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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Open Thread

by John Cole|  July 1, 201112:50 pm| 57 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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The fence went up yesterday, and I and the dogs love it. Lily still is a little timid to go out the back porch into the yard (I spent two years yelling “NO!” whenever she got near the open door, so now I need to untrain her), but Rosie never listened to me anyway and charges out there on her own.

It is so nice to be able to let the girls into the back yard and potty first thing in the morning, have my cup of tea, then go for a walk. Plus, it is nice just being able to be in the yard without worrying about the dogs. Worth every penny.

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57Comments

  1. 1.

    jnfr

    July 1, 2011 at 12:52 pm

    That’s what fences are for!

  2. 2.

    cathyx

    July 1, 2011 at 12:57 pm

    Fences aren’t that common in eastern US, but here on the west coast, everyone has one. I think because yards are smaller, houses closer together, and it’s a way to get more privacy.

  3. 3.

    Martin

    July 1, 2011 at 1:02 pm

    @cathyx:

    Yeah. My front door is 7′ from my neighbors side slider. If not for the fence I could tell you what they eat for breakfast every morning.

  4. 4.

    Josie

    July 1, 2011 at 1:03 pm

    It’s great that you and the girls are pleased with it. That and the fact that you are crating Rosie at night will make your life so much easier and Rosie a happier dog. Now all you need is a special outdoor enclosure for Tunch.

  5. 5.

    jeffreyw

    July 1, 2011 at 1:04 pm

    Mmm…breakfast

  6. 6.

    JPL

    July 1, 2011 at 1:05 pm

    My house had a fence when I moved in a few years ago. The fenced area is about one-half acre and my mutt thought she won a trip to doggy disneyworld. When folks first came to visit she would nudge them and make them follow her around the whole yard as if to say this is mine.
    John, You will appreciate that fence on cold winter mornings.

  7. 7.

    Brachiator

    July 1, 2011 at 1:06 pm

    You are so good to your dogs. I hope they have a fair amount of room where they can run around.

    Of course, I might be willing to bet good money that Rosie will soon try to dig a hole under the fence.

  8. 8.

    JoyceH

    July 1, 2011 at 1:08 pm

    Last year I fenced my yard, and now wonder why I waited so long. I tell my dog ‘run like the wind!’ and she charges around at top speed.

    As for Tunch, google ‘catios’. It’s a Thing.

  9. 9.

    Chinn Romney

    July 1, 2011 at 1:10 pm

    open thread? Top this one, I touched the Stanley Cup last night. Woo-woo! I was workingand heard that they were bringing it to a restaurant a 10 minute walk from the office. I made it in less than 5 because I thought I was going to miss it. It was still there, yesss! I didn’t see any actual Bruins though.

  10. 10.

    MonkeyBoy

    July 1, 2011 at 1:12 pm

    It is so nice to be able to let the girls into the back yard and potty first thing in the morning,

    And then the fat man gets lazy about the backyard and it turns into a quagmire of doggy land mines such that no human wants to go out there.

  11. 11.

    Steeplejack

    July 1, 2011 at 1:15 pm

    I’m off work today and have been catching up on the threads. I did a spit-take a while ago when I read that apparently the Reply button fix is a one-line code change. WTF?!

    h/t Cris (without an H)

    This hits a nerve with me because I originally got into programming and software in part because I was sick of dealing with techno-weenies who used their gatekeeper positions to avoid doing things they didn’t want to do because it “was too complex,” “would have bad side effects” or just “couldn’t be done.”

    I don’t know that that’s going on here, but it seems like sometime in the last two weeks someone could have taken the time to try this fix.

    /grumble grumble off

  12. 12.

    Maude

    July 1, 2011 at 1:15 pm

    efgoldman

    WIN

  13. 13.

    Frankensteinbeck

    July 1, 2011 at 1:17 pm

    Not a dog person in general, but the absolute deal breaker has always been walkies. Cleaning a cage or litter box is bad enough, but I can deal. I refuse to have a pet where I have to be personally involved every time it poops.

