I’ll start with the tales. Yesterday was the day for family portraits. It turned out to be the worst one ever. I’m pretty sure that anyone who knows me knows how much I hate having pictures taken of myself, unless I have a dog in the picture with me. I also have no ability to role play, or act or be funny or cute on command. It’s just not me! I never have been able to play charades, unless I’m just guessing. I just panic and freeze when people are staring at me. I’m not new to this family either, so that makes what happened yesterday even more odd.

We did our obligatory huge family portrait. Then my husband’s grandmother wanted groupings of every possible combination of the individual families…all normal, all expected. What I didn’t expect was after she had my husband and I do our “family shot” together. Apparently, while I had been out of the room, they had done shots of the grandkids and they put my husband on this fainting couch. The photographer told him to stretch out, so being the joker he is, he sprawled himself out on the couch, and the family thought it was hilarious. I don’t quite get it myself, but whatever. Anyway…they decide that they want a picture of him posed like that, and call me in to stand behind him. In the meantime I’m getting calls from clients about boarding dogs, and I’m trying to get a hold of my friend that is staying at my house taking care of things to let her know that dogs are coming, etc. So, they call me in and I stand behind this couch and they say, “now put your hands on your hips and look mad”. Are you kidding me? A day later I still can’t figure out for the life of me what kind of a picture they wanted. So, as usual, I’m just getting more embarrassed and panicked by the moment having all these people staring at me. If I’d have had my wish, the ground would have just opened up and swallowed me up. All the while, they are telling me to stand there with my hands on my hips looking mad. “now look at the camera” they say. So, I’m thinking…am I supposed to look mad at the camera, at my husband, what? LOL

My favorite thing they said is…”ooooo Poor Marie, ….you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to”. I said flat out: “I DON’T WANT TO DO THIS!” It was pointless though, they don’t really mean that you don’t have to do something, it’s just their way of being polite I guess. It’s really dumb. They are really sweet people, but they do the oddest things. And then they apologize for it the rest of the day. “Oh, we’re sorry we made you do that picture”. Hmmm, then don’t do it. Simple! I just never could figure out why in the world out of all those people who enjoy doing silly things and having pictures taken, they made my husband and I do that picture. No one else had to do anything like that.

Anyway, after that we had to go pick up a dog from the county shelter down there for Sheltie Rescue. Which brings me to the “no tails” portion of this post. The poor little guy had been picked up by animal control. Apparently he’d broken off of make shift chain, (made of baling twine) and gotten hit by a car. No one had claimed him. His injuries were bad enough that they had to amputate his front leg. Amazingly, the shelter found help in getting that surgery taken care of. In addition to that, he’d gotten himself into foxtails, whether in the time he was staked out somewhere, or in his travels afterwards, so they had to shave him down. They called Sheltie Rescue to ask if they would take him into their program. Well, it’s always usual to ask for pictures of the dogs in question to make sure that they really are dealing with a Sheltie. Unfortunately, animal control rarely sends ideal pictures. LOL So, it was a debate whether this was a sheltie or not, but the decision was made to take him in.

I volunteered to pick him up and do transport for them. I’ll let you be the judge, but when I got there, I didn’t see much Sheltie in this little dog. What I was greeted by was a very dejected looking little dog and one very excited shelter worker. She was so thrilled that we’d agreed to take him, and went on and on about how happy she was that we thought he was a sheltie too, and that he was such a great little dog, etc, etc, etc. I’m a total sucker, so we just loaded “Sheldon” and off we went.

When I picked him up yesterday we went to look at his teeth and a foxtail had embedded itself in his gums. We pulled it out and he had a very sore looking hole in his gums. He is the most patient little guy though, my friend and I sat with him last night and pullled out a handful more of foxtails out of his belly, feet, armpits etc and he did nothing more than lick us as we pulled them out of the sores in his skin. He is a little thin, but I think that being shaved down, is making it look worse than it would normally too. He also has a docked tail. If I was to guess, I would have said that he might be a Mini Aussie or a mix of an Aussie. I don’t know where else that docked tail would have come from. Regardless, he’s a very sweet boy, and hopefully Sheltie Rescue won’t be too upset with me, for not contradicting what they had told the shelter staff earlier about us taking him.

Well, ok, maybe you will. But I would never have guessed that when I drove in tonight after training with the dogs, that the first one to greet me at the car would be…..GERTIE!!!! I know I’m a total pessimist, but I really thought that she might have gone off to die when I couldn’t find her right away. I am so thrilled to be wrong! She is quite thin, looks like she’s had an overdose of phentermine or some other weight loss product, but other than that, she’s the same old Gertie. It’s such a relief. I’m still a little stunned, but in a good way.

