IT’S ON – How could either one of us actually let dad sleep when we both want the prime real estate next to his head…

How could that ever happen!!!

Dad, trying to exert his leadership throws his hand up… Spinning through the hand, each dog tries to catapult the other off the bed… Fighting through, Bodi throws Oliver on his back, Dad tries to ignore the fast moving red blurs… The fighting (playfully) gets fierce and the sounds of nipping teeth and playful growls gets intense… Bodi, sensing an opening lunges in and nips Oliver on the ear, the fighting is intense… Realizing that the space is lost, and the bed is soft, Bodi starts to slip into sleep again, as Oliver turns his attention to the man under the covers…And through this all, who is filming???

Instead of breaking the fight up and letting the lump sleep??? ]]> http://www.thegooddogblog.com/2010/06/23/sleeping-with-the-enemy/feed/ 0 http://www.thegooddogblog.com/2009/10/22/setting-the-tone-for-the-weekend/ http://www.thegooddogblog.com/2009/10/22/setting-the-tone-for-the-weekend/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:57:46 +0000 Jim http://www.thegooddogblog.com/?p=486 Just a quick post about the Bodester, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ve already written a lot with this pic.

Bodi hard at work proving once and for all that he can crash out just as fully as Tucker could, I’m in the chair editing a video for a client, while this bum-of-a-dog is crashed out, snoring, and doing those cute little Vizsla kicks while he chases Squirrels in his dreamy-dream land.

Just something to set the tone for the weekend!!!

Bodi, deep in thought

Well, it’s been 2 weeks and we think that the toughest part has started to pass for all of us… Although picking up Tucker’s ashes definitely brought back a lot of memories and a lot of tears for both of us. I’m sure by now Bodi is wondering what the heck happened to the energy that we used to have in the house, and whats with all the nose-blowing and salty faces.

We fell in love with Bodi on the day we met him, Tucker took a wee bit longer to find that love for his little brother, but grew to love him dearly in the 6 months they were together. Bodi, right from the start, has had a huge heart and has fit right into our little world, he has a great personality, great spirit, heart and soul, but we have noticed that over the last 2 weeks Bodi has changed quite dramatically, he has gotten a lot closer, and has been more in tune to us then ever before.

Bodi working at the office

Up until recently, we hadn’t taken Bodi into my office, except for just quick visits if Nancy would come by to get me to go with her and the boys for a walk.  Tucker spent many a day, and quite often, long into the night with me at the office, he had his own chair there, and as a matter of fact, many times we would have to pull up a chair for Tucker at meetings, otherwise he would walk around the meeting room nudging everyone, once he had his chair, he was content and would quickly doze off for the duration. For the last two weeks Bodi has spent quite a lot of time with Nancy and I at the office, and he has slipped right into the rhythm… greeting all he sees, and sleeping in Tucker’s chair just like it had always been there waiting for him.

The strangest thing is that he has started to do a lot of the things that Tucker did before he passed, things that Bodi never did until Tucker was gone, but things that were most definitely Tucker’s trademarks. As a matter of fact, the day that we lost Tucker, when we came home, Bodi did something that Tucker always did, and Bodi hadn’t ever done… When I knelt down to hug Bodi he curled up between my legs and leaned into me, exactly as he had seen Tucker do many times before.

Bodi warming himself in the clean dry clothes

Tucker also had a thing for clean, warm clothes. Nancy would bring them up from the dryer and pour them out over the bed, Tucker would always crawl into them, nuzzle his nose under the warm clothes, and let out a big sigh of contentment.  Up until this last couple of days, Bodi, thinking Tucker was nuts, would just look the other way and doze off.

As you can see, now Bodi has picked up on this little habit, and he is loving the warm, clean clothes.  He will get up from wherever he is laying, walk over and plop down on the clothes, letting them warm him all over, and just as Tucker did, he will let out that little perturbed grunt every time we make him move so we can fold the clothes, or, god forbid, we pull an article of clothing out from under him.

Bodi wishing he was the cream cheese

So, as you can see from the pictures (this one was taken this morning, with Bodi’s complete and unwavering attention being focused on Nancy as she sat the bagels down on the table outside New York Bagels – if you look closely you can see that the sunlight created a small halo over his head – just to try to fool everyone into thinking that he is a little angel), Bodi is coming into his own, finally being counted on as the number one dog in the house. His love is blossoming as he is receiving more and more love, and he is becoming even more a part of our family.

