As I mentioned, last Tuesday we went with Dad to the campus where he works to run a quick errand.
The first stop was the Beckman Building where he works. He tied us up to the bike repair station just outside the lab he works in (the windows behind us) so he could run in and grab something we needed to deliver to another building. He told us to stay while he was gone (which was only a minute or so – not that I am good on the whole time thing), and we did as he asked…not even barking once…REALLY!
When he returned ,we got back in the car and drove to the public parking structure where we parked when our Aunt E visited and we took a walk to the Arizona Garden on campus – guess that is another story I haven’t told you during The Scribes “creativity slump”. Anyhow, this was across the street from the building where we had to drop off the package to his colleague. While we waited, we took a break on a wall near the entrance to the building – it just struck me, for some reason we never went into any of the buildings on campus…wonder if there is some policy against our kind?
During this wait, I decided “college” is boring and I have no interest going off to “college” any time soon. I know Montana was an exceptional student but she went off to college WAY too soon from the perspective of our pack.
After the hand off of the goods to Dad’s new coworker, we took a little stroll around campus to exercise our legs. On this walk, we ended up back at the Rodin sculpture area where we also went with Aunt E.
This time, Zoe saw this woman laying down and got concerned she may need a visit from Nurse Tempi. But after a sniff she determined we were either way too late or this was some sort of a trick that you people always seem to think is funny.
After this scam, we headed up a few stairs and were encouraged by our father to sit in front of this massive door – which didn’t really seem to lead anywhere.
Apparently, we were sitting at the Gates of Hell with Adam flanking us on the right (or left as you look at this picture) and Eve on the left.
We are not the Hounds of Hell…at least most of the time. Suffice it to say, we had no interest in walking through those doors either.
In fact, our new Pack Policy is we are not going to college or to hell and the only doors we pass through will be those in which our parents or friends open up…of course Zoe will be the first through those doors but that goes without saying.
Today was one of those day Dad takes off sometime after breakfast and bikes off to the local university where he “works”. Zoe and I have visited the campus a number of times even as recently as Tuesday – but that is a story for another day. Usually when he bikes off he doesn’t return until dinner time and Mom is left to walk both of us while Zoe’s Zozymes get activated.
However, today, due to some details in his work day that I did not fully follow, he came home just in time for our lunch! We were all very excited about this change in plans – and had a terrific time on our stroll up to Flea Street (Las Alemeda de Las Pulgas) and back home.
When we got home, Dad tossed kibble around the front room for me (our new routine) and put Zoe’s bowl down for her which stopped her lunch dance and vocal accompaniment. Mom rushed off to her office upstairs to join a Zoom call.
Just about the time we finished our lunch, the smoke alarms started going off which unsurprisingly was distracting to Mom’s meeting. Then it all of a sudden just stopped. Phew!
Then it went off again…and stopped. Then it started up again…and stopped. Zoe and I kept looking at Dad wondering what the heck was going on – it certainly wasn’t a fire or burnt toast or the smoke drifting in from the grill – as we would have smelled it before the alarms went off.
Mom and Dad and us pups all converged in the master bedroom where the alarm appeared to go off first then spread to the rest of the alarms throughout the house. This is the same alarm for which Dad had recently changed the battery – which was quite an adventure. The alarm is on the ceiling which is about 15′ off the ground. Our ladder is not that tall. So, we had to bring in part of the guest bed and mattress and place the ladder on that in order to reach the alarm. I took up a spot on the mattress at the base of the ladder while Zoe was doing…whatever Zoe does.
Dad was able to get the alarm detached from the ceiling and unplugged from the wiring that talks to the other alarms. Since his vision isn’t what it once was, he had to go down the ladder and into the sunny spot by the door to make sure he was putting in the new battery properly. At about that time, Zoe burst into the room, jump on the mattress, toppling the ladder and causing me to leap off the mattress. The ladder landed on our parents bed so no harm, no foul…although I was a bit miffed at my sister.
So back to today, where it appears the events described above may not have completely solved the alarm’s issues…while Mom tried to carry on with her meeting with the intermittent alarm sounding off, Dad, Zoe, and myself reconstructed the ladder tower and disconnected the alarm which is still sitting on the ladder which is now in the guest room.
