RIP Slater 2002-2011

It has taken me several weeks to do this because I refused to think about it.
But that does not change that it happened.

Slater Strawn has gone on to the big couch in the sky. We did it on a Saturday so Barry could be with him too. Slate had his last ice cream that morning, and had to be helped to the car, but he was ready to go. The poor guy lasted 9.5 years, which is a really long time for a Dane, but nowhere near long enough. Because I had computer crashes, these pics were my favorites from FB, so that is what you get.

I miss him so much, and I know there will never be another baby Alligator like him. I wish I knew how many thousands of miles of road trips we took together, or how many people who were completely amazed at what a gentle giant he was--he made friends everywhere we went. One of his favorite games was meeting hotel clerks, and pushing elevator buttons then sitting in the corner of the elevator acting like a person. He was more like a person than a dog and sure was nicer than most people---it is definitely a different house without him in it.

RIP Slater--you are so missed

Slater takes a bath

Ol boy was funky funky funky, and I do not know why. Just foul. So at half time of the NCAAs Sunday, we got the big idea that he needed an actual bath. Normally he takes a shower, but we end up with water all over the floor. It is a pain in the ass.

It was easier than I expected. Barry told him to get in the bathtub and he mostly did. And there he stood while he got all lathered up. He does not look particularly happy about it in this pic, but really he was fine with it.

I do not know why we never did this before. It was way easier than having to get in the shower with him, because that is just a little weird.

Now he is all soft and smells like a clean house, since I bathe him with Murphys Oil Soap. If you do not use that on your short haired dogs, you should totally try it--it cleans gently and rinses way better than regular shampoo. They just smell a little like furniture polish for a while. Oh well, that is better than the smell of dirt by a long shot

Slater goes to Mardi Gras

I have just started on the pics, and there are so many to choose from, that I thought I better get some up here for now. Slater made a friend at the parade--this was a very brave kid to pose with Slate. That is Slate's arrogant look he is showing us. We got to the parade 20 minutes before we started, and I stopped counting at 30, the number of people that asked him to stop for photos. He loves it. I noticed that all of my pics were his serious self, and never his silly faces.


This was Slater watching the parade. He thinks this whole parade thing is for him.

Leave it to Slater to get arrested. Look how ashamed he looks in the back of the cop car. As well he should be.
Unfortunately, there was a mob of people taking his picture so I could never get a good one that showed he was actually in a cop car. You will just have to take my word for it. It really was fun, and the patrolman was a great sport. It was actually his idea to put him in the car for his pictures instead of just posing next to the car. It was really warm in there though, so ultimately we had to drag him out or he would still be there, riding around the downtown area.

We had a ball as usual. The attendance was way down this year though, since the Super Bowl was on the same day. We watched part of it in a bar in Soulard, and the second half at the Brewhouse at the Hyatt at the Arch, where we got dinner and Slater slept off his hard day. He is a big fan of hotels, and particularly enjoyed this one. The Hyatt has a 50 pound weight limit which no one told me until we got there, and despite my clearning him in advance. They waived it for him though, and gave him a toy and a water bowl, and some other treats, and told him this morning that he was welcome back any time. He makes a fan of every one who meets him.

He and I slept in while Barry went to work this morning. Slater was very torn between having his own bed to sleep in and wanting to be with me. It was really fun.

Stay tuned for more pics as I get time to go through them. This is going to be a short week for me, especially if the blizzard hits tonight--that will give me some time to play with pics. I also need to rest up for a crazy weekend, kicking off Thursday nite

Someone misses me

My doggies have been neglected lately. With Barry gone, and me picking up the slack, I am not getting many waking hours at home. This makes Slater sad. It makes Simba sadder because really she loves Barry more than anything and he is never here. But she does not make as many sad faces as Slater does.

I am planning to sleep and sleep and sleep this weekend. I am going to fix the lawnmower, get some horses shod for Labor Day, and some more trimmed, work on Hammer and Boogie and spend time with my pups. It is not even supposed to hit 80 this weekend, so it should be comfortable for the hours of bushhoging I need to do.

Barry has some interesting projects this weekend--working on the Sears Tower, the John Hancock Building etc. I hope he does not fall off.

I definitely need some re-charging time.

Happy Days--on Hiatus

That Happy things business is getting boring. So I am taking a day off from that crap. Maybe more. We will see, you know I hate being tied down.

