Dog Opera

Xena has a new boyfriend. He’s howling at the house outside.
Now, she’s already got at least a couple of ’em. You may remember this incident from a couple of years ago where she attracted a couple of four-legged suitors, who proceeded to bonk her silly until we had her rewired. Those dogs still come around, but they of course no longer have interest in trying to procreate with her, though I think the black dog is still just a little bit smitten with her – he brings her golf balls, tennis balls, dead animals, neighborhood children and other handy household items to play with, almost like a peace offering that he hopes might just bring those glands back whose smell he likes so much. 😆
This dog is also black, and obviously a young pup. He’s been around for about a week, and lives somewhere up around the bend on the road we live on. Tonight when I got home at around 1:00am, Xena and her new buddy came bounding down the middle of the road toward me when I crossed the street in the dark to fix our perpetually-falling-over mailbox yet again (it’s becoming a daily repair job). Now, as fast and as carelessly as people take that corner (which also happens to explain the state of my mailbox), I’m not thrilled at the prospect of any dog just carelessly playing in the middle of the street, and even more not thrilled to find that my dog is one of ’em.
I tried to pet Xena’s new friend when he stood up and tried to introduce me to his little friend. Oh dear. He then proceeded to chase Xena into the yard and tried to hump her repeatedly. Sometimes she’d stand there and let him try, other times she’d turn around and try to bite him. He’d then back off, whimper loudly, and then have another go. (I could’ve told him: this approach simply doesn’t work.) Xena was more than ready to go into the house with me. So was Mr. Red Rocket. I practically had to brain the little guy with my shoulder bag to keep him from following us into the house.
He then stood outside and the high-pitched whining began…and then he began serenading the house with full-blast Dog Opera. Xena, having just stuffed her face, laid down in the middle of the living room, covered her ears with her front legs as best she could, and went to sleep. Olivia stared at this interloper through the window and then moved on with her life. He’s gone away and come back to howl some more, and gone away again, serenading the front door, the window to my game room (as soon as lights came on in there), the back deck, and even the side of the house with the vent for the dryer when I ran a load of clothes. Xena shows absolutely zero interest.
If he’d drop the whiney routine and bring her some presents to help us keep our dog toy budget down, I’d say he’s a suitable candidate. But based on his behavior tonight, all I got a say is “not with my not-so-little four-legged girl, you don’t.”
I’m working on the blooper reel right now, actually picking out music for it. “Slag Solution” by Hot Butter is currently my favorite candidate – I like whimsical with a little edge to it, and you can’t beat early Moogs with a bit of waka-chika guitar going on in the background. (The reason I’m doing the blooper reel at home is…well…eh. I’ll explain another time.)
Speaking of editing and Avids and stuff, I did a news package tonight since I had a bit of downtime (and since I’m not supposed to edit or do anything blooperish on work equipment and on the clock…eh…), and I thought it turned out really nice – Everett shot all the video, and I just put stuff together in the order he came up with for the piece. We don’t do a lot of stuff like this, and in this case we had some excellent newsreel material to work from, and for my money I think it’s pretty darn touching. Click here to watch it. (I had to start a whole new “news packages” category in my work blog just to accomodate it – I suppose I’m now obliged to go back and find the previous news pieces I’ve edited, including one which won an AP award.) I’ve got to redo the Flash encoding because it doesn’t seem to want to show you the version with no music (and who can blame it?), but it’ll be fixed tomorrow night.
The anniversary of Pearl Harbor also falls on my maternal grandfather‘s birthday. He was an award-winning photographer (a skill which sadly isn’t genetic), and possibly the only person in my family who ever really fully “got” what I was doing, getting into the audiovisual media. I think he would’ve dug this piece, so it’s dedicated to him.