Five slightly less Golden days

November 28, 2015

Well it’s been almost five days and I think I made it. But I still have about 20 hours to go….

Holly and I went to visit my son and his wife in Chicago for Thanksgiving. Admittedly it was very stressful for me to think about leaving Kali behind for five days. We’re fortunate to have a dear friend with two dogs of her own who offered to watch Kali while we were gone.

Our friend Colleen has two very nice dogs of her own: Bucky, a one year old golden lab who is as full of spunk and energy as you would expect. The other dog is Callie, a Chocolate lab around 11 years and a little slower and full of love. Bucky and Callie live in a dog house. By that I mean, like Kali and Smokey, Colleen’s home is all about the dogs with human family members embracing them as family members of the highest status. They took Kali in with welcome and loving arms and for that I will be forever grateful.

From the regular texts Colleen sent to me it sounds like Kali had a full week of walks, playing in the park with her new fur-cousins, and lots and lots of sleeping in front of the fire place. In the photo below , not surprisingly, Bucky the youngster of the group wanted no part of sitting sill for the picture in front of the fire place where the dogs’ fluffy beds were laid out. Kali and Callie had no such problem after a long walk and lots of rolling around and wrestling at the park.

Kali and Callie in front of the fire. But where’s Bucky?

Kali has never been away from us for this long before so it will be fun to see her reaction (and mine) when we pick her up in the morning. Meanwhile, I sit at ORD writing this post thinking that tomorrow can’t get here fast enough.

Sleep tight Golden Kali and I’ll see you in the morning.

Sleep Tight Golden Kali

November 22, 2015

“Off Kali” I said in a calm voice while gently pulling her down and letting her know it wasn’t alright to be on the furniture. She had walked up to the leather couch in the family room and crawled up. This happened the second or third day Kali joined our family during the summer of 2014. Since then she hasn’t been on the couch – at least not when we’re home and that we know of.

We never let Bailey, our previous Golden, on the furniture. Smokey on the other hand has full rights to be on any piece of furniture he desires: chairs, beds, pillows, under the covers at night, etc. How unfair is that, right? Well dogs don’t know fair and Kali has seemed to accept the fact the floor is her domain and the higher ground – such as the leather couch – is ours (and Smokey’s).

There really is no rhyme or reason to Kali not getting on the couch. It’s not like her hair doesn’t already float through the air and find it’s way onto any and all surfaces, nooks, and crannies. That’s life with a Golden – it get’s hairy at times (most of the time). So while there has been no specific reason it’s been the rule and Kali has been fine with it.

Until recently.

A few nights ago Holly and I were in our usual position after dinner on a dark and cold Fall evening. The TV is on the background, Holly is sitting on the couch reading with a blanket over her legs and I’m in my recliner futzing on my laptop. Kali is also in her usual position along the side of my recliner on the floor.

Then with the pat of a hand all bets were off. No more Bailey rule and no more Smokey Only rule… Anarchy!

Kali get’s up from her lying position walks up to Holly and places her magic snout on Holly’s lap. Kali’s eyes are alternating between Holly and the couch. Before I could say, “Kalice Marie” ( my most frequent nick-name for Kali during faux dramatic situations)- “you are not allowed on the couch”, Holly has spread out the blanket along the couch and has invited Kali up with a pat of her hand on the blanket.

The Magic Snout

Kali has a very soft and fluffy bed. It’s not like she has never experienced a soft place to lie down. In fact it’s always puzzled me that she typically chooses to lie on the cold tile in the kitchen area or cement outside when there are softer alternatives such as the carpet in the house or grass outside.

She laid there on the couch looking like Oliver Twist in bed on the first night that Mr. Brownlow rescued him from the streets of London and offered him solace in his mansion.

And so it’s been and so it goes in the life of my Golden Kali. I’m fine with her being on the couch, Smokey seems to like the company (and the extra warmth Kali provides), and Holly Brownlow had better be OK with it because she’s the one who plucked Kaliver Twist out of Fagin’s den and plopped her up onto the couch and into a life of luxury.

Quit hogging the pillows!

Sleep Tight Golden Kali.

Update on “the attack”

November 15, 2015

We were pleasantly surprised that Kali woke up feeling much better the morning after being attacked by the two Rottweilers. Although still stiff she was able to put weight on her hind leg that had been so sensitive the hight before. We kept the vet appointment that afternoon and found out that she had a severely strained ligament. All in all Kali was fortunate to have come away with only this strain given the 150 pounds of Rottweilers that pounced on her only 24 hours before.

