My Girls

Contrary to popular belief Nicki and Bell do stop biting; tackling; wrestling; stealing food from each other and crashing into furniture...every once in a while. Sometimes they even resist the urge to pee on the carpet. And every once in a great while they actually lay down and go to sleep all on their own...curled up together. (come on folks...collective sigh here...aaahhhhhhhhh)
Of course I like to encourage this behavior by not moving a muscle while Satan's Little Hand Maidens are asleep at my feet...sometimes ON my feet. You see, I'm frantic for some peace and quiet these days. Any time NOT spent separating them; yelling at them; taking mangled toys away from them; removing inedible items from their mouths; chasing them to retrieve personal property; or repeating basic words over and over and over again...is PRECIOUS to me! My vocabulary around the house these days consists mainly of two or three word sentences. No bite; drop it; leave it; Bell sit; Nicki sit; Bell lay down; Nicki lay down...and the ever popular STAY! (which is only one word, I know) I've also become an expert at saying their names in the age old tradition of all parents...drawing out the name...in the hope that by the time the name is complete the offending action will have stopped. NIIICCCKKKKIIII!!! It's said as a warning...sort of akin to a low growl before the big bite comes. It is generally ignored unless this technique is used before they are in full swing.

As I type, my little darlings are at each others throats again...literally. They are racing back and forth from room to room charging each other and crashing in mid air. There are teeth being displayed; barking that will make you deaf; and yelps of pain every so often..that go completely unheard by the pup that is doing the hurting. Each dog has a small bald spot on their body..sort of a trophy of war I guess. They are not often the sleeping angels you see in the picture; hence the nick name: Satan's Little Hand Maidens. I no longer find this kind of behavior cute, funny or even slightly amusing. Now I just want to rub a hundred balloons on them and stick them to the wall for about an hour or so. I've written to Santa for the first time since I was a child. And the first item on my list is a staple gun!

Ah the joys of puppy hood! Is there anything better than being responsible for the patch of missing hair on your sisters throat? Is it not the God given right of every puppy to haul her sister around by the collar whenever possible? Are days not created for chewing up every soft item a puppy can get her mouth around? What a glorious life it is indeed when a puppy can stuff herself with good wholesome food and top it off with a delicious sampling of dirt outside. Ahhh puppy hood...it's a wee miracle of life on four legs and I am privileged to be a part of it with these two ridiculous rowdy pups.

Having said that I can now rest easy in the knowledge that if this wonderful puppy hood goes on too long, Santa's got my back.

Baby on Board

One of my much loved cousins, Carolyn, is having a baby! She already knows it's going to be a boy and she has one daughter already so it's perfect. There is a lot of years between the kids so of course she needed to have a baby shower. Her three sisters pulled off a wonderful shower for her. Being of a mature age, I haven't attended many baby showers in the last few years. When I was having kids myself it seemed like someone was having a baby shower every week. I've noticed as you get older you attend more funerals and wakes than anything else so a baby shower is a very welcome event!

Jean, Sue and Pat did a great job making all the food; the cake; thinking up games to play and even providing grab bag gifts. There were individual gifts for some of the matriarchs in the family as well. It was a fun party and very well thought out. We don't get to see each other nearly enough and in the past year or so it's only been for funerals. So that made the whole party that much more special.

Jean made the cake and Heather decorated it. The message on it was God Bless Derek, so I said who is Derek? Jean said that's what Carolyn is naming the baby. Then Carolyn slid closer and promptly said 'actually Derek was the real father and he took off.' To which I promptly replied God Bless Derek! That was the beginning of the laugh fest. It seemed like one joke followed another all day long. I haven't laughed so much in a long time and it felt good! We took turns putting our own special slant of humor on the day by throwing out one zinger after another. Everything was funny...

Eventually I saw Sue taking pictures and remembered that's what I should be doing too. So here are the pictures from that day. Oh yes, and the one solid red picture is a picture of Derek on the inside.

The Last Rose of Summer

Mother Nature bids farewell to summer with one last tiny little bloom. How this rose managed to bloom with the cold damp weather we've been having is a mystery to me, although it is quite a bit smaller than a normal bloom from this bush. There was one other bud that this bush was trying to push out to a flower but it just didn't have enough sun or warmth to do it. Thank you rose bush for the nod to summer. Sleep well and I will see you in the spring.

