Choosing a name

You took a dog in off the streets and decided to take care of it for a few days. You figure the usual commands you use for the other dog in the family should work for the new one as well. Ok, good. But then you need to use a name before the command, so that the dogs know who is supposed to follow it. What do you name a "temporary pet"?

I called her Girl a lot at first, as well as Negruta (Romanian for Blackie) because she reminded me of another black dog called Negruta. The people at the vet clinic called her Blackie. Then we realised we would be keeping her for longer, so we sat down to think about the name properly.

Of course, Negruta and Blackie are all valid regular names for a female black dog, right? Nope, my husband doesn't do regular pet names. His two cats (now his mother's cats) are called DJ (short for Destroyer of toys, but in Romanian) because he always broke his toys and Pitica (the English equivalent would be Tiny one) because he rescued her as a kitten and she was very small and frightened. Our first dog is called Aschiuta (which means Little splinter) because she chewed on wooden table legs until splinters came off. So the new dog also needed a special name.

He must have been brewing his idea for a while, because he immediately said we should call her Nightmare. Why Nightmare? Because the first few nights that she was with us we were so worried about her that we lost a lot of sleep. So she was our little nightmare.

I was reluctant at first, because I was still biased on Negruta, but he convinced me. Now I am very comfortable going around calling her Nightmare and she also seems to have learned it is her name. Of course, people were surprised when they found out about the name (one of our neighbours said to me "Sure, your husband is a rocker, what else do you expect?") - especially the ones who knew how gentle she was - but our friends got used to it as well.

I must say, even if she looks a bit scary, she is the loveliest nightmare we have ever had!

She is a real sweetheart, but people who meet her for the first time are prone to believe she has a nightmarish temper!

Dear pooch

Dear pooch,

We've been together for one year now and you're just over a year older yourself. We've taught you many tricks, including sitting and not sticking your nose in our plates at lunch. You still pull on the leash, but I know you get tired quickly and after that you're a nice girl, walking by me.

You don't respect me much, but I can't really blame you. I do most of the work around here and I also wash your dirty paws for you. I really mind it when you bite when I try to work. I know you have a huge crush on my fiance, but really, we can share, can't we?

If I send you to the balcony to take a little time out, it's for sparing my hands a few bites and maybe teaching you some manners. Don't worry, Scorp is only out to classes, he will be back afterwards. I always let you back in when you get lonely out there, if you behave yourself.

This is what I call Pasha pooch. Always on top of the pillow pile.

Look, you're nicely sleeping now, dreaming your poochie dreams. Such a good girl! Sleep tight!

Lavi

PS: if you're a really good girl, we will share a pepper later.

Cuddling

She comes and pushes the edge of the blanket with her nose. It's like she is saying "let me in, it's cold". I lift the blanket and she sneaks underneath, rolling into a warm doggie pretzel.

She presses tightly against my belly, so close that sometimes I feel I can't breathe properly. She then swallows a few times and sighs. Shifts a little until she feels that she is in the perfect position for napping. Another sigh.

I don't know if Aschiuta comes to cuddle under the blanket with us because she is really cold or if she just enjoys the closeness. She is nevertheless welcome any time. Especially during the colder weather, we keep one another warm like that. A little sandwich. Call it a "hot dog" if you're feeling humorous.
 

Pretzel doggie, waiting for someone to cuddle with.

 
I take a small paw in my hand and dive my head under the covers to give her a small kiss on the head. She smells a bit like raspberries. She smells a lot like doggie. Her ears flutter in her sleep, tickled by the covers. She doesn't seem to mind burying her nose in there, without much air. I still leave the blanket raised a little.

I then fall asleep, hugging a pretzel doggie. Gnite. Sweet dreams.

Snapping shots of the Sleeping Beauty

Today I saw a post at House of Carnivores, Argos in Repose, where you can find two nice pictures of the Greyhound Argos sleeping and a hint that there is a little sleeping doggie contest and giveaway at CowSpotDog.

I will admit, I have my camera on the table, waiting patiently for Aschiuta to fall asleep in one of her funny positions so I can snap a picture. Unfortunately for me, my camera flashes a red light while focusing the image, so the chances are my Sleeping Beauty would wake up and I'd miss the moment.

These are some of the few lucky shots that I got, showing a napping doggie. Enjoy!

Her favourite position is usually "bottoms up".

Snore snore on one side.

Snore snore in black and white too.

The missed picture... She just opened her eyes a second before the photo was taken.

What a nice way of sleeping in. Have a great weekend!

"Is Aschiuta sleeping?"

Things one can do while Aschiuta is sleeping:

• cuddling and napping with her
• getting some work done
• listening to music on headphones
• watching an episode of the current favourite series
• looking at doggie to check up on her
• thinking "awww, she's so cute sleeping like that" and taking a picture
• watching a scary ghost show and getting brave thinking that, if a nasty ghost shows up, you'd be there to protect doggie
• getting some work done
• writing random blog entries about doggie
• watching porn
• updating facebook status with random links to blog posts
• trying to grab a snack, hoping she wouldn't wake up and come begging
• slipping out for shopping or going out with Scorp
• cleaning or washing clothes, hoping doggie wouldn't wake up
• singing along to the Offspring, but not too loudly
• wondering what she's dreaming about
• thinking "she's so good when she's asleep"

Things one can do while Aschiuta is awake:

• all of the above, but, at the same time, shouting at her "stop chewing on that!"