Pig is adjusting to missing Tequila. She was his best friend. He has seemed depressed all week--0either that or he ate Roundup, and I think he would be sicker had he done that. Before she died, he even gave her his special mattress in the garage when she started going downhill. He made himself a pallet next to her on the floor so he would not bother her, but you could pretty much always find him there just being with her.

Now that he has figured out she is really not coming back, he tried the bed out one day, and that is how I knew that he knew. Since then he has moved back out to his summer quarters--the pigloo. I have found him there every morning on my way to work, and finally he showed me his new teefers that he is growing. Check out those tusk-like things. Maybe they are tusks. Hell I don't know, what do I know about pigs?

I am showing you this pic because it pretty much describes my day. I bushhogged at the farm last nite long enough to tear all the hotwire out between the back pasture and the back of the hay field. Good times. then I laid in the pool until almost dark, reading a book and playing on the internet. I ended up staying up late watching ridiculous TV. It was a very nice nite.

I did not wake up til 10 am and stayed in bed with Slater watching TV until noon. Then we watched a different TV. We did nothing. Absolutely nothing, despite my long list of crap that needed to be done. No that is not true- I fried up some bacon (something I never do or let BS do because it stinks up the house), and got splattered right next to my eyeball with hot grease. Now I have the stigmata and a boiled spot on my face--I am so cute.

This is the first weekend that Barry has not come home, or I have not gone there. It is kind of weird. In anticipation of me not getting paid, he is trying to cram in some over time, which is very cool of him. Plus, driving back and forth every weekend is expensive, since it is so far--and it is exhausting to start the week out running behind.

It finally stopped raining but it was still overcast and not nice enough to do anything, so back to bed I went about 4:30. I am not kidding when I tell you this was the laziest day of my life. To that point, I had done nothing but find some new hysterical blogs, and watch stupid re-runs on TV.

Finally around 8, I got up and went to the store to rent Milk. Which of course they did not have. While I was there though, I bought all the garbage I am not supposed to eat, including a big ass cupcake which I have already eaten. I also saw the cutest little kid wearing nothing but a diaper running all over the store. While her mom checked out, she climbed up on some stranger's lap, and her diaper fell slap off. Her dirty diaper. Oy. Poor guy.

When I got home, I started feeling bad about having done nothing all day, so I set about using my new wrenches to fix the lawn mower. It took more work than expected, but it did not take wrenches, oddly enough. It appears to be fixed now, I hope, so I can re-mow here tomorrow if it is dry enough then haul to the farm and do there. Since I was on a roll, I started cutting out the carpet from Tequila's room. I got out probably half of it--everything I could without moving furniture, which I am not in the mood for--but now I feel like I did something. Still stinks like hell in there, which makes no sense to me since I have all the nasty spots and the padding under them out of the room. Maybe it will be better tomorrow.

I have decided to paint that room before I put in the new floor. That will require sanding the walls as they have some peculiar paint texture on some of them. I have no idea the proper way to go about that--any suggestions? I don't even know what color to do--the rest of the house is pretty bold--we have a barn red living room, the great room is a middle greem, the master bedroom is yellow--not bright primary yellow, but pretty dang yellow, and the little spare room is a darkish orange. Any suggestions? I do not like blue. And I do not want white, of course.

It is a pretty big room-- 14 x 16 or 18, I think, and it is a corner room so there are windows on two sides if that makes any difference.

Meanwhile, I will leave you with the two faces of Slater--

Handsome Slater. I took this from the pool

Goofy Slater, with his doofus eyes. I took this from the truck, which he seems to think that he can chase down the driveway now that he occasionally gets to go in the front yard. He and Simba were not allowed out there with Tequila, so now they are able to come out with me when I am in the front yard, and they can play with pig. Slater has forgotten some of the rules of the front yard. Doesn't he look insane in this pic? This is how I really think of him

No I am not kidding

I had a birthday party for Slater tonight. Yes, he is a dog. No, I do not care if you think I am insane.

