Chilly spring Saturday

It was sunny or at least partly sunny all day, but very windy and very chilly. I did a few outdoor things in spite of it, but the dogs had more fun. 

Cosmo (the Big Hairy Beast) is with us for a week or so.

Paisley

There's a nice patch of this in the pasture at the edge of the trees.

Paisley, Candace behind her.

Maya

Della

This is a nice picture of Maya and Della together.

Cosmo and Maya

Bailey

Ford

Ford has an approved adopter finally. She has to make travel plans,

so it will probably be next Thursday before we meet.

Bailey and Norman

Bailey, Norman, and Ford

Ford

Norman and Bailey

The morning nap

There are many things great and enviable about being a dog. While I often think it would be great to be a dog, that sentiment needs to be qualified. Being a good in a good situation would be great, but many live less than enviable lives. Of course, the same can be said for humans and dogs could well have the exact same thoughts about us. 

Today I got to experience something that my dogs do every day and I quite enjoyed it – the morning nap. 

Bailey woke us up at 3:30 a.m. this morning wanting to go outside. She's currently spending nights in a crate in the kitchen next to Ford. She will urinate in her crate if we ignore this, so one of us usually gets  up and lets her out and last night it was me. I don't always hear it so Clay's gets up and does it, which makes me feel slightly guilty, but Clay can always get back to sleep. With me, it's far from a sure thing. The earlier in the night that it happens, the greater my chances. Anything after 3:00 a.m. is probably less than a 50/50 chance, and last night was one where I never got back to sleep.

I laid awake in bed until 5:30 a.m. when Bailey started up again, wanting to get up and play. I got up, most of the other dogs came down and went outside but quickly went back to bed. Bailey and Ford started playing in the kitchen while I unloaded the dishwasher, watched television, and ate breakfast. When the sun finally came up I fed everyone, got them all back in, and then took Bailey and Ford out to Daneland where they will spend the day with Norman, hopefully getting tired enough to sleep through the night.

It was only 7:00 a.m., and I had a couple cups of coffee in me, but I decided to do what the dogs do, which is go back to bed for morning nap time. I've never been a napper, but I was feeling sleep deprived and didn't want to feel that way all day. Della settled down on a dog bed, Elvis got up in his spot, Maya jumped up on the bed and snuggled next to me, and I got back to sleep for another hour or so. It felt good and I can see why dogs do it. The brief morning nap and a pot of coffee will get me through the day.

Candace, patrolling the yard

You can see on her rear legs that she's blowing her coat.

Elvis, walking through the "Great Lake."

With the recent rains, all my ponds have formed one Great Lake.

Candace again.

Paisley, and a little bit of Elvis

Bird feeding operation: Part 1

Part 2

and Part 3, just for crows.

Training walk with Bailey

Bailey has been tasked with entertaining Ford much of the time. It's good for both of them, really, because they play well together and with Norman too. But I haven't been getting as much time with Bailey as we both would like. It was another rainy day so I kept Ford and Bailey inside for most of it. When the rain finally stopped and the clouds cleared in the late afternoon, I put Ford out for some boy time with Norman and I took Bailey on a walk.

I took treats along and made it a training walk, of sorts. I'd stop periodically and ask her to either "sit" or "get close." She does both of those very well but she appreciates the treats too. When we get to the baseball fields I ask her to jump up to the top seat of the bleachers and walk along it to the end. For the rest of the walk it's a matter of doing "ups" on anything we pass that she can jump up onto, benches and picnic tables for the most part. There were no kids at the playground today so I walked her up on and around that stuff for the first time. She's pretty fearless.

We had a plumber in the house today and the difference between her and Ford couldn't have been more stark. Both were crated in the kitchen, but while Ford looked at them and wagged his tail in a friendly manner, Bailey was barking loudly and fiercely all the time they were here. I didn't have them offer her treats and I should have.

As soon as I left on my walk with Bailey, Clay was confronted by this look from Della in the front room. She didn't even need to say a word, the face says it all: "Feed me now!" And he did.

Walking again

It's been over two weeks since I posted pictures of dogs out on a walk with me. I'm not sure when I've gone that long without featuring pictures from a dog walk but it's because I haven't walked since then. Two weeks ago on Monday I had two diseased toe nails surgically removed, one from each foot. I'll spare the gory details but I haven't been able to hike since then, and the doctor still wants me to be wearing open toed shoes, although he has no idea how impractical that is around here. Anyway, stitches are out, pain is much better, and I decided to try the two mile walk up at the park again today. I took Delvis, who were the last two I walked as well. They seem to need it the most. 

The other reason my activity has been somewhat limited is that Clay's car has been in the shop for the past two weeks. On the way to my doctor's appointment we hit something that had fallen off of a truck in front of us. It was quite solid and did quite a bit of damage to the transmission, steering column, and exhaust system of Clay's car. He's been driving my van to work leaving me stranded at home much of the day, although that hasn't been too inconvenient since I wasn't walking much for at least the first week.

My feet are getting better and Clay's car is getting fixed, hopefully soon. I took Della and Elvis out for the two mile walk this evening because we were all bored with being stuck inside because of this weather. It felt good to be moving again. I really need to get back onto the diet/exercise bandwagon after falling off at the end of last year.