and we're walking

reilley was diagnosed with hip dysplasia and arthritis several months ago.  it’s pretty severe so, along with regular acupuncture and chiropractic treatments, a few weeks ago we instituted daily “family” walks to try to aid him in building some muscle.  i should have put quotes around walks as well since reilley and i are the only ones actually walking – the rest of the hooligans spend their time running amok.  because of the mixture of rogue, fast-moving and very slow-moving, path bombing dogs reilley and i need to stay alert and keep our senses sharp or we're going down.

i’m not sure who hates the walks more, reilley or me, and yet every morning he stands there waiting for me to clip his leash on…because he’s about the truest friend a person could ask for.  here’s a picture of him on the way home from one of his vet appointments:

and here' some short video of a "calmer" part of a walk...

driving mr. daisy

reilley loves to ride in my car and i've been promising him for weeks i'd take him for a ride. unfortunately i didn't have the foresight to take him somewhere before last week when he had a vet appointment and when the time came for us to leave he was beside himself with joy...until we arrived at the vet. to add insult to injury, because we very rarely go to the vet with just one dog, he had to share his car ride with jewel which really cramped his style. today when lunchtime came around and dave and i realized the cupboards were bare we decided to take a ride up the street with reilley to get some food and eat in the park. i was happy to be keeping my promise and reilley was ecstatic to be in my car and yet not so happy to exit it at the park. because of his fear of people he turns into a big, fat worrywart in public. it's not clear if he's worried someone's going to hurt us or him...or both. while we ate he scanned the crowd of 3 other people sharing the large park with us, we took a walk, and then drove home. it was a big day out for reilley. please believe me when i say that reilley is one of the all time greatest dogs...a big, sweet, goofy ball of love - even if only dave and i know it.

how my iphone saved my iass

carly has a new habit which is really putting a crimp in reilley’s red ball chasing as well as resulting in repercussions to my tuckus. carly has always played defense when reilley is chasing balls but she has significantly upped the ante recently in which she now nips at him and goes for his ankles. the other day reilley had had enough and turned around to wallop carly at the exact moment i was trying to curtail her and he ended up making contact with my butt. i didn’t really feel much so i thought nothing of it until a few minutes later when i went to grab my phone from my back pocket and my hand went right through the pocket. my phone had taken a direct hit sustaining quite a blow, which is much less costly than were my buttocks to have taken the hit...and that’s how my iphone saved my iass. here’s a photo of my rear for your enjoyment – keep in mind that objects appear much larger on the internet than they may actually be.

i'm pretty sure by this time you can all join in on the "carly, carly, carly." 

by the way, if i counted correctly i came up with 4 unique ways of referring to my posterior (that makes 5).  

melonhead

because reilley is kitchen counter height he has the opportunity to take whatever he wants, fortunately he rarely exploits this gift. about 98.7% of the time he is very respectful of food on the counter - the only caveat being when there is watermelon in his presence. he doesn’t try to steal the watermelon (that might anger me) – he just rests his head hoping that i’ll be moved enough by his display of restraint and desire to reward him with said watermelon. let it be said that i love watermelon and i seem to have tainted reilley with my enthusiasm. watermelon rocks people…it’s the earth’s candy.

sunday morning coming down

reilley & i having some quality time together on sunday (which was much needed after spending an entire day without me - see below)

mr. sulky sulkatorian

whenever we’re working (which, by our own admission, is a lot), reilley can most often be found sulking. he’d much rather we be throwing his red, shiny ball for him. what he fails to realize is that the grueling hours of work are necessary to keep him living in the haute style to which he has become accustomed. perhaps someday he’ll learn…until then, buck up reilley.