I hate buttercups so much, the creeping, invasive little suckers with their cheery yellow blossoms.  This year Dexter’s daily coconut oil is really helping him beat the buttercup rash, but he still has a big itchy strip down the center of his chest.

Fortunately, not everyone is allergic to them, and they do make for some adorable photos.

I mean, it really doesn’t get more adorable than this.

SOME dogs didn’t want to sit in amongst the buttercups, but wanted to be adorable anyway.

It’s been rainy the last several days, so I didn’t want to like on the ground for you this afternoon.  Instead I shot blind, with the camera held down to the ground and randomly shooting.  Still worked out pretty good!

Insanity is compelling from all kinds of angles, I guess.

Someone must have told Dexter that I entered him in Regionals, because as soon as I sent the payment, he forgot how to play agility again.  At class this week I threatened to stick my boot up his arse and fling him around the arena, as it would have been about as successful as just trying to run him like most people run their dogs.  WHY?  Why are his agility skills directly connected to my bank account??

It’s a darn good thing he’s cute!

Anyway, shooting from the ground was kind of fun.  It’s generally difficult to get a shot of Piper jumping because she doesn’t jump very high and she jumps really close to my face, so this one was happy for me, even though she looks like she screaming her frustrations to the skies.

Spring emulated Snoopy.

Winter.  So cute.

Winter has been doing so well on the Zylkene that he is probably ready to list for adoption.  I can’t imagine him without his doppelganger sister wife though; while the little monster drives me crazy, I’m having difficulty envisioning the pack without him.

We haven’t done too much this past week – working, running, trying to sleep with a cat on my neck etc.  Next week my stepdad and I will be building an addition to the hen house so that the new baby hens at work can come home :)

In the meantime, Spring would like to stare down her nose at you

because you don’t believe she can actually fly.

We’re having a seasonally unusual hot stretch, in the upper 20s.  It’s been very sunny until today (though still hot!) so we are spending a lot of time hoarding Vitamin D in the great outdoors.  And the dogs are loving it.

ahhhhhhhhh.

Piper is loving it extra much because she had her 9 week post-op check up on Friday and Doc says everything is going swimmingly, and I am allowed to start increasing her exercise gradually, so short games of DumbBall are on the menu.

Piper could not believe her ears when I told her the good news.

But not Frisbee.  Tweed says he is now officially 13 years old and with age comes great respect, and he thinks everyone should respect his right to hoard the Frisbee.

The terriers are digging the outdoors time, with lots of zoomie terrier action happening.  Winter has decided that in order to be more aerodynamic his ears needed lifting, and he’s been carrying them this way for the past few days (whereas Spring can’t be bothered to get hers up).

However, the world is out to get the terriers!  First, I managed to bean Winter square in the mouth with a hockey ball on the up bounce. Then he was off in the neighbour’s field chasing Killdeer (they fly really low to the ground) and gleefully ignoring my demands for him to GETBACKHERERIGHTNOW! (with confidence comes bad behaviour, like EATING MY SHOES – which he does when I am present, not out of anxiety when left alone.  He’s having a second puppyhood on this Zylkene stuff) and wandered over to the dead end road and started following some people who he thought were me, but were not in fact me … what Auntie Fiona calls the “doggie version of grabbing the wrong mom hand.”  He had a minor panic over that, couldn’t figure out where home was and ended up racing through Stinky Ditch to get back to me as fast as possible, which ended in a Very Scary Bath.  (It has not, however, cured him of chasing Killdeer, who I think are nesting next door as they keep luring him away when he pops over Stink Ditch to go chase them.)  And Spring got run over by Dexter who was in full flight after his DumbBall.  I am amazed she is still alive.  Good thing terriers bounce.

I’m very excited because I have found someone who offers lure coursing in my neighboorhood, even to my lowly lurchers, so we are going to try it soon.  I think Spring and Winter will really like it.  I also think Wootie would really enjoy it, but he may be smoking too many drugs too really get into the athletic sports these days.

Not my Springaling though.  My girlie walks on air!

She’s magic!

Tweed can’t believe how high she can jump!

But mostly it looks so impressive because I am lying on the ground whilst taking those photos.  it makes her look like she is much higher in the air than she is.  Laying on the ground makes for neat perspective, you should try it.

