Growing!

I took Trip in for some vaccine boosters today. He's grown about 2.5 lbs since we have had him! I knew he was growing but that's quite a bit in the short time we've had him. And he's still just a bundle of energy. He's a strong tugger, loves to run and is getting better at fetch. He plays with all the the dogs now but mostly Lyric and Zodiac.

While I was at the clinic I picked up Zodiac's bloodwork which was normal so everyone got a good report this week.

It's really cold today and I have the horse shoer coming this afternoon. I'm not looking forward to standing out in the barn holding Squirt in the cold but not much I can do to get out of it! I think I'll bring the space heater out with me. No more exciting news for today. Just catching up on laundry-fun.

The rest of the weekend

Well Legend finished off the weekend with another great day. She had an off course and popped out of the weaves in standard but was running with a lot of enthusiasm. Then she had a great run in jumpers and scored MXJ leg #8. Then we had a very long trip back with intermittent snow and traffic. I thought we'd never get back but we did finally arrive safely. I'm glad we had today to relax and unpack.

Quick update

Things are going great here in Lawrence. Legend has gotten 3 of 4 Qs so far. Yesterday she got her first double Q and today she added another standard leg. We would have had another double but she missed the weave pole entrance. I'm so pleased with her though-she seems to be becoming much more consistent. And we think we got Cheri's foster dog adopted. No takers on Trip yet. The girls are tired so we are resting up for what I hope is another good day tomorrow!

Agility weekend!

Tomorrow evening Legend, Lyric, and I are headed out to Lawrence for 3 days of agility. Lyric is tagging along for the "dog show experience" and of course to work on building her fan base! We are also having a MOKAN booth at the trial and although Trip won't be coming with us I made this flyer to post at the booth-what do you think? Will it get him adopted?

And for fun-here is an "old time" picture of Moses.

Wish us luck! I'm sure I'll update some from the road as well. Especially if it's good news!

Late night photoshop

Ok. So it's not that late but since Jerrry's already in bed and I'm still up it feels late. Anyway Border Collie Mom inspired me to start playing around with photoshop. When blurring the background I have always selected an entire object and then blurred everything else but she game me an idea of blurring a circular area instead. So here's what I did.

So you can see how some dog is blurred while some foreground is in focus-since it was in my oval selection. I'm not sure why I chose a brick frame-just different. I did think it was cool that I found a way to make my font actually black and white-clever huh. Anyway, that's it for now. I should maybe go to bed too.

Buddies?

Lyric and Trip have become quite good friends lately (she tried to eat him a few times the first day). At least I think they are. Sometimes Lyric seems to be having a really good time with him but other times I'm just not sure-she just stands there and lets him pull her hair. Anyway, it keeps him busy. I shot this video this morning. They had been playing for awhile so you can tell they are just starting to get a little tired. Ignore the out of control border collies in the background.

In other exciting news we let our propane run out overnight which made for a chilly morning in our house. Jerry noticed it was low but we didn't do anything about it in time. Apparently we were supposed to be checking it. In the past they have added some as needed but I guess we are not in that program anymore. And I didn't prepay for any extra this year so now we have a whole tank of high priced winter propane. Oh well, at least we are warm again.

Oh, and I am working a little too. Gotta pay for that propane you know!

Spring

Sort of. It's still snowing here-just a little but here are some picture of my big bunny, Spring. She has not been on the blog in a while but she's full grown and over 14 lbs Don't let that scare you though- she's really just a big, lazy, chicken rabbit!

Here she is on one of her short bursts of energy.

And a sweet bunny close-up!

I would go out and take more snowy pictures and play with the dogs but I've has a sore throat since Saturday so today I'm just puttering around the house. Since I can barely talk the dogs probably won't even train today. Lucky puppies.

Here is someone else who hasn't been on the blog in awhile! Friday night was game night at our house. Kennedy was the official dice roller for Scattegories.

She also tried to expand her responsibilities by helping Jerry with his answers!

Updates

The snow is still trying melt and the yard is a swamp-no playing out in the mud today! It did snow earlier today and looked very pretty but it didn't stay around long as it's above freezing. Yesterday was equally as dreary as today but with a greater variety of precipitation types.

Trip is sleeping through the night and didn't even pee in his kennel last night! He's also learning that he can play with toys while in his x-pen instead of screaming to be let out where he will play with the same exact toys in the living room.

We have been back to training inside so lots of obedience work. Legend is working on open and utility stuff and doing quite well. Zodiac continue to toil away at utility. He was doing great on articles and then yesterday just fell apart on the leather. Not sure what's up with that. We haven't tried yet today. I may let them air out a few more days. He's starting to get the idea that he should "go-out" until he reaches an obstacle-a wall, fence, whatever. I know he should probably "go-out" until I say "sit" but he's such an anticipator I thought associating it with physically needing to stop would be better and I just tell him to sit as he approaches the endpoint.

Lyric is working on proofing her stay. She also has a lightning fast recall-in a very controlled environment and is racing across the room to the target. So for the most part everything is going pretty well.

Zodiac got to get caught up on vaccines and bloodwork today and tonight they will all get birthday cake for dinner!

This afternoon I have been messing more with Photoshop. Here is a scrapbook page for Zodiac. I don't have a scrapbook but I was playing with some different features.
Here is Legend getting ready for the Superbowl. I couldn't decide if the pawprints make it too busy or not but ended up leaving them. It seemed ok.

And little Lyric running through the snow.

Now I better get some real work done!

Our snow here has been melting over the last few days. I'm glad I didn't have to travel in bad weather but I got home just in time to see the dirty, half melted snow. It refreezes at night which leaves it crusty and lumpy. The border collies don't mind so much but the little ones have a hard time getting around on it.

Speaking of little ones, Trip is doing well. He loves to play-he thinks all toys are great. He's already starting to tug and fetch. He would like to play with the other dogs but so far they are not too interested. Lyric especially does not like when he pulls her tail. I think he will definitely need a home that is going to be very active and experienced with herding breeds. But he did sleep through the night!

This morning was quite frosty and I took this picture of Moses overlooking "his domain."
This photo is from this morning as well, but doesn't really show any frost.

I neglected to mention that Monday was Zodiac's "birthday." He's 9, which we can hardly believe but the gray in his face will testify that it's true. I need to pick up a cake this week so we can have a little dog party!

Trip

This little guy is our new foster puppy, Trip. He and his mom are available through MOKAN BC Rescue. Mom is somewhat more traditionally marked black and white BC so we think Trip may have some cattle dog in him. He's quite a rambunctious little guy. I'm sure he will get adopted fast.

On Sunday I skipped out of the conference to take Zodiac to the local obedience trial where he got RAE leg #8. His performance was a little sloppy which kept us out of the ribbons but with respectable scores of 94 and 95. He was glad to get home and run in the yard with his sisters!