Archives for Pets

The dog mobile

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Before we have dogs, DB’s SUV was always spotless, not even a crumb in the interior of vehicle. He cleans the inside all the time and even wax the body of the SUV. After our first dog came along, Cooper, he sacrificed his SUV to haul the dog to the dog park, vet or car rides. Cooper loves the truck because when we pull the back seats down, he has the entire back to himself with the windows open.

Then came Ranger. Ranger is so mellow, he does not care if he gets into the truck or my car. My car is only two door which is not a favorite of Cooper’s. I have thought selling my car and get another used car. My friend, J, told me she read about car donation to the spca. I have never heard about it and back then 11 years ago, the internet was not in the radar for us. So I left it be since I didn’t have the resources to find out more and most probably not interested on the idea.

Years to come, DB’s SUV totally became the dog mobile. It totally filled with dog dander from the two dogs and doggie smell! DB finally gave up cleaning up the insides. And when Chase came to live with us and became part of the doggie family, he completely neglected the truck, even the outside. He calls his vehicle the Rust Bucket as you can see the picture below.

Last year I asked him if he wants to check out spca car donation. A car owner can donate a car to the SPCA to assist with prevention of animal cruelty. DB said he is not going to although that was a good thought. He told me he would if and when we have enough cash to get a newer vehicle. On hind sight, good thing we didn’t looking at what the outcome of his employment as of now!

Yeah, if and when we are ready to get a newer truck, we most definitely donate the dog mobile aka Rust Bucket to the SPCA.

Filed under Pets, Product, Writing

May 13, 2011

The aging boyz

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The two seniors, Cooper and Ranger are definitely slowing down. First is Ranger since he is a year older than Cooper. Ranger will be 12 years old in April. Cooper will turn 11 in June. Sometimes I feel sad seeing Cooper limping after a few rounds of fetching his favorite frisbee. He still loves to fetch and play tug of war with me, however, not much he play. He tires easily and recently he prefers his walks. But when I step out of the house with Chase, the moronic dog for his endless fetching, Cooper will whine. He wants to fetch but his body is telling him NO. So sad. We would need to bring him in to the vet for a check up on his right eye. There is something growing on the upper lid and occasionally it will bleed. Then his right eye would be bloody inside and bloody tears on the outside. Wish I know how they are feeling. Wish they can talk.

Ranger, Mr. R, we call him, is even slower. A 15-minute walk can turn into a 40-45 minutes walk. Yeah, he’s that’s slow which, of course, the time would include his CSI-ing the neighborhood. He is extremely clingy to me, for what reason, i do not know. He only goes potty when I take him out for his walks. If DB takes him out, most of the time he will snoop and sit on the snow. He will come straight to me when I get home and be follows me everywhere I go in the house till I don’t pay attention to him, then he will lay down and sleep. He is still one heck of a family dog….great with kids, not aggressive at all with Ally but if you have food in your hands and it’s at his level, sorry, it will be devoured by Mr. R in seconds! He shows no mercy. His health so far from what we humans can see is fine. Only couple of ear infections this winter coz he was rubbing in the snow and had his ears wet! Bad owners for not paying attention.

What’s the life span of a lab? I Googled it and it’s 11-12 years. Aahhhhh!!!! Seems so scary and the thought of losing them is even scarier especially they have been with us for 11 years (Cooper) and 9 years with Mr. R. That’s life, they are here for a purpose!

Filed under Pets, The Boyz

Mar 8, 2011

Chase’s new frisbee route

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The below itty bitty video clip was taken couple days ago. I took it, as usual with my cellphone’s pathetic camera. It’s quite grainy that’s why I left it in its original size. Ok, I started throwing the frisbee farther form his usual path….all to make him run more, tired him out! Hehehehehe!! His old fetching route no longer entice him anymore. He never seemed to get tire. So I thought since it’s winter, the “mini” jungle up there is filled with snow. Why not throw the frisbee over there and let him run. It works! I only need to be out there with him about 15 minutes fetching continuously, I can see him slowing down a little. Once he comes into the house, he just lays on the floor, then drink some water and snooze till it’s time to eat then snooze the entire night and the cycle repeats the next day.

