Finally got it done

I took the morning off so I'd have a whole day to work in my yard. I ran a few errands early and then got to work. First I planted some stray blackberry sprouts along a bare area of pasture fence that has no electric on it so they they can vine around the wires. Then I cleared out the area along the front of the barn and planted my Lily of the Valley plants. Hopefully they will grow and I can finally get something worthwhile in that spot. Then I cleared out and mulched around the raspberry bushes. I planted some pansies in the wishing well and did a little general weeding and sprayed some areas with week killer. Then I mowed the back yard. Doesn't seem like it should have taken all day. But it did. No time left for messing with the horses or dogs which was something I was hoping to do. Still got some laundry to do and then we are meeting some friends for dinner!

745 to go

Today's jumpers course was one of the harder courses I've seen in awhile (and reportedly the hardest one all weekend-I was not at the trial on Friday) and threw a lot of people and dogs for a loop. But Legend ran it great. Go figure-the only thing I can predict about her is that she is unpredictable! So we got out first MXJ leg and our first 5 MACH points. It was not a super time but certainly respectable-placed about 8th in a good sized 20 inch class.

She was slower in standard (it was getting hot, don't know if that played a part) but was doing ok until she took an extra jump. Even with that she still easily finished under course time. Overall she's running better, with more confidence, and less stress. But I know she can get a lot faster-hopefully as we continue to work at home that will transfer to the ring.

So now it's 5 points down, 745 and 20 double Q's to go. This could take awhile.

Wild dog at the Show-me canines trial

Legend was a bit wild today. Fast. And happy. But wild. I do think I'm making progress with her issues and in our training but getting just one good solid Excellent B Q would really be nice. Maybe tomorrow.



"Wild? Me? I don't know what you're talking about"

Odds and Ends

Ok, first of all I never want to plant anything in my yard with thorns. Ever. It makes everything so much harder. I did manage to get some gardening done today after work-I tried to catch on housework and pack (we are headed to another agility trial this weekend) last night while I was still not quite feeling back to normal.

Second, I was one of the winners of the Dogs on Thursday contest-here's my prize!

And as promised here is the handsome Tate-who will hopefully be going to his new home soon!

Always on my day off

It always seems like I get sick on weekends or tuesdays. Today was apparently not an exception. I woke up feeling ill and finally threw up after being at work an hour. I finished what I needed to do for the day and headed home to spend the rest of a beautiful day in bed-not working in the yard or cleaning the house or playing with the dogs or unpacking. Fooey. I quit throwing up but now have a fever. I initially blamed this on a bad sandwich from subway (tuna which of course had mayo on it). But then found out Cheri, who I spent all weekend with, is also sick today-so maybe it's something viral we picked up. Hopefully we'll feel better tomorrow.

NADAC Day 2

The day started off with open jumpers again. Another really great run but with one off course. Then we were off to Novice chances-we got all the distance challenge but into the wrong end of a tunnel. Rats. Open regular round 1 I let Cheri run her-it was a bit out of sorts but still pretty good for a team that has not worked together much. I ran her in Open regular round 2 and we got a clean run and finished her title-yeah! Then all we had left was open tunnelers-the course was fast and fun and a great way to end the trial with another Q. So overall only 3 Qs but about 7 runs that I was really happy with. Hopefully we can actually get some Qs at the AKC trial this coming weekend.

And in case anyone is wondering Xena (pictured in the previous post) is guessed to be a BC/Sheltie cross.

We also found a home for Cheri's beautiful foster dog Tate (aka Tater). He'll be an agility dog and we'll probably get to see him out on the course someday! I'll post a picture later this week of him-he's really pretty, and a snuggler.

NADAC Day 1

We started off with open jumpers and had a really nice run other than the first bar down which is an oddity for Legend. Then off to novice chances which was also really nice and we got our second leg. Then I let Cheri run her in open regular and that went pretty well except for a missed weave pole and an off course tunnel-big surprise! Then I ran her in open regular round two and she seemed a little more stressed and had a few bobbles but finished with a really strong all out run. Novice touch and go started out slow but as we got to some tunnels her speed and enthusiasm were much improved but I sent her off course and we were discombobulated a bit after that. I'll probably have Cheri run her at least once tomorrow and depending on her stress level I may try doing a few obstacles then celebrate and either leave the ring or go on and do more of the course so she doesn't worry about having to do the whole thing before it's time to tug and play again.



Here's Legend and her friend Xena relaxing after a long day.

More from the new camera

I was away from the house for most of my day off today and briefly considered starting a gardening project when I got home but ended up opting to play with the dogs and my new camera. I tried out the "sport" mode. The pictures were less blurry than with my old camera but still not super sharp. Maybe Legend just moves too fast, or maybe I can't expect too much from a nice, but non-professional camera.

Here's one of my purple vine flowers up close
I really like this one of the apple tree.. You can click on any of these to see the larger version if you want.

This is from the cruise we took at the Branson Landing Saturday night.

And another big bunny photo.

Icy's just yawning here-promise.

More food, less drugs

Oreo accompanied me to work today. He was in dire need of a bath and brushing. And so I brushed and brushed and brushed. I think I could have made a whole other dog out of the hair. His coat is so thick. He looks tremendously better but I could still get more hair off him. I did weigh him today and was surprised to find he was down to 44 lbs (I had previously been trying to keep him at 48). He doesn't seem much thinner to me, I think he's just losing a lot of muscle mass-I have definitely noted his back bone getting more prominent. He otherwise seems to be doing great-no new problems so we are going to up his food. He's excited about that. He's been eating great lately.

