Monday, June 18, 2012

Langley vs. the Slug: An Epic Battle

It all started with a young dog's curiosity.  Both Langley and the slug fought valiantly but in the end were both losers.

While in the back yard with me, Langley happened upon a yellow and black spotted banana slug of the size that only a long, wet, Washington June can grow.  With his razor sharp, freshly trimmed nails he pawed the alien life form with interest, and set in motion the short but messy battle.  The slug unleashed a powerful amount of slime in panic and Langley, who believes you should taste everything at least once, slurped up a couple ounces of slimy goodness.
Quickly he learned that banana slugs aren't so tasty when they grow large and past their prime and spit the slug back out.

I watched him from across the yard messing with something: chewing it, pawing it, nosing it and rushed up with the pooper scooper.  The thing was so large and mangled that at first I thought he had caught a mouse.  Then he looked up at me.  He had leaves, grass, dirt and bits of slug guts stuck to his face.  Then I knew, we were dealing with a slug.

After taking the slug to the yard waste bin to rest in peace, it was Langley's turn.  His paw was covered in slime and dirt as was his face.  So I carried a squirming 18 pounds of rat terrier to the kitchen sink, de-slimed him as much as is possible and then put him in his crate to contain the left over slime and let it get enough fuzzy blanket stuck to it that it will not be spread around the house when he is released.
Life can have some rough lessons for a curious pup.
Pictured with a leaf stuck in the slime left on his face

Thursday, June 14, 2012

The Couch

A favorite place in our house is the back of the couch.  It provides great views of the backyard and the squirrels, crows, raccoons and opossums that occasionally visit so the dogs love to sit there and attempt to scare off any intruders to what they view as their domain.  Here you see foster boys Bo and Langley, sharing patrol duty this morning from their favorite perch.
Last weekend we had guests at the house and one of them wasn't a fan of dogs.  They made the mistake of sitting on the couch right in front of the prized back of the couch dent that all the dogs love.  Over bounded Langley, he charged up over the top of her and planted his butt in the prize spot, draping his legs down her side and giving her a big lick as if to say "HIYA there, I'm Langley! Isn't this end of the couch the BEST EVER!!!"  She learned to avoid the couch.

Anyhow, the dogs have it mostly back to themselves and have spent this week celebrating with extra patrol duty.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Bo and Langley are friends! (mostly)



While there are still a few rough patches, for the most part Bo and Langley get along pretty well now.  Langley doesn't mind Bo's initial need to go all snark-Napoleon on him each time they are first outside together and that allows Bo to relax and realize that even though Langley outweighs him by 5 pounds and is double his height, he isn't a threat to him.  They now can spend time together in the house playing without having me hover over them closely supervising, which we all enjoy much better.   So it took a couple weeks of work but the boys are doing just fine now and enjoy having each other to play with since Tilly and Frodo can't be bothered.  Great news for all involved!