Filed under Chase, Pets

Jan 19, 2011

Sunday afternoon siesta

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What a life to be domestic dogs! These two (Cooper and Chase) having their afternoon siesta after a short play outside while I’m FB-ing. This was taken 2 weekends ago on a very cold and windy Sunday.

Cooper is on the foreground. There is a lump growing on the side of his belly which you can see on the picture and the lump is getting bigger. The vet says is fatty tissue. I’m getting concern about it now coz it’s growing larger but do not seem to bother him. Will definitely have to bring him in for his annual which is 6 months over due!

Filed under Pets, The Boyz

Jan 19, 2011

Snow storm pics

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We had snow storm watch blasted on the TV since Tuesday, Dec 7 or it could be on Monday. The snow storm started on Friday afternoon and it got worse and worse all the way through Saturday night.

Here’s a pic taken on Saturday afternoon. I was so bored, can’t go out for too long coz of the gale force winds plus snow. Frigging hurts the face with that kind of winds. So i was staring out of the window upstairs while working on my sister’s Cafe World, and I saw the 3 cars went right to the ditch on the freeway.

There were hardly any traffic on the freeway and actually the entire freeway which goes all the way to Texas was close due to a blizzard – blowing snow that makes visiblity to zip. Here’s a short little video I took of the wind blowing the snow around.

The next morning, Sunday, that’s what I see out the same window I took the previous pic. The wind created a snow drift, couldn’t see the driveway. Nice blue skies though. I didn’t go to church that morning.

It was cold out (-2F), so I really dressed up but over dressed. I was drenched in sweat after the walks with the dogs. A pic of how high the snow banks are at our house after the plows came by.

The street was not plowed well and none of the side walks were cleared. So the boys and I had to walk on the street and thank goodness there were hardly any traffic that day.

Cooper

The sidewalks are covered but too deep for me and the boys to trudge through.

The dog digging his own grave! Hahahah just kidding. Ranger smelled some thing and had to see what it was on the way back from our walk.

And here he is not happy to go home.

Picture of the two nutheads Cooper and Chase outside the garage around 6:30 p.m. (Sunday), trying to see who gets the frisbee first.

The two C’s playing tugged of war with the hole-in-the-frisbee. Actually Chase had it but Cooper wanted it too. Here ‘s vid and also a pic of them taken with my cellphone on Monday, Dec 13.

The 2F degrees (-17C) does not bother them at all. Nice to have that thick heavy coat they have on, playing happily, panting away and whines and whines when i shooed them in to the garage/house. Good thing is they cool off so much faster after so much playing during winter. Spring, summer, and fall it will take them hours to finally quit panting.

First day of winter, or winter solstice is not even officially here yet and we are already getting hammered. Hundreds of flights were cancelled in Minneapolis and Chicago. Tons of accidents and so many residents in other areas lost power and so many have to dig their cars out from the snow storm. Schools in the cities were closed on Monday and some on Tuesday too. Well, I had to go to work on Monday and the roads are not too bad. The Dept of Transportation plows definitely were working hard to make the freeways clear and free of snow and ice except for some spots – shiny spots = ice.

Another round of snow is here starting this evening will drop 2-3 inches. Hooray! Good thing I’m taking time off starting tomorrow and through the weekend.

Filed under MN Weather, Pets, The Boyz

Dec 15, 2010

Christmas decor that got Ranger mad

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The picture I took couple of days ago on my walk with Ranger and Cooper. These are blowup Christmas snowmen for outdoors.

A day before I took this picture, I was out with the same two boys. We were walking towards this row of townhomes and I saw only the Reindeer with the Santa (second from left) bobbing left, right, back and forth. The other blow up snowmen were not there yet. Ranger saw the lone Reindeer and Santa from a distance and he was on alert. He sure didn’t like seeing it. His ears perked up which I think because that blowup thing was bobbing around and the noise it makes. This thing is hook on to an electric outlet to allow it to bob around. The noise is like a humming sound.

