A Hunting We Will Go

Apollo went with the family to the north woods of Wisconsin where he ran into some trouble. A couple of times. Read the post below.

Apollo's Big Adventure

Windows are for Cats

How tough is Apollo? Apparently tough enough to stick his head through a window pane and emerge unscathed.

The other day Apollo was participating in his favorite indoor pastime - running laps tracking squirrels. He is pretty smart because he knows that when he loses site of them in the backyard and they are running up the side of the house that they will soon appear in the front yard. Well, when he came to the front window to follow a squirrel he was surprised and very excited to discover a CHIPMUNK!

He LOVES chipmunks. He loves to chase them up the downspout where they spin their wheels trying to get up the slippery aluminum and they chirp like crazy. A always swears Apollo has trapped a bird up there, but birds are too smart. And they fly.

Standing in the kitchen, I hear the sound of breaking glass and Apollo running back to the TV room. What the hell!? I run into the living room looking for a broken vase or lamp and at first don't see anything. Then I see the shards of glass in front of the window, but all the panes look intact. Upon closer inspection I see the middle pane missing. He had busted the pane clean out.

Here he is surveying the damage - you can see glass still in the sill.

Next thing I know he is running back into the living room. I grab his collar and wrestle him to sit and start to frantically check paw and face for glass. Nothing! Not a cut. Not a scratch. I have a frickin' Kevlar dog!

While I pet him to calm him down before I put him in the kennel so I can clean up he looks up at me with this look like, "What? You didn't think that window was going to stop me now, did you? I mean really, look at the size of my frickin' head! Windows are for cats!"

The glass is being replaced today with reinforced laminated glass. If that doesn't stop him I may be the first person to install an invisible fence INSIDE their house. Who am I kidding? That wouldn't stop him either.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?"

Apollo continues to eat random items around the house. He is on watch number four (or five, I lost count.) Here is the latest victim:

This is the second time he has chewed this one. The watch is metal and came with rubber band and that band was gone in a couple of weeks. I had to get this crappy velcro band because it's the only one that fit. He did this little number on it this morning. I have no idea what he has against time.

I can kind of understand this next victim. The kids got a Wii for Christmas from my mom. I thought I might like to play it, but I really haven't been that interested. The kids love it! Apparently, Apollo is a little aggravated that you need two hands to play Duck Hunt because he ate one of the nunchucks. 

Let this be a lesson to you Nintendo, make your games universally accessible or I will send my three-legged dog to eat your nunchucks.

Apollo HATES Halloween!

And frankly, so do I. The other day he got into the storage area above the garage (it has open stairs) and found a plastic pumpkin. chewed the stem off before the kids got it away from him.

A couple days later I found the dismembered remains of a creepy jack-o-lantern clown figure strewn around the yard as if put there by some mystery halloween decoration serial killer. I had a very difficult/amusing time separating Apollo from the overall-clad body. (It's shaped like a ball - Apollo can't resist balls or buckets.)

The Pain of Owning a Dog

A couple of days ago my calf was sore. I rubbed it to try to loosen it up. Just touching it made it hurt worse. Then I had my foot up on the table and I saw this:

The day before, Apollo and I had been playing in the backyard and he came tearing around our big tree and smashed his cement truck size head into my leg. I jokingly told him, "That's gonna leave a mark." Turns out, it did.

Fun and Games

Apollo has a favorite toy. It's a soccer ball he popped within 24 hours of joining our family.

One of our favorite games to play is called "merry go round."

Good thing he has a strong neck.

Apollo Tries Gardening

Last week Apollo was enjoying himself in the backyard while I was working in the kitchen. I look out the window to see him fully engaged in chewing "something." I yell at him to stop - which is always effective - and then go out to ask him nicely to drop what he has. This, of course, is the "go" signal to play keep away from me. I was able to see what he had - gardening shears.

Then the other day, I caught him checking out my roses. By "checking out" I mean trying to bite them off. He eventually got one.

I should probably have known he had a "green paw" when, this past spring, I found him in a couple of planters digging the dirt out.

Finally, today he decided to try his paw at container gardening. First things first - get a container. He found this planter in the garage and decided to play a few games - his favorite is one I like to call "Bucket Head."

Needless to say, do not let your three legged try his paw at gardening.