The Book Of Rosie | Idle Minutes

Category Archives: The Book of Rosie

Corgi Christmas

27-Dec-07

Rosie is a stylish dresser.

For Christmas eve and Christmas day 2007 she has chosen her green and red elf collar with simulated red and green peppermints adorning the tip of each petal. Not bad for a cattle herder.

These two days are frisky days for her, herding my wife back and forth up and down the stairs from the kitchen to the gift wrapping station. And she must stand watch on the kitchen floor for dropped food.

Then there’s picture taking and snooping through piles of gift wrapping for a stray candy bar or candy cane.

And of course travel to the in-laws to visit faces not often seen…and to pose and snoop again.

In the waning hours of Christmas eve, the waiting game begins. This is explained on the sketch so I won’t repeat it here.

Rosie has more fun at Christmas than I do.

In fact, she has more fun in general than I do.

I think this has a lot to do with the fact that she is cuter than me.

Also filed in Animals, Pets | | Comments (6) »

Corgi Stare Down

23-Dec-07

Rosie at play.

Yes…she’s playing. Actually she’s resting from play for a few minutes.

It’s still play because she uses these moments to her advantage
to psyche out her nemisis…the sheep.
In a moment she will pop up on all fours and grab ol’ sheepy cross the back
and clamp down for a couple of good loud squeaks.

Then reposition her clamp to the little stubby tail for a good shaking.

There is nothing ol’ sheepy can do.
He is trapped in the stare down.
He can’t move.
He can’t scream.
He can’t breath.
Poor thing can’t even take a fear induced dump.

But hey…most of the time he lives in an air conditioned toy box, free of harassment, with a dozen or so other tortured souls.
It could be worse.

Getting to this stage of play with Rosie involves pre-play and post-play.
Both of which require one human, usually my wife.
My wife is Rosie’s “Jolly Playmate”.
A subject for another entry in the Book of Rosie.

BTW, this one is a spread across two pages of the sketchbook. As with all the illustrations here at Idle Minutes, you can click on it to see a larger version.

Also filed in Animals, Pets, Stories | | Comments (8) »

Birthday Leisure Tip

11-Dec-07

Rosie and her modified scratchy-rolly maneuver

As I mentioned in the last post, Rosie had a birthday this past Monday the 10th.
She’s thirteen. That’s uh, ninety-one in human years.

I hope I’m still able to bark as loud as she does when I’m ninety-one.
I also hope I’m still able to chase squirrels,
or at least be annoyed enough to bark at them like she does.
And I hope I’m still able to do the scratchy-rolly maneuver.

What exactly IS the scratchy-rolly maneuver?
She begins by pushing the side of her head into the carpet while walking forward (corgis are quite short legged), then flops the trailing end of her long body over on her back and begins to roll slightly back and forth. Coinciding with this rolly movement is a repeating left-right-left bending of her torso. All of this rolling and bending is done while still on her back and is set to the lyrical groans and noises unique to Welsh Corgis.

This typically goes on for thirty seconds to a minute with a one or two second pause here and there for a light sneeze (also while still on her back). Then she pops up on all fours, sort of freezes in position with a blank stare, and suddenly gives a good hard head shaking sneeze. Lastly, a good shaking from head to rump.

Maneuver completed. Time to do something else. Woofing, barking, racing ’round the couch, or simply going to the bedroom and curling up on the bed…again.

Birthday Modification…
On her birthday, around mid-morning, she performed the standard scratchy-rolly maneuver with one small modification. Instead of popping up and producing the final sneeze and full body shake, she remained on her back…and fell asleep.

What we see here is the modified scratchy-rolly maneuver.

I find this to be an ideal modification for one to make on their birthday scratchy-rolly maneuvers and I intend to incorporate it into my own birthday fun in April.

I learn something from Rosie almost daily.

Also filed in Animals, Pets, Stories | | Comments (9) »

Rosie Wants a Head Rub

08-Dec-07

It has been a while since I posted. It’s time I got back at it so here’s a good start.

This is my little dog Rosie. She is a Welsh Corgi. She’ll be thirteen years old on Monday and though she sleeps a lot, she is still quite playful and agile. She is more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

I use a laptop computer. Most mornings I sit down to check my email.
I sit in a chair with my feet upon an ottoman and the laptop on my…um…lap.

Unfailingly, Rosie will quietly toddle over to me and stop under my legs where they create a bridge to the ottoman. She then makes a grumpy little puff from her flues (the corners of her mouth).

I ignore this.

