Do Not Let This Happen To You

Ok, so this story is from a while back but everytime I see this picture, my legs get itchy. This is Cosmo, a big bulldog who is a bit of a psycho. His Dad always comes in sorry for his naughty behavior, and is happy to see when other dogs put him in line. You see, Cosmo is like a roasted marshmallow. Hard on the outside, gooey on the inside. He tries to be so rough and tough, but when you yell at him to sit down or wipe his dirty face wrinkles he bows down and submits. But he's scary, so it was a risk to find out that if you stick your finger in his wrinkle he will shut up.

Cosmo literally just walks around barking... for no reason. Absolutely no reason. And then he will run into a crate, with the door open, get angry, and bark even more ferociously. It's like he's saying "let me out of this crate!" but the door is open... and he went in himself... and he can get out, so I'm like... yea.

Anyways, angry bulldog barking for a 7 or 8 shift can get very annoying as I am sure you can imagine. By the end of the day when I start feeding dinner, he continues to try and push past me and bolt into the kitchen so I have to relent and let him in. Then, I trick him into a crate so that I can feed the pups who need their dinner. He gets so freakin pissed, but he calms down after a while and lays down for a bit.

But one day in the summer, he would not stop barking, and he literally followed me around licking my legs all day. It made him calm to lick my legs so I let him continue just to shut him up. Well, ladies and gentlemen, bad idea! Do not let dogs lick you for a prolonged period of time. I should have known not to do this due to the fact that I break out in a rash everytime I change laundry detergent, and seem to get rashes in New York City. One of the perks of moving here was a) no poison ivy/poison oak and b) less mosquitoes. But when you work at a dog daycare and a crazy bulldog licks your legs you get a rash! I was literally tearing my legs to shreds for weeks until one day I walked in after crying all morning because it just wasn't going away. My boss and one of the owners took pity on me and with their help I was able to finally get some good medicine to help. But let this be a warning to you. Do not let bulldogs (or any dog or cat for that matter) lick you for a long time or ever. My mother now always checks in to make sure that I am wearing pants to work. Oh Cosmo.

Girlfriends

Here are two dogs who are totally teenagers. They have a certain clique at the daycare and it is comprised of all young females, and they make this high pitch sound when they play, which sounds like teen girls gabbing.

You may remember Gracie from a previous post about a Viszla who likes to sit on her, well she has seemed to figure out how to do this to others. Meet Joey (who I call Josephine) the yellow lab, and Gracie. Gracie has started laying on dogs, from beagles to boston terriers. Everytime I try to take a photo whoever is getting sat on gets up and runs away before I can snap the shot. But Joey stayed still long enough for me to snap this beauty... look how these gals hang out together, I think the next step in their relationship is getting a friendship bracelet that comes in two pieces. Gracie+Joey=BFF.

Mastiffs are Life Sized

Meet Kashmir.

She. Is. Huge.

And by far one of my favorites because she is completely unaware of her size. She romps around like she is a 30 pound pup but she is more likely 100+ pounds. Many dogs run in terror from her because she comes bounding at them flopping her gums full of drool.

I mean, just look at how long her legs are! Who knew that some dogs could come in human life sized form. The thing that makes her so hillarious is that she is only maybe 9 months old, so she wants to run around and wrestle like a puppy would, but other dogs don't know what to do! It's like that movie Jack, where Robin Williams grows 4 times as fast and none of the kids his age know what to do in his presence. One day she came up to me and lifted her foot and nudged me with it, and I had a bruise the next day. When she comes in I am so friggin excited to see her, I run out to her and start talking to her in my dog voice and she just starts wiggling all 100+pounds of herself. It is quite a sight to see!

One day, I decided to measure just how big Miss Kashmir is. And I found out that if I came packaged as a dog, I would be Kashmir. Her paws are the same size as my hands, and she has a 8 1/2 size foot. Don't believe me? Check it out...

Let's face it... big girls are more fun.

Cookie Monster

Ok, so this dog isn't one of the dogs at the daycare I work at. This beauty was a foster that my boyfriend and I took in last January. I just received the most heartwarming beautiful e-mail from her Mama, Nori who took Cookie to the streets of Rye, New York. Cookie came to us completely covered in mats, and knots. I was going to get her groomed the next day, but I could tell she was in such discomfort I took a pair of scissors and put her in the bathtub and just started cutting. She also had a huge buildup of wax and hair in her ear that she would walk around shaking her head every few minutes, so we took my boyfriends beardtrimmer and a small attachment to cut out the wax! Poor Cookie Monster!

Sometimes people ask me how I can take in fosters and then part with them, and it is because of families like this. They are so genuine and kind-hearted. When I told the family that another couple had written me earlier, they said their daughters (both high-school aged) were heartbroken to think they may not get Cookie. They said they had a dog named Bert, and when I referred to her as "Cookie Monster," they knew it would be a great fit! Well, after the first family passed on this gorgeous girl, she was soon adopted into a new home.

Cookie was not pleased to see four people walking into the apartment she had settled into, and lowly growled and walked into our bedroom. I called her out and her new two-legged sisters bowed to greet her and let Cookie approach them on her own. In a few minutes her tail was wagging, and she was soaking up all the petting and loving she was getting. I turned to her Mom and asked, "so do you think you'll take her?" and she nodded with a huge smile and said, "yes." I heard one of the girls say, "YES!"

On our way out to their car, Cookie's Mom turned to me and asked, "isn't it hard to give them up?" And I said, "look at her!" she was waltzing right up to the car. It was as if Cookie knew that this was her new family and she went happily with them. I told Nori that one of the best reasons to foster is because of the reactions I get from the adopting families, and how happy I see the dogs with their forever families. She really did land in an amazing home, and they e-mailed to let me know it had been a year of Cookie and they simply loved every moment, (even though Cookie tends to knock things over and rummage through them, often leaving a flip flop or two with a few teeth marks in them!). She came to us a knotted mess from the ACC in East New York, and now here is a picture of her living it up in Rye in her cute pink tee-shirt!

Also, here are a few links to youtube videos we took of her last year.

Cookie after a Bath

Cookie on the Bed