Parker yawns lazily on the sidewalk by Bean Traders Coffee in Durham, N.C., where the temperature is 22°C*:
* For comparison, back home in Chicago it's 6°C, windy, and raining.
Update, 1pm EST: It's now 24°C here and 6°C (and still windy and gross) in Chicago.
I didn't know it until last week, but most Motels 6 (is that the plural? Has to be) allow dogs. I'm travelling for the holiday, so this made a huge difference. Parker, however, has no idea that absent the liberal pro-dog policy of the chain he'd be in perpetual day-care this week. I even brought his bed for him:
He also didn't know that his crate is portable, which he didn't like to learn:
It must be somewhat bewildering for him. I picked him up right from the gooming salon, having packed the car while he was getting a bath. So one moment he's hopping into the back seat thinking he'll be home in five minutes, next moment he's heading out of town. I'm proud of him, too: 1,440 km and almost 14 hours in a car, and not one incident of mess destruction.
Today while the weather is good we'll explore the environs. Stay tuned.
First, a clarification: the Daily Parker may be two years old, but the Actual Parker is 17 months old (Friday). The blog is not the dog, as it were.
Second, Dad dug up this 12-year old photo of his dog, Reggie:
All together now: Awwwwww.
People may not gather from the photo of the adorable-looking fluff-ball that Australian Shepherds are "tricky." As in, darling Reggie here tried to kill me on more than one occasion before he was a year old. I wasn't even on a bike or horse, which would have truly brought out his protective instincts. Now that he's 12, though, he's a very sweet old dog.
The amazing thing about this isn't that he's a handsome, happy dog, enjoying a beautiful autumn afternoon; it's that he's ignoring the squirrel directly behind him:
All that training paid off, I guess.
My friend Sean visited over the weekend and brought with him a stuffed toy his wife made for Parker. The results were predictable, though Parker dispatched this one much faster than the vet toy he got for his birthday:
Half an hour later:
The next morning:
Thank you anyway, Val. Parker said the toy was delicious. (Just don't ask me about his walk that evening.)
From this past weekend, in Lincoln Park, Chicago:
Incidentally, the building behind him is the Parker School.
The splash of sunlight on Parker's face makes me think he's probably a pretty happy dog, despite the crate:
He got some additional training this week, mostly a review of the basics (heel, sit, down, stay), but with an emphasis on duration. So I'm proud to report he can now stay for 10 minutes while I kick a tennis ball around him. Inside he'll wait almost 45 minutes before complaining.
Really, though, I needed the reveiw. I've been too lax, it seems, allowing him to get away with a lot of bad behavior. So I got trained a bit, too, which seems to be helping us both.
My body doesn't know if I got up this morning at 7 or midnight. I can't decide whether or not I'm hungry. And because I neglected to check email for two days, I had 980 messages totalling over 600 MB (one of my friends sent me the same...photos...four...times), of which 650 were spam.
I will now collect my dog.
Poor guy. I got two bits of bad news for Parker.
First, his bad butt has returned again, this time with bad, um, mouth as well. His vet suspects Crypto again, plus whatever else he may have picked up from his foraging in the yard. This time she was pretty direct in her prescription: No unsupervised, off-leash time at all, ever. So Parker will have to have walks with just me instead of going to the park or day camp for a couple of weeks. It also means that I won't just open the back door for him first thing in the morning any more.
Second, even though he's been the office puppy for more than a year now, the building manager told me yesterday Parker isn't allowed in the building any more. This surprised me, as no one has ever complained about him. We're still working this one out; I'll let you know how the appeal goes.
So, today Parker is recuperating at home, and fasting, which he doesn't mind given his morning. Tomorrow he's on rice and "sensitive stomach" dog food.