Mike's Doghouse

We got Mike a new crate the other day and today, while he was at the vet’s office keeping them entertained, we moved stuff around and decided where to put the monstrosity. It is the same width and depth as Sparky’s old crate but is about three inches taller. It is also one of those “folding” crates while Sparky’s crate is put together with large pins/poles. It has two doors so we can be more flexible about where to put it. It also has a divider to make the crate smaller as the pup grows. Mike’s current crate is not tall enough for him and he has to lay at an angle if he wants to fully stretch out. It is just like the bigger crate except it has only the one door and is made by a “generic” company. The larger one is by Midwest (Life Stages-Double Door 42″), a huge dog supply company and the smaller one is by Bargain Hound (the 30″ one).

Here’s Mike in his current, smaller crate:
12/24/08

2/6/09

The larger crate with the divider in place will be in the living room. This is where he will stay during the day when I am too distracted to watch him close enough. It will also be where he will stay whenever we are gone. The smaller one is still in the bedroom and will be for sleeping. At least for a while. We’ll eventually move the larger crate into the bedroom and store the smaller one.

Yesterday, Lorna, Mike, and myself went to visit friends. We’ve known Lori and Gary for many years but had yet to meet their pup, Jack (an Aussie Blue Heeler mix). After meeting for dinner in Black Mountain, we headed to their house. Gary brought Jack out so the two could play outside for a while. We were afraid it wasn’t going to work out but they eventually decided playing was more fun than growling.

It was good to see Mike playing with someone new. He is a great runner and can jump fairly high and long. He also got to meet 3 new cats. What was good, too, was to see him interact with Gary. Being a lesbian couple in a rural area, we don’t have many men friends. It’s good for dogs to meet people of different genders, skin color, and vocal tone than their owners. Gary is a gentle man and Mike fell in love. Better still, both Gary and Lori fell in love with Mike.

The only bad thing about the trip was Mike peed in the car again on the way there. Peed when he got out of the car (we thought at first it was submissive pee in response to Jack but it wasn’t). He peed and pooped while out running. Inside, he promptly peed three more times. I took him out, he peed again. Inside, he peed yet again! Lori is a veterinarian and was concerned with his obvious incontinence. So, yeah, back to the vet’s office we go!

We need to work more on RECALL. He did do a SIT for me, though.

Currently, Mike’s photos are kept at an odd place, URL wise. I didn’t think about it when I set it up and, technically, it shouldn’t have worked. The address is photos.mike.holyroller.org. HolyRoller.org is my original website and hasn’t been active for a long time (since 10/2006). I need to re-do that, I know. Anyway, this site (where you are right now) is a sub-domain. My website host offers “one-click installs” and the gallery is one of them. In the options for set up, it is assumed you would make the gallery a sub-domain of its own. Normally, that’s a good thing. However, I accidentally made it a sub-sub-domain. I can’t get to there from here. I can do the admin stuff from the site but I can’t get there via FTP. It doesn’t show up anywhere in the root directory even at the topmost level. It is annoying as heck. And yes, I have control issues.

I know, I know, who cares, right? Without FTP, I can only upload via the admin section which limits me to below a certain size. There’s some other stuff that I won’t bore you with that has to do with the look of the gallery (which I hate).

So, to end this long story of a short beginning, I am going to be moving the photo gallery. I love the software, ZenPhoto, but I want it somewhere else! That’s why there’s been no photos recently. When I get that set up, I’ll let y’all know!