Dexter looks dorky from just about any perspective.

Laying on the ground is always a bit of a crap shoot … it’s hard to throw the ball from a lying down position, and sometimes overtall smooth coated border collies land on your face when your aim is poor.  Sometimes you lay your ear down in dead worm, courtesy of Mr. Woo and his dig-em-up, shake-’em-to-’death’ and roll-in-’em routine, and sometimes spiders crawl on you at inopportune moments (bad, very bad).

But you get some cool shoots from down there, so for you, dear readers, I will lay among the dead worms and spiders whilst getting trampled by Kieren.  The things we do for love (a la Jamie Lannister).

The other danger, of course, is that when laying prone you are bound to get a Winter in the face.  He means well, for he is a very love-filled doggie, but he is physically insensitive (shocking for a terrier, no?) and after a Winterlove session I end up bruised and battered See me holding him back?).

I love you so hard!

After a love mauling, he is always very contrite.

But you cannot accept his apology, for if you do, he is so grateful that you have forgiven him that he starts the whole process all over again.

It’s sure nice to see him having fun in life though!

Speaking of “fun” … I bit the bullet, and entered Dexter in Regionals again this year.  What can I say?  I am a glutton for punishment.

Oooooh … you gonna regret that, Food Lady.

Shut up Tweed.

I’m already having the cold sweats just thinking about it.  When I try to imagine the outcome of this foolish expenditure of cash and self respect, all I see is this image:

Dear doG.  What have I done?  WHAT HAVE I DONE???

 Happy Thirteenth Birthday Tweed!

He was two weeks old when I picked him, via scanned polaroid photo(!) from the internetz:

His mum was Tuffy, a little black and white cattle working border collie:

His dad was Bear, the strong silent type of Australian Shepherd:

 He was 5.5 weeks old when I brought him home.  He slept the whole way back from Washington in my lap, waking only to ask to pee once, and to eat three french fries and half my cheeseburger.

 He won over my grouchy dog Briggs, something no other dog had ever managed to do,

He was my first REAL agility dog, and while we struggled about power over the years, he was an enthusiastic and willing partner.  He taught me much.

When he was 12, he won the BC-Yukon Regionals for me, and promptly retired himself afterward :)

 Now he is 13 years old.  I cannot imagine life without him.

Here’s to many more Tweed.  You and me, kid – kicking ass and taking names :)

But really … have you ever seen a happier looking Clydesdale dog in your life?

I’m pretty cheerful too.  Sun and warm weather make Food Lady happy!  The chickens are clean, the dogs are exercised, the laws are mowed (thank you lawn tractor!) and I’m supposed to be entering my dogs in Regionals … but instead I’m blogging while I debate entering Whacknut AKA Dexter.  Last night’s class was visited by plates-for-eyes-spinning-on-wheels-Dexter instead of the sane dog that was my partner for the last couple of months, so I’m having a crisis of confidence again.

I’ve been a very dedicated agility handler and every evening Dexter and I have been outside working on his weave pole entries at speed, at angles, at distance, close up etc.  And the third obstacle in the first course was weaves and he whipped past the entry, popped into them around pole #3, did two poles, SPROINGED in the air and sped pell mell back to me barking furiously.  *HATE*

On the other hand, practicing weaves is challenging in this crowd. (hah!  instead of typing “crowd” I initially accidentally typed “crud” which is funny on all kinds of levels)

(Just so nobody types a long comment about how I should really be practicing weaves with the other dogs put away … I do, actually :) )

And so, as I still cannot decide whether or not to enter the bat eared bastard, I’m procrastinating by:

Laughing at Wootie falling down whilst trying to catch his frisbee.

Imagining what Spring’s voice would sound like if she could swear at her brother in English.

(Mildly) scolding Piper for trying to play frisbee before her 9 week post-op check up (I hope it goes well, and she can start running again!)