  14. 14.

    evinfuilt

    July 1, 2011 at 1:18 pm

    @10 JoyceH

    OMG… I so want one of those now. My cats would go crazy for that. Now to figure out the best way to get a dog door to keep the cats in and allow the dog out.

  15. 15.

    AAA Bonds

    July 1, 2011 at 1:18 pm

    I want a dog again :(

  16. 16.

    Jewish Steel

    July 1, 2011 at 1:18 pm

    Feeding the hounds last night I put everyone’s bowls in their usual places finishing with Spencer (half basenji, half border collie) on the back porch. Usually that dog will hoover up his food in under a minute but he just stood there looking at me. I thought that maybe he didn’t realize there was food in his bowl but as I opened the door to point directly into the bowl he shot inside. Not hungry? Sick? I picked up his bowl and when I did he led me into the living room and stood right in front of a box fan I had set up. I put the bowl down and he went to town on it.

    I hope he’s pleased with how trainable I am.

  17. 17.

    PeakVT

    July 1, 2011 at 1:19 pm

    Fences aren’t that common in eastern US

    6 ft. privacy fences aren’t common, but chain-link fences are, especially in neighborhoods built in the 50s and 60s. Those homes tend to have their long axis across the lot so the need to block the neighbors isn’t that great.

  18. 18.

    John Weiss

    July 1, 2011 at 1:21 pm

    Congratulations on your fence project! Without power tools, yet! And no injuries!

  19. 19.

    gelfling545

    July 1, 2011 at 1:21 pm

    @Steeplejack
    A relative gained 20lbs in a month or 2 after getting a position in the IT dept. of a large town in WNY. It seems that when the admin/clerical personnel called & reported a problem he actually went to their offices & fixed it, sometimes on the same day. They were so grateful (and amazed) that a torrent of baked goods ended up on his desk.

  20. 20.

    gbear

    July 1, 2011 at 1:27 pm

    So are any other BJ readers sitting at home today because of the government shutdown in Minnesota? I applied for unemployment this morning and I can tell that it’s going to get really fucked up because I was on a medical leave for a few months last spring. I hope it’s over very soon.

    Back on topic. A 6′ tall wood fence was a godsend between my yard (which has perrenial gardens) and my neighbors yard (which has trailers, sheds and old cars).

  21. 21.

    PurpleGirl

    July 1, 2011 at 1:27 pm

    Evinfuilt @ 16:

    My friends’ cat used the door to the backyard to get out of the house and a hole in the window cover near the dryer exhaust to get back in the house. (Or was it the reverse?) Anyway, the cat knew how to use the dog door.

    My friends had a chain link fence around the whole back yard in Peekskill so the dogs could go outside themselves. Once a week, someone took a pooper-scooper and cleaned the backyard so it didn’t smell. But then we didn’t usually sit out back anyway, but it was nice to not have the yard smelling.

  22. 22.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    July 1, 2011 at 1:32 pm

    now if you can just fix the reply button so we can go potty while you have your tea.

  23. 23.

    Bob

    July 1, 2011 at 1:36 pm

    Betting Tunch will unlatch the gate for them.

  24. 24.

    gbear

    July 1, 2011 at 1:40 pm

    PurpleGirl @ 23:

    I used to have a roommate who wasn’t very good about cleaning up after his dog. I got tired of the mess so I used an empty charcoal bag to clean it up and then I set the bag in a corner of the garage.

    A couple days later that roommate had some friends over for a cookout. He got the grill fired up but decided that it needed some more briquettes so he grabed the bag in the corner of the garage and dumped it in the grille.

    I wasn’t there when it happened but I lol’d.

  25. 25.

    Yutsano

    July 1, 2011 at 1:42 pm

    I wasn’t there when it happened but I lol’d.

    You couldn’t plan a joke like that if you tried. :) Well done though.

  26. 26.

    IrishGirl

    July 1, 2011 at 1:46 pm

    John, you don’t have to worry until Rosie figures out that she can dig her way out. Some breeds are more typical diggers than others and I fear you may have one on your hands.

  27. 27.

    geg6

    July 1, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    Three Rivers Stadium ought to be just the right size.

