my friends ron and len would like a turn at writing the blog, but since they have no opposable thumbs, or any thumbs for that matter, and their english skills aren’t so good i’ll translate (they’re very opinionated little dalmatians).

len, black female dalmatian on music –

-she likes biko by peter gabriel. len is half white, but also half black and really can relate to the story of stephen biko and the persecution of blacks during apartheid in south africa

-len is a runner, she’s like the boss aka bruce springsteen – born to run. she appreciates the early springsteen – the vision of being on the open road, head held out the window of the truck, tongue flapping in the wind. really it’s her theme song “tramps like us, baby we were born to run”

-and speaking of the open road, len loves nothing more than a sassparilla and to listen to old tom petty and the heartbreakers – rebels. being that len always wears a black jacket (fur) she feels a lot like a james dean of the canine world. “one foot in the grave and one foot on the pedal, i was born a rebel.” amen len, ride to live, live to ride.

ron, brown female dalmatian on music -

-ron is partial to the roots of punk music especially old iggy and the stooges – raw power, or as we like to refer to it in our family – “raw f’n power”. she likes the slashy guitars and rough edged sound of the godfather of punk. plus iggy looks a lot like the old wrinkled pigs ears and rawhide ron used to chew as a puppy. nothing like the raw f’n power of four paws tearing their way across an open field -ron’s pretty good with imagery, just picture it.

-ron admits it’s not easy being a dalmatian, and can relate to britney spears – oops i did it again. sometimes you just can’t help it, right britney? sometimes her best efforts just end up as a big pile of shit – so i guess they have something in common – regularly producing piles of shit.

-lastly ron has really been kicking out the jams, not with the MC5, but with the James Gang – Funk No. 49. ron says and i quote – “rowr – rowr rowr, bow wow wow wow, rowr rowr” rock solid, rock melting, or rock chewing (she’s been digging up pebbles in the yard lately, just for shits and giggles and the taste is devine), rock and roll. plus the lyrics – “up all night and sleep all day”, can’t get much closer to the god’s honest truth there – she lives it.

word to your mom’s – bitches out.

She stopped barking at noises at night, she doesn’t bark when people come in the house until she sees them, during renovations she didn’t move an inch when i fired a 0.22 calibre gun into the concrete to set nails (no that’s not why she’s deaf).

She’s had chronic ear infections for 6 of the 9 years she’s been alive. I’m guessing that’s the culprit, combined with being an ‘older’ dog now.

I can say one thing, she’s smart. Her buddy, Len, the other dalmatian, is her ears. She watches Len for signs of motion, treats, anything out of the ordinary. Now i can really see it, she watches Len for everything, or she watches for changes in light of shadows to know when we are on the move or doing something in the house.

So now begins the retraining for the owners, myself and Fiona (spouse), and the hound on how to communicate with each other. Phase one – learning sign language.

p.s. Len can’t be left out – she’s the other cutest dalmatian mofo.