Can Godzilla be far behind?

Some animals can smell out valuable truffles and bring their owners wealth.  Other animals can be used to find illegal substances or rescue people in need.

Shiloh?

He seems to have a knack for finding reptiles.  Last year he almost stepped on a couple of snakes (one a rattlesnake) although he couldn’t have cared less.

This year, while taking him for his morning constitutional, he just about planted his paw on the head of this…

It’s a common snapping turtle and ,fortunately for Shiloh, was a little lethargic.   If it’s not a squirrel or a chipmunk Shiloh just doesn’t give a crap.  I remember when he used to eat spiders.  He’s getting a little to selective in his old age.

Poo problems

I live in an apartment complex and one of the ground rules for living here is that you’re supposed to pick up after you dog.  Now Shiloh has a thing about privacy and so prefers to go in the woods to poo (perhaps he thinks he’s a bear…or the pope?)  When he’s in the thick underbrush I refrain from picking up after him because:

1. The highly unlikely possibility someone would walk there and step in it
2. He’s a small dog and creates correspondingly small poo

When he gets the urge to poo in public however I always pick up after him (I haven’t kept track but I suspect he does that sometimes when he just wants to see me carry around a bag of crap).

About a year ago, I noticed a lot of people getting large dogs and walking them around and they all seemed to have one thing in common (other than having large dogs and walking them around that is):  none of them were picking up the huge dog patties their pooches were leaving everywhere.  It was getting so bad that I wasn’t able to walk Shiloh in our regular circuit and we had to go further afield in order to find a ‘poo free zone’.

Now, our current bathroom area has been invaded by a husky who produces massive poos right in the areas people are most likely to walk.  The owner used to just open up his door and let his dog out (attached to a leash) making it go to the bathroom within six or eight feet of the guy’s door.  I always thought that was kind of gross but since I never needed to get within eight feet of his door it didn’t really bother me.  Now that the weather is getting better, the owner is willing to walk distances up to 20 or 30 feet from his door and let his pooch relieve itself in a wider area. The owner doesn’t even pretend to make an effort to clean up after his dog.

Now, Shiloh and I have to relocate yet again.  I’m starting to feel like some small Gothic tribe getting pushed around by the Huns during the migration period.

I’m ready to go home

PICT0108

Originally uploaded by iago18335

Despite his best efforts, Shiloh is starting to show his age. After an exhausting weekend of sitting in front of the fireplace at the Chateau d’Iago he gave me a not so subtle message that he was ready to go home.

We’re fast approaching Shiloh’s eleventh birthday. He still tries to act like he’s a perpetual frisbee catching machine but I know the truth.

Picture of the day…Shiloh

One of my favorite pictures of Shiloh. I was taking him to go play frisbee (his favorite pastime) and he was so anxious he offered to drive. Of course I didn’t let him…he’d been drinking all day.

 

 

Shiloh Update

Shiloh’s been acting a bit strange (which, given how strange he normally is is quite a statement) so I took him to the vet to get him checked out. Shiloh is also the very definition of a drama queen (I guess drama king would be the appropriate term) and turns into a snarling beast whenever someone wants to pick him up, examine him, or looks at him the wrong way. Therefore, for both his sanity as well as for the integrity of the digits of the vet and vet techs, whenever I take him to the vet he has to get anesthesia. I’m beginning to suspect that he acts this way so that he can get a free ‘high’ and looks forward to the good drugs but I can’t prove anything.

Anyway, I found out that he apparently picked up a case of Ehrlichiosis thanks to our friendly neighborhood tick population and (perhaps related, perhaps not) a problem with his TMJ.

For a 10 year old dog with enough prescriptions to fill a medicine cabinet, it’s a bit humbling to know that he could still kick my ass in a run if he wanted to.

By the way, a major shout out to the staff at the East Stroudsburg Veterinary Hospital.  I can’t say enough good things about these people.  I have so much confidence in their work that I have to do a two hour drive (each way) and take a day off of work to bring Shiloh in to see them but it’s worth it.

 

 

 

Fall frisbee extravaganza!

I took Shiloh out to play a little frisbee yesterday (he’d been cooped up almost all weekend since I had National Guard duty and he was getting cabin fever) and took some pictures.  This one is a bit fuzy which is because:

1. I was trying to throw the frisbee and take pictures at the same time (and I’m barely ‘one-handed’ let alone ambidextrous)
2. I’m holding the camera about 2 inches off the ground
3. He’s just that fast

So, even though it’s not a perfect picture I love these shots when he’s totally focused and playing.  Plus, as you can tell, it was just one of those perfect days where the color just seems to jump out at you.  There’ll be plenty of time for black and white shots when the snow comes…

The Beagle-Pug war of 2006

There’s a Pug living close to us.  When the owners take it for a walk they go past our apartment and we can hear it’s tags jingle as it goes past.  I’m not sure what it is about that dog but every time it goes by Shiloh goes nuts and does his best Cujo imitation. 

