Thursday, January 6, 2011

Biscuit has energy!

I'm not really sure where the morning went today, but most of it was trying to decipher our many medical bills that we have received over the last few weeks.  These were sent to us by our son Ben in KC.  Has the insurance been applied?  Did they actually pay something, and most importantly how much do we owe now?

That hasn't been overly pleasant, and today we had to order checks for the many facilities involved.  In the middle of all that,  Loyce asked if I had paid the electric bill here at the RV Park.  Well, no!!!

So with check book in hand, I hopped on the bike and headed for the office.  We had used $103 of electricity during the month of December.  We were charged 8cents per kilowatt.  But also we were charged $29 for sewer and garbage service.  This is because we are charged for these services by the city of Mesa.  They are not provided by the campground.  So we owed $132.  That isn't cheap, but we have used very little propane, and our nights have been quite cold.

Once back at the rig, and with the bills paid, I decided to go out riding on the motor scooter.  I was off looking for a competitive pet store.  Phoenix is the home of Petsmart, so finding anything else is quite tough.  I had looked up a PetCo on the internet, and it was to be over in the Superstition Springs Mall area.

I rode the bike over to that mall, and the traffic was.... well rather mall like!!!  Bumper to bumper, and slow to the point of gridlock.  I never did find anything other than the Petsmart that is across the street.

After stopping at the local Wendy's for a small burger, I gave up and went to Petsmart.  They didn't have what I wanted!  But then I already knew that from previous trips to other stores.

I seems that our little puppy Biscuit, which is not so little anymore, has a nasty chewing habit.  We have increased her walks to the point of several per day, and she is still attacking all her toys, and her harness if we leave it on her, and her leashes.  In about a day, she will chew right through the fabric straps that make up the leash.  We do need to keep her confined to the tile portion of the coach, since she will chew on the walls woodwork and pee in the carpet if not watched.

Now keep in mind she is very lovable, and will lick you to death, but just hasn't grown out of the puppy stage quite yet.

What I was looking for was a leash that has enough chain at the dog end, so that she can't chew thru it in short order.  And they do have such a thing for dogs that weigh in at about 100 lbs.  The straps are at least an inch wide and the chain is the size of a log chain.  We don't need anything like that to contain a 10 lb dog.  Oh and they want $26.95 for that leash.

So I got the wild hair to go over to the local Lowes, where I purchased 1 foot of light weight folded wire chain, and a small lead clip, like you would use on a halter.  Along with a couple of link clips, I had $4 in the entire purchase.

Back home, I broke the chain into two 6 inch sections and added them to the end of some give away cloth leashes we had on hand.  With the halter clips on the chain ends, the chain extends past her teeth far enough to protect the cloth leads.  She hasn't decided to chew in the middle of the leash yet, but perhaps that will come next.

The vet told us not to walk the dog until she can have all of her shots, but that isn't an option.  She has so much pent up energy, that she actually gallops at the end of her lead, until we get about half way around her walk.  She will sleep for a couple of hours when we get back, and then she is raring to go again!  Perhaps we will lose some more weight!

Retired Rod


  1. Aren't puppies just the best when you are our age?? When Emmi was a puppy I despaired--I was ready to send her back where she came from but one day the light bulb went on and she got it! And that was at about 9 months.

  2. Sage will be 14 in May and has FINALLY grown out of the galloping at the end of the leash stage! Buddy sure is cute and most certainly worth the trouble.

  3. We are SOOOOO lucky that Sadie doesn't chew anything other than her toys. But as to energy, we have found having her run beside the bicycle is much better for draining it off than walking...we'd have to walk all day. LOL! Good luck with your cutie!

  4. We have the same type energizer bunny here in Rylie! Like Biscuit, she seems to have more energy at the end of a walk than the start! I get tired just watching her!