Tomorrow morning we’re off to the park to train. Should be fun. I just found out that at the Obedience trial in August one of the judges is in a wheelchair. I think I’m going to borrow the one my parents have in the basement so we can try to get the dogs used to it. I’m relieved that Twist isn’t in Novice, since that means no “stand for exam”. That would present quite a different picture to a dog to have to stand still while someone wheels up to them for the exam. Stand for exam or not though, it’s still going to be a really interesting training challenge for us. I am actually kind of excited to see what the dogs think of the wheelchair. Plus it’s going to be fun to see if any of us can wheel ourselves around to pretend to be a judge. I’m going to have to get video for sure. I won’t have the wheelchair tomorrow morning though, so don’t be disappointed.

This Saturday my husband and I have to go back down to Cedar City for a family portrait. It is for his grandparents 60th anniversary. I have to just say that my family was not one for taking lots of pictures. In fact it was the exception rather than the rule. So, my husband’s family was a real shock to me. They tend to document every moment through pictures. The funny thing is that now, I take tons of pictures of the dogs, but I still rarely take any of my husband or myself.

Anyway, 10 years ago, my mother-in-law organized a family portrait as a gift for her parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. The good thing about that one was that it was done outdoors in the mountains. At the time, my husband and I only had two dogs. Can you believe it? LOL Penny must have been just over 2 years old and Lucy would have been about 1 1/2. For our individual “family portraits”, they let us bring the dogs in. That was my favorite part of the photoshoot. This was our picture.

You’ll have to forgive the quality, I had to scan that in from a wallet size one I had sitting here. I was showing a friend this photo the other day, and her response just cracked me up. She said, “Well, Lucy and Penny look exactly the same.” Interesting…she didn’t say the same about us. ROFL It would be so much fun to take another picture with Penny and Lucy and my husband and I now. Just to compare. But, that’s not going to happen.

The problem with this family portrait is that it is in a studio. Bleh. Have you ever tried to cram a whole bunch of people into a studio for a portrait? It’s just not fun. I am definitely not looking forward to it. There will be no bringing the dogs in for pictures or anything. Having dogs in the pictures with me always makes me feel better. LOL I don’t have to look back later and wonder if I should have invested in some adult acne cure, or gotten a better haircut, or lost another 10 pounds. I can just look at my dogs and smile. Oh well. I doubt we’ll be buying any of these pictures anyway.

We still haven’t seen any signs of Gertie. I don’t know whether to think she’s just hiding out, or to think that there was internal damage done that I didn’t realize at the time. Either way, what I’d like most is just to know for sure.

Maybe tomorrow will bring a sighting of her. On a good note, there are lots of places that she could have found to settle in and feel safe and be protected from the weather because there are lots of haystacks, metal building, wood sheds etc. around here. Cats are pretty resourceful, right?

My husband and I got back from the convention and from visiting his parents last night. Then everything went down hill.

I had several dogs being picked up last night. As one of the clients and I are visiting, her pitbull jumps out of the window of her truck and beelines for my cats. Before I could do anything he had Gertie in his mouth. He’s shaking her and I’m running at him screaming at him to stop. I honestly thought he’d kill her before I could get across the yard. Of all the suprising things, when I got closer he seemed to notice me and it was just enough of a pause that Gertie got out of his grip and ran. He chased after her, but we were close enough by then to get him away before he could get her again. With him secured back in his vehicle, we went searching for Gertie. She had climbed up into the engine of our car to hide. We got her out and she was missing a great deal of hair around her middle, but she seemed to be in one piece and no major punctures that we could see. However, she was frightened and she started to pee on my husband who was holding her. So, he set her down. (I so wish he hadn’t). She walked off towards the back of the barn. I thought she just needed a chance to calm down, but that she would be ok once she had a chance to settle down again. Well, she walked to the back of the barn and disappeared. I haven’t seen her since.

I went out last night with canned cat food to see if I could coax her out of wherever she was hiding, but with no success. I haven’t seen or heard any signs of her. I was outside most of the morning and spent a quite a while searching through the tall weeds and looking in the alfalfa field behind the barn, but nothing. I went out this afternoon and weeded in the garden, because Gertie would always show up whenever you are in the garden. She seemed to think it was part of her job to help with the weeding. Maybe if we had hydroponic systems neither of us would have to weed, but I think we both enjoy it. Today she never came out to join me. Now I’m just worried to death that she was hurt internally more than we could see in our first glance, and that she might be out there suffering somewhere. I could just kick myself for not confining her right away instead of letting her go.

So, anyway, it’s a terrible way to start the week. I wish I could turn back time somehow. I’ll save the other problems that we came home to, for another post.

My husband and I are headed out of town for the weekend. My mom will be here taking care of the dogs and the boarding kennel. I don’t know what we’d do without her! She’s a lifesaver. There are just not many people that I would trust leaving my dogs with, and then to find someone willing to step in a care for a kennel full of boarders as well…nearly impossible. Thank goodness that it’s almost as hard to find someone willing to milk goats these days. LOL Works well for both of us that I can take care of their chores and she can take care of ours.

