fact that I found a good guy who knew what he was doing with those muscles on his arms was a godsend. Thank you! (And I did go on-line and wrote to Home Depot customer service telling them about this wonderful employee.)

That meant that I could get on a bath schedule again. And being it’s no longer Halloween, and Chirstmas is coming, it’s time for the winter type Christmas season collars to go on clean dogs. Today was Raven Peebody, Lilian Peebody, Luna and Ginger’s turn. Ginger loves to be doted on, so she got a bath just because she likes the attention. Here she is looking lovely drying off in sun.

Shortly after this picture, she found the place she most likes to pee, and rolled in it.

Luna, the sweetness that she is, decided to dry off on the dirty mat we use coming and going from the back door. At least her pillow was clean as of yesterday’s laundry.

Raven thought Luna was particularly fragrant.

Shortly after her sniffs, Raven went into her “Lookie!” stance while Lilian and the Cuz ball got reacquainted.

And what was Raven staring at? Wow! Big bird. Not THE “Big Bird,” but a really big bird flying overhead. Raven’s got a lot of bird friends, though this one looked sort of menacing. Hungrily so.

Lilian decided to run inside and take her beloved coconut to protect it from the big bird. This was not a decision that sat well with the Dobermaid though.

Speaking of, Raven’s new idea of fun is to give the Dobermaid’s friend, the Dobercook, sass, sass and more sass. The Dobertrainer thought it an idea to let the Raven out while food was being prepared so she wouldn’t have to hear the demanding barks from the bird. It works to a point. The point being when Raven’s patience has gone on empty, she jumps into her crate to bark at the Dobercook to move it along…serve dinner already. What happens from here?

Well, the Doberwaitress tells the Raven to shut the heck up or she won’t get dinner. Of course, Raven doesn’t oblige, so the Doberwaitress closes the door, drapes towels over the door and window of the bird’s crate, and the bird then throws a major fit. Doberwaitress then serves everyone else who knows how to behave and waits until the ruckus behind the curtains comes to a complete and utterly stop. And it does. Eventually. That little bird is starting to get it. But the “starting” part still takes longer than the household would like. Our ear plug bill is a bit outrageous.

Balancing Act

Look what Luna can do with a coconut!

Synchronized coconut swing dancing!

Lilian’s thinks all that’s fine, but she is still best at collecting coconut thread between her teeth.

Raven is busy leading her flock from her throne.

Speaking of a flock…lookie!

It’s one of Raven’s feathered friends stopping by.