Wondering how chickens know which eggs are theirs.  I have no accompanying photo for this, I’m just curious.  So like, I have this one hen that has gone all broody, so I decided to let her have 6 eggs to sit on rather than eat them, just to see if they will hatch.  After all, both roosters are horny enough, they must be fertile.  I wrote the date on them (eggs, not roosters) so I can tell them apart from the daily collected eggs.  Today when I went into the hen house to clean, broody hen was sitting on her clutch of eggs OUTSIDE the nest box, while some other asshole trying-to-be-broody hen was in the box on a whole new batch of eggs.  All the numbered eggs were out on the floor (and there is a lip on the box).  AND fake-broody hen pecked the hell out of me when I tried to get her out of the box.  Chickens are assholes!

Anyway, maybe in 3 weeks we will have new baby chickens!  Although at this rate, my chicken collection is in danger of spiraling out of control … I have 9 three week old Black Cooper Marans at work waiting to come home when old enough.

But I don’t want to sit inside blogging all evening – there are still several more hours of fun left to enjoy!  And Kieren says he is ready to rumble again.

And so is Winter! (My favourite thing about this photo is how his little spotty feet are in perfect focus)

Oh and speaking of Winter … the little pee monster has been on Zylkene for just over a week.  The house soiling stopped within 24 hours of starting the supplement!  He is officially belly band-free.  And he has started rough housing with me without shrieking like I am about to beat him to death.  Colour me impressed!

And I have to go run on my treadmill, as unlike my svelte, athletic dogs, I’m a veritable butter ball these days.  While I flail and gasp on the stupid treadmill, I shall try to compose something poignant and tear-inducing for Tweed’s 13th birthday post in just 3 days.  Thirteen!  Holy doG.

Enjoy the super hot, sunny weekend friends!

]]> http://www.wootube.net/2013/05/sun-god/feed/ 6 http://www.wootube.net/2013/04/a-sea-of-grass/ http://www.wootube.net/2013/04/a-sea-of-grass/#comments Sat, 27 Apr 2013 01:05:25 +0000 The Food Lady http://www.wootube.net/?p=1524 Gonna lose the dogs in it.

Especially the old one, as he gets confused more easily these days.

But it’s okay!  Because Dexter is about to save the day.

(insert thumpy bass music sound (ie *oomchaoomchaoomcha*) here)

Dexter’s kickin’ it old skool on our new (to me – definitely NOT to this world) lawn tractor.

Pretty awesome huh?  The Sadist drove me out in his wife’s Big Ass Truck to pick it up this morning, scared the guy into dropping the price significantly, and then – despite always whining about his bad back or whatever – picked the damn thing up out of the truck and put it on my lawn, yelled “Don’t ever bother me again!” and drove over three people on his way out of the farm.*

(*may be a slightly exaggerated account of actual events)

My landlords are lovely people with their own lawn tractor, but it never occurs to them to mow the parts of the property that *I* use, like the lower field where we play ball, or the upper field where we practice agility.  So I went and got my own.  It’s not fancy, but it works!

Don’t worry, Dexter didn’t really drive it.  He’s too young to drive.

Spring drove it instead, though she deeply resented being given a chore to do.  She’s such a princess.

Hopefully Dexter is NOT too young to play agility properly.  Tomorrow we are entered in our last trial before I make up my mind about whether or not to enter him in Regionals.  He did so well at the last trial that I am really hoping it’s a new trend in his overall performance level, and this trial will be the dealbreaker.  If he keeps his wits about him and performs decently, I will enter him (and Spring) in Regionals next week.  It’s close to home this year, so I feel like I have to take advantage of the nearness.

He may not be the most coordinated dog to walk this earth (or hover above it) …

… but he’s absolutely one of the most enthusiastic …

… and, of course, the best looking :)

Now if it’s coordination you want, you need to look to the Terrier Group.

They are marvels, in their shrill-yapping, constant wrestling, super annoying way.

The other day whilst engaged in this activity, the roiling herring ball-slash-terrier scrap banged into Tweed, whose hind end is not the rock solid machine it used to be, and they knocked him over.  And he cried.  And I got mad and chased them all over the place trying to beat them to death with the Chuck-It, but the f*ckers are too fast.

Today we had a repeat performance, except they knocked Mr. Woo over.  And I laughed and laughed.  I’m such an a$$hole.