Anyway, we’ll be staying at my in-laws house this weekend, and I don’t know if I’ll have a chance to get on the computer or not. I’m sure it will be a good weekend, but I know we’ll be eating out more than we should and by the time I get home, I’ll really be looking for some miracle weight loss products. Not really. I’ll just need to get out and play with the dogs a bit more than I have been.

I shouldn’t say that I’m not looking forward to this weekend, but I’m just not. It’s not that I don’t like my in-laws. They are really nice people, but I’ll be glad to come home I’m sure. Plus, it’s not helping anything that we’ll be going back down there next Sat. for family pictures. Bleh. I hate those, and two weekends in a row of stuff where the dogs won’t be welcome just doesn’t appeal to me.

Anyway, have a great weekend, and I’ll be back in a couple days.

So, the fireworks are over for the time being, but Penny still isn’t very happy. A storm is blowing through, and even though it’s nothing major, she’s upset about it. I tried to get her to look at me for this picture, but you can see she was not amused. LOL

I have a feeling we’re in for a long summer. Well, long not in duration, but in Penny not being happy about the celebrations and thunderstorms, etc. I personally wish summer would last longer. Too bad some irvingia gabonensis wouldn’t make Penny a happy camper. Well, I’m headed out to train a bit while the weather is cooler and before it starts to rain.

My parents are back, so our time at the farm is done for now. I really enjoyed being up there, although I always worry about how things are going at the kennel when I’m not here to take care of it. I know my husband does just fine, but I still can’t help but think about it when I’m gone.

It was a fairly uneventful weekend up at the farm, except Saturday morning. I went out to milk the goats and one of the does had her head stuck in the fence. Great! So, that meant me basically tearing down that portion of the fence to get her out and then rigging up a temporary fix until my parents got home to do something more permanent. While I’m trying to free her, I hear a really strange bird noise. I look up in the direction of the cow pen and there is this HUGE bird out in the field. Well, when I was done getting the goat loose I went to the house to get my camera so I could show you guys…my battery was dead. Ugh! So, you’re just going to have to take my word for it, it was huge. LOL

I did get a few pictures after my camera battery charged, but nothing great. Sorry. For some reason I just wasn’t in a photo taking mood. I did get this one of the two old dogs at the farm. Smokey and Winnie have come up with a great way to keep someone from leaving. Just take a nap by the tires.

Here is the view of the lake from the front porch. Mind you, I know it’s nothing like the lakes that some of you have been vacationing by or camping on, but it has to suffice for us.

And finally I just love watching the sprinklers on the fields. Kind of silly huh? But it’s just so pretty to me. So, here’s a picture of that too.

As for the last night of the “celebrations”….It turned out to be the worst. I don’t think that even the best sleeping pills would have helped last night. Twist got all agitated last night, couldn’t settle down in his crate at all, so I had to get up with him. Then when I did go to bed amid the fireworks and junk, I hear someone honk their horn right outside the house. We look out the window just in time to see two more dogs running down the road in the dark, illuminated by the car headlights. I sure hope they made it home safely. I’m glad that we should have some relief for the next week or so, before this all starts up again with the 24th. Oh, and Sara, I can’t imagine having to deal with the fireworks year round with the baseball games. That sounds aweful!

Penny has a complaint, and I’m right behind her on this one. It has to do with this holiday weekend. Penny says that “for goodness sakes…please just pick one day to have all the fireworks and cannons and fire engine sirens and explosions! This has gone on for four days now, and we’re sick of it!!!!”

Seems like each of the little towns around us chose a different day to have their 4th of July celebrations this year. So, starting on Friday, we had fireworks shows. It has continued throughout different parts of the valley all through the weekend, culminating with this morning at 6 am. That’s when all of our sleep had to be interrupted by the dumb cannon. Then they drove the firetrucks through town honking their horns. It had the dogs in the house all upset, so I figured the ones in the kennel would be too. I ventured out there to check on everyone and the first thing I see are an Aussie and a Springer running 100 miles an hour down the road. I don’t know where they were going, but fortunately, they turned off the main road that I live on and onto a less traveled road. Regardless of where they were going, they were frightened and going somewhere fast! I can only hope that they arrived safely.

I know part of my jaded opinions of all these festivities come from me working at the shelter. Every year, the shelter gets flooded with panicked dogs. Frightened by the fireworks and other odd noises, they bolt from home and get lost. Anyway, enough of my ranting for today. I’ll just count my blessings that this only happens twice a year, on the 4th and on the 24th of July. Hang in there Penny, July will be over before you know it. Otherwise, we’d be out there looking for disability insurance for poor Penny who is just disabled by these darn loud explosions!