I am a thirty something married gay boy living in Sydney, almost on top of the gay scene but not in it!
Why Sometimes blue?, because I love blue, but also I am sometimes blue :)
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Today is the fisrt day of Lucy being at Doggy Day Care.
Although she comes into the office every day with me, I think it's really important for her at least once a week to have other dog interaction. And the day care is right next to my office AND they have lots and lots of beagles that go.
The best part of the day care is the fact that they have a web cam so anytime I want I can log on and have a look at how Lucy is behaving herself!
It's fantastic.
I must admit like all parents I am rather sad that she is not with me today, but I am sure she is in good hands!
This is what the puppy looks like with her cone of silence, poor pet.
The paw is healing really nicely, but every time I take the cone off she goes striaght back to her paw, so it needs to stay on until the paw is fully healed which shoudl be a few more days!
The Poor Puppy has an infected rear paw and is on a course of antibiotics for ten days. In addition to this she has to wear the 'shroud' again to make sure she does not continually chew and lick at the paw
She so does not like it and has this sad morose look on her face poor baby.
I also have to put a sock over her paw when I walk her, and I have no idea how the hell she is going to cope with that!
In addition once a day I have to shampoo her foot and twice a day I have to try and put on some cream on her paw.
If you have ever dealt with a beagle you will know that trying to do anything like this is a struggle!
We have a real problem at the moment with the beagle.
She has started to display some dreadfully bad, destructive and downright disturbing behavior. When she was a puppy she was quite descructive like most puppies, but of late she has gone into overdrive.
Lat night she destroyed one of my favority coffee table books (the fourth in about the last six weeks) . She also destroyed my flip flops which are the second pair she has destroyed too.
But then today when I went to get some lunch I came back and she had ripped apart two pillows from our bed.
You can always tell when you get home if she has been bad becasue she instantly runs to you and displys "submissive" behaviour. The submissiveness shows itslef by lying down on your feet showing her tummy, which in dog speak is showing deference and telling you that you are higher in the pack than she is.
The problem is she knows she has done something wrong and she gets punished for it, she gets shouted at and sent to her bed under the stairs in purgatory.
At the moment she is in the bathroom under the sink which is the absolute worst place for her. The door is open and she can come out but she knows that she is in trouble.
But I have no idea whether she truly reemembers why she is in trouble!
We always knew beagles can be like this but the behavior of late has just got worse. Anyway once I am calm I will tell her to come here and we will make up.
Over the last two weeks the beagle has been allowed throughout the entire apartment at will. The baby gate at the top of the stairs was removed and she is now allowed into our bedroom without supervision.
Overall she has been pretty well behaved apart form eating the cats food and getting in the cat's litter tray.
The occasional romp on the bed and getting under the covers was ok, but today she did something she has never done before.
She peed on the carpet upstairs!
I am horrified I have no idea why she did it and I am hoping she doesn't do it again!
I had just come home and she ran upstairs to see the cat and then two minutes later I cam up to find a puddle in the spare bedroom.
Is she trying to mark her territory or is this a power play with the cat?
I am a bit worried because up until now she has been very well house trained and knows exactly where she is supposed to pee.
San Jose is smack bam in the middle of Silicon Valley which means there are people living, working and commuting with serious money.
One of the most visible outcomes are the sheer numbers of private jets that are constantly landing at San Jose Airport. Since our hotel has the perfect view of the jets coming in in line with the room I have been amazed at the numbers!
I have a real love of private jets and totally understand how in the USA where commercial air travel is becoming more and more difficult, with increased security, queues, over booking and the aircraft invariably never running on time. Large corporations do not want their senior executives wasting half a day just to fly an hours flight from LA to SF.
Coupled with the much reduced cost, increased safety and time effectiveness corporations are using companies such as Flexjet, Netjet etc to buy either fractional ownership or to buy time in an aircraft.
We know a few people who own their own private jets in the states, but by far the most popular way to is to buy a time share.
We just don't really have the market for this in Australia, it's the tyranny of distance which means that short routes like Sydney to Melbourne etc are well served by the commercial airlines, whilst the longer haul routes to Asia and beyond are generally not cost effective. At somewhere between 10 - 50 thousand dollars an hour for a jet that can do Sydney LA non stop (the Gulfstream 550) it is pretty much out of the the average corporation's pockets in Australia.
But over here it is simply a way of life and if you have serious money you do not fly commercial. Instead you fly fro one of the small local airports to another small local airport. No queues and no rude staff.
