blog.eliduke.com

last monday meredith and i began a month-long house/dog sit for some friends of my aunt and uncle, the Steigs, while they are on vacay in England. they are incredibly nice, laid back people and have trusted us with the care of their precious baby, spot, who is a total sweet heart.

he’s about 10 years old, has black spots all over his white body, and is constantly looking directly at you and twisting his head to the side. you just about can’t take it. he’s very chill, super easy to walk (more on that later), and a real pleasure to take care of.

for the most part, my daily activity consists of the following (times are approximate, pacific):

• 9am – wake up and take spot on a walk
• 10am – get home, feed spot his breakfast, and do some things (e.g. eat, blog, clean)
• 11am – go over to the hotbox and take rumi on a walk
• 12pm – run any errands that need running and then go back to the Steigs
• 1pm – arrive back at the Steigs and hang out with spot, water the plants, do things, and hang out until meredith gets home from work
• 5pm – meredith gets home from work and we take spot on a walk
• 6pm – get back from the walk and feed spot his dinner

after 6pm, i get naked and won’t leave the house until the next morning.

spot walks

one of the things that makes spot so darn awesome is how easy it is to walk him. so far my experience with walking dogs fits into 1 of 2 categories:

1. the dog is on-leash and pulls like hell
2. the dog is off-leash and is well behaved

spot has trascended the norms and provided me with a third option: the dog is on-leash and is well behaved. it’s awesome; he never pulls.

the other thing that makes spot so darn awesome is how well he knows the neighborhood. from the second we leave the house he is leading the way with purpose, and he always finds his way home. so far we’ve gone on 7 walks; each one of them has been completely different from all the rest and each one of them brings him right back to where he started.

i’m not talking trial and error here, i’m talking about real knowledge of the neigborhood. for the most part he is making deliberate choices and he turns with confidence. sometimes he even stops at a corner and looks around for a second before continuing in the right direction. it is amazing to see.

i started to notice all this after the 3rd walk, so i decided to map each walk. i need to gather more data and find a good way to present it, but as soon as that happens i’ll be sure to post that here.

the car wreck

this past thursday i got in my very first car wreck! it was pretty scary and weird, especially considering that i was driving one of the Steig’s cars. here’s the story.

for the past week and a half i was helping out Jerky (a friend of meredith’s and mine) by running the Seattle Dog Taxi while he was on vacay at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. he loaned me his truck for the job, so i got pretty comfortable having a vehicle around. meredith and i returned the truck to him on wednesday, so thursday was the very first time that i even thought about using one of the Steig’s cars (they said we could if we need to).

i was driving to shane’s house for some nerdery, going north on 35th Ave about 15 blocks from the Steigs house. an SUV was in front of me as i approached the intersection at 85th St. the SUV pulled into the right lane to turn and i continued going straight through the intesection. as i pulled up next to the SUV it swerved back into the straight lane and slammed into the right hand side of the car, denting the front right side and knocking off the mirror.

we pulled into the QFC parking lot and got out of our cars. the driver of the SUV was an 18 year old girl (with her friend), and she immediately started blaming me for the wreck. i said something like, “oh this is bullshit,” and then headed into the parking lot looking for witnesses. i must have had quite the distressed look on my face because almost immediately a fireman yelled from across the parking lot, “hey, is she trying to dispute that?!” apparently 2 firemen (and a few others) had seen the whole thing and were there for me as my witnesses.

at this point, i have notified the Steig’s and their insurance provider, i got a repair estimate, i made a claim with the other driver’s insurance company, and now i’m just waiting to hear back from them. i’m hoping to get this all taken care of before the Steigs get back.

rumi dog

i still make time to go over to the HotBox and take rumi on walks. i love her too much to bear the thought of her staying inside all day with only a few pee breaks here and there. when i walk in the door, she barks and wiggles and jumps into my arms and gives me more kisses than i can count. it’s the kind of moment that dog lovers dream of.

we go on our normal walk down the street to the park, but she has learned a new trick: fetch. it started happening yesterday, when i found a small apple that had fallen out of one of the trees in the park. as i was pulling the stem off, rumi saw what i had and started barking and going crazy. i threw it and she ran after. after 2 days of practice, she has 3 different reactions after she’s run after the apple and picked it up.

• she brings it right back to my feet and drops it
• she brings it about halfway back and drops it
• she runs off in a different direction and drops it

regardless, she’s still really playful when i reach down to grab the apple. most of the time she drops it between her 2 front paws and licks it while she waits for me to grab it. when i reach down, she growls at me. once i grab it, she goes crazy, jumping and barking, until i throw it again. the whole thing is ridiculously precious.

the future

i’ll be hanging out here in seattle, dog sitting ‘n stuff, until the 26th of July, when i leave for chicago. i’ll be in chicago for a few days before i head up to Pentwater, MI for a week on the beach with friends and family. i’ll be back in chicago on the 3rd of August just in time for Ben Pruce’s wedding. then i’m off to noblesville for my 25th birtday party on the 5th!! be there.