Just a quiet dog

I spoke with my parents yesterday (the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday) and was startled when my Dad mentioned that there had not been anything here from McAllister in quite some time. My Mom follows Mac's doings (hi, Mom!).

There's nothing wrong; McAllister has just been a much quieter dog in the last couple of months. He did have a terrific time yesterday welcoming guests and making sure that any surplus food didn't stay in one place too long.

But no worries -- he's thinking about his next entry as he lies quietly on the floor near my chair, and Mac will blog again.

Baa - Ram - Ewe: Mac at work

We got to see Mac at his herding best while on vacation.

Fortunately, we had a camera with us.

Enjoy the slideshow…

Safe and restful sleep…sleep…sleep…

Not much to say about this. I think the grooming is wearing Mac out!

I found him in the hallway, eyelids open, eyes rolled up into his head, twitching and snoring. He didn't stir as I walked by. I actually had the Milk Bone in my hand already.

He didn't notice when I laid it on his snout, nor did he hear me get the camera. Not even the flash woke him up.

It was about five minutes later, when I was getting ready to upload this photo, that McAllister came to his senses. Even then, he pushed the biscuit aside until I made a formal offer of it to him.

The Molting o' the Collies Observed in Cheshire

For the past month I feared we were overfeeding McAllister. He just seemed to be, well—swelling. He was very substantial, let's say. Just a lot of beam presented to the world.

Then, at the Labor Day gathering my family has every year in Vermont, a rat terrier named "Cain" (yes, he probably used to have a brother named "Abel," but he took care of that) thought he'd stir things up by taking a nip at McAllister's ribs.

He came away with a mouthful of fur and a puzzled expression. McAllister didn't even flinch, nor did he grace Cain with any acknowledgment that he had noticed it. Cain didn't try it again.

Since he wasn't wearing Kevlar body armor, nor is he insensitive to touch, there had to be another explanation for why Cain's little teeth made no mark on our Mac. It was all in the fur. In particular, it was in the fur that seemed to be just popping off him that warm summer's afternoon. He had feathers!

All these tan and white "feathers" turn out to be McAllister's summer shed, come just a bit too late for him to be comfortable this year. I took a deep breath and brushed him thoroughly last evening—a two-hour-plus process.

Careful as I assuredly was, Mac wasn't so happy about it. Even though he really doesn't have much else to do, he kept hinting that there were flocks to get in, a coyote at the gate, fresh food being dropped by one-year-olds on the kitchen floor—all of which were much more important than his silly old coat. Didn't I understand that he needed to be free to attend to his duties?

Our little pas de deux resulted in a much more svelte collie and a 13-gallon trash bag filled with last year's undercoat. I was sorry to tell him this morning (wait for it…) we're not done yet. Still, he's much better off today than he was last evening.

Did we mention the squeak?

I bet the most frequent lead-off sentence for blogs is: "Sorry that I haven't posted in a while."

But I am. Really.

Mr. McAllister has really settled into his "retirement home" here. At first he was happy to eat and sleep and stretch his legs from time to time.

As he got more acclimated to The Home, though, he did what I imagine many "grey lions" do — he looked around and said, "I'm not washed up. No, sir! I'm a collie, by golly, and I may sleep 16 hours a day, but I know how to do collie things!"

So, he looked around for animals to herd. Although there are bison just down the road, the only animals in our household (besides him) are of the two-legged variety.

When we're home, we don't like being rounded up and nudged from room to room.

So, Alison found some stuffed sheep toys, made specifically for dogs, at the local market. She didn't have high hopes necessarily that Mac would like a piece of woolly cloth in his mouth, but the price was right.

McAllister took a look and a sniff, tried one out, and took to it! How exciting for him, and how good for us.

Sometimes he will play "catch" with a sheep; sometimes it's just nearby. When I think he's lost interest, I will come across him taking a nap with the sheep just under his head.

It's been a joy to see his herding instincts transferred to more appropriate objects than us.

(Photography note: The glow in Mac's eyes in the first photo is toned way down from the original. Like most dogs, he has very reflective retina, and they don't get corrected with automatic red-eye removal tools because they're not red, they're green. I was able to cut out the "cujo" look just a bit, but there it is.)

A happy visit

We had the opportunity to attend a conference in Washington at the National Cathedral this past week. The drive was long, the cathedral floors are hard, and thus there was no place in D.C. for McAllister to rest his weary head. (His head is often weary. Part of his job.)

It was a blessing to know that any number of church families are happy to host him for short visits, and that he's a good guest. Here is McAllister with our good friends Kirsten, Timothy, Mark, and Sarah. He spent Thursday through Sunday with them.

He was a great visitor, they told us!

Well…Timothy did point out one little shortcoming, related to Mac's adjusting to unfamiliar surroundings.

"He pooped in the garage," Timmy said. "Then, he pooped on the road."

While his parents smiled and assured us it was no trouble at all, Timmy disagreed. "It was not funny!" he explained.

Very true. :-)

We still have the sense that McAllister was a very effective ambassador of goodwill.

Still got it

The squirrels around here (and yes, it's not nice to call them "tree rats" -- doesn't stop us, but it's not nice) have gotten pretty cocky in the past couple of years without a dog roaming in the yard. With the tulips in full bloom, their most annoying habit is to nibble at the tulip because they think it's something good to eat. They let the blossom drop to the ground, and change their "minds." (And yes, that wasn't nice, either. Oh, well.)

