BEHOLD!

our shame.

girl scout cookies are evil.

One of my coworkers was taking girl scout cookie orders for her daughter, and I, being the selfless person I am (I mean, really truly selfless, willing to eat cookies selfless), ordered a few boxes for Lane and me. Okay, we ordered five boxes - I guess certain grinchy people might consider that more than a few. 3 boxes of Thin Mints(how cruel is it that the word 'thin' is in their name?), 1 box of Savannah Smiles lemon cookies, and one box of Dulce de Leche cookies. You would think this would be enough, yes? Sadly, no. We've already gone through two and a half boxes of cookies - we got them a week ago. Also, we've bought two more boxes of the Dulce de Leche cookies. We are awful human beings... but the girl scouts are the scum of the earth for doing this to us and all of America.

On a happier note, here's Jake. 

his near-permanent position. "rub my belly!! love me!!!  love me!!!"

We got to take care of him while his parents were away in Connecticut. He was a very, shall we say, special, pup. He was extremely affectionate so my life at home was filled with joy and puppy cuddles. Maybe too many puppy cuddles.. but is there such a thing?

He enjoyed sleeping in our bed - something which was adorable the first night, somewhat less welcome the second night, and a bit annoying the third night. He always made sure to sleep on my side of the bed (I think he knew not to invade Lane's personal sleeping space, a lesson I have yet to learn), but as much as I love having a pup in my bed, the leg cramping which accompanies scrunching up and staying still for that pup can result in quite the restless night. At one point I woke screaming with a charlie horse. That kinda freaked Lane out.

Poor Lane, people at school actually started to comment on how exhausted he looked - and this was only after two nights with Jake in our bed. On the last night, Lane insisted that Jake sleep out in the living room, but the combination of Jake crying outside of our door and me looking at Lane like he was a monster forced him to give in and let Jake sleep in the room, ONLY on the condition that he stayed on his cushion, and not on our bed. Of course, Jake would have none of that, and Lane finally had to really yell at him to stay off the bed. Down went Jake, going straight under the bed to hide from the 'bad man'. He stayed there for about half an hour, until we turned off the light, then back he jumped onto the bed, and we could not keep him off. So that was it. Jake won.

But then, can we really blame Jake? He was just used to sleeping in a bed... and he missed his parents! We were somewhat concerned because he did seem pretty depressed the first night they dropped him off, and then the next day he didn't eat anything ALL DAY. His food bowl hadn't been touched, but he kept following us around the kitchen like he was starving. We would point to his food bowl and tell him to eat. He would the sniff the bowl and walk away. Finally Lane came up with the idea to pretend the kibble pieces were treats and toss them one at a time to Jake. Jake liked this. For the next few days, Lane had to feed Jake this way. Poor Lane - Jake totally owned him.

lane: "treat! treat!"
jake: "feed me!"

jake: "i love treats!"
lane: "i think this dog might be slow"

We tried to understand Jake's behavior, and here are a few theories we came up with.

• For some reason, he was scared of the kitchen cabinets (he would always hide or shake when we were opening and closing them). Maybe he needed someone there to protect him from them while he ate.
• Since he was away from home, he thought he deserved special treatment, and thus deserved treats in place of regular food.
• He was really freaked out when the dogs across the street started barking at him (like seriously freaked out, trying to crawl and hide behind the bushes to get back inside the house as quickly as possible freaked out*), and might have been scared about the food potentially belonging to them.
• He was too full from eating the deer poop he found on his walks outside.

At any rate, it was fun to have Jake visit. If only we could take care of little white goat, too!

* this incident was actually pretty hilarious - especially since the dogs across the street are really neither big nor aggressive.

little white goat, standard brown goat, little white goat, standard brooown goat!

Back in the fall, before Lane started taking the bus to school, I would drive him to and from campus. I - being the excellent driver that I am, and yes, I AM ASIAN - would watch the road, and Lane would watch the scenery. About a couple weeks into classes, on our way back home, Lane told me that he had noticed a brown goat and a little white goat living in a small fenced-in area next to a house along the side of the road. Of course, I found all of this very exciting. After, all, as I've mentioned in the past, goats are perfect companions for puppies. I wasn't able to see the goats that day, but after keeping a lookout for them for a few days, I finally saw them! Ever since then, Lane and I have taken a keen interest in the two. We call them 'little white goat' and 'standard brown goat', and look out for them every time we pass by. If we're not together, we always make sure to text each other updates as we go past.

At first we thought they were the best of friends because we saw them cuddling one day. Then we were kind of worried that standard brown was bullying little white, because standard brown wouldn't let little white up on his ramp, and because we saw little white standing out in the cold, reduced to eating chicken feed (oh yeah, did we mention they live with chickens? yeah). We think maybe standard brown was concerned that little white was planning to stage a coup to become king of the coop (of course, little white would never do this, Lane and I believe he would have just waited for his time in the sun).

We felt bad for little white. Then we became even more concerned, because a third goat, we call him 'shaggy brown goat', was seen in the pen, and he seemed really aggressive towards both standard brown and little white. At this point it looked like little white was always out in the cold, even when it was dark, and even the chickens didn't hang out with him. It was EXTREMELY upsetting.

Thankfully, after a few weeks we no longer saw shaggy brown - we think he might have just been a visiting cousin of standard brown or something. At any rate, after that, standard brown started being nice to little white again, so Lane and I were happy again. I think maybe standard brown had gotten a taste of his own medicine from shaggy brown, and realized the error of his ways. Let's not over-analyze it, though.

Lane and I cannot even describe how much we love these goats. A couple weeks ago we finally got the courage to pull over to see them - we honked the horn and they came out and "maaaah"ed at us. We were so stinking thrilled. We stayed for what some people would say is way too long; I was scared that the owners would come out, find us, and shoot us for trespassing. Still, the lure of little white and standard brown are too great to resist - we stopped by again today and got these images and video. Enjoy!

little white in all his glory

standard brown rocking the goatee look

the dynamic duo, oh how we love them!

Lane couldn't resist - he got out of the car and went to pet them. According to him, their faces felt bristly, but they were friendly and enjoyed smelling him. I was jealous, but didn't want to get shot by their owners - even though it probably would have been worth it.

Here's another video - this time of them nuzzling. You can hear standard brown make a little "maaaaah" at the end.

In other très exciting news, Lane and I will be dogsitting this week! Our landlords are going out of town for a few days, and Lane and I volunteered to take care of their funny little dog, Jake. When I found out we would get to dogsit, I could not contain myself. It seriously took me forever to fall asleep that night, I was so excited. Pictures and videos to come!

.... ahhhh! okay! i can't resist! one last video of little white and standard brown - note the chicken running in the background at 00:19 - for some reason, just soooo hilarious.

I love them. I really, truly love them.