It's hard to stay awake watching the TV.

 

Another night watching television. The excitement must have tired everyone out. This is what I found when I turned off the TV to go to bed.

Rottweilers celebrate the 4th of July.

 

Here is a picture of my baby Ruff sitting in front of our new Rottweiler flag. That isn't him on the flag and Ruff isn't a baby anymore.

 

Spring and Summer still waging a battle.

 
This will be a year for new records in the weather book. Spring was a washout, literally, with 20+ days of rain in April alone. So far this year we have surpassed the average rainfall for the entire year and stand only a few inches of the all time annual rain. But the good news is we have managed to squeeze out a few good days with temps in the mid-80's.

That means some time to take more pictures outside. Here are a few taken with our best friends on the back porch.

This is a rare photo of Axl giving his Mom a kiss.

Then I put the camera in Jackie's hands and she captured a few of me.

Next up will be the 4th of July. And the possibility of some more rain.

 

The animal population is exploding.

  
In just the past two days we have seen unusual activity with our local animal population. There seems to be more of them and they are everywhere. This must be a result of the abundant rainfall we've been having and the growth of vegetation. Yesterday, we took the guys for a walk down back after dinner and something very funny happened.

Ruff and Axl were doing their usual nose-to-the-ground tracking - following every scent they could find. I spotted two rabbits running across the back of the property but they were so far away that I knew Ruff and Axl couldn't see them because they hardly look up from their tracking. I commented to my wife Jackie that Ruff couldn't spot a rabbit unless one popped up under his nose and less than 10 seconds later (literally) a rabbit popped up from under the Blue Spruce right in front of Ruff and it took off running. Ruff was startled for a few seconds but the he took off right after it. Ruff was no match for the speedy rabbit and he gave up after about a few hundred feet. I was afraid he would run too far so I stopped him from chasing it with some loud calls. I don't know how far he would have gone if I hadn't. By the time Ruff stopped the rabbit was a couple of hundred yards ahead of him and was still going.

Then this morning I was standing at the kitchen sink looking out the window and saw a Chipmunk in the bird feeder we hung outside the window. We put small pieces of old bread out for the birds and enjoy watching them. While the Chipmunk was cleaning up the scraps a Blue Jay flew down and landed at the feeder and both of them scared each other and jumped off.

Last year Ruff and Axl spotted a deer come out of the woods and they ran after it but didn't get too far. Luckily the wild critters can easily outrun our dogs.

   

Even watching movies in the daytime makes them sleepy.

 

We started out this morning watching the movie Open Season 3 on the BluRay player. I planned on returning the films I rented right after lunch but when the movie ended I was the only one still awake. So every time I saw the Rottweilers sleeping while we watched movies at night I thought it was just getting late that made them tired. Now I know, it is the movies.

 

What do your shadows do when they're not working.

People who own Rottweilers (and who are owned by their Rottweilers) know that this amazing breed has two notable characteristics. One, they listen in on all your conversations, and Two, they follow you everywhere like a shadow. Same here in our house. This is the reason for the catchy blog post title. Yesterday afternoon my wife was in her bedroom straightening up her dresser and as I passed by the door I spotted our two boys, Ruff and Axl, sound asleep on her bed with their heads resting on the pillows. I grabbed the camera and started taking pictures and after a few Ruff opened his eyes and started to wake up. I think this picture looks cute.

To answer my own question, what do shadows do when they're not working? They take a nap.

I just had to throw in one more picture here on the subject of napping because they also sleep when you are watching television. Like Ruff.

  

 

A few words about Breed Specific Legislation and the forgotten history of the Pit Bull.

This blog is about my Rottweilers but apart from my love and interest in this breed I am concerned that my best friends share a misdirected connection to a list of what some people claim are "dangerous dogs". Most people only know what they read about in the newspapers or see on TV. Surprisingly, many lawmakers fall into the same category. Take Pit Bulls, for example. They are banned in Cincinnati and in many cities in Northern Kentucky because "everyone" knows they are vicious and dangerous. Really! Have you ever heard of the term Nanny Dogs? You will be very surprised to read some 100-year old history on Pit Bulls in America and see the photos contained in the stories below. The first is a story on Yahoo News but the second contains more info and a lot more photos. 

