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The National Guard is not Batman.

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

Their shamelessness is their super power.

We can show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

So very ready.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

All hail the time of the bunny!

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

This blog will pay for itself.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Their freedom requires your slavery.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

In after Baud. Damn.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

The lights are all blinking red.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

You are here: Home / John Cole Presents "This Fucking Old House" / Puppers Open Thread

Puppers Open Thread

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I was just telling a friend this, and thought I would share with you all. I got new neighbors a couple months ago- she is a nurse and he is a cop, and they live across the street two doors down. Young- early 20’s, and seem to be very nice. I took them a lemon meringue pie I bought from the church women’s club semi-annual bake sale and chatted with them as they were moving in and met her mom, who was there helping, and they seem like good people. At any rate, they had one small barky dog in the same size range as my herd, but they recently got the most adorable Pyrenees puppy.

Every time I come home from somewhere and I see her out (I always drive in that direction around the block so that my car is parked on the right side of the road facing the correct way), I roll down my window and say hi and she gets all excited, and sits there and wait for me as I park my car and walk back down to love on her.

She is absolutely adorable and the softest, sweetest thing you have ever met. I wish I could adequately describe how delightful her fur is to touch. And she has this ginormous cold wet nose. She just *extreme Oprah voice* AMAZING.

I’m currently being weighed down by two dogs and a cat watching television:

Lily is to my side, and you can’t see her. I’m starting to lose feeling in my left foot, but every time I try to move slightly Steve digs in with his claws, so I am hoping when it dies and the foot needs to be amputated the surgeon will be understanding.

Reader Interactions

78Comments

  3. 3.

    WaterGirl

    How old is the pup? Adorable.

    The only Great Pyrenee I ever knew was a wonderful dog and I wished I could have one. It’s just cruel to have them here in Illinois where it gets so hot and humid.

  6. 6.

    debit

    John, let me come over to your house and tidy up your cables. I get an eye twitch every time I look at the TV set up.

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    How old is Lily? I was thinking the other day that I started commenting here in 2009, which both seems like yesterday and a hundred years ago, and it was right around the time you found Lily. She was full grown, wasn’t she?

  10. 10.

    WaterGirl

    @debit: Please swing by Central Illinois after you clean up Cole’s cables. It bugs me, but I don’t have the patience for it.

  11. 11.

    seaboogie

    Great Pyrenees are wonderful dogs – gentle giants!

    I had such a pup-filled week, too! 3 dog-sits this week, and while I love the pups dearly, it is also nice to be home in my own bed with a day off tomorrow.

    Nice touch with the gift ‘o pie, John – you are a mensch!

    There’s a big Mexican party happening at the end of my block, and the music is really great. Nice to enjoy vicariously from my otherwise quiet patio.

  12. 12.

    SiubhanDuinne

    That puppy is gorgeous. What a sweetie!

    Your new neighbors sound nice. And a cop and a nurse — well, let’s just say that might come in useful one of these days. ?

  14. 14.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @debit: My eyes don’t even register stuff like that. If you want to stop in Madison on your way to WV, I might need some help too.

  15. 15.

    efgoldman

    I’m currently being weighed down by two dogs and a cat watching television:

    Which one gets the clicker?

  19. 19.

    Aleta

    A PT I went to had a Pyrenees who’d lie at your feet in the waiting room. You could sink your bare feet in her fur and it felt amazing.

    For awhile she also had an injured raven there she was rehabbing and had to feed. He was an interesting fellow, seemed sophisticated.

  20. 20.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @debit: Ropes that are tangled kill me. I did some climbing when I was younger and rope care is really important. Sailors will be the same way.

  21. 21.

    Adria McDowell

    A- that doggo is adorable, and b- we became cat people over Christmas and holy crap, kittens are worse than puppies! Our kitten gets into EVERYTHING! I’m pretty sure he licked my toothbrush a million times before I caught him doing it, he does kitty parkour of our poor dog’s back, and is quickly becoming impervious to the water bottle when he is doing something wrong. He tried to jump on the stovetop the other day WHILE I WAS COOKING ON IT! Oh, and he really loves the kiddo’s LEGOs and ponytail holders.