And speaking of a$$sholes, here’s one that is not speaking to me at the moment, because he got in soooo much trouble this morning for eating the stray cat’s food on my landlord’s porch and then refusing to come inside when I called him, so I had to chase him all over the damn acreage before I finally caught him.  He is a VERY BAD DOG.

Hah!  You’re an a$$hole too for laughing at me this morning.  You’re a match made in heaven.

I started Winter on the Zylkene on Thursday, and when I came home from work that same day, his bellyband was dry (it was also not on his body, as he managed to get it off, so that may account for its dryness, BUT I did not find a pee anywhere in the house either), so maybe it’s working!  That’d be nice.  He’s a pretty awesome little dog when he’s not biting me in the small of the back / my sleeves / my hair.  He learns new stuff really quickly and he is full of energy, and every night he stands up like a gopher and asks me to carry him to his crate at bed time.  Very charming and funny.

What’s that?  Did you say something about Kieren?

Kieren who?  What’s a Kieren?

Whyfor you pretend I not exist? This make Kieren sad.

SHHHH Kieren!  If I pretend you don’t exist, I don’t have to find you a new home!

OHHH!  This make Kieren happy!

Project?  Onto my dogs?  What? ;-)

Wish us luck tomorrow!  After all, if I enter Dex in Regionals, you get to see the disastrous video’d results!

ME!  That’s who!  This dog is driving me bananas!

Winterjerk has Separation Anxiety (capital S, capital A).  I can’t even step out of the room without coming back to a dog popping around like hot corn in oil, and biting my arms and lower back and HAIR (it *hurts* to have a 20 lb dog Tarzaning from your locks, lemme tell you).  If I ignore him, he gets more frantic.  If I get angry at him, he gives me Elvis Lip and tap dances nervously, and paws at any patch of bare skin with his impossibly sharp nails.

I have to let him out to pee as soon as I step in the door because the excitement of seeing me triggers a flood of urine.  And speaking of pee, his bellyband continues to be soaked when I get home from work.  He doesn’t leg lift in the house anymore – he is now housebroken – but everything anxiety translate into peeeeeeeeeeeeeee (and more Elvis Lip).

I am thinking of trying him on Zylkene – has anyone ever tried this?  Any feedback for The Food Lady?

Here’s a face I DO love :)

Miss Piper had her 6 week post-op check up and everything is looking good, says Doc.  Three more weeks of on leash stuff and catrophen injections, and she should slowly start to resume normal activity.  She will be so very happy.  Soon she will look like this instead:

I wish I had something interesting to tell you, but I don’t do anything interesting these days!  I work, I sleep and I let the terriers do this:

and this:

And this:

And this:

As much as Winter drives me crazy, it’s awfully fun to see him play with Spring more or less constantly.  I think she appreciates someone who speaks her terrier language.  Also, it’s two less dogs I have to exercise myself as they exhaust one another.

It’s hard to do anything fun with this many dogs – even for me, the Queen of Taking Multiple Dogs Places, eight is too many.  It’s too many for my truck, and it’s WAY too many for my sanity.  I have come to terms with the reality that I do not have time for Kieren, much as I may like him, and he would be better served in a home with someone who either has fewer dogs, or more free time.

The problem is, nobody seems to want him (except for people who aren’t suited to him, like newbie dog owners and the like) :(

Also, it will be sad to break up this duo:

Though Dexter will be happy to have the Flying Squirrel back to himself again.

On the other hand, taking a photo of all 8 dogs LOOKING AT THE CAMERA is my piece de resistance, no?

Shall I translate for you?

• TWOOIE: disgruntled
• WOOTIE: high
• KIEREN: ball?  BALL?  BALLBALL?
• DEXTER: <inappropriate attachment to Food Lady>
• TWEED: Again?  Really?
• PIPER: I will kill you in your sleep.
• SPRING: I don’t wanna sit next to stinky little brother!
• WINTER: OHMIGODICAN’TBEARTOBEAPARTFROMYOUFOREVENASECOND!!!

Sometimes I think TWooie is the canine version of Grumpy Cat.

But lest you think he is always dour (and because I realize I am blogging so rarely lately that I have lost most of my readership and photos won’t cut it, so I have to step up my game), may I present you a rare video of TWooie *PLAYING* with the terri-erri-erriers?

