My Life with Charlie… and Gus

Elizabeth might be far, far away on vacation, but the boys and I are doing everything we can to keep ourselves occupied in her absence. For me, that means running a lot… duh. The boys though have been getting pretty used to having Elizabeth around during the day so I figured they would need some special attention. So far so good!

Saturday: While I was spending the day working on the trails in the San Bernardino Mountains, the boys’ aunt, Eileen, came over to hang out and take them for a walk.

Sunday: The boys got a very special treat, their first trip to the Pasadena Dog Park with Loren and Birdie. The Pasadena Dog Park is really nice. If for no other reason than that it actually has grass. And the small dog area is huge compared to other parks. It also doesn’t smell like dog poop, which is very nice for us!

And the dogs all got to ride in the car seat together on the way home:

(photo by Loren)

Monday: Kelly emailed me Sunday night and asked if she could watch the boys on Monday! Nice! Of course you can! The boys had a great day with Kelly and were absolutely wiped when I got them home. Thanks Kelly!

Tired boys on the way home from Kelly’s:

(Little did we know that the 3 mile trip home from Kelly’s would take us 90 minutes thanks to the Secret Service, LA traffic control and Obama’s stupid fundraising plans – probably in that order.)

Tuesday: They got a very special treat today. This morning I dropped them off for a full day of day care at Spot! We adopted Gus from Spot and they absolutely love him and Charlie. If you’re in LA and looking to adopt a dog, definitely check them out. Or if you need dog supplies or day care or grooming, Spot is a great place for all that. The owner, Lizzie, and the whole staff are awesome. Check out their facebook page with their current dogs up for adoption.

Heading into day care this morning:

Now I just have to keep that up so they stay busy (and stop them from driving me crazy!) for the next week!

Gus had a big day on Friday. He got to go for a ride in the car.

And got dropped off at the vet’s office for the day. He came home wearing a cone and missing his balls.

Poor guy. Hopefully pretty soon he’ll forget he ever had them.

He doesn’t really seem to be in any pain and he’s been great about wearing the cone. He doesn’t even try to get it off. But every time he bumps it into something he gets so confused!

With all the nice, comfy dog beds in the house, this is where you choose to spend your day napping:

Or this… comfy much?

Taking advantage of a day off from work, we got both the boys groomed today.  Don’t they look great?!

We actually take them to two different places.  We’ve been taking Charlie to Alex the Happy Dog on San Vicente near La Brea about since we moved to LA.  Alex does a great job for a really good price.  Gus gets a little more “fancy” treatment at Spot, the place where we adopted him.  (For example, today Gus got an oatmeal shampoo and a mixed berry facial!  What?!)  Spot is a little more expensive than Alex, but they’ve known Gus since he was tiny and love to see him.  Of course it would be a little more convenient to bring them both to the same place, but it’s not so bad this way and we’re happy with the treatment they each get. If either place is convenient for you, I would totally recommend bringing your dog there for grooming.

Also, if you’re in the market for a new puppy, Spot does a great job with rescues. They take puppies from shelters and ones that just get dropped off at the back door and take care of them until they’re old enough to be adopted. They were telling me today about some chihuahua mix pups that were dropped off at the back door when they were just 3 or 4 weeks old. Spot hired someone to bottle feed the pups for a few weeks! Those puppies are still too young to be adopted, but they have a bunch of others that are ready. You can find out more at their website and view pictures of their adoption puppies on their facebook page.  Of course, I have a soft spot for Chihuahuas, and right now I’m loving little Jan.

In other news, we’re finally getting settled back home from our two week trip to New York.  I couldn’t be happier to be back home, but I’m guessing the dogs are a little disappointed.  Charlie and Gus are pretty spoiled here in LA, but they lived the crazy good life in NYC.

During the trip, the boys enjoyed summertime in the Hamptons, nights in fancy hotels with doormen holding open the doors for them, commuting by taxi every day to be spoiled at day care and Charlie even got a sleepover with people much more famous than Elizabeth and I ever hang out with!

We spent the second week of the trip in the City and I had to be in the office working all day.  Elizabeth also had meetings to go to, so the boys got to go back to Charlie’s old daycare, Wet Nose Doggy Gym.  When we lived in the City, Charlie was at Wet Nose at least twice a week.  We also boarded him there when we went away and couldn’t bring him.  Julie, the owner, and the rest of her staff are awesome.  Here’s Charlie with Miguel just a few days before we moved to LA:

They love Charlie almost as much as we do and Charlie used to get so excited to spend the day there!  When I think back about what I miss most, Wet Nose is pretty high on the list.

Poor Charlie only gets a blog post recently when he’s spending time with his little brother Gus and his cousin Birdie. Poor Charlie. For that, he gets one picture by himself.

Elizabeth and the boys and I drove down to San Diego on Friday night because my parents were throwing Loren and Charlie (person-Charlie) an engagement party.

