Usually Nix plays catch only when the border collies are not around. They are smarter, tougher, and faster than her and she knows it. But in this case, she gets the ring.
Archive for June, 2009
Nixie Catches On
Sunday, June 28th, 2009It is a Three Dog Sunday
Sunday, June 14th, 2009
7:0o ish Am
And of course that means it was a three dog night. But the beasts let me sleep until 5:30 which was kind of them. Watching three active dogs when you’re by yourself is a bit tough….I don’t recommend it if watching dogs is not your primary planned activity for the day. I am going to send them downstairs and tell them I’m going to work and hide up in my office. That should work as along as I don’t move!
At the moment, Sasha is curled beside me, and Nix and Cricket are playing alligator by the bed. As long as they stay on the floor and the game doesn’t flow up to the mattress and back down, or move to the stairs, I can leave them to it. Sasha is the quiet one who follows me around so far this weekend. Although she is herd-mother, and so her back is to me and she is watching the alligators. In envy? Before Cricket, she would have been playing with the Nix and now she is somewhat sedentary. Or, if it’s not that she’s a bit jealous, is her careful stare designed to protect me? Who knows, but whatever she is doing, she is doing it with border-collie intensity.
They’ve gone downstairs and are barking at something. Sash went to go investigate. I best follow.
9:30 AM
The hang upstairs ruse worked for finishing my story edits for an anthology I hope to be in. It did not work for a morning nap. After much whining on the littlest border collie’s part, I drug myself downstairs and let them race up and down the fence line. This is a dog thing – my old dog, Max, used to do that all day (around a 5 acre fence). And now I’m back at work, this time on presentation prep.
7:15 PM
Everyone’s fed. I finished my PowerPoint (endless frustration getting the dumb program to play and embed a YouTube video on three computers, but I prevailed!) Then playing outside with beasts. Then I snuck off to go shopping, and made up for abandoning them by bringing some cooked chicken home for their dinner. Now they are back to being alligators on the stairs. I can’t figure out how to take all three of them to the dog park, so we may do one at a time walks.
Best go.
8:15
Crickey was scared to death of a loud pile of kids three houses down, but I didn’t lose her. She almost slipped her collar! Sasha acted all casual until she got within a few feet of the nice neighbor man we talk to almost daily and then she went barky-mad. Nix walked about and greeted everyone with her tail up and her head up…looking as pretty as she knows she is.
Walking on the Wild East Side
Saturday, June 6th, 2009We love the dog park at Marymoor. It’s just a walk down the hill for us, so I took a friend and we chatted girl talk all the way — Nix was wonderful. The picture of her here is the last moment she was dry until we were nearly home. Since this weekend is slammed, that is my pretend long Sunday walk with her. I figure she doesn’t know what day it is anyway. 
Since my friend sells network equipment, we had a great time talking about everything from rearing teens to the performance of various CEO’s of hardware companies and my experiences down at the FiRE conference a few weeks ago. And of course, we also discussed what a lovely dog the Nix is.
Summertime! by Toni
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
Summertime in the NW – and a month early! Can’t beat that with a stick:>) We are on countdown here. Five and a half more days of school! WhooHoo!!! Katie has been working double time to finish up year end projects, meet her committments in track and the school musical, and just stay alive. This collage is a web page from a personal website she’s building as her tech project at school. There’s a home page, a number of tabs (hobbies, pets, rice, forest ridge, Three Dogs Blog, etc) and this is the entry to the Pets tab. I think she did a really nice job with it, especially the way that Cricket’s ears fit into the star!
Otherwise, it is HOT. I mean like 90 degrees and melting hot. The dogs are panting with no exertion. All the fans are out and busy moving around hot air. The plants in the yard and in baskets have just exploded over the last week what with regular watering and the heat. One has to walk carefully around the house to avoid the bodies sprawled across the cool tile and wood floors.
We’re having the house painted in a couple of weeks which means moving plants and “stuff” away from the house. We broke down the dog run this weekend but there remains much to shift around. I am hoping it cools down a bit this weekend so we can muddle through the rest. And then Katie and I will be off to Kansas for a week. Brenda to Tennesee to speak at a conference. And the dogs go to the doggy spa, Cascade Kennel, in Woodinville. Where they will be wined and dined and played with, have some basic training reinforced, get groomed, and generally have some down time. Not sure what the Crickster will think about that. New experience for the pup!
Ah yes, the pup that Cricket is kissing on the top left of the picture is Velo, a Hob Nob cousin:>)