Dr. Brenda sent us home with some muscle relaxers and pain medicine (for Kali not us) and instructions to apply cold therapy along her back muscles and heat therapy to the ligament a few times a day and to perform frequent massages to the ligament. Talk about doggie day-spa! Kali is a great patient and of course loves the extra attention she has been getting.

After a few days off we’re back on the trail and Kali is doing just fine. In fact, now that the golf course is closed we’ve gone off trail for some of our daily walks taking advantage of the open fairways to let Kali romp and explore.

I’m mad!

November 10, 2015

I’m not mad at my neighbor but I’m real mad! My neighbor is a good person and his dog, while a little aggressive, has mostly been polite when Kali and I meet them on the trail. I’m mad! So thanks to all of you who read this unedited therapy session. As they say, the first session is free and therefore I will rant, complain, lament, and then move on.

It was raining most of the day (yay for California!) so Kali and couldn’t walk this morning. Well we could have but I negotiated a stay from Kali and promised we would walk later if it dried up. And so we did.

The neighbor in question lives two doors down on the other side of the street. As we passed by I noticed him in front of his house with a couple of other people. I also notice his dog, a Rottweiler, grazing around his front lawn. We’ve encountered the dog on the trail before at the end of my neighbor’s leash but never around the houses when the Rotty was off leash. The Rotty had seemed calm and constrained when I’d seen her in front of her house in the past so I was not too concerned.

So I’ll cut to the chase. In a flash the Rotty was on Kali gnashing, growling, and attacking. Kali tried to protect herself but she was on the end of the leash I was pulling tighter and tighter. I tried to put myself in between the dogs but the Rotty was relentless and Kali was in protect mode. Just as I was about to try to put my foot in the Rotty’s nose another dog – an even bigger version of the first one – was on Kali. Now there were two dogs Kali and I were trying to fend off.

It all happened in a matter of 30 seconds or less. I tried to pick Kali up in my arms to protect her from two sets of gnashing teeth. The owners, showed a sincere and urgent effort to quickly get to their dogs and quickly got them under control. They were apologetic and continued to express apologies as they pulled their dogs back to their house. I was so freaking mad and could not bring myself to say anything. I just wanted to get Kali home and check her out. They got their dogs inside the house and came back to apologize, Fine…

As Kali and walk back towards our house I see she is limping badly. I have her lay down in front of our house and I check her out. I gently pull on her limbs and rub her fur to see if there are wounds. Her tail is wagging and she doesn’t seem to be in any pain as I tug and pull on limbs and rub her body. She stands up and now seems to be walking ok. So we go for a short walk so I can see how she is walking. It’s ok for a while but then I see more limp. We head home.

I fill Holly in on what happened and then I’m off to a client appointment. Holly texts me a short while later and tells me Kali si limping and in some pain. She’ll see the vet tomorrow. I don’t think there is a puncture. The attacking dogs didn’t seem to get any teeth into Kali but I’m not sure. I think she may have twisted her leg in the melee. There is a very sensitive area and when I touch it she reacts in obvious discomfort.

I’m pissed off. Not at my neighbor (things happen), not at the dogs (although I was moments away from risking my own safety to tackle those dogs and giving them a beat down), but I’m just mad.

So thanks of the therapy session and guiltless grammatically error-ridden and ranting post. We’ll know tomorrow the extent of Kali’s injuries. For now she is sleeping soundly at my feet as any other evening after dinner.

FORE!

November 8, 2015

The nine hole golf course that runs along our creek trail has temporarily shut down operations. The course hasn’t been in good shape in forever but it’s always been a good place for kids, seniors, and beginners of all ages to play golf in a casual atmosphere without worry of being too slow or not very good. The course may re-open but for now it is closed down.

Kali and I thought this was a great opportunity to change up our routine and go off course and walk the fairways that parallel the creek trail.

Kali has watched the golfers over the months as we walk along the trail and apparently she has had a greater interest in the game than I was aware of. As we walked onto the fourth hole and passed by the tee box Kali stopped and looked at the yardage sign. She then magically pulled out a driver from thin air. Poof! She sized up the yardage and decided even though she was a lady she could handle the extra 10 yards from the men’s tees and casually walked towards the tee box.

