I’ve really fallen off the blogging wagon for a number of reasons.  Most of it can be traced to that I am lazy.  I spent this week on the North Slope for work, and didn’t really see much except the quarter mile road between my camp and where I worked.  As I near the end of this hitch, I remembered a question I got a lot when talking to folks down south.

When I leave town, what happens to Auggie?

For you newbies, Auggie is my rolling ball of fur and poop that most of you would call a dog.  As much as I like having around, I can’t take him with me when I go … well … anywhere.  Hard enough finding a place for him to hang out when I am driving around Alaska, even harder to sneak a 40 pound pooch in my carry-on bag.  So something has to happen to him.

This Week’s Answer:  Little Baby Auggie has to have a Baby Sitter (it’s funnier if you sing it like you are teasing him .. it’s okay, he doesn’t notice, he’s a dog)

I have a pet/house sitter this week as a break from the normal thing I do.  Plus it’s his breeder’s daughter, and it’s a chance for me to see if I am screwing up my poor dog’s life … and they wanted to see how he’s doing (turns out, he’s one of the biggest dog’s they’ve bred).

Normal Answer: He goes into lock down.

I use the local PetSmart PetHotel for a boarding place.  Turns out, I didn’t have a lot of options to put him up for boarding.  Auggie is a purebred Staffordshire Bull Terrier (or Staffy for short); which you can classify as the breed between a Boxer and a Pit Bull.  That breed is classed as a “Bully Breed” because like the Pit and the Boxer, it can be aggressive to other dogs (though Staffies due to ingenious breeding over a hundred years ago are very human friendly).  As a result, many boarding places won’t take him — basically having a bias against the breed.  PetSmart will take him, but they have a corporate policy that says he can’t play with others.

While that sounds unfair, think of the result.  They have to exercise him many times a day, so when they do … it’s one-on-one time.  Auggie is a social butterfly, so the little guy will play with any human who comes along.  Getting that one-on-one play time is like icecream on cookies.  Speaking of, he gets extra cookies, and if I want to, I get him doggie ice cream for when he is there too.

Most of the time when I drop him off, he is quite excited.  The waxed floors allow for a comical reaction when he scrambles on his doggie paw nails, but gets no traction — he starts looking like Scooby-Doo as soon as he sees a G-G-G-G-G-GHOST!!  Though lately, he’s been figuring out what going there means, that he goes in and won’t see daddy for a while.  He doesn’t fight it, but he looks back with a bit of concern, and sometimes in the most heartbreaking way, runs back around the counter to say goodbye.

So, heading home now, going to head right down to see my little buddy, then will see where the weekend takes us.