Wow! I can’t believe the summer’s gone already.  Here are a couple of things I could have been writing about.

There were several trips to the zoo – both the Henry Vilas and the Milwaukee County – during which I spent hours taking photos.  Always a good time.

In July I practiced my henna skills on both hands.  The lighter one has just had the paste peeled off, and the darker hand is a day old.

We spent a week up at Moon Beach Camp with my parents and grandma.  We got to share a cabin with Rachel’s family – it was a blast!  I’d forgotten how much I miss camp.

And the obligatory Dez shot.  He’s been perfect, of course.

I tried for days to get a picture of Dez to post here, and instead I got images of what appears to be a ghost dog haunting our house. Just about the only way to tell that he’s real is the nose print on the window. He did settle down for about five seconds once – to keep an eye on the neighbors shoveling out from our first snow.

As you can probably tell, Dez has calmed down a bit since my last post. He’s been so good lately that we’ve even been letting him sleep on his bed at night! We’re up to three nights running with no incidents. Huge progress doesn’t even begin to describe it. He even got to meet his cousin Punkin and his uncle Jack this past weekend. All things considered I think he did marvelously. No one got eaten, and my parents’ place stayed in one piece. Wow.

I was going to write a post about how good Dez has been lately. I was going to talk about how much better he’s been since he got over his surgery. Then he turned back into “Dez: the canine typhoon.” Granted, we have been warned that it can take up to 6 weeks after a neuter for the testosterone to leave his system. Unfortunately that isn’t going to make the next 6 weeks any easier, or the next 6 months for that matter. Two nights ago we came home to find that Dez had removed his collar. In a half dozen pieces. Hello, old chain choke collar. Yesterday he was so bad before he even got going that he didn’t get to leave his kennel until 12:30. This morning was much better, and he spent some time with me in the office while I worked on the computer. Until he chewed a hole in his bed. Then he was good and quiet in his kennel so I let him outside to burn off some energy. He never listens to us when he’s off leash outside (something that is top of the obedience training list) and I was forced to trick him into thinking we were going inside to get him to come back so I could remove the ball he was devouring. Catching a speeding Azawakh is no easy task, especially with a sprained ankle. I turned him loose again, without his ball, and he enjoyed a good game of speeding past me in giant circles before plopping down and rolling over for scratches. Then he decided to use my face as a launching pad for all four feet to flip himself upright and take off. It’s a miracle my nose isn’t broken. How long does puppyhood last?

We knew when we adopted Dez that things would be hard for a while. We knew he liked to chew on things and that his last family wasn’t sure whether he was completely house trained. We knew that he had a lot of energy and a talent for getting himself in trouble. We knew he liked to talk back. We didn’t know that whining and howling were one of his main activities. We also didn’t know that he likes to bite. A lot. That’s not to say that he’s a mean dog, he just gets very excited and plays the way puppies do. So far, Dez has had his fair share of good days and bad days. Lately though, he’s been on a streak of bad ones. When he marked on the quilt my grandmother had made for us at 11 pm the other night, it was a low point. Thankfully, he’s scheduled to be neutered tomorrow. We’re also looking into obedience training, although it’s impossible to know which schools are actually worthwile. I’m not sure whether he’s even ready to be in a room with a bunch of other dogs, since he immediately stops listening to us as soon as new people or other animals show up. He also likes to chase and jump on other dogs. Correcting him when he’s wrong and praising him when he’s right doesn’t seem to work very well. Ignoring him when he’s being bad or howling doesn’t seem to work either. Food rewards don’t work because it’s a challenge just to get him to eat his dinner. Alpha rollovers only seem to have an effect for about five minutes, and leave us feeling miserable. We’ve had moderate success counting to 3 before kenneling him when he’s ignoring us… he usually starts to run towards us at 2. I’m currently immersed in dog training books looking for ideas. If anyone has any suggestions, please share!

Dez has been with us for a week now, and is settling in well. He’s not quite like any dog I’ve ever known. So far we’ve learned: he likes to chew, a lot; he’s very vocal, and likes to talk back; he loves squirrels and rabbits; he knows many commands in spanish; he likes to chase and jump on dogs when he plays with them; he likes scratches from just about anyone; he’s very playful and likes to pounce on his toys; he sounds like a wookie when he yowls; he’s nervous about his food bowl; he listens well and is learning quickly. We love him already.

I’d like to announce the arrival of Ewan’s new blog entitled: VetSchool: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Abomasum. You can find his witty commentary at http://dinovet.blogspot.com/ , or by clicking the link under Gator’s Favorite People to the left.

The other highly anticipated news is that Agadez will be arriving here on Saturday afternoon! We are very excited to welcome him home.

News from the home front is not quite as wonderful, since the current humidity of 91% is causing the paint to dry veeerrry sloooowwwly. The dining room is green, but unfortunately it needs a second coat. We will try very hard to have that happen before Saturday afternoon.

This is Agadez, aka Dez, an Azawakh (Tuareg Hound) who is currently residing with some friends in Chicago. Unfortunately for his current family, but fortunately for us, they are having trouble spending enough time with both Agadez and their four year old daughter. This means that Dez will be moving in with us at the end of the month! We are very excited to have Dez join our family, and hope we can help him to put his slightly destructive past behind him. I guess this means we’ll have to get our act together and finish painting…