Contrariwise ramblings

MooShu is quite good at fetch. In fact, he's better than any other dog I ever had, even dogs with retriever blood in them!

He has a tiny little tennis ball and, after fetching it, lays it down at my feet to throw it again. If I don't pick it up, he'll pick it up and toss it at me. Slowly he learned that picking something up and tossing it can be a game he can play by himself.

So here's MooShu with an acorn that turns out to make a very nice substitute for a discus.




(Oh, and if you look carefully, you'll see the absolute first appearance of Contrariwise (me!) in this blog.)

Do you want to receive my blog by email? Click here!

Would you like to be a Contrariwise Follower and see what MooShu might be up to or what I'm working on? All you have to do is click on the link on the left in my side bar.

I've heard that dogs can't see laser pointers because they're color blind.  MooShu proves that this is is nothing but an urban legend.

Do you want to receive my blog by email? Click here!

Would you like to be a Contrariwise Follower and see what trouble I might be up to or what I'm working on? All you have to do is click on the link on the left in my side bar.

But, of course, before the haircut, comes a bath.






Do you want to receive my blog by email? Click here!

Would you like to be a Contrariwise Follower and see what trouble I might be up to or what I'm working on? All you have to do is click on the link on the left in my side bar.

Still, after all these snowy months, I wonder why snuffing snow seems to keep it's attraction.

Yes, Mooshu will be cheering for the Colts this Sunday.  As a Hoosier, how could he not???

We've been living on and off again in Indiana for the past 30 years.  (No, not MooShu. He's only a puppy.)  So it's obvious that we're rooting for the  Colts.  But about 10 years ago, we briefly made Maryland our home.

I'm really not a huge football fan.  So it was a surprise to me that, whenever I was asked where I'd moved from, the immediate somewhat disgruntled response was inevitably, "Oh.   Indiana.  Yeah, you stole our Colts from us."

OK.  Dead pause in conversation. 

This happened every single time I mentioned that our family had moved from Indianapolis. EVERY SINGLE TIME. Obviously people in Maryland take their football very seriously and can hold a  grudge.

As you can imagine, this got tiring pretty quickly.  After a while, I decided that, rather than taking the defensive, I had to do the opposite.

So, whenever I got asked where I was I was from, I took the offensive:  " Oh, we just moved from Indianapolis.  You know, HOME OF THE COLTS."

This also resulted in a dead pause in the conversation.  At least it wasn't DIRECTLY due to me.


(Oh, and if you couldn't tell, MooShu's a Peyton Manning fan.)






Do you want to subscribe to my blog by email? Click here!.
Would you like to be a Contrariwise follower? All you have to do is click on the link in my side bar on the left.

MooShu learned the hard way that you should never go to bed with wet hair.
And he doesn't look too happy about having his picture taken looking like this!

But a few quick swipes of the brush made him feel better about himself, and now he's ready for anything!

Yes, he may look innocent now, but if you're not careful, he'd steal the sock right off your your foot. (Which he's doing right now, as I type!)


Do you want to subscribe to my blog by email? Click here!.

Would you like to be a Contrariwise (or MooShu) follower? All you have to do is click on the link in my side bar on the left.

I just received a late Christmas present from a friend of mine:

Yes, the wonderfully useful, Squirrel Underpants.

If you are tired of nasty little squirrels flaunting their nuts in your backyard, or having to hide your children's eyes every time one of the furry little buggers streaks across your yard, then this is the gift for you!

(I am absolutely sure that next Christmas's recipient of this marvelous gift will appreciate it as much as I did.)

I opened the plastic and found the squirrel underpants to be quite small. Size XXXXS appears to correspond to a 3 inch waist measurement.

Disappointingly, there was no opening for the tail.

Nonetheless, only one question went through my mind when I opened the package of Squirrel Underpants: Would they fit MooShu?