Will that bring you back to the fold? Also, if one of you (*coughJULIEcough*) would just adopt Kieren, I would have more time/space (continuum? no wait, tangent!) to go on adventures with the dogs and blog it!!

Physically, he no longer resembles a thinly haired giraffe.  I started giving him coconut oil every day about 3 months ago and for the first time in his life, he has a Man Coat on him, thick wavy hair everywhere, even on his chest!  He’s finally filled out in the torso and while he remains lean, he is no longer starving-3rd-world-child skinny.  His body finally matches his giant head!

Mentally …

But seriously … mentally, he is finally growing up.  A few weeks go I ran him in my club’s Fun Match, and he surprised me with a qualifying run.  In class, he has started to maintain some level of concentration for longer than seconds at a time and is taking his “job” of agility more seriously.  I have been so impressed, I entered him in the PAC trial today – four runs!  I was expecting a (customary) meltdown.

I was wrong.

He qualified in Steeplechase with a 3rd place – would have placed higher but for one bobble where he ran around a jump two times before finally taking it, but as there are no refusals in Steeplechase  it cost us nothing but about 5 seconds of time.

He then had a lovely Starters Standard run, with just ONE refusal at the table because he rocketed onto it so fast that he tipped himself over the other side.  The rest of the run was very lovely, controlled and – dare I say it – sane.

His Advanced Gamble was incredible – first place and a Q, not a foot out of place.  Fast and furious, but taking direction and playing WITH ME.

Our last run of the day was Team with Julie and Pip, who had come up from Washington.  All 4 of us massively flubbed it and Dexter had a mini crisis of performance at the weave poles, but for most of the run he was trying very hard to do exactly what I asked.  Overall, he went 2 for 4, and most of his runs were awesome!  And he knew it too … he left the ring every time with a seriously sexy sway in his hips and jumped up to give me smooches of glee.  I am very proud of him.

I think my baby is finally becoming a mandog!

Or not.

Maybe he’s just a very slow to mature kind of dog.  He’ll be 4 years old this August, and maybe his brain has finally started kicking in. Nothing else has changed ’round here, so I think it’s all in his little pea filled skull.

Spring had a great trial too.  She wasn’t feeling too confident in Steeplechase and did a stress-miss of a jump before settling into the rhythm of the game.  After that, she was on fire!  She got a Q in Starters Standard, a second place behind Julie and Pip.  And she also Q’d the Advanced Gamble, just one point behind her big brother.  Her confidence is coming along, and with that confidence comes speed.  I am jumping her at 22″ right now because on her first measurement she was under 16″, but the next she was over 16″.  So this morning we had a tie-breaker measurement and she was under 16″ again (she is SO CLOSE to the line!) and she now officially jumps 16″.  But she was already entered at 22″ so I left her up there as she has no problems with it at all.  I am debating whether to drop her to ‘actual’ height or not – it’s beautiful to see her jump 22″, like a deer … but she’ll probably be more competitive at 16″ where she isn’t competing with long legged/taller very fast border collies.

Jumping is DEFINITELY not a problem for her!

Not much else is new around here.  Kieren is still with me, despite my many salesman-y type attempts to “sell” him to Julie, who is kicking ass and taking names with her TDBCR dog Pip.  I think she would make a lovely home for Kieren (are you listening, Julie??)

Winter is settling in.  Last week we had 4 out of 5 work days with a dry bellyband!  I think that means he’s finally housebreaking.  I also introduced him to the A-Frame at class (scariest thing ever, he wants you to know; at least it was until he discovered the bounty of cookies at the bottom and then he wouldn’t stop going over it obsessively).  But his favourite thing in the world remains his sisterwife, Spring. It’s getting so that I can’t even tell them apart.

Piper is a month of out surgery and she thinks IT’S TIME TO START RUNNING.  We negotiated 20 minute on leash walks every evening instead.  I’m going to scrape together some money to start swimming therapy with her as we gradually increase her exercise.  She is going to be so happy when her life is back to normal.

The WooTWoo remain … insufferable.

And in less than a month, Tweed is going to be 13!!

How’d that happen?

I promise I will try harder to blog more often … I just have had so little free time and when the weather is nice and I’m not at work, there’s so much to be done around the farm.  But I will try harder, I promise!

