Spoiled Dogs; Neglected husband

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One of Dakota's chores is to feed our dogs every evening. Greg feeds them every morning. I feed Greg and Dakota...there is plenty of food in the cabinets and refrigerator. Oddly enough, Dakota goes to feed our dogs last night and tells me "mom, there's not enough food left to feed both dogs."
See where I'm going with this??

I don't look in the closet where the dog food is kept - ever - because there is no need for me to look in there, so I had no idea we were running out of food. I will say, on Greg's behalf, he is normally very good at keeping up with that but he's been extremely busy at work lately and a little preoccupied.

Anyway, last night I told Dakota to mix up the cup of food with water and we would divide it between the two dogs and I would just get some more food today. Greg came home from work late and I sat at the table chatting with him while he ate his dinner. Once he was done eating we sat there and continued talking.

While I was listening to him I got up and pulled out a couple of chicken breasts from the refrigerator and popped them in the microwave and started cooking some rice and boiling some carrots. Greg gave me a strange look and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was making the dogs breakfast. He said "WHAT?!" LOL

I have to back up a little bit and explain why my dear husband would have this reaction -

My sweet husband and I have just recently been teasing back and forth about the fact that he gets up every morning and makes his breakfast. This is something he has just started doing in the last few months. For several years he has preferred to throw a Hot Pocket in the microwave or a Pop Tart in the toaster and be on his merry way. But the last few months he has started making bacon, eggs, toast, biscuits, breakfast pizzas, etc every morning...and if I'm awake he brings me a plate in bed. When he brought me a plate last week, he said "Okay, there is something wrong with this picture...I'm the one going to work and you are getting served breakfast in bed."

Why don't I cook breakfast for him? Several reasons...
I don't mind cooking for him; in fact I enjoy cooking. But he likes to experiment and try new things and that's pretty much the only chance he gets to cook is breakfast time because I cook all the other meals. He wakes up way before he has to be at work so he is not rushing around - he has plenty of time in the mornings and if he ever doesn't have the time and needs my help he just asks and I am there to pitch in. We only live 2 miles from his office so he could come home for a home-cooked lunch every day if he wanted to (when I am more awake) but he chooses not to do that. I never expect him to cook anything for me in the mornings. If he does, that's nice. If he doesn't, I make my own - we eat different things anyway. I eat a lot of oatmeal and fruit and yogurt and he doesn't eat any of that type of stuff.

So now, back to the dogs...my whole line of thinking was to make it easier on the dogs (and Greg) in the morning. They were going to be hungry like they are every morning and they would be prancing around begging for their food. If he didn't feed them he would constantly be tripping over them the whole time he was trying to get ready for work. I thought if I went ahead and prepared their meal ahead of time, Greg could pop it in the microwave to heat it up and go ahead and feed them and then I could get to the store today to buy some more dog food. Once I explained it to him that way he understood and thanked me!

I happened to be up this morning and took care of the dogs myself and I must say...they have never eaten quite so fast before...guess they enjoyed their breakfast of rice, chicken and carrots! While I was heating up their food, Greg was making breakfast for us...biscuits and eggs - I enjoyed my breakfast too!! :-)

Dogs - ticks

Our puppy, Raven, loves to roam through the woods behind our house. With that roaming comes a price! TICKS! Ugh....we have not had to deal with these before.

Our other lab, Jet, never roamed like this little monster...guess that was because we got him (our first lab) from an abused home and it took months of loving on him and caring for him before he did anything without fear of punishment.


Now though, we have to do a nightly search through our black-furred animals for these pesky blood suckers

Image by kafka4prez via Flickr

- I am so glad Greg doesn't mind doing this kind of thing! I was searching online today to see if there was some kind of medicine I could purchase to help with ticks and I found a couple of good deals I thought I would pass on in case anybody else has a problem with fleas or ticks.



Save up to 50% when you buy the best flea & tick products at PetCareRx. They are running a special during the month of March.
During St. Paddy's week - here are the specials they are offering -

Use promo code IRISH2009 to receive $10 OFF orders of $75 or more.

Or you can use promo code LUCK2009 for $15 OFF orders of $100 or more!

*This offer is valid from 12:01am EST on 3/16/2009 until 11:59pm EST on 3/20/2009.

After researching, this looks like a good shampoo to try....anybody have any luck with this?
Adams Flea & Tick Shampoo (12oz)

Thanksgiving -- Puppy Style

My stepson came over Thanksgiving morning for a couple of hours. He brought his dog, Scout over. Scout and our lab puppy, Raven are about the same age - 16 weeks. We watched these two dogs run and play for 2 hours around the house. They ran and tumbled and chased each other. It was hilarious watching them!
Raven tries to play with our "old man" lab but he gives up after about 15 mins. He just can't hang with Raven for very long so she loved having Scout around for awhile.
Now that Raven is over her illness she is full of energy! By the end of the day I am worn out and ready for Greg to take over "puppy" duty. :-)
Dakota and I were raking the leaves in our back yard Wednesday - that was a job with Raven around! She liked running through the piles and waiting for us to chase her out. She had dirt and leaves all over her.

Barktoberfest

The city we live in has an annual celebration in October at a park downtown...it's called "Barktoberfest" and it's for the dogs. We attended this event on Saturday - our first time going - and were pleasantly surprised by all the vendors set up giving away FREE food and products for pets; the competitions going on for dogs and various other activities. This event is sponsored by the no-kill Humane Society as a fundraiser. In order to enter competitions participants have to pay an entry fee and vendors have to pay a fee to set up. From what I hear they raised quite a bit of money. We took our black lab down there - he was exhausted by the time we left - so much to smell and do!! LOL

These first two pictures were two of the dogs down there in costume - they are not my dogs - these pictures came out in our local paper the next day after the event took place. The bottom picture is my beloved lab. We didn't put him in costume. He was hot enough as it is - it was near 90 degrees Saturday and he is close to 90 lbs and black - he doesn't need a costume on top of his black coat!