The Daily Parker

Politics, Weather, Photography, and the Dog

Today's Daily Parker

After only five minutes of tug-of-war with Parker, I had to throw in the towel. Or, what was left of it, anyway:

After the first loud ripping noise (15 seconds into the game), I figured, in for a penny, in for a dime.

Today's Daily Parker

Parker is jumping for joy at the weather:

Today's temperature has already hit 21°C and it's still rising. Also of note, last night was the first night since January 12th that Chicago's temperature did not go below freezing.

Happy spring!

In related news, Ravinia Festival has decided to reconfigure its schedule because of the 17-year cicadas that start singing at the end of May this year. The Daily Parker anxiously awaits Parker's reaction to the bugs.

Today's Daily Parker

Parker had a well-needed bath today, complete with an unfortunately sweet-smelling shampoo and a bandanna that even Parker thinks looks silly:

Now he's pooped. The first spot he chose to lie in happened to be the spot I was just about to vacuum, so his day just keeps getting worse. He might not even get to play with his friends tonight; last night, the park was so muddy we had to move across the street.

Poor Parker. It's a dog's...well, you know.

Today's Daily Parker

Parker's new crate actually has more than double the area of his old crate. He has enough room to flop on his side and to turn around comfortably. Plus, he has his favorite crusty old bedspread to sleep on:

A note about that crusty, old bedspread. Anne informs me that she paid about $150 for it a few years ago, and it only acquired its patina of puppy puke and peanut butter (along with several gashes and other miscellaneous defilements) in the last six months or so. She volunteered no thoughts about how this may have happened, and Parker took the 5th, so I'll leave it to you to guess.

Today's Daily Parker

One of the side-effects of obedience training I didn't know ahead of time is that Parker is now crate-trained. Since he's also more than double the size he was when I first met him, the crate I had for him was a little tight. So I bought him a new crate, with more than double the footprint of his old one, and with a lot more light and air. Enough light and air, in fact, that I can point the ParkerCam at him when he's in it:

Check for Parker during the day. If I remember to bring the camera to my office when he comes to work with me, you'll get to see him even more often.

Today, however, I'm running around meeting clients, so except for a nice long lunch break at home, he'll be in the crate most of the day. At least I'll get to check on him from the road—and so can you.

For those of you wondering, yes, there is usually a thermometer visible in the picture. The top reading shows the outside temperature.

Today's Daily Parker

Parker went to the vet yesterday because I noticed this lovely thing growing in his lip:

The diagnosis? Dogwarts, also known as canine oral papilloma.

Seriously. He has the doggy equivalent of HPV, in that it's pretty much the same virus and it's also just about as common (most dogs have it). It's spread through saliva, so most dogs get it when they play with lots of other dogs. It's the doggy "social disease."

There's no pain, but there's no cure either, so it will just go away on its own—after he bites it. Then he'll never have it again. The vet said she could pop it, but that's a very unpleasant procedure for everyone and it's not medically necessary.

Poor puppy, with his canine kissing disease. He probably got it from Paris, who knows where she's been...

(Just kidding, Paris.)