Went and bought myself a delicious Sprayberry's® BBQ Sandwich™ (beef, chopped, extra sauce) yesterday evening so that I could have something to enjoy while the NFL tried to pass off the Giants vs. Redskins as a football game.

That's not the whole sandwich. That's what was left after someone BETRAYED ME while my back was turned! Look upon the face of a traitor:

Betrayal, thy name is July!

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: dogs food july poodles sprayberrys

The other night I was working on a painting in the studio. I closed the door to keep the girls out because I didn't want them to get dirty lying on the filthy studio floor.

After about an hour, mom knocks on the door. She had been awoken from sleep by July, who had jumped on her bed and pawed intently at her without stop. Mom became convinced that something was wrong and came downstairs to find out what. The only thing "wrong" was that July had been kept out of the room I was in and wasn't able to turn the doorknob herself.

I'd like to think that July would summon help if I really was in trouble, but probably only once she got hungry. There's a reason Lassie wasn't played by a poodle.

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: dear diary dogs family july mom poodles walter

I came down with a migraine headache yesterday just as I was preparing to take the dogs for a walk. Victoria was very understanding, July less so. I think if I broke my leg, July might bring me her leash and try to drag me out the door.

I should take this opportunity to thank my parents for all the trouble I must have caused them. I'm sure I was far more stubborn and less forgiving than my poodle. Everything I know about parenting, I learned from my poodle.

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: illness july poodles victoria walter

For most of this week, Atlanta was snowed under. We had ample warning that the storm was coming, but a delayed response by the state government and the Department of Transportation caused thousands of commuters to be trapped in their cars for 19 hours or more. Some children had to spend the night trapped in their school buses!

Georgia Governor Nathan Deal blamed the National Weather Service despite their predictions being remarkably accurate as far as 12 hours before the storm arrived. Adding insult to injury, the Georgia Emergency Management Agency Director said that GEMA didn't respond to the crushing gridlock for more than 3 hours because "it wasn't as gridlocked as it is now."

That's Georgia's government for you: we can't read a weather report and we don't open our umbrellas until we are already soaking wet.

But not everyone has been unhappy about the weather's effects. July and Victoria have spent as much time as I will let them outside playing in the snow.

I think it's funny that they hate rain but love snow. I've tried to explain to them that snow and rain are pretty much the same thing, but they don't listen. They never listen.

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: dogs georgia july news politics poodles victoria weather

Christmas Eve 2013: we fried a turkey.

Before, during, and after pictures above. It was easier than I thought, but I overcooked it, turning the skin into a nearly impenetrable shell. The meat inside was still juicy and tasty, and I consider the entire exercise a success simply because I didn't burn myself or blow anything up.

The dogs liked it more than I did.

Comments (1) | Leave a Comment | Tags: chewie christmas dogs food holidays july poodles victoria

On Monday, May 13, I took in Rambo while his daddy was in Florida.

Rambo is a good dog, but he's significantly younger than the girls. He loves to play. All. The. Time. It can be a bit draining.

Rambo wasn't any trouble for me or the girls (he never is), but he doesn't get along with Teddy. Too bad that I had already promised to keep Teddy while his daddy was in Florida! There wasn't supposed to be any overlap, but Rambo's dad was delayed temporarily with a broken transmission.

Teddy is generally docile, but he hates to share "his" territory with Rambo. I think that the problem is that both boys still have all of their original parts (if you know what I mean). Rambo and Teddy have gotten into a fight before, sending Teddy to the animal hospital with puncture wounds. It was readily apparent when Teddy arrived that he hadn't learned from the experience.

Fortunately, I only had to keep the two in separate rooms for 12 hours before Rambo went home. Unlike Rambo, Teddy could generally care less about the girls. This is both good, in that he isn't always pestering them to play, and bad, in that he takes their spaces and destroys their routines without any consideration for the fact that it really is their house.