Mostly, I did it for the funny photo opportunities, but all the same, I had a party for my dog. No one else could come, as there was a tragedy that interfered today. My parents's dog Nudie had to be put to sleep this afternoon, which of course put them in the non-celebratory mood. In fact, it put a damper on the festivities for everyone. It breaks my heart, because I know how horrible it feels to lose one, and because no one can fix it. It also makes me appreciate the time I have with my own dogs, even if it is silly time like this.
One of Slate's favorite things in the world is Dairy Queen, so Barry brought DQ for everyone last nite because he thought he would not be here tonight. When we put the dish in his food bowl, he put the whole thing in his mouth and took it to my recliner where he laid it down, I guess to rest until he wanted it. I had to get it and put it back two times, before it occurred to me to dump it out of the DQ dish and put it in his bowl like that. Duh. That is why we have leather furniture though.
Simba was very glad to see that she got ice cream too.
Tequila even got hers delivered to her room. She has clearly never had ice cream, which makes me sad. I know it is not good for them, but Slater loves it so much, he gets it some times. After we convinced Quila to try it, she loved it and gobbled it out of a bowl.
And what is a birthday without birthday cake? Since Barry got to be home tonight unexpectedly, we had to have the real party. That included party hats and cake. Simba is such a nice girl, taking her treat.
Slater gobbled so fast he ended up making such a big mess, that Simba ended up with most of it, eating it off the floor. And that is why we no longer have carpet in most of our house.
Barry refuses to take a decent picture--he looks completely squirrelly here. And really he is only half squirrely. Just the kind of doofus who will wear a party hat for his dog's birthday. Plus, I think Simba had her tongue stuck in his ear. She loves him.
Quila was not sure about the hat thing, but she wore it. This whole birthday thing confused her, but maybe that is because she does not have one. God willing, we will celebrate her Gotcha day this fall.
I cannot explain this.
All that partying wore Slate slap out. He pitched over in the floor by Barry's chair, rolled up on his back and went to sleep.



Even Boce got to get in on the party action. Well, he got a hat. Because that is just funny. Oddly, he minded the hat less than anyone. Since he has no neck, the elastic went in his mouth. I don't think he even noticed, he went to eating his dinner like it was not even there.

Now find me someone else who has a pig who wears birthday party hats. I knew I would find my niche in the blogging world eventually.

Valentine's Day

Here is Slater enjoying his nite in a hotel --I have never known a dog to love a hotel like this one does. He is an old pro at living it up with pizza delivery and room service.



We usually do not make a big deal about Valentine's Day, but this year it happened to coincide with some other stuff, and so we ended up with a little more in the way of festivities.

We came to St Louis, where we are spending the nite in the same hotel we stayed in the night we got engaged. I do not remember what it was called then, but now it is the Crowne Plaza in Clayton. We ran errands on the way, like getting Slater's nails done, and the best thing--getting my real computer back! YAY--but now of course it is acting up.

We had a great Italian dinner, with a bottle of champagne, which somehow caused Barry to shatter his champagne flute. I have no idea how or why that happened.

Next we went to an art showing in Soulard. It is called Naughti Gras---it is a show of erotic art. See about it here . It was very interesting to say the least, and people who know me in real life will be laughing their fool heads off at me going to such a thing, but I have to admit that it was interesting. I thought there might be a little more performance art than there was, but there was just one exhibit where people were painting some dude green while he was wearing just a banana hammock. The place was packed though--live music, and about five rooms packed with paintings, photography, sculptures, and other stuff I cannot even begin to describe.

Tomorrow is our annual doggy outing with Slater--the Mardi Gras dog parade. It is so much fun, and I will have great pics...so come back soon to see them.
Meanwhile, I have to figure out where I am going to sleep in this bed here--look at what is going on in it as I type this.


And I have no idea why Barry is making such a mean face at me--it may have to do with me flashing him with the camera while he is trying to sleep. Men can be so fussy.Happy Valentine's Day everyone--hope it was a good one!

This and that and some other-and a Book

Here is some shocking news---yesterday afternoon, I took a 15 minute break from work (well I might as well since I am assumed to take a one hour lunch whether I did or not and had not had one yet), and ran to the gym to lift some weights. Yeah, I know 10 minutes serves no purpose, except it got me out of there to take out my aggression on something besides myself and anyone who will listen to me, and it got me in the gym for the first time. Go me!

I needed some animal therapy by the time I got home from work last nite, after all the stress and misery of my week. I did not get here until 6:30 or so and Boce keeps sneaking in the door, so I let him stay in for a while to be friends and wait for Barry to get home. It did not work though, since as soon as he gave up looking for more food and decided to lay down, Simba sniffed him and for some reason it really pissed him off and he launched off into a tirade for 10 minutes. After the week I have had, I did not have it in me to listen to the drama of yet another fat ass complaining about his circumstances. Out he went.