    He’s lucky he’s soft and cute! ;-)

  25. 25.

    CaseyL

    I hear so many bad things about WV, including John’s own criticisms, yet his little town sounds practically idyllic. So many wonderful people and their critters! Why isn’t the whole state like that?

  34. 34.

    Corner Stone

    Hmmm…why does it seem I have a couple bikes that need an expert touch to put them back together?

  36. 36.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @WaterGirl: Dogs like that are so fun. My brother’s golden-doodle is like that. My dad and I have both managed to get black eyes from playing with him.

  38. 38.

    Spanky

    Who really reads the comments under news articles, anyway? Especially when they were so obviously fake. People working there had no literary interest or abilities. These were mechanical texts. It was a colossal labor of monkeys, it was pointless. For Russian audiences, at least. But for Americans, it appears it did work. They aren’t used to this kind of trickery. They live in a society in which it’s accepted to answer for your words. And here — I was amazed how everyone was absolutely sure of their impunity, even as they wrote incredibly offensive comments. They were sure that with the anonymity of the Internet, no one would find them.

    WaPo’s interview with a troll.

  40. 40.

    HinTN

    I was there once before in the late 90s for an electrical safety class. Took my homeboy craft supervisor and design engineer to an Afghani restaurant. They went kicking and screaming and then professed to love it, so there’s that.

  42. 42.

    Roger Moore

    @debit:

    And zip ties. So many zip ties.

    I would strongly recommend the velcro cable straps rather than cable ties. They’re just as neat, but they don’t need to be cut off when you rearrange stuff.

  46. 46.

    Roger Moore

    @Aleta:

    For awhile she also had an injured raven there she was rehabbing and had to feed. He was an interesting fellow, seemed sophisticated.

    He was probably smarter than the dog. You know the story from Aesop’s Fables where the crow puts pebbles into a pitcher to raise the water level high enough to drink from? They’ve been observed to do exactly that when presented with that problem. They’re in the same intelligence range as dolphins and great apes.

  49. 49.

    Mnemosyne

    I didn’t get home from the Happiest Place On Earth until 1:30 am and then had to get up at 8 am to let the cleaning people in, so now I’m struggling to stay awake until 9 pm so I can go to sleep.

  50. 50.

    Gravenstone

    @WaterGirl: A friend of mine just adopted her second GP this weekend. This one was apparently found in Texas, tied to a tree with a fucking extension cord. He’s small for his breed, so likely malnourished during earliest development, but is only 7-8 months old, so has room to rebound.

  52. 52.

    WaterGirl

    @Omnes Omnibus: It is fun, but a black eye? I got a black eye once playing volleyball, and the worst part about it was all the “oh I’m so sorry he beats you” look that women gave me for the couple of weeks before it went away.

  54. 54.

    HinTN

    @Omnes Omnibus: Will do. Milwaukee ain’t that far either. I’ll have a young engineer in tow. He’ll be presenting our paper, and he’s not seen the Great Lakes, so the plan is to drive over one afternoon.

  55. 55.

    Jager

    Mrs. J had a cold the other night, she went to bed at 8:30. Anze the Dog and I stayed up for awhile. She was coughing and hacking, so I hit the guest room. I got into bed with my Kindle and Anze was standing by the bed staring at me. I took him to our room got him on his doggy bed. 5 minutes later he was back in the guest room staring at me. I got up, got a beach towel and spread it on half the bed. He hopped up, snuggled up and drifted off in seconds. The guest room was cold and a big warm German Shepherd makes for one hell of a bed warmer. I’d rather sleep with Mrs J but the doggy boy is a decent substitute.

  58. 58.

