Dog Blog Challenge – Day 17: A Day in the Life of Choppy

Continuing the attempt at getting caught up with the Dog Blog Challenge, it’s Day 17 – A Day in the Life of Choppy. Yesterday, I kept track of her day (not exactly, but pretty specifically), When we are at home, this is a pretty typical set of activities for her.

6:00 AM – This is when I am supposed to get up. Instead, I hit the snooze button. Three times. Choppy doesn’t bother to get up at all.

6:27 AM – Finally drag myself out of bed. I pet Choppy a couple times and get a perfunctory tail wag. Choppy promptly goes back to sleep, apparently having finished her dog duty of greeting me.

7:30 AM – I am finally ready to greet the day. I feel the need to point out that, in the hour since I woke up, I have seen very little of Choppy, as she has continued to sleep. However, now that she realizes I am ready, she is at my side and ready for her morning walk. It has snowed lightly yesterday afternoon and into the night and there is a coating of ice on all the sidewalks that makes for an unpleasant and slick walk. Although that could also be because I haven’t dried my hair and it freezes part way through our walk. This is probably not recommended by doctors and mothers.

For a dog who just woke up, Choppy is quite alert. I am pretty sure the potential presence of squirrels is about 90% responsible for this.

7:50 AM – I feed Choppy and give her some treats after our walk; she happily eats all of these things and begs for more every time I walk through the kitchen while I get things ready for the day. When she realizes she is not getting any more, she goes to my bedroom and falls asleep again. I get to work.

8:56 AM – Choppy finally comes up to the office to see what is going on with me. I’m pretty sure she goes back to bed after this.

9:17 AM – Choppy is awake and in my office, looking to be petted. She does not smell good. So, obviously, she chooses to take her next nap as close to me as possible. I hope that the smell will dissipate (and/or I will just get used to it and thus not care about it).

9:31 AM – Paul comes into the office with the intention of feeding Choppy a ladybug. She happily eats it. Two minutes later, he brings her another one. Which she eats, not so happily.

9:55 AM – Choppy leaves the office to go sleep in the bedroom, where there is sun coming in through the window. I know this because I can definitely still smell her when she moves. Apparently I have not gotten used to the smell in the last 45 minutes or so.

10:45 AM – I leave the office to go drop off my empty cup of hot chocolate in the kitchen. Despite my supposed attempts to stop feeding her treats, Choppy follows me to the kitchen, where I promptly give her a treat. We head back to the office, where she goes back to sleep within smelling distance. I should give her a bath.

This is the dangerous place where Choppy chose to sleep. While I am flattered that she trusts me enough not to roll the chair over her ear, I'm pretty sure she hasn't considered the possibility that I will forget she is there. Then again, with her smell, perhaps she recognizes that it is unlikely I forget she is there. — This is the dangerous place where Choppy chose to sleep (that’s her ear, right next to the chair’s rolling leg). While I am flattered that she trusts me enough not to roll the chair over her ear, I’m pretty sure she hasn’t considered the possibility that I will forget she is there. Then again, with her smell, perhaps she recognizes that it is unlikely I will forget she is there.

11:25 AM – Because she doesn’t smell bad enough already, Choppy farts. It is definitely not an improvement.

11:50 AM – Choppy and I go downstairs. While I am talking to Paul, Choppy sees a squirrel on the backyard fence. I let Choppy out to chase it. Normally, this results in the squirrel easily evading Choppy. However, the snow seems to have equalized the playing field, and the squirrel fails in its attempt to jump from a fence to a backyard tree, nearly landing on Choppy as it fails to secure the distance between the fence and the tree. The two tear around the yard briefly, then the squirrel makes it back up to the top of the fence. Having learned its lesson, the squirrel attempts to jump to a tree next door. Which it also misses. So perhaps it didn’t quite learn its lesson.

12:30 PM – I go to make lunch. More treats for Choppy.

2:26 PM – You know how I know the mailman is here? Choppy started barking.

6:15 PM – After a rather uneventful afternoon, I take Choppy out for a (very brisk, both temperature- and speed-wise) walk. In contrast to the afternoon, the walk turns rather eventful. A father and his daughter are out with their dog, who is attached to a sled. The daughter is on the sled and enjoying a fun walk around the park, powered by the dog (so really, not much of a walk for the daughter). Unfortunately for her, the dog decides he wants to see Choppy, and goes tearing across the park toward us. The daughter gets a very fast ride all of a sudden, and I am terrified Choppy we’re about to have a very bad incident. Fortunately for all involved, Choppy is rather wary of the dog with the sled and child attached, and attempts to avoid them before doing a perfunctory sniff. All is resolved, except that the daughter wanted the faster ride to continue. I’m pretty sure the dad had no desire to see her go flying across the park again. In related news, the fast ride across the park looked awesome.

7:45 PM – I am cooking supper. Choppy is definitely not going to stray far from my side with the prospect of food.

9:10 PM – Choppy has her late supper. In the meantime, she has eaten some of mine and far more treats than is appropriate.

9:55 PM – Paul and I are watching some television. Choppy has taken up a nearby napping position.