Twits in Training

Well we are struggling to fine tune the training with the girls. Each of them has their own personality and that's great but it also means that some times you have to be "inventive" when it comes to training.
For example...Nicki acts like a complete moron when she first gets in the barn door. (training takes place in a barn). She pulls like a fool on the leash, which results in her chocking herself continually, yet she still manages to put back her head and howl at the top of her lungs. This is her way of announcing her arrival. Once I manage to drag her to a seat on the side lines she will spend the next 10 mins trying to sniff; lick, touch noses with or jump on any other dog that happens to be near her. In short, Nicki is the embarrassing dog that I always used to see OTHER people struggle with. And this precious little twit is all mine!
Bell, on the other hand will walk nicely on the leash, calmly enter the building and quietly look at all the other dogs...saying nothing. Then she will also pull like a moron to get to the seating area where she is likely to meet dogs that Nicki is irritating. Together, they are Satanic twins on wheels! Separately they are angels!

Unfortunately for me, this week I had to bring both dogs into the barn by myself. Justin was meeting me there. (he couldn't get there fast enough for me!) I made my loud, out of control entrance with both dogs at the same time. I wasn't surprised that every head turned when we entered the building. It was like a puppy tornado just hit. And what was previously a reasonably quiet group of dogs all burst into song once Nicki started howling again. My first reaction was to scold Nicki (red faced of course) but I immediately realized that was a waste of time. I had no control over the two of them and a barn full of barking dogs. Then I started to laugh. The whole situation was so absurd...so totally the exact opposite of what I wanted to happen...so embarrassing...I just had to laugh about it. I dragged my two idiots to the side lines...calling them fuzzy twits and rowdy morons on my way over there.

There was a nice young woman sitting there with her totally obedient dog..we knew each other from previous classes. She had a fleeting look of horror on her face when she realized I was headed her way. She must have felt sorry for me because she did her best to have a conversation with me while I struggled to keep the pups from running amuck. I honestly have no idea what she said to me...I couldn't hear her over the howling. (oh yes, it continues for awhile with Nick). And I was so preoccupied with just trying to stop them from irritating other dogs (Nicki is the type of puppy that adult dogs usually want to bite) that I couldn't pay attention to her. I think she was complaining about her husband anyway so I just kept nodding every once in awhile and giving non-committal replies. Eventually her dog started to snarl at Nicki so that ended our conversation as we had to put some distance between the dogs.
And before you get the impression that Nicki is the only one driving me nuts....it was sweet little Bell that ended up taking a dump on the floor in the middle of the class. It was Justin's turn to have the red face this time. I had my turn at that when Nicki decided to poop on the floor last week. Does it never end with these two??

Eventually Nicki does calm down and I have to say she does wonderfully when I have her attention. She KNOWS her commands, it's just too hard to pay attention with all the activity around her. Bell does fairly well but she seems to have a fixation on Nicki all the time. The trainer came to me later in the class and suggested I start doing things with the pups separately from each other. Bell needs to know she is her own dog and not just an extension of Nicki. She also said she had the same problem with a dog that didn't want to be separated from another dog of hers. It was a sad time in her house when one dog died and the dependent one was left behind. She said the dog never really got over it. She didn't want me to have the same thing happen some day and now is the time to start preventing that.

With that in mind, Bell is coming with me today over my parents house. Today is one of my "dad days" so I'm bringing Bell with me. It will be interesting to see how she acts with me alone. And hopefully it will be the first step in creating an independent Bell. And honestly it will be a relief to only have to deal with one of them for a change. They are great pups but they wear me out!

The Deck is Done

Well it's done! Finished! Completed! The deck is done!....at least for now. We've got the stain on and there is nothing more to do to it until next year. I am so relieved I can't express it!
Now don't laugh at the pictures...I didn't miss any spots by accident. Some of the old boards had to be replaced so they also have to be allowed to breath for awhile and can't be stained right now. We will stain them next year and probably give the rest of the deck (at least the floor boards) another coat at that time too. I know it looks a little strange at the moment but try to think of it as an unusual decorating pattern. Everyone that comes over is being told we think it's a cool pattern and don't they think it looks cool. You should see the look on their faces! Most of them think I'm a little nuts sometimes anyway and they almost believe it. ha ha
While it was drying Justin put the garbage bin in front of the steps. I didn't think that was good enough so I put a sign up that said don't step on my wet deck. We gave it two days to dry and used the front door for all our coming and going. We've never used the front door much and I didn't even know if I had a key for it. As it turns out the key for the back door also fits the front door. Convenient!
The pups thought it was a real treat to go out the front door. They are almost never in the front yard because of the street traffic and the yard is not fenced in so it's not safe for them. The back yard is only partly fenced too but it's much safer if either of them should get loose.

