I’m re-running this from a year ago! HAPPY SECOND BIRTHDAY to BOSS!
Yesterday was Boss’ first birthday!
Of course we had to celebrate. We started the day with a birthday bath. That’s what every one year old wants, right? He was very cooperative. We have trained him where the only time is gets a minty bone is after a bath. How many of you crave a minty bone after a bath?
Anyone? Anyone?
Maybe not.
Then Chris came home and we made big plans for Boss’ birthday bash. So while Chris was doing his 2 hour 15 minute run I was getting Boss ready for his big birthday plans! First thing, every birthday boy needs a party hat. You might be wondering how I know how to make a party hat out of a paper plate. Two words:
Masters degree
No really – years of experience working with children in a program with a very low budget and you quickly become the MacGuyver of creativity with ordinary household items like plates, spoons and popsicle sticks (in my experience you can put anything on a popsicle stick and increase the fun factor of that thing exponentially).
And that is how a paper plate becomes a hat.
Sadly Boss wanted nothing to do with his hat. While I was making the hat he kept running away from me. Finally I chased him down and put on his birthday hat. Check this out:
What is not to love about the hat? Boss was a very good sport and wore his hat. Correction: Boss sat still while I tethered the hat to his head. He didn’t have a choice. I, on the other hand, actually peed my pants laughing so hard at him in the hat. That was my choice. Perhaps I was a bit leaky from of one too many track workouts, from too many miles in a saddle or from just the plain fact that my dog was wearing a damn paper plate on its head!
Boss posed for a few pictures then got into a fight with his paper hat. First he pulled at the string – really just a shoelace. Then he knocked the hat over to its side. Finally he gave up. He must have realized it was actually tied to his body and there was no hope. So he sat by the front door wearing his party hat.
It was really quite sad.
Then Boss played with his favorite toys. He pulled the tufts of fur out of his new squeaky bone, chewed apart fluffy chicken and continued to destroy squeaky squirrel. There are pieces of squirrel all over the house. He chewed on a rawhide bone and tossed his blanket around. And no day is complete without a few rounds of crazy laps!
Here you can see Boss – still wearing his birthday hat – surrounded by tufts of his favorite toys. Is there any better way to spend a birthday?
After dinner we had the real birthday fun. We went to the pet store. Actually we found this fun while Boss found it a bit overstimulating. As a result we put him into the mobile pet prison cell – a shopping cart (Chris’ idea, not mine). First we chose birthday toys – a new squeaky carrot and squeaky squirrel. Then we selected some treats. And then we found the Halloween costume display. I couldn’t help myself. Boss made a stunning bee. Ok so the costume was way too small, it completely covered his eyes and the antenna made him look like a martian. After I stopped laughing, wiped the drool off my chin I found an even better costume – a witch. He had green hair! Then the ghost and last a cow. I found all of this hilarious. Boss – not so much. At one point I put him on the ground dressed in the witch costume and he ran like hell to the front door. He wanted out!
You can see that the birthday trip to the store was more for my entertainment than Boss’ celebration. When we got back home we walked to the field. Every good day deserves a good poop! (humans and pets, agreed?) At the field Chris said that Boss really likes dark crazy laps. So I let him off the leash and dark crazy laps commenced. Until he found a rotten tomato in the field. Then the crazy laps were called off. Come on he just had a bath! He’s not rolling in tomato tonight.
Back in the house Boss played with his carrot. He chewed off some of its leaves and then pulled out his red blanket. But he didn’t get far. A few minutes later he was back in his crate. Seems that someone had a little too much birthday fun and was in bed by 9:30 pm (as a side note, he went into this crate wearing the hat).
And that goes for the humans too! Here’s one for the magazines. I can’t decide what is worth peeing myself more – the picture of Boss or Chris passed out on the couch wearing the birthday hat. And why is he passed out? Too much running, too much Crown Royal, too much…birthday.
There are tufts of all toys squeaky on my living room floor. Two rawhide bones, two socks, a half eaten squeaky squirrel, a bunch of blankets, a bottle of Crown Royal on the counter, a grown man wearing a party hat passed out on my couch and finally a small dog sleeping in a crate. I haven’t checked the ashtrays yet but I have a feeling they haven’t been emptied.
From the looks of this place I’d say it was a pretty good birthday.