Now to ponder whether or not I want to enter my agility dogs in Regionals this year …

What is this “peanut butter” you speak of?

Oh.  OH!  This is teh yum!

Please sir – err, ma’am, can I have some more?

Awwwww yeaaahhhh.

AWESOME!

Not to beat a dead horse or anything, but holy cow, are we ever sick of this rain.  And by “we” I mean ME, because the dogs don’t care.  There is not a single princess in this house, so all 32 paws are ready to get out there and churn up some mud every time they think I might possibly be entertaining the notion of potentially moving toward the front door.  But *I* am so tired of  hosing and toweling them off every time we come back inside … the other day it took me almost as long to clean them all as it did to exercise them.  Madness!  And we won’t discuss going behind them to wipe down the walls where they leave mud splatter, so matter how much I dry them off and scrub them … or the mountains of dog laundry I have to do every day.  BC Hydro is probably going to call the police to come see my grow-op, my electricity bill is so high, thanks to the dryer.  Why do I live in Vancouver again??

I guess the real question is: why do I have so many dogs if I insist on living in a rainforest?

AND DON’T YOU ALL START!  You are no friends of mine, you are all HORRIBLE HORRIBLE enablers!  I cannot keep Kieren. I just can’t.  I can’t do him justice, training wise, as there is just not enough time in the day to work with another dog, even if he is practically already perfect. AGH!

The problem is, someone is going to adopt him, and do amazing agility things with him, and I will have to sit sadly on the sidelines in the bleachers with my mentally challenged Dexter spinning and barking in idiot circles at my knees while I RUE THE DAY, rue I say!!

I feel like you’re dissin’ me.

Plus, I will probably get stuck with Winter, as I cannot housebreak this little devil for love nor money.  He’s pretty reliable when I am home, and I can leave him belly banded for a good 4 hours whilst I am out, but any longer than that and he soaks his diapers.  We had ONE work day where I came home to a dry band and I was so flippin’ excited, but that was just the once.  And peeps don’t like to adopt dogs that are not housebroken.

OTOH, he is so damn adorable I can’t stand it.  I have been getting a little irritable with him lately because he can be really needy and gets all up in my business if I am trying to work with/cuddle/groom/speak to/look at another dog, and when he is concerned that I might be upset with him, he stands up on two legs and does Elvis Lip at me and wiggles.  It’s like a “smile” but only one side of his lips go up, and every time he does it I melt like butter on a hot sidewalk.

And then I introduced him to peanut butter, and I about DIED from the cute.  Seriously.

And THEN someone (who is despicable and evil) showed me this:

I mean OBVIOUSLY he needs this.  Because he is Winter and he is coming reliably when called.  The dang collar costs more than he did!  But clearly I will need to scrounge together the cash to get it for him.

Why do terriers have to be so excellent anyway?

Piper does not think they are excellent.  Piper does not think anything is excellent right now.  I suck.  Cones suck. XPens suck. Being locked up sucks. No-walks sucks.  Therefore, she will be grumbly with me, she will break her cone, she will bust out of her XPen and walk around the house.

Clearly, she is already feeling loads better.

Her incision looks good and she is already growing hair back on her poor scalped leg.  Stitches come out in a few days and we can start some light rehab soon.  I have been letting her hang out with us if she promises to lay down quietly, because otherwise she complains in the XPen very loudly for long periods of time.  She is not a model patient.

But she does love to be photographed eating peanut butter!

Oh peanut butter.  You are so bad for us, but so so funny.

This photo makes me laff and laff … one bulging excited whale eye for the peanut butter, one scowling, suspicious eye glaring at Kieren for muscling in on his snack.

hahaha!  Oh my.

The only one for me is you, and you for me.

I can’t see me lovin’ nobody but you, for all my life.

So happy together …

HEY HEY HEY… WHOA…not THAT happy, TWooie!

Class, does anyone want to tell me what TWooie did wrong there?

I do I do!  He tried to touch Wootie in his naughty place!

I feel dirty.

