Dog Days of Summer

While I was in Banff, a tropical storm was threatening to make its way to Houston. Tim had noticed a couple of stray dogs hanging around his place for a few days, and his friend Scott had even paid them enough attention to find out that they were friendly and that one of them knew how to sit and shake hands. Neither of them had a collar or tags, though, so there was no way of knowing where they had come from. As the storm approached, Tim took pity on them and let them in his house (after giving them a bath!), rather than leave them outside to fend for themselves. Well, the storm amounted to almost nothing except a day off work for Tim, but he did decide that the dogs were pretty nice, especially since they also appeared to be fully housebroken. So he named them and bought them collars and leashes and took them to the vet.

The black one is Mabey. She's approximately one year old, black lab mix, and Tim's working on training her to sit and walk nicely on a leash and come when called. Unfortunately, she suffers from ringworms, hookworms, heartworms, and fungus, and she has not been spayed. The golden retriever mix is Chuck Liddell, approx. seven years old. He also has all the worms and fungus, and he hasn't been neutered. So Tim's in for some rather hefty expenses with these two, but he's really enjoying the companionship they provide, so he's looking into low-cost options for the heartworm and sterilizations. Today and last Saturday we've bathed them and "dipped" them with a lime solution that smells like sulfur to treat the fungus. Lucky for us, they both seem to like getting wet and being massaged; they're very patient with us!

These two are quite a pair. They definitely belong together. If you're petting one, the other makes sure to get under your hand for some petting. If you're petting both of them and stop petting one, that one will make sure to let you know that's not acceptable. It's really cute. Something kind of funny is that neither of them seems to know how to walk up stairs, and Tim's not going to teach them how! He leaves them downstairs in the kitchen when he goes up to bed at night.

Even Ginger doesn't seem to mind them, and she usually freaks out when other dogs come around. For my part, even though they're going to cost a lot of money in vet bills, I'm glad that Tim has taken them in. Besides, dogs are known to be a great "chick magnet"!