Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

I really should read my own blog.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Consistently wrong since 2002

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

“woke” is the new caravan.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / It’s Not the Size of the Dog in the Fight

Reader Interactions

65Comments

  9. 9.

    PurpleGirl

    Lovey definitely is getting the upper hand. Koda is being nice to her and Lovey is pushing her advantage. Yeah, they’re bonding to each other. And how cute they are!

  11. 11.

    Mary G

    Thanks to Geg6 for the photos. Koda is being wonderfully patient. Lovey looks like a little firecracker.

  12. 12.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    PUPPEH! It’s always cute to see the big dog defer to the little one. Commenter Jebidiah has a little dog named Juno who set herself up as the protector for the bigger, older dog who was becoming blind and deaf. Freakin’ adorable.

  15. 15.

    Karen in GA

    Hooray! Happy pups!

    Practical question — how does one walk two dogs? Is there any special training the dogs need, or do you just slap the leashes on them and go? Asking because my husband and I think we might get Iggy a friend later this year, and I’ve never had two dogs.

    How do you even add a second dog? I’m thinking I’d want to take Iggy to meet the dog at the rescue/shelter/dog vendor/whatever and let him meet the new dog there, and if they hit it off, the new dog gets in the car when Iggy does and we all go home. Would that work?

  16. 16.

    Belafon

    @Karen in GA: When we got our second dog, we took our first one with us to make sure they would work together. They sniffed for a bit and then nearly ignored each other, so we knew they were good to go.

    As for walking, it’s easier if each of you have one. Otherwise, when I walk our two, I just make sure I can swap the leashes easily, otherwise mine would get tangled up.

  17. 17.

    NCSteve

    Like Mark Twain, I’m a firm believer that you can set up house without a dog, but you can’t do it without a cat. But 12,000 years of co-evolution can’t be denied–we’re programmed to love da goggies. By and large, the trouble of each evens out. On one hand, you don’t have take cats for walks or force them to go outside when it’s cold and rainy and they’d rather stay in until it’s too late. But on the other, unlike with cats, dog puke is often a self-correcting problem. Even-Steven.

    But dammit, I do envy how, most of the time, you can just drop a new dog into the mix and, boom, they’re BFF’s forever in no time. None of the drama and occasional outbreaks of full scale war for years after that come with adding a new cat to the mix.

  22. 22.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Aleta: At some point, Koda will get annoyed and take Lovey’s head in her mouth and hold it for a few seconds. Just to make a point.

  24. 24.

    Cliff in NH

    I walked a pair of dogs for a while, they enjoyed a tandem leash The puller was restrained by the non pulling boss girl. It worked out pretty well.

  26. 26.

    Eric U.

    @NCSteve: I inherited a dog when my mom died, and we had to put the dog on prozac because it couldn’t tolerate the other dogs being too close. She hasn’t snapped at anyone in quite a while. I harbor a theory that this dog was responsible for the death of my mom’s other dog, she attacked it and did quite a bit of damage to its throat not long before it died.

  27. 27.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Eric U.: The dog I had as a kid was an extremely aggressive English cocker. As a rule, if he saw another male dog, he got confrontational. Size didn’t matter to him. It was kind of funny watching a dog who looked like Restoration fop go werewolf. OTOH, he was a wonderful pet for a one dog house..

  28. 28.

    Aleta

    @Karen in GA: Sorry for your loss of your cat, who made me laugh despite doing nothing in a 2D photo. Iggy’s lesson at the trainer’s was one of the funniest things I’ve read in quite awhile. He couldn’t be any more photogenic, either.

  31. 31.

    Anne Laurie

    @Karen in GA:

    How do you even add a second dog?

    First step: Keep Iggy’s personality & his preferences in the front of your mind. I seem to remember he (used to?) get overexcited whenever he saw another dog. If you’re introducing another dog to his “pack”, you probably want a low-key mellow type who’s not gonna amp up Iggy’s enthusiasms.

