We got home to a clean and empty house. The big dogs had not yet been claimed from their “spa”. Nixie was undoubtedly in the throws of having her nails done:>) The Crickster yawned and stretched. You would think she’s been doing recalls for days instead of lounging in a hotel room, eating bon bons and skipping around on the beach at intervals. Brenda crawled into bed for a much needed nap and Cricket flung herself onto the pillows – “me too, mom, I’m sooooooo tired”. I left her on the pillows to go down and unload the car – stupidly thinking she would lounge there while Brenda slept. I am told that as soon as I left the room she leapt from the bed and began attacking toys. With vigor. And there you have it. Never trust a 5 month old border collie. They are smart. And they know how to get what they want.
Archive for October, 2008
Homecoming by Toni
Friday, October 24th, 2008It’s a Big World Out There! by The Crickster
Friday, October 24th, 2008
I got to go with my two moms to a conference thingy. Don’t really know what that means but we’re in one of those rent-a-room places with a backdoor that goes out to sand and THE OCEAN! Nobody ever told me about THE OCEAN before. Not even a hint. We walked through all these tall pokey grasses
that smelled really good and then came over a sandy hill and right there was – THE OCEAN. I was amazed. Where did all that water come from and how come it doesn’t leak out and make everything wet? Lots of nummy tasing things everywhere I go! The water didn’t taste very good though – blick!
Puppy Toasted Oats – Secret Ingredient by Toni
Sunday, October 19th, 2008
Puppy Toasted Oats
Ingredients: 1 (one) 5.5 month old border collie + Early morning start + 4 sets of 5 recalls in sandy dirt + 3 jumps/recall + lots of ball chasing beforehand + watching team dogs race in between recall sets = 3 hours of focus and exercise in a new place and a new surface
Mix well. Take toasted puppy to Starbucks in the afternoon to people watch. Follow with brief trip to the toy store (Eastside Dogs). Feed well.
Produces one toasted oat pupster. But will she sleep past 5am? Stay tuned.
I Wasn’t Born in a Barn! by Cricket
Sunday, October 19th, 2008
Flyball practice today was very strange and VERY exciting! We had to leave early and packed up a bunch of weird things – tarps and folding chairs and extra dog towels and “just lots of stuff in case”. Then we drove a long way – well maybe not really but it seemed that way ‘cuz it was really foggy – to a brand new place! Mom said it was “barn practice”. No mats!! Just sandy, gravelly dirt at Becky Bishop’s Puppy Manners place. I got to run around with Zoey and chase tennis balls and warm up while we got the lanes and equipment all set up. I would steal the ball and get a mouth full of sandy dirt – now what’s that about??? But all the dogs there were team dogs running at the tournament next weekend so I got to do lots of recall repetitions while they rested between their team runs. It was really fun. I was really fast! I’m doing three jumps now (just baby jumps – but they count for me!!!). And in between my recall sets I got to rest up in my kennel and watch the big dogs. It was a lot of work for a little pupster like me – but I held up just fine:>) At least I didn’t have fumacious farts like Zarky. Wow! Zark farted and it filled up the whole barn! I was really impressed.
Sundays with Nix
Sunday, October 19th, 2008
Mom is still a gimp. Not completely, but we haven’t been out more than a half-hour a day for weeks. At least both days this weekend were bright and sunny and full of color and smells. This is one of my favorite places: the path near our house. Even though I try to be good on a short leash, Momma Brenda lets me out the full length of the long leash when we’re here, and I get to run back and forth between the fence lines and smell all the other dogs. And the cats. Today I saw a cat, and it sat completely still on top of a tall fence and twitched its tail and looked down at me while I barked and raised all the fur on my back and everything. Cheeky thing.
But hey, you can tell by my smile that I was pretty happy with the walk. I mean, walking is a good time to think, you know? I could think how nice it was not to have Cricket chewing on my ears, and yet how much she would like the walk (but I got to go and she didn’t, and I could think about that, too). I could think about all the dogs that have ever gone up and down this path and what they were thinking about. I mean, even a golden needs some brain time, right?
And then when we got back, there was this new sign and the sun shone down on it all goldy and bright like it was important or something. So then I thought about whether or not the sign was as important as me. It made both moms happy, but I do that, too. So I don’t know. But the mom’s seemed to be proud of it.
Sleeping with the Dogs
Sunday, October 19th, 2008Many mornings, either Cricket or Nix get up early. Like 4:30 or 5:00 AM. Sometimes they feed off each other (Cricket has a whine that starts soft and adds decibels until you just can’t ignore her, and Nix has one of those barks that scrapes up your spine like nails on a chalkboard). We shush them. They lay down. They start over. We shush them. They lay back down. Less time happens before they start over. We shush them. Nix steps on us and shoves toys in our face. Cricket’s whines become a bark. Sasha, for her part, snuggles down into bed further. Sometimes we do this for a half an hour and then we all get up. From time to time Toni or I will take pity on the other and get up with the dogs, feeding them and staying downstairs.
So what did I find about 6:45 Saturday morning?
I Love my Grandma Mary by Sasha
Monday, October 13th, 2008
Grandma Mary (Brenda’s mom) came to get me in eastern Washington when I was a very little pup. I love it when she comes to visit! I and the two heathens all remember her and it was so wonderful to be able to snuggle her up again!
It was hard to worm my way into some solid cuddling ‘cuz the other two rats were on her like bees and honey. But I am very tenacious! She has an owy on her hand and I have an owy knee so we petted each other and compared owy notes! She needs to take better care of her owy if she wants it to heal!
After grandma came, then Grandpa Dave showed up and that was blissful! And THEN David and Holly and Sage with Buddy and the little piglet (ummm oh yeah, Pedro). Whew! And then everyone went away:>( Where do my friends go when they leave? And how come I can’t go too?
No Remorse by Cricket
Friday, October 10th, 2008
I go away and Nix ends up in jail!
Friday, October 10th, 2008
Jeez….what’s that about? I mean, I’m gone for two days, And here I hear that Nixie has misbehaved and landed herself in jail. I mean, yes, I went hiking in a pretty place without her. The picture is me and my dad. But I did think it would be cool to have her. I thought about her a lot.
She would have liked it.
Except that we saw very crisp and clear bear tracks. I would not like Nix to get eaten by a bear. We didn’t want to get eaten, either, but we figured we are all three too old and stringy.
The salmon are running up the Wentachee River and we took the pipeline trail (very flat in honor of my achlles tendon and dad’s bum ankle, but very pretty) and then we came back and walked around the city park in Leavenworth (I’m doing a book signing at “A Book for All Seasons” here tomorrow).
The salmon slapped and leapt and splashed their way upriver all day – we saw many huge mottled fish near to spawning. You know how salmon just look beautiful and exhausted all at once when they’re far upriver? These fish had to have come up the Columbia.
Notice how crisp the bearprint here is, and how big it is compared the toe-print of my size nine women’s shoe in the lower right corner of the print.
Naughty and Naughty by Toni
Friday, October 10th, 2008
There was a binge of backyard terra-forming last month. A valiant attempt to dig out plants and relocate soil and get grass seed in to level a larger section of yard for dog running and playing area. The result is that the bulk of the backyard is currently fenced off to allow the new grass to grow before the entirety becomes a winter-long mud pit. The dogs have a small section of side yard as a potty area remaining to them in the interim. And a corner of the yard which is heavily planted with gargoyles and witch hazel and a small maple and some perennials. In retribution, Nixie and Cricket are making a huge hole in the garden. They are currently serving time, show no remorse whatsoever, and are hoping one of you readers will send them a bone with a file baked inside.