I Love Schnauzers   My life with Schnauzers

Ironically, when Selena managed to shed her new GPS medallion yesterday… I couldn’t find it. 

Why have a GPS medallion if you can’t track it? Here’s the thing. When it’s in Bluetooth range, it syncs to my phone. I get alerts when either dog is out of range. And when they come back within range. And when synced, I can make the medallion sing. I discovered the loss only an hour after she shed it. And the last time it synced was somewhere around or near the house. 

Problem is, we went for a walk right around the time it was lost. I walked our route 3 times yesterday, alternately looking at my phone and looking at the ground waiting for it to sync. Nothing. 

But the battery lasts forever on these things, so we gave it another go today. Halfway home I’m looking at my phone and I realize, it synced 35 minutes ago! My keys synced 31 minutes ago so it has to be somewhere in the house or yard!

So I’m walking around the house watching my phone when sure enough, there it is! Sing for me, my little pretty! 

Silence. Then it’s lost again. Repeat five or six times in different areas of the house, then bam! I can hear it! 🎶 🎶 🎶 

Out in the yard, buried in the grass, quite near last week’s failed DIY. Found! Yay!

Still, sobering lesson on the usefulness of this app. Lost in my own damn yard. It has worked well when I lost my keys and remembering where I parked the car, but the dogs… not so much. 

Mommy spent the better part of an hour last night in this

Was: crabgrass choked, nettles infested, out of control growth of mint. 

Now: clean slate

But we can’t afford any major garden undertakings this year, and Mommy *really hates* gardening and yard work in general. So what to do?

If left like this it will simply revert to that crabgrass choked, nettle infested, overgrown bed of mint. Don’t want to poison the soil to keep that from happening either bc maybe next year we could afford to have our landscaper replace with something nice. Also will have to be easy to maintain because our yardcare company doesn’t do “beds” just lawn, leaves, mulch and one-time jobs. And because,again, Mommy seriously hates yard work. 

And she had 7 red, itchy bug bites last night as a reminder of how much she hates it. (Gone now though. Baking soda and water: bestest cheapest anti-itch anti-bite paste in the world. Just saying)

Anyhoo… back to that photo

What to do? Should we just get some of that gardeners mats to prevent weeds (what is that stuff called?) and some mulch and call it a day?
Edit mid-afternoon: well, here we are halfway through. Seriously, this is turning into an Easy-level DIY fail. Anyway, almost 75 sq ft of “weed barrier” (how could I forget such an obvious name?) and two bags oof mulch. Bags said they’d cover ~10 sq ft area to about an inch deep. Obviously two bags were not enough. I’ll go back for more later. Right now I’m hot, I’m sweaty, I’m frustrated with the lack of customer service at Lowe’s garden center and it’s going to rain anyway.

I covered the edges of the fabric and put my other garden fail, the I-don’t-know-what-those-wild flowers-are-but-the-spring-daffodils-are-pretty plant box in the middle to sort of hold it down until I’m ready to brave the garden center again.
Seriously, my lawn guys must shrug their shoulders and laugh to themselves at my half-hearted attempts.

Mommy here. Feeling particularly snarky this morning. So practicing some self-care by “art”-ing up our favorite selfies.  Love my schnauzer babies!

Then we better get out and walk before the weather turns on us. 

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there!

Rocky

Selena

Miss Deita

Checkers

Poor Rocky has the “thunder shivers”! We’re having a typical NC June with humid days leading to scattered thunderstorms across the the area. 

I don’t remember Rocky being afraid of thunder before. This seems to be a new behavior. I blame doggie day camp.

Rocky goes to camp twice a week. He’s such a social young boy who just wants to play with other dogs. Selena is not interested at all. So, camp is his outlet!

Rocky has learned excellent social etiquette from his fellow campers. Etiquette that translates to situations like joining Mommy at Bark in the Park game at Durham Bulls baseball. 

Bark in the Park! Mommy’s shirt reads, “DOGS because people suck”

But going to camp twice a week also means he’s had to ride through thunderstorms at camp. They bring all the dogs inside, of course. I think he’s picked up on how his playmates react and has learned to fear thunder. 

Selena certainly doesn’t care. As poor Rocky shivers on my lap, Selena is zonked out at my side. Not worried one iota. 

Luckily, I held onto Checkers’ old Thundershirt! Deita couldn’t wear it because the compression hurt her back. But Rocky is wearing it now. I have it very loose since he has never worn it before. He’s still anxious (look at those ears, poor baby) but the shivering has stopped and his interest in what’s going on around him has picked up. Still glued to Mommy’s side though!

I can’t believe it’s been 5 years since Mommy and Miss Deita started this blog! On the other hand, I can’t believe it’s only been 5 years!

We had so many successes with Miss Deita learning to trust and walk with Mommy on leash without trying to kill every living thing along the way. Miss Deita learned to accept new things like the Welcome mat…

the doggie door…

and the water bowl…

we learned how to eat a blueberry

and finally found a toy that Deita absolutely loved to play with

Miss Deita was diagnosed with an aggressively malignant cancerous tumor that had wrapped itself around her elbow in early October 2015 when she was 12 years old. Only a short month later, on November 16, Mommy said good-bye to Miss Deita. It was really hard.

Then we met Selena and Rocky!

This last 18 months with these two rascals has kept Mommy busy!

But luckily, they sleep sometimes too

So Happy 5th Blogiversary! I’m sure we have plenty more fun memories to come!

* Can’t get comfortable
* craving cuddles with Mommy
* sadly drops squeaky toy then tries to make it squeak by pressing with her nose 🙁

but beef broth, beefy rice and chicken and pumpkin pill-pockets bring wags and licks and clean bowls!

Tomorrow will be better, sweet girl.