Unfortunately, due to the numerous treats that tended to fall onto our kitchen floor over the holidays, MooShu has gained some weight and is now tipping the scales at a rotund 4 lbs. So it was possible - even likely! - that the Squirrel Underpants might not fit his once-svelte body.

When they were dangled in front of him, the tighty-whities appeared to intimidate MooShu and we had to chase him around the house for a while before we were able to capture him.

Once captured, even after sniffing the underwear (probably to assure himself that they had not been previously worn), he remained unimpressed and did not want to put them on.

We, however, pressed him and eventually got the squirrel underpants on him.

And here is a photo of MooShu wearing the Squirrel Underpants:










Do you want to subscribe to my blog by email? Click here!.

Would you like to be a Contrariwise (or MooShu) follower? All you have to do is click on the link in my side bar on the left.

Click for a bigger image

Do you want to subscribe to my blog by email? Click here!.

Would you like to be a Contrariwise (or MooShu) follower? All you have to do is click on the link in the upper right on my side bar.

My daughter left her sweatshirt on the ground and MooShu found that it was the perfect place to take a nap! Nice and warm, and close to the kitchen where yummy things are often found to fall to the floor.

Do you want to subscribe to my blog by email? Click here!.

Would you like to be a Contrariwise (or MooShu) follower? All you have to do is click on the link in the upper right on my side bar.

Do you want to subscribe to my blog by email? Click here!.

Would you like to be a Contrariwise (or MooShu) follower? All you have to do is click on the link in the upper right on my side bar.

Suddenly, they're friends!

It's guess about time I started posting again! Let's begin again with Mooshu, who's now about 9 months old.

This morning, our black lab mix, Indy, dragged out an old soupbone of hers and started gnawing away. Mooshu was very interested but possession is 9/10ths of the law. And Indy's growls let Mooshu know it was her bone.


Mooshu hasn't shown any interest in his own chew bone for a while, but I gave it to him anyway. Well of course he was interested! The funny thing was that Mooshu sat right next to Indy, and both of them lay there and chewed away, best of pals.

Of course, dogs are very like people. Sometimes the other bone will always seems better.

(By the way, if you noticed the fluff on the carpet, it's from one of Mooshu's dog toys. He's been happily eviscerating a stuffed bunny for the past week and there's always new fluff around!)

Although he's still not teething, we thought Mooshu might enjoy a chew toy.
Rawhide is not supposed to be good for toy breeds; it can get stuck in their tiny digestive track and swell up. This little bone is totally digestible and Mooshu has been chewing on it for several days. He's probably nubbed off a couple of millimeters! (Let's just say that Indy, our black lab mix, would have chewed it up like a piece of popcorn!)

It's important to make sure that tiny puppies eat throughout the day. They have so little muscle mass that they can get hypoglycemic. So we've been coaxing him to eat, sometimes to the point of feeding him with a spoon. (Now can you understand why these little dogs as sometimes so spoiled!)

He's been eating well and we thought he grew a bit. That is, until we weighed him. After a few weeks with us, guess what!? He put on 2 ounces! Up to a chunky one and a half pounds!

Here's one more shot of Mooshu. See, he's standing my the computer mouse and helping me write this Mooshu Monday post!

Do you want to subscribe to my blog by email? Click here!.

Would you like to be a Contrariwise follower? (Mooshu and I love having more friends!) All you have to do is click on the link in the upper right on my side bar.

Yesterday, as I was walking by my window in my kitchen, I look out and stop dead in my tracks. What the heck is on my deck railing!?
I can hardly believe it! There's a hawk placidly sitting there!

I run and grab my camera to take pictures. When I aim the camera the bird turns his head in my direction. He sees me through the kitchen window and calmly looks me in the eye, allowing me to snap a few photos.

I've seen hawks overhead before, but never this close. I'm not sure what kind of hawk this is. (Red-tailed? Any guesses?) But what is it doing in my suburban yard?!