    Mnemosyne

    @WaterGirl:

    My poor boss ended up with a black eye the day of her mother’s funeral because one of her toddlers accidentally elbowed her in his sleep the night before. It wasn’t super conspicuous since it was fairly small (size of a toddler’s elbow) but she felt self-conscious all day.

  61. 61.

    Roger Moore

    @ruemara:

    Do relocate him to his space – a nice climbing perch he can romp all over..

    This. If your cat is a climber, the best thing to do is to give it an approved place to do its climbing, not to punish it for being who it is.

  62. 62.

    WaterGirl

    @Mnemosyne: I had a friend who got a cold sore for her wedding day, that sucked. Maybe the black eye served as a distraction for your boss on that horrible day.

  63. 63.

    Aleta

    @Roger Moore: I have a real crow story. Too long to tell.

    I read crows have very strong lasting social structures. The raven seemed mentally different than the crows I’ve seen, but then he was also out of his element.

  64. 64.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SWMBO: I want to be in a bigger city and fuck the people who want me (and people like me) out of the state. We’ve been here since the 1830s.

  67. 67.

    Roger Moore

    @Aleta:
    Ravens tend to have smaller social groups than crows. Common ravens (Corvus corax) tend to live as mated pairs with their immature offspring. American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) are cooperative breeders, which means the young will often stay with their parents for a few years after reaching maturity and help raise their younger siblings. Cooperative breeding leads to a more complex social structure.

  68. 68.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Roger Moore: I recommend velcro straps too, as opposed to zip ties, but that’s because the zip ties constrict the cable and make the electrons flow more slowly.

  72. 72.

    MoxieM

    Your neighbors have a yappy dog and they just got a Pyr?? ahahhahaha. One of the (ahem) best loved Pyr traits is their love of showing off their vocal abilities, i.e., yelling their heads off at every opportunity:

    Hey! it’s a squirrel… Hey! did you see that leaf?…Hey! the Mailman!! Hey! Hey hey!!

    My current rescue, Murphy the Beloved Magical Wonder Dog is about 85% Pyr, so I’ve been reading, and joining Pyr groups and all that. Boy is she a loudmouth! My previous life partner, Roxy the Newf was hardly quiet, but she had nothing on Murpho.

    Also of course they are famously Dis-a Pyrs–as livestock guardian working dogs, they will take off and try to expand their territory at every chance. I hope your neighbors have theirs securely (i.e., 5 ft or higher) fenced. I am told they are fence climbers, too, but I’ve never seen it.

    Finally, Murph the Smurph, mother of treats and owner of many nicknames, is sweeter than sweet to me, and my designated others–but–wow is she nasty, hateful, and an aggressive bitch toward both other dogs and people she doesn’t know or take a liking to. As in, full hackles, teeth bared, growling, and ears back. Yikes. Of course she’s also an 8 year old rescue, sho who knows what she’s encountered along the way. But Pyr fanatics tell me these are all typical Pyr traits. Hmm. Dunno?? I just warn people when we are on walks.

  73. 73.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @MoxieM:

    Finally, Murph the Smurph, mother of treats and owner of many nicknames, is sweeter than sweet to me, and my designated others–but–wow is she nasty, hateful, and an aggressive bitch toward both other dogs and people she doesn’t know or take a liking to. As in, full hackles, teeth bared, growling, and ears back. Yikes. Of course she’s also an 8 year old rescue, sho who knows what she’s encountered along the way. But Pyr fanatics tell me these are all typical Pyr traits. Hmm. Dunno?? I just warn people when we are on walks.

    Beau, the dog of dogs, could not be left with other dogs. He was a fuck or fight guy. He looked like Restoration fop and he acted that way.

  76. 76.

    The Simp in the Suit

    I’m currently being weighed down by two dogs and a cat watching television

    Sorry, bub, the cat is watching YOU…

    …and he’s thinking baaaaad thoughts…

  78. 78.

    Gelfling 545

    Flora believes she is a match – at 12 inches tall – for any dog. The only one she ever backed away from was a Pyrenees. I don’t think she believed it was a dog!

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