Poor Wylie. It’s too hot to play outside, there’s nothing to watch on TV, and there’s still an hour until dinner.
Category Archives: Wylie’s Tale
Woof!
Alternate Sleeping Arrangements
Wylie’s turned out to be rather fond of my bedroom’s closet doors. Sooner or later though, I’m going to put them back in their standard vertical configuration.
Hopefully he’ll be OK with going back to his usual bed.
Wylie Pupdate
Wylie’s a little blue this evening.
Fortunately, latex paint is non-toxic, and he didn’t get very much on him.
The Dog of a Thousand Names
Ever since he first came to live here, Wylie has collected a variety of new names to suit the various facets of his personality.
A lot of the names are affectionate variations of his given name: “Wye”, “Wyler”, “Dub” (short for W) and on occasion, when he’s being nutty, “Wylizenheimer”. On more formal occasions, he’s been addressed as “Mister Wylie,” though when I find myself getting frustrated with him, instead of “Mud” his name becomes “Wylie J. Dawg.”
Other names reflect his mood, for example, when he won’t stop bouncing off the walls, he’s been referred to as “Rocket Dog.” Others make less sense, I’m still not sure how he became “Chocolate Pudding Dog”, though “You Silly Dog,” when he tripped over his own leash, is a bit more obvious.
This past week though, Wylie’s been working to earn himself a new name.
A few times in the past when Wylie’s been confined to the bedroom, he’s tried to dig his way out, resulting in a shredded carpet. I really don’t want him damaging the floors (it could be bad for both Wylie’s health and my blood pressure), so as part of Sunday’s activities, I cut up a chair mat to fit in the doorway of my bedroom.
Of course, with summer approaching, I also don’t want him to get overheated. A few weeks ago, I purchased a child-safety gate to put across the bedroom door. The idea was that this would keep Wylie in the room while at the same time, letting the air circulate. Before the floors went in, it seemed to work pretty well (aside from the time I didn’t put it up correctly and he and his buddy Riley teamed up to knock it down twice in five minutes), but now that the floors are in, I may need to rethink my strategy.
Every time I’ve left the house this week, I’ve put Wylie in the bedroom and put up the gate to keep him there. And every time I’ve come home this week, Wylie has either met me at the door or come downstairs shortly after I arrived. (What I forgot is that in Wyile’s world, there’s no such thing as a fence. Instead, Wylie’s world contains nothing more substantial than obstacles made of gossamer that he can pass through any time he so chooses.)
On Tuesday I discovered that not only had Wylie escaped from the bedroom, he’d somehow managed to open the basement door (see my previous comment about gossamer barriers) and instead of eating the food in his dish, had figured out where the milkbones were hidden and had a little picnic. (Predictably, he didn’t bother with his regular food for the next several meals.)
Thursday evening I went out to my Swing Dance class down in Glen Echo. Before I left, I put Wylie in the bedroom and closed the gate. When I came home several hours later, the basement door was open and ol’ Wylie was staring down the steps. I went upstairs to change my clothes and took Wylie out for his evening walk. When we got back, I went down the stairs to get him his evening treat. That’s when I discovered what he had been staring at.
At some point in time, Wylie seems to have decided that the cushions on my sofa are his mortal enemy, and Wylie attacks the cushions at every opportunity. While I was at my dance class, Wylie had launched another attack on his enemy. What he’d been staring at when I came home was a sofa cushion, the foam stuffing of which was scattered across the basement floor.
The latest addition to Wylie’s collection of names is therefore a recognizable classic: “Dammit Wylie!“
Girls Love the Fuzzy Guy
I’ve been reminded a few times in the past several days that Wylie is a rock star.
Oh sure, it’s hardly news that he was lead vocalist for the legendary rock group, Wylie and the Coyotes. And who could ever forget the sweet melody of their number one hit, “Chasing Cars” from the multi-platinum album of the same name? But when you get to know a dog on a day-to-day basis, it’s easy to forget the legend and just think of him as the good-natured, lovable guy he is.
And then you have days like this past Friday and Saturday when you realize you’re in the presence of a living legend. Both days while we were out for our afternoon walk Wylie found himself surrounded by adoring girls. For example, on Saturday afternoon as we were walking through the park, the girl up the street and one of her friends saw us coming. As soon as they saw us, they stopped what they were doing and immediately ran toward us, screaming “Wylieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” and when they reached us, they immediately threw their arms around Wylie and spent the next several minutes stroking his back, skritching him behind the ears and telling him how much they’d missed him.
I don’t mind that Wylie has so much starpower. Attracting girls is part of his job after all. I just wish he’d attract a few who were perhaps 25-30 years older.
