Skeletor says goodbye to an old friend (his rope toy, that is!)

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many words is a video worth?

Anyways, take a look at this video, and I'll type some words as well.



The other day, Skeletor was full of youthful vigor and/or angst. He destroyed one of his oldest toys, which was donated by one of his wonderful blog reader friends (Let me know if you recognize it in its current state) and once a very tough green and white rope tied in a knot at both ends. Before that, Mel caught him trying to eat my webcam. I was very lucky because she caught him before he did any damage. *phew!*

I have seen this dog destroy things before, but he's never really been a bad chewer. He did eat part of my brother's leather jacket (sorry, Ian!) He ate a friend's cell phone (sorry, Shawn!) and He has certainly eaten his share of delicious leather belts.

I have known young male dogs in the past, and they were a hundred times more destructive than Skelly has ever been.

Knowing Skeletor, it's probably his way of trying to tell us something. I think I know what that something is. "Hey buddy, I don't have anything yummy to chew on!"

I think I'm going to add rawhide to Skeletor's Christmas list.

Skeletor unvacuuming my office

This silly hound seems to be in high spirits. I had just vacuumed my office yesterday. Guess what I get to do tomorrow?

Skeletor AKA Hercules gets some good PR

First, I'd like to thank Pam and Oskar from over at Pet Blogs United for inviting Skelly and I to pop in and guest post. Skelly's story is scheduled to air tomorrow (November 17th).

Be sure and stop by for a read :)
http://petblogsunited.blogspot.com/
Tell 'em Skelly sent ya!

An unrelated photo:

"Aaaaaaah!!!" - This dog loves hanging out upside-down.

Next, a Skelly training update...

So as you could see in the amazing "door closing" video, Skeletor was having a little bit of trouble getting a good grip on the leather belt. If only his mouth opened sideways like an ant, he'd be in business!

I decided that maybe a better grip would help him perfect his art.

I found an old wubba that he had long since torn to shreds. I thought the soft straps would make for a good grip. I removed the belt, and started the metamorphosis. (For those who don't know, a wubba is a dog toy that looks kinda like a squid.)

After some hole drilling and a bunch of new zip ties, the modified leather belt was attached, and boasted 4 soft straps that should be very easy for Skeletor to grab.

I let the impatient hound back in the house to try it out. Before he even came inside, he became very interested in the new door handle.

I asked him to "close the door." He clamped his mighty jaws around the part where the belt wrapped around the wubba and began pulling from outside. "Skeletor... pull the door shut, silly."

The destructive maniac had other plans... within seconds, he had ripped the belt clean off the door and was already half way through shredding what remained of the wubba...

Jeez, Hercules! I guess that plan backfired! Perhaps a good grip wasn't such a great idea. This burlyman is likely to rip the door clean off!

So, I have not yet attached the belt back to the knob, but I had better do so before he forgets the ninja jedi door closing training that he has learned thus far.

And then, I wanted to update you on the status of Skeletor's auction. 
The bidding frenzy is off to a great start! The bid is currently up to $40 for this fine work of art!

Place your bid using the form on the right of the page! ---->

More unrelated photos:

Ian and Skelly - lounging on the couch

"Aww man... I was here first!"

Well, that's about it for now.
Have a great day! 

Attack of the laundry basket

Haha... this silly dog never fails to entertain. 

Earlier today, I was just minding my own business stressing about work (or non work as it would be) and I hear this calamity coming from the hallway. I jump out of my chair and here comes skeletor tearing around the corner being chased by a laundry basket which had apparently got hooked on his collar while he was curiously nosing around its contents. 

My roommate is in the process of moving out, so this basket was full of miscellaneous junk. Among the junk was a nice, juicy leather belt. I noticed Skeletor taking an interest in the belt the other day. I knew it was just a matter of time before he got ahold of it... however I must admit, never expected the basket to get ahold of him!! 

Bahahaha!! 

Bad Doggie Alert: That is NOT a chew toy!

Strangely enough the long weekend didn't allow for much time to clean up the house! It looks like a tornado hit this place!

This is bad news for everybody but Skeletor. He's surrounded by a veritable smorgasbord of items to chew on. 