    Second, you probably want a (spayed) female. Dogs practice high-medieval chivalry — not the chivalry of Hollywood fantasies, but a rigid division along lines of power & gender, winner take most & loser to the ground. While many dogs of the same sex get along fine (like Koda & Lovey), two males or two females will tend to “compete” with each other, nonstop & very physically, until the smaller/older weaker dog shows a proper level of submission. But male dogs, even very masculine ones, almost never attack a female. (In fact, a young alpha-bitch female will sometimes attack an older male, but they’re not subtle & you should be able to pick up the warning signs in time that you just don’t bring that girl into your household.)

    As far as introductions, once you’ve vetted the personality of your potential adoptee, you’ve got a good idea of what to do — bring Iggy to meet his potential roommate (ideally in ‘neutral’ territory, a park where they can test each other), never the other way around. Force yourself to be clear-eyed; is the other dog going to be happy sharing space with Iggy 24/7? It’s okay to be wary, but are they totally intimidated by him? On the other hand, does it look like they’re “stalking” Iggy, testing to see if they can push him into a corner & force him to submit?

    (And remember, it’s tragically easy to fall for a sad story, to assume that a dangerously broken dog just needs the love & attention you can lavish on them, especially if they’re being pushed on you because ‘If you don’t take her home she’ll be put to sleep tomorrow.’ It wouldn’t be fair to the new dog, or to Iggy, or to yourself to take on more dog than you’re equipped to handle. Says the woman who did just that, ruefully — although I have the excuse that she was just supposed to be staying with us for a couple of weeks, while the rescue group found a “real” foster home for her… )

    Finally, be prepared for Iggy to act out when the new housemate moves in, no matter how happy he was when they met. David Hyde Pierce had a great comedy routine about introducing a new puppy into his household, with his older dog commenting:

    “The puppy is at the dog park again! Yay!

    “The puppy is in OUR yard, but I’m sure you know what you’re doing…

    “The puppy is in the house — HAVE YOU LOST YOUR GODDAMNED MIND?!?”

  32. 32.

    cckids

    @Karen in GA: Hi, good luck if you do decide to add a second doggie to the family. My niece works at a rescue in NE, and she gives this article to everyone. It made me realize how very lucky we got with our dog when we found him; we made all kinds of mistakes :)

  33. 33.

    sharl

    Welp, looks like Don Lemon is making new friends again, as only he can. His latest new acquaintance is a rather popular freelance journalist in Baltimore with the Twitter handle @BaltoSpectator:

    Don Lemon’s Shadow
    ‏@BaltoSpectator

    #DonLemon just got us kicked out of in front city hall while we were working

    #DonLemon called @BaltimorePolice on me said there was a man impersonating a reporter on the area & needs to be removed. Video coming…

    Going to make sure wherever @CNN is in Baltimore, we’re ruining their shots. By many means necessary. This is war @donlemon!

    .@donlemon, unlike a punk like you, I don’t need 15 hired goons to protect me when I’m working in Baltimore. Big frickin coward!

    It’s very personal now. That bitch @donlemon is nothing but a phony coward

    G @RationalBassist
    @BaltoSpectator They’re saying it wasn’t Lemon’s staff who made the call. Does that change a single thing for you?

    Don Lemon’s Shadow @BaltoSpectator
    Not one bit. He’s culpable too. He could have told them to stand down & they would have listened.

    Don Lemon’s Shadow @BaltoSpectator

    .@TheVikChick @Virtuous_Queen_ @seanjjordan I tried to talk reasonably to him at first. He blew me off. So after that it was on.

    Good luck with that ongoing community outreach, Don Lemon!

    ETA: Hahaha

    Denise Clay @denisethewriter

    Apparently, @donlemon has angered the Forces of Twitter again tonight because #FuckDonLemon is trending…

  34. 34.

    Betty Cracker

    @Anne Laurie: My sister and her wife are two saps who fall for the hard luck story every single time. They’ve had a series of psycho rescue dogs over the past two decades.

  37. 37.

    Betty Cracker

    @sharl: I find Don Lemon too pathetic to even actively dislike. He’s a chronic, low-grade, background annoyance, like a squeaky hinge.

  39. 39.

    sharl

    @Betty Cracker: Yeah, that’s true enough. His employment by CNN is just one more item to add to the already overwhelming evidence of that network’s decay. And the thing is, their transparent efforts to take a bite out of Fox’s market share for viewers who buy home security systems, reverse home mortgages, and dick pills won’t ever work; Fox owns those angry frightened old white people.