Ranger was so cautious as we were walking towards that direction. I purposely continued on instead of turning around, just so to see his reaction. Well, I sure did. The closer we get to that “intrusive” object, Ranger’s fur on his neck all the way to his tail were standing straight up. He was growling, standing alert and wanted to jump at it. I kept telling him “it’s ok, nothing to worry about.” It’s as if I’m talking to a human!

He sure didn’t buy what I said, of course. His fur was still up but the growling stopped, took baby steps, stopped and looked at the bobbing Santa. I kept on nudging on his leash to move forward. As we walked past it a little, he kept looking back but his fur were still up. If only I had my camera with me then, I would have taken a picture of Ranger.

Ranger’s fur finally settled after we walked a blocked away. It was funny to see how Cooper didn’t even bet an eye on the Santa and even the sound didn’t bother him one bit.

The day I took these pictures (above and below), all these blow up snowmen bobbing around didn’t even bother him. He kept walking, snooping around the trees and kept on going. Go figure!!!

Filed under Pets, The Boyz

Dec 7, 2010

Call me crazy

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I’m enjoying my walks on the snow. I guess I’m nuts to like the snow. However when it comes to driving with snow on the ground, I detest it big time. The dogs love the snow. Tried to take pictures of them out in the snow but is so hard. They move a lot and too fast for me.

We had a foot of snow fall from Friday through Saturday.

Friday afternoon (3:45 pm) outing. Windy and snow was coming down good. I was the only pyscho one walking that afternoon.

Ranger says, “What are we waiting for?”

Came home, it’s frisbee time for Chase. This pic was taken after 20 minutes of fetching. I took a break and brought the camera out to take some pictures. This fella was patiently waiting, tail wagging but was whining up a storm: “Stop taking pictures/videos and toss the frisbee NOW!”

I was out on Saturday morning, the plows already came and did the driveways and streets but now the sidewalks.

Icing on the truck!

That’s how much snow on the sidewalks. Had to bring out the hardy old Sorel boots to trudge through the snow. The snow that felled is those dry and light ones…easier to walk on. Crazy as it is, this is my 11th winter in this country I still have not bought a pair of snow pants. Yeah call me cheapo. I wear my regular sweatpants (the plastic-ky ones) over another fleece one.

Fresh untouched snow

The “path” the 3 of us made – me, Cooper and Chase. Cooper walked away from me as soon as I took the camera out.

…and Chase said I need a pit stop in the middle of the “path”. Watch out for yellow snow, people. :)

Filed under Chase, MN Weather, Pets, Winter

Dec 7, 2010

Energizer canine

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I guess you know which dog this is. Picture taken before fall as you can see all the green leaves and grass.

Chase is getting to be mighty hyper these days. We think is the cooler weather = tires less.

Every morning I take him and Cooper for a walk, Chase without the leash so he could run to his heart content. He will sometimes chase after some squirrels or at times if he sees a deer he will go for it. Usually he will start running but I have to yell at him to STOP. Thank goodness he does STOP, like stop on his tracks!

In the afternoons now since daylight savings ended, it gets dark at 4:45 p.m. I will walk Cooper and Ranger after I get home from work….a good 30-minute walk. Once I get home, the Energizer Canine will start whining, letting out friendly growls at me to throw the darn frisbee.

In the summer and early fall, I don’t usually throw the frisbee into the “jungle” of leaves, shrubs and trees but now since all are bare (will take a picture soon), I start throwing into the “jungle” and let the Energizer hunt it down. Jumping up and down the wall he will go without complains for at least 15 mintues. I usually end the play around 4:15-ish so to let him chill out before their dinner at 5-ish. So far this routine is working good especially he’s dead tired after his meal. He will practically plops down and sleeps. What a life these dogs have!

Filed under Chase, Pets, The Boyz

Nov 13, 2010

The frisbee destroyer destroyed it!

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Yep, Chase did it. He tore the one piece out of the frisbee last week or it could be 2 weeks ago. He gets so excited when it’s time to fetch. He will whine and whine till he gets out of the house and has the frisbee in his mouth.