Some of you may be wondering about the cat on Prozac. Well, the experiment has ended. She was gorked out on the meds that she just sat and stared into space. She actually let me carry her around for an extended period of time (not normal) and a few times left some food in her bowl. She didn't show much interest in coming in the house and was not even using her special litter box in the garage regularly. So all the goals of the experiment were defeated. We have settled for letting her in when we can keep an eye on her and limiting her access to only certain rooms. Seems to be working well. She gets to drink from the big water bowl, get harassed by Icy and get in some social time.

Hoppy Easter

Yeah, I know the Hoppy Easter thing is corny, but it's a classic! FYI-Spring was not impressed with being tracked down, hauled out to the living room and being forced to pose. She wouldn't come up and take a treat from me for 2 days!

New camera photos

I finally got to use my new camera today. I have been mostly experimenting so far-there are a lot of settings but I did get these of some plants today.

Does anyone know what this is? It's a vine that I've always ripped up every year because it wanders around the house and gets into my groundcover garden. But this year I let it go-the leaves are pretty and the groundcover is taking forever to fill in so I figured I'd let this thing help. Anyway this year it bloomed with pretty purple flowers-that makes it a keeper at our house!
Here are some of my replacement phlox that have not been planted yet.

And some pansies that have not been planted yet.

I've been wanting to try the action mode outside on the dogs but it's raining today and all the agility equipment is piled up waiting for the yard to get mowed. Which I was going to do today, but like I said-it's raining and yucky. Lots of time for laundry though!

Catching up

It seems like everyday this week has been Thursday-since my boss was gone and he's usually gone on Thursday. So I've been pretty disappointed every day to wake up and find out it's not Friday. But tomorrow is Friday and better yet I have the afternoon off since I worked all day on Tuesday. Too bad I have to work Saturday.

Anyway Icy is feeling better, back to her normal playful silly self. Legend had a great day for agility class last night and did quite well. Zodiac had pet therapy on Tuesday and we had a good visit as usual. And we have a busy weekend coming up.

I got my new camera in the mail today and am anxiously waiting for the battery to get charged so I can play with it. In the meantime, here are some various photos taken with my old camera and/or my phone.

Here's Icy, just looking cute

Spring-hanging out with the dogs

Yep-she's laying next to Oreo in this picture (really more behind him but clearly not concerned about him)

This is Meatball-he's our clinic cat. He was dropped off for euthanasia a few years ago for "health problems and aggression." When that sweet face popped out of the box I just couldn't put him down. His health problems were fleas and obesity and he's far from mean-just sassy. He's lost 10 pounds (started out at 23) and free of fleas and lives a good spoiled life. He's the perfect clinic cat since he never gets up on stuff and mostly just sleeps and begs for food!

Here's Icy with her army of toys

Today's Headlines

Surgery-I neutered a cryptorchid (had one testicle retained in the abdomen) rabbit. First time I've done that but it proved to be way easier than a cryptorchid dog or cat. Unfortunately it was a surprise complication and slowed down my morning a bit. But everything turned out ok.

Icy-woke us up vomiting this morning, did not eat well today and vomited a few more times while we were at work. Chances are she'll be fine but and it's no big deal but remember last time she was sick...

Weather-it's freaking cold here!

Disappointment of the week-Wheel of Fortune is having auditions in Branson....the same weekend I'm going out of town for a concert. Dang it. I wanted to be on Wheel-I'm pretty good. But I'm not missing the Kenny Chesney concert for it.

So it's gonna be that kind of day

Yesterday at work I was checking some things in the back when I heard quiet a commotion up front-someone came in off the street wailing and carrying on about not being able to breathe and went on to tell about her boyfriend beating her up and taking her money and she didn't want an ambulance but she wanted him arrested and apparently was making quite a scene. All in front of the clients who where trying to get nail trims and puppy vaccines taken care of before we got busy (did I mention it was not even 9AM?). Ultimately she laid down on the floor-still wailing and yelling and a crack pipe fell out of her pocket. Super. A quick call to 911 by the receptionist got the "situation" removed to the parking lot and ultimately resolved. I think they let her go but imagine they confiscated her drug paraphernalia.

Fortunately the rest of the day was quite calm.

Stone Soup

Or, why you should not let your dog eat rocks. Remember the dog I mentioned yesterday? Well the rocks did not move overnight and we ended up doing surgery on him today. It went really well-these surgeries are always so rewarding-relatively straightforward and provides instant gratification.

The rocks were all still in the stomach-they couldn't get past the sphincter that leads to the intestine. Here I am fishing the stomach out-felt like a little baggie of gravel!

Going fishing for the rocks!

Here comes one of the bigger ones...

The final product

This dog is doing great-he actually never really acted sick and by the end of the day wasn't even acting like he had surgery-goofy labs!

Thanks to Becky for running the anesthesia and Sarah for taking the pictures!

What's going on

First of all our maid service started this week and coming to a clean house is probably about as exciting as getting a new car-what a relief to not have to choose between looking at the dust and hair or cleaning it!

Legend had great fun at agility last night. She was very excited to see all her buddies. She ran well and even ran once for Cheri-they did pretty good together! I tried running Vixen (the speedy-and I mean really speedy-Sheltie) and that went ok.

I had a quiet day at work, we had a reduced staff today since the other doctor was off and Thursdays are usually slow. And today, as expected was a little slow but not totally dead. I saw a dog who ate rocks. A 9 month old lab puppy-big surprise. If they don't move overnight I will probably have to take them out tomorrow (I don't think they will move-it's been 4 days since the owner saw him eat the rocks).