Oops, I Did It Again

I took on another foster dog.

Um, I mean dogs. As in more than one. More than two.  More than three actually.
Reese is a 2 or 3yo Husky/Lab/Coonhound mix.  Probably.  Maybe?

She's heartworm positive. She had 6 puppies.  3 of them died because her chain twisted so badly that she couldn't get to them to feed them. Hard to miss the tow chain.  She's penned up, why did they chain her down too?


Luckily for Reese, somebody was watching out for her and intervened before any more damage could be done.  But it didn't stop there. They pulled her and her pups out of the filth. But they still had nowhere to go.  Something about this picture grabbed me and wouldn't let go.  I responded and offered to take them. All of them.


Sunday after our Pawsitive Vybe training camp, I drove to Iowa to pick them up and bring them home.

Oh, what was Red's reaction to this little family's arrival?  Use your imagination. 

No, he was fine with it.  He even named the puppies for me!  He's always been better at it than I have.  The black tri boy is 'Lyric', the darker red boy is 'Sosa' and the buckskin boy is 'Hooch'. 

And Reese played with a frisbee last night.  Like chase and tug and the whole bit.  Shhhhhh.... *wink*

Kitten

I have a kitten. 

Well he's like 9 years old.  But I call him Kitten.  Or Kitteh.  Or Mufasa the Mighty Lion. 

He likes that last one.

Sylvester can be a sweet cat.  He's 20 pounds of lazy, orange nonsense.

Yeah, I said it. 

I love his pretty green eyes. 

Oh, hi Kitten.  You big, mightly lion, you...

And then he's all sweet and cuddley and soft... He does this on purpose. 

It's a set up.

Because as soon as your hand gets into position to pet his soft fur....

 

WHAM!

He's trying to chew your hand off.

Vanilla Beans

Ever heard of 'em? 

 I guess if I honestly think about it, the only personal reference to them that I can think of is Vanilla Bean lotion. And then, I just thought it was a fancy name for it.  I didnt realize that vanilla came from actual beans.  I thought it came from those fancy little Watson's bottles. 


What?


Don't look at me in that tone.


I'm baking a bunch of goodies for a bake sale tomorrow night.  I decided that since you dont really see scones at bake sales, I would give them a try.  So I turned to the only woman I know who can make anything with perfection.  Including scones.  P-Dub.
I'm going to take a crack at her Vanilla Bean Scones recipe.  I've got everything I need.  Now... It's time to bake.

Time Again

It's that time again.  The time when I am bored with my blog and I am going to make some changes.

I'm sorry.  Please don't go away.  I promise you'll like it!

And plus it's pouring rain outside.

And plus it's Friday.

And plus it's my blog and I can do whatever I want with it.

Pibbleless

My home is now pibbleless.

My emotions are on the fence.

On one hand, when Annie left with her new parents, I felt the relief of having only my own amazing pets left.  But on the other hand, I will miss her. I dont want her to come back!  But I do miss her.  She kept me busy. And she was the best kisser.

I'm not sure how to explain how easy it was this morning to let my own dogs out without having to fight with a long line and water buckets and all of the extra stuff needed for Annie. Annie leaving was almost like 3 dogs leaving. Life just got really good and simple again!

I can tell you that I don't want another foster dog for a while. Just a while. Until the next hopeless soul comes across my doorstep (or inbox).  Which will likely be soon.  But for now, I'm going to enjoy the peace that comes with knowing that I'll be going home to my own.

I Like Big Butts

Alright, it's time to bring out the big guns.

Horses.

I like big butts and I cannot lie... Big horse butts that is. Because of who I grew up with, the only natural looking horses to me are the big, muscular Quarter Horses and Paints.

With big butts!

What most of you don't know about me is that half of my life was spent on horseback. Dogs took over only after a riding accident that both shook me up and halted my equine 'career'. Who knows what the face of this blog would look like if that accident had never happened. I can almost guarentee you that I'd still only have Jake and rescue wouldn't even be in my vocabulary.

The barn I learned everything from is amazing. The crew, the trainer, they were like my second family.  I, like most young girls, was horse crazy.  But, unlike most young girls, I was given opportunities that most kids can only dream of.  I was surrounded by people who wanted me to succeed in the horse world as much as I did.