Barry showed up from his week in Kentucky or wherever he was at about 7:30---and I had the big idea to make some soup for his arrival home. It was going to be some sort of hit and miss plan I had, but I bought all the stuff---and then he got home so much earlier than I anticipated and I was caught up in the internetz, and it did not happen. Big failure for the wife on that one--then again, he probably would have wondered what I had done to be attempting to cook for him.

This morning our first project was to run by the vet to get Simba's meds then go look at some hay, which turned out to be at the house where some family friends lived when I was growing up. I had not been there in probably 17 years. This place is really my dream place, and to know it is for sale right now sure did give me a little thrill. Then I remembered that I already have two properties, and with 4 jobs, I could never afford this place. It is truly beautiful and it was nice to be back there.
The owners have/are relocating out of State and have sold all their horses except this one, a 23 year old gelding who is the perfect family horse. He has years and years of experience toting young children, trail riding, showing, and just being a good citizen. I told him I would spread the word on him, as this is just the kind of horse people are always looking for and can never find.
If I had a kid, I would snap this dude up in a heart beat. If anyone is looking for the perfect kid horse who is sound and sane as he can be, with the perfect temperament, get in touch with me and I will hook you up.
Because he is not used to living along, the neighbor sent over a mare to be his friend. She is enjoying her time not as low man on the totem pole and is so content--she wanted to be with us the whole time, but made sure to keep her eye on her new friend the whole time. It is a win/win situation for everyone.
It made me happy to know that these people are taking such good care of their boy, that they got him a friend.

After that we went to WalMart for basics, and I always get worn out there. Now that they have remodeled, I cannot find the freaking potato chips--and I do not know why I care since you know they won't have the Reduced Fat Ruffles anyway. But what if they come back? And I will never know because now the towels are where the chips are supposed to be. I cannot take that kind of stress. I did discover some new flavor of ham in the deli--honey cinnamon. Whose big idea was it to put cinnamon on ham? How long has this been going on, I ask you? I do love me some good ham, which is kind of funny since I also love me my pet pig who is also ham, but that is how I roll--just a bundle of contradictions, aren't I?

I did however break down and buy the first of the Twilight books---I feel like an idiot being the only one who has not read them, especially since I also did not read any Harry Potter, nor am I about to.
We came home from there, and of all insane things, I COOKED lunch. I made spaghetti. I am not a fan of sketti but Barry is, so I cooked it up with some meat and mushroom sauce. Who am I all of a sudden?

I can tell you that all that domesticity kicked my ass. I did not get much sleep last nite so I decided to take a nap--naps are some of my very favorite things. Reading a good book to lead into a nap is one of my favorite things.
There is never any sleeping alone around here--which is why I was up until 3:30 am last nite (Tequila kept farting in my face while I watched TV so I had to search for a dog free zone to get to sleep). Today, since I was particularly serious about my nap, Slater got tapped for the nap---this is how he likes to sleep---upside down and flopped over on top of me.
Thus started a nap I needed so bad that I slept almost three hours without even turning over in bed, I was so tired. Even Slater's snoring did not interrupt me.

The best part was that when I woke up, Barry had moved hay at the farm, fed everyone, put Grandpa's winter coat on him since it is cold and ugly and flipped a load of laundry for. Can you imagine how nice it was to have things happen while you are sleeping?

We then went to a movie--we saw Zack and Miri Make a Porno and laughed our fool heads off, it was really funny.


I have a new book to give away....somehow I ended up with two copies of this---I already read it and either gave it away or lost it, but it was a good book. I will send it out to the first person who requests it----"It only Takes a Moment" by Mary Jane Clark.

Hope you all are having a great weekend...I am trying to talk myself down from this stress by focusing on other things, like some volunteer opportunities. The best way to get happier is to focus on doing for someone else---its good karma, I think. Do any of you have any projects like that you are involved in?

For TrainWreck

These are all my dogs. This is Simba, who is the queen. She came from Mississippi, where she was taken from a drug house when the occupants went off to the pokey. I got her from the rescue when she was around 2 years old, or two and a half, and that was six years ago. She is a good girl, but has some rules that have to be followed. I love her though, for all she has been through and how hard she has worked to get better. She is completely in love with Barry and often falls asleep with her head on his pillow, looking at him. She is the boss of the house.

