Wrack and ruin

Sometimes it seems like Maya is intent on alienating herself from me. She is repeatedly digging up the yard, which I reseeded only about a month ago. Last night I came home to find five (yeah! five!) holes, some of them four or six--maybe eight--inches deep in some cases, in a nice straight row. It's like she just went down the line digging like crazy. Why? She needs more exercise and attention. This is happening during the day when I'm at work. But Maya isn't at home alone. She's being allowed outside alone and without supervision and is tearing the place apart. The solution is getting her out more, and when I close this issue of the magazine (and get over this wicked cold) I'll work on that, but with the days getting shorter and colder, it's likely to get more and more difficult. But the short-term answer is not letting her dig, watching her, just like any of the other children. She's still just a pup.

The reality is I feel really let down. I've worked so hard on that yard this year, and worked all summer long alongside the guys building the stone retaining wall and then the deck, taking advantage of them working to do other jobs that were best done while their work was going on, or working with them to assure that things turned out the way we wanted. I've tended that grass repeatedly trying to restore it to a half-way decent lawn. In the end, I feel that my sweat and my aching muscles count for nothing and my labor--given on my weekends and days off and after work--is taken for granted. A big joke. The fool working his ass off for nothing.

I get mad at Maya, but she's just a dog and is trying to burn off energy. She is being allowed to dig. So why am I wasting my time--my life--even trying? I feel like saying, to wrack and ruin with the whole friggin' place.

Fall snow

Snow today. Record early storm, I think. Maya loved it. She's seen it before but I don't think she remembered. No photos. Well, none with Maya. She really didn't seem to mind it as long as she could tear around the yard, but she kept losing the white tennis ball. So, I tossed a half deflated red soccer ball and she went crazy. When I tried to get her to go in she refused to go and I had to kick the ball around a few more times with my hands and feet freezing in the wet, heavy slush. Plus we had to stay near the house because branches, still laden with autumn leaves, were falling every few minutes. After a few more kicks of the ball, Maya decided to go in ... on her terms.

Clashing spirits

An example of clashing restless spirits today. Maya and I met up with our neighbor with the rotweillers tonight and I let Maya free to run and play, but things got very rough with one of the rots. Maya was running like crazy and coming back to them brushing by them with lightning speed and the bigger, older rot got angry. Maybe he was upset because he was on his leash and couldn't run free.But his owners said it was Maya's instinct to run that way but the rots' instinct to herd and control. Ah ...the restless spirit issue we discussed in my dog training class.

I had to grab Maya, who hunkered down in fear when the big rot aggressively pinned her to the ground, and I put her back on her leash. The wet weather might be making them all a little cranky.

Below are some of the photos I couldn't upload the other night. Maya the water dog:

Maya needs to be off leash, and she's been such a good dog about coming back to me. Still going to dog training and I think we will for a good while. She's too smart a dog to ignore training her. Plus I met a guy one day with a German short-haired pointer who does field trials with his dog. Maybe I'll try that with Maya.

Sun and water

Wow, three months without updating this blog and so much has happened with Maya.

She discovered water this summer, first at one "dog park" with open trails where I was taking her for a bit in the summer and then at the "Wilderness." It's really not wilderness but that's what it's called and it's a great place to walk Maya, or better let her run loose, and there's a great stream that she owns now! No more the water-shy puppy.

I've been trying to upload photos but for some reason am not getting the right pop-up menu when I click on the 'insert image' icon. And it is late. I'll try again tomorrow ... or soon.

Also discovered another great place to let Maya run: a mountain down past the preserve with the lake where I used to take Maya when I started this blog. Looking for a place to let her run free I took her on the trails through the swamp and explored the trail leaving the preserve. I came to a road and found another park where mostly mountain bikers go. Occasionally I meet another dog owner. The trails there not only go up the mountain but go to the reservoir. Unfortunately, the path to the reservoir crosses state land where hunting is permitted. That starts this week. Maya loves it there, though she also likes the wilderness and I'll probably go to the wilderness more often during hunting season, which goes to the end of the year. No point in risking someone mistakenly entering the park with a gun. Maya's white hide could easily be mistaken for the rear end of a white tail deer.

Happy trails ...

Found a great new "dog park" not from from my house ... 10 minutes probably. Trails open to dogs off leash. Took Maya there today, her third walk of the day por mi, but kept her on a leash just to get a sense of the park. Looks like a great place to let her go ... as long as she comes back with no problem. She's been great with Kobu but not sure how she'll do on her own.

