Wednesday, July 23, 2014

MIce, Rats and Alien Feet

What do mice, rats and alien feet all have in common? They all exist here at our house.

See this? At first glance one would think mouse.
Here's another one.
These aren't actually rodents. These are clumps of Sebastian's coat. He's leaving these 'mice' behind everywhere he goes. The more we comb him and pull out the clumps, the more he seems to produce. You people with heavy coated dogs such as Huskies and Saints know exactly what I'm talking about. Smooth dogs like Syd and Mac don't blow their coats, they just shed all year round. The Porties shed hair like humans, only instead of leaving it in the brush or the shower, they leave it on the floor in little drifts.
Now, on to rats.
Last month I told you about the new white bear that I gave Bailey to replace her worn out pink bear. Well, I'll admit I made a big mistake. Bailey loved the bear and immediately started carrying it everywhere with her.
One morning as she was trying to sneak it past me at the door, I grabbed the bear by the butt and got a big surprise. While most of the bear was filled with fiber stuffing, his butt was filled with styrofoam pellets.  Have any of you every tried to clean up styrofoam pellets from a carpet or a long haired dog? It's impossible.

When Morgan was a puppy I left the dogs in the house  one day when I went shopping. When I returned, Monty met me at the door to report on Morgan's bad behavior. Monty always was a tattle tale. Morgan had found Rob's lap desk that was filled with pellets and had ripped the fabric open. Then I guess she shook it and rolled around with it. The living room was filled with tiny styro pellets. That was the day I learned that those things are impossible to vacuum or broom sweep. They just float around and cling to everything. Morgan was covered in them and I carried her outside and shook her, then hand picked them out of her coat. We were picking up pellets for weeks. Just when we thought they were all gone, we'd move something and there they were again.

After that experience, I've been very careful about what the dogs get to play with. I was really surprised that the new bear had gotten by my inspection. Unfortunately, I had to dispose of him. Bailey looked all over for her friend, so I went to the dollar store that afternoon and found a cute little dog toy. It was a bright color and squishy. It had a couple squeakers and also made a crinkling sound. I put it in Bailey's crate at bedtime as a surprise. She sniffed it, but has never picked it up. It's still in the corner of her crate. She doesn't like it.
I went to my library closet where I keep a big bag of toys in reserve  and sorted thru. Bailey likes toys of a certain size and weight. She likes them to be fuzzy and have dangling legs. I found a gray Christmas rat that fit the bill. He was wearing a Santa hat and carried a candy cane. I snipped both of those off to save Bailey the trouble of removing them.
I put Ratty in her crate at bedtime. The next morning she came out carrying him and he's now her constant companion. It was love at first sight. I had planned to snap a picture of them last week and I wish I had because a couple days ago Ratty stuck his nose where it didn't belong and Bailey punished him by removing his nose.
She also brought me this rat tail the other day.
I'll keep it with the eyeball that Tsar brought me one morning as I was having breakfast. He wanted to trade it for a piece of my bagel. He had removed it very carefully from one of Monty's toys. Monty didn't seem to miss it.
Now about those alien feet.
These are Sebastian's feet. I love the long hair that grows up between his toes. I know I should trim his feet to make them look more like normal dog feet, but they amuse me and so I just stroke them and tell him how pretty he is.
 I may not have the neatest house, but it's never boring.


11 comments:

Marjie said...

Natasha has feet like Sebastian's. She also has fur growing out the bottom of her feet, so Shannon had to clip it to stop Natasha from falling on the hardwood and tile floors.

Funny the toys dogs (and kids) will and won't play with, isn't it?

SissySees said...

What a fun, happy post! I'm glad Morgan took to her new friend. Gg changes her toys in a fashion I cannot predict. Sis of course, is quite predictable. She wants whatever Gg has just long enough to assert herself, but personally prefers a hard, plastic chew-bone.

Bella Roxy & Macdui said...

They are funny feet!

Our friend Flash, the labrador, loses his fur all the time. He gets brushed at the river so the hair blows around for the birds to make nests. So we understand about Sebastian.

Love Bailey and her special friends.

♥♥ The OP Pack ♥♥ said...

LOL - your title had us worried for a bit - you tricked us - but it did make us laugh. Phantom has fur like that on his feet too, but his grows out of the bottom of his feet between his pads. He has to have them trimmed almost weekly - Mom swears they grow inches overnight. They are a big worry because he slips on the floor - just like he did tonight giving Mom a huge scare. He cried for a couple of minutes and wouldn't get up. Then he pulled himself up and took off with a trot - gotta love his perseverance.

Woos - Phantom, Ciara, and Lightning

Anonymous said...

Ahhhhhhh, dogs, we are very funny animals, with lots of personality!
Barharhar Pellets and clumps, non of us leave that stuff, we just drag in dead grass in our skirts!

The Mad Scots

rottrover said...

Sebastian, we love your paws!

Bart, Ruby and Otto

Ruby said...

I LOVES those alien feeties!!! those are soooo cool! Ma trims around my feets so the vettie assistants can trim my talons, butts that's all I allow her to do. I say peeps should leave our feets alone. There, I said it.
I bets the critters and burdies loves the doggie furs! they can make pawsome nests and beds with it...come to thinks of it, I have a few flat stuffies....
I sure am glads Morgan likes her new buddie. Ma also has a bag of toys in reserve...I'm plotting on how to gets to it....stay tuned...
Kisses,
Ruby ♥

Rubye Jack said...

I am so head over heels in love with Bailey.

Molly the Airedale said...

Our mom hates those packing peanuts that come in some of our shipping boxes. They stick to EVERYTHING so we can only imagine how hard they were to clean off on Bailey!
You are such a handsome boy, Sebastian. You feets are fine just the way they are!

Love ya lots♥
Mitch and Molly

gMarie said...

so fun! I don't let beau have babies with beans either. I have been known to just remove the section with the beans, add a little fiberfill and a squeeky and sew them back up.

Lucy only liked toys that made noise. As she knew I could fix them, she would often spit her broken toys at me and the lay at my feet until she got it back.

So glad that Morgan found a new baby! g

Lapdog Creations said...

LOL.... thanks for making me smile this morning! :)