This morning, I heard him chomping happily on something behind the couch. Lo, and behold, it was some poor sap's belt. Skelly No!!  Later on, I look down to see what he's doing and much to my horror, he was munching on a blue ink pen!

I've been liberally applying oxy clean, resolve, and whatever else I can find. As I expected, ink is a pretty tough stain to get out of carpet!

Why was there an ink pen on the floor? That's a good question. :(

The good news is that he's acting healthy enough to cause such destruction. I've learned that his behavior, appetite, and attitude seem to be a direct indicator of his current level of illness. At least that's what I keep telling myself as I repeatedly scrub, mop, wipe, spray, etc...

On the fund raising front, I've got a medium sized Skelly Threads Heart and Crossbones Tee Shirt on eBay. This auction is ending tomorrow!

Place your bid here

Here's a new Skeletor dog trick video

Here's another video I happened upon...

I just got a phone that actually records video.. I think this could mean more frequent and perhaps higher quality skelly vids!

Bad Doggie Alert: Local dog bites off more than he should chew

Well well well,

It seems that Skelly has a vendetta against his aunty Kim. First, he decided to turn her red shoe into a toy, which she wasn't too steamed about. He actually tossed this red shoe so high that it hit our vaulted ceilings, which we thought was pretty crazy! It's fortunately more of a slipper, otherwise it could do some damage!

So then the real crime was committed. The other day while Kim was at work, Ian and I were doing some work around the house and he noticed that something very expensive had been chewed up. The item in question was Kim's purse.

I wouldn't presume to know the first thing about purse brands, but this particular handbag was made by Doonie & Burke and was a gift from Kim's step mom. (sounds pricey)

Skeletor couldn't resist the delicious leather seams and handles... mmmmmm!

Of course nobody witnessed the crime, so there's nothing we can do but slap our foreheads and hope he keeps them jaws under control.

The good news is that Skelly has put on 2 lbs since his last visit to the vet. The bad news is that he lost a couple percent points worth of red blood cells.

He's very slightly anemic and Dr. Fish has put him back on the meds. He's taking 2 Doxycyclene and 1 Predinizone each day. Kim just picked up his anti-biotics. He's a pill poppin' maniac and getting stronger every day.

Here's a video of how super brave he is around the carpet shampooer... 





Here's a video showcasing his amazing sit and stay skills...

Skelly! There are starving char-pei's in China!

This silly hound has a new hobby as of late. I'm not sure why, but he often gets the insatiable urge to dump his bowl of food all over the ground.

I know what you're thinking... "Skelly would never do such a thing!"

I present to you, exhibit no. 1...

Looking mighty guilty, Skeletor! That would be what's left of his breakfast in the foreground and the remains of his lunch in the background.

You can't help but chuckle at the irony... In February when he appeared on the scene, this walking skeleton was down to about 36lbs. Today, he's almost 60lbs and such a spoiled brat, that he decorates the porch with Purina One. (for those who don't know, Purina One is NOT the cheap stuff :)

Oh... just in case nobody gets the title of this post.
I can remember hearing this over and over when I was a kid any time me or my brothers were being picky eaters...

"Finish your dinner you little ingrate! There are starving children in China!"

Another vet visit this week

Thanks to my mom for the guest post. I told her how busy I was and she wrote me a guest post to help keep everybody from falling asleep at their keyboards.

So this week is another visit to the vet for Skelly. I'm happy to announce that he has been doing quite well! (all things considered)



He's finally starting to eat plain old boring dry food. We had him well spoiled during the rapid weight gain phase! He's been very adamant about tearing things to shreds. He's outgrowing some of the smaller toys and moving on to bigger better items to destroy.

I think his destructive power is a measure of his overall health and vigor. So while my first inclination when he does something like ingest half of both my racquetball gloves is to get angry, I can't help but smile and be grateful for his well-being.

Skelly has gotten pretty good with his basic dog tricks. Sit, stay, and paw. He is still working on the others... heel, lay down, don't eat my belt, no begging, no pulling, don't eat my shoes, stay off the couch, no fellating yourself in the house, stay off my bed, no drinking out of the toilet, etc.