    The Ashleigh Banfield thing saddened and depressed me far more, even knowing that she had already more-or-less gone over to the Dark Side. The sight of a privileged white woman talking down to a Baltimore AA political leader was particularly dispiriting though. Between her, Erin Burnett, Don Lemon, etc., Black folk surely must know by now where they stand with CNN.

  40. 40.

    Steeplejack

    @Betty Cracker:

    Sorry if you’re up with insomnia, Betty. I had that only once, when I was a principal in a startup company that was cratering back in the ’90s, and it was no fun at all, especially for someone who usually tends toward the depressed, “Maybe if I sleep through this it’ll all be over when I wake up” end of the spectrum.

    What I find now in my semi-/under-employed work-at-home lifestyle is that my sleep pattern has divided itself into a short nighttime sleep and (sometimes) a one- to three-hour siesta in the afternoon. No matter how late I go to bed, I wake up around dawn—aided by the housecat, who read somewhere that all the feline apex predators hunt then, so, hell, yeah, she’s doing it too. (“Hunt” = “Get hu-mon off his ass to pop a can of Fancy Feast.”) And I get up knowing that (most days) I have the safety net of the afternoon snooze if I need it. Which sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t.

    Okay, end of story. Don’t know how I got off on that tangent. Probably because Gil Scott-Heron sent me YouTube diving through a bunch of ’70s soul and jazz. Currently Pharoah Sanders, “Astral Traveling.” Perfect late-night music.

  41. 41.

    Betty Cracker

    @sharl: It’s just too dumb and depressing to watch. I pretty much stick to cooking shows, sports and Netflix these days.

    @Steeplejack: It’s a chronic thing for me, but yeah, it sucks. I fall asleep like normal, but then I’m wide awake at 2 AM. Thank dog for books and the Internet. Otherwise I’d go mad.

  42. 42.

    Anne Laurie

    @Betty Cracker: Yeah, but I was dumb enough to feel superior to those “saps” who fell for the hard-luck stories!

    So, karma bit me in the… hand. Deeply. That was a week or so after Gloria came home with us, after her ‘adoptee honeymoon’ wore off, when I was in the middle of the multi-state telephone tag that would eventually lead to me realizing, now that they’d pawned her off on a sucker who wasn’t even asking them to pay the euthanasia fee, the rescue group had no intention of taking Gloria back.

    She’s about 20% more dog than we can handle, and/or we’re about 80% of her best possible home. I threaten the Spousal Unit (she loves him, while she merely respects me) that if he dies before I do, having Gloria euthanized will be near the top of my to-do list. But sometimes, just for a moment, there’s a glimpse of the Wonderdog her scary-smart, ever-curious, alpha-bitch personality could’ve made her, with a better start in life or a better rehabilitator…

  43. 43.

    Cliff in NH

    the birds around here got insomnia too, they started chirping about 2 hours ago, around 2am.
    it makes it real hard to sleep no matter how long you’ve been up. From the sound of it, they are planning a big orgy. they must have shown up with the warm wind that blew thru a few days ago.

  44. 44.

    ruemara

    To go OT, I wrapped on my first pilot. It was hard, but fun. I’m delirious with sleepiness. And I return to a stopped up toilet with Tweedle Dim and Tweedle Dum blasting their online shows. I put a post it note asking them to plunge our only toilet and hit the sack.

  47. 47.

    SWMBO

    @Betty Cracker: We’ve had our share of rescue dogs that probably shouldn’t have been rescued but…

    @Karen in GA: Most rescue groups have a neutral meet and greet before they approve an adoption. We started with one dog from the pound and the second from the Humane Society. We added three more over time. Each time we added a dog, there were some tricks to getting them to play nice together. No one got to guard the water/food dish. There were two water dishes and two food dishes in different rooms so that no one guarded a dish. We had a food psycho who would sleep with her head in the food dish because she thought she was never going to get another bite again if she didn’t save this for herself.
    Another thing we did was put grated cheese on their shoulders. They could try to keep it from the others and for themselves but if they cooperated, they could lick it off each other. Grooming, food and social interaction helped them to bond.
    I was walking 5 dogs on color coordinated leashes. Helps separate who is tangling you up. Don’t walk two dogs on those retractable leashes. It’s too easy for them to get excited and wrap the thin cord around each others neck and choke them.
    Get each of them their own special towel or small blanket. When you travel with them in the car, you can put them in two different spots and they can lay down without getting all over each other. One dog always wants to hide in the car and the other wants to stand up and look. If they can control their own spot, it saves a lot of aggravation for everyone.
    Yes, it is possible to have more than one dog. Five may have been pushing it.

