Warning: This post gets messy

Zoe has a problem. You see, she produces enough slobber for about 6 very large dogs. Basically, she has no control over whatever makes saliva, so I spend a lot of time going around cleaning up her slobber. I prefer cleaning Gus's hair. Anyways, the drooling gets particularly out of control during her's and BJ's feeding ritual. In his never-ending attempt to turn this bad dog into a good dog, BJ makes Zoe lay down before she can have her breakfast, lunch, or dinner. For a food-obsessed dog like Zoe, this is the very definition of torture, and as she waits for the go-ahead from the ultimate alpha-dog, BJ, she can't help but drool gallons. I, of course, find the whole torturing and dominance battle entertaining. Did I mention that I have no life.

Anyways, her is a picture of Zoe in those moments of torment while the food is right in front of her, yet so very far away.


Let's get a closer look at that saliva action.


Sometimes it bubbles. Is that too much information?


Considering I now have at least three blog post in which we are tormenting Zoe, I think I should probably take a break from Zoe posts before PETA finds me. Which of course means, (since, as I mentioned earlier, I have no life) my next post will most likely be concerning Gus.

Tony has always been very reliable. I know that he will be at the back door every morning when I let Gus out, and I know that he'll be mewing at the front door everyday when I get home from work.

Unfortunately, for the past week, he hasn't been at either place. We found out from our neighbor that Tony was killed by a car last week.

It feels weird not having Tony around. I walked to the cat food section the other day by habit only to remember I don't need cat food anymore.

Of course, Tony was the type of pet who would not have approved of me being all sappy upon his passing. He was a really horrible cat, and he was proud of that. Zoe has scars to prove that he was tougher than dogs. He was also smarter than dogs, but then again, Gus and Zoe are idiots, so the competition wasn't very steep in our house.

The oddest thing about his passing is that we no longer have Sienna or Tony, the pets we started our marriage with. Right as we are starting a new phase in life, we've lost one of the main symbols in my mind of our first years together.

And now we are left with just Gus and Zoe. Gus, the lovable mutt who is pretty much just fluff and goodness, and Zoe, the Great Dane who daily spreads cheer and saliva, but mostly saliva. Our child is coming into a interesting family, and now that Tony has gone to that place in the sky where there is an endless supply of tuna, he or she is probably coming into a safer family as well.

A Moment of Cheese

This morning, BJ and I heard our baby's heartbeat. It was without a doubt, the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. Grinning, our doctor said, "That just sounds so good, you don't ever want to stop listening." Exactly.

Frustration Abounds

Occasionally, by brother's incredible absent-mindedness can become very troublesome to me. This week, it has truly been a thorn in my side.

I've been having one of those weeks where I just need to talk with my brother. I'm used to having pretty much unlimited access to him, so I typically talk to him on the phone several times a day. I know. It seems a bit excessive, but that's how we roll. Anyways, last weekend, he went home for Easter, and if you know me brother, you know that he never goes home without forgetting something (this is a quirk I happen to share). So this time, he forgot his phone charger. Usually, he would have a back-up with his car phone charger, but guess what? He forgot that one in Menard several months ago and has yet to remember it.

Now, living in these modern times, we have other back-up plans. My family uses Skype for special occasions, such as birthdays, so we decided to get on Skype last night. Immediately after logging on, I knew something was wrong. While he could hear me just fine, all I could catch was a syllable here and there from him. After both fiddling with our computers for 10 to 15 minutes, he typed this in the IM section: "I dropped some books on my web cam earlier." First off, yeah, that could be the problem. Secondly, who breaks their webcam by dropping books on it? Seriously, who does that?

So after three days of not really talking, I'm going through some serious withdrawals. Hopefully, his charger comes in the mail today, because I have a whole slew of random, meaningless, and border-line inappropriate things to say, and he is pretty much the only person willing to listen to me. Yes, let us all hope that charger comes in today.

Zoe and the Mystery of Passing Gas

Zoe is an idiot of a dog. She is seriously just not smart.

Not long after we got Zoe, we discovered just how stupid she can be in a rather odd way. We had known for a while that she was scared of her own gas. Every time she had a little toot, she would start running in circles sniffing her rear end and generally freaking out. But what really made us aware of her stupidity happened one day while playing Wii. BJ was having a bad game of golf, and after a particularly disappointing round, he unthinkingly made a tooting-type sound with his mouth. Immediately, Zoe started doing exactly what she would do when she herself passed gas. Since she is a dog, I can't pretend to know the motivation behind the things she does, but it was truly as if she couldn't figure out if her own body had made that sound and if so, why it would do such a thing.

After months of this, BJ and I still get a kick out of making the occasional toot sound and watching her panic and look at her own rear. Since we enjoy it so much, we thought you might also enjoy it. Here is a little video we made tonight of Zoe in a panicked state of confusion. You can ignore that last 10 seconds or so - I rarely use my camera for recording video, so I forgot how to stop. And of course, this computer doesn't have the right software for editing. But you should still get the general jest. As I said before, Zoe is an idiot.