Kris: March 2006 Archives

It would be nice to be able to talk about Hobie's dog friends. Unfortunately, Hobie is a little short on dog friends now. That's mostly on account of him not being very interested in other dogs.

Instead, we'll mention other dogs we like, and dogs we think Hobie should be friends with.

First up is Rudolf. He is a 10-year-old Miniature Schnauzer.

Rudolf is my family's dog back home. This picture of him is in a forrest near my family's old house. Rudolf is crazy about food, and does not care about toys or playing. A total opposite of Hobie.

Right now, Rudolf has some back problems. One of the discs in his spine is not alligned. The vet has said there's nothing that can be done, and Rudolf gets pain medication when it gets bad.

He's a very sweet dog, and enjoys laying in someone's lap watching TV.

I think Rudolf and Hobie would get along well, mostly because they wouldn't get in each other's way. Hobie would be playing with toys, while Rudolf would just lay in someone's lap.

The maintenance guys had to stop by again, because the toilet they installed was leaking. When Hobie heard the knock on the door, he went nuts and was barking his head off.

I opened the door, told the guy to wait a minute, and said "NO" to Hobie. He quieted down, and I told him to go to bed, and he went away. He kept on growling. The guy didn't seem to scared, and I got Hobie to be quiet , so it went OK.

Hobie kept near me while the toilet was being replaced, and seemed very happy when the "visitor" had left.

I got this from a coworker.

Q: What is Hobie's favorite type of logic?
A: Circular logic

Hobie has now moved from Wordpress to Movable Type.

Hobie prefers Movable Type, allegedly because of its name.

Hobie came to work today, but out of consideration for my coworkers I didn't give him any of the yellow screamers.

He paced around looking for them after I hid them all, and he got pretty excited when he finally figured out where they were.

I was waiting with Hobie outside a coffee shop while a coworker grabbed some coffee. In just a couple of minutes we had been approached by several people.

One of them petted Hobie, and grabbed his beard (and I didn't hear any growling!), another one took a picure of Hobie and showed me pictures of his schnauzer, and a couple of other people commented on him, or just plain talked to him.

Hobie came with me to work today.

He must recognize the area around the building I work in, because when we were about half a block away he started to get excited and spin in circles. One woman got a little worried because it looked like he was walking right at her. When we got to the building door he was pulling fairly hard to get in.

He even whined a little bit in the elevator.

I take his collar off when we're at work, because it jingles (he has two metal tags, one for his license, and one with his name and phone number). I fed him and got him water, but he started pacing around the office.

Turns out he was looking for a toy we have there - a yellow screaming thingy. It's a yellow thing that makes an annoying screaming thing if you throw it. By the end of the day he had collected three of those.

My co-worker brought her dogs also, a whippet and a greyhound.

Hobie got so much play-time. A few of my co-workers enjoy playing with him, and get very happy if he brings the toy back to them instead of me (which is usually what happens). One of my female co-workers desperately wants to pet Hobie, but whenever she gets close he kind of freezes and isn't really sure what's going on. That's usually followed by a little growl.

Overall. though, I think Hobie had a great time. He did seem a little tired walking home, but by the time we got home (and he got fed) he's back to his usual hyperactive self.

We stopped by Pawtrero on our way back from the groomer's. It's a pet store and "bathhouse" in Potrero Hill. It's pretty cool - your dog can run around in there, and the people were friendly.

We were mostly looking for a new collar for Hobie (Gladys wants a Planet Dog collar). We didn't find that, but we did pick up a new toy for Hobie. It's called an IQube,
and it's basically a cube you can put soft balls that squeak in. Hobie enjoys it a lot, except that it only took him a few hours to destroy one of the four balls that came with it.

(Turns out a store nearby us, Puppycat has the collars, but not in the color Gladys wants).

It's been three months since Hobie went to the groomer's. Gladys wanted to try a new groomers, so we went to VIP Grooming in Noe Valley.

When Hobie's fur gets long he can get pretty shaggy. This is how he looked late February at a local park.

Fortunately, he didn't look like that this morning when we took him for his 8 a.m. appointment.

We told the people there that he wasn't very sociable, so they put him in a kennel. There were two or three dogs just walking around there. Hobie got a little worried, so he started barking. He kept barking for several minutes after we left the groomer's, we could hear him a block away.

Anyways, we picked him up, and he looked much better.

He was so happy to see us that he could barely stand still. He just kept spinning around and around and around.

We have had Hobie since February 2005.

He is a slightly neurotic rescue dog that loves to play. Hobie is a large Miniature Schnauzer, and weighs about 27 pounds.

When he gets excited he runs around in a circle. If he gets very excited
the circle gets tighter. When we tell him that we're going for a walk,
he'll run in a circle around the apartment.

He is very cautious, and it takes him a while to warm up to strangers.

Where did Hobie come from?

Hobie was born in Texas in 1999. We first met him after w decided to
foster a dog for a Miniature Schnauzer rescue in Chicago. After a few
months we picked up Hobie, and we were going to take care of him for a
couple of weeks.

A family wanted to adopt him, so we returned Hobie and all his stuff.
However, the adoption didn't work out because Hobie didn't like the dog
the family already had. We were going to move to San Francisco, so we left
Hobie with the rescue society. Time went on, and nobody else had adopted
him.

We decided to check if we could adopt him, despite the long drive out
here. Hobie was so happy when we came to pick him up he could barely sit
still (actually, he just kept running around and licking us). The head of
the rescue society was happy too, and waived the adoption fee when she saw
how happy Hobie was.

From what we know, the previous owner gave up Hobie because his wife got
allergic to him.

Favorite things to do

1. Play
2. Go for walks
3. Eat
4. Look at his owners
5. Get petted

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