Travelin' Dog

So we've taken the dog on a road trip. He's riding with us in the van, and -- very sensibly -- he spends a fair amount of the travel time asleep on the floor. However, at one point we stop for a restroom/switch drivers break, meaning that Beautiful Wife and I go inside the rest stop while Secondborn and Crotchstomper remain in the van. 

I come back out first, and find that Crotchstomper has moved up from the center of the van to the passenger seat. Like, he's literally just standing there on the front passenger seat looking out the windows. Which is not okay, but it's kind of  okay because it's my turn to drive anyway. So I open the driver's side door, climb in, and give him the standard command for this: "Crotchstomper! Back! Get back! Back in the back!" 

He turns as if to go back to his spot... and then makes a full 360 and plants his butt so that he is now sitting in the passenger seat and looking forward, much as I have been doing for the last several hours. 

"I have an idea," says Secondborn, and goes to open the door. 

"Wait," I tell him. "Leave it. Your mom needs to see this." 

So Beautiful Wife returns to the van to find her loving husband ready to take over the driving, and her loving doggo ready to take over the passengering. Clearly, she is going to have to curl up on the blanket in the middle of the van; there's nothing else for it. 

"Crotchstomper," she says patiently, opening the passenger door, "Come on. Hop down." 

He obligingly exits the vehicle, and she closed the door behind him and the guides him back in through the side door. Anything to reclaim her seat, I guess...

Anyway, the dog has developed very definite ideas about how to travel in the van. 

Dungeons and Doggos

The kids' D&D game on Saturday morning was... odd. We were missing one player -- his character has temporarily fallen into a pit trap which immediately sealed over so that the other characters couldn't get to him until his player returns -- but, we were up by two whole doggos. 

Of the two players who attended, one is disabled and not very steady on his feet; so it was quite a surprise to look outside and realize that he was trying to get out of the car while two mid-sized dogs were racing around the yard, wagging and sniffing and generally being friendly. They weren't wearing collars, and we didn't see anybody who looked like an owner, so we herded them through the house and into the back yard. (Crotchstomper was thrilled by this. New doggy-buddies? And they came to visit him? More, please!) 

The dogs remained in the back yard while the boys explored the dungeons and encountered mysterious floating skeletons which turned out to be the remains of victims still being dissolved by a gelatinous cube. They battled the cube, and defeated it with the help of the wizard who hired them and some of the workers he'd brought to clear the entrance to the ruins. 

With this chapter of the adventure resolved, we took the dogs over to a nearby vet. Sure enough, they were chipped and we were able to send their owner a message; he came and collected them as soon as he could. (We had, of course, caught him at a doctor's appointment or somesuch.) Turns out he has a young daughter who thinks it's fun to take their collars off and open the gate for them, so this is the second or third time they've gotten out in the last few weeks.

Still, all ended happily, with a successful resolution to both quests.

Challenge: About A Pet

(This post is part of the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge. You can find links to other writers' answers over at Long and Short Reviews.)

Prompt: Tell us something about a pet

Well, all right. Here you go. Permit me to introduce you to Crotchstomper McSnuggles: 

He is a dapper dude. Also a stealer of bacon and a warmer of couches.

Meet CrotchStomper McSnuggles

For the last two years, I've been taking part in the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge over at Long and Short Reviews. (The first link will take you to the list of topics; the second one goes to the homepage, where you can find a post with everyone's responses each week. Feel free to join in!)

This week's prompt is "meet my pets". So I'd like to introduce you all to CrotchStomper McSnuggles.

 

Before anyone asks... no, that's not his official name. And nobody calls him that except me. Nevertheless, I maintain that this is his real, actual, True Name. Because CrotchStomper McSnuggles is a profoundly snuggly dog. He will join you on the couch; he will join you on a chair; he will bound, and lean, and be very excited that you've finally come home. 

Also, he thinks he's a lap dog. 

That would be about eighty pounds of lap dog, with very bony legs, and also claws that he occasionally forgets about. If you sit down, he will try to climb into your lap. And he will absolutely stomp on your crotch. He has a positive talent for it; he once managed to stomp on mine while I was standing up. (He was feeling excited and boundy, and he straightened up and basically just punched me with a foreleg.) 

So, yes: CrotchStomper McSnuggles. 

For all that, he is a very good boy. 

This dog...

So Crotchstomper McSnuggles went out into the back yard and found a dead bird. And of course, when Firstborn called him back inside, he brought it in with him. And the dog is not-well behaved when it comes to taking things away from him. (He'll play tug-of-war with rope and like that, but if he's stolen some food -- or a dead bird -- and you try to take it away from him, he will threaten to bite.) Right now, he's additionally crazed from having been stuck in the house with no walkies for the last three days.

The result of which, for now, is that the dog is in his kennel, the bird is outside of our back yard, and the grippy-claw thing that I was using to try to pick it up is broken... not because he tried to bite it, but because I immediately smacked him over the head with it when he did. It was clearly not designed for that. 

So now I'm ordering another (hopefully tougher) gripper, and we're looking up additional dog training to teach him not to bite (and hopefully not to steal food), and the word "birdcicle" has been added to our household vocabulary.

Say what you will about being trapped in a snowstorm, but it's certainly not boring.