Simply Oscar

Since I've written about Max, it is only fair I tell you about Oscar. We adopted Oscar for the kids in 2006, since Max wanted nothing to do with them. They called us from the ASPCA in our town, we had asked to be notified when a Dauchsund came available. He was barking in the kennel at us, following us back and forth. We took him into a side room, he was wagging his tail and being very energetic.

That dog bamboozled us!

He is really happy, energetic on the other hand?? Not so much. He got his family and that was enough to make him decide that life is best done laying down on a pillow. My couch pillows to be exact.....

I tried to hide the couch pillows from him, I kept coming home to them scrunched down from him laying on top of them and by on top, I mean this

Or this

He loves Elizabeth or ''his little girl'' as we call her. He will let her do ANYTHING she wants to him and he just lays there. 

He is just a lover, happy as a clam and dumb as a box of rocks. E likes to tell the story about how she caught him staring at the wall once. He sat there staring and then slowly licked the wall. That's Oscar.

We often say that he and Max are Pinky and the Brain.

Oscar is rarely badly behaved, if ever. He helped Marty greatly through his illness, he would go lay by Marty when he was really sick.

He is just pure joy, one of the best dogs we've ever owned. Even has fans around the world including my friend Fanette in France!

He's a special dog, truly brings us joy every single day and makes up for the madness that is Max. Poor Oscar, he isnt immune from Max. The worst thing is Max will often mark Oscar out in the yard, like he owns him or something. 

Oscar often forgets his name or who we are....yes, randomly some days, he will start barking at as when we come into a room, like we are strangers! Every five minutes is a new day to Oscar.

He loves to go for a ride! You can even just put him in the car and not drive, he thinks he has gone on a ride

He is just special, to really see that you just have to meet him. Everyone who meets him, loves him.

The Infamous Max

In 2001, we adopted a dog named Max. Everyone who knows Max knows, he is a challenging dog to love and care for. Highly intelligent far smarter than his owners or any other dog we've ever owned. We often tell people he is an evil genius.

He can escape his crate, so we bought him a large six foot high, chain link kennel. He chewed through it.

He loves to run away, he ran away and got into our only neighbors trash a few weeks ago. She was worried he ate some chocolate. We weren't worried in the least....he is a superhuman dog, I told her, ''sorry my dog is a jerk.'' because a few months earlier, he kept her up all night barking when we left him in his kennel for the night.

He likes to run the schedule around here...he gets up, wants out, then wants food and will throw himself around until he gets that. I cannot even go to the bathroom myself before letting him out in the morning.

Recently he has taken to opening the zippers on Marty and I's backpacks and lunch coolers. We leave the room and find them dragged around and open, contents strewn about to and fro.

My friend's Mary, Heidi, Jen and I often joke around on Twitter about Max. We have determined he's an evil genius plotting to take over the world. We also joke he communicates with them via DM on Twitter. He is truly that smart of a dog.

He speak saying ''No'' which is his favorite word. One morning he was crying ''out momma'' from the kennel after I left for work, so loud that it woke Elizabeth up. He says ''Momma'' and  ''out'' as well.

If you saw him run and move around, you wouldnt believe he is thirteen. He is grey and lumpy now. As I was typing this blog, Conner just asked him if he had something to say and he said, ''No'' very clearly and loud. He knows what the camera looks like and will always stop talking when we get it out.

He is my foot warmer in the winter, companion during porch time and protector of the family. We are glad we've given him a good home. Despite his running away, bossy nature and foraging ways ( last week, he acted like he wanted to sleep on the couch. The next morning I figured out why, he ate the rest of a bag of Twizzlers off the table)

Only those who've met him will truly understand this post. He is an old dog, who acts young and will probably live a lot longer. He really takes a lot of hard work and TLC, many would've given up on him years ago.

Our Old Dog Max and my Deep Dark Secret

In 2002, after we were done having kids, we decided to adopt a pet. We had lost our beloved family dog Sam in 1997 and it was time to move on. We went to the local shelter and had a idea of what we wanted. We lived in a small two bedroom duplex and knew we needed a small dog.

As we walked the aisles, I spotted the "perfect" fit. A 9 month old chocolate Lab/Dachshund mix. YES, you read the correctly. A Lab dachshund mix. Perfect, our love of Labs and small dog put together. What else could we want. The infamous story goes like this, they offered for us to see him outside his kennel and he hopped up into my lap and started shaking. I should have known then.

We waited the appropriate waiting period and took him home. That's when the fun began. We thought training would be a breeze since Marty had impeccably trained Sam. WRONG.

Max sitting pretty in his youth

This dog came with a laundry list of neurosis. He loved to bolt at the first chance he could get, that explains why he was found "At Large" on his pound tag. He hated to sit on anything but carpet. He was obviously abused in his past life because he piddled when you looked at him or when someone new came into the house. Just a few things in a laundry list of neurosis.

He was very good with the kids. Elizabeth was one and Conner was three when we got him. Sadly, he quickly learned I was the momma and he was all about me, wanting nothing to do with the kids. He tolerated them and played with them but followed me everywhere. Often barking and throwing himself or jumping up and hitting, sometimes nipping my hand to get me to do things for him.

He quickly decided he didn't like Marty or I to hug or kiss. Still to this day he cries , "No no" or "Momma" when we do this. He loves me, more than I love him.

We tried everything to break him of his running. He would figure out how to escape from the kennel and still bolt out the door. No matter how many times we've moved, he always finds his way home in 15-20 minutes.  We finally moved to a house with a gated front entry so he no longer can run away. He still tries but after his famous "River run' where he floated down the St.John's river the day we got the first call from Stanford, he seems to be cured. On that day, as we were searching for him in the rain and cold, E said to me, " I know you don't love him but I do!" OUCH!