    Doesn’t exist any more. Now, Heinz Field? Probably not enough room for Tunch.

    Our yard is too large to fence (about 3.5 acres). Henry has a run because he can’t be trusted not to make a run for the hills if he isn’t tethered to something. But Otis can run free. It’s probably a bit of his being a rescue and always being nervous that he’ll be abandoned and partly his nature (a people pleaser if there ever was one), but he never tries to run toward the road and always stays in sight of either John or me. He won’t even go to the mailbox with me since it’s so close to the road. He waits about 15 feet away.

  28. 28.

    Butch Villalobos

    July 1, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    Fences are great for dogs until another animal (cat, skunk, squirrel in our case recently) is back there and you let the dogs out and the intruding animal can’t get out in time. It’s interesting yet terrifying to see a squirrel fend off a 70-lb dog. (Either the squirrel already had a broken limb or the dog did it; either way, it couldn’t get over the fence. I did get the dogs inside before either could finish the job, though.)

  29. 29.

    WereBear

    July 1, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    Oh, Tunchie would love a Catio type thing.

    On my house on Long Island I built a chain link room, about 8×10, out of kennel panels, one panel came with a door. Two cat doors for access to the house connecting to the cellar stairs.

    Had a chain link roof, natch, and used that gutter screen to fix any gaps. All 10-15 kitties looooooooooooooooved it.

    Muddy footprints, yes. Bug hockey on the kitchen floor, five a side: priceless.

  30. 30.

    murbella

    July 1, 2011 at 1:51 pm

    a tired dog is a good dog.
    kong feeding 101
    get an appropriate sized kong for rosie, and one for lily too.
    wedge a piece of freeze dried liver into the small hole end, an then mix one meal’s worth of kibble with some peanut butter, creamcheese, canned or fresh dogfood, etc– or some people soak it in beef or chicken broth.
    pack that into the kong and close the big hole end with crossed dog biscuts or an organic dog cookie.
    freeze overnite.
    give that in place of either the morning or evening feeding.
    it can be messy, so outside is good.

    more Art of Kongstuffing recipes here.

  31. 31.

    Maude

    July 1, 2011 at 1:53 pm

    If ANNE LAURIE reads this:
    Have you read about the dead woman in the Mass swimming pool for 2 days and people were swimming in it?
    The woman couldn’t be seen. Oh wow.
    I would have loved this story as a kid.

  32. 32.

    WereBear

    July 1, 2011 at 1:56 pm

    #murbella: Thanks for the Kong site!

    Man, I wouldn’t have made it through my Newfie mix’s childhood without his Kong fulla peanut butter.

  33. 33.

    Timothy Trollenschlongen (formerly Tim, Interrupted)

    July 1, 2011 at 1:58 pm

    Sweet.

  34. 34.

    gbear

    July 1, 2011 at 1:59 pm

    Here’s my favorite news headline of the week:

    Charges: Man claims to be Jesus, won’t pay restaurant bill, threatens manager in St. Paul

    The whole story is pretty funny.

  35. 35.

    trollhattan

    July 1, 2011 at 2:00 pm

    I wonder whether Tunch will have the energy required to reach this fence? Perhaps the girls can pull him in a little rather large cart.

    Also, too, I’m beginning to like this Schumer fellow.

    http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_07/when_the_saboteurs_shoe_fits030633.php

    Give ’em hell, and keep doing so!

  36. 36.

    Comrade Luke

    July 1, 2011 at 2:09 pm

    Ho-lee crap.

    Jason Statham
    Clive Owen
    Robert DeNiro
    The hot chick from Chuck.

    I’m in.

  37. 37.

    Phil

    July 1, 2011 at 2:10 pm

    Put in a doggie door too, and then your (and the dogs’) quality-of-life improvements will be complete. I really can’t adequately capture just how much happier both my dog and I are since I installed our doggie door.

    Also, Too: That “vegetables” blogad is ridiculous.