Every time I have flown in the states commercially I have always had problems. A few years ago on a United flight from LA to Chicago a passenger fell ill on the flight and collapsed near the crew bulkhead. Unfortunately for the poor guy he was 'of middle eastern appearance' and rather than provide immediate medical care the crew took up defensive positions on the aircraft and we made a very fast emergency landing into Colorado Springs.
This even after the flight had been delayed two hours and I was almost bumped anyway! The crew were unhelpful as we were forced to wait at Colorado Springs in the aircraft for three hours while they did whatever was required.
Again this last weekend my experience with American was troubled. We were almost 'wait listed' off of our flight to San Jose and put on a flight two hours later. While that may sound OK to some it was already 7 O'clock at night and we both had meetings in the morning, so a late night was not what we wanted. We have learnt though in America and especially LA you pull rank or do whatever you can do to get something done. In this case the boy is an uber level Frequent Flyer which means airline staff are usually extra helpful, and in this case just the foot tapping and simple pointing out of the level of Frequent Flyer was enough to sort the problem out.
Anyway this afternoon we are driving to San Francisco where the boy is working this afternoon then we are having a drink(s) with a friend who now lives here! Then tomorrow it's a day of final shopping with the amazingly ridiculously high Australian dollar and a very late night flight back to Sydney and my puppy dog!
And just to remind you what my beagle looks like...
I am up to my ears in work and putting out small bush fires, in the meantime one of my work colleagues spent a weekend in Japan and bought a present for the beagle!
Doesn't she just look so happy and sweet!
The much longer post on the weekends trashiness will follow very soon indeed!
We have a rather unhappy grumpy puppy this afternoon.
The beagle has been very grumpy of late (even more so than normal) and we noticed she was paying a lot of attention to one of her back claws. The boy took her to the vet today to check and not surprisingly the vet found a problem.
Her back dew claw was in fact fractured and was causing her immense pain.
So two veterinary assistants, the boy and the vet all holding down a snarly beagle the claw has been removed. But we now have an unhappy and very sore beagle lying on the sofa growling at anyone who goes near.
A most important issue when you live in an apartment and have a dog is toilet training. Getting the dog to do her business in the right spot can be a frustrating experience.
Lucy was relatively easy to train in that she uses the downstairs bathroom as the place to go toilet. The problem is she goes right in the middle of the bathroom floor.
It means that we end up mopping up several times an evening (she is in office during the day and doesn't go to the toilet until she gets home).
We have been trying to get her to go into the shower stall where it is easier to just turn the shower on to clean. Every now and then she has gone in there but almost always reverts back.
On the weekend at a Friends place their dog goes out on their balcony on plastic grass, so we decided that we would try this too.
So the first night we put the grass in the shower stall and covered it in some pee (hers not mine) and some puppy training spray too.
She totally ignored the grass and continued to pee right in the middle of the bathroom floor.
Next day we moved the grass to the middle of the bathroom thinking we could convince he to pee on this and then move it in.
Guess what?
She pees around the bloody grass!
UGH
All I want is her to pee int he shower stall, is it too much to ask?
It was a long weekend in Sydney and so we had a full weekend of fun and frivolity planned, culminating in us attending the party Homesexual at Home Nightclub in Darling Harbor.
We also played host to some good friends who were down from Brisbane who we don't see all that much so it was really nice to see them!
The party was a blast and we had a fantastic weekend all expect for Saturday when the little beagle had an allergic reaction to her yearly vaccinations. In the picture above you can see how much her poor little face swelled up.
It all happened over the space of a couple of minutes almost five hours after she had the injections. One minutes she was sitting with us on the sofa watching TV and the next minute her face just ballooned up.
We literally picked her up and took her straight to the vet, where she had another three injections making a total of six for the day! Poor little mite was not Happy, but the swelling started to go down pretty much straight away and withing 24 hours all the swelling was gone thank goodness.
This week has so far been a bit slow for me, I have bucket loads of work but after partying hard over the weekend my mind and body are definitely not at their peak performance!
I have been Missing in Action on this blog for well over a week. In fact I think it's closer to ten days really or maybe even two weeks, but I am back (sort of). Work has been going crazy and I have accepting new projects and clients left right and center! IN between all of this I have consistently been back at the gym five times a week focusing on cardio to quickly strip the excess fat around my mid section.
In between all of this we have been doing some social stuff and I have been keeping up with the news of the world! I thought I mighthighlight some of my current annoyances and features.
Catholic Cardinal threatens NSW Politicians over Stem Cell Debate - If they vote to approve stem cell research he has indicated that they should not do communion and has implied that they may even be ex communicated from the Church. Personally I think the cross dressing bigot should pray for forgiveness of his own bigotry.
