BoDee and His Bottles

Sorry about the lack of posts there, folks. Christmas and all that...sure that's a good excuse. :)

Let's have a little chat about BoDee's obsession: Water Bottles. I kid you not, this dog is never happier than when he has a bottle of some sort to play with. It seems that Mountain Dew bottles are his favorite. I don't know how, but he can always tell them apart from the rest, and he LOVES them. But really, any bottle will please him.

I think this is another common Boston trait that BoDee just takes to the extreme. Dexter (you remember him, right?) also LOVES bottles. I remember one day at the office when our CEO, Kim was upstairs in my office, showing a potential client around. Kim happened to have a water bottle in her hands as she was gesturing and talking about what goes on in my office. BoDee went NUTS. He tried sitting pretty and waiting for her to just hand it over, when that didn't work, he tried walking around on his hind legs. "Look! Look at what I'm doin'! Gimme that!" That didn't work either, so he moved to just trying to take it from her. She didn't know about his obsession and thought he was being particularly friendly. I snagged him JUST before he captured his water bottle prey.

Whil and I have to guard our bottles with our lives, both at home and at work. You can't set down a bottle within his reach if you want said bottle back. You'll often hear us telling him "Hey! I'm still using that...it's not for you!" And he'll sit and wait, perked up and ready for the bottle to be relinquished. I don't think we know how to leisurely enjoy a bottled beverage anymore. Spoiled little dog.

I particularly love when he finds an empty milk jug. He'll pick it up by the handle and prance away SO excited, but the jugs are bigger than he is, so it makes for a pretty cute show.

There is a process to BoDee's bottle playing, however. His number one objective is to remove the lid, and the safety ring thing under it. Once that's done, it's on to chasing. He pounces on the bottle so that it shoots out from under his front paws, and then chases it to wherever it landed and pounces again. If we're at home, it is inevitable that the first place the bottle will shoot is under the couch, at which point BoDee proceeds to have a FIT. Bostons are very quiet dogs. They don't typically bark unless there's a damn good reason, and this is true for BoDee as well...unless he has lost a bottle. He makes this ridiculous (and very cute) half bark, half grunt sort of sound and kind of flops his body in the general direction of what he's looking for. If that doesn't work, he moves to scratching desperately on whatever the bottle is trapped under. As I mentioned, this is usually our couch. Our NEW, still being paid for couch. Clearly, this means we will immediately retrieve the bottle for him. And that bottle will immediately wind up back under the couch. I can guarantee that if we were to move our couch, we would find no less than 3 bottles. The same can most likely be said for our bed. BoDee is not typically allowed to have bottles in the bedroom. We have hardwood floors in our bedroom, and the noise is INSANE. Little Boston claws speeding across the floor, the bottle slamming into walls and bouncing on the floor...it's too much.

So that's BoDee's bottle obsession. If you have a Boston and you haven't given it an empty bottle yet, I urge you to give it a shot. Hilarity will most certainly ensue.


Waiting "patiently" for Daddy to finish with the bottle.


Bottle Obtained! Now off with the lid.


All done!

"You wanna go for a ride?!" *unintelligible Boston sounds of excitement*

BoDee loves to take rides in the car. The very first thing we did when we got him was go for a ride! He has a few funny mannerisms while in the car though. First off he doesn’t like to get in the car if it’s running, the sound of the engine kinda sketches him out I guess. There’s been a few times where he’s making his way over to get in the car and I’m already in the driver’s seat ready to go, so I start the car. He always takes off running if he’s not in the car before it starts, the sound really freaks him out! Once we’re in the car sometimes he’ll go straight to the backseat and find a sweater to get under, then he’s passed out with one little foot sticking out from under the sweater twitching and shaking. When this happens he’ll normally sleep for the whole drive depending on how long it is. If he’s not snuggled up under a blanket or sweater in the backseat he’s normally in one of our laps. In the lap he could be sleeping or he could be sitting, when he’s sitting there are tons of different things he’ll do. There have been times where I’ll take him in the car somewhere just me and him, and he sits in my lap the whole time…staring at me….the whole time…three inches away from my face. Just…staring… “Hi BoDee…yeah…yeah I see you sitting there…”. Sometimes he’ll hop into my lap and immediately lie down and get comfy, it’s that easy! I think my favorite way for him to ride is on Jonda’s lap, he’ll sit with his butt right on her lap and his left paw reaching out to her left knee and his right paw reaching out to her right knee. And he’ll just watch where we are going. He’ll stare off into the distance and look at cars or whatever is in front of him.