I thought having a dog would help me keep my weight down with all the walking. Something's not working right. Not that I'm obese or anything but I'm lugging about 20 pounds over optimum and not making progress on it. Plus, walking Maya keeps me from running. Somehow I should do both but it's not working out. It's either too blasted hot--lately anyway--or I just have too much to do and so we saunter around the neighborhood looking for Maya's playmates.

Gotta work on this.

Blood and Daisy

We bathe Maya once a month, at least, when it's time for her anti-flea and tick med, which is a topical ointment we put on her back. She was overdue by a couple days when Meche and I gave her a bath this evening. She sees it as torture by terrorists. For Maya, she's locked in a small room, held down and subjected to repeated water treatments. She's even taunted with treats and entreaties to "calm down" ... "that's a good girl" ... just before being administered another water shock. Betrayed by her primary care giver, who's trying to hold her still, she's at the mercy of the disciplinarian intent on carrying out the task of repeated dousing.

I was soaked through. I climbed into the tub with her and just held onto her. That was the only way. She'd gotten so panicky I had let her out of the tub and let her shake off a couple of times, during which we lathered her with the shampoo Meche had managed to squirt onto her in one of the tub bouts. There's gotta be a better way but I don't have it down. Maybe I should take her to a groomer and observe.

Then I tried to clip her nails. I got as far as the first one and she bolted bleeding. She made red paw prints around living room, dining room and kitchen. A groom and a nail clipping in order. I think Meche cleaned Maya's ears, but will have to check ... tomorrow ... when I'm outside and in old clothes ... so she can shake her head off after. She's got the best ears for the Barney song, "Do your ears hang low? Can you toss them to and fro? Can you tie them in a knot? Can you tie them in a bow? Can you throw them o'er your shoulder, like a Continental Soldier? Do your ears hang low?"

Yep.

Maya's treat was playing with Daisy, who just happened to be walking by when we went out for a walk about 8ish or 8:30. We met Daisy the other night when we happened upon a gathering on 1 Street. She already knows the two Rottweilers, Leo and Taz, and Max, whose ethnicity I forget but he's one of those scruffy looking, cute little dogs, and he and Maya had a great time tussling in his yard a couple of weeks ago. There was another little dog, whose name I also forget, and Daisey—the puppy. At three months she's the newbie. Her owners said she's a beagle mix, but she looks plenty beagle and is a pretty girl with white with black patches on her torso and white, black and brown on her face.

Maya was crazy the other night at the gathering, over-excited at finding a party in the middle of the street and then throwing herself shamelessly under Leo. Gotta instill some self-respect in her ... and get her fixed.

Freedom with limits

Maya had at least one great day this Fourth of July weekend. Saturday we went to a despedida (goodbye party) for friends who are moving back to Mexico. It was at David's house in the woods. At first I tied Maya up with Kobu on her 30-foot cable, just like Kobu's, and they had a great time. But once I noticed they had unleashed Kobu I decided to give Maya her chance. She did superbly. She never left the yard except the one time David and I were close to the road, looking at his flower garden. Then Maya wandered onto his road, though it's sparsely traveled and she came back with I called her. It was a nice party, even through to the fire pit after dark, though I'm suffering terribly from the mosquito bites, despite repellent. Maya was just one more well-behaved guest with us. I gave Kobu and Maya each a CET chew I get from the vet and Kobu got right protective of his when Maya got too near when he was gnawing away.

It was a great party. Will miss our friends. Have to get Maya up there more often this summer. Today we went to a local dog park. The dogs can run free in the enclosed fence but the grounds is all wood chips and it's not the most attractive place I've seen to run your dog. Plus Maya started to run like crazy, the ways she likes to do once in a while to burn off energy, and an older female dog made her stop. I think Maya's running made her nervous. It's not my favorite place to take her.

I also let her loose in the yard this evening, at Meche's insistence, and scolded Maya when she went toward the deck stairs or toward the opening near the retaining wall. She responded well. She fetched a ball for a while and didn't run off. But later I had to scooper her up literally as she was in the act of jumping the gate! That was it for the night .

She was really good during dinner, though. I fed her just before and while she nosed around seeing if anyone would feed her, she gave up easily and just laid down at our feet while we caught the end of the Peru-Uruguay soccer match for the America's cup.