Gus and Birdie were really excited to see each other. Charlie tried his best to be excited. I got up really early on Saturday morning to go out to the Pacific Coast Trail near Mount Laguna, to support a few friends participating in the PCT 50 mile ultramarathon. We really wanted the dogs to be as tired as possible by the time the party started so Charlie and I took them to the Fiesta Island dog park which is pretty close to my parent’s house. Had Charlie and I known that Floatopia was going on, we would have left the dogs at home and brought a raft, beer and bathing suits instead. San Diego is a great place to live and even the dogs there have it good. The dog park at Fiesta Island is huge – something like 2.5 acres of wide open space. It’s fenced on three “sides” but one edge is the bay on the side of Fiesta Island so if the dogs are so inclined they can get wet. Our little ones weren’t gonna get wet, but they did have plenty of space to explore!

The plan worked for 2 of the 3 dogs. We put all the dogs into the back bedroom to keep them out of the way. Gus and Birdie were perfectly happy napping and playing. Charlie, no so much. His barking was so friggin’ annoying that he got his way and had the run of the party. When the party was winding down, the puppies were released. The night ended with me, Gus and Birdie out cold on the couch.

During our drive home this afternoon we clipped the boys into their carseat and within minutes they were out cold. Definitely the sign of a good weekend!

Last weekend, Elizabeth and I went to Palm Springs for a little mini-vacation. Charlie and Gus got to spend the weekend with their cousin Birdie. If you remember, Charlie wasn’t all that into Birdie at first. But thankfully he’s warmed up to her and now they’re (mostly) buddies. (Birdie had a little operation last week and still had to wear her cone – thankfully it didn’t stop her from playing one bit!)

Loren and Charlie took really great care of the boys (aren’t they great!). On Sunday, the dogs got a field trip to the Griffith Park Dog Park. After a weekend full of play time, everyone was exhausted and ready for good long nap.

(thanks to Loren for the photos!)

Gus has been a member of the family for about a month now and things between the boys are going great! They become good buddies really quickly and love playing with each other. I haven’t update this blog in far too long. Life’s been busy (still getting used to the new job, training, racing, training and trying to keep up some semblance of a social life) but those aren’t particularly good excuses.

Thankfully, and importantly, life with the boys has been a blast. And instead of boring you with any stories, I’ll just post a bunch of my favorite pictures and a video from the last few weeks.

Gus took to the leash really quickly.  Having Charlie around totally helps.  Gus follows Charlie and sticks right to him.  Charlie walks, Gus walks, Charlie stops, Gus stops.  Interestingly, though, Gus doesn’t like the grass and usually won’t follow Charlie onto the grass.  He’ll just wait on the sidewalk next to where Charlie is.

Gus is a “burrower”. He digs his way under blankets or sheets, something Charlie has never really done. Of course, they both sleep in bed with us and often we’ll wake up with Gus deep under the covers. Here is is just barely poking his head out.

I ran the LA Marathon on March 21. Elizabeth was waiting at mile 15.5 to say hi. She brought Charlie along to wish me extra good luck!

One week later on the last Saturday of March, I did a half-ironman race in Oceanside. The whole family came out to support me, including all three dogs. Luckily it was a pretty nice day for them to spend outside. Here’s Charlie with Gus:

Here’s Elizabeth with “cousin” Birdie:

And Aaron with Charlie:

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Since we moved to LA, I’ve driven around town with Charlie just sitting on the seat next to me. I know it’s awfully unsafe, but never did anything about it. But now with Gus and Charlie, we decided to try securing them. On a trip to the dog park, I put both of them in the hard crate. So cute. I love Charlie’s “smile”.

But Elizabeth got a proper car seat for them. You seatbelt the car seat in and then attach both of them with clips. They settled right in for our trip to the dog park today!

Charlie has always loved the sun. Gus seems to like it also, but not nearly as much. I think he mostly likes it because Charlie likes it.

I love this video of them playing on the couch. They sometimes growl at each other, bare their teeth a little or take nips at the other’s ears, but it’s obvious they’re just playing.

After playing, playing, playing, Gus really wears Charlie out sometimes.

But, on nights when we’re luckiest, the boys snuggle up together!

The house has been a little bit of a zoo this week – in addition to Charlie and Gus (the new little guy has a name) we’ve been dog sitting Birdie, my sister’s puppy.

Charlie was a really good sport about having two puppies invade “his” happy home. He’s getting used to having Gus around. Even if he doesn’t really play with Gus, at least he seems to tolerate having a new “little brother”. And we’ve even caught them taking a nap together a couple times! These two are gonna be good buddies!

Birdie has been a great houseguest. She has an overload of that fabled puppy energy. I’m not sure she ever really stops. Charlie tolerates her pretty much like he tolerates Gus, but they’ve been great partners on walks together and had fun at the dog park yesterday. On the way home, they were conked out side-by-side in the car.

If Charlie and Birdie are getting along, Gus and Birdie are best friends. They play together pretty much non-stop – tug-o-war with toys, wrestling, chasing each other. It’s a blast to watch.

Birdie’s going home tonight. Charlie will probably have mixed emotions, but Gus is going to be so sad. Come back soon Birdie!