Morning, Noon and Night

Note: The following three stories and pictures were taken over the past two days and not in the order presented. Hope you don't mind. 

The Morning Routine.

It pays to plan ahead. After the last episode of shoe lace tying when all of the action was finished by the time I got out the camera, this morning I decided to lay a trap for my ever-willing accomplice. So with the camera set up and the remote in my hand I began to do the simple thing that I do every morning. Get my wife dressed. And as soon as I got on her socks and picked up her shoes my little Bessie came into the room.

For some unexplained reason the flash didn't go off on the first three pictures and the camera shifted into aperture mode so everything that was moving (Bessie) was a little blurred.

But I think you can make out what was going on. Then I fixed the flash and continued.

Finished! Last shoe tied, again, and time for breakfast.

The Afternoon Routine.

The TV is on all day long even though I'm sure no one is watching it. It just works to keep everyone company, like having conversation in the background. So Jacqueline is in her recliner going through her collection of magazines and her bodyguards, baby sitters, companions are lounging around with her.

Just another quiet day. Thankfully, living on a dead end street we are seldom bothered by door-to-door salesmen ringing the doorbell. Glad we have a full-glass storm door, too. When the occasional salesman does ring the bell all I need do is open the inside door and let them see three excited Rottweilers standing there. A wave of the hand and they quickly leave.

The Nighttime Routine.

After dinner its back to the family room. And when I happened to walk in the room I spotted Bess giving Grandpa Axl some face licks so I went and got the camera. I didn't catch any more of that but I got a few nice pictures of Ruff, Bess and the old man.

And while I was sitting on the floor my best friend Ruff decided to wash my face. Actually, I think he likes to lick my whiskers because I hadn't shaved for a few days.

From this position on the floor I happened to notice up close Axl's face full of gray hairs and he looks so dignified in his old age. I can't believe he will be 14 years old in September and he is still able to get around by himself. Of course, I also realize he has taken on an important task being a constant companion to his Mom. Sometimes when you have a purpose in life it gives you the motivation to take care of it.

He sure does look happy in this photo, doesn't he? He deserves to be since he took on a new life after he retired seven years ago.

Its a wonder I get anything done around here with all the help I get.

Once in awhile I get to record a cute picture of my Rottweilers because I planned ahead and had a camera ready. Other times, like this, I stop what I'm doing and beg them to stay the way they were until I dash off to grab it. The morning ritual of getting my wife dressed is one of those opportunities. Bessie just loves watching me tie Jacqueline's shoe laces. She loves it so much she sometimes unties them so I can do it all over again for her entertainment.

Axl, is never more than an arm's length away from the bed and I sometimes have to literally slide him across the floor to make room for me to work. So while he is slowly waking up I am scratching his ears, telling him what a wonderful job he did taking care of his Mom while she slept and putting on her socks and shoes at the same time. 

Then we add Bess to the mix and I begin to see how much affection she has for her no-longer grumpy Grandpa. And while I'm struggling to find room to work while kneeling on the floor, Bess comes in, plops down and shoves Axl aside to get closer to the action. It makes for a wonderful start of the new day.

By the way, when Bess and Ruff get this close to each other it becomes instant playtime but when she is with Axl it is totally different. She spends a lot of time licking his face and his ears and after Axl had his lip surgery she spent days licking and cleaning the wound. And Axl loves every minute of it.

 

Its been awhile since we had a night at the movies.

Yes, we haven't had a night at the movies with the camera and my two best friends to share it with. As you can see, it all starts with a very respectable pose, just two handsome Rotties laying next to each other on the couch.

Thank goodness for the pause button on the remote. I needed to use that when ever the action on the TV screen moved on to the couch.

I'm not sure but at first glance it looks like the two love birds are making out. Ah, but what can you say about a May-December romance. But it didn't last long. From Bessie's point of view close contact is the same as close combat.

From the look on Ruff's face I don't think he appreciated the mood change.

Playing indoors on a rainy day.

