Juno's teeth and a new new-car candidate

Yesterday Juno got her teeth cleaned. It turned out there was no major infection, no rotten teeth needing to be extracted—bloody well better not be, considering she gets her teeth brushed every night—nothing stuck up there. Just the inflammation around her gum in the back, maybe a touch of gingivitis. So they got that all cleaned up, and $458 later, I was able to take her woozy self home.

That meant that all day, it was just me and Kaline. First we walked Teddy and Bentley, and Teddy served ably as the outside dog. Then we had Ellis, Jett, Max and Xena, and thank goodness Max is a fantastic outside dog. You need a good one when you're walking in downtown Palo Alto. Kaline did just fine, although he seemed slightly disconcerted not having his big sister around.

After the dogs got dropped off and Kaline had lunch, I walked with him to McDonald's for me to get some lunch. It was a great training ground for me and Juno, when she was first starting her training. Restaurant experience, but not too much pressure. Nonetheless, I was really nervous going in; I get so uptight that Kaline is going to make a mistake and people will see and judge. Getting uptight, obviously, is not good for Kaline.

Kaline under the table at McDonald's.

Anyway, he did just fine, pretty much. He blocked all right in line, just got distracted when someone came over wanting to pet him. I was able to redirect him and get his focus back very quickly. He sat very politely while I ordered, and again sat nicely behind me while I got pop, then later when I got the food and ketchup. Once we settled down at the booth, though, he was a bit resistant about lying down. Eventually I got him settled—faster, actually, than he is usually able to settle in restaurant settings currently—and he slept nicely while I ate. And then we walked home again.

Now having had about three hours worth of walks, Kaline went to sleep pretty fast when we got home. For a while he was curled up in the bend of my knees, which was lovely. Then at 4:30 he went in his crate and off I went to pick up my girl. I cuddled with her for a while, leaving Kaline upstairs; she was whining pitifully, as dogs do when coming out of anaesthesia, and even though I knew it wasn't because she was in pain, I still felt awful. She was all stoned and stuff too.

Cuddling woozy Juno on the couch.

Once both the parents were home, Dad stayed with Juno while Mom, Kaline and I went to Staples for her to get a multi-port for her computer. Kaline did super well in the store; since it was just a quick trip, we did some basic obedience (sit and down stays, recalls, informal heeling) and had Mom step over him a couple times while he did a down-stay in the middle of the store. No problem.

Then we got home and he turned into devil puppy. He must have had ten different toys out, and all he wanted to chew on was his and Juno's beds, my feet/shoes, Juno's feet, papers, etc. I kept trying to redirect him onto proper chewies, but he'd flit from one to the other and just couldn't hold still. The one thing that held his interest was a frozen carrot, but he finished it in about ten minutes and it was the last one I had. I took the dogs out for a walk, hoping that'd take the edge off Kaline, but again, no luck. It was a very tiring night. Finally they both fell asleep around 10:30. Sigh of relief.

A brief spell of good behavior from Kaline in the evening ... Oh puppyhood.

Today we had our pack walk with the Lab siblings, Baxter and Gracie, and Jett, then training in the park with the various blondes. Kaline got to do a ton of heeling work and did really well, hurrah! Freddie and Dianne worked Juno. Kaline also did nice recalls—you should've seen his face when Freddie handed me a palm-size squeakie to use. We only had one or two semi-drive bys. And then we did retrieves with the squeakie, and he was awesome, not only getting it, but returning, sitting with it still held in his mouth, and walking around with it. Woohoo!

Kaline playing bitey-face with Lucky the Golden Achiever.

When I got home, Dad's friend was here with a 2007 Lexus RX 350. Dad knows him through a business group; he is The Car Guy Who Does the Finding and Haggling For You. I never thought a Lexus was in any way a possibility, but this one actually could be, given the asking price. It is a car that is nice to me. Getting the seats down and up is a little harder than in the CRV or Rav4, but I shouldn't have to do that often, and likely when I need to, I will be able to get help. The back hatch, the important part, is beautifully easy: you give it a little push and it opens the rest of the way by itself, and then to close it you just press a button and step back! It closes on its own! I practically did a dance. Juno had no problem leaping inside; Kaline of course needs help but won't for very much longer.

It's gorgeous inside, gets better mileage than my car (kind of the same as saying someone is smarter than George W. Bush—you're not setting the bar real high), is very nice to drive, has all auto windows, lots of cupholders, buttons to adjust the seats rather than pull-levers or push-bars (YAY), and it's a lovely pale blue. We're checking out a 2011 CRV tomorrow and after that I really have to decide one way or the other on the Lexus, because once the weekend hits he'll start advertising it to people in general, and at a higher price. We'll see how this goes, but I really liked driving it. Mmm. Buttons.