Hattie puts her paw down

Over the past three weeks, we've been having some remodeling and repair done on our house. Some photos are below, not because they show the remodeling, but because they show the dogs during the remodel. It seemed to be more difficult than several years ago when we did the big remodel on the house although then we only had three dogs because that was right before Hattie was born and Hurricane Katrina hit. Daisy also was very friendly, something Gidget has yet to learn since she's afraid of her shadow although getting better, so we could often leave Daisy out with certain workers. Nestle is noisy so she couldn't be put in a bedroom or all of us would have needed a drink at 10:00 am to deal with her. We had some carpet removed and replaced with laminate flooring and then the next week we had the remaining carpet replaced with new carpet (shag! I never thought I'd like shag!). Because the carpet is in the opposite ends of the house, we (all six of us) had to be outside all day last Monday. That was hell. It was breezy and not very warm in the shade. When the workers went to lunch, we let the dogs inside with us and Nestle refused to leave the couch when it was time to go outside. That evening after they left, Joe was in his office with the dogs (we had replaced the flooring in there a year ago), and Hattie who never ever pees in our house, decided to pee right there in front of Joe. We knew then it was time to curtail the rest of the work for awhile. That happened five years ago when Chaco was the one to pee in the house and we, again, knew then we had to finish up and move on. They'd had enough and reality was so had we.

Hattie's 5th birthday and the debate over size of dog

Hattie is five years old today. It's hard to believe that five years ago this time we were finishing the remodel on the house and she was getting ready to survive Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi. A lot has happened in those five years as Ginger came to live with us for a short time (before flying to Chicago to be with Mom) just a few months later and then my dad died. I finished my doctorate and the list goes on. I'm not sure where Hattie is at the moment. I thought she was under the table where I'm working but I looked down and Gidget is to my left and Nestle is behind me. She's probably snoozing somewhere on a bed. She'll get one of her favorite dentastiks later and everyone else will get a rollhide bone. I was thinking about what might be interesting to blog about on Hattie's birthday and it occurred to me that there is one piece of information that was gleaned from my dissertation that relates to Hattie's size. She is our smallest dog– even at 36 pounds! She came to us at 6 pounds and just a few weeks old. Nestle is probably still the largest, hovering somewhere around 80 pounds although Gidget is almost a year old so we're not quite sure how big she'll get. For some reason, I've always thought bigger dogs worked for me although Joe told me that he wasn't sure if he would like having "such a small dog" as Hattie but he really began to appreciate her size since she can actually be a lap dog. The others would like to be lap dogs (I just typed "laptops"– the words that fall out of our fingers when we type...) but it's dangerous when Nestle lays on you and after a while you realize you can't breathe. When we were writing my dissertation survey, which reflected on if, how, and why people use dogs to help cope with human loss (by death), my chair, Dr. Virginia Shipman, suggested we ask a question about size to see if people prefer one size of dog over another. I had read in another study where they suggested studying fur length to see if one length was more helpful to people than another. When the 100-plus surveys had been analyzed, it showed that fur length didn't matter. Nor did the size of the dog. The reality is that we are unique people and we all like something different. I actually had asked Joe to bring me back a Golden Retriever from Mississipp but he found Hattie in a county shelter and picked her because she looked like a miniature Chaco. And here we are five years later.

Bunk Bed

Return to the Dogs

I think I forgot to blog about the one dog happening while I was gone. Joe was doing laundry and looked out the window to see Hattie running across the wall that surrounds our yard. Yes, that 6-foot wall. He ran out to her and saw that the others were watching him but no one had alerted him (he thinks they were being entertained by her). Turns out she had gotten up there and couldn't figure out how to get back down. One of her favorite activities is to jump up on the wall and see what's happening in the yards around us but she usually doesn't end up on the wall itself. The dogs seemed to be happy to have me home. I ran Chaco long yesterday and we stopped to talk to one man who used to run his dog but the dog is now not interested in going further than around the block. He couldn't understand why Chaco was a little scared of him (Chaco is still scared of a lot of men) and he said to Chaco, "But your sister Nestle likes me!" I didn't have the heart to tell him that Nestle likes everyone but the security people at the airport (she barks endlessly at them).

An inevitable question

I did the interview yesterday for ABQ The Magazine for which we did the photo shoot last week. I got the inevitable question that I knew one day would come. Which dog am I closest to? I had thought a lot about this at Fetchapalooza as I was standing at my table of books attempting to sell the books. The answer is Chaco because he was the first dog and it's because of him that everything else has happened. And Nestle, Daisy, and Hattie, and Ginger all would not have homes without him. However, after I told Joe about this when the interview was over, he said, "You told her Hattie?" I know Joe said that because Hattie follows me around like she's my shadow and when I leave town, she's depressed. He said one time she sat by the window on her "perch" for about a day waiting for me to come home (even though I wasn't due home for another week!). Chaco is very different than the others though. He bonded to me quickly and maybe it was because of the stable environment I provided because we walked/ran each morning plus I fed him and played with him (for the four fetches he would do) in the afternoons. Plus, I took him in the car everywhere. In return, Chaco is my security. He sleeps at the bottom of the stairs at night and will not join the other dogs in the bedroom unless I am out of town. And when I'm upset, he is the dog peering around the corner to see if I'm okay. I felt bad the rest of the day after I said that about Chaco though. Hattie seemed to be glaring at me, as if she knew what I had said. We'll see what appears in the Q&A in the magazine. Hattie was sitting on my lap for the photo though. What more could she ask for?!

Hattie: part dog, part monkey, part bird

Yes, this is how Hattie likes to scope out what's going on outside the windows. She does this in the car, too. The neighbors came to swim two of the last three days (the two days it was nice enough to swim although most of us just dipped our toes in the water). Hattie got to ride in a raft around the pool and dive in before Rich dove in the pool. Nestle swam to the bench in the deep end but didn't stay long. I'm not sure why because she is a lab and surely 80-degree water is much warmer than what hunting labs endure. Ah, but she's Nestle.

Hattie hops the wall

While Joe didn't tell me before he left the country, my neighbor mentioned that Hattie had jumped the wall on Saturday. Yes, that's a six-foot wall. Apparently, Rich and Barbara had friends over who have two dogs and the next thing they knew, John saw Hattie come over the wall. Rich picked up Hattie and took her home to Joe who had no idea she had taken a trip next door. We never lack for excitement around here.....

Hattie attends the Ginger's Gift book signing

Thanks to all who came to the book signing at Bow Wow Blues yesterday. And thanks to my neighbor Barbara who watched Hattie during the signing. Hattie had a great time sitting on Barbara's lap and scoping out the yard area of the store. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Hattie checks out the scene

While we were watching the Patriots-Jets game Thursday night, I looked up and Hattie was checking out the scene from the stairwell underneath her painting. I felt almost like she was our house lifeguard.