Pit bulls’ surprising past: Nanny dogs

By Claudine Zap | The Upshot – Thu, Jun 2, 2011

Try to quickly summon an image of good-with-small-children dog, and chances are you'll picture something adorably Benji-shaggy. Or maybe a sweetie-pie golden retriever, or a loveball of a lab. It's not likely, at least not in today's perception of the breed, that an American pit bull terrier leaps to mind.

But not so long ago, pit bulls were brought in as "nanny dogs," the trusted caretaker pups to watch over kids.

Vintage photographs recently posted on a personal blog show off the breed as babysitter.

It's striking--and quite sad--to see such documentation of how beloved the now-maligned dog once was. The very same American pit bull is now more often associated with Michael Vick's dogfights, and stories of household pets gone bad, sometimes tragically involving kids.

In the case of Vick, who was convicted of running a dogfighting ring, 47 of the pit bulls from his kennel were taken to animal sanctuaries or adopted. One rehabilitated dog named Mel, who moved to Dallas with a new owner, even received an edible key to the city.

But back to the breed's history as a family dog: Helen Keller had a pit bull. Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote "Little House on the Prairie," owned one, too. And Petey, the mascot pup with the black eye patch in "The Little Rascals?" Pit bull.

Over time, the breed, which was also bred to battle bulls and fight other dogs, picked up a reputation for a nasty nature. Cesar Millan, the "dog whisperer" who is around the breed every day, says it's people who should be blamed, not the breed. He writes on his website, "Pit bulls get a bad rap because of irresponsible owners."
Responsible owners include Jon Stewart, Alicia Silverstone, Jamie Foxx, Jessica Biel, and Jessica Alba.

FOR OVER ONE HUNDRED YEARS AMERICANS KNEW PIT BULLS FOR WHAT THEY DID BEST. BABYSITTING.

Posted on May 4, 2011 by YWGROSSMAN 

Astoundingly, for most of our history America’s nickname for Pit Bulls was “The Nanny Dog”. For generations if you had children and wanted to keep them safe you wanted a pit bull, the dog that was the most reliable of any breed with children or adults. 

The Nanny Dog is now vilified by a media that always wants a demon dog breed to frighten people and LHASA-APSO BITES MAN just doesn’t sell papers. Before pit bulls it was Rottweilers, before Rottweilers it was Dobermans, and before them German Shepherds. Each breed in it’s order were deemed too vicious and unpredictable to be around people. Each time people wanted laws to ban them. It is breathtakingly ironic that the spotlight has turned on the breed once the symbol of our country and our national babysitter. 

In temperance tests (the equivalent of how many times your kid can poke your dog in the eye before he bites him) of all breeds the most tolerant was the Golden Retriever. The second most tolerant was the pit bull.

Read the rest of this interesting story and see the great pictures.

The American Temperament Test Society has conducted over 30,000 temperament tests on over 175 breeds of dogs since 1977. The latest test statistics are posted on the link to their web site. The web site explains the way the tests are conducted. Pit Bulls and Rottweilers are closely matched in their range of temperament with 83.7% of Rottweilers passed and 86.4% of the Pit Bulls tested passed. Consider some of these other test results of common breeds.

Breed Name	# Tested	# Passed	# Failed	% Passed
American Pit Bull Terrier	804	695	109	86.4%
American Staffordshire Terrier	627	528	99	84.2%
Beagle	72	58	14	80.6%
Bloodhound	32	23	9	71.9%
Chihuahua	38	27	11	71.1%
Cocker Spaniel	227	186	41	81.9%
Golden Retriever	764	649	115	84.9%
Jack Russell Terrier	63	53	10	84.1%
Labrador Retriever	773	714	59	92.4%
Rottweiler	5,446	4,558	888	83.7%
Staffordshire Bull Terrier	117	105	12	89.7%
Standard Poodle	249	215	34	86.3%

Many lawmakers have opposed Breed Specific Legislation after reading the true facts in these temperament tests. Unfortunately, too many lawmakers have either not seen these facts or had some other agenda in passing the breed bans.