Immediately after the dog walks by, Shiloh runs to the door and signals that it’s time to go outside!  The first couple of times he did this, I dutifully got his leash and poo bag (I think he’s got me trained) and took him out.  As soon as he got out the door his nose went crazy as he attempted to find every spot the pug took a wizz on and cover it over with what I can only assume Shiloh thought was it’s proper Shiloh wizz. 

That boy just ain’t right.

We pass dogs all the time. 

Big dogs. 

Little dogs. 

Male Dogs. 

Female Dogs. 

It’s no big deal.  But there’s something about this pug that gets on his nerves.  He can’t stand the idea that this dog is peeing anywhere near ‘his’ territory.

I’m not sure how the pug feels about all of this.  I haven’t thought about asking the owners although if I did I think they’d just consider me the kooky dude who owns that weird dog.

Sick Day

I had to take Shiloh to the vet today.  Somehow he managed to break one of his canine teeth and I thought he might need to have it pulled.  Apparently not.  Even though the tip is broken off and you can actually see down into the tooth, the vets said that the tooth was healthy and the ‘pulp’ was still protected. 

I generally only bring Shiloh to the vet once a year unless there’s some sort of emergency.  During his regular visit I get him the ‘total overhaul’.  Shots, nail clipping, ear cleaning all get done in one shot.  Of course, there’s no way Shiloh would let anyone poke and prod him voluntarily so the vet has to anesthtize him to get anywhere near him.  The whole event is pretty draining for him and he’s beat.  I didn’t even get a rise out of him when I made some popcorn which is one of his favorite treats.

I’m sure after a good night’s sleep he’ll be up and yapping with the best of ‘em…

Shiloh’s superhero power

Dogs have a lot of very special talents and help humans in lots of different ways. From finding truffles to provide nourishment to the nutritionally deficient rich and famous to keeping America safe from highly dangerous fruit and vegetables.

So, after 10 years of feeding, vet visits and picking up poo I hoped Shiloh would eventually demonstrate a talent that could make me rich or famous (it wouldn’t need to be both, no need to be selfish after all).

Well, after hiking the past two weekends I’ve found that Shiloh has two unique talents. Unfortunately, they’re of rather dubious value in the search for wealth or notoriety.

The first is his ability to locate wild raspberries. While we were hiking and I was stuffing myself with the raspberries I found growing along the trail, I wondered if Shiloh would like the taste so I gave him one. You’d have thought I gave him some high-grade heroin. Every time we passed one after that he freaked out and his nose went into overdrive. This would be a pretty good skill if you didn’t see ripe raspberry bushes from a mile away.

His other ability seems to be unintentional and potentially dangerous. The past two times we went hiking Shiloh practically walked on a snake! The first time it was a non-venomous (but pretty aggressive) Norther Water Snake. This weekend, however, my four footed friend, almost stepped on a Timber Rattlesnake! He barely seems to notice the snakes, even after they move. They just don’t interest him. Hopefully, this talent of his isn’t leading him to encounter ever more venomous snakes. I won’t be able to leave the house in another day or two if that’s the case.

That was the first time I saw a rattlesnake in the wild. I’ve seen lots snakes (and got a few on my property) but the nice thing about being in the New Jersey/Pennsylvania area is that almost all the snakes are non-venomous. Plus, if you happen to get close enough, the venomous ones all have ‘cat-eyes’ while the non-venomous ones have round pupils.

Most people don’t like to get that close however.

Up a tree without a paddle.

I took Shiloh out to play a little frisbee yesterday and with my fantastic technique got the frisbee lodged in a tree. I have to admit I left it in the tree a bit longer than I needed to because I wanted Shiloh to remember that I’m the guy with opposable thumbs and the ability to shake a frisbee out of a tree. After a couple of minutes he realized that barking at the frisbee wouldn’t get it out of the tree so he started barking at me which produced much better results.

My understanding is that beagles, as a breed, aren’t suppossed to be particularly good at playing ‘catch’ or ‘fetch’ but Shiloh’s got a knack for it. In fact, he’s obsessed with it. He knows that if starts to wander off ‘frisbee time’ is over. Every time we start to walk into a field he starts getting antsy and looks to me to take his leash off.

Anyway, check out more pictures of the incredible ham, at my Flikr site.