Jeber’s

Cleo gets a makeover

In case it’s not clear, I should point out that Jeber’s is my personal blog. Here’s where I post any old thing I think of or come across on the ‘net that doesn’t fit into any of the topics that I blog about elsewhere. I have a tech blog and three with different takes on social issues. I even have a blog for my workplace. But Jeber’s is me, it relects perhaps most accurately my eclectic interests.

Lately I’ve been obsessing over my dog, Cleo. I apologize to you non-dog-lovers, but I’m just so blown away by her attitude, her innate good behavior and her silliness I just can’t stop talking about her. Thanks goodness my Flickr stream already had a lot of non-Cleo pictures in it or people would think I can only photograph a single dog.

In order not to highjack my own blog with picture after picture of Cleo, I’ve set up a separate page for my favorite shots of her. But that page is about to change.

I’ve found a cool new application called Jalbum. I’ll be using that to create a java page of all my favorite Cleo pics. It should be up shortly. I hope you enjoy viewing it as much as I had creating it.

(Note: I just learned one interesting tidbit about jalbum. Don’t try to share it with MySpace. It appears to be a violation of their TOS. Thankfully I was notified before I allowed it so I didn’t get my account closed.)

Cleo sends a message

There’s hardly a day that goes by in which Cleo doesn’t amaze me with her personality and intelligence. There should be no way a 6 month old pup could be this creative.

This afternoon at work I was cleaning up one of the stations. At one point I took a container of water back to the bathroom to pour down the toilet. Cleo tagged along as usual and watched me. A short time later I saw her go into the bathroom and stare into the toilet. I figured she was just curious. Then she walked from the bathroom through the shop up to where her water bowl is. She walked back to the bathroom and stared into the toilet.

Curious, I checked her water bowl. It was empty. She was letting me know the water in the toilet should be in her bowl. I grabbed her bowl and filled it in the sink with Cleo watching me the whole time, tail wagging merrily.

Once she again had water in her bowl she never returned to the bathroom.

Any dog trainer will tell you that dog training is at least 50% a matter of training the owner to pay attention to what your dog is telling you. I have been given my lesson for the day and will remember it.

Cleo time

I’ve had quite a few dog companions over the last three decades, but never one as special as Cleo.

This morning we walked up to the local Starbucks so I could get some coffee and Cleo could receive all the attention she always gets from anyone who passes by. She’s incredibly well behaved, waiting patiently while I get my dose of java.

When she accompanies me to work, she has her own bed where she’s happy to snooze in between walks and greeting customers. Whether at the store or at Starbucks she instantly wins friends and receives all the attention a puppy could want.