The End of an Era

Daji endured a move across town the other day, and you would have thought it was the end of the world. I know that dogs, in general, do not like change. They like routine and consistency. We thought Daji might be different because he seems to like to explore new areas on walks... he prances around like a very happy little fellow every time we go out and head off in a new direction. Apparently, this sense of adventure does not extend to changes in living arrangements...

It all started innocently enough. The couch disappeared. Daji was actually excited about this development. He had more room to frolic about and wreak havoc, two of his favorite nighttime activities. But then other things started changing and he became worried.

Next, all sorts of boxes appeared. He was definitely concerned at this point, especially when things that used to be around the apartment started going into the boxes. "Hmmm," the little brain said, "something is amiss! I will watch this all very carefully and try to stop anything else crazy from happening." But despite his pleas from the kennel, the bed disappeared next! Now he was getting really scared that this recurring trend would continue and kept whimpering is near-quiet desperation. But he still seemed cautiously optimistic that his parents would make it right.

However, what finally broke his spirit was when he saw his beloved carpet (affectionately termed his "blanket") rolled up and set at the side of the room. At that point, he was positive his life was over and he responded accordingly. His face practically screamed "just kill me now... I can't go on without my beloved blankie!" Poor little guy. He decided at this point that it was time to pee, poop, and vomit all over the floor just to make sure his parents understood just how strongly he felt about the change in situation.

At that point, we had just a shell of a dog. He didn't even look up when we ousted him from the apartment and made him wait out in the hall while we finished up the cleaning. It was like that experiment they did with the dogs and learned helplessness except it wasn't repeated electricity that wore him down... just the demolition of his everyday world being dismantled and moved to an undisclosed location... same difference apparently.

Luckily, he seemed to feel much better when he saw his new place. It has several rooms and he soon discovered he could run around in a circle like a wild beast. Unfortunately, we didn't have any rugs yet and this place has wood floors so all we heard was click-click-click-click as he ran. The poor downstairs neighborhoods probably thought some hoard of pointy-toed elephants had moved in upstairs.

However, the new place presented its own special challenges. For instance, Daji had never encountered the wood floors that he enjoyed tearing across so much. So he had also never tried to stop on wood floors at full-speed. He went barreling through one room, right into another, and skidded all the way between the two coffee tables into the tree (which had mistaken as a potential tasty treat until that point... the needles soon convinced him otherwise).

The other major issue was the stairs. Having grown up in the city, in a very tall apartment building, Daji has only seen stairs once. And since he was just a puppy, he basically climbed one before we realized that wasn't going to happen so we carried him the rest of the way. His approach to the stairs up to our apartment in the new place was to simply throw his legs out at top speed and deal with where they fell in whatever way he could handle at the time. The result was a slightly out-of-control tipsy ball of Rhodesian jumping/sliding/running up and down the stairs for the first week. Apologies be to anyone who thought they could be on the stairs at the same time because Daji was a crazed maniac who wasn't stopping for anyone else.

In the end, though, he adjusted quite well and even let us put his Santa outfit on for a picture we posted to announce our new house to the world! :) Although, as you can see, he is still a little bit woebegone.

Daji: Genius or Idiot?

I often wonder if our dog is a genius or an idiot. Let's explore some evidence...

Observation 1: Daji recently managed to destroy a pair of my socks. Not that impressive you say? Well, what if I told you that he ate the pair whole and then vomited one up and pooped the other out? Somehow his throat, stomach, or intestines managed to separate the two socks and send them hurtling off in different directions. Genius or idiot?

Observation 2: Several months ago, David decided it would be fun to spin around with Daji until he got dizzy (this was before he weighed 70 pounds). So around and around they go. David puts the dog down and promptly runs into the door when he tries to walk away. Daji sits down for a moment than walks away completely unfazed. Genius or idiot?

Observation 3: Last night, Daji was sitting on his blanket on the couch, and David and I were up at the other end. He always wants to be hanging out where we are but knows he's not allowed to move his butt off the blanket (he has anal gland issues; that's a story for another time). So he leaned farther and farther and farther back, trying to get closer to us while keeping his bottom in the same place. He proceeds to completely fall backwards and get himself stuck between my legs and the couch. He looked so uncomfortable at that point but refused to move. We were laughing at him until we realized he was probably exactly where he wanted to be. Genius or idiot?

These are just a few of the examples we've gathered over the few short months with our little boy. I wish I could say what the true answer is, but I'll let the audience deliver the final verdict...

The Birth of the Daj-maholic

Apparently, I started this blog in October 2009 with zero posts. Fast-forward to November 2010 and here is post numero uno. Why break the impressive inertia I had built up? Well, like a little kid, I want the toy that someone else is playing with. In this case, the someone else is actually my boyfriend, who blogs from time-to-time about our dog. Not to be outdone, La Princesa (that's me) has been thinking that I needed a creative outlet to share in this little habit. Plus, I read a fantabulous blog today that made me laugh so hard I cried and I was inspired to try to make my random observations about life funny, too. Sadly, I have never been all that funny so I'm looking forward to near-utter failure on that goal (see? attempt 1... crash... burn).

Anyway, since my blog is entitled "Thoughts from a Daj-maholic" so perhaps I should start with that for some background? Daji is our Rhodesian Ridgeback, currently 7.5 months old. Here are some quite random, but nonetheless informative, bullet points about this amazing beast!

1. RR's were used to hunt lions in Africa. We like to tell people this to make it seem like our dog is the ultimate badass... but we're basically operating on the "wizard of oz" principle in that it all seems impressive until you actually pull back the curtain... because if you meet our dog, you would realize he would clearly get mauled in a second if he were to ever encounter a lion. I suggested taking him to the zoo for some training runs, but apparently this kind of thing would be frowned upon.
2. Daji loves to stick his whole entire foot up to his elbow into his mouth on a regular basis. We are still trying to figure out how to monetize this amazing feat.
3. I am slightly obsessed with our dog. I try to keep it under control, but you are most likely going to have to listen to me talk about him for at least 5 minutes. Ok, 15. The time increases linearly based on glasses of wine consumed, and no social cues of boredom will save you. I'm sorry, I really am. But on the other hand, he's really so cute that you should just appreciate you get to be a part of it. ;)
4. Despite being 70 lbs, the dog is a stealthy ninja in the night and somehow makes his way onto the bed, wiggles into position directly in between us, and then proceeds to lock his legs straight out, effectively pushing two fully grown humans to opposite ends of the bed and taking all the covers in the process (This has resulted in me waking up at various times to see the silhouette of a dog being launched across the air... turns out my boyfriend isn't very lenient toward cover thieves. Hmmm... note to self.)
5. Daji sometimes likes to drink, as evidenced in his picture above. He is remarkably good about not begging for food but he has used the above-mentioned ninja skills to procure beer and wine from time-to-time. His parents do not approve.

So, that's a little taste of the lovely morsel that we call Dajilicious to get us started. I really just needed to stretch out the writing muscles... don't want to strain anything on the first try, ya know? But I'm not going to lie, this first post may also be the last. I'm fairly uninitiated unless I have something specific to write about. Well, fingers crossed... ;)