Friday, June 29, 2007

What a Matched Set


Nelly


Roxy

You can guess how many shots it took to get both of their faces in the frame. I do love digital.

Finally a Match for Lucinda, Nelly

And all the other dogs breathed a sigh of relief.

It is Tough being the Newest of the New




Once again, being the new dog on the block comes with a lot of unwanted attention. Especially if Lucinda is doing the greeting. Talk about persistence.

The Lion Cut


Very popular here in Carbon County. You shave your fluffy dog down to just a tail puff and sometimes a mane. I think dogs get the mane only because the owners are afraid they will shave off an ear.

Nelly doesn't look like herself and isn't really acting like herself either. Dogs might not have any idea of their actual size, but they do know when they have a bad hair cut.

Now Only Semi-Attached to My Leg


Those eyes, I have only seen the mismatched colors on Australian Shepards.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Maybe Too Early for Photos

I have been having trouble getting good pictures of the dogs, lately. Not that my limited photography skills have gotten even worse. It is that during the day the dogs just don't really play, it is just too darn hot. We have our big play sessions first thing in the morning and in the evening as the sun goes down. I finally get to see some action and there is just not enough light for my camera to catch it.

Oh well, in desperation, I used some of the blurry ones anyway. Sorry

Meet Claire


Claire is attached to my knee.

Claire's owners were a bit worried about her 'socialization' skills.

I and my knee can see that.

But lets give her some time, I happen to know that other dogs are far more interesting than my knee cap.

That's the idea.

I am so disappointed that this one isn't in focus.

Just a Big Furry Blurr






This time the camera captured what I see. Lucinda rarely slows down long enough to photograph.

Her style of playing is to wrestle for 30 seconds and then spin off at top speeds, whip around and come back for another session of wrestling.

What is Henry Barking About This Time?


We had been playing for about 20 minutes when Henry started barking. He wasn't barking at anything, so I was alternating being trying to shush him and ignore him. I was figuring about another 10 minutes of playtime.

That is when I snapped his picture and realized what all the barking was about. He really does look mad. He is sitting in front of his kennel waiting to be let in. Henry doesn't care that it will be hotter than the surface of the sun out here before lunch, and this is the only time to have a real playtime until bedtime. He wants his breakfast and he wants it now.

He wanted his breakfast so much that he tried to eat Lucinda's breakfast as well. We just can have that, it's rude.

Tomorrow, I am giving him a biscuit to hold him over for a full half hour, so he can survive until breakfast time.

A Very Unlikely Pairing





Dufus and Lucinda

At first, I thought Lucinda was scaring the tar out of Dufus, so I would break them up.

Then I noticed that Dufus was the one starting it. Dufus had a funny technique. She runs up and gets Lucinda's attention and then she runs and cowers. It is like a kid who yells, "Get me, Get me, Get me!" then turns away, wraps his arms over his head and yells, "DON'T!"

It turns out that Dufus's interested-terrified style works well with Lucinda's here now-gone now style.

Well as long as you two are having fun.

Working Too Hard


As I have mentioned before, if feeding your dog involves more than 3 items or 3 steps, you are WORKING TOO HARD.

And therefore, you are working me too hard and turning me into a short order cook.

This Missy, not only does Missy have more than three ingredients, she gets more than 3 meals. This going beyond 'too much work', to 'too much food' for such a little dog.

In the morning, Missy gets a small bowl of milk. Which I am proud to say that I have remember every morning without having to run back to the house and back upstairs to get. After the morning playtime, I am to give her a peanut butter biscuit, broken in half, and two of those mini t-bone treats (Which I must say are the coolest looking of all dog treats). She is also to have a bowl of dry kibble in her run in case she gets hungry throughout the day. At dinner time she gets a half of a pouch of wet food. This was the one I kept forgetting upstairs in the frig.

So far, she has eaten her steaks but none of the peanut butter biscuits. She ate her wet food the first few days, but that has just been nibbled on lately. She does like her milk in the mornings. And of course, the kibble is just getting dusty.

I will have to have a chat with her owners. I was thinking about the shear volume of food offered to the dog and it exceeds the volume I feed to my 60 and 80 pound labs. I think I can cut their dog food expenses down quite a bit.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Another Visit From My Usual Runaway

I headed down to the dogs for the dinner shift, proud of myself for finally having remembered to bring Missy her dinner out of the frig, only to find a dog waiting for me at the play yard gate.

ESCAPE! That is the first thing that goes through my head, soon to be replaced by 'What is that dog's name?' and 'Why can't I remember his name?'

Oh well, I will be happy to open the gate for you. He seemed a bit impatient with me, like he had been made to wait longer than he really liked.

So much for saving myself a trip back to the house and back upstairs to retrieve Missy's dinner, I had to go up and find his mom's number.

His name is Drake and I saved his mom's number after the second time he scaled the fence and came for a visit.

No fence climbing this time - he went through a screen this time. I don't think they will ever be able to confine this dog, but at least we know where he is headed when he cuts loose.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Hans is Finally Leaving His Sister Alone

He finally found someone else to wrestle with.



But in the end, Gunda just can't resist.

Hans really lets his sister have it. Whenever he wrestles with her it sounds like a full on fight. That is why I am always breaking it up. All the dogs around them think it is really a fight. That gets the herding dogs, Tessie or Tobit, barking like mad. It gets the dogs looking for a fight like one of the Scotty Dogs that also picks on her sisters, charging right into the middle.

That is when I step in and tell Hans what I tell my kids, "This is the only sister or brother you are ever going to have! You better treat them nicer!"

I don't think either Hans or my kids really get the point.

A Very Different Game of Fetch

Nice catch!

Yesterday, I discovered that Star really likes to play fetch. Soon Gunda joined in. Soon Gunda learned that it is okay to chase but leave the getting to Star. Then everybody else started to join in. Only Hans, Tobit, and the Scotty Dogs aren't chasing the ball, they are chasing Star.


Hans even tries to catch Star.

Puddin and Odie or Odie and Puddin



I haven't figured out which name goes with which little white dog. I also have never learned the names of my "Ladies", the three little black scotty dogs. And then is Simba who got called 'Gizmo' all day yesterday.

Oops, wrong movie.

Hot Dogs!


I have a total of eleven dogs staying with me this weekend. One of them never comes out of her run. I count 8 dogs all sharing the shade of the apple tree trying to keep cool.

Any room under there for the photographer?

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

This is How.

My husband was just asking our dog how she got so very dusty...this is how.



And soon she will be jet black again. Right after she deposits all that lovely dust into the carpet of my bedroom.

Yes, I do have a really good vacuum.

Bad! Photographer, bad!