  48. 48.

    TheMightyTrowel

    PUPPEH!

    I’m counting down the months to when I get to get cats – we’ve just put an offer on a house (and had it accepted! – now it’s just the mortgage approval and the surveyor’s report to go) which means that within a few months we’ll be out of our (lovely) rented flat (with its no pets rule) and into our own property with a lovely big garden and front AND rear verandas perfect for lazy rescue cats to while away their time.

    Also on the good news front: I just won a university teaching award and found myself nominated for the national early career academic teaching award. Whoa!

  51. 51.

    Montarvillois

    In search of puppy relocation, who doesn’t love a happy ending and now a happy beginning in Lovey’s life. Congrats Mr. Cole.

  54. 54.

    geg6

    Lovey currently has the hiccups. She is quite annoyed by the situation as it interrupts her napping on my lap while I drink my morning coffee.

  56. 56.

    satby

    I’m in Lansing, MI at a training for my job and will be here overnight tonight as well. Hoping the petsitter is doing ok with the horde at my house.
    The first day of training was mostly them reading the manual at us, so the next two days I hope will be better.

  61. 61.

    delk

    @Karen in GA: I also recommend the ‘tandem leash’. Once they learn they are working against each other, they start acting like a team.

    Been a couple rough months here in Chicago for dogs. Canine influenza has been terrible. H3N2 strain has not been detected in North America before this outbreak. The symptoms are very similar to ‘kennel cough’. Two dogs have died.

    My dog, Gav, caught it, as did just about everyday in our building/neighborhood. Watching your dog suffer is not fun. We have been keeping him away from all dogs. Most boarding has been cancelled, at least for a while. Our place shut down for about three weeks (which was tough–we were day boarding Gav while my broken back has been healing).

    This mornings news reported another flair up, this time in the suburbs. All 35 dogs at a boarding place were diagnosed.This will probably drag on for a while. it reminds me of the anti-vaxxers–owners that do not get their dog vaccinations. ugh

  64. 64.

    Ruviana

    @Betty Cracker: Obligatory from Fats Durston–a year old comment at Roy’s place. I can’t link to the comment so here goes”

    −

    Avatar
    Fats Durston • a year ago

    “The Revolution Will Be Sitting In Front Of The Television”

    You will be able to stay home, brother.

    You will be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.

    You will be able to lose yourself on Xanax and

    skip out for beer during commercials, if you haven’t DVR’d

    Because the revolution will be sitting in front of the television.

    The revolution will be sitting in front of the television

    Brought to you by Xbox

    In 4 parts with plenty of commercial interruptions,
    because that’s how HULU rolls.

    The revolution will be sitting in front of the television.

    The revolution will be brought to you by the

    Netflix Originals and will star Kevin Spacey

    And a whole bunch of other very white people.

    The revolution will give your mouth advanced whitening.

    The revolution will be applied directly to the forehead.

    The revolution will make you five pounds heavier,
    the revolution will be sitting in front of the television.

    There will be pictures of cops shooting down

    brothers in the instant replay.
    There will be pictures of wannabe-cops shooting down

    brothers in the instant replay.

    There will be pictures of Miley Cyrus being

    run out of Montana on a wrecking ball.

    There will be a slow motion of Phil
    Robertson strolling through a swamp in a Red, White and

    Blue camo jumpsuit that he had been saving

    For just the right occasion.

    The revolution will be able to skip this ad after five seconds.

    But you will have to worry about what could save you fifteen percent or more.

    The revolution will be sitting in front of the television,
    the television, the television.
    Or maybe just your phone.

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