Itzl’s Wardrobe

riverheart was laughing over a wedding dress for dogs.

She hasn’t seen Itzl’s extensive wardrobe. A great many of them are pictured on Flickr – just do a tag search for “Itzl” and you’ll get to see a lot of them.

He has 32 sweaters, a shearling coat, a raincoat, a floating swim vest, a quad of cowboy boots, a quad of non-skid slippers, a dragon costume, a jester’s costume, a fairy steed costume, a set of bat wings, a pumpkin costume, a pirate captain’s suit complete with feathered tricorn, a silver witch’s hat with a veil of spider web lace, a sombrero with mirrors and gold embroidery, a straw gardener’s hat, a back pack, a fishing vest, a dozen service dog vests with appropriate patches, 4 t-shirts, a pair of sun goggles, and that doesn’t even touch on the fact that he has a heated car seat for winter and a separate cooled one for summer, as well as a variety of neck pouches that he rides in when he’s working.

He has his own bed on my desk at work, and a set of food dishes at work, at home, at several friends’ homes, and packed for travel.

He has his own separate bed here at home that rests at the head of my bed, so while he sleeps in his own bed, he’s also sleeping in mine.

He has a graduation cap and gown to wear when he attends graduations – displaying his own educational achievements as inspiration to the students. If his little walnut sized brain can allow him to earn the equivalent of a doggie Ph.D. as a service dog, then their much bigger brains can go at least as far as he did.

For MedFaire this coming year, I plan to make him a beggar’s suit (as a spoof for Rufus the Rude), a swashbuckler’s dashing outfit (he already has a feathered tricorn, it can do double service as a pirate captain’s hat and a swashbuckler’s), and I’m seriously considering making him a wonderful German Landsknecht’s suit – with puff and slash slippers and a feathered puff and slash bonnet.

I’m trying to convince my ex to forge him a nice little fencing foil to go with his swashbuckler’s garb.

He is so far refusing to indulge my fantasy. But he will cave. After all, Itzl will look at him with his sad, puppy eyes, and tilt his head just so and pathetically offer a lick, and my ex will cave.

No one can resist Itzl.

Checking Itzl for Injury

When Itzl was exercising up and down the length of my office, he slipped on a puddle tracked in and smacked his head on the hard marble floor.

One eye looks a bit swollen and it’s watering up a lot. Nothing looks swollen on the picture – his head looks perfectly rounded, just like it should. He doesn’t seem to have any tender spots, but he doesn’t want to play anymore or get very far away from me.

I’ve been debating giving him a quarter of a baby aspirin (the vet recommended amount for when he got his vaccinations when he was smaller) in case he’s in some pain from the slip.

Itzl and the Ice

Itzl didn’t much mind the snow.

He didn’t like it, mind, but he was willing to go out doggy blogging in it, and even had a bit of fun tunnelling through the high drifts.

Because I was being sent home from work early, I worked through lunch so I’d lose less time. He is an anal little doggie and likes schedules and routines. Poor thing, being paired with me, the perennially impetuous.

Anyway, he was pacing up and down my desk, throwing quiet little doggy fits because lunchtime came and I made no move to do anything about it. Finally, he went to the edge of the desk and intently stared at his potty pad, so I took him to the north doors to let him out to do a bit of doggy blogging. He dashed out the door, made it all of 2 feet before he executed a flawless 180 and returned to my office long before the door had a chance to close. He dashed all the way to my desk, turned around and peered down towards the north door.

So I offered to let him out the south door. The wind was blowing from the north, so the south door is a bit warmer when you first go out it. It’s a double door and, as usual for him, I hit the handicapped button to open the doors and let him out. He approached the doors slowly, and when it seemed much warmer, he ventured out. Once he left the shelter of the overhang, the ground was wet and a bit slick. As soon as his naked paws hit that ice, he turned right around and came back in – again before the doors had a chance to close.

He went right to my desk, jumped up on the chair, then onto the desk, sat down and glared at me for allowing the weather to get so very cold and nasty.

He forgot all about his blogging issues, he was that mad.

When we left, I bundled him up in his blankets. At the bookstore, they thought he was a tiny baby and one person berated me for taking such a tiny new baby out – until he poked his little black nose out of the blankets and sniffed. Then she cooed over him.

I couldn’t take a baby out in that nasty weather, but it was OK to take a little 4 pound dog out?