I haven't been on horseback in a number of years. Since my accident really.  I still love them tremendously, and the longer I go without them, the more I realize how engrained they are in my soul.  I have to have horses again, and luckily, Red understands this.  And luckily, I understand that i cant keep a horse in the backyard.  So I'll wait until we move somewhere where I can keep a horse in the yard.  (Like a farm, guys. C'mon)

I did a lot of showing. Western Pleasure, mostly.  I didn't love it like my friends did.  But I did it and I learned a ton.  I rode a horse who didnt much care of it either. Doc, the old cow horse. He hung in there with me through my show phases.  But now from an 'outsider's' perspective, I'm beginning to lose my understanding of just where 'western pleasure' comes from.

Here is a video I pulled randomly from Youtube. Watch.

Now tell me that that doesn't look torturous to that horse?  It's not torturous. Not really.  But who decided that it should be natural for a horse to have such an insanely collected trot and lope/canter that I could walk faster on my own two feet than that horse would go at either gate?

That's why Doc and I were never good at it.  We wanted to stretch our legs over open fields with nothing more than a halter and leadrope to guide us. And the more I see this, the more I'm happy that I dont do it anymore. I love going to the shows. I love helping to dress up the horses and I loved the training. I loved every single aspect of showing horses. Except for when it actually came time to walk into that ring. I hated it. Every minute of it. Maybe it's the lack of competitiveness in me. Maybe I just didn't want my horse to be as unhappy as I knew he would be for those 5 minutes in the ring.

I used to have this obsession with a horse called 'Kid Clu'.  He was the biggest, most powerful stallion I'd ever seen.  The buckskin above is his son. I like them BIG!

Disc Dog & A Video!

If you've followed my blog for any period of time, you realize that dogs are pretty much the center of my life. Every blog entry mentions them to some degree.  Last year I was struggling with the disappointment in realizing that my baby, Kirby, may never be a frisbee dog. And then with the help of my disc doggin friends, I overcame that started working Kirby in other things. 

Kirby only really saw a frisbee once over the long, cold winter, on Christmas Day, when I shot the 'Aussie Christmas Disc' video. Then it was put away again for another handful of months.

Kirby and I completed beginner obedience and worked on crate games through the winter to keep us occupied. Minnesota winters suck.  But in that time, Kirby and I formed a new relationship.  Now he's so my baby boy.

Kirby was still showing a lot of distraction early in the spring when we started playing frisbee again. But I focused on Frankie and didn't push Kirby.  I signed him up for agility and was completely to terms with my non-disc Aussie boy.  He is good at just about everything else I throw his way.

Three weeks ago, we had a frisbee playdate with a few of the club members.  I brought both Aussies just so that Kirby could have some fun and its just good socialization for him.  I took him out when everybody had gone through once with their dogs, and he started catching throw after throw.  He's never really caught them out of the air.  Was this a one time thing?  Is he just feeling good?  Jealous because all of the other dogs are playing disc in front of him?

DK took him out a second time and again, he was catching and flipping.  I was so excited!  The next day, I took him into the backyard to try again, and was bummed to find that he was more interested in eating the new grass than playing frisbee with me.  But that was fine. He had a blast at the playdate.

Last weekend, Kirby made his disc doggin debut. It was his first comp, and he played well enough that it was worth it for him to go out and have some fun.  Even if he wasnt taking it seriously, he still is clearly having a blast when he plays.  He's such a dork.  Even DK commented on what a doofus he was, but that he was having fun.  That's all that matters anyways, right?

But interestingly enough, he never got distracted.

In the past couple of weeks, we've been building it up.  He is less distracted now and seems to want to play.  And his eye/mouth coordination is finally matured enough that he can jump and catch them from mid air.  He makes me think of Kai, a black bi Aussie of Jason and Andrea's in Florida. I've never met this couple, but I've followed their blog for months and they are Aussie and disc crazy like me. Plus, they are such sweet people and both have offered me so much advice. Kai was acting similar to Kirby in the beginning.  Distracted, uninterested.  Young.  But they have since turned Kai into an up and coming rockstar. Their advice, paired with advice from my own club, is starting to pay off I think.  I couldn't be happier!

I was of mind enough to shoot a short video.  It's shakey because I'm trying to play and shoot at the same time. But you'll get the idea.  Enjoy!

*disclaimer* I realize how rediculous I sound in this video. Don't judge. Kirby loves the baby talk.
Thank you and have a nice day.