Alan Jones gets sacked from channel nine - This had me wooping with delight yesterday when I read this in the newspaper. Apparently the new management of Channel Nine and Australian TV station has sacked the right wing John Howard Apologist Radio broadcaster. He has had a spot on morning television for the last twenty years, but since the Packer family has sold the controlling interest, Jones's acerbic right wing dribble is no longer required.
Will and Tobys - We stepped out last week for a late supper to the newest and hottest club / supper club on the strip. Will and Toby's has taken up residence in the newly refurbished Lewis the Dalmatian - my sister in law has bought the cutest little new dalmatian and has called him Lewis (lou Dog or bear). he's only seventeen weeks old and he is already almost as large as Lucy, so I can only imagine how large he is going to end up.
Creationism Museum Opens in Ohio - A museum which promotes 'intelligent design' and suggests the world was created 6000 years ago when people roamed the earth with dinosaurs has opened its doors. This museum will only server to confuse kids and make sure American bible bashers kids are more disadvantaged in the future!
Bush Nominates anti-gay Dr for Surgeon General - And finally Bush is trying to nominate the next Surgeon General. JohnHolsinger is a religious nutcase who in the past has started an ex-gay ministry and said that his study of biology prevents equality for gays and lesbians. He sounds as bad as the idiot Surgeon generals in the eighties who were pretending AIDS did not exist!
I have been absent from blogging for a few days and I habve enjoyed it too LOL!
Seriously though we had a great weekend but were both happy to have some down time and not be social butterflies the entire weekend. We did have friends over on Friday night to help celebrate the dog's first birthday.
We did have a small muffin with a candle for her to blow out (do you know how difficult it is the get a dog to blow a candle out?).
The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing for a change, although on Sunday night we went Gay Bowling with friends J&T.
The one thing I have bought back from our small trip away is a Fire Coral Rash on my arm! Yes I was snorkeling on the reef and trying to take some underwater pictures of the coral when my arm brushed up against the coral.
At the time it disn't seem all that bad just a bit of a sting, but a few days on and I have these itchy red raised welts all over the spot. So a quick review of the Internet and a discussion with the pharmacist and I am smothering hydro-cortisone cream all over the rash.
Yikes it better go away soon, cause it looks disgusting and itches like hell!
Beagle News
The Beagle is back with us after her sojourn at Doggy Day Care, apparenetly she was given a nickname there "never stops", as she never stops playing or goading the other puppies. She was excstatic to see us, licking biting and jumping up which was so nice to see!
But a week away playing with other puppies and she is exhausted. She has pretty much slept since then which is sooooooooo cute!
Being away on the work break is fun, although I must admit that when I left the puppy at Doggy Day Care yesterday I was sad!
But seeing the puppy playing with five other dogs racing around, I knew that she will have a fabulous time.
Speaking to Rose (Puppy Day Care owner) this morning was quite funy, Rose was as expected a bit confused over which dog was which until I reminded her that Lucy is the Beagle and all the confusion stopped.
So the Beagle is well and happy, non stop playing with the other dogs and has made herself a bed up on a table in amongst towels and stuff.
So lie Lucy as she likes to be up high so she can see everything and everyone!
Starting tomorrow the boy and I have a week of work related R&R, two days in a hotel in town and then four days on an Island in the Whitsundays.
But this is the first time i will have ever been apart from more then twenty four hours from Lucy the Beagle! It sounds ridiculous really, because I have a twelve year old cat whom I have left to go holidays hundreds of times.
But this is different, a dog is very much like a child, considering the beagle and I share so much time together (she comes to work with me every day too).
So what to do with a beagle who does not like being left alone for long (she chews anything from expensive chairs to her bed, the sofa etc).
The cat is easy, one of our friends will pop in every morning and night, changer her water, give her some food and attention. And if they are lucky she may deign them with her presence and sit on them and let them pat her.
That's just the way it is with the cat.
But the beagle! NO WAY could we leave the beagle like that! There would be nothing left of the apartment after the first day, and then she would probably chew her way through the front door and visiting the neighbours!
My sister offered to look after her, but the beagle is a huge handful and I don't want to inflict upon someone the beagles bad and naughty behaviour.
So we started looking around at dog kennels, but I wouldn't even send a dog I didn't like to one of those places! Imagine concrete floored cages with dogs in them, YUCK! And for a beagle who craves attention and is a pack animal that would be just plain mean.
One of our friends though recommended a Doggy Day Care Centre in Bronte. A lovely lady named Rose looks after a number f dogs for either day care or longer term care in her home and treats the dogs just like her own! They all get to play together, go for walks, sleep inside at night, get lots and lots of attention, so it's just like going on holidays for Lucy!
