Friday Friends

Sometimes the best playthings are those that didn't cost a thing.

My Jack Russell-Basset Hound mix, Lucy, loves water bottles. The new water bottles are flimsy and make a lot of noise when she plays with them. Whenever I finish a bottle, I always put the cap back on and give it to her. She has become adept at taking the cap off. Next, she removes the label. Then she runs through the house with the water bottle in her mouth, making it crinkle and pop.

When I finish a jar of peanut butter, I put the top back on and hand it to one of the dogs. My mastiff (God rest his soul, he died nearly 10 years ago) loved to figure out how to take the top off the jar (which was plastic) and he could be kept busy for hours trying to get every last bit of peanut butter out.

I have also purchased real bones and once the marrow has been eaten out of them, I've stuffed them with peanut butter.

During teething, you can place the bones in the freezer so whatever stuffing you used is frozen. This calms the dog's gums while he tries to get every last morsel out of the middle.

Friday Friends

One of my first rescue dogs was a Mastiff/Lab mix named Charmer.

Charmer grew to about 140 pounds, which is small for a mastiff. He was the gentlest dog I'd ever seen. He was also addicted to Frisbees.

When he was about six months old, he had the full run of the ground floor in my townhouse near Washington, DC. I arrived home one day to find that he had gotten lonely and decided to find out where I'd gone.

So he chewed a hole in the stairwell's drywall to get onto the second floor. The hole was large enough for a full-grown man to climb through.

He went through obedience school twice because the first time, he didn't get it. When it was obvious he had separation anxiety, I rescued another dog, a blue merle Australian Shepherd I named Buddy. Buddy and Charmer were constant companions. And Charmer never did try to chew his way through the house again.

Charmer passed away from old age. On a Tuesday, he was running around the yard catching the Frisbee and having the time of his life. On Thursday, his heart began to fail and the next day, he was gone.

He lived a great life. And I was very lucky to be part of it.