Yeah, well, I feel like a big a$$hole :(  Piper had her ACL surgery on Wednesday and she was so obviously in so much pain when I brought her home.  I felt like I had done something terrible to her, even though the part of my brain that isn’t instructing my hand to wipe away my sniffles knows it’s for a good reason.  She just looks so vulnerable and sad and lonely in her XPen in my bedroom.  I don’t want to move her into the main room where we spend most of our time because she gets up to “enforce” the house rules too often.  Mostly, she wants Kieren to JUST LIE DOWN FOR 10 FREAKIN’ SECONDS ALREADY.

Sawee.

It’s gonna be a long two months.

To make things worse, last night I left her a frozen stuffed Kong when I went to agility class.  When I got home like over 3 hours later, she was sitting in her Xpen with the saddest expression ever, because the Kong had gotten stuck on her bottom jaw and because the stupid cone was on her head, she couldn’t use her paws to pry it off.  Who knows how long she’d been sitting there like that?

I tried to give her a frozen pork bone instead this morning when I took the other dogs out for a run, but I caught her wandering around the XPen burying it in her blankets, so I swapped it out for another frozen Kong and this time I removed her head cone .  Only to find she had chewed off half her bandages instead of eating her Kong.

Did I mention it’s going to be a long two months?

But at least the weather seems to be improving.  Last week it monsooned for some many days in a row that my property turned into a lake.  Which was fun for doggies:

(and Kieren is getting over his fear of water)

But not so fun for my hydro bill, what with all the dog laundry I had to do.  You have no idea how many towels it takes to de-mudify and dry off 8 dogs!  Then you gotta wash all those towels and repeat after the next walk.

Today was gorgeous, sunny and warm.  We played outside for so long that I even managed to poop out Kieren, which is saying something.  All the pooches are tuckered out after 2.5 hours of frisbee and running around.

Even left-out singleton Tweed, who is the only dog who doesn’t have a double.  Although he is one of a kind, so it doesn’t seem to bother him too much.

Winter is getting his terrier on.  Last week he learned to play fetch, which made him very pleased with himself.  But he’s not sure yet that the point of Dumbball is the joy of getting the ball; he seems to think the point is to bring every toy back to The Food Lady for cookies or praise, even if it means stealing it from someone else.

The stocky little terrierblob that I brought home a few short weeks ago has morphed into a sleek, muscley little beast that eats more food every day than Tweed does just to keep his ribs from poking out, and who can almost keep up with his sister/daughter/wife when she’s running flat out.  And she’s FAST.

He’s becoming a real dog so quickly that I can’t even tell them apart sometimes.

He’s nearly ready to be listed for adoption – we just need to get past the housebreaking block.  He no longer leg lifts in the house just because he can, but he does still periodically pee inside when he feels the need to go.  He just needs to learn how to ask and/or to hold it.  His impulse control could use a little work too but he is, after all, a terrier.

As for Kieren, he’s totally ready to be listed.  I’vejustbeensobusyandstuffthat’shwyIhaven’tlistedhimyepthat’sit.

*sigh*

I started teaching him some agility equipment before class starts every week and he can now jump, do the tire, do the A-Frame and the Dogwalk.  And each piece of equipment took him exactly one repetition to learn.  HE’S SO SMART!!  And fun!  And adorable!  WHY CAN’T I HAVE ONE!!!

Stupid smart fun sweet good looking dog anyway.

He’ll probably get adopted lickity split, and I’ll end up holding nothing but a cracked out weasel aka terrier.

Now I must go spend some time with my poor be-Xpenned baby beanie so she doesn’t feel so alone.  Happy sunny days, friends!

Recently he has discovered that CHASING other dogs is FUN!  And you can BITE them, and because they are stupid OCD border collies who have shrunk the whole universe down to a single orange hockey ball orb, they ignore you while you hang off their scruffs like one of those fish that attach themselves to the sides of sharks.   A week ago Winter had no idea that the front end of dogs even existed, because he had his nose perpetually shoved up their nether regions (when he was not pissing on everything in sight to announce that he was A Man)(doG bless the operation called “neutering”).  Now he is experimenting with the various means of trying to get them to play.