So, in short, it seems that the fact that Dad had time to come home at lunch was well timed so he could deal with the alarm. If he hadn’t come home, Mom would have had to take all her afternoon calls in the backyard with the door and windows closed in order to muffle the obnoxious noises emanating form the house.
More soon.
The Tempest
-sorry for the lack of photographs…our photographer was a bit preoccupied
Turns out, Redwood trees drop a bunch of their needles in August and September to make room for the new ones in a process known as…well the term escapes me now but it is a real thing and doesn’t mean your tree is dying. This is because they are cladoptosic trees and drop whole little sections of their leaves that some people call feathers. Looking at them on the ground I can kind of see why they call it this visually but they don’t smell anything like the crow feathers we find in our yard. With that said, sometimes branches and leaves on the ground do smell really interesting as if squirrels had been living in them.
When Aunt E was visiting us a month or so ago, she artistically arranged them in a this cool configuration:
Here I am congratulating her on her efforts:
We have had no shortage of these feathers over the last few months especially when the wind picks up resulting in multiple sweepings or leaf blowing of the patio.
I find them very comfy to sleep on – kind of like a brown blanket.
Which brings me to the “I Spy” challenge from yesterday which a number of you successfully identified. The Special Something was…ME!
This weekend, as an intense heat wave was building up on “The Peninsula”, my parents decided it was time to try the California institute: In’N’Out Burger…and Zoe and I were 100% on board at hearing the word burger!
Turns out, even though both of them went to college in California – neither of them could recall ever going to eat there. Of course this was years and years ago, maybe even when the business first opened in 1948 (?) so the restaurant may not have had that large of a following at that time. However, my Mom did remember seeing a bumper sticker on one of the poles on the ski lift in LA* when she was in high school.
*Editor’s note: LA, in this story, is Los Alamos, NM.
So we all piled into the car – Zoe on Mom’s lap in the shot gun seat and me in the back seat – our normal arrangement when the Dad is driving. But first we stopped by a friend and co-workers house to drop off a bottle of wine since it was her birthday. Zoe and I have been to her house more than once to drop off bread and/or pick up fresh eggs from her chickens. After this, Dad typed In’N’ into the Nav system and was informed there was one not far away – which was great news since Zoe had already started her salivating after hearing “burgers” again.
After a few minutes we approached an intersection where the car informed us that there was an In’N’Out burger on the left. This was bogus information which I knew right away due to the lack of fries or grilled meat odors, but which confused our parents for many minutes. After a couple of turns, and a lot of head swiveling they came to the conclusion which I had already came to: we were misled!
Fortunately, Mom – working her phone – found one in the same city but in the other direction. Undeterred by this set back, we regrouped and headed off to Veteran’s Boulevard – the location of the purported (by the kind folks at the Google) second restaurant.
In short order we had arrived! And the smells were special for sure. Nothing like the ice cream store back in Carlisle, but none the less quite mouth watering. Mom directed us to the drive thru lane but unfortunately, there was a long line of cars already in line in front of us! So much for FAST food.
“Dad? We are really going to get burgers?”
After a few minutes of slowly inching closer to the building, a nice young man came up to our window and punched into his iPad all the requests for food that Mom listed for him. I thought this was great news and someone would be bringing the food to our car and passing it through the window – one of your greatest inventions in my opinion. But this did not happen and we had to stay in the car and wait until we got to the front of the line. Luckily the smells kept us occupied and focused on our goal.
Things started picking up and all of a sudden, we were next in line! But then the car in front of us sat there for what seemed an eternity. It did give me time to make friends with Lola who was working in the kitchen just through the window where I had my head out my window.
Zoe was beside herself with the anticipation for the arrival of the food in our car:
At last we had our food and Dad sped off to our house where we would all be partaking of the tasty smelling food. In the meantime, as we were driving, we all sampled the fries…not bad.
We got home and my parents ate their burgers and fries (some of the later coming our way every once in a while).
Finally, they finished and Zoe and I both got a Samburger and one more fry…that is after Zoe had created her own lake 🤣. Yum!
