Gag me with a kibble...

The first thing I do every morning is let the dogs, Lacey a 51/2 y.o. Golden Retriever and Josey a 7 m.o. mini-Australian Shepherd, out to do the things dogs do first thing in the morning. After starting the coffee and getting Bam-Bam the manditory sippy of chocolate milk, I glanced out the new front windows to check on the dogs.

Lacey goes out on a run tied between the house and the tree near Pride Rock, a large NH granite boulder that she frequently perches atop to gaze down the road. Josey, because of the nature of her breed, stays right in the yard with Lacey so she is not hooked to anything. She has taken to running back and forth around the deck to look in the new atrium door when she's ready to come in but otherwise stays put near Lacey. In fact yesterday Tall Boy had Lacey take off on him because the door at the bottom of the stairs was inadvertantly left open. As is par for the course with her, she bounded out the door, down the driveway and hooked a sharp right towards the dead-end. There are several "friends" down that end for her to visit. Junior,a huge GR-cross, Brandi a pit bull, Princess a big booshy something and her brother the German Shepherd that has lived with her for two years and we have yet to learn his name, and Buddy the skinny Black Lab that we've discovered is afraid of Josey even though she's less than half his size.

Yesterday when she took advantage of the open door and was romping happily with her friends beyond our line of sight, Josey paced and panicked around the front yard. She ran back and forth from atop Pride Rock and back to the door, over to the propane tank and around the side where the deck used to be searching for Lacey. But she never left the yard. Love that. Lacey eventually did return after Tall Boy opened the window and gave a whistle. Loved that too.

So, today...

Got up, dogs out, coffee brewing. Looking out window and Josey is FRAPping (Frantically Running and Playing) in every which direction in the front yard. She's doing circles around, over and under Lacey, really ripping up a storm. Tall Boy then passes through and heads downstairs to let them in. They come in and each eat their breakfast. In no time they are back wrestling and FRAPping. By this time the morning gathering has moved here in front of my computer. Tall Boy is in the rocker next to me as I check my e-mail and Bam-Bam is crawling all over him too. He loves his daddy.

Next thing I know, Bam-Bam yells "Oh Oh" and is b-lining it behind me in full gag, eyes watering, mouth gaping. He slows enough to point to the edge of the carpet where it meets the hardwood where the dogs have been playing. There, thankfully not at all on the hardwood, is Josey's breakfast piled up with slimy stomach juice.

Bam-Bam has inhertited Tall Boy's gag reflex. The first several months of potty training were really difficult on HIM. Every morning, while in the process of his first urine, he would gag and "choke" through the whole thing. I never figured out why or what it was that sparked it and thankfully it didn't prevent him from continuing to do it and do it well but the gag was prominent.

He did eventually overcome that particular recurring episode but the intolerence is always there. And, as I said, something he got directly from Tall Boy's DNA pattern because within seconds of Bam-Bam's fit, Tall Boy was stifling his own bout of the chokes.

At that point I didn't know whether to be pissed or thankful that even Lacey turned her nose up at the pile. She would have saved me from having to deal with it but the thought of that now, hours later, is making MY eyes water.

I ventured into the kitchen to grab the Pet Care Resolve carpet cleaner and nearly an entire roll of paper towels to take on this mess and as I approach, I start. I coughed and gagged and nearly lost my coffee. Panic started to set in a bit because I knew I was the only one that would be able to deal with the pile of doom.

I walked away for a bit and locked Tall Boy, Bam-Bam and the girls in the living room and when I had recouped enough I came to the Rescue once again. Case dismissed.