Dog Musings

Most nights, Lilly and Ginko sleep in the basement in their hard-sided crates. The temperature down there stays around 55 degrees year-round. Even on the crazy-coldest nights, like we’ve had over
recent weeks, it stays steady. We treat them a bit like birds in that we cover their crates at night with some insulated drapes I once made for our dining room. As an experiment, I used my greenhouse
thermometer that’s capable of showing temps both inside the crates and in the basement overall. Here are the results. …

After I rescinded my top dog toy pick for the 2009 holiday season because the plastic was too
hard and noisy, I went with the Busy Buddy Twist ‘n Treat from
Premier instead, as Lilly’s main gift. It came last week, and I’m sad to say it is WAY too easy, even at the hardest setting. The
kibble literally pours out. Help?! …

When Elayne over at Days of Speed asked about Lilly’s favorite ball, which is apparently all the rage in Chicago, I confidently told
her where to find them, how I usually buy several at a time. Yet, I find myself in a small panic. Our local grocery store no longer has these Flexi-Foam balls, which are the ONLY ones Lilly likes. Oh, the trauma. …

It’s easy to see how well dogs sense time and pick up on routines — especially about food-related events. For example, we become very popular about an hour before
mealtime. It’s kind of funny and sweet, except when the time change messed everything up. The good news is that the time change fixed Ginko’s recent wake-up-early problems. The bad news is that
poor Lilly is just exhausted come nighttime. My sweetie practically begs to go to bed these …