Once in a while he’ll do this thing where he hops in the backseat and puts his hind legs on the back seat, but his front paws on the center console of the front seats. This puts his head a mere 4 or 5 inches away from mine in the driver’s seat, he takes advantage of this whenever possible. That dog has a lightning quick tongue that must be at least a few feet long. At times he’ll decide “maybe I don’t want may back half in the backseat…I wanna be all the way in the front.” So he’ll hop up to the front and sit on the center console. Just sit there, swaying back and forth as we cruise along.

BoDee seems to lose all sense of balance while in the car. Anytime the car comes to a quick stop or any kind of sharp turn, he’s falling all over the place. It’s funny and sad all at the same time. He never topples over slowly, it’s always fine one second and then upside down on the floor in the backseat the next. “You ok little buddy?” he pops up, *snort* “Yeah you’re fine, come up here and take a load off why don’tcha?” *snort*

BoDee's Buddies

Hi All!
Today, I want to introduce you to some of BoDee's best buds. BoDee is a friendly little guy (as most Bostons are), and he gets along well with just about every dog he meets. Clearly, with a personality like that, you can imagine he has a lot of friends. Here are a few of his closest, who also happen to be his "co-workers".

You've already been introduced to his twin stepbrother, Dexter, as well as his Kitty, Fern. Next in line is Oliver. Oli is a Cocker Spaniel who belongs to one of my best friends, Gillian. I would say Oliver is one of BoDee's very best friends. This is sort of a strange thing, because little Oliver is a bit of a grouch. Oli and BoDee are very close in age, but Oli has had a grumpy old man personality for just about his whole life. He can be a little touchy sometimes, but if you spend the time to understand how he operates, you'll find he really is a sweet boy. I honestly cannot imagine a world without Oli...even with all his quirks.
We weren't sure Oli and BoDee would get along at first...BoDee was a bit high strung when he first came to live with us, and Oliver does not deal with hyper dogs very well at all. Their first meeting wasn't perfect, by any means. But we were prepared for this. Luckily, BoDee seemed to almost immediately understand that Oliver needed to be the alpha dog in their relationship, and he had no problem letting Oli take that role, so Oli tolerated him being in his space and their friendship was able to grow. I still wouldn't say it's perfect...but when it comes to our little Oli, the fact that he tolerates BoDee means that he likes him. :)
When Gillian goes out of town, we often get to have Oli come stay with us. BoDee LOVES when Oli gets to come visit. They just follow eachother around everywhere. Oli isn't much for "playing" with other dogs, but on occasion, he does get a little romp in with our little pig. My favorite part of having Oli come stay is when we have both of them snuggling in bed with us. There's nothing better.


Next in line, we have Merwin (AKA Pig Tank, Ja Mern, Mernja, etc.). Merwin is a great big, and very old pug who belongs to our good friend, Ben. When we first adopted BoDee, Whil and I lived in the same apartment building as Ben and Mern, so they got to see a lot of eachother. Things were a little rough in the beginning, because BoDee wasn't neutered, and he felt the need to mount poor Tank anytime he got the chance. Mern was not a fan of this. We had to put a lot of work into developing their relationship, but we got there! Merwin comes to work with Ben, here at our office, and he has recently started spending most of his time upstairs with us and BoDee. They're always running around and trading raw hides. It's really cute to hear them both come in my office during the day. Little BoDee with his quick feet on the hardwood, then cute old Mernja, lumbering along behind him.
Merwin is getting up there in years, and things can be a little rough on him sometimes. His vision is not what it used to be, and he has been known to walk into a wall or two, but we love him more for it. I couldn't be happier that sweet old Mern has come to be such good pals with BoDee.