We're hoping for good news at the vet. I think that if his blood is looking good, we'll be done with prednizone weening and ready for his next phase of treatment.

That will likely be one of two things: Beginning the actual heartworm treatment or having him neutered.

We've made it this far without neutering, so I'm thinking the heartworm treatment will be the best thing. His being intact isn't really causing too many problems. If we get him neutered, it could push his heartworm treatment back by a month? maybe longer?

I think the longer we wait before he gets another dose of the preventative, the worse the reaction will be.

Stay tuned! We will probably take him to see Dr. Fish on Wednesday.

The vicious pittbull!!

I bent down to kiss the monster's head and what do ya know?! I got headbutted! Pitbulls have very HARD HEADS! He is lucky he is so dang cute! :-)

A trip to the vet, a busted kennel and a new trick

While we were out of town, Kim and Shawn taught Skelly how to shake hands. Mel and I noticed that he almost always shakes with his left paw. Being left-handed ourselves, we always suspected that since he's so very cool, smart and awesome, Skelly must be a lefty. This confirms it!!!

Chillin' in the shade

So, yesterday was another visit to the vet. Mel and I loaded Skells into her car and headed off. He was rather excited to be going on a car ride and wanted everybody within a 2 mile radius to hear about it!

Time to go to the vet, pal!

We arrived at the vet's office and Skelly was ecstatic. We checked in and had a seat. Skells felt the need to yell and scream at every single dog he could see.  I couldn't help but consider how strange this would be in a regular doctor's office... everybody else is just sitting quietly and one guy is screaming his head off....

"Man, it's freakin' hot back here!!"

"HEY YOU!!! HEY! HEY! HEY! OVER HERE! HI THERE!! HEY!!!"

"Let me get some of that A/C!"

Needless to say, some of the uptight old folk weren't as amused as we were. They were shooting daggers down their noses at us with looks that said something about how poorly we trained our dog and/or how vicious he was.

"Calm down Skelly!"

We finally decided to go wait outside so Skelly would chill out a bit.

"Put her there, pal!"

The lady poked her head out and asked "Is that Skeletor?"

"Who's out there!?"

We took him into the back and walked him over to the scale. He weighed in at a big fat 54 lbs!! She directed us to a room to wait for the doc. Once inside, he was super stoked to perform some of his amazing new tricks in exchange for some of the vet's treats.

"What's up with some more of them treats?"

Dr. Fish arrived and took a listen to his heart and lungs. He said everything sounded good. We told him about how Skeletor chokes / coughs when he gets excited (even with no leash on). They whisked him off for some blood work and to listen for the cough we described.

Good boy!

When they returned, they said that he did a little bit of coughing. It's the same coughing that is characteristic of pups who have suffered a bad heartworm preventative reaction. His white cell count was within the normal range. His red cell count is still a little bit low :(

Skells was enjoying the nice, cool floor!

We were instructed to try and keep the stress off his throat. This means keeping his excitement levels low to avoid too much yelling and heavy breathing. Looks like it's gonna be a boring 2 weeks for Skeletor :(

Dr. Fish and his assistant listening to Skelly's heart and lungs

Overall, it was a rather positive visit though! He gained another 4 lbs, his infection cleared up and he's "full of life" as Dr. Fish put it!

"I think I hear something!!"

The bad news is that he has effectively destroyed his sleeping crate. I don't like him sleeping outside with the fleas, mosquitoes and other rif-raff!! We will need to get a new one of those. We're also saving up for a carpet shampooer. It's not cost effective to rent a rug doc every month. His accidents have been getting less frequent lately, but they do occur on occasion.  Also, he can't seem to grasp the concept of wiping his feet when he comes inside :)

Skeletor's Video - Week Two - Cheesey training montage

Skeletor's got the eye of the tiger. He's been doing a great job of eating and exercising. He's gone on a couple of car rides, he has been to the park, and he has been highly entertaining with all of his antics!

Take a look for yourself :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HntKZP1lvgE

Chillin' in the living room

Skeletor is trying to win beauty pageants with this one.

He could care less about the various toys we got him... but this raggedy old hat on the other hand!

To him, it is a special treat.

It's funny how involved his paws are when he's playing with chewables.

How prim and proper!