Naptime at Camp Barkalot
Riley and Wylie look just so angelic…
You’d never guess that just a few hours earlier they’d been out carousing.
Dumb Question
Arriving home on Monday evening, I changed clothes before talking Wylie out for his walk. While I was putting on my sneakers, Wylie hopped up on the bed, looked at me, and gave a short bark, “Rowf?”
“It was OK,” I replied. “How was your day?”
The next three minutes were filled with a cacophonous barking diatribe covering the rising price of milk bones, a world domination plot by cats and squirrels, and a concern that invisible ninja squirrels are developing an acorn-bomb.
I shouldn’t have asked.
Fender Bender
Wylie and Riley got into a fender bender on Thursday evening. The good news is that the damage was superficial and didn’t involve any cars. And unlike the incident between Wylie and the parked car several years ago, this one didn’t involve any rabbits either.
We were out for our evening walk and as you’ve likely noticed if you’ve ever taken a dog for a walk, most dogs aren’t very good at watching for oncoming vehicles. Particularly cars that might be turning into the road you’re about to cross. (The dogs who are good at looking for oncoming cars tend to find employment as guide dogs.) Fortunately, I’m pretty good at looking out for such things and when I saw the SUV signaling to turn, I stopped and pulled the leashes up short so the kids wouldn’t go out in front of it.
My experience has been that, even when they pull, dogs tend to walk slightly to the side of the leash. As a result, pulling the leash causes the dog to turn, whether he was planning to or not (Using the dog’s own inertia to steer him in a direction he didn’t intend to go is one of the keys to the ancient art of Dogjitsu). When I pulled up short, Riley was out in the lead and was the first to turn sideways so that he was blocking the sidewalk.
Wylie was lagging a little behind and his leash is a little longer than Riley’s; or, it could be that Riley himself is a little longer than Wylie. Either way, Wylie didn’t receive the “stop” signal at the same time and instead of gong sideways across the sidewalk, Wylie bumped into Riley. As a result of the collision, Wylie ended up with his left ear flipped up on top of his head. Instead of shaking his head to put everything back where it belonged, Wylie walked for the next 3/4 mile with his left ear flipped up, looking for all the world like he’d been dented and prominently displaying one of the gaping holes in his head.
Not to be outdone, during Friday morning’s walk, Riley stopped to scratch and afterward flipped one of his own ears up. He didn’t carry it that way for nearly as long as Wylie did, but you do have to give him credit for the attempt.
Update from Camp Barkalot
So far, Wylie and Riley are getting along great. Best of all, neither of them has got his head wet again — which is not to say there haven’t been a few close calls.
Walking two dogs at once continues to be an adventure. A couple years ago, Wylie and I encountered a woman who was walking two black labs. They saw Wylie across the street and she nearly fell as she tried to keep them from dragging her across the street. Fortunately, these two aren’t that coordinated in their efforts. So far, they haven’t even managed to walk on opposite sides of the same tree! (Back in April, they did that once.) Amazingly, I’ve also only had one or two incidents where they both dug in at the same time to sniff a tree. (Fortunately, I know dogjitsu and was able to overcome their inertia.)
Probably the best dog-walking story was Tuesday evening. Riley combined a side-step with an unexpected stop-and-sniff with the result that his leash came up against his back legs. Feeling his legs being pushed, he promptly sat down, thus pulling his own leash even tighter. The poor fellow couldn’t figure out how to stand up again until I extricated the leash.
Tomorrow, Terry is planning to teach the dogs how to make lanyards as an arts and crafts project. It’ll be interesting to see how that compares to today’s fingerpainting.
Return to Camp Barkalot
Riley has come back to visit for a few days. When I went to pick him up, MJ asked whether I needed food for him. I laughed and explained that during Riley’s last visit he and Wylie had just ended up eating each others’ food, so there probably wasn’t much point.
I don’t think MJ was completely convinced that I wasn’t pulling his leg. It certainly sounds funny enough to be a joke, but sometimes reality is funnier than anything I can dream up.
Less than two minutes after I brought him into the house, Riley was nose down in Wylie’s food dish and Wylie was busy giving me “The Look” because I hadn’t set up Riley’s dish yet. Sure enough, a few minutes later, Riley had cleaned out Wylie’s bowl and Wylie had cleaned out Riley’s.
After some initial running around barking and getting to know each other again, the two dogs are now quietly taking turns laying in front of one of the fans I’m using to supplement the air-conditioning. All is calm and Wylie and Riley are getting along just fine.
Hopefully they’ll be able to get though the next couple days without getting their heads wet again.