Honestly, I have no idea where that tore up piece went to. He might have eaten it and it’s no where to be seen on the yard or bushes, shrubs. But then I did not see it in his poop either. So I’m guess it’s still stitting in his gut? Man, I hope not. I hope it flew somewhere. I cannot forsee us paying for another exploratory stomach surgery for him. And yes, I’m still using this frisbee till it can’t fly anymore, and or into pieces. Then I will get a new one. This bugger is not a “nice” dog when it comes to toys.

Filed under Chase, Pets, The Boyz

Sep 15, 2010

Cooper and allergies

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Here we go again, allergies….all the itching, licking and chewing resulting to this.

That’s Cooper’s hind leg, one of them. The other hind paw is not that bad. We gave him antihistamines, drugs to make him drowsy and antibiotics, no go. He keeps licking and chewing. Put the E-collar on, no go either. He found a way to go about that collar. We, actually me since DB will be working this weekend, have to call the vet this weekend to find a fix with this problem. Looks like he will have to go with Ranger’s meds which is steroid. Ranger is doing well with his meds. No itch from him at all. I wanted to give Ranger’s steroid meds to Cooper but I can’t coz steroid and the arthritis pain killer (Carprofen) he is taking now will clash. That’s why I need to consult the vet.

Filed under Allergies, Cooper, Pets, The Boyz

Sep 9, 2010

Chase the frisbee destroyer

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Sometime last month, I had to buy a new frisbee for Chase. His favorite one is a Nylabone frisbee which was once belonged to Cooper. Since Chase came along and horded all of the frisbees that once were Cooper’s, Cooper just didn’t bother….as if to say, let the young-un enjoy them now.

However, that fav frisbee is now somewhere in the woods. I tossed it too hard and it landed somewhere in the deep shrubs. I went up and looked and searched but could not find it. I will get back to looking for it in the fall.

Anyway, I thought I had better get another frisbee for this crazy fetcher. So I bought one cheapy plastic frisbee meant for humans and what a big mistake that was. It only lasted 2 weeks or less and I had to toss it coz he was chewing it to pieces and some parts were missing which I assumed he swallowed them!!

This is what that human frisbee turned out after the Chase-abused:

Then I bought another one which the girl told me is super durable and a little more expensive, about $14.

The feel of this frisbee is totally different. It’s not flexible plastic, but it’s like rubber and heavier. It took me a while to get use to throwing it.

Letting Chase smell and feel it.

Chase lives to fetch and “abuse”! He really knows how to “knead” those darn frisbees whether they are plastic or flexible ones. He will keep “kneading” them till you force him to let go. The weird thing is he will only start the “kneading” thing after 8 minutes or so of fetching….after he has his “fix” of fetching!

Now, this is what the new blue frisbee looks like after a month and 5 days:

The middle portion of the frisbee are tear up and so when he fetches it, he will sometimes comes back looking like this:

He is definitely a comedian, makes me laugh a lot. The frisbee does not “fly” very far with its “injured” body. DB said we need to get another Nylabone frisbee which really last. The lost Nylabone frisbee we bought was in 2001, and it’s still flying albeit a lot of teeth marks. This weekend a trip to Petco will me on my calendar.

Filed under Chase, Pets

Aug 27, 2010

Randomness

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It has been ages since I really posted something non paid! Sad isn’t it?

The only thing that is really worth posting is what I baked during the weekends. Pretty much every weekend the oven is on. Last weekend I must have been super hardworking, full of energy I guess. I baked a banana bread and blueberry crumb cake. On top of that I prepped for the week’s dinner. I was tired the morning up till I started working on the nana bread. Whatever happened, I have no clue. I was cooking away in the kitchen.

My disgusting looking blueberry crumble. Tasted darn good though. We have been eating it with vanilla ice-cream.

Here’s the banana bread. Why do American’s call it banana bread and not cake? This nana bread is a favorite of the man, so he does put in quite a few requests a month!