Well, Teddy has finally gone home, too, and the girls finally got their house back. They wasted little time before starting their celebration.

I bet they sleep for a week.

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: dogs july poodles rambo teddy victoria

Yesterday the girls had their annual checkup and vaccines. July got a clean bill of health. Victoria, on the other hand, has a "raised dermal mass on the skin below the commisure of the lips on the left side of the mandible," "gingival recession [on the] upper left second premolar... which is allowing thicker tartar to develop on the cranial root," and "mild crepitance palpable in her right knee." (My vet could have been in an episode of ER.) In layman's terms, Victoria is starting to get old.

I'll take this opportunity to notify my loyal readers that starting this month I'll be posting 3 poodle comic strips a month instead of 2. That's an extra 12 strips a year! (If Mom had her way, this blog would be nothing but poodle strips, but then where would I post about Batman or football?) I'll aim for posting a new strip every 10 days starting Friday, so pay attention.

Comments (1) | Leave a Comment | Tags: illness july poodle strip poodles victoria

It's July in December.

Comments (0) | Leave a Comment | Tags: dogs july poodles

Returning to my neighborhood following an errand yesterday, I was surprised to see a single woman walking an entire pack of dogs down the street. As I approached, I noticed that two of the dogs were standard poodles, one white and one black. Those sure look like my dogs, I thought. It turns out that they were.

As I stopped the Jeep, I could see that the woman was walking her black Labrador on a leash. Following her were several dogs of various sizes. All wore collars, but none wore a leash. And all of them belonged to my family. I asked the lady, "What are you doing with my dogs?"

Her response was simply, "I figured they must belong to somebody." Unless she knows some way to teach poodles to groom themselves, that's a pretty safe assumption.

My July and Victoria quickly recognized me and willingly jumped into my car. (Although I think they probably would have jumped into just about anyone's car. They love car rides.) Leslie's two dogs were next: Charlie accepted my help up into the Jeep, but Rudy, recognizing my intent, sprinted back home at top speed, refusing to surrender his new found freedom.

I eventually returned home and wrangled the mass back into my yard. It turns out that my mother and brother had put the animals in the yard mere minutes earlier, unaware that the gate to the driveway had been left open. They both got a piece of my mind -- a loud, angry piece.

At least no one was lost or hurt. And the dogs got a taste of adventure. Hopefully, it was enough to last them a lifetime, because I don't plan to duplicate that mistake.

Comments (2) | Leave a Comment | Tags: charlie dogs july oops poodles rudy victoria

Today at Home Depot I saw a woman with a service dog. That wasn't so unusual. What was unusual was the fact that the service dog was a standard poodle with a very froufrou hairdo. Smart, good looking, and well-educated? What woman doesn't want that?

Poodles require a lot of grooming. Monthly haircuts, frequent baths and combings; hair bows alone can get pretty expensive. It takes a lot of work to keep them so good-looking. I suspect that this dog was called a service dog because of how much service it requires from its owner, not the other way around.

I love poodles. I have two myself, you know. However, I'm not sure that either of my poodles would make a very good service dog. Victoria is plenty smart enough, but I suspect that she would only lead me to things that she wants. July is obedient enough, but she wouldn't ever move if she thought she was walking away from me. And I am sure that neither would be much help to me in a Home Depot.

This dog with his short Utility-style haircut, perfectly brushed mane, and well-manicured nails was standing patiently beside his owner in the trim moulding aisle. Meanwhile I hadn't shaved and was wearing a t-shirt with a hole under the right armpit. I was struggling to choose between 1-1/4" joint moulding and 1-3/4" picture moulding; he didn't appear to be doing much of anything at all. I don't mean to imply that there was something fishy going on. I'm just saying that whatever service that dog was performing wasn't readily visible. All I could be sure of at the time was that despite only being about 2-and-a-half feet tall, the dog was looking down its nose at me.

Comments (1) | Leave a Comment | Tags: dogs july poodles service dogs victoria