Dead Sea Creatures and other Beach Finds

This is some of our collection of pretty rocks and sand dollars from our many trips to Fort Funston on the weekends.  It is a dog-friendly beach so we take Archie there as much as we possibly can.  And he inevitably finds some dead sea creature on the beach and rolls around in it.  It's been forcing us to keep up with regular baths so it does have a fringe benefit for us.  We were almost to the end of our walk down the beach and were foolishly thinking he wouldn't find anything dead but, he did.  And he rolled around in it for a good 45 seconds.  When we went a few weeks ago there was a huge dead sea lion that had washed up on the beach.  THANK GOD he didn't see it or we would have never gotten the stink off of him.   Andy and I managed to distract him as we passed, which is not easy to do with a dog that has absolutely no interest in retrieving things.  We were both picturing Archie running up to the sea lion and partially re-enacting the beached-whale scene from the Reno911! movie with the rest of the dogs at the beach..  Guh...oh wait let's think about pretty beach things instead of the title of this post.
Well, the tide was in this time so we didn't see any pretty rocks or sand dollars.  But we did see this.

I know it's completely juvenile toilet humor but I just couldn't resist taking it home and photographing it.  Unfortunately, I forgot to move it from the back of the car away from Archie so he gave the, uh, right cone a chewing before I could photograph it.  It was a pristine example of what I like to call an organic dildo-so San Francisco.

The Hunter

Archie likes to sneak up on his dog food.

Why I love my dog

At the risk of this sounding like a 5th grade creative writing project....this is why Archie is the most awesomest, smartest dog EVER.
Jax was fussy this evening, as happens probably 3 nights a week.  I was pacing around, trying not to hover over Andy as he tried to comfort him.  (Not because he wasn't doing it right, just because I get anxious when Jax is crying and I'm not doing anything about it)  Archie was pacing right along with me, trying to help out.  So, we figure out he's not just having trouble going to sleep and he needs a little food.  I sit down to feed him and Andy says, "OK, well me and Archie are going to go downstairs and change clothes."  and heads out of the room and downstairs.  Archie starts to go, hesitates...then looks back at me.  I say, "We're OK, pooch.   Go get him!"  Archie barrels out of the room and down the stairs, happy to be released from duty.

I love that dog so much.  He is adjusting to the new pack member swimmingly.

dog beds and other major concerns

So tonight Archie actually took a pass on the couch. Let me repeat that...Archie took a pass on laying on the couch. I realize that my incredulity at this notion goes without explanation since dogs love laying on couches almost as much as licking their butts. That being said, I feel the need to elaborate a bit more on his temperament. This is a dog that gets on the couch/bed/chaise/fainting couch/what have you/ ONLY (mostly) when invited and thoroughly enjoys it when he's there. I'm not saying he doesn't hang about hinting, poking with his nose, clawing at you, wagging his tail and imploring with ears perked and brown eyes all round and soft...waiting for that invite but he will wait to be invited. And if that invite comes, he never hesitates. Until tonight.
Jackson was in his crib asleep so it was time for extra Archie love time. He's laying on his sweet-ass Crypton William Wegman dog bed that I just moved upstairs last night. Andy calls him over and he just blinks and stays put. Then, after a bit more urging from Andy, Archie gets up and curls up next to him on the couch. Not 20 seconds later, everyone seems settled in but he jumps up and goes back to that bed. I've been noticing that he disappears at night to our bedroom downstairs to lay on his bed. I thought he was just trying to get a little peace and quiet considering Jackson's habit of crying starting around 6:30-7:00pm but now I'm guessing it's the bed. He LOVES that freaking bed. He couldn't love the cheap dog bed NOOOO, he has to love the stupidly expensive dog bed. It is a great dog bed and I got it so I wouldn't be ashamed to have it be one of the first things you see when you walk in our bedroom. [Because there are just herds of people going into our bedroom day after day after day to tour its magnificence and it's been published in every design magazine, right? Nooo...as always seems to be the case in every place we've lived in, the bedroom is the biggest wreck and is more of a landing space for stuff I don't have a place for elsewhere + a bed. I haven't even removed the picture hooks from where Dennis and Aimee had their pictures hanging. But I digress] So now I'm thinking "I have to buy him another stupidly expensive dog bed so he has one to lay on downstairs. Well, maybe instead of the extra large size he has now, which Clifford the Big Red Dog could lay on comfortably, I can get the slightly smaller (and thus, less expensive) one, and get one that actually is more appropriate for a 60 lb Lab-Sharpei mix." This is going through my head while I brush my teeth. Why am I thinking this? As I type, his perfectly good inexpensive (and already paid for) dog bed lays unused next to me on the carpeted floor and I'm worried about if he will want to come and sleep in our room with us but not want to lay on this horrible dog bed that we've provided for him and choose to lay on his uber-cushy designer dog bed, all alone, upstairs, missing us horribly. Like the dog that rolls around in dead sea creatures on the beach is really worried about the comfort and design of his dog bed. Well, the good news is that crypton fabric won't absorb that dead sea creature smell.