Without moving she puffs a bit louder.

I move the laptop down to my shins, bend my knees apart, and reveal the endearing scene we see here.

With a slight smile I can never restrain, I say “what do YOU want?”

Again without moving or batting an eye, she replies with another, still louder, grumpy puff.

Then I rub her ol’ noggin with both hands, wiggle her big ol’ ears back and forth, bend over and kiss her on the head, and get a double lick on the nose in return.

Having successfully exercised control over her so called “Master”, she toddles off to the bedroom and curls up on the bed for a few hours of napping.

I can’t tell you how many laughs and snickers I’ve had watching this little dog for thirteen years.

I decided to start a sketchbook called the Book of Rosie. This is the first sketch in the book. I’ll post them as I sketch them.

Rosie will be anxious to hear your comments.

Also filed in Animals, Pets, Stories | | Comments (7) »

Sleep Doggy Dog

29-Aug-07

You’ve heard of Snoop Doggy Dog I suppose, the rapper?

Well this is Sleep Doggy Dog. My doggy dog Rosie. Also known as Rosebud, Little Dog, and Bark-a-Lounger.

It occurred to me the other day that in the twelve years Rosie has graced us with her presence, I have sketched her but twice.

That is about to change because I now realize I’ve had a great little subject following me around all these years.

I learn something every time I sketch. Sometimes oddities are revealed to me. This sketch of Rosie revealed an oddity.

You see, at twelve years, Rosie is a really heavy sleeper. The big Corgi ears still work but not as well as a few years ago. And the brain is still playful and sharp but not nearly as prone to keeping watch all the live long day.

As an example, just a few days ago I walked up to her as she slept in this her favorite position. I called her name quietly. Not a stir. I touched her head. Not a stir.
It was not until I rubbed the top of her thick furry neck with a firm hand that she awoke.
Sleep Doggy Dog indeed.

Which brings me to the oddity.

I carefully and quietly sat down on the floor in front of her last night around two in the morning as she slept. I was five feet from her, sketchbook and pen in hand. As usual she was completely zonked out. Not a stir. Not a flicker of a change that indicated I had disturbed her sleep in any way whatsoever.

I sat still for ten or fifteen seconds. Still sound asleep. Deeply asleep. Not a flinch, not a sigh, nothing.

I began sketching her loose and quick and quiet. Scritch, scritch, scratch - the pen making barely audible noises on the grainy watercolor paper.

I got the angle pretty good on the nose and snout then started concentrating on the position of her eyes and…danged if she didn’t wake up!

I froze. How odd! It takes a hard rub on the neck any other time to roust her. I was certain she would just lay there and snooze.

She slowly cracked open her eyes, rolled them up at me for a second or two, then turned and raised her head, and looked at me.

It was a look that said, “If I didn’t know you, I’d bark at you. What the hell are you doin’?”

I am certain it was not the pen on paper noises that woke her. She was awakened from the deepest of sleep by the electricity of me watching her.

I realized at that moment how odd it is that animals, including us, are so sensitive to being watched. Even in a deep, deep sleep our brains tip us off that somebody or something is really checking us out.

It brings to mind the punch line from a joke about the hot and cold “awareness” of a thermos bottle…”How do it know?”

Rosie by the way did not resume her sleep. I continued to sketch her pose from the memory of thirty seconds past. As I did so, she got up, streeeeeetched, toddled the five feet over to me, and gave me three or four licks on the face.

Good doggy dog.

Also filed in Animals, Pets, Quick Sketches, Sketching and Drawing, Stories | | Comments (6) »

Rosie: AKA “Bark-a-Lounger”

16-Feb-06

This is Rosie, our Welsh Corgi.

After eleven years, she owns the household.

She’s a great watch dog.

She has been known to bark for several minutes at suspicious noises, all the while lying on her side, never stirring or even raising her head from her original sleeping position.

When she is satisfied she has scared the hell out of whatever it was she heard, she stops barking and returns to sleep.

We call the technique
“Bark-A-Lounging”

Rosie is very smart. Smarter than we (her owners) are in many ways.

She can catch a tennis ball in her mouth. We can’t do that.
She can jump through a wire hoop not much bigger than her. We can’t do that.
She can roll over on command. We can do that…but we won’t.
She can shake hands with either front paw. We can do that but it’s awkward.
She can dance on her two hind legs. My wife can do that.
Upon entering the great outdoors, in a matter of seconds, she can find nasty things in the grass and clean them up for us by rolling in them. We haven’t tried that, and probably won’t.