    ETA: Ah, I see Sarah P&T has already addressed the ad…

  38. 38.

    yeahyeahwhatevs (Studly Pantload, once upon a time)

    July 1, 2011 at 2:13 pm

    A yard for the doggies = good. But what I can’t understand is people who let their cats out. We have relatives on the edges of the wilds who let theirs out despite the dangers that abound. One of them even lost a kitty to some unknown fate, but continue to let their other little fellas roam. Hell, even here in Seattle’s densly populated Capitol Hill, there are racooms and possums about in the evening (even saw and owl, once!), yet there are cats aplenty outside. Plus, it’s not rare that we hear them get in fights in the summer, and a neighbor’s cat was once injured by a car, but we still see him out all the time (sleeps on our porch a few times a week). This disregard for a loved one’s safety continually puzzles me.

  39. 39.

    PurpleGirl

    July 1, 2011 at 2:16 pm

    gbear — that is an excellent story. Thanks for the laugh.

  40. 40.

    catclub

    July 1, 2011 at 2:21 pm

    trollhattan @ 37

    read again Eric Cantor ( or Paul Ryan’s) explanation of voting for the TARP bailout in october 2008.

    Paraphrasing:
    ‘If we don’t do this, the economy will crash and the democrats will be elected.’

    Not, ‘We needed to do this for the good of the country.’

    So you can bet they WILL crash the economy if it will benefit the GOP.

    When McConnell says that job one is making Obama a one term president, no one has yet asked him “So, if there were some proposal which _would_ benefit the country, but _might_ help Obama get re-elected, you would vote against that?”

    Of course, Benen says there has been no outraged response from the GOP. He does not observe that this means that reporters are not asking the GOP about it.

  41. 41.

    WereBear

    July 1, 2011 at 2:22 pm

    @trollhattan: Also, too, I’m beginning to like this Schumer fellow.

    Just FYI: he’s a NY Senator whose district includes Wall Street. So he walks a fine line, progressively.

    He did mentor Kirsten Gillibrand, who I just adore, so there’s that.

    But the real meaning of this pronouncement, as I pointed out to Mr WereBear, is that Wall Street is getting the word out that this Ship of Fools must not sail.

  42. 42.

    Dexwood

    July 1, 2011 at 2:25 pm

    What I’ve said before… Fences make good neighbors, but they also make good pets. The Dingo Brothers who own me love having a large fenced in yard for all their rompin’ and stompin’. They get a ton of exercise on their own, in addition to, their beloved walks and outings.

  43. 43.

    Gravenstone

    July 1, 2011 at 2:31 pm

    John, You will appreciate curse that fence on cold winter mornings, when you’re shovelling paths for your critters to take a crap in.

    Fixxored.

  44. 44.

    Gravenstone

    July 1, 2011 at 2:35 pm

    And then the fat man gets lazy about the backyard and it turns into a quagmire of doggy land mines such that no human wants to go out there.

    My grandparents had a roughly 20′ square section of their yard fenced off for their two dogs back in the day (well before the advent or concept of pooper scoopers). Made my weekly mowing trips as a teen an absolute joy, let me tell you…

  45. 45.

    karen marie

    July 1, 2011 at 2:36 pm

    @murbella: How does one clean a Kong if one does not have a dishwasher?

    That’s the one thing that has stopped me getting one for Our Lucy.

  46. 46.

    4jkb4ia

    July 1, 2011 at 2:42 pm

    The dream dies for another year. Also relevant to next post. Irony that this is all happening the week of the second Khmer Rouge trial, which happened when everyone was elderly or dead. Cheney is already the first adjective.

    (Next post also has good achievement in bitterly sarcastic titles equal to using “Radioactive”)

  47. 47.

    b-psycho

    July 1, 2011 at 2:48 pm

    Cory Maye is finally going home.

  48. 48.

    cckids

    July 1, 2011 at 2:57 pm

    Maude @ 33:

    Have you read about the dead woman in the Mass swimming pool for 2 days and people were swimming in it?
    The woman couldn’t be seen. Oh wow.
    I would have loved this story as a kid.

    It does have the flavor of an urban legend, or the basis for a new generation of creepy campfire stories. Poor woman.

