Tag Archives: dogs

Why dogs curl up when they sleep

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e Asia

What do you get when you’ve been dog-sitting through Rover.com for almost 2 years? A lot of stories! I’ve had a wide range of big dogs, small dogs, wide dogs, long dogs, young dogs, old dogs, fun dogs, hot dogs… wait, what?


I’ve had all kinds of dogs of all ages but one thing I’ve seen so much of is also a stereotypical trait of dogs. When they decide to lay down, they walk around in a neat, tight circle about a hundred times before plopping down. Why do they do this?

What I’ve found is that it’s an instinctual behavior (like rubbing on dead insects or one dog peeing on another dog’s pee) meant to keep themselves warm and protected.

I have 2 dogs, Piper and Asia, and they do this all the time. I’ve also observed that after they circle around and lay down, maybe 20 or 30 minutes later they sprawl out. I haven’t asked them about it, but my guess is that it’s not very comfortable to sleep in such a tight position and once they feel safe and warm, they loosen up.

Piper

Dogs were domesticated thousands of years ago, but I love when a bit of that wild wolf comes out in them. Even if they’re curling up on a king-sized mattress under a light breeze from a ceiling fan. You go wild dogs, go on with your bad selves!

-Out of the Wilderness

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Will you still love me tomorrow?

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Last week I dropped off my two dogs, Piper and Asia, at a kennel because, along with my brother, I’m volunteering at a Christian sports camp for a week in southern Missouri. Now we’re in the middle of our week here and I wonder what my dogs are doing. What are they thinking? What are they barking at? Is Piper chasing rabbits? Is Asia biting Piper’s ears to play? I miss my dogs! I even had a dream about them last night. There were a couple of puppies in the dream, too, and at one point I was carrying all of them in a Kroger grocery cart. No idea what that means but I hope they’re doing OK! I’ll see them Sunday and I just hope they still love me, much less remember my name!

-Out of the Wilderness

Bathrobes are amazing…and 22 other things I learned as a single guy in my 30s

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Hi there and thanks for stopping by. As it says in the purpose of this blog, I write about a few parts of my life, one being that I’m single. So with that in mind I compiled a list of things I’ve learned in my 30s (and a few from my 20s) while not being married. This might apply to single women as well, but I wouldn’t dare assume anything about “the single woman,” which leads perfectly to the first lesson on the list…

  1. Never assume anything about women.
  2. When the tv show Friends originally aired, it didn’t mean anything to me. Now watching reruns in my 30s, I get it. And I can’t stop laughing.
  3. The woman is always right. And no, I’m not only talking about contra dancing 🙂
  4. There are certain songs that will forever remind you of someone you dated.
  5. Someone in your family will know of the perfect girl for you.
  6. If you try online dating, it might not be as bad as you expect. And yet, it can go horribly wrong sometimes.
  7. Questions about a girl you might ask in your 20s: Is she nice? What’s her faith like? Is she cute? What does she like to do? What’s her favorite kind of music? Does she enjoy the same things I do?
  8. Questions you might ask in your 30s: Is she married? No? It’s on.
  9. I’ve learned how to spot a ring from sniper distances.
  10. It’s perfectly OK going to the movie theater alone and what’s even better, you can see any movie you want.
  11. Dogs really can be your best friends.
    best friends
  12. It’s possible to not know exactly what Pinterest is.
  13. Something you might say in your 20s: “Wow, my co-worker’s 35 and not married yet? Hope that’s not me one day.”
  14. Something you end up saying when you’re single at 35: “35 is the new 25.”
  15. I could’ve married in my early 20s but I’m guessing I would’ve been divorced in my late 20s.
  16. It can be a little scary wondering if the girl I might marry one day is even in the same city as me. Same state? Same country? Has anyone ever actually found a needle in a haystack?
  17. According to a social experience performed by me sometime in 2002, you can wear the same clothes 1 or 2 or 5 days in a row, and no one will say a word about it. (Except for Rosemary, she suspected)
  18. I can cut my hair any way I want, and that’s kinda awesome.
  19. Married folks might read #18 and think, “Ew, gross.” But inside they’re slightly jealous. At least some of the married guys are. Right???
  20. Time by yourself can feel pretty lonely.
  21. Time by yourself can feel pretty incredible.
  22. A song you heard when you were 15 meant nothing to you. Hearing it again at 35, it rips your heart out.
  23. Bathrobes are amazing.
    IMG_20160110_215108597

I’m sure there are many more, but I hope you enjoyed reading these 23!

-Out of the Wilderness

 

Can animals sin?

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Cute little chipmunks. Big bad bears. Loyal dogs. Playful dolphins.jumping-dolphins-WallpaperDo creatures like these have the ability to sin? I’m not sure why the question popped into my mind yesterday while I was hand-washing dishes. I believe people are born sinners, and God provided a way out because this sin needs to be accounted for. I also believe Jesus was/is the only person who never sinned, but what about animals? I don’t think they even have the ability to sin, which is weird to think about. I take that back, if any animal knows how to sin, it would be my neighbor’s outdoor cat! She teases my dogs almost daily!

All this to say, maybe it’s true… all dogs go to Heaven!

-Out of the Wilderness

Why I’d suck at war

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In the cold days of fall and winter, I typically keep my A/C low. Think 65° as a high indoors. It gets quite chilly. I have ways to combat the frigid temperatures; a space heater, blankets, dogs. They all work together to make it more bearable. Here’s one of my dogs with our space heater.
Piper and I love being warm by that little heater.

But then the time comes to take a shower. In the 30 seconds the water is warming up (before I set foot in it), I wonder what a soldier would do right now? I think of myself as weak because I’m waiting for the freezing cold water to warm up to hot tub temp. I ask myself,

If I were in the military and didn’t have a choice, like I’m in a war zone or something, where there wasn’t any hot water, could I wake up and take a cold shower?

I usually don’t come up with an answer before the water is steamy and I hop in for a relaxing shower. I’m so weak.

-Out of the Wilderness

What happens when you don’t let your dog hump your leg

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Turns out humping doesn’t just happen in Tone Loc songs. One of my dogs has this weird obsession with a stuffed heart. She’s adored it since she was a puppy. But the situation got out of hand (she was humping it all the time) so I hid it about 3 years ago. I forgot about the heart until I recently found it.

I thought to myself, “She’s matured, she won’t act like the cheese block in those Cheese-It commercials.”

I was wrong. The reunion was a tear-jerker. But now she’s back to humping. It wouldn’t be so bad, except that she tries to latch onto my leg while she’s doing it! So yesterday as I pushed her away, one of her little dew claws did this: wpid-img_20150914_163452051.jpgI don’t think it’s difficult to see that she totally scratched half my shin, the little punk! And it hurt! I guess it could be worse, though. Like finding out Sheena was a man! Yowza!

-Out of the Wilderness