Storm becomes Bonnie

I love this picture! It captures her spirit and her incredible color.



With her kitty. Looks like the Cheshire Cat? And they didn't know about my obsession with Alice in Wonderland. Bonnie is definitely an Alice.


"Hello there. You're a big girl aren't ya? Y'know I'm not the least bit intimidated..."



Angela writes: "We made it home and "Bonnie Storm" did just great. She likes her new bedroom, and slept most of the way to the ferry. She was a big hit in the ferry line, and we got to hear her gruff bark! Chloe is exuberant to say the least. They are getting to know each other, with Chloe on her leash and when Bonnie is in her kennel Maddie and Chloe are very interested, and keep watch on her. I think they will do great together, Bonnie loves her kitty. She took to Greg right away and he thinks she's terrific. She is making her way around the house and slept all night in Fiona's room. We are thrilled and she has bonded very well. She's a love and has brought excitement into our home!"

"Opinions are like..."

So I got a little white trash in my family tree. Okay. A lot. At the beginning of the year I picked up this little magnet calendar with country expressions for all sorts of circumstances. Today's says:

"If you don't have an opinion during a debate with other friends, you might say...

I ain't got no dog in this race."

I have yet to find a dog person who doesn't have an opinion about just about anything, including myself. Another more familiar phrase is "Opinions are like (insert orifice here) ... everyone has one."



There is wisdom to be learned from dogs: In some circles we can learn a lot from each other. Sometimes, however, it's wise to keep things to oneself.



I'll be saving "I ain't got no dog..." for just such an occasion.

Have a great day!!

Storm and Logan, I mean Quinn, I mean Jasper.. that's it Storm and Jasper

Angela and Fionna fell in love immediately.
Storm was amazing. Took her bath, nail clipping and even her first Dremeling without a yip or a squirm. Love her temperament: confident and resilient.

Fionna is all excited about doing 4-H with her and I think they will have a blast.





And news from Logan's family. He's being called Jasper and that suits him well.

Teresa says: "Veronica has already clicker trained him to come when called even if the
person calling doesn't have the treat. Only works in the back yard though,
so we have to move our next training session INSIDE. He also has US well
trained to open the door whenever he rings the bell, and he's totally
working that. He is a very smart boy.

Bart is still really enjoying the puppy. I don't know how much longer they
can both squeeze into Bart's bed -- maybe I should buy them a bigger bed so
they can keep being cuddlebugs."

I'd second the idea of the bigger bed!! Too cute.






I love making happy families happier.

finding happy places

It was a good weekend.
Pan went RWB today. And my best friends, Kim and Mark of Samhain Cardigans, finished their boy Dash. They deserve all the best stuff in life. Dogs are their shared passion and I learn so much from them. On top of that they take care of their friends and I am honored they count me as one of them.
I hope they don't mind but I've decided to make my summer home in their backyard, in their garden. Isn't it gorgeous?

Logan's new family

So after a very crazy week and not sure I'd make it there, Logan was delivered to his new family today. Teresa is interested in showing and I think Logan and her will have fun in the ring.
Logan was quite impressed that he had 3 kids fawning all over them. Bart (Larchmont's Black Tie Affair) was thrilled to have a new buddy. I think they're gonna get along great.
Another great family for another great puppy.

Don't they look happy?

And Teresa, great cake!

windows

Someone recently reminded me of that saying that sometimes when a door is closed, a window is opened... That woman was Anne and she and her partner were the window for Clank.

Storm seems to have found her own window. My dream was for this little foxy baby to find a life of adventure and puzzles to solve. A lovely family on San Juan Island have opened a window for the breeze that is our lovely Storm to blow in. They have 6 acres there for her to explore. Their 11-year-old daughter is interested in training her and being her constant companion. They go sailing and I can just picture her on the bow with the wind on her tongue.

Learning My Lessons (or conscious dog ownership)

As some of you know I'm studying yoga. I will get my teaching certificate pretty soon. And I just did some special training around yoga therapy. Along with the physical postures there's a lot of discussion about philosophy. I'm too skeptical to be into a lot of woowoo but I do think it's important to live consciously, with awareness and full ownership of what I do. In yoga classes we talk about ownership of our thoughts. Our feelings. And of course our actions. It struck me tonight that while we talk of the dogs we own how many of us really consider what ownership means in terms of responsible choices as far as their welfare is concerned? Without blame and other excuses?

My daughters and I took the remaining four to a puppy class tonight. Its focus is on pure socialization. A conformation handling class offers some of this but this is really in their face interaction with lots of different shapes and sizes of dogs and people, as well as ramps and things with wheels and all sorts of textures and other stimuli. They also help get us started on some clicker training and simple commands such as "sit" and "down."

I got a discount having more than one dog but not for all of them since only two will be staying long enough. In the end it will cost $200 for 4 weeks of classes for two of them and 2 weeks for the other two. But it's so important at this age between 8-16 weeks that they get exposure to as many different people and experiences as I can possibly provide.

While there something was emphasized I really thought important to pass on to those of us with more than one dog and particularly those of us with littermates where the bond is established from birth. It was said that for every hour dogs have together they need 5 hours of time with their humans. It was said that ideally this should be each dog in alone time with us. You do the math. More than 2 dogs and you run out of daylight pretty quick. Hold a job that takes us away from them for the better part of the day and it's just an impossible standard to uphold.

So what happens is things like this are said, not to be a hard and fast rule, but rather a way to make a point. And I have to ask myself how many dogs do I have real time for? How fair is it to ask my daughters and husband to help when this hobby is my idea? When I have a few other aspirations and goals set for myself too?

My family is pretty willing luckily. In fact the one least fond of beasty things with lickery tongues announced she had a great time tonight. And as I lay them all down to sleep I found all my young, both canine and human, went to bed tonight without complaint and quickly fell asleep.

But here I am awake and wondering if I can keep my life and everything and everyone I care about in it balanced, flexible and strong...

I'm told it starts with caring for myself and that quite likely starts with a healthy amount of sleep. So now I turn off the light. Good night.