How much embellishment was there in Marley and Me, Gromit?

Well, Kristin I had dinner last evening at a Mediterranean Buffet - Buffet and Kristin is such an oxymoron these days but we tried other options as we walked around to the restaurants available at the resort where we are staying and decided that French, Italian and Greek cuisine was our choice on the first official vacation meal for the first official vacation I have been on in two years. Funny, I love traveling but apparently my roots have grown deeper than I realized.

Kristin has taken to calling me a dog freak since Gromit came into our lives, it happened gradually but I have to say I think many people would laugh about how hard it is for me to leave the boys. It is hard for a number of reasons but the biggest one of course is - how can we possibly ask anyone else to take on the daily rituals that we are so accustomed to with those boys and our cats. We packed up their food, fish oil supplements, Costco size jar of peanut butter(if you are not a dog person - that is for the fish oil supplements to get smothered in so they go down easier), double leash, 2 regular leashes, 2 easy walk harnesses- one barely in tact due to the dutiful chewing of one CHEWbakha from Bugtussle, one Gentle Leader Head Collar, 2 glass bowls, and a huge bin of dog treats for any dog that might need one. I dropped the dogs off trying to make it seem normal and turned to give them each a kiss a top their head and said "be good, behave and be good dogs."

Our list of instructions feels like it goes on and on, and I get guiltier and guiltier as I realize, this is a lot when someone is already having their daily life with their own pets and full time job

Here is the list -

• we put out a set of replacement towels to cover Tiace's heating pad if she vomits on it - she prefers a clean bed, so if you just pull the ones she barfed on out and throw them in the laundry room and place a clean one from the pile that would be great
• the cats eat once a day but they prefer their litter box to also be cleaned at that time
• Schmadios likes to be petted even if you don't think so - she will chatter away while you are doing things at the house - let her go and give her a little scratch under the chin and when she flops over a little rub on the belly
• there is extra dog food at the house if you run out - they each get one scoop twice a day
• they get fish oil once a day in peanut butter
• if you go to the dog park... park the car as close to the airport as you can then walk the gravel road on the edge of the park. This way Gromit doesn't meet up with too many dogs that can't travel fast and far to play with him, which means they can get away.
• at the beginning toss Chewie's ball to Gromit and let him race around Chewie with it - gives them both instant busy time and will take care of any zaniness they might have
• Gromit is not a fighter, he barks and if he is scared he will run and hide behind you - he is afraid of Great Dane's and think every Keeshound and Berner could be his best friends but once he gets a sniff he will know who is who
• he is very good with old or injured dogs - he is polite but will not bother them
• When a dog does want to play, Gromit needs to be reminded that he is bigger and that little dogs don't like to see his belly while rolling over on the ground, and even if they jump up tail wagging happy and come right back at Gromit it is best to stop him before he starts to play chase - chase is a bad game for him - not because he is mean, because he is big and no dog seems to understand that he is fast - big but fast - the only two dogs he has not caught up with were a vizsla and a group of whippets - he has caught up with every other dog I have seen him chase and runs circles around most dogs that chase him - some dogs love this, some dogs don't, I just figure prevention is the best route to take and keep him running toward Chewie -
• Chewie never starts anything but he does not like to mounted - he seriously does not like to mounted - so keep the ball moving and he will give off the stay away I am working vibe to everyone but the gregarious 18 month and younger pure labs - those dogs love to play and cannot be redirected - their owners will try to stop them but young labs as young poodles often exhibit a behavior called Selective Deafness, eventually Gromit will come over and those dogs are perfect for playing with Gromit - they love to wrestle and run and are big enough to enjoy Gromit
• Chewie can go anywhere on his leash, he is well behaved on his leash - I take him to stores and to the coffee shop and on the parkway
• Gromit cannot go anywhere on his leash unless you are working him the whole time - talking to him, redirecting him, running him, changing directions, getting tired just typing this but that is the energy that it takes to meet Gromit - LOL
• Gromit will surf the counter, the table and your plate
• Chewie will use his eye contact to overpower your will power and move food from your counter to his mouth
• Chewie does not like thunderstorms but you shouldn't have to worry about that right now

That's the list - phew - how tocompensate anyone who is willing to take those two dogs into their home for 10 days? And tend to our 19 year old adored felines - You really count your blessings when you know you have friends who can manage these guys - if there is a heaven they surely sent those women our direction -

Moving ahead - my first morning on vacation and I slept until 8am CST - 9am EST - I spent my first official morning sleeping in while Kristin got up to attend a conference. I woke up and turned on the television - why waste a morning in a king size bed, no cats or dogs filling up the spaces between Kristin and I. So I figured I would see if there was a good morning movie, order breakfast in bed - and what to my wandering eyes should appear but a dog movie - Marely and Me. I settled in and relaxed while Kristin showered. I forgot how funny Marely's decisions were to me when I first saw the movie on the big screen. So Kristin is drying herself off from the shower and we are chuckling in unison at the movie and I hear her say from the other side of the wall - "they must have embellished because no dog could be that bad." Umm - Kristin - I have a whole blog about Gromit and Chewie and that doesn't even count the things our perfect dog Rowdy Ann did - yeah, I think Marley is completely plausible, no embellishment required. Perhaps the humans were not quite as low key as it appeared in the movie - She hasn't read the take care of Gromit and Chewie list yet but - does she remember the time Rowdy ate the whole bottle of chewable Rimadyl or what about Chewie eating gross muchies from the dog yard, or Gromit running past her to go outside with a piece of pizza in his mouth, maybe she forgot about the fact that our Room and Board dining room table has chewed legs - Chewbakha, or the fact that we had to give Gromit hyrdogen peroxide last week, after eating three rolls of rising bread dough, does she remember how Gromit screeched the whole airplane ride home, doesn't she recall the phone call we received at the stop sign two blocks away from our house that the glass break detector in the living room went off - the first time we left Gromit home alone, or the fact that we waited a couple of years before we bought a new couch after Rowdy lived with us - she ate the other couch - oh, yeah, I believe in Marley's bad behavior as much as I believe Marely was a completely loved dog - we completely love our dogs - and all their mischievousness right along with all the snuggling and deep sighing -