So tomorrow morning Lucy the beagle goes on holidays! I hope she enjoys herself!
oh and yeas the cat has pink safety claws in the picture!
The beagle whisperer, AKA Sarah the dog trainer came over to start the training process of us with Lucy.
The most important thing that we were taught is to ignore bad behavior and reward good behavior. Now this might sound really simple but, when you have a beagle who has learnt to bark at you for ten minutes to get your attention, ignoring this can be a real trial!
The growling has been caused by a couple of things, mainly me raising my voice at her when she has growled rather than either not giving her reason to growl and staring her down.
We had been told by a different trainer to "rotate" toys in and out, IE take some toys away and put new ones in. Bad move on our behalf as this was teaching her we could not be trusted with her toys, so she was particularlypossessive of her toys and food.
All in all the change so far has been quite dramatic, she has not growled once and we have quickly been able to stop her from barking badly which is excellent!
Obviously the tips and things we have been shown what to do are huge, not just the couple I have mentioned.
The real proof in all of this will be in a few weeks time when we have got fully into the groove ourselves and she no longer "demands" attention, or more importantly is she does start to demand it we just ignore it.
I have been quite busy of late and have been neglecting things not directly related to work or friends.
Life is good things are definitely coming together well! The boy is in Hong Kong for a couple of days on business so the puppy and I are keeping each other company :)
The picture above was taken by a friend of Lucy two weeks ago. Isn't she just the bomb!
We had to take the puppy to the vet this morning because she has been licking and biting at her stiches and it looked quite red.
Apart from making the boy miss his flight, she was given this cone to wear to stop her attacking the stiches.
The poor thing hates it and just sits there with her back to me looking out the window. But it is better than the consequence which is having her pull out her stitches!
The very adorable Lucy was taken to the vet yesterday to be neutered. When we picked her up last night she was so groggy and not very steady on here feet and dozed on and off in my arms all the way home in the car.
Being a beagle she has been pretty hard to train, especially the toilet training in the apartment (in the office she has never ever made a mess just waiting for her morning and afternoon walks).
But lately she has consistently been using the downstairs bathroom (even if it is right in the middle of the bathroom floor and not in the shower stall like we would like), but last night she was so disoriented she got up from her rug and peed on the sofa!
Puppy Preschool - Can I Hump Your Owner's Leg Too?
The boy and I went to the first "parents only" session for Lucy's Puppy Preschool last night.
Among the dozen or so people attending was a very attractive straight couple. The boy would have been mid twenties with a nice solid build, sexy stubble on that really nice olive complexion that has pinky rosy cheeks that I am so jealous of heheheheh. He was about 5ft 10 and a all round cutey.
We were talking about bad behavoior (of our new puppys) and the normal barking, chewing peeing etc all came up. Then mr cute boy says that his male dog has this very funny habbit of mounting his leg and trying to mate with it.
Now at this stage everyone in the class starts laughing, and I'm there thinking to myself, "Can I hump your leg too"?
Hubba bubba what a night LOL!
The trainer just says "yes it isn't sexual it just feels good"!
Yeah right what part about sex isnt supposed to feel good, oh well, four weeks of puppy preschool here we come!
I am a pretty hard person to get things for, and I am even more difficult when it comes to things that will be in my home, so not suprisingly looking for a dog house for Lucy is a difficult process.
The problem is I've found one that I absolutely love, but there is a catch, it is $900 for an indoor dog house. Granted it is an Italian Design and is even archived in a few modern art and style museums!
So here is the dog house I want, but don't think I will be getting for Lucy :)
This very adorable young lady is a 12 week old standard beagle and is the newest member of our family :) I tried very hard to get a picture of her face becaue she is just so gorgeous, but she simply woould not stay still or look up!
So this is my Birthday Present for next weekend hehehehe
I am a thirty something married gay boy living in Sydney, almost on top of the gay scene but not in it!
Why Sometimes blue?, because I love blue, but also I am sometimes blue :)
So we started looking around at dog kennels, but I wouldn't even send a dog I didn't like to one of those places! Imagine concrete floored cages with dogs in them, YUCK! And for a beagle who craves attention and is a pack animal that would be just plain mean.
The beagle whisperer, AKA Sarah the dog trainer came over to start the training process of us with Lucy. 
The very adorable Lucy was taken to the vet yesterday to be neutered. When we picked her up last night she was so groggy and not very steady on here feet and dozed on and off in my arms all the way home in the car.
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