If you are against Breed Specific Legislation please send these links to your local lawmakers. Common sense says the only fair measurement is to "Punish the Deed, not the Breed".

I also remember the case about Michael Vick, the NFL quarterback who went to jail for running a dog fighting ring with his Pit Bulls. While the story got a lot of publicity because it focused on the ferocity of the Pit Bulls and the notoriety of who was involved, what didn't get a lot of press was the story about what happened to the 49 Pit Bulls that were taken from Vick and turned over to a dog rehab facility. Read about them here. Those abused Pit Bulls were given a lot of love and kindness and in less than a year were all adopted out to families, many with children.

State governments, like Kentucky, have insurance regulations that are written to protect the interests and profits of the insurance companies.  Insurance companies are in the business of selling risk but when they can eliminate coverage for a risk they can maximize their profits. Those big political contributors representing the insurance companies have persuaded our legislature to allow insurance companies the right to refuse to issue homeowner's insurance policies to people who own any breed of dog that is supposed to be vicious. Not by the actions of the particular dog but by some preconceived image such as what you get from some sensationalized news story. Likewise, many jurisdictions have no laws that hold the owner of a dog responsible for the actions of the dog even though it has been shown that any dog who is abused or neglected or denied love will become mean. Interestingly enough, human children react the same way.

Please pass this on.


  

Summer weather is killing what's left of our Spring.

The weather outside is terrible. What we had for Spring turned out to be almost all rain. April dropped 14 inches and May had 22 days of solid rain. The last two days the afternoon temperature climbed into the low 90's and summer isn't supposed to be here yet. So we all stayed inside and enjoyed the company of our Rottweilers.

Finally, a real Spring-like day we could all enjoy.

After a one-day heat wave, when yesterday's temperature went to 90-degrees, Friday the weather was more like Spring than mid-Summer. After dinner we all went for a walk down to the back of our property and the boys, Ruff and Axl, got to run around. Mom and Sassy came with us, too. Here are some more pictures, including a nice group shot.

Click the pictures for a larger view.

Of course, Ruff got there first and waited for everyone to catch up.

Then Axl decided to show Ruff how fast he could run. Axl is 9 1/2 years old and he still runs faster than our Ruff who is 5 years younger than him.

Then it was time to go home and Mom and Sassy took their time.

Hope we have many more days like this.

  

Yesterday the Sun came out --- all 90 degrees of it.

We have waited to see the Sun for several weeks so the saturated ground could dry out from the near record rainfall we have had. Tuesday was a gorgeous day, temp was in the mid-70's. I managed to do a quick mowing of the grass in spite of the soggy ground. Wednesday started out nice but the temperature climbed to 90 degrees by mid--afternoon and the weatherman said it was like mid-July instead of mid-May. One good thing is we have been able to get the Rottweilers out of the house to play in the backyard. I got some new pictures, too.

Here is a picture of Ruff in front of the Fir trees I planted four years ago. The rain has been very good for them and you can see the abundant new growth on the branches. I took this picture after dinner, about two hours before sunset.

Click the photos for a larger view.

This next picture shows the mud tracks from my lawn tractor after I managed to cut the foot-tall grass a few days ago. That is our boy Axl checking it out.

And here is a very goofy looking picture of Ruff. He decided to shake his head just as I was taking his picture and he turned his face into a rubber mask that just flopped all around. I know this effect can be done in the computer but this is not a photo-shoped image. This is how it looked when I unloaded the camera,

When we came back in the house Ruff climbed up in my lap for a belly rub. I just realized this is the second picture of me in less than a week. I guess my wife got tired of being the only human to be photographed with the three Rottweilers.

 

Things that happen in the dark.