A few days ago, he discovered toys and that a multitude of them live in two baskets in the living room and that you can have them any time you want.  Most impor-terrier-antly, he has discovered that you can lay atop a mound of them and declare that ALL THE TOYS ARE BELONG TO YOU, and that border collies will recoil in fear from all 22 lbs of your majesty.  Then he discovered that the Food Lady will hoist you up by the armpits and remove you from your throne on Toy Hill Castle when you are being a dick about the stuffies, but because you are a terrier, you will spend the rest of the morning plotting how to get back on your fluffy seat.  Terriers are hilarious.

He and Kieren are vying for a notch up a bit – both are low man on the totem pole (and Tweed, incidentally, HATES Kieren and is determined to keep him squished down there at the bottom of the heap) so they squabble some.  But Kieren is also the only dog in the house who will play tug with him after breakfast, since all the other dogs are old farts who are pooped out on various dog beds.  It’s quite funny, and I must get it on video for you some time – Winter will go retrieve the sheepskin pad that is his crate bed and will drag it out around the house trying to entice Kieren to grab hold of the other end.  This is not difficult, as Kieren has only two modes of operation – play or sleep.  They play tug until I realize what they are playing with and take it away, wherein Winter spends the rest of the morning trying to climb the table or chest of drawers or whatever tall piece of furniture I’ve hidden the sheepskin atop of.

Outside, playing with Spring is his favourite thing.  It’s a noisy activity that sounds like they are about to disembowel one another, for terriers never do anything half-assed.  Spring is not yet sure if she loves or hates playing with Winter, as she’s gone a bit soft playing with nothing but border collies and the Orange Pillow known as Mr. Woo.

They are SO much alike.  I should be immune to the wonder of this, having experienced it with The WooTWoo,  but I am still greatly amused by their similarities.  There is no mistaking them for anything other than relatives.  They both stand on their hind legs like gophers when they want something.  They both like to do The Gopher at my feet, with their backs to my thighs, and their faces are so eerily similar that looking down on them from that angle is like seeing double.  When they are anticipating something but are unsure, they both sit with one paw hoisted up in the air.  And they both do a funny little two-step dance thing when waiting for a directive, this super hurried little front foot stomping – tappity tappity tappity-pause …. repeat.

The worst trait they both share is that when I am trying to watch a movie and do not want terriers in my lap, they both Gopher beside the chair and rake at my arms with their strong little feet.  And no matter how many times you holler at them, and shove them off the arm of the easy chair, they bounce right back and repeat until you relent.  Very difficult to reach the popcorm when you are arms are pinned down by terriers!

When he first came to me, I thought maybe he was Spring’s dad or something, as he looked old.  His coat was shitty, his teeth were terrible, he was out of shape … now he’s lost about 3 lbs and is a lean machine, his coat is starting to shine and his teeth are pearly white.  He looks like her brother now.

Transforming Winter is so rewarding.  If I were a filmmaker, I would have loved to have videoed the past two weeks as it would be the most stunning tribute to the power of a home for a lost and confused dog.  I’m not sure why it’s happening so much faster for him than for Spring.  Maybe because he was older and had some life experience behind him (and was not left to die in a cat carrier in a field in the hot summer sun)?

Everyone else is doing alright too.  Piper goes for her surgery consult in a week.  As she will be on a long, painful lock down after her surgery, I have relented and let her run around a little bit while she still can, and she was so delighted that she was zooming around photobombing everywhere!

She’s gonna be MAD during the recovery phase, so I hope she remembers this little kindness.

Dexter has an on-again, off-again limp/tripodding thing going on with his right hind leg.  As I am now ACL-tear paranoid (it does not help that it’s the same leg as Piper’s!) I took him in to have that looked at.  The veterinary professional has declared his knees sound, his hips great and no toes appear to be more sensitive than any other, so it’s possibly a soft tissue injury or a pull somewhere, so he’s about to go on lockdown as well.  Gee, I wonder how he could have hurt himself?

Kieren has mostly made himself a member of the family (unless Tweed has any say in the matter) and is fitting in well.  I wish I could keep him!

He is just so frickin’ handsome!  I am going to be so fussy about where he goes.

And TWooie is … fat.

I really need to start saving up for a new lens next, if the dogs ever leave me any money to do that.  My telephoto lens is trying very hard to die.  Maybe because it’s worn out from the LASER BEAMS FOR EYEBALLS that are pointed its way all the time?