Bailey's Adventure

Today, Bailey had quite an adventure that nearly left us with only one dog-child. This morning we put Mac & Bailey in the car and headed down to Braidwood, Sheila's hometown. We went down there for a memorial mass for her mother (it has been a year since she passed), as well as to help Brother-In-Law George celebrate his retirement.

We left the dogs at Chris and Sheree's (Sheila's brother and sis-in-law) place in their fenced in yard with their cousin, Daphne. Daphne is a dog about Mac's size and they got along great running around the yard and chasing each other. Well, it turns out that Bailey found a way out of the yard and decided to go on a jaunt around the town.

Luckily for us, Sheree's father, Francis, just happened to be riding his bike along the street and noticed a small dog wandering alone. Thinking this was odd, he picked her up and saw her nametag said Bailey and that she was from Hoffman Estates. He remembered that we were from up this way and thought maybe it was our dog, so he took her for a bike ride back to Chris' place. There, he saw that Mac was from Hoffman too and reuinited the siblings. Sheila left her cell phone at home, and her number is on the dog tags, so that wouldn't have helped much either!

Here is a map of how far she actually travelled. The 'A' point is at the end of Chris' driveway, she actually got out from his backyard to the left of that marker. The 'B' point is where she was found. We were at church, which is the brown buildings and black parking lot on the left center of the picture. Bailey had to cross Main street, and that total distance, according to Google Maps is about 0.2 miles.


So, we are extremely fortunate that she wasn't hurt crossing a busy main street, attacked by any neighborhood dogs, and finally, found by someone that knows us! Lucky Bailey! If she was a cat, she would have just spent about 6 or 7 of her lives today.

Still Alive

Wow, it's been a long time! It has been a pretty quiet summer here in Illinois. Mac is still around and running the house. He has grown up quite a bit and has gotten over his in-house relief patterns. His favorite pasttime now is seeking and destroying any magazines that are in his reach. We have come home a couple of times to think that someone put new carpet down only to realize that Mac has completely covered the floor with shards of People magazine.

Here are a couple of pictures of Mac and Bailey. Bailey is feeling football season and is excited for Brett Favre's arrival to the Norsemen! Skol Vikings!


Mac is still feeling baseball season and is super stoked that the Twins are putting the white sux in their dust and nipping at the heels of the tiggers. Should be a fun end of summer!


Here is a photo taken several weeks ago right after Mac & Bailey got furcuts!


Oh, and back to Sylvester.. Sheila performed surgery on him tonight, finally. He has this new Government-Run Health Care plan, so he wasn't able to get in for life-saving surgery until 3 months after his guts were spread around the living room. Good thing he's a stuffed animal or else he'd be dead by now. Well, Mac took him and had him split open again within 5 minutes. Sufferin' Succotash!

Mac The Knife

For the past couple of weeks we have had a webcam running at home so that we can keep en eye on the dogs while we are away. We decided to start leaving Mac out of his cage because it was really annoying to have to clean out the cage and clean him up in cases where he had accidents in the cage. This experiment has been pretty entertaining and, umm, instructional, I guess. We are seeing things that we probably would be better off not seeing, such as Mac playing tug of war with the curtains and the couch, as well as Bailey, Miss I-never-do-anything-wrong wreaking some havoc of her own during the day.

There hasn't been any major major destruction. The biggest thing so far is the splintering of one of Sheila's Longaberger or however-its-spelled baskets. And, for that one, we caught Bailey in the act of hauling that around the room in her mouth before she sat down to shred it up.

Another thing that is fun to watch on the cam is Mac and Bailey playing and Mac assaulting his toys. He has a few stuffed squeaky toys that he pounces on and gives death shakes. Well, today, he finally succeeded in murdering Sylvester the Cat. Here is the screen capture of the murder scene. Mac hasn't even bothered to leave the scene of the crime.

And yes, that is one of Grandma O's afghans that he is laying on.

Mac Visits SD

Mac made the trip home with us overnight. He was a great car traveler - he never once forced his way into the front seat like Bailey does. No barking or whining, and no accidents in the car. His first day in Grandma and Grandpa's house has been fine. He loves the doggy door and him and Bailey have had a lot of fun racing in circles outside.

He has yet to see the World's Largest Pheasant, and we didn't take him to the Corn Palace either. Otherwise, being at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Ravine Lake is the 3rd coolest thing to do in Eastern South Dakota!

Dog Update 4

Mac made it through today with no problems again. We think he is past his sickness and whatever anxiety he had from moving into a new place with an established alpha dog.

To honor Mac's rich history with us, I am going to post a picture that Tom put together for us. He titled it Dogforce 1, but I think Brent came up with a much better name, Air Force Deuce.

Barring any catastrophes tomorrow, Mac seems to be cruisin' for a cruisin'... Right down I-90!

Photoshops of Air Force One

At the National Review Online, they had the same idea I did, and some readers submitted some photoshopped pictures. Check it out here.

Dog Update 3

Mac had a great weekend. He was even left out of the cage for a few hours on Sunday while we went down to Aurora (Wayne's World! Wayne's World! Party Time! Excellent!) to go to a home show. When we got back, all that seemed out of place was that Sheila's sandals were now on the couch, and one of the curtains on the front window had migrated over about a foot. No accidents and nothing broken. Not too shabby!

Today, Mac and Bailey went to get furcuts. He was great in the car ride and the groomer said he was good for her, which was a relief. When I went to pick them up, they weren't barking and he didn't soil his cage there either. Ahh, the little things in life!

I will post pictures soon of the freshly shorn siblings. Mac seems to be alot better in the last several days and he seems to be gaining weight finally. So maybe we're out of the woods and now we can concentrate on just having a puppy instead of a sick dog.