Zoe Bombs Away
Then it was time for a nap in the sun even though the temps were now in the upper nineties. But with relatively full bellies we really had no choice but to snooze! And I am thinking I might just get the Urge to go back there very, very soon!
Shortly after we moved here we learned about the Nextdoor app and since logging into it we get multiple emails every day about something or other. Mom tends to check them out whereas Dad tends to ignore them…for the most part.
Occasionally someone is complaining about some dog pooping on their driveway and their owners not picking it up. Yesterday was one such occasion but the complaining party was informed the scat picture they posted did not come from a dog but rather one of the many wild animals that live up in the forested hills where she lives. More frequently the stories are related to local crimes – the most common being people who steal delivery boxes off of peoples front porch…thus the term Porch Pirates. This is often caught on cameras people have set up to monitor such activities but apparently it rarely is used to bring down the perps – other crimes being of higher priority.
Thus, Mom is vigilant about pulling the packages into the house when she is working from home and we (mostly Zoe) does her part by alerting her that some delivery person was on the front stoop.
However, on certain occasions, she doesn’t have time – between her Zooms – to properly put the contents of the boxes away.
And then, by the time she is free to deal with the package or Dad arrives home, somehow something may happen to them – especially if it smells really good like bones!
Surely these angels had nothing to do with such events 😇.
This month I decided to document Zoe’s responses to being on the clock for our evening repast. I realized the title of this blog might have led you to think the experiment was majestic or grandiose in scale – but alas, it is just that it took place in the month of August.
Anyhow, this idea sprouted in my mind back in April when Aunt D and her significant other stayed with us (“sitters”) while my parents were back in Massachusetts. As you may recall, Zoe needs enzymes (her Zoezymes) in her food that have to “cook” (aka mix with water, kibble, and room temperature) for at least 15 minutes before she eats. This makes it harder for us to get care when my parents are away, and made us very lucky that we had such great “sitters.” Anyhoo, when my parents returned the “sitters” made a comment that they didn’t really need to set a timer since Zoe kept it for them with her internal clock. For various reasons, I didn’t write down what happened every night since then, but I think you’ll get a flavor of our nightly routine from what I have captured. I won’t bore you with breakfast feedings with Mom, as evenings with Dad are soooo much better! The times below indicate not time of day, but the elapsed time since Zoe was told she is “on the clock:”
8/3/22. 12:30 sat near Dad, stared at him. 15:20 started foot tapping not looking at him. 16:19 Dad stood up to a couple of barks.
8/4/22. 16:16 Zoe sat up and looked at Dad – wondering why our food was not being served to us given that MORE than the requisite 15 min wait.
8/5/22. 10:18 went from watching Dad from the side to sitting behind him. 13:33 licks chops and adjusts sitting position so Dad is aware she is still there. Snorts at 14:51 causing Mom to snicker. 16:20 Dad stands up and barking commences so I come over to the food room.
8/7/22. 14:16 I raised my head up (I was snoozing on the leather chair), yawned, looked at Zoe expectantly. 15:37 laying on the floor behind Dad, Zoe started to stir and snort. 16:16 Dad stood up and we quietly (Mom was talking to her parents on the phone) but quickly made our way to the food room and waited “patiently”.
8/8/22: Just thought I’d let you know how I kept track of the activities each day. I would have Dad start a stopwatch after the Zoezymes started cooking. Then at each “event” he was to hit the lap button thus allowing us to log each one in our Lab Notebook – and then (now) transcribe them into the blog. Below is a photo of the stopwatch chronicle for 8/8/22.
8/9/22. 10:30 started chasing a fly. 12:20 sat behind Dad (in front of food room) and stared at him.
8/10/22. 11:50 sitting in front of the food room when Dad return from restroom. Laid down and sighed when he sat down. 13:10.
8/11/22
8/12/22. Mom, Dad, Aunt E and I were sitting outside while Zoe was inside…until 15:11 when she came out, looked at him, wined a bit – just enough to get Dad to stand up and it was dinner time (after a bunch of bark bark barking).