I told DB no baking this weekend. I need to let my over flowing muffin top a rest. It’s more like giving my pants a breather. No joke, my pants are screaming at me for suffocating them.

Since it has been hot and hot and humid and more humid (seems forever), I have shorten my walks with the dogs. I still walk them in the afternoon after I get home from work. The temperature is like 89F or higher plus no shady spots. The boys, no matter how damn hot and humid it is, they still want to go for their CSI walks. I call it CSI because they have to snoop every 10 yards or less!! We walk them again in the evening since they cannot roam around the yard on their own, we walk them and get their business done for the evening/night.

Here’s a pic of Cooper after his walk. Catching some coolness in the kitchen tiled floor. This fella is getting whiter day by day, but still loves his long walks.

Ranger at the entryway. Everyday when we come back from a walk, he will lay just like that to cool off. He is the real crime scene investigator. Anything that is 5 yards or less he will stop to check it out.

Chase after his evening frisbee session in 90F temperature. He’s a slob. There’s water on his snout and he is my shadow. Follows me every where in the house.

So there, my updates for now till Lord knows when. TTFN

Filed under My cooking skills, My Weekend, Pets

Aug 4, 2010

The boys and their baths: a review

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*This is not a paid review.

I have to admit, I do not bathe the dogs very often, especially the two C’s (Cooper and Chase). The two C’s are “cleaner” dogs, whereas Ranger is more of a “I love to roll on yucky stuff” kinda dog. Needless to say, Ranger gets more baths than the other two. I simply hate bathing the boys. The number one reason is they do not stay still and I don’t even bathe them outdoors or in the tub. I bathe them in the shower stall where they are confine in one small area. No where for them to try run from me. Even in the shower stall, they will go round in circles. So I resort to just brushing them more often and that was before we moved to town home community. I have not brush them since we move to our new digs coz dog hair will be all over the neighbors.

So now, I do subscribe to a pet website. In a particular email I saw the goodness of Rapid Bath by Hydro Surge.

I read the product reviews, the works and watched the testimonials. After reading and watching these testimonials and reviews, I was drawn to this wonderful creation. Talked it over with DB and he said get it. Ordered it and also extra shampoo cartridges, they came within a week and I tried it out [(new toilet, you know! ]

It says the Rapid Bath will get your dog bathe in 3 minutes. Of course, I don’t believe that since each dog is different depending on how big and thick its fur is. The kit comes with the hose, connectors, sprayer and a free shampoo cartridge.

The installation seems to be very easy.

Installation was done by DB, the tool guy around the house. He got it up in less than 10 minutes. We are going to leave the installation up there for good since it does not affect our shower head. The connectors that came with the kit really works.

I did the testing with the Rapid Bath. No pictures while bathing the dogs coz I was bathing them and DB was busy bodying outside the shower and I forgot to ask him to take pictures. The instructions says to hold the sprayer at a 45 degree angle to get a better wash. It’s true, the 45 degree angle does a very good cleaning.

Overall, it’s a good buy. I like the fact that the dogs really stood still while I was spraying them (shampooing, rinsing and their faces). It must be the spray as it says it is like a spa for them. The water pressure from the sprayer was perfect. It does remove a lot of loose hair also and yes, the dogs were clean and smelling good. The bath time for each dog varies. First it was Chase: it took about 7 plus minutes from start to finish (shampoo, rinse and face) since he has the shortest and least hair on him. Ranger I took less than 10 minutes also since I bathe him few weeks ago. Cooper was the only one that took about 15 minutes since he has so much loose hair and they were coming off him like he has some disease. I spent extra nimutes during the rinsing to get the hair off him.

The only drawback is each the shampoo cartridge will wash 2+ dogs, or it could be because it was my first time using the Rapid Bath, I am not accustom to the new tool yet.

Halfway bathing Cooper (he was the last I did), I had to get a new cartridge to finish his bath. The Hypo-allergenic shampoo is for Ranger but for this first round of baths, I used the oatmeal shampoo and so far it’s working good.