Last night we all sat in the living room watching a movie we rented from Blockbuster video. My wife sat on one couch with Ruff laying next to her and I sat on the other couch with Axl. I should mention that we always watch the TV with the lights out so the room was fairly dark. After the movie ended and the credits were playing I got up and left to get something. When I came back I sat down on top of a Rottweiler. I didn't know who it was until I turned on the light and saw that Ruff had climbed on my couch and was laying next to Axl. I quietly left to get the camera and to my amazement they were still in the same place. I have never seen two male Rotts laying next to each other this way before.

And after I took the pictures above Axl went over to be next to his Mom.


 

To the Best Mom in the World on Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day to mom's everywhere but especially to the wives and mom's of our brave American soldiers. Mom's are very special people. They fill our lives with love and help to guide us on the right path of life. Of all the mom's in the world, the one's I hold dearest are those who serve in our military. I purchased this poster to remind me of this every day. It was an illustration on Reader's Digest cover a few years ago

Rottie Mom's are no different even though their "kids" walk on four legs instead of two. Our three Rottweilers appreciate their mom every day. They follow her around the house like a shadow, they worry about her and keep her company and protect her even when they are asleep. Even though the attention they give their mom is no different today than any other day a few pictures are still appropriate.

This is Axl and his mom, the most important person in his world.

And this is Ruff trying to give his mom another kiss.

 

"April showers bring May flowers" - if the rain ever stops.

 

Well, April is gone and we actually missed the all-time historical record for rain in that month by .16 inch, slightly less than 1/5 of an inch. Besides, we are now more than 12-inches of rain above normal for the first four months of the year. Can't complain too much because last year we had a drought along with a non-stop heat wave of 90+ degrees all Summer long. The drought last year was so bad we all worried how many trees wouldn't survive but we kept the hoses running on as many as we could and it looks like we didn't loose any of them.

I managed to cut the grass with the tractor last week on a rare day we had some sunshine. The grass was over a foot tall and the tractor was leaving mud trails wherever I drove it. The same day we had the Rotts out for a walk and everything including the tractor and the dogs needed a bath when we got back.

This year we have had lots of severe storms along with the rain but thankfully nothing like they had further South. We had one scare during the last storm when the sirens went off and the weather man showed us some rotation in the upper atmosphere almost directly over our house. I took this picture off the TV from the Channel 9 weather report. You can see the circle in the middle that represented the rotation.

Click the pictures for a larger view.

Our friend Lucy moved into her new apartment and our Rottweilers are already beginning to miss her little Dachshund Tinker. In other words, things are getting back to our normal level of quiet around here. Because of the rain it is difficult to take the Rotts for walks in the back yard every day so all they have to do is take naps around the house. I love to take pictures of our Rottweilers running and playing in the back yard but taking pictures indoors is fun, too. Here are a few taken within the last few days, including one of yours truly, me.

Jackie and I celebrated our 51st anniversary on April 29th, the same day those other two people decided to get married in England. Hey, we picked that day first. We had a quiet stay at home celebration without the TV cameras and reporters bothering us. We like it better this way.

 

Tinkerbelle likes living with the Rottweilers.

Our friend Lucy has found the apartment she was looking for and will be moving in on Thursday. And, she will be taking her little dog Tinkerbelle with her. I think the Rottweilers will be very disappointed when she leaves. Axl and Ruff have really enjoyed their little friend and they follow her everywhere. Tinker likes all the attention she has been getting and she has adopted some of our Rotts habits. Axl and Ruff love to watch me cook dinner and lay on the kitchen floor every night, now Tinker has joined them. Here are a few more pictures of people and dogs doing nothing special.

Click the pictures for a larger view.

Good thing Lucy won't be too far away when she moves. We will all be looking forward to more visits now.

  

The rainiest month of April in the history of Northern Kentucky.

No pictures could capture what this month of April has been like. We have already had almost 13 inches of rain and 2 to 4 more inches are expected in the remaining days of the month that will surpass the 150-year historical record for rainfall. In other words, it has really been wet outside. The rain makes for a lot of flooding in low lying areas but we live on higher ground. On our property the backyard becomes super-saturated and turns into a bog that makes for wet muddy feet when we take the Rotts out for a walk. Multiply wet muddy feet times 12 and you get the picture. Hopefully it will soon end and we can get out and enjoy the trees and the grass and the flowers.