Lastly, I'll introduce you to Harley. Harley is also a Cocker Spaniel. She belongs to Kim, our boss here at Vérité, as well as Gillian's Mom.
Harley is just the cutest little thing you have ever seen. She and BoDee have a love/hate relationship. She loves him when they're just roaming the halls together, but she hates him when he steals her toys and bones or eats her food. Unfortunately, BoDee is not very polite, and he does that a lot, hehe.
Whil and I came to know Harley very well, very early in her life. Kim has always had Cocker Spaniels and over the last few years, her two Cockers, Nikki and Aggie (I could be off on the spelling here), who Whil jokingly referred to as Nordstrom and Winchester, passed away. The loss of these two sweet little ladies was very hard on the whole Jones/Rawcliffe family. A few years ago, Gillian and Tim decided it was time to get their Mom a new baby. Gillian found Harley through the same breeder she got Oli through. They're actually related. They wanted Harley to be a surprise, so she came to live with us for a month or so before Christmas. At the time, Gillian and I were living together. Harley was the cutest little pup I had ever seen. She was all ears and paws. None of us could get enough of her.
Of course, Kim fell in love the moment she saw her, and the surprise was a success. She's been coming to the office with her Mom ever since. She was one of the first friends BoDee met on his first week with us, and he just loves her.


So, those are some of BoDee's buddies. Make no mistake though, he is always looking for more!

Twins!

Good morning readers! We’ve slipped a little bit on writing a blog for the last couple of days. I blame Thanksgiving or…the weather. Anyway, this blog is all about BoDee’s twin brother, Dexter. I know what you’re thinking “Dogs can be twins?” no…they can’t, just BoDee and Dexter. Dexter is actually about 2 years older than BoDee, but the similarity between their faces and how they act is very strong. You get them together and they’ll chase each other around or play tug of war, whatever gets the job done for them.

Dexter is a little buddy that I got in a previous relationship. When that relationship ended, I didn’t have the means to take Dexter with me and his Momma really wanted to have him, so he lives with her and her boyfriend now, and he’s loving life. There was a little bit of tension when we first broke up, so I didn’t see Dexter as much as I wanted to, but sometimes a little separation in people is necessary to move on. Now that all the…unpleasantness has passed, Dexter’s momma and I are good friends and talk often. Since we both have Boston Terriers, whenever Jonda and I leave town, BoDee goes to stay with Dexter, and whenever Jillian and Trevor (Dexter’s family!) leave town, he comes to stay with us. Dexter was staying with us over the holidays a couple years ago, and we threw a party for friends to come over and enjoy each other’s company. During that party, Dexter ran around and frolicked. Everyone always loves him and enjoys his company because he’s so agreeable. At one point in the night, I realized I hadn’t seen Dexter in a little while. So Jonda and I start the search for him, we look in all the bedrooms and in the basement. We met back in the kitchen to discuss further search endeavors, but that was in vain. Dexter was in the kitchen munching on a WHOLE stick of butter. We kept the butter in a little compartment on the door of the fridge, when someone opened the fridge door quickly the centrifugal force (I’ve been waiting to bust that out in casual conversation for a loooong time :D) must have tossed the stick of butter out of the compartment and on to the floor. Needless to say, he put that stick of butter DOWN, there was little to nothing left. Recently, Dexter acquired the name “Meatball”, he got the name by climbing on Jillian’s table and eating roughly a dozen meatballs they were planning to have for dinner. What a chunker…

We’ve had a few very memorable times with Dexter. When JayDee passed away a few years ago, Dexter came and stayed with us for about a week. It was very comforting to have him around during that difficult time. When Jillian and Trevor were going to Europe for 2 weeks Dexter came to stay with us, this was a special time because at that point Dexter had grown chubby and we decided the two weeks he was with us were going to be “Fat Camp”. We took him on walks each day and played with him a ton. I’m not sure if it helped his weight at all, but he sure had a great time. Ok I think I’ve said enough, enjoy a few side by side comparisons of Dexter and BoDee and try to tell me you don’t see a resemblance! They are both pictured below! Who's who?!