8/15/22. Moved from back door and looked at Dad, sat in front of dad, chirped, barked, laid down, got fed at some interval documented by the “laps”
8/16/22. I was sitting outside when “you’re on the clock” was announced inside. I decided to lay down and relax for a bit. At 15:30 I walked in, looked at Dad with my wtf 🤬 expression. He stood up, understanding my request, causing Zoe to bark and do her food dance in front of the food room.
8/17/22. Very uneventful tonight. Dad checked the clock at 15:53 and neither of us had made a peep – until dad stood up of course. And Of course Zoe was sitting right next to him doing the “not looking at him” thing the whole time.
8/18/22. After Dad returned from “work”, and we did our homecoming routine, Zoe came to rest on the floor but 2 feet from the food room. At 11:50 after being on the clock she sat up and stared at Dad’s back. At 15:04 he stood up initiating a two dog scramble to the door of the aforementioned room – accompanied by a chorus of Zoe song.
8/19/22. 14:10 – low short growl from Zoe. 15:15 Dad stands up, we rush (quietly) to the food room. However, things blow up during my meal as Zoe finished first and started in on mine which upset me but when Dad intervened Zoe lost it and started in on me- sooo uncool.
8/20/22. 10:40 – Zoe taken inside by Mom due to her being hangry and barking at everything including this cute little bird on our redwood. 15:10 I follow Dad inside and we all walk calmly and quietly (??) to our food room.
8/21/22. 15:20 – Dad descends the staircase after a quick shower to rid him of the sweat that accumulated on him during our afternoon walk downtown to the pet store where they bought toothpaste for Zoe and Zoe helped herself to some treats. We sat waiting for him to finally get down the stairs and put our kibble on the ground without a peep -‘probably due to exhaustion and being nearly starved to death.
8/22/22. Zoe laid down next to Dad who sat down at the kitchen counter after “putting us on the clock”. At 11:05 Zoe sat up. At 12:35 she sat up and adjusted her paws 🐾 “quietly”. At 14:05 she may have sighed a bit. At 14:31 Mom asked if we’d been fed so I, hoping it was time, strolled over and looked at them expectantly. At 15:00:37 Dad stood up to a round of applause 👏🏻
8/23/22. 12:08 – Zoe moves from laying in front of the cabinets where Dad was starting to weigh out ingredients for bread to sitting next to him at the kitchen counter where he had been sitting for a few minutes (picture above could be used again). At around 13:03 I wandered in from outside where I had been watching the sun slowly go down from my perch on the El and laid down behind Dad but between him and the food room. 15:01 Dad got up and we all sauntered over to the room where our kibble was Zozyme-ing. Zoe got her dish placed in front of her first and I did an ear flapping jump when my bowl approached me. YUM! Kibble again.
8/24/22. Both Mom and Dad were away from home until we’ll after 5 today so we were a bit off our game. At 14:49 Zoe moved from wherever she had been laying down to sitting on dads right within his peripheral vision and stared at him intently. At 15:03 dad stood up and we ate!
8/25/22: Some days, so much activity occurred prior to our food being served I couldn’t remember all the events that took place!
8/26/22: 9:37 Zoe starts barking and running from the back door to the front window before settling down in our “dining” room. At 13:41 I hear Mom doing something in the kitchen and go help followed by Zoe. At 14:05 Zoe parks it behind dad and waits until 15:12 for dinner.
8/29/22: at 7:42, Dad stood up and I immediately jumped off my chair and high tailed it to our dining area. He then proceeded to tinker around while explaining to me that we we were only midway through our waiting period. I must have really been zonked out to be that far off!
8/30/22: for some reason Dad was making the bread dough while we were on the clock rather than after dinner like usual. At around 14:44.36, Zoe came around the center island and gave him her best incredulous stare. Finally, at 16:20 he finished mixing the ingredients and headed to the food room – with the sounds of Zoe’s reprimanding barks echoing throughout the house.
8/31/22: Zoe took up her position outside the food room at 10:32. At 14:56, she sat up and gave Dad’s back a goofy grin. Just after the 15 min mark he stood up to a rousing chorus of Zoe yelps and I did a double jump as he lowered my bowl to the ground! What a great way to end this month’s experiment.
Montana Moments 