Happy Birthday Graber

Graber turned two the last week of October.  One would think that he would be leaving the puppy stage and maturing mentally, but we see limited signs of this.  He and Grant are at about the same equivalent age right now -- there are several similarities, especially loving cheese and always being hungry. 

Kate was the only one who remembered Graber's birthday.  She sent him a new toy -- a small tire.  As you can see in the video, it's quite popular.  The only downside was that our house smelled like Farm and Fleet for several weeks. 

Graber with his birthday present from Kate

As part of this posting, I reviewed my blog comments from Graber's first birthday.  There I had complained about the high price of European dog food.  Since then we've started ordering his food online.  Now the price per bag is down to less than a tank of gas.  I had also commented last year that maybe we would take Graber to a restaurant (like all the other European dogs) when he was two.  Fat chance of that happening.  We barely eat our own meals in peace.  I can't imagine him with a room full of diners. 

Last year at this time, he was enjoying finding hedgehogs in the yard.  We only have one hedgehog this fall and he's often in the backyard when I take Graber out for his good-night potty.  Of course the sight of a hedgehog makes Graber forget all about going to the bathroom and our time outside is greatly extended. 

Our local hedgehog curled up in a ball.

Not knowing much about hedgehogs, I did a little research (I even used the on-line World Book, not just Wikipedia).  They are native to Europe, Africa and Asia and eat insects, small mammals, birds and bird eggs.  They are "easily tamed and in captivity get along well with cats and dogs".   The article further states that "care should be taken to protect them from large, aggressive and mischievous pets."  Looks like we won't be getting a pet hedgehog.  Tom should consider one though.  It could help his garden as hedgehogs are "a powerful form of insect control, sometimes eating 200 gr of insects per night".  And for the final bit of trivia, McDonalds in England changed their McFlurry lids in 2006 because the hedgehogs were getting their heads stuck and starving to death.