 

Our Rotts are enjoying some visitors.

Our friend Lucy has come back from North Carolina to find an apartment here and she is staying with us for a few weeks. She brought her little Dachshund named Tinkerbelle with her. Our Rottweilers have been so excited with their new visitor and have made friends with her and they go everywhere in the house together.

Jackie and Lucy went shopping this morning so I spent some time following Tinker, Ruff and Axl around the house with my camera. They are all getting along fine  in spite of the size difference.

Click the pictures for a larger view.

  These photos were shot with the camera on the floor and I wasn't able to frame it but it shows just how large Ruff looks from Tinker's point of view.

Then I went downstairs and all three decided to follow me.

 

Having fun on a dreary, rainy day.

Its been raining all day and we've been cooped up in the house. My wife complained her hands were cold and asked me to get her warmed up. I told her to hug a Rottweiler because their body temperature is 4 degrees warmer than ours. So she followed my advise and tucked her hands inside her sweatshirt and gave Axl a big hug. 

They all seemed to enjoy the moment.

  

Our three Rotts visit a pretty German girl.

We had a break in the weather the other day and it was warm enough to go for a walk down to the back of our property. The ground was still pretty soggy from all the rain but we managed to find dry spots to walk on. My neighbor who lives on the street behind us owns two German Shepherds named Rommel and Maggie. They have visited us many times and our guys all enjoy playing with them. Maggie spotted us when we got near the back and came running over to see her old friends. 

And typical of the saying, dogs will be dogs, Maggie was thoroughly checked out by everyone, Ruff, Axl and our girl Sassy.

We then walked Maggie back to her house but of course the four dogs all ran ahead and got there a few minutes before we did. In the past when our Rottweilers escorted Maggie or Rommel back home they all usually invited themselves inside.  The first time they did this the only one home was my neighbor's wife, who had never met our Rottweilers before. By the time my wife and I had reached the open garage where the dogs had gone, they were all inside the woman's kitchen and she was very amused over the crowd her dogs had brought home with them. This time, my neighbor realized that if the Rottweilers had come for a visit then we must be close behind so he came out to see us and we had a nice visit.

 

Dancing in the kitchen.

The cold weather that hangs around in the last days of Winter finally broke last week and we enjoyed three days of mild, mid-60s temperature. It was an opportunity to get outside and begin raking up the clutter before Spring. Then we had two days of heavy rain and the cold weather returned. I took this picture of Axl posing in the kitchen and he seemed very happy. Usually he goes around with a great worry frown on his face but for the moment he almost looked like he was smiling.

Next thing I knew Ruff was trying to get my attention. Ruff acts like he owns me (which is typical with Rottweilers) and he is my dog and he knows it. Axl belongs to his mom and Ruff gets a little jealous whenever I show Axl some attention. And he doesn't like to be left out when I take pictures so I called my wife Jackie to join in a group shot.

Then Ruff started acting goofy, or should I say, normal. He jumped up to give his mom a kiss while Axl quietly watched the whole thing and I turned quick and took this picture without aiming the camera. When I checked the picture later it looked like he was trying to dance with his mom.

Later on Friday the rain turned into sleet and then into snow and I grabbed the camera again to get a picture of the backyard through the kitchen window.

The snow didn't amount to more than an inch but it made everything look pretty with a new covering of white.

 

NASA confirms our Rottweilers are now AstroRotts.

NASA Space Shuttle Discovery flight STS-133 carried aboard the images of our three Rottweilers, Axl, Ruff and Sassy as part of their Face In Space program to the International Space Station. Here is the certificate they provided me with today.

And here is one of the pictures that went into space. Mom and Axl.

And, a video message from the International Space Station acknowledging all those who participated in the Face In Space program.

ALL HAIL THE ASTRO-ROTTS!!! AXL, RUFF & SASSY.

OK, enough of this crazy business.