This squirrel was roaming our front yard this afternoon when McAllister spotted him. The Gray Menace stood up on his haunches and chattered, possibly feeling just a touch of impunity.

Of course, this is the "after" photo, because he ended up climbing this tree just out of reach of Mac's teeth!

McAllister lay on the ground in this position for a good ten minutes following this encounter. Since he hasn't in general enjoyed staying outdoors, I figure he was "on the case."

A better place to rest one's head

In other McAllister action, the world of books seems to be open to him on some level.

The wicker coffee table in our living room has held some attractions for Mr. Mac. When he stretches out on the floor, he often hides his front paws under the table. (Why? It's a dog thing.)

And, for the second time I've observed, he can just fit his head between the bottom shelf and the top. Don't be fooled by the look on his face in this photo -- he is in fact more than half asleep.

I've heard the opinions from veterinarians that large dogs can have difficulty reaching their heads down to the floor. It's not really comfortable for them unless they find a "just right" position. As I'm writing this, McAllister is on the floor next to me, stretched out full length on his side. He does occasionally adopt the "Snoopy position" -- legs on the ground, tail out behind him, and head cradled between front forelegs. But that doesn't seem to be one of his more used sleeping positions.

I do hope he enjoyed the book, though!

Daydreaming

Also known as "so close, yet so far..."

Not a lot to say, except that our legs are showing signs of bruises from being "nudged" from place to place in the house. :-)

But this photo (at left) is another of those impossible dreams. McAllister is still wondering about the magic space called the dining room. We are continuing our trim work and have added (wonder of wonders!) knobs to the doors, so we have been opening them more often lately. Still, he sits outside, looking in -- which is of course what we asked him to do.

I wonder sometimes how he relates it to his experience of the rest of the house.

This must be where the magic sheep live...

There be goblins beyond this threshold!

[sigh]Silly humans.

What's the secret word?


In any case, he has been very respectful of this space.

Excuse me? Ehr...hrrmppffft!

He's big. And furry. And mostly has kept himself planted firmly on terra firma. (More precisely, "carpet plusha," because he doesn't spend much time hanging out in the uncarpeted rooms of our home.)

But Saturday evening changed all that. With a cozy fire crackling at my elbow, and having just put down a good book, I turned to see that white snout resting on my knee, and those green-glowing eyes gazing into mine. Imploringly, it seemed.

I stared back. And, a moment later, saw a paw join the snout. Then, another.

And before I knew it, I had about 60 pounds of collie in my lap, searching for a sweet spot of rest.

McAllister has been unfailingly polite and perhaps a bit tentative as he has settled in to our home. He did put his snout up on a couple of occasions while we were relaxing in the late evening, but I think it was more out of interest for the snack foods that were just beyond his reach.

But this is the first time he has crawled all the way up. I don't think he was so terribly comfortable while he was up there -- he whimpered a couple of times and made his way back down pretty quickly. (Oh, those arthritic joints...)

I was happy for his achievement, though, and even though he is unaware of this blog, I'll let him know that his accomplishment has been noted for posterity.

Snow? Sorta

It hasn't exactly been summertime weather here in the northeastern United States for the past month, but it has seemed very much like a long late autumn. Cold weather and wet weather just have not converged to produce frozen precipitation.

All that changed last evening with some snow that turned to ice near morning.

McAllister has been fortunate in that he has not had to pick his way through heavy drifts of snow with his aging joints, and this icy weather really hasn't been much of a challenge to him either. I did think it would be good to get some photos of him standing in the Winter Wonderland, even though the camera angle makes it look much more frosty than it really is.

In the second photo (right), that would indeed be Mac's mighty tongue, gathering up the first drafts of a mighty yawn. He has it so tough!

Old dog, new trick

Okay, so it's a picture of McAllister lying down. No big surprise, eh?

But, it's also a picture of a VERY GOOD DOG.

He's lying down in front of the dining room doors. In the living room. While people are eating.

Our dining room has a new, and very special, rug that is predominantly black. It doesn't go well with fur.

McAllister, on the other hand, is ... well, an orchard dog. He likes to be under the trees when the fruit comes tumbling down, if you catch my drift.

From his first day here, we have told him he simply cannot come into the dining room. We placed a stool in the open doorway so he would understand, and between meals he has been very good about it.

Not so during meals, though. He has seen the doorway, seen people eating, and figured the orchard effect would be in full swing so he'd better be there. He has tried squeezing past the stool each time, and we've told him "No" each time.

This evening (with lucious meat on the table, no less), we decided to see if he had gotten the hint. We took the stool out of the doorway as we were beginning dinner. And ... either he's a vegetarian, or he has learned not to come into the dining room while the meal is going on.

Good dog!

It is such a blessing to talk with a dog who gets it!

Flop!

No, he's not a flop. But McAllister has already found some good spots in which to flop as he settles in to his "retirement home."

Here, he is between the coffee table and a large Ottoman. I can walk past him if I pick my way carefully past his tail.

Other good spots so far:

1. Narrow corridor between loveseat and wall (A.K.A. only way to get out of the living room).
2. Next to our bed at night, between us and the bathroom.
3. Just outside the dining room doorway, on kitchen floor (in case "manna" should fall from the heaven of our dining table).
4. Just outside the other dining room door (same thing, but this is a real door, so nothing doing).
5. On the outdoor deck, staring at the back door and waiting to come in.
6. The main hallway to the back rooms of the house.
7. (and cutest) On his bed, in our family room, watching Matt play piano and rehearse. Only time I've seen him on his bed, so far.