She's so good when she's asleep...

Dreaming Doggie Dreams

I dream about a lot of strange things. Scorp is always amused when I tell him about my dreams the following day.

You might have heard that we dream every night, even if we don't remember what we dream about or even that we dreamt anything at all. Even more intriguing, they say that we can't go without sleeping for more than a few days. But that is actually because we can't go without dreaming for so long.

But if you think we are the only intelligent enough creatures to have dreams, you're wrong. Animals have been proven to dream, just like we do. You should read this article on the MIT News site for more information.

Aschiuta's dreams

I recently wrote a post about where and how Aschiuta likes to sleep, Beddie-bye with Aschiuta. Now I will tell you about her dreams.

She might dream more often than we know of, but when she moves or whimpers in her sleep, it's quite obvious that she is dreaming.

Whimpering

Aschiuta came from the streets, so who knows what scary things she might have seen then. Maybe she remembered having been left alone in the room when we had to go somewhere. Or who knows, maybe her doggie imagination made up nightmares for her.

Little whimpers from a dreaming doggie

 We usually wake her up when she's having a bad dream and she looks scared and confused at us for a few minutes. Then, when she sees it was all a dream, she goes back to sleep.

Running

Aschiuta loves to run and jump. It's her favourite fun thing to do, wherever she is. So it's only normal she would love a good run while she's dreaming too. It's really funny to see the little paws moving fast, even if she wasn't really going anywhere like that. But somewhere in her mind, she was...

Suckling

Yes, she dreams of suckling and it's very obvious from the way her lips and tongue move in her sleep. She even makes a little sound. This makes me believe her mommy stayed with her at least for a while and took care of her. I hope these are sweet dreams for Aschiuta.

If you know any other animal dream stories, you are welcome to share yours in a comment. Sweet dreams everyone!

Beddie-bye with Aschiuta

Aschiuta is a very energetic doggie - she jumps, runs, chews on things. But when things get calmer, she rolls into a little pretzel and dozes off. On the bed, on the sofa, under the bed, next to the bed, wherever there is room and she feels comfortable.

Aschiuta as a puppy resting on the floor.

The first doggie bed

When we first got the doggie, we put her in a little box with a few old clothes as mattress. But it was a bit too small for her and she kept waking up and shifting around. I found her out of the box quite a few times. Eventually, she ended up on a big pile of dirty clothes and finally had a better sleep (and got the dirty clothes even dirtier).

Carton boxes and old clothes... bed or toy?

We found her a bigger box, then another even bigger box and put a nice pile of clothes in there for her. Unfortunately, the box was carton and apparently yummy for our dog/goat/rabbit. She kept chewing on the edges and trying to yank the box around. It was messy and annoying. Not to mention the fact that she always stole the clothes and ran around with them and swept the floor with them.

The box is now on the balcony, so she can use it when she has to spend the night there.

The first big jump

When Aschiuta was still small, she couldn't jump in bed or on the couch and she was always distressed about this. She saw us sleeping there and wanted to come join us. She saw it was nice and soft, softer than the floor or her bed (she somehow ended up piling the clothes in one spot and sleeping next to them). We always laughed at her as she was wriggling her way up, trying to use us as a ladder.

I always thought that sleeping with the doggie would be a bad idea, because she wouldn't have been able to wipe her paws before hopping in. And I was happy she couldn't jump high enough.

Snore snore.

One day though, she did. She made a run for it and jumped in bed. I shooed her down, but she jumped again. Once she was able to do it, I knew there would be no way she would stay down. I had to visit my mom then and I remember Scorp called me and said "Our little doggie is growing up! Today she jumped in bed on her own. She didn't even have to sprint for it." And that was the beginning of the Doggie Bed Empire.

She likes to make herself comfortable on the bed.

We have a mini bed warmer

She can now stay in bed whenever she wants. We even allowed her on the sofa, cleared half of it for her and now she sleeps there half of the time. She used to eat up the stuffing that came out between the cushions (it's a very old sofa), but I covered it with a blanket and she can't reach it easily anymore.

As for the bed time, she keeps our feet and backs warm. She usually sleeps as soon as we go to bed, or at about 9 pm, like a good little girl. I'm surprised that lately, when we left her alone in the room for a few hours, we found her napping. It might mean that she's finally getting over her separation anxiety. I sure hope so.

Happily napping... Not a care in the world.

 She can sleep in a lot of different positions. She can stretch her paws out until she's half the length of the bed, she can curl into a ball or even nap on her back. A friend told us this means she feels safe, otherwise she wouldn't expose her belly like that. And she even stayed like that when we went to Brasov. I guess home really is where your loved ones are.

She woke up for the photo, but that was her sleeping position.

Now, the only problem with doggie on the bed is that she can get the sheets a bit dirty with her paws, even if we do wash them every time after going out. Doggies will be doggies... And they will always leave pawprints.