Anyway, we arrived home, and he suddenly remembered what he’d intended to do at work and beelined for the potty pad I keep at the house.

Now, he’s snuggled down on the sofa, gently warmed by the heating pad.

I have a roast in the oven, the big dogs are in the heated laundry room (they aren’t housebroken, so they don’t get to come into the main house often).

And I am about to snuggle down with him as the roast bakes to read one of the books I bought.

I sorely miss having a fireplace in weather like this. Once I finish the plumbing and wiring issues here, I will install a fireplace.

I need a fireplace.

Itzl in Snow Booties

Itzl is prepared for the cold. He has on his snazzy new snow booties and a sweater for indoor wear.

To go out, which he will have to do when we leave to go home, he has a sheepskin coat and cap, with a rabbit fur blanket to wrap up in.

His car seat has a warm winter insert, too, so he can travel in comfort and safety.

The sleet of this morning has changed to snow. I don’t know how much snow we will get.

It really doesn’t matter in the long run, because whatever snow we get today will be gone before Monday.

Since all state offices are closed today, I will earn a day of comp time. If tomorrow isn’t a “closed” day, I may take it tomorrow. If not, I will have to use it by the end of December. I only get 30 days to use up earned comp time on the rare occassions I am allowed to get comp time.

Cute

My daughter just saw a picture of a teeny baby kitty, with eyes newly opened, and she squealed and said she wanted to hug it so bad, because it was so cute.

Itzl heard her, ran from the back room, leaped into my lap and bounced across the chairs to her lap and and climbed up on her.

You could just hear him say: “I’m cute and I’m here! Hug me! Me! I am huggable and cute – everything you want and need.

Now, he’s resting on her shoulder, looking incredibly smug.

Pill Puppy

He wants in my lap and as soon as he gets there, he wants back on the floor. On the floor, he wants to play with his “fingers” (a plush ring with 5 jingly balls on the ends of wide ribbons). As soon as he gets his “fingers”, he abandons them because the wind made a weird noise and he has to growl at it. A shadow passes outside the window and it makes him yelp. So he wants back into my lap, but as soon as he gets there, he whines to get on the desk. On the desk, he wants back in my lap. He’ll wander over to his food dish and scoop up a mouth of food, forget he has it and scoop up another mouthful, spilling what he already has in his mouth. That will frustrate him so he’ll drop all the food he’s scooped up and walk off. Then he’ll go back and do it again, several times – never actually eating.

And so it goes, over and over again.

He won’t listen to any of his Commands, he won’t engage in play, and he won’t settle. I can’t engage him or distract him because he’s a bundle of distractions right now.

This won’t last long, though. He’ll fidget himself into exhaustion (usually within an hour), and then he’ll nap for a few minutes. When he wakes, he’ll forget he was ever twitchy. The whole rest of the day, he’ll be charming and calm and work extra hard to prove he’s really a good boy.

If he were a female, I’d say he was in heat, but he’s a neutered little boy doggie – timmed, as we call it, from when we exclusively had cats. When we neutered the toms, we’d say they were tims, now. So neutering is “timming”.

How My Day Went

I’ve just returned from a day trip to Arkansas, where I delivered birthday presents to friends who were visiting their family in Arkansas. This was about the closest we were going to get for at least another year, so I grabbed the opportunity to go. Then I got to meet sunfell in person, after we’d been communicating with one another for years and years on line (at least 5, I think?)

We met at On the Border – the very first time I’ve ever eaten there, along with her SF Book Club. Such a charming group of women! And it turns out I knew one of them from attending assorted SF Cons. We talked about a number of things, mostly SF related, skirted politics just a bit, and I enjoyed myself thoroughly.

We left On the Border to visit B&N (and I’m sooooo proud – I only bought ONE book!). sunfell and I had a chance to talk a bit, and I gave her a copy of the cookbook we put together for MedFaire, The Cauldron Crack’d. I distracted her from getting her Green Tea Frappaccino and I hope she managed to get one later. I’m glad, though, that she missed it because then she wouldn’t have been following me and pointing out that I was going the wrong way to get onto the highway that would lead to Conway, where I attended the Toad Suck Festival – in the rain!

I owe sunfell a Green Tea Frappaccina someday.

Itzl, of course, was his usual charming self. On The Border freaked him a bit because there was a lot of noise, and he’s still learning what’s important and what he can tune out. I settled him into my lap and covered his ears, so he napped, and that’s how he got through most of it. He loved B&N, though – just like home, where we browse for hours. He was probably a bit confused when we left so early, usually we’re in B&N (or Borders or Full Circle) a very long time.