Thanks to Tropical Storm Bill the weather is going to be quite wet around here till next week. So the little girl who spends most of her day hanging out with me in the den has been trying to get me to play with her. And how can anyone refuse such a sweet, loveable look, especially when she comes over and drops her favorite ball in my lap. So we play toss and catch and it makes her happy.

Bess may not have been putting on any new weight lately but she has certainly developed some muscles. I took both Ruff and Bess into Petsmart on Saturday and it was like trying to hold a runaway tractor on a leash. Then I decided to take only Bess by herself into our other favorite pet store and she acted fine and proper on the leash. Put her and Ruff together and its like a chemical reaction. Maybe all those cute hand-to-hand combat pictures aka playschool with Ruffin, her foster daddy, were a bad idea. Ruffin didn't know what was expected of him when he first laid eyes on the little furball last September. And being a baby girl Rottweiler, Bess just naturally thought she had to dominate the giant version of herself. 

I'm so glad she acts differently with me. Well, almost. She follow me everywhere and enjoys pulling little pranks like grabbing the cuff of my pants when I'm walking. When I set out my wife's pajamas and bed clothes Bess sneaks in a runs off with the underwear. Every night! Then she will come to me with the helpless little girl look and asks me to fetch her toy that rolled under the couch and it just makes me get all soft and melt. I once joked about how well she has trained me but it isn't always funny. But I wouldn't have it any other way. Bessie is adorable, cute, playful and full of love. And she is the most beautiful female Rottweiler I've ever seen. Her tan markings are so vivid and deep and her black coat is gorgeous and her teeth are so white they almost glow in the dark. I think I'm gonna keep her. We're gonna grow old together.

   

Pardon our butts.

I just got an email from a very nice lady reminding me that I haven't posted any new stories or pictures. And thank you Ella for asking if we were alright. We are all OK but it has been somewhat busy around here working out some problems and I didn't realize its been 10 days. One of those little things that was on my mind was what to do about Bessie's 1st birthday party on July 1st. I am going to have a party for my special little girl. She is slowly starting to eat regular meals and a few days ago I got her on a scale at Petsmart and she now weighs 83 lbs.

So before I get involved with fixing anything else I promise to get some new photos up tomorrow.

Last week I ran into the woman who arranged Bessie's adoption last year. She has been reading this blog and keeping track on Bessie's progress and she took out her cell phone and showed me a video of her two dogs pulling on a low hanging branch on one of her trees. She was prompted to take the video after reading what Bessie was doing when I wrote about The Magical Tree. I think if Bessie was bigger she might have torn the branch off the tree like my friends dog's did.

OK, here is some leftover photos from the horse race on June 6th that didn't seem worthy. 

OK, guys, now turn around and smile for the camera.

After the horse race.

I got some nice shots of our old Rottweiler Axl tonight after the race. He has such a dignified face with all of his gray hairs.

Oops, wrong picture. These are the two love birds.

There he is, just dozing off.

Ball games and horse races.

The exciting news tonight was that American Pharoah won the Triple Crown horse race at the Belmont Park Race Track. And Ruffin kept up his annual tradition and was right there to watch. And the second not so big news is that Bessie tried again to get Ruffin to try and take the red ball from her mouth just as the horses rounded the last turn and started down the stretch. But this time I had the camera with me. On with the pictures.

Bessie invents a new game to play with Ruff.

I first noticed this a few months ago but I haven't been able to capture any good pictures to show until now. It seems Bessie has invented a new game to play with Ruff and you will never guess what it is by looking at the last picture in the sequence. Take a look at this and then I'll explain.

I will tell you what it isn't. Its not Bessie doing tongue kissing with Ruff like Sassy used to do with Ruff when he was little. Now here are the first two pictures in the sequence.

Bessie is trying to put her red ball in Ruffin's mouth to get him to do tugs with her. Usually she tries this with a larger ball but tonight all she had was a smaller ball, that she could also hide in her mouth. And it seems that Ruff doesn't want to play her game so she is practically forcing it on him.

The last picture shows the game moving to the other end of the couch.