  49. 49.

    stuckinred

    July 1, 2011 at 3:17 pm

    Next a doggie door so they can go out when they want.

  50. 50.

    karen marie

    July 1, 2011 at 3:24 pm

    @cckids: It’s my understanding the pool hadn’t been — and wasn’t scheduled to be — open for business. Even so, still, that being the case, why was there water in it?

    From my front row seat as a resident of the city in question, I can tell you that I am not surprised that this happened. The city government is run to provide employment for “business leaders” and their friends and relatives. The play equipment in a playground in my neighborhood was pulled down week before last because it was easier than doing minimal maintenance and landscaping.

    ADD: Oops, I was misinformed. The pool was open. Blame NPR.

  51. 51.

    trollhattan

    July 1, 2011 at 3:29 pm

    @52.karen marie

    Even so, still, that being the case, why was there water in it?

    To grow West Nile mosquitoes, of course! It’s right here in the Big Book of Dumb Stuff.

  52. 52.

    4jkb4ia

    July 1, 2011 at 3:56 pm

    Floyd Norris:

    As the tear gas cleared in Athens this week–and the Greek Parliament agreed to a new round of austerity that will raise unemployment and prolong a debilitating recession that almost certainly will ensure that the latest fiscal targets are missed–the critical concern seemed to be making sure that no financial institution will ever have to admit making a bad loan.

    …….

    France is now floating a plan to get lenders to accept a “voluntary” restructuring not unlike the Brady bonds that helped revive Latin America a generation ago. The lenders would agree to extend the terms of their loans at below-market interest rates, but would get some kind of international guarantee of eventual principal repayments, and, therefore, arguably not need to report losses. The trouble with that precedent, however, is that it worked in Latin America in part through currency devaluations. That is impossible if Greece remains in the euro zone.

  53. 53.

    murbella

    July 1, 2011 at 4:39 pm

    @km
    scrub it out with a bottle brush or a toothbrush.

    and rosie is a good digger but she will only dig if she is bored or on a scent trail.
    Cole, do you have gophers or moles in your area?

  54. 54.

    murbella

    July 1, 2011 at 4:51 pm

    @werebear
    you are welcome.

    if Cole is clever he can kong diet the piglets (never Tunch, lol).
    just put a reduced ration in the Kong and add healthy and interesting things.
    bowl feeding teaches dogs to gulp their food and then beg for treats.

    in case you are wondering how i got so wise the horse rescue where i volunteer just opened a branch for giant breeds.
    in this economy the plight of these dogs is awful, like unwanted horses.
    people can’t afford to feed them.

    Mastiffs and danes are heartbreaking when thin….Pyrs and akbashs and bernards hide it better.
    do you understand why i basically hate homo sap sometimes?

  55. 55.

    Constance

    July 1, 2011 at 5:37 pm

    Haven’t read many of the comments but someone mentioned Tunch and I have three friends who have cat fences that work beautifully with wood fences. They are not ugly to look at either.

  56. 56.

    murbella

    July 1, 2011 at 6:10 pm

    here is my best story about a catfence.
    before i went back to school my officemate had a townhouse and a beloved cat.
    the yard of the town house was a twelve by twelve square of nice bluegrass with a six foot privacy fence and he wanted his beloved cat to be able to able to enjoy it.
    so he built a structure of chicken wire and twoxfours extended about 3 feet in over the top of his yard, with a 9×9 hole in the middle so his cat (whose name was Bastet as i recall) couldn’t climb out.

    in the morning he woke up to find 20 strange cats in his backyard.
    he had built a cattrap.
    ;)

  57. 57.

    John Weiss

    July 1, 2011 at 7:37 pm

    murbella, that is definitely the funniest story I’ve ever heard about a cat fence!

    I used to live in a big city, not so far from a busy street; I lost one of my all-time favorites to it. So, from that time on, I practiced kitty car aversion therapy, which consisted of sneaking up on a sleeping cat with a car, blowing the horn and racing the engine. When they ran, I chased them. A couple of “treatments” and I worried no more. They weren’t afraid of a parked car, but very afraid of a moving one. Didn’t lose another cat to the street for twenty five years.

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