Itzl didn’t enjoy the Toad Suck Festival very much, it was raining, and he kept shaking his head when raindrops got on his ears. I realized this was the very first time in his entire life he has ever been in actual rain. Mist and light sprinkling, sure, but never actual real rain. He worried about the umbrella a lot. After half an hour he decided it wasn’t going to eat him, and he ignored it after that.

He slept the rest of the trip home.

As soon as we got home, though, he pounced on Remy and they romped through the house for a good half hour. He’s eating again right now.

And that was my day today.

Tomorrow, we go to the Edmond Arts Festival, which is local. After I make sure the podcast uploads. I couldn’t do it last night or this morning before I left because we had lightning and thunder.

Talking Dog

Itzl has learned to say three words.

Granted, one isn’t really a word so much as a sound – but pirates use it a lot. Itzl has learned to greet pirates with an “arrrr”. Of course, by the time he sees pirates again, he’ll have forgotten his greeting and will have to re-learn it. He doesn’t say “Arrr” to just any pirates, though. They have to be wearing a pirate hat – a tricorn with feathers in it.

His other word was totally unexpected because I didn’t try to teach it to him. He just picked it up all on his own.

Beaners was sitting on the sofa, eating those new Oberto Jerky Chips when Itzl went up to beg for a taste. I told Beaners if he wanted to share with Itzl, he would have to get Itzl to obey a command first – sit or dance or something. No free snacks for Itzl. That’s been my rule since I got him. This is particularly important because Itzl is small and he fills up fast. I have to snatch every training opportunity I can.

Well, Beaners is harder to train than Itzl, but he can be trained. So he gave Itzl a command, Itzl obeyed, and he got his snack.

Then Itzl decided he wanted another taste. So he went up to Beaners and said, very clearly, “Now!”

When Beaners stared at him and said, “Wha?”, Itzl firmly repeated, “Now! Meat now!”

Beaners was so amazed, he gave Itzl another bite.

And therafter, whenever Itzl wanted a jerky chip, he told Beaners, “Meat now!”, and Beaners would give it to him.

See, I told you Beaners could be trained.

Why I Carry Itzl in My Good Hand

This morning, getting into the car, I was carrying Itzl in my bad hand because my strong hand was full of stuff for work. It’s always a bad idea to carry anything for any length of time in my bad hand because I will drop it – that’s why I have Itzl, to warn me when I’m about to drop something, or have dropped something.

He suddenly started giving me the signal that I was going to drop something, then grabbed at me. He overcompensated, I overcompensated, and the end result was that he fell into a rain puddle. I snatched him back up almost before he hit the ground, so he only got a little wet – his ears and tail and a little bit down his back.

I keep towels and spare clothes around for a reason – and this is one of them. I had the Bits dried and changed before he even knew he’d fallen.

I bought him a hamburger for lunch to apologize. Not that he knew why I bought him a burger. He was just pleased to have a burger.

We Didn’t Do It

This morning, Itzl and Remy were playing together. Since Itzl has had lots of training, he can create all sorts of games for them to do, and he constantly leads the poor kitten astray. He showed her how to catch and kill the wild mice that creep in from the fields nearby. He taught her that flies were yummy, particularly the ones the come in through the front door and are snatched off the screen. He taught her to eat bacon and beg for cheese. He showed her how to get into small places, like the gap between the wall and the bathtub that leads into the front bedroom. He taught her to watch for falling things and to fetch and to put toys in the bin.

This morning, they were running in the gap between the bathroom and front bedroom when a loud noise and falling things echoed through the house. Suddenly, eight little paws came running down the hall and a small kitty and puppy threw themselves into my lap. Two pairs of eyes looked at me innocently, that classic “I didn’t do it” look, followed by a scared look down the hall. “You’ll fix it, won’t you?”

I had to laugh at the beasties. I got up too see what damage they’d done and found – nothing. Not a thing. They followed me carefully, peering around my ankles to see how much trouble they were in.

When they didn’t get a scolding for breaking anything, they took off after the feathered bell, then got distracted by the squeaky parrot toy.

But I know, as soon as they do something they know they shouldn’t, both of them will beeline for my lap, to tell me they did nothing wrong and could I fix it, please?

Silly critters.