She has a lot of names, such as Simba Lou, or Louise, or Weasel, or Simmers or Simmer Sue or any number of other things.
This is the nuttiest one of the bunch, Tequila, or Fruit Loop, or Chalupa. She is an accident in motion. She has been here about 15 months and is either almost 3 or almost 6 or 7. Depends on which vet you ask. She showed up having recently nursed a litter, and weighed only 78 pounds. She does some odd ball things, but her best trick is that she can sleep 20 hours and never get up to potty at all. And she blends into the furniture. Simba does not like her, as she did not invite her to live here, so we have to keep them separated. We got Quila fixed as soon as she was strong enough (she is also heartworm positive), and now she is 94 pounds, which is just right. Her recent freak nerve damage has healed almost all the way and she is a happy girl. She is so little though that I call her the Lesser Dane instead of the Great Dane

I like her because she makes me laugh, and Thor loved her, so by taking care of her, I feel like I still have him a little bit. I sure do miss him; he had such a crush on her. Now she has just the pig to play with, so the neighbor's rat terrier comes over to play with her a lot. The water delivery man on the other hand will not come over at all anymore because she chased him once. Well there is more to that story, but that is all I have to say about that.


Here is proof that Slater Alligator is not always handsome. He has taken over Thor's spot on the couch, and he is dead asleep in this photo, but his eyes are a little open. That is so not handsome

For Tranae

For you, I will show you my dog because you asked for more pics of him


And now the whole world knows that Slater Alligator is a cross-eyed freak.

The crew

Oh who am I kidding? The dogs get the most attention of anyone. Slater thinks all these people are there to see him.

This time, there were some new players. We had a batch of little dogs on this trip---this is Nibbles, Linda's new dog. I call him Popeye, cuz, well--he only has one eye. He kind of looks like a muppet. Linda needs to save things, so she adopted this dog as a retirement gift to herself. He was a good pic, as he is very happy and muppet-like, which is just kind of funny. He also talks to himself some.

This is Bunny--short for something else. He belongs to Amy, she brought him back from Ireland. Unless I just made all that up, but I think so. He is the only Jack Russell that I have ever been around that did not make me want to take a Xanax. Head calls him Jack, because he just refuses to call dogs by their right names. I do not know if that is on purpose, but it works out that wayThis is Bopper, or Whopper or just Chihuahua. He is also Amy's. Head calls him Jose. I think he is a hoot because he is a very fat chihuahua, so he looks like a bullet head. Or a cat, when he is running fast in the nite. It kind of freaks me out, but he is actually pretty good dog

Look how organized Amy is, if I tried to walk three dogs at once, I would hang myself up for real.
This was post our swim in the lake at the campground...which leads to some other stories that I will get to

Slater at his most goofy

I started out trying to get a good picture of Slater, because Jenna was just commenting on how handsome he is--and I feel like unless you know him, you do not know that. So I tried to get a good shot. The only one that is not him being a HUGE doofus is this one. And the only reason he is not a doofus in this shot is because you cannot see his face.
Here he is pretending to be a reining horse--see him crossing over there? He is not using his butt right though, and that is going to cost him on the score card.
I have no idea what he is doing here. Not sitting, like I distinctly recall telling him to do so I could take a good picture of him.
This is him in almost complete collapse after he put on one of his doofus shows.
This is him running toward me--God forbid I be in the yard with him and he not be right on top of me---pretty face huh?
This would have been decent, had he picked his ear up---and I swear he is raising his eyebrow at me. Even my animals have attitudes, evidently.
Same picture that I accidently loaded twice but Blogger wont let me delete it.
This is Slater playing in his swimming pool--and yes, I know it is green. Before I broke the mower again, I mowed grass in it and it turned green---he really loves his swimming pool
What do you think he is doing here? Trying to empty it so he can get non-green water?
This is him actually putting his head under water--and then when he brought it to me, I realized he smelled like rot and had to have a bath. That came later
This is almost a picture of Slater's patented head roll---he starts his lay down by putting his head down first. I do not know why, but he is pretty consistent about it.
He sure loves to put his weiner in the air--it is always in the air--he even sleeps like this. And watches TV, propped up next to the recliner-
Now he wants to know if he did good for his pictures---

No Slate you did not, but you still make me laugh.