The Daily Parker

Politics, Weather, Photography, and the Dog

Today's Daily Parker

The splash of sunlight on Parker's face makes me think he's probably a pretty happy dog, despite the crate:

He got some additional training this week, mostly a review of the basics (heel, sit, down, stay), but with an emphasis on duration. So I'm proud to report he can now stay for 10 minutes while I kick a tennis ball around him. Inside he'll wait almost 45 minutes before complaining.

Really, though, I needed the reveiw. I've been too lax, it seems, allowing him to get away with a lot of bad behavior. So I got trained a bit, too, which seems to be helping us both.

Today's Daily Parker

At the Wright Way reunion on Saturday, the shelter had a number of puppies up for adoption, like this one:

Parker, like any teenager confronted with babies, seemed to show benign indifference:

(He wanted to see the grill instead. Go figure.)

Today's Daily Parker

Parker and I were surprised last week to come home after work and discover this in the yard:

The neighbors were also surprised. And their landlord. And everyone connected with the operation except, perhaps, the roofing company, who only got the order the day before and started work without so much as a text message.

Note to small-business owners: It's one thing to provide speedy service, quite another to provide speedy, disruptive, destructive, unplanned service.

Today's Daily Parker

Old rug, old sock, sunbeam. Dog is happy:

Also, yesterday's note from the dog walking service made me feel almost as warm and fuzzy as Parker is:

He met a puppy and he was very gentle and patient. Very nice. (No #2)

That's my boy.

Today's Daily Parker

I'm not alone in the office today, but I may as well be: Parker is so tired he's not even getting up when I leave the room. Day camp works, I tell you.

I should also point out one of the not-so-hidden costs of having an office puppy. Or, rather, a black office puppy on a white cotton rug. Yes, the rug in the photo above used to be blue and white. Now it's blue-grey and grey. And he's chewed it so much it can't be cleaned any more. But I discovered a possible solution: A couple of my friends have two enormous Labradors and a three-year-old. In their newly-remodeled kitchen they have a patch of Flor, which seems to have held up to the onslaught pretty well.

However, until I'm more certain Parker won't destroy it out of ennui—yesterday morning he tried to disembowel my comforter again—I think I'll just keep the dingy carpet.

Today's Daily Parker

Parker and Goldie have started playing together mornings. Goldie, until recently, never had anything nice to say to Parker, so this surprised everyone:

As a special bonus, I have some video of Parker (AVI, 10.3 MB) at my office. He has a new behavior: at the end of the day, when I pack everything in an get up to leave, he rushes forward with his paws stretched out front and slides across the terazzo floor. I have no idea why he does this, except perhaps because it's fun.