Basket Bits and the Bed Biter

Douges has been such a gem lately that we decided he should stay in the laundry room while we were away at a dinner party on Saturday night.

Our bragging about what an amazing dog he is had definitely clouded our better judgment. We set up a potent cocktail for our furry friend with the following ingredients:

1. Fear of being alone
2. the dark
3. Mommys Laundry basket (that apparently tastes good)
4. our trust
5. and a giant puppy

Josh and I came home from the outing and walked into the house. Josh went to let Douges out and I hear "Baaabe...come here"
I walk around the corner and there are a million little blue plastic pieces scattered all around the laundry room door. Neither one of us wanted to open the door for fear of what laid on the other side.

We finally opened the door and there is Douges wagging his tail and stretching as he greets us....underneath him is a pile of blue bits of what used to be a laundry basket.

We immediately check the walls for damage and find that he has mostly just attacked the door handle, which is easy to replace.

We instantly get angry with him and he looks at us with confusion as to why were upset.

Douges spent the majority of the rest of the evening sitting at the back door looking at us with sad puppy dog eyes while Josh and I cleaned up his ridiculous mess.

While cleaning I even found blood everywhere from his ridiculous chewing frenzy. I hope it hurt him.

An interesting note, Douges didn't destroy any of HIS personal belongings, only mommy and daddy's belongings. The only thing he hurt of his own was he ripped the tag off his bed....which I have told him not to do on many occasions. I am guessing he decided he was already going to be in trouble so he might as well go for it all the way. 

Anyway needless to say....Lesson learned. Douges is now always outside when we are not home and we are working on his abandonment issues.

Photos to come.

Douges Disaster One

Well I said the reason I started this blog was to document all of Douges shenanigans, but frankly I didn't think I'd be able to post a story so soon.

Yesterday was Douges first day spending time alone. Aaron and I tied him up out the back (just in case, because apparently he had a history of running away, cause he was neglected) gave him kisses and said good bye. He was great the whole time Aaron was gone! When he came home Douges was waiting patiently for him. Success!!......or so we thought.

See there is something about Douges that we weren't aware of, our dog is afraid of the dark. We didn't know this was possible, maybe it's the night noises, we're not sure.

When Josh left for squash, he tied Douges up, even though he was only going to be gone an hour. When he got back he walked through the house excited to see his Dougie! As he got to the back he noticed that something was off with the back door screen, it had a giant hole in it.....hmm how could that happen if Douges was tied up....

Hole One

Hole Two

Douges feeling very remorseful.

He continued outside to find Douges walking up to him with his chain still attached as well as half of the patio chairs dragging behind him. In his panic he had managed to rip the chain off the, probably too old hook in the fence, and tangle up the chairs, they were his new sled. Maybe we should take him to Alaska!

Anyway needless to say Douges was very relieved to see Josh and they picked me up later, and Josh shared his story, all things considered it was a good first disaster, the screen will be cheap and easy to fix the only bad thing was that Josh didn't get a photo of him and his chair sled.

Now the little ratbag is laying on my arm snoring as I type this, we may work on the fear of the dark thing tonight :)

Yeah veeery remorseful.

JK-47

Douges Missing his Dad

Douges Misses his Dad very much. He grunted at the door and paced the living room looking for him for a good fifteen minutes after Joshua left. Someone loves his owner :D

Becoming a Barton

I think it is fitting that our Douges (prounced Doooges) came to us on this day of all days. You see yesterday was State of Origin, for those of you who don't know this is a very important day to all Queenslanders and New South Wales residents. It is when their NRL all stars go head to head in a game that only two of the Australian states get to be a part of. I'm assuming the rest of the states don't get to play because they don't like NRL (rugby league) but either way it baffles me a bit that two states can have tons of teams with players from both states playing for their rival state the majority of the year and then once a year for three games they both drop everything, return to their own sides of the border and have it out. It is definitely the equivalent to the super bowl in this part of the world.

Anyway the reason I even bring this up is because when Josh went to pick up our Dougie he just happened to pick the middle name Lockyer (Queenslands ultimate NRL player who retires this year) for him.

So his official name is Douges Lockyer Barton. You may be wondering where his first name came from, well that one was an easy pick for Josh and I...as we were driving home from our first encounter with Douges at the RSPCA, when we fell in love with him, we started picking out names even though we both knew the chances of us being able to get him (we're renting) were very slim.
I like to name animals after their personality and Douges is very lets just say, chill. So we started naming wild animals that could represent this image, we started with wombat, whale, hippo, rhino, tiger (that was Josh's), lion, and the list went on and on, eventually we got stuck in the water creature category and Josh said Doogon (spelling), a Doogon is basically a manitee only I think it looks a little plumpier.

And instantly I said DOUGES! and we didn't suggest one more name after that, it was the one.



When Josh went to pick up Douges from the Noosa RSPCA (if any one is looking to rescue a pet, check this place out they are really sweet and put up with our constant calls about how he was doing with his Kennel Cough), Douges knew immediately something exciting was happening. He did really well on the ride home, no sickness, no whinging, other than sooking to Josh every once in a while for a pat.

Mean while I was sitting at home trying to work and being completely distracted with anticipation, would he be a ratbag? would he love me right from the start? would be be too big to handle?


My worries quickly dissipated when a big floppy eared dog came lumbering toward me.

Douges and I had a great night to ourselves laying on the couch together (the boys went to the game, which I did not mind at all), and although I think he likes Josh better because of the whole alfa male thing, I know he has an extra soft spot for me. But he is currently curled up with Aaron in his bed so we will see who wins the affection race.

I am the one that feeds him :)

I'm hoping this blog will eventually be filled with all the funny shenanigans that Douges gets up to, and document our journey with him. This is the beginning of a new adventure for us and we are all excited.

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JK-47