I do love him. He is just a handful and tries my patience. He is famous with our friends for his bad behaviour. Many of them have witnessed him following me around and throwing himself at me while I do my daily tasks.

In 2008, before we moved to this house. The "Incident" happened. On one particular, I wanted to go to the bathroom by myself, something most mom's long for. I thought I had achieved this only to see Max sitting at the bathroom door inside the bathroom watching me. Oh NO! this dog wasn't going to watch me pee. So I shoo'ed him out into my bedroom.

I noticed a brown furry bug on the ground and started yelling. Marty yells at the same moment, "Why is Max shaking" and then "Max is bleeding everywhere" and it hit me. On accident I  slammed his tail in the door, docking it in the process. It was Mother's day weekend and the vets were closed. We dipped his tail in Nu Skin and wrapped it tightly. Later we found out it was a clean break and we actually did the right thing. We were told he had to not chew on it or risk surgical removal. We waited it out and his tail healed quite nicely. You would never know he is missing the tip of his tail. Sadly, I have never spoken of it. The shame I feel is great, it was a accident and not my fault, I still feel terrible.

The good news is we are even. On Christmas eve, 2010 while attempting to get up from the couch and grab the drier buzzer before Oscar howled, Max hopped up at the same time and landed on my foot breaking my pinky toe.

He still is gun shy with me and doors, the dog is smart and doesn't forget. If I don't open the front door wide enough for his liking, he backs up until I do.  It's quite funny all these years later and he remembers. In 2010, he was sent to live outside after he marked twice in the house. Guess what? He is happier than ever and loves living outside. It actually fixed several of his issues. After a year, he is allowed to come in for the morning hours and loves it. After 11 years, we finally are enjoying each others company.

He is healthier than our 6 year old Doxie Oscar and we fully expect him to live to be twenty years old. It's been a labor of love to give him a forever home. I am glad we adopted him, most people would have sent him right back.

Old Man Max

He loves when you scratch his neck. He smiles

I refuse to serve him at the table!

Yes, he really is Lab/Doxie. Google it

Old man Max

We had to make a tough choice two weeks ago, we moved our dog Max out of the house. Many of our friends are familiar with Max our nine year old doxie/lab mix. We saved him from the ASPCA nine years ago and immediately knew he was going to take major work. He liked to run away, no matter how long we walked him. He liked to piddle when you looked at him wrong or wanted him to do something. 

But, he was good with the kids and very loyal. He always came home when he ran away. He finally calmed down after crate training but the two major issues have remained. The last three years have been pretty decent until recently. He started regressing and going back to his old behaviors. The last straw was when he purposely marked two household items. We decided he needed to go live outside for the rest of his life.

This shocked some of our closest friends, everyone knows Max was king with Marty but it was Marty who finally made the choice. We bought him a heat lamp for his kennel, gave him plenty of blankets and trained him not to scratch at the door. Guess what?

He has calmed down and the stress level in the house has gone down considerably. He is happy and we are happy. We put the kennel near our bedroom so he can be close and look in the slider. He seems so much happier and calmer. We probably should have done this years ago. 

Being silly

This is my old, cranky, neurotic dog Max. He doesn't like it when Marty or I get near each other when he is sitting by us. He will tell me know and he calls either one of us "Momma".

My other two boys

We have two other family members in our family. They can be heard in the video below and I will now formal introduce you to them.



Max cito burrito- We adopted Max from the pound in April of 2001. He stuck out to me in the kennels and I asked to see him closer. We were looking for a Dachshund and he was marked dachshund/ lab mix( yes, you read that correctly). He seemed very sweet natured and we took him home. On the paper hanging from the clipboard it was marked he was found at large and that should have been a huge red flag. HE LOVES TO RUN AWAY! He sees that front door open and BAM! he is gone in a flash. He can run across four lanes of traffic like nobody's business. He also knows how to push doors open with his nose including the door into the garage. He has been very good with the kids, a good guard dog, companion and very smart. BUT, he is neurotic and needs prozac most of the time. He refuses to sit on anything but carpet and if you try to make him sit anywhere but he piddles. If you look at him the wrong way he piddles! He thinks he is human for the most part and I liken him to Felix Unger. He prefers Marty to any of us and sees him in the morning and goes nuts. He lays his head on Marty's chest in the morning when he goes to bed.

Here is a pic of Cito doing his famous sit pretty ( which he can do for a really long time)



Oscar "The Do"- The kids went to a presentation at the Learning Center and learned about the SPCA. We saw a Doxie named LuLu that was a rescue dog. Talking with her owner we found out you could put your name in for a certain breed at the pound. Elizabeth had been wanting a dog that would sleep with her and since Max prefers adult human's to kid human's we decided to try adoption again. We put our name on the list and got a call last September to come see a male doxie mix. We found Oscar very happy to see us. He seemed very sweet and just so happy to see us and followed us along the kennel as we looked. He is the best dog! so sweet and happy all the time.He is not neurotic and his name fits the half of the odd couple. Max was not very happy to get a new friend and often resents us bringing this 'thing' into his life. Oscar loves attention and wants all of the attention to himself. He likes to play and so far has no bad habits that I know. He is happy go lucky and reminds me of the little dog on Toy Story. The other day we were talking about "The do" and how he is not very smart. Marty told me Oscar doesn't use that part of his brain and relies only on his good looks. Later I said something about using his brain and Elizabeth said " He doesn't use that function"

Here is a pic of him doing his famous "Stop,Drop and Roll'