Now that we are done with one of the shampoo cartridge, we are saving it. We cannot refill the cartridge with our own dog shampoo. Once we are done with what we ordered for cartridges, we have to order more. I read in some reviews, people are using a syringe to pump their own dog shampoo into the cartridge (there is a plastic tip on the top of the cartridge).

The next bath will be next month since bathing the three monsters now is easy peasy.

Filed under Pets, Product

Jul 20, 2010

Puppies or dogs are better

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Nadine and I were out, me tagging along as usual with her shopping, we were chatting about her family and the topic of family turned to expanding the family of 2. I told her DB and I already have 3 dogs in the house. Adding another human to care for will probably kill me, I told her. She said her hubby, Mark, is thinking of having a kid, whereas she is not. She is actually wanting to have a puppy. She told me she is asking her friends if any puppies for sale around her area.

I told her puppies are cute in the beginning and a lot of consistencies needed to be placed in the begining stage of the pup coz the pup will become an adult and will stick with you for a very long time. She said she much prefer a dog than having kids. At least a dog will listen and much more obedient with commands. Well, that’s true. Each time she comes over to our place, she will go crazy over the boys, especially Ranger she is very fond of. She said she might also check out the paper’s classifies for dogs for sale. Adult dogs coud be better for her since she is always out of the house as long as she crates the dog before she leaves for work. Or she could adopt from animal shelters, however, she is not too keen about that idea.

If Nadine likes Ranger, I mentioned she should check out the kennel where we adopted Ranger. The owner breeds amazing quality breeds of Labs. Her stud dogs have a field of certificates for obedience, agility and hunting. What is great about this kennel is the owner will first ask if you want a dog for companion, for competition in obedience, agility or for hunting. Ranger was bred for companionship, he has great disposition as a family dog, and beautiful features that a lot of folks praise him for. *Beams*

If that is what Nadine wants, a special bred Lab per what she wants, the cost be slightly higher than going to a regular breeder who only breeds out of selling. I would recommend she gets in touch with Ranger’s breeder and ask about the stud fee and the terms and condition for getting a well bred Lab.

Filed under Pets, Product, Writing

Jul 2, 2010

Why must my dog roll on yucky stuff??

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Dogs do that, I know coz my crazy ass dog, Ranger does that a lot. Probably just to piss the crap outta me.

I know dogs roll on dead animals or even on other animals’ poop so they, the dogs can leave their scent there, like how they mark their territory on a tree, or what my friend says “leaving their calling card”. Also, I read they do that so they could mask their own scent and another I read is dogs to that to tell the other animals they found something interesting!!!! Animals, they are some creatures, alright.

Ranger is one of these animals from the wolf family….!!! That fella did it 2 weeks ago. He was smelling something on our way back from a walk, he was sniffing for quite some time and I started to pull on the leash. He then moved a little and BAM, rolled on the grass he was sniffing. I kept pulling his leash to get him up. Boy did he stink, stunk of dead animal. Cilaka betul.

Bathe him as soon as we got home. He sure knows he is deep doodoo coz he was very still and did what I told him to do which normal he will do the opposite of what i want him to do.

This early morning, he almost did it again. It’s at a different spot than the previous incident. This time I was watching him and as soon as I saw him crouching down, I pulled on his leash real hard which really jolted him off that spot. From then on each time I see him sniffing a spot for a while, I started tugging at the leash and if no response, I just pulled him away. I’m sure whoever sees me doing that will stay I’m a dog abuser. Walking the dogs is suppose to be stress free, no need to sort out any acne treatment but I think from now on I really have to. The other two dogs have not give me much problems when I walk them, just this Ranger, the angel, that’s what DB calls him and yet he does not like to walk Ranger.

Filed under Pets

Jun 22, 2010

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Archives for Pets

The dog mobile

The aging boyz

Chase’s new frisbee route

Sunday afternoon siesta

Snow storm pics

Christmas decor that got Ranger mad

Call me crazy

Energizer canine

The frisbee destroyer destroyed it!

Cooper and allergies

Chase the frisbee destroyer

Randomness

The boys and their baths: a review

Puppies or dogs are better

Why must my dog roll on yucky stuff??

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