I came in from working outside this afternoon in the garden and Ruff acted like he hadn't seen me all week. He acts this way a lot.
Nothing stands in his way when he wants to give kisses and face licks. Not even a chair. Ruff simply climbed up on the chair and me and then he made himself comfortable sitting on the armrest and pinned my arms while he showered me with kisses. This is what its like living with a big lovable Rottweiler.
p.s. The camera is always there.
Rottweilers love food. That could be the one statement to begin and end the conversation on the subject of food. They love all food. They love to watch people eat food. They love to watch people cook food. They love to inspect every food item you bring home from the supermarket. They love to pre-wash your dinner dishes. No one throws out uneaten food in a house with Rottweilers.
Rottweilers also love butter. This is one of the little pleasures in a Rottweilers life. When you finish buttering the toast, they willingly clean the butter knife. But the greatest of the little pleasures is cleaning the butter dish before it gets washed and refilled with another stick of butter. So it was today in our house.
When you live with Rottweilers and you love them as much as we do, you have to expect they will love you back. As big and strong as they are they sometimes don't seem to know it. Yesterday, Ruff seemed to be in an especially amorous mood. He started off in the morning by climbing up in my lap while I was working on the computer and gave me several minutes of non-stop kisses. Only after I had to push him away so I could catch my breath did he stop.
Then later that afternoon Ruff got in the mood again while we were sitting in the family room watching television. This time he managed to do what he couldn't do when I was sitting at my desk. He climbed up on my lap and laid down to give me more kisses. Ruff is no lightweight. He weighs 115 lbs and this was the first time he ever put his entire body weight on top of me. He also likes to put his paws on my shoulders to hold me down so I can't escape his kisses.
As I have said many times before, Rottweilers are a lot of fun and living with them is quite an experience. Raise them with love and kindness and they give it back ten times over.
OK, to set the record straight, we all love Wheel of Fortune in our house. We watch it every night after dinner. Ruff happens to be a big fan of Vanna White (along with other pretty girls, animals and all the food commercials) as well. I am fairly certain about what Ruff likes to watch because when most of the other shows are on he will take a nap and only wake up for a commercial. So here he is in his favorite chair watching his favorite TV show waiting for Vanna.
Ruff watches television even when he is laying on the floor and from the angle he looking at the television screen from he must be getting eye strain. The two older Rottweilers are sound asleep on the furniture, oblivious to the world.
Cabin fever in the Summer is not much different from cabin fever in the Winter. You sit indoors and look out the windows at really crappy weather. Of course in the Winter you also wish for the Sun to come out. In the Summer that shiny Sun makes the rainy weather feel worse. OK, enough of the nonsense. What this leads up to is just a few more pictures of some terribly spoiled Rottweilers who seem to enjoy life to the limit.
Here is a picture I took this afternoon. When I emailed it to some friends I told them it was from "That guy who sneaks around the house with a camera." I spotted my wife taking a nap with both of our male Rottweilers keeping her company. I called it OREO.
Here is an interesting clue to doing a really cool thing. NASA is collecting photos that people post of themselves or their pets or both and will carry them into space on the next two space shuttle launches. Best of all, IT'S FREE. Go to this web site http://faceinspace.nasa.gov/index.aspx and fill out the form and upload your pictures. The shuttle launches are scheduled for liftoff in September and November. Here is one of the photos that I submitted:
Here is how my Rottweilers are copping with the rainy weather. First, Axl naps on the couch. He has a magical ability to fall asleep in about 5 seconds and I am mighty jealous, but he does toss and turn a bit.
Then there is my baby Rottweiler, Ruff. Yeah, I know, he is almost 4 years old but he will always be my baby because I picked him out from his litter and I got to raise him when he was 7 weeks old.
Not to be left out, here is Sassy sleeping on the couch while Axl is curled up on the chair.
One thing I always have to look forward to is after every rain that is followed by some Sun, the grass grows twice as fast.
Let me first clear up some rumors. Ruff doesn't pick winners in any horse races so please don't ask him to. We also did not intentionally plan to watch The Belmont Stakes on TV last night. It was 6:30 PM and we had just finished dinner and sat down to watch the evening news. Instead of the news they were about to run the live broadcast of the horse race and as soon as Ruff spotted the horses he walked right up to the TV to get a closer look. I thought it was cute enough to let him stay as long as he wanted so I went and got the camera. You knew I was going to say that, didn't you.
At the end of the race, Ruff had to sit down and watch because he was exhausted from all the excitement.
Ever since Ruff got to meet his first horse up close and personal (literally, he got close enough to give one a kiss. See blog story here: http://livingwithrottweilers.blogspot.com/2008/10/ruffs-adventures.html ) he has had a fascination with all horses whenever he sees them. Tonight we watched The Belmont Stakes horse race on TV and Ruff took up a front row seat. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.
Just in time for the Memorial Day weekend we got the pool opened, cleaned out and ready to go. And we did have our first pool party on Sunday. This was the first year our new adopted Rottweiler Axl has ever seen us in the water. We wondered if he would get excited over the danger but he took it all in stride and simply laid out on the patio and watched his humans have some fun. Sassy had the same attitude as Axl but Ruff was worried the whole time we were in the water.
We had our good friends Bev and Rich over to enjoy the warm weather and the pool and a cookout and Ruff was especially happy to meet them again. Here he is doing what he does best: Giving kisses.
I hope this is the year we will be able to get our little Sassy to go swimming. For the last two years Sassy has had a weight problem and last Summer it had ballooned up to 105 lbs. Sassy had gotten so overweight that it was difficult for her to walk and get exercise. Last August we started her on a Thyroid treatment with Levothyroxin and she has lost almost 30 lbs. She still needs to strengthen her legs and swimming is very good exercise.
