June 23, 2015

Summertime with the Ginger Sisters

two dogs on a patio

Summertime is in full swing here in Denver, and I spent much of the weekend beautifying my patio in anticipation of spending a lot of time out there with The Ginger Sisters. Boca likes to lounge on the dog bed and Ruby loves chasing her pink tennis ball. This required the obligatory trip to Home Depot. I had already planted some tomatoes and a few flowers in pots - including marigolds with seeds I harvested from last year's marigolds, which I think is really cool - but I needed to improve the tomato situation and wanted more useful plants. I was also hoping to get a lounge chair - my mosaic bistro set is cute but not one bit comfortable to sit at for long. I had plenty of pots but I couldn't resist a darling fox one - it looked too much like The Ginger Sisters. I repotted the three tomato plants and made sure they were out of reach of the dogs since the leaves/stems are toxic. I also had to put two other things I bought (a lobelia and something unidentified that had been pre-treated with pesticide) out front instead of my patio for the same reason. Note to self: look up pet-safe plants before you shop. Then, after all my fretting over the plants, Ruby and Boca decided the potting soil was delicious - thankfully I bought organic. I am thrilled with how it turned out and that I have basil, rosemary, mint, sage and thyme fresh for the picking outside my door, and will hopefully harvest my first patio cucumbers and tomatoes before the year is through! I also planted a cat garden for Nina - catnip and cat grass. It's wonderful to sit in my lounge chair and have a view full of sky. I know that I will be spending a lot of time out there in the coming months.

On Saturday, Boca had her annual wellness exam. We are still seeing the ophthalmologist regularly and she is completing a three-month course of doxycycline in case her eye issue is bacterial in origin. So far, the left eye is holding steady and her grafted right eye is healed completely and doing great. Aside from her eyes, she is a very healthy girl and she met her prescribed weight loss goal, coming in at 32.9 lbs. We saw a new vet who is helping temporarily while another partner is on maternity leave, and she was very nice. She remarked on how easy and sweet Boca is. After our appointment we stopped at a pet store to get some more goat's milk for the girls. I've been using The Honest Kitchen powder but decided to get them a carton of fresh, raw goat's milk and also a small bag of Wild Calling kibble since we were down to one bag in the pantry. I like to stay stocked up! Everyone wanted to say hello to Boca and know what kind of dog she is. She is such a wonderful potcake ambassador!

After a really lovely rainy spell, our temperatures have been climbing, with Sunday being our hottest day yet hovering around 95 degrees. This is my first summer without A/C (long story) and so far it's not too bad. The dogs are definitely lower energy but seem to handle it well. Boca has taken to crawling under my bed at night - I think this is a holdover from her street dog days when she would find a dark burrow to keep cool. I moved some things around so she has space under there but she really barely fits and it is quite a production, silly girl. The downside to leaving the windows open to cool my room off overnight is that the dogs can hear all the neighborhood sounds: other dogs barking, people talking in the alley, and the odd pre-holiday firecracker. Both Ruby and Boca are noise-phobic, and we are not looking forward to the Fourth of July. A nearby municipality also has a separate fireworks celebration on July 25th, so we will be hunkering down with music, fans and thundershirts several times next month.

Walks with a reactive dog are more challenging this time of year, when everyone else is out enjoying the sunshine, too. We have scooters, skateboards, bikes and strollers to contend with, as well as the occasional off-leash or escaped dog. Last week a Westie on a Flexi-lead got away from its elderly owner and came charging over to us. The loose dog and Ruby had a snarky terrier-off but I was able to keep myself positioned in between them until its owner got hold of its leash again. Boca paid them no mind at all. The owner was very apologetic but can I just say again how much I hate Flexi-leads? I saw so many when I was at the park this weekend and they are useless at best, dangerous at worst. Ruby has been getting better about cars and people, as long as the people aren't moving quickly directly toward her. Sometimes we can even see a dog all the way across the clubhouse lawn and not have a total meltdown. I will call that improvement!

How is your summer going so far? 

9 comments:

  1. I hope the 4th of July goes well for you; it's such a pain to manage with noise phobic animals. We never used to have a problem here but I think it was 3 years ago they made buying the "real" fireworks legal - so everyone is still in a firework frenzy.

    Glad to know Boca's appt went well; and she really is such a perfect ambassador, isn't she?

    And I hear you regarding the walks being a bit more chaotic as of late; I found out yesterday Laika does not appreciate golf carts one bit. I guess one of the neighbors bought a new toy and wanted to try it out on the back roads.

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    1. More firecrackers in the neighborhood last night after ten o'clock - it makes me so grouchy!

      Our landscape/maintenance crew uses golf carts and they drive Ruby crazy, too!

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  2. Hope your eye ball is ok. I had to take doxycycline of bumps on my back.
    Edward (& Lily)

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    1. Pills = cheese, so Boca doesn't mind one bit!

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  3. I am so glad to read that Boca's eyes are both doing okay!

    We don't have a/c either and by the weekend it's supposed to be over 100!! It's so weird! The pnw doesn't usually heat up like that. I'm not looking forward to it!

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    1. The weather patterns have been so strange lately. We had PNW weather for weeks, but now it's back to our regular scheduled heat.

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  4. Sounds heavenly. I have tomato plants growing for the first time this year. I'm pretty excited. I need to get stakes for them this week.

    I haven't taken the dogs for a walk, because of the heat - instead, we've stuck to home and play fetch in the yard. There's lots of recall practice since the dogs were all skunked recently because they didn't come when I called.

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    1. At least you can use your own tomatoes for de-skunking? With just a small patio, we have to walk every day...rain, snow or shine! Thankfully my super-short haired girls don't mind so far, but we usually reach 100 or more at least once during the summer.

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  5. It's been super hot here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, we're seeing temps we don't normally see until July! Hitting high 80's and supposedly 90's this weekend. I love it! On the downside, the motor in my car door that control's the window went out - now my window won't roll back up, our fridge/freezer unit is on the fritz, not sure what is wrong with it but it's not holding proper temps so we're rotating frozen milk jugs to keep it cool while we figure out what needs to be fixed... we had a sprinkler pipe break that we fixed last weekend. And basically I feel like throwing my hands in the air and quitting this whole being an adult crap! Whew...now that I got that rant out. :-) We're having fun with the pups, lots of river time to keep cool in the heat, Dante is doing great on his flyball homework, and tonight is our agility night with Ziva and she is of course a rockstar!

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