Must be dinner time again.

 

The sound of the dinner dishes rattling when the table is being set is a clear sign that the humans are getting ready for dinner. And every night the boys come out to join us. I think they were all born with famished appetites and the first thing they learn are the sounds associated with food. Every package of food comes in its own distinctive wrapper and they seem to know that crinkly cellophane means food is being prepared. And that may be their weakness as a recent news story explained how a burglar took a bowl of soup from the refrigerator and fed the family dog before he went about burgling the home.

 

11 AM

 

Some may recall that I mentioned my wife Jackie has had Alzheimer's for several years and one of the side affects is unusual sleep habits. Jackie's Doctor suggested an herbal treatment with Melatonin before bedtime and it has allowed her to get many a good night sleep since I started giving it to her. Well, her constant companion Rottweiler Axl, who never leaves her side - day or night - sleeps on her bed right on his own pillow next to her's. The joke around here is that he gets to sleep while he is at work and during the night protecting my wife is his job. Well, I woke up this morning around 9:30 AM and noticed both my wife and Axl were still sound asleep so I decided to leave them alone. I took out Sassy and Ruffin and then gave them breakfast and sat down and had my own breakfast and read the newspaper. Around 11 AM I decided to wake up the rest of the crew before it was time for lunch. I got my wife out of bed and got her dressed and Axl was still sound asleep. I literally had to shake him (gently, of course) to get him awake. He had slept for 12 hours straight and so had my wife. Needless to say, Axl promptly took an after breakfast nap on the couch with my wife sitting next to him. Axl was 11 years old last September. Every night he trots into Jackie's bedroom and jumps up on her bed with the greatest of ease and I am amazed he is still able to do this.

 

The return of sleeping beauty.

 

Not that Ruff ever went away but sometimes he takes a nap in the most adorable ways. Like tonight while we were watching television.

And as quietly as I could, I sneaked out of the living room to fetch my trusty camera and after taking 19 pictures from every conceivable angle my little baby Rottweiler never once woke up.

Look what happens when I leave the room for two minutes.

Last night we were watching a movie and I paused the Blu-Ray player to go get a snack. I wasn't gone for two minutes and when I came back my seat was taken on the couch. Now I wouldn't mind because this often happens when the Rottweiler laying next to me gets up and moves over to my side but last night both sides of the couch were now occupied. And everyone was sound asleep.

As I'm fond of saying, "You gotta love 'em."

 

We're heading into a Mid-Winter thaw.

  

The snow seems to have taken a vacation and all we've been getting lately has been some chilly temperatures and miserable rain. We are thankful for our wood burning fireplace as it does a great job to warm us up on the days we are cooped up in the house. But now the daytime temperatures are climbing into the high 40s and 50s so a mid-Winter thaw must be coming. This is not a good thing if the harsher Winter temps come back in February because the trees and shrubs will be popping out with buds which will freeze and die off.

So we bundle up and hang out in the house with our best friends.

Yesterday I took Sassy to the Vet's to have her toenails trimmed and dremeled. All of our Rottweilers have strongly resisted having their nails clipped so we have had to have the Vet give them anesthesia which requires a few hours stay in the office. Lately I wasn't able to get there early enough to have them do this since they only do it in the morning so I had to drop Sassy off in the afternoon to be boarded overnight.When I came home yesterday without Sassy the two boys were very concerned. In fact they seemed to suspect me of doing some bad thing with their little girl. But today I went to the Vet with Ruffiin and we picked Sassy up and brought her home and everything is back to normal. 

Just a brief update 1/27/2013: We've just had a week's worth of sub freezing temps and a 1/4 inch of snow following this post. And next week we'll have two days in the mid-50's. I am glad that the trees and shrubs didn't start to get any buds.