Nick Names

Today, I thought I’d talk about BoDee’s nick names. Here’s a list with a little description next to each explaining the name:
Mini Pig: BoDee snorts a lot, he sounds very piggish! And he’s little, so Mini Pig!

Explo-Dee: BoDee’s brutal bowel movements when we first got him are where this name came from. He was exploding from the backdoor, hence, Explo-dee was born.

Chirpy Boy: This one came from an episode of The Simpsons. Bart hatches two eggs he believes are birds, they turn out to be lizards. He names one Bart Jr. and the other Chirpy Boy.

Puppet: Jonda accidently called him this once and it just stuck.

One (or Little One): BoDee’s “Momma Erica” gave him the name “One”, so of course he gets to keep it. We’ve sort of morphed it in to “Little One” for our own use.

Garbage Face: “Garbage Face” is something I’ve called Jonda for a long time, it migrated to BoDee somehow and stuck.

Stink Pig: There are dozens of “Pig” variations in open rotation. Stink Pig is used often because anyone who has a Boston knows they have AWFUL gas. Just…terrible.

Bug: Jonda called Jay “Bug” all the time and it carried over to BoDee when he arrived. We like to keep things like this going so it keeps JayDee in our memories.

Bubba: Jonda calls him Bubba sometimes, no reason why…it just rolls out.

Cowboy: BoDee is not a cowboy in the traditional sense. He eats grass all the time, so I guess the name should be Cowmale for clarity, but try saying Cowmale a few times and tell me that it sounds better then Cowboy.

Turd Tail: Thanks Jermey!

The Great Boudini: (sounds like Houdini): Thanks Ian!

Demon Dog: BoDee is only “Demon Dog” at very specific times; when he’s being bad, when he’s running around like a crazy person, or when he’s making his pig sounds at someone in particular. Normally it’s Mark.

Bundle Boy: When we ride in the car in the winter BoDee has a special blanket that stays in the car so he can be bundled up, he loves his bundling blanket :)

These are just the main names we call him, I call him something different just about every day. “Hey, stink ass, get over here” “yo little buddy, what are you doing?” “Hey, dog breath…get outta that cat food” and so on and so on. I’m also totally into calling him some suggested names as well, so feel free to toss um out there in the comments section of this dohicky.

Bath Time

Well...it's Monday again. But it's only a 3 day week for us, so hopefully it won't be too brutal. Happy Monday to all of you :)

Now that you've all learned about Fern and his history with us, let's get into the BoDee/Fern relationship. We've mentioned before that Fern is essentially BoDee's cat. We've come to accept that fact...but I'm not so sure Fern gets it. He seems to think that BoDee is HIS dog. Well, let me correct that, I'm not sure that he knows BoDee is a dog. Honestly, I think that Fern thinks BoDee is his baby. He takes care of him. He CLEANS him...and BoDee seems to like it.
He'll wander over to Fern and just sit down next to him, and Ferny will just start bathing him. Meticulously. I really think he does a better job of cleaning BoDee than he does of cleaning himself.
Speaking of which, I think Fern is getting to that point where he's too big/too old to really clean himself as well as he should, and I fear he may soon be entering that old man kitty stage. You know the one. There's this big old cat who just wanders around screaming at people, and his fur is in clumps on the top of him. I really hope Ferny doesn't get to that point too soon...but hey, at least his hair could match his Daddy's! I think I shall brush him when we get home, just to be safe.

Anyway, BoDee used to try and clean Fern as well, but I don't really like to have him do that. I have one pet that hacks up hairballs, I don't need two.

