Blaze

In addition to describing our recent weather, it is also the name of my daughter's not quite one year old male English Setter.  She and her beau are off for an entire week at the beach.  We graciously (stupidly?) offered to be a member of our household. 

We are currently on night 4--and he has just been a wonderful 'young man'. Look at that happy face.  The dirt on his tongues is from a recently fetched ball.  How he loves to play ball. 

My daughter asked me several times if we would allow him to sleep in our bed. The answer was, and still is, a resounding "No!".  Nevertheless, he has been persistent, and over the last two nights he snuck up into the bed.  I  already tossed him out twice.  The third time I tossed him out (after being awakened).  However, it turned out to be Macy, and not him.  Macy (our Am Bull dog mix) sleeps in the bed with us. 

She was nonplussed, and he just jumped on the bed again.  She gets a little hot, so she has not minded the cooler strata of air by the floor.  Plus, last evening I brought Blaze's dog bed up--a large comfy thing that I would find comfortable.  Macy commanded that, and Blaze jumped up and made himself small and put his head on my feet.  It is important for him to be beside a human.

He is a rescue from Fredericksburg Humane Society.  The shelter believe that the owner's turned him in unable to keep up with such a rambunctious dog.  For the first couple of days, I wondered of our own ability to keep up. Luckily, my other three dogs have been wonderful girls, and they are all getting along fine.  Daisey, though, keeps guard of me, and Ella tries to stay out of the way.  Daisey, Macy and Blaze play ball together.  Ella couldn't care less about the ball. She'd rather swim than do anything else.

Blaze is very aware of every little movement inside the house to include our two cats.  He's interested in stalking them, but not doing them any harm.  They are wise cats around dogs, so I'm not worried.  There are plenty of indoor and outdoor places for them to get out of harm's way from him.

I'm glad that he is with us. Here he is waiting for Daisey to move onto the ball. She's the senior setter, and commands their respect.  Macy though could care less about the Setter pecking order.  Both Daisey and Blaze are similar build--that skinny field Setter with irrepressible energy.  Always on the lookout for something to mess with.  In these hot days, they pant so hard, they remind me of just one big organic radiator with a large tongue hanging out the side of their mouth.

At mealtime, he has no interest in his Puppy Chow, but all interest in the Dog Chow.  Our dogs are the opposite.  So after failing to get him to eat when he was partitioned from the others, I've given each dog a mix of food.  It works out well as Blaze will be almost a year old.  So mixing his chows will help him over the next month.  

He goes home on Sunday.  We will surely miss him.