The walks are long, the dreams are large, the fun is grand, but the time is fleeting.  The Bodester is figuring his role out, Nancy and I are amazed at how great a companion he is becoming, how much we needed him, how much he needed us, how much we love him, and how grateful we are to be blessed with such loving and incredible friends, and such a great family.

Tucker and Me Getting Some ShutEye

I laugh sometimes at the emotions that we feel from losing a dog, how we can be so torn up, how we can be hurt even more from the loss of Tucker then we are in the loss of a family member.  But I know that dog people understand the loss, the love of a companion and best friend, the closeness that comes with spending virtually every moment, for 12 years, with something that you have raised from a puppy, have trained to be the very best that he could be, have had him love you completely and unconditionally, have watched him step in front of a Rottweiler twice his size when he felt that there was a threat to his family, and have put yourself on the line if you felt he was threatened in any way.

Tucker was never just a dog to us, was never just thrown in the backyard to take care of himself, from the day he came home he was a member of our family, a member of our life, and a huge part of our hearts, and even though the healing has begun, and we know it will only get better, we never want to forget all the silly things Tucker did, we never want those images of him walking the trails in front of us to fade away, we always want to remember all of the good, the sweetness, and the love that he brought, and we hope that you readers won’t mind our little remembrances of Tucker to go along with our new memories that are being built everyday with Bodi.

Tucker and Me - Sweet Dreams

They say that time heals, and hopefully the healing has begun in our family.

Since we all lost Tucker, Nancy and I have been a mess, the slightest thought of Tucker, which are always there since we took him everywhere, would bring tears to our eyes, the mention of the loss to a friend or loved one would bring all to tears, the hearts in this house were torn apart. We tried to make sure that Bodi’s life was interrupted as little as possible, not wanting to bring grief on him for something he had no hand in… But Bodi was feeling the hurt as well, while around the house he has been as clingy as possible, following us from room to room, waiting for us outside the door if we need a little privacy. Even stepping outside to the back yard, Bodi has calmed his hunting instincts down a few notches, and at times he would make a quick beeline, do his thing, and then run right back to stand with us on the back steps.

The toys and stuffed animals have gone untouched, the squeakers left inside the stuffed toys instead of torn from the stuffing as soon as possible, the limbs left to flop for another day. The pillow that had come to our house with Bodi has gone untouched, the stuffing left intact, the pillow un-violated in Bodi’s slightly perverse fashion.

Our home has not been the same…  But over the last few days…

Bodi has started to come into his own, it may sound silly, but since Bodi was immediately placed into his position in the pack when he entered our home, and he understood it fully – we rarely had any problems from the day he joined our pack.  If anything, over the last few months, Bodi had been even more careful around Tucker, even when we took them to the park to play with all of their friends, Bodi would always be watching out for Tucker – he would run and play , but he was always running back to check on Tucker, to lick his face, or to just stand next to him.  Bodi was a little abrasive with some of the dogs, especially the smaller ones, and we were concerned about that.

Bodi Showing Us All How To Work

Since the day that Tucker passed on, Bodi has been with us almost 24 hours a day, luckily I can bring Bodi on my daily excursions to work, something that I had done quite often with Tucker, and he has stepped into that role completely. He runs down the halls to greet everyone when he comes in the door, he crashes out in the chair that Tucker used to sleep in, and he gladly spends the entire day with us. Bodi has been much easier with other dogs, even the small ones, and the dogs that he had small skirmishes with don’t seem to bother him as much.

And, since yesterday, Bodi has started to pick up the toys, bringing them to the bed at night, even playing with them for small periods of time. Nancy and I can actually talk about Tucker without a box or two of Kleenex always standing by, although the deeper emotions still bring the floods. We can take Bodi for a walk and not spend the entire time wondering how we are going to get through it.

So, the healing seems to have started, and hopefully as time passes, the pain will slip into the background, and the memories will pile up with Bodi, to join the ones that we have already stockpiled of Tucker… We’re sure that Tucker wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

Bodi is fitting in to our family just about as perfectly as he possibly can, he is different from Tucker in so many ways, and exactly the same in ways that would surprise you.