I guess I'll be hitting from the red teas. After all I am a lady...

“I want to be just like dad and hit from the white tees”

Kali is a rule follower So once she spotted the closed sign she began having second thoughts.

Aware now that I was in a magical world where dogs play golf I convinced Kali it would be ok to play the hole and that we wouldn’t get in trouble. After all, who would think that a dog would be playing golf. That’s ridiculous! Anyway, this was more like fetch with graphite sticks…

“I’m a rule follower and maybe we shouldn’t do this dad”

Kali stepped into the tee box gazing down the fairway. A thought bubble appeared over her head: “Grip it and rip it!”. She hits a monster drive about 240 yards down the center of the fairway. Her ball (a “pink lady”) comes to a stop about a hundred feet from the green

We walk the 240 yards to Kali’s ball and since we have the course to ourselves she decides to take a break. She lies down to savor the shot and she’s now getting visions of grandeur. Thought bubble, “a chip and putt and down in three for birdie”!

This game is easy!

As I know all too well after a great shot if one gets too cocky the golf Gods have a way of knocking you down and reminding you that you’re mortal. Golf is a humbling game indeed. Kali stands up, approaches her ball and asks me for her pitching wedge. I realize that an entire set of clubs is now hanging of my shoulder and I’m wearing white overalls. Great! I am now Kali’s daddy-caddy… I hand her the wedge and as Kali addresses the ball another thought bubble appears over her head: “Drop it in from 100 yards for Eagle? No, don’t get greedy. Just get it close for the gimme putt and walk off with the Bird”. Kali swings and shanks her ball into the green side bunker. She looks at me with frustration. The golf Gods snicker. Kali walks to the bunker and shouts out at me orders me, “Sand wedge”…

It turns out, like me, Kali is not very good at getting out of the sand. She takes a hack and the ball shoots straight into the side of the bunker. It’s totally plugged. Uh-oh. Kali growls at the sand and glares at me. Thought bubble: “Don’t say a word”. If I didn’t know better I would have thought I heard a few curse words under those growls. But Kali wouldn’t do that. On the other hand golf has a way of bringing out the worst in casual players like Kali and I…

Dad, I don’t find any humor in your comment ‘Just another day at the beach’.

Kali takes another hack at the ball and it (amazingly) shoots straight up in the air landing on the green with back spin and rolls towards the hole resting about 6 feet from the cup. She’s laying four with a very makeable six foot uphill putt. I think to myself that if this was my first round of golf I’d be very happy with a bogie on this par 4.

Finally on the green. OK, 6 foot uphill with a slight break to the left. I’ve got this.

Kali: “Putter pleeeeeassse”. Thought bubble over my head: “I’m never caddying for her again”.

Kali lines up her putt as the gallery of birds and squirrels watch in anticipation. She addresses the ball, takes a short back stroke and strikes the ball. It rolls gently up the slight uphill and just like she read it the ball breaks ever so slightly to the left. Rolling, rolling, and stopping just 6 inches short of the cup. Kali taps in for double bogie, takes the Pink Lady out of the cup and throws it at the geese assembled near the next tee box. Poor form. And she didn’t even yell “fore”…

So goes the first, and probably last, one hole round of golf for my Golden Kali. Like so many rounds I’ve played it started out great and somewhere along the way went bad.

Kali quickly shook off the bad “round” of golf. I mean literally shook off all the sand that was in her coat from the two hacks out of the bunker. We continued along our walk both knowing that being together on a beautiful day like today was par for the course. And par for our course is just fine for us.

Another beautiful day in a Golden Paradise.

GPS – Golden Positioning System

November 4, 2015

Kali loves car rides.

When Holly is with me Kali lies down in the back seat and relies on us to the get to right place. But apparently she has caught on to the fact that when Holly is in the car she tends to provide a lot of “input” about which road to take and where to turn. So, when it’s just me and Kali, she insists on helping out with the navigation. But Kali’s technique is a little different than Holly’s…

Kali will look to the skies and quickly establish connection with a satellite staying fixed on it in order to relay the correct coordinates to me, her pilot. The cockpit is a little awkward for her but she doesn’t seem to mind and she almost always gets us to our destination on time and without incident. Which is usually the pet store where treats and praise await my co-pilot.

Golden Positioning System