We live in Indianapolis but in a heavily wooded area near water. There's all sorts of wildlife co-existing with us. Groundhogs, foxes, and deer are regular visitors and neighbors claim to have seen a coyote. I can hear owls in the early morning and know that there is a nest of horned owls across the street. (They haven't been so polite as to pose for me though. They seem to take off every time I run for my camera.)

I never worried about them before. There is no way my 55+ lb black lab mix will ever be mistaken for a snack. But now that I have a 1 1/2 lb furball of a puppy, this puts a whole new perspective on things.

I've heard that a large hawk can lift up to 8 lbs. and sometimes more, so it could be dangerous to small pets. Hawks have fantastic eye sight and small animals are just prey to them. Mooshu could appear to be a rabbit, squirrel, etc., to them and they'll swoop. Even if a hawk can't successfully lift a small dog or cat it can leave some nasty punctures and tears in the skin which could require stitches.

We have never Mooshu unattended, not even once. Not even to answer the phone.

Seeing the hawk on our deck and having the photos to show to my kids, has really reinforced this.

I remember that when my children were babies, they were absolutely fascinating to watch. We could spend hours just being mesmerized by them - watching them discover their fingers and toes, the cute faces they made. They were just so darn sweet!

Having a brand new puppy has the same effect on me. I can just watch him for hours discovering new things - the wind in his face, the cracks in the sidewalk, a leaf blowing across the driveway...

Simply watching him play with his ball can bring on the giggles from me.Look at how intense he is. His entire focus is on getting that little ball. You can see how hard he's concentrating by his face. (Check out the little tongue!)

Yet at the same timel, he's keeping an eye on me. What's that black thing at my face that I keep pointing at him? And why is it clicking?

Maybe the ball doesn't have his whole attention, after all.

Bathing a dog is like simple addition. You just have to get the equation right. For example

First you start with this. (Yes, you're right. He's sitting in the kitchen sink.)

Then you need this.

Finally, add them both together with some water, and it equals this:


Of course, sometimes the equation doesn't work quite right. For example, you might have too much of one thing or too little of another - which is exactly what happened. In this particular case, all we had to do was subtract a little water from an eye:

And then everything added up just fine!

Do you want to subscribe to my blog by email? Click here!.

Would you like to be a Contrariwise follower? (Mooshu and I love having more friends!) All you have to do is click on the link in the upper right on my side bar.

Definitely not.

Do you want to subscribe to my blog by email? Click here!.

Would you like to be a Contrariwise follower? (Mooshu and I love having more friends!) All you have to do is click on the link in the upper right on my side bar.

I think that I need a new feature in my blog: Mooshu Monday! Mooshu is our brand new yorkie / maltese mix puppy - and we've had him for about a week.

Isn't he a cutie!

He has his own toys and loves to play with them. Our other dog, Indy, who is a 55 lb black lab mix, has her own toys too, and it's funny how neither dog will play with the other's toys.

We tried to give Mooshu a tennis ball to play with but it was so huge that he couldn't do anything with it. (Plus Indy seemed to think it belonged to her, so off she went with it.)

But while I was shopping, I found these cute miniature versions of tennis balls that are about an inch and a half wide. Just his size! He can pick them up and carry them in his mouth. He loves chasing them and playing fetch.

He had his first vet visit yesterday, and weighed in at a whopping 1.4 pounds! And from the photo below, it's all in his bottom!
(Look at those cute little puppy 'tocks! All fluff!)

Do you want to subscribe to my blog by email? Click here!.

Would you like to be a Contrariwise follower? (Mooshu and I love having more friends!) All you have to do is click on the link in the upper right on my side bar.

...unabashedly show photos of your new puppy.

Do you want to subscribe to my blog by email? Click here!.

Would you like to be a Contrariwise follower? (And not miss any future posts about this new addition to our family!) All you have to do is click on the link in the upper right on my side bar.