He still goes full-bore at everything he does, dives in with both… uh… make that four feet, and makes every day an adventure. We take him for walks and once he gets off leash he hunts, and hunts, and hunts… Birds, Bunnies, Lizards, Butterflies, you name it and he hunts it, but now he actually hears us when we call him back, even when hunting.

Bodi and Tucker are becoming great friends, they cover each others backs when they are out with other dogs, each one makes sure to see that everything is ok when the other gets in trouble. They sleep next to each other, actually touching at times. Bodi waits for Tucker to finish his dinner before he slides in and cleans his bowl up. Bodi lets Tucker pick up a toy before, yes actually before he grabs it out of Tuckers mouth. He lets us help Tuck up on the bed before he jumps up and stakes out his spot.

We can leave both Tucker and Bodi alone when we leave the house now, Tucker crashes out on the sofa and Bodi grabs his spot on the window seat just so he can keep an eye on everything and be the first one to see us when we come home.

Our nephew came up from San Diego and Tucker, remembering Taylor was as excited as can be, and Bodi took to him like a long lost friend, tackling him and licking his face just to make sure that he doesn’t forget what Bodi love is all about. Our niece came over to take care of both of the boys while Nancy and I were out of town, and other than a little barking at first, just to let her know that he noticed her, Bodi was as happy as could be and took her out to watch him while he did his thing out there. Bodi believes that he is a great guard dog, and we let him keep an eye on things in the neighborhood, just for kicks.

The truth is, we love this guy (still has about 8 pounds to come off before we can call him, little guy), he hugs us, he licks our faces, he follows us around and makes sure that he is a part of everything we do. We love everything about him, we wouldn’t trade a bit of his “quirks” away, we love how much he has fit into our lives, and we make sure to let him know how much we love him too.

Of course, when we got Bodi we made some solemn decisions about how he would be inserted into our lives so that we, and Tucker of course, wouldn’t have to be “inconvenienced” and so that he would be put back on the “straight and narrow” on his diet and training, etc…

• No human food – lasted about 2 days

• No getting on the furniture – lasted about 2 hours

• Only riding in the car in his crate – second trip he was flying solo

• No getting on the bed – lasted about 2 1/2 weeks

And the big one…

• No sleeping on the bed, he was going to sleep in his crate every night, this was so that Tucker could still have his one place that he could count on being his.

Bodi has always come on up and gotten into his crate, with a little coaxing. He would never refuse, but even though he follows us around everywhere that we go – normally – whenever we would shut things off and say that it was bedtime, he would casually climb up on the sofa and curl up into a ball, ignoring all of our calls and pretending to be asleep. We would have to come down and grab ahold of his collar to get him off of the sofa and headed up to the crate, whereas he would calmly climb on in and go to sleep.

Nancy and I had talked for days about when we might give him a chance to sleep on the bed for the night and had decided that last night we would give it a try and see how things went. Tucker still keeps Bodi at a slight bit of an “arms” length, so we were concerned about that. When we got ready for bed, Bodi did his usual and climbed up on the sofa to pretend he didn’t know we were going to bed. This time when I came down to get him he rolled over on his back and stuck his legs in the air so that it would be a little more difficult to take him to bed, damn kids nowadays, the things they learn from TV that makes it so difficult to control them. I flipped Bodi off of the sofa and sent him towards the bedroom (where his crate is) expecting to tell him to hop up on the bed. He slithered into the bedroom and sulking, he dropped into the crate to go to sleep, no telling him to get out and on the bed would move him, and not wanting to make this a “punishment” thing where I force him out, I left the crate door open and  just got ready for bed.

I pulled the covers back, sat down and as I went to lay back I felt something warm and furry where my pillow was supposed to be, Bodi, figuring things out, had jumped as fast and quiet as he could up onto the bed and was as happy as he could be. As I moved him and laid back, he was licking my face and neck (with his trademark nibbles) as hard and fast as he could. We already knew this about him from sleeping on the sofa, but we were still amazed at how quickly and completely Bodi sleeps, once he goes to sleep he pretty much is dead weight for the duration, so we had no problems with him sleeping on the bed, unless expecting him to move to make you more comfortable is considered a problem…

So, the morale of this long ass story… We have an extremely good, happy dog with whom we are gladly breaking all of our rules with, to the growth and benefit of all of us.

What can we say… As Bodi’s name says… God Bless The King, King Tucker and King Bodi that is.