Domestic Geek

The hardest thing I had to do when I got my first dog from the Dumb Friends League back in 1993 was figure out his name. It was several days before I found something that fit. There are tons of resoruces out there for human baby name suggestions, but now there is one for the new dog owner. There are tons of resources at Alldognames.com - Dog Names categorized by most popular, size, color and gender. Suggestions from movies and literature. The site also provides general naming tips for your new puppy as well as trends in dog names and celebrity dog news. This will be the first site I visited when i get my next canine companion.

Ah, why do dogs sleep in doorways or walkways and then stand up when you try to step over them? I can kick Skippy in the butt, push him...nothing. The minute I try to step over, he's up like a flash. He just made me kick the leg of the couch and boy, oh boy, did it HURT! I hope I didn't break my pinky toe.

Marcus just posted a pretty funny account of Skippy's Skunk Encounter from last week, including a couple of pictures of him during his tomato juice bath. Go check it out.

So, guess what Marcus and I have been dealing with the last hour and a half? Bathing the dog. Yep, Skippy managed to encounter a skunk outside. He was in and running around like crazy (like the toe bleeding episode) before Marcus realized what had happened. Now my whole frickin' house reeks. I went to the store for tomato juice and I guess the dog rubbed against me because I stunk up King Soopers. Oh, well. When I got home, Marcus had read on the Internet that tomato juice doesn't work. Yay. You're supposed to bathe them with a mixture of peroxide, baking soda and dish soap. I scrounged what little I had of those ingredients and we went to work. Poor dog is exhausted. Looks like this weekend he gets shaved. He was shedding really bad and now all that hair matted in the tub. What a mess!

So begins the perks of the new job:

I'm off today. For the whole day. WITH PAY!!! This doesn't even count as a sick day. How cool is that? My boss doesn't want his designers to burn out, so once every eight week cycle we're to take a day or two off to relieve the stress of getting the magazines to press. Each of us four designers is taking a different day this week. Mine was today. It's a good thing, too, after what happened yesterday.

When I let Skippy in from pottying when I got home from work yesterday, he proceeded to bleed all over my house. I panicked because I didn't know why he was bleeding. He wouldn't stop running because of the pain and I was freaking out thinking he was going to die from blood loss. I called Marcus to calm myself down because I was getting hysterical. I felt bad because I knew there was nothing he could do from work. I tried calling Dad as well, but he wasn't home. I finally cornered him back in the laundry room and held a towel around the foot I figured out was bleeding. I wasn't sure at first because all four paws were drenched in blood from running through it. I guess he lost a toenail, but I don't know where because I couldn't find it outside. Weird. At least he hadn't sliced it open. I was afraid we'd have to take him to the vet for stitches or something. After the bleeding let up, I went to the store to get Neosporin and bandages, but then he wouldn't let me wrap his foot. Dork. I spend an hour steam cleaning blood out of the carpets while Marcus mopped up what was on the linoleum.

Today I get to finish that task. I'm sure in the daylight I'll see blood that I missed, plus now my carpets have clean spots. I'd better get them all cleaned while the weather is mild.

First, though, I'm going to grab some breakfast and go read a couple of chapters in The Chronicles of Narnia. One and a half books left of the series left.