This morning, BoDee dragged himself out of bed to begin his morning routine, and we found him in the hall, getting a bath from Fern. He was really enjoying it...damn near fell asleep again. So we snapped a photo for all of you. :)



Now that I'm looking at it...I see that it could maybe look like they were up to something a little less wholesome, but I assure you, Fern is not attempting to sodomize BoDee. Just a little bath.
Have a great Monday, y'all!

Ferniture Warehouse

Welcome to Sunday, the melancholy weekend day. It's great, but you can't shake the feeling you gotta go to work tomorrow. I mentioned Fern in an older post on this blog, I feel like he deserves a bit more then just a mention. Fern is between 4-5 years old, he is a Black Cat, apparently "Black Cat" is a literal breed, I had no idea. I thought they were mixes of a few different things. He actually joined us before we found BoDee, a past roommate was a vet tech and had a small problem with bringing home every stray animal the vet brought in. She brought home 4 different animals in the 10 months we were living there, one of which was a skinny black cat missing two teeth and a toe.

He spent the first two or three weeks at the house hiding in the dirt area under the floor in the basement. He was filthy in ways I cannot explain BEFORE he went into the basement, so you can imagine the nightmare that was basement cat after a week digging around. That was his name for a long time, just basement cat. Eventually basement cat evolved from the basement to skittering around the upstairs and mainly hiding under beds. At the time we had a pitbull (JayDee) that loved to chase basement cat around. The feeling was not mutual as basement cat did everything in his (we're pretty sure he's a dude) power to avoid Jay. One afternoon Jonda was trying to coax basement cat out from under the bed without using the typical "grab by the scruff of the neck" method. I play drums in a band in salt lake city, normally I wouldn't mention anything like this but the band has a song called "I love fern", the name was given to the song prior to basement cat ever coming on the scene. So Jonda is laying on the floor staring at the cat under the bed and she starts humming "I love fern" to herself, not in an attempt to coax the cat out, just the human mind bouncing along. As she hums to herself, basement cat prowls out and sits down in front of her. We decide this is some kind of sign and basement cat is given the name "Fern".

Fern chose us more than we picked him. I hated basement cat, whenever I saw him it was like "oh crap...there's that crazy effin street cat...you stay away basement cat! I'm just tryin to use the bathroom, this ain't your hood!". Once he really started getting used to everything he would sleep in the bed with us and let you pet him and he even got a few nick names. When we moved away from the vet tech Fern came with us. When Jaydee passed away a few months later Fern was a huge comfort during grieving and recovering from the loss. He was really there for us when we needed him, I know it sounds silly and that he's just a cat, but he has a great personality...sometimes.

So I've purposefully not mentioned one thing about Fern because I wanted to lay some groundwork on his background. Fern is a very needy cat, he likes to be touched and he'll get in your lap if your sitting down. He expresses his needyness by meowing...loudly...A LOT. Some of the meows don't even sound like cat sounds, I've been on the phone with people when he's meowing and more than once Ive gotten "How old is your baby?" "my what?" "your baby, I can hear it talking in the background." That's how loud and strange his meows are, but the really irritating part is the frequency. If he's not acknowledged right away the meows get louder and more often, sometimes even acknowledging him doesn't stem the tide. If his food dish is empty, acknowledgment sends him tearing off to his bowl whilst screaming bloody meow murder. It's the difference of "meow....meow....meow" to "MEOWMEOWMEOWMEOW" and sometimes he'll make this "mow-woooooo" meow sound. he cutest sound he makes are little grunts or hums almost. You'll walk into a room where he's laying on the sofa, "Hi Kitty" "mmmmg". You can have whole conversations with him this way.

Fern is big. He's a big big kitty. He actually weighs more than BoDee does believe it or not. When I hold him up his body is just as long as my torso! They play and have a good time, BoDee is a lot faster then Fern but Fern is bigger, so it's pretty even battle for the most part. They have a couple youtube videos you can check out if you like, click here for those. BoDee pretends to be camara shy :) The video is kinda long because I'm too lazy to cut it up. We've talked about the laziness before now, so this shouldn't be surprising at all. Thanks for reading :)