Now that the deck is behind us and we know how much work is involved....we're still thinking about stripping and painting the fence next year. I've been wanting to extend the fence all the way to the end of my property but I have some investigating to do first. It seems like the most popular choice is to go with something made of plastic instead of wood. I'm told the plastic basically lasts forever and doesn't require anything...and the wood will eventually rot and of course will periodically require stripping and painting. I'd like the least amount of work of course but I absolutely HATE plastic in most of it's forms. I'm a tree-hugger and I'm big on always trying to do the environmentally friendly thing...but in this instance it's going to be a really tough choice. And of course money is always an issue too. So that will probably be a winter project..along with deciding what to plant in the garden next year too.

A Close Call

The other night I was walking the girls just like any other night. (yes, I'm actually waking them at the same time when my arms and hands feel up to the work out). Both the girls have come a long way with their heeling and I was pleasantly surprised. At first they are total morons when we leave the house. You would think they had never seen the outside of the house by the way they act....falling all over themselves and each other to be the first one to reach the sidewalk. It takes a good 5 minutes for them to calm down enough to even be aware that I'm with them. Everything they look at is interesting. Every sound they hear requires stopping; cocking their ears and tilting their heads in order to hear it better. (sometimes they look like mechanical dogs when they do that the exact same way at the same exact time....very cool).

Don't let anyone tell you it's easy to teach two young dogs to walk together. Maybe it's easier with a harness but I refuse to use them on the girls. To use a harness is to admit defeat to the world. A harness says my dogs are not leash trained and I want my arms to stay in their sockets. I'm determined not to send that message to the world. I want these dogs to be trained very well so I can trust them off leash and in most circumstances. I want them to be my friends and not unruly children that make my friends cringe to see them coming. So I walk them constantly and sometimes together.

This night all is going well... after they finally realized that in fact they are not in a race and there is no prize for dragging Mom down the street. We took a different direction that night and practiced our turns several times. The trainer from our class suggested taking different routes while training on leash to keep them on their toes and push them in the direction of paying attention to what I'm saying to them. For a little while however, the only thing getting pushed were my buttons. Nicki would suddenly what to go left while Bell was dropping back behind me...and they constantly were changing positions to the point where I no longer knew who was who. (a deliberate act of sabotage if you ask me) But eventually even my two clowns run out of tricks and they actually started paying attention to me. (as long as there were no fire hydrants lurking around the corner).

We were in the home stretch and doing a beautiful job of it when it suddenly all went wrong. We were crossing the driveway to Leete Stevens (a funeral home near my house) when we all were nearly run over by some woman leaving the funeral home. There had been a wake and lots of cars had already left. It was our misfortune to be crossing the driveway when this woman came tearing through the parking lot and was headed straight for us. At first I wasn't alarmed, I wasn't really even aware of her...my attention was focused on the girls. Somewhere in my head the sound of her engine registered with me and then I realized she wasn't slowing down...she was going faster. But still, your mind says she'll stop...she can't miss seeing us...there are FOUR huge lights shining down on us. And then I realized she wasn't going to stop...she was going to go right through us!

At about the same time my heart started racing; my brain told my body what to do without bothering to think about it. I yanked the girls back and jumped away from her car...all in one smooth motion..or at least it felt that way. And then I felt paralyzed with the secondary fear that sets in once you realize the close call you just had. I looked at her in disbelief as she stops the car at the edge of the driveway where it meets the road. I instantly got the impression that if cars had not been coming down the road she would have just kept going. She had this look on her face like she had no idea why I was standing so close to her car. Well.....let me tell you, I TOLD her just exactly why I was standing so close to her car! And I told her at the top of my lungs to her face! It started off with what the hell is the matter with you? I'm walking here and you nearly ran me over! (Her window was up and that's fortunate because I had suddenly found myself feeling like I'd like to pull her through the window and pound her face). In all honestly I don't fully remember what I said next. All I know is it rivaled the language an angry pirate may have used if you decided to pull on his beard. I let loose with a barrage of filthy language...called her every name that came to mind...I've been around awhile so I know a few words...and it felt good!
To her credit, she took it and said nothing back. She had a look of shock on her face when I was through with her...no surprise there. But it was the best thing she could have done...nothing...just let me rant and I'll move on. And that's exactly what I did.

