Category Archives: Artie

Artie Died Today

I still can’t believe it.  Artie died today.

We don’t know why.  All we know is that he went very quickly from his normal frisky self to a dog in a great deal  of pain and suffering and all we could do was say good-bye and let him go.  But honestly?  I haven’t.   I’m holding on to him as tightly as I can in my heart.  Looking at his unfinished dog bones, sweeping up his hair from the kitchen floor, passing his empty food dish and listening for the skitter of his claws as he rounds the corner into the kitchen.  I know we couldn’t keep him here any longer but oh how I long for just another day.  Just one day to take a last walk together.  I swear I’d throw him treats every other step.  Just one day with him snoozing in front of the sofa, or sprawled under my feet.  One last moment to bury myself in the scruff of his neck and tell him how much I love him and what a truely wonderful dog he was.

Because he was.  Wonderful.  The best.  My constant companion for the last nine years.  Oh Artie, I am not ready for this.  I don’t think my heart can take losing you.  I am so thankful for having you but I’m so greedy I wanted more.  Much more.  Instead, I’m left with this pooch sized whole in my heart that I’ll carry for a very long time.

Artie dog McLaughlin.  Best dog ever.

Still June, Still Vomiting

I know!  Right?  How is that possible?

This time, however, the children were spared.  It was Artie who was sick.  You know that saying, “sick as a dog”?  Well, I n0w have a very very graphic idea of what, exactly, that means and let me tell you, it ain’t purdy.

Kevin BBQ’d last night and I guess he left some nice drippings under the Q because the girls said they say Artie eating the charcoal dust/drippings.  And if any of you have ever had a dog, you are probably well aware of the fact that eating charcoal = massive vomiting.  Of course, Artie waited until 3am to start ’cause waking up to dog puke is only fun in the wee hours of the morning.  Our carpet is dotted with soapy wet spots this morning and I shudder to think what is lurking outside.  Lets just say, Artie was tossing his charcoal cookies from 3am to 6am.  Now he is crashed out next to me and seems fine.  Kevin and I, however, are still trying to recover.

June, you horrid month, die already!

Artie-0; Skunk-2

Yup.

That’s right.

Artie got sprayed by a skunk again last night.

You’d think that dog would learn, but no.

Will my house ever stop smelling of skunk?!?!?!

Smell? What smell? Oh, THAT smell!

Come on in!  Welcome!  Just take your shoes off and leave them by the door….

What?  That smell?  It smells like a cross between the Easter bunny and a Starbucks coffee shop?

Oh man, are you ok?  Right when Artie walked by you suddenly didn’t look so well.  Kind of greenish actually.

You smelled something?  Huh.  Now what…. oh yeah!  That smell?  That horrible musky-burned rubber-revolting smell?  Oh, that’s just skunk.

But seriously, come on in.  Are you hungry?

Yup.  That’s right people.  Our house currently smells like the Easter bunny if he decided to give up eggs and start slinging lattes and also splashed a generous amount of eau de skunk behind each fluffy ear.  Artie took on a skunk last night and lost.  Big time.

It was around 11pm when we let Artie out for a last potty break.  Suddenly we heard vicious barking from along the back fence and a few moments later the first faint whiff of skunk curled through the screen door.  We called Artie back and as he ran to us the faint whiff turned into a dense cloud of absolute stink.  Kevin, bless his big useless nose, couldn’t smell it but I could.  It made my eyes water it was so rank.  So we called him around to the side of the house and let him into the garage.  At this point we weren’t sure if he was hit indirectly or not.   Kevin still said he couldn’t smell it so we decided to let him inside.

Stupid.  Stupid.  Stupid.  He immediately ran to the living room carpet and started rolling and scooching all over it.  That smell went from lingering to smothering to overpowering.  We tried convincing ourselves otherwise but the truth was staring us in our face – er – nose.  Artie got hit by a skunk right in the face.  So we shoo’d him back into the garage and booted up the computer.  Thank goodness for the computer!  In minutes we learned that tomato juice didn’t really work but a bath of hydrogen peroxide, baking powder and dish soap does.  Unfortunately we didn’t have any hydrogen peroxide so I sent Kevin off to find a 24 hr store open.  Oddly enough, as he left the house he saw our neighbors were outside washing their truck by flashlight…on a random Wed….at midnight.  Small talk revealed that their dog had been sprayed by a skunk a week earlier and they had all the necessary ingredients for the hydro dog bath.  Yes!  So we washed him outside over and over and over until most of the skunk smell was masked.  The dog smelled ok. Our house?  No.

Again, Internet to the rescue!  A bit more surfing and I was back in the kitchen boiling a giant pot of apple cider vinegar and burning ground coffee on the stove.  I ended up leaving small bowls of burnt coffee grounds in every room and then walked around the house with a steaming pot of apple cider vinegar.  I’m sure I looked like I was preforming some sort of bizarre exorcism but it mostly works.  The downstairs still stinks right were he rubbed himself all over the carpet and Artie has a vague lingering skunk smell about him. I just hope he’s learned his lesson because if I never smell ‘kunk again it will be too soon!

A Quick Review

Somehow I forgot to blog about our 4th of July adventures.  So under the guise of better late than never, here’s a delayed re-cap of our holiday weekend.

We are slowly developing a tradition of going up to the Rosenbaums for BBQ and fireworks.  Leina remembered last year’s party so she was very much excited to head back for the second annual 4th of July celebration.  They got to run around Kat’s house and gorge themselves on potato chips and candy.  Then Uncle Joshie brought out the Costco box of fireworks and things got loud!  Kulia was still a little gun shy of the fireworks, but Leina couldn’t get enough.  I never really know how much Leina sees and understands but one way I can peek into her inner psyche is through her drawings.  Just the other day, she emerged from her room bearing this pictures:

You see before you (in correct height order) Kulia, Leina, Mom, Dad and Joshie.  The big blue pillar is the bucket of water and the red box is the unlit firework.  Up in the sky are the exploding fireworks, the moon and some clouds.  Ok, the fireworks were not larger than Joshie but I guess to a 4 yr old they seemed rather huge.  Leina was particularly fascinated by the bucket of water they kept on hand just in case.  The fact that she put it in the pictures just kills me.  Anyway, I think she did a pretty good job to summing out the great evening we had at Kat & Josh’s house.

Unfortunately, while we were out having fun, Artie was home freaking out.  Last year we left him home alone and he was ok.  This year?  Um, no.  Definitely not ok.  In fact, while we were out enjoying himself, Artie was trying to eat apart our house.  This is what remain of our bathroom mat.

And this is what remains of our door frame.

The raw hide chew bone I left him?  Totally untouched.  Oh yes, he also gnawed through a couple door knobs as well.  I’m thinking next year we are getting him some serious drugs.

Finally, my mom requested I post some of the pictures Kulia drew while Tutu was here.  Kulia isn’t interested in trying to drawing things yet.  Mostly, she just goes for whatever color she fancies all mixed together.  Personally, I think the results are gorgeous.  My own little Monet.  How luck am I?