We continued on our way. We were almost home. And the whole way I was reliving the scene in my head. And I know why I blew up at her. It's not because I was mad at her or because I really think she is the dumb f*ck that I called her. She may in actuality have been very upset after coming from a wake. Perhaps she lost a good friend. I get that. I blew up at her because I was scared...because she could have killed me and my dogs right there in the street..(or worse, killed just me and they'd be loose in the road at night) ...because I wasn't prepared for a life threatening event and my instinct was to protect my pups. I was furious with her because of the threat to the puppies. I never would have reacted so strongly if I had been alone. I'm not the kind of person to go off on a stranger.

There are two things I feel very strongly about in this world...protecting young children and animals. It's mostly about innocence and trust. Young children and animals trust us to love them and protect them from the evils of the world. They are innocent in every sense of the word. And I sincerely believe that it's our responsibility as adults to honor that trust in order to protect their innocence. I don't know where that feeling comes from in me. I don't know why I feel so strongly about it. Maybe it developed in me when I became a Mom and realized all the dangers there are in the world for children. You can never fully protect them and that little secret fear for them was always with me. All I know is somewhere along the way I took on some of the traits of a lioness. And this lioness, when angered, has a mouth like a sailor and if you push me too far Kitty has claws too!

Rocking Halloween 2009

Halloween just seems to get better and better every year. When I was a kid it was all about the candy. When my kids were young it was all about making sure they had fun. But now...now it's my turn again and I'm taking full advantage!
I've always had an interest in costumes and all the variations that come from that field. Some friends think I have an abnormal interest in dummies....you know, mannequins. I love them. But I love them because I have SUCH ideas in my heads for what they can be used for! Of course they would all be based around Halloween and they would just HAVE to be animated somehow....if only I knew how to do it. The world would never be the same. ha ha But I digress.

Halloween this year was exciting and exhausting. I was Lady Elaine...the Lady of the Manor. Carol was a Groovy Chick from the 60's. We had such a great time and I caught some of the highlights with my camera. Unfortunately once again I've over done it with the photo's and I'm unable to post the video I made. (too big I guess) So I'm forced to put up the best photo's and hope you can get a sense of how the evening went.

Let me first say that there are some costumes that I have to mention because they impressed me and the people wearing them "played the part", which is a huge plus to me. The best costumes were: Groovy Chick (of course!); Little Mushroom Girl (KC- actually handed out mushroom shaped candies...looked more like penis' to me. ha ha); The Pimp (Justin); Pirate Wench (sexy one of course); Little Red Riding Hood (sexy version); Baby Hughey (definitely NOT sexy!); Shrek (green faced!); Marilyn Monroe & President Kennedy; God of Pot (complete with ounce bags of pretend weed); and let us not forget a Knight from the Crusades (he was a big one too!)

People were very friendly and not a single fight broke out all evening. That is rare with the amount of alcohol they were sucking down. I received a great deal of complements from both the boys and the girls..that was nice. One extra friendly fella gave me such a big bear hug with a sloppy wet kiss, I thought I had lost a contact! And you would have thought that would have put me on my guard but it happened a few more times during the evening...and it wasn't always the boys that were planting kisses on me! But eventually I learned not too get too close when I took their picture...and the occasional well placed elbow jab came in handy too. And when the elbow jab wasn't possible a whispered threat out of the corner of my mouth worked like magic. Turns out I'm extremely adept at threatening someone while smiling for the camera!
But before I have you believing that I was spending the evening in a pit of molesters from Hell...I did have quite a few gentlemen to defend me as well. Something about The Lady of the Manor costume must have kicked in their damsel in distress gene! (very sweet of them)

So rather than continue explaining the evening lets just see some pictures, shall we? These are not all the pictures I took that